Chapter XXXV.
Of the resurrection of the dead and the state of the wicked at the last day.
In his last chapter Mr Biddle strives to make his friends amends for all the wrong he had done them in those foregoing. Having attempted to overthrow their faith and to turn them aside from the simplicity of the gospel, he now informs them that the worst that can happen to them if they follow his counsel is but to be annihilated, or utterly deprived of their being, body and soul, in the day of judgment! For that everlasting fire, those endless torments, wherewith they have been so scared and terrified formerly by the catechisms and preachings of men that left and forsook the Scripture, it is all but a fable, invented to affright fools and children! On this account he lets his followers know that if, rejecting the eternal Son of God and his righteousness, they may not go to heaven, yet as to hell, or an everlasting abode in torments, they may be secure; there is no such matter provided for them nor any else. This is the main design in this chapter, whose title is, “Of the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment, and what shall be the final condition of the righteous and wicked thereupon.”
The first questions lead only to answers that there shall be a resurrection of the dead in general, and that they shall be raised and judged by Christ, who hath received authority from God to that purpose, that being the last great work that he shall accomplish by virtue of his mediatory kingdom committed to him. Some snares seem to be laid in the way in his questions, being captiously proposed; but they have been formerly broken in pieces in the chapters of the deity of Christ and his person, whither I remit the reader if he find himself entangled with them.
I shall only say, by the way, that if Mr B. may be expounded by his masters,1 he will scarce be found to give so clear an assent to the resurrection of the dead as is here pretended; that is, to a raising again of the same individual body for the substance and all substantial parts. This his masters think not possible, and therefore reject it, though it be never so expressly affirmed in the Scripture. But Mr B. is silent of this discovery made by his masters, and so shall I be also.
That wherewith I am to deal he enters upon in this question:—
Ques. Shall not the wicked and unbelievers live for ever, though in torments, as well as the godly and faithful? or is eternal life peculiar to the faithful?
Ans. John iii. 36.
The assertion herein couched is, that the wicked shall not live for ever in torments;2 and the proof of it is, because eternal life is promised only to the faithful; yea, “he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him,” John iii. 36. As to the assertion itself, we shall attend farther unto it instantly.
When Socinus first broached this abomination, he did it with the greatest cunning and sleight that possibly he could use, labouring to insinuate it insensibly into the minds of men, knowing full well how full of scandal the very naming of it would prove; but the man’s success was in most things beyond his own imagination.3
For the proof insinuated; “life” and “eternal life,” in the gospel, as they are mentioned as the end and reward of our obedience, are not taken merely physically, nor do express only the abode, duration, and continuance of our being, but our continuance in a state and condition of blessedness and glory. This is so evident, that there is no one place where life to come and eternal life are spoken of simply, in the whole New Testament, but as they are a reward and a blessed condition to be obtained by Jesus Christ. In this sense we confess the wicked and impenitent “shall never see life,” or obtain eternal life, — that is, they shall never come to a fruition of God to eternity; but that therefore they shall not have a life or being, though in torments, is a wild inference. I desire to know of Mr B. whether the evil angels shall be consumed or no, and have an utter end? If he say they shall, he gives us one new notion more; if not, I ask him whether they shall have eternal life or no? If he say they shall not enjoy eternal life in the sense mentioned in the Scripture, I shall desire him to consider that men also may have their being preserved and yet not be partakers of eternal life in that sense wherein it is promised.