4. The Diabolos
“Fear not the things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the Diabolos will cast of you into prison, that ye may be tempted”—verse 10.
The Saints in Smyrna were not strangers to tribulation; for where the gospel of the kingdom was believed and obeyed for remission of p. 242 sins, and the hope of a resurrection from among the dead, to inherit that kingdom with the glory of the Millennial Aion, or Olahm, tribulation of some sort from Jew or Greek, or from both, was sure to follow, as it does even in this day of so-called liberty and light; for all the apostles in word and example testified, that “it is through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of the Deity”—Acts xiv. 22.
But their “works,” which were righteous, being manifest in the presence of “the Satan” and of “the Diabolos,” would be sure to bring upon them frequent renewals of their malignant and dangerous attacks. The repudiation of “the Satan’s” claims to the christian name, secured to them the enmity of their “synagogue;” whose members are scandalized at an earnest, and uncompromising contention for the faith as originally delivered to the Saints by the apostles—Jude 3. They call this “uncharitable,” and calculated to “do harm,” and to drive off respectable people from the truth; who, but for the ultraism of ANTIPAS, which destroys the popularity and endangers the position, of all connected with him, would embrace the truth, swell the number of its adherents, and make it respected, if not esteemed, by the wealthy and honorable of the world. This has been “the Satan’s” desire from the beginning until now. They are not so much opposed to the truth as an abstraction; but the consequences of a bold, straightforward, and uncompromising statement and advocacy of it, they hate, and detest with unmitigated bitterness and disgust. This state of mind and policy with respect to the truth on the part of the Satan’s synagogue of “all christendom,” establishes and developes “enmity” between the Seed of the Woman, or true apocalyptic Jews, that is, Christians; and the Seed of the Serpent, or real apocalyptic liars, “who say they are Jews,” or Christians, “and are not, but do lie.” This enmity subsisting between true and spurious christians, caused the Satanists “to betray” the others, as Jesus foretold they would in Matt. xxiv. 10. But, then, to whom should the Satan betray the saints of the ecclesias? This letter to the Smyrneans answers to “ὁ διαβολος,” to the Diabolos, vulgarly styled, THE DEVIL; as it is written, “Behold, the DIABOLOS will cast of you into prison, that ye may be tempted.”
But to what sort of a Devil is this that the saints were to be betrayed? A devil that could apprehend flesh and blood men, and incarcerate them alive in prison? Was it the immortal, fire-proof, orthodox Devil, with horns, hoofs, forked-tongue, and arrow-headed tail, redolent of brimstone, and armed with pitchfork, who arrested the saints, and imprisoned them in the gaols of the Asia Minor? Is it this, “His Sooty Majesty,” to whom the gaols and penitentiaries of “christendom” belong? If so, how comes he to admit the clergy to p. 243 these precincts to convert his prisoners, and to offer them the consolations of their religions, unless they are his particular friends and confidants? Would he imprison saints on account of “the faith,” and appoint Reverend and Holy Divines, genuine Christian men, to be the Chaplains of his gaols? Or would true and genuine believers, real “ambassadors of Jesus Christ,” and unsophisticated “successors of the apostles,” condescend, or defile themselves—become such traitors to him who had purchased them with his blood, as to accept office under so hideous and monstrous a Devil? Must there not be an amicable compact, some treaty of peace, friendship, and alliance, between the Clergy and the Devil, seeing that they are in official service under him; and that he pays them salaries for indoctrinating his “gaol-birds,” and spiritualizing his legislators, and the soldiers and sailors of his armies and marines? The prisons of the world, and the police of the world, and the executioners of the world, manifestly belong to the Devil. This is proved by the text before us, which testifies, that the Devil casts into prison. Now in order to do this, the magistrates must be in his service; or they would not issue orders of arrest at his dictation. The police also must be in his service; or they would not serve the warrants; and the gaolers and lictors, or they would not put the saints in ward, or carry them to death. All these things, therefore, are the Devil’s, whoever, or whatever, he may be. What then, do we see? We see the Clergy his willing and official tools! We see them serving him for the honor and wages emanating from the high places of his kingdom. They are in the world’s pay, which they admit belongs to the god of the world whom they call the Devil; therefore the conclusion is necessary and inevitable, that they are the Devil’s, and the work of the Devil they do. This being the case, it is not difficult to understand how it is that the Clergy are the chaplains of all the Devil’s institutions. He claims the bodies and souls of the people, whom he has ensnared, having been “taken captive by him at his will”—2 Tim. ii. 26. He has found it, therefore, to his interest, since the truth was promulgated in his dominions by the Apostles, to set up a counteracting system, which under the name of Christianity should nullify, or neutralize, the thing. This “the Satan,” who set up his synagogue, or “Holy Apostolic Catholic Church,” upon the foundation of “the Mystery of Iniquity,” were ready to do. Having entered into a “Holy Alliance,” under the style of “The Old Serpent, the Devil, and Satan,” (a form renowned for its unprincipled transactions throughout the world,) the Devil appointed the Lords Spiritual, “the Right Reverend,” “Most Reverend,” “Very Reverend,” and “Reverend,” divines of “the synagogue of the Satan,” to take care of “the unclean and p. 244 hateful birds” (Rev. xviii. 2) he had ensnared, in their last moments; ignorantly supposing it possible, that having served him loyally all their days, they might escape him at last. But the Devil is by nature and education very ignorant of the truth and very superstitious; and as the clergy live and flourish by his folly and stupidity, they are not solicitous for his enlightenment; at all events, that he should not become more intelligent in scripture than themselves. Hence they are careful to flatter him and to pander to his superstition; so that whereever folly is to be transacted in the name of religion, there the Devil finds on hand “gentlemen of the cloth” ready to perform it in tone, grimace, and full canonicals, to suit. For who but the Devil’s Own could attend a murderer to the gallows with “the consolations of religion” in view of the divine testimony, that “no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him?”—1 Jno. iii. 15. Who but one of “the children of the Devil” could kidnap a little Jew boy, and sprinkle him with a few drops of water, and proclaim him to be a Christian, in view of Paul’s testimony, that “without faith it is impossible to please God?”—Heb. xi. 6. Who but one of the Devil’s own counsellors could preach a sermon over a deceased scoundrel, affirming that his immortal soul was then in glory beyond the skies, in view of the declaration, that “the soul that sinneth it shall die?” Who but one of the Devil’s own priests could promise salvation to man or woman upon other terms than those contained in “the wholesome words of the Lord Jesus,” who hath said, “He that believeth the Gospel of the Kingdom, and is immersed, shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be condemned?”—Mark xvi. 15, 16; Matt. xxiv. 14. All these abominations and a multitude besides the clergy do; in short, their teaching and practices are all approved by the world and the pietism of the flesh; and therefore there is but one scriptural conclusion that can be arrived at, namely, that they are of the devil, devilish and condemned.
But in regard to their patron and father the DEVIL we may profitably inquire, is he the hideous and sooty monster generally supposed by the disciples of his divines; or is he altogether something else? I answer, that all that can be known about the devil is revealed in the scriptures; and that in these writings, there is no such devil exhibited as is preached by the clergy, and believed in by the world. The clerical devil is the devil of heathenism, introduced into “the synagogue of the Satan” by the apocalyptic “liars.” They introduced him into their theology as the great terror of their system, which was designed to work upon the fears, rather than upon the admiration and nobler affections of mankind. The old heathen devil, and “an eternal hell of p. 245 fire and brimstone,” have been the basis of the clerical gospel from that day to this. They had abandoned “the goodness of the Deity,” and consequently could no longer make use of it to “lead men to repentance,” or change of mind and disposition (Rom. ii. 4): they had therefore to introduce another agent; and, as the clerical system of doctrine is merely heathenism in a new dress, they adopted the old god Pluto, tricked out with the appendages of another called Pan. These heathen deities combined in one they call “the Devil,” surrounded by all the Furies of Tartarus of horrid shapes, and appalling aspects, they exhibit to their dupes, as the Devil’s officials in the regions of the damned, waiting to clutch their immortal souls in the article of dissolution unless they repent of their sins, and become members of the clerical communion; thus making the Devil an effectual colaborer in bringing men under the influence of the Clergy. Separate the Devil and his adjuncts from their system, and their occupation would be gone; for apart from hell and the Devil the clergy have no power to excite the mind.
But while we repudiate the clergyman’s devil as a mere phantasma of disordered brains, we by no means deny the existence of what is styled diabolos in the scriptures. Our proposition at this point is, that the Devil of the clergy is not the Diabolos of scripture. This is easy to be seen by taking their representation of the devil as the definition of the word, and trying to expound the scriptures in which devil is mentioned thereby. Take, for instance, Heb. ii. 14, where it is written, “Therefore for as much as the children (given of the Deity to the Son for brethren) partook of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner shared in the same, that through the death (he accomplished) he might destroy that having the power of death, that is, THE DIABOLOS.” Now, Paul elsewhere informs us that “Jesus was crucified through weakness” (2 Cor. xiii. 4); and the clergy teach that their diabolos, or devil, is second only to their Trinity in power—almost, if not quite, omnipotent; at all events, powerful enough to hold in eternal captivity and torture the vast majority of the human beings God has made. He either holds them with God’s consent or against it; if he hold them with it, God and the Devil are made copartners; and God is made by their traditions to have created an enormous multitude of men, women, and children for no other destiny than eternal torments; which gives the lie to the scriptures, which teach that “God is love:” if the Devil hold “the damned” against God’s consent, then the Devil is more powerful than God! But, the clergy are unwilling to accept the consequences of their own theories. They would not like to admit the copartnership, nor the superior strength of their Devil; though upon p. 246 their premises one or the other is unavoidable. They will admit, however, that their father and patron, the Devil, is vastly powerful. This is admission enough to illustrate the incompatibility of their traditions with scripture. Thus, How comes it that the Spirit laid hold upon death-stricken and corruptible flesh and blood, which is so weak and frail, called “the Seed of Abraham,” that through its death he might destroy so mighty and powerful a Devil? Would it not have been more accordant with the requirements of the case for him to have combated with him unencumbered with flesh, or in the spirit-nature of angels? Became weak and dead to destroy the mighty and the living; when the Creator of the Devil could with a word annihilate him! But there is as little reason as scripture in “the depths of Satan” as the clergy teach; and therefore it would be mere waste of time and space to occupy ourselves any further with their speculations and traditions upon this subject.
The Spirit clothed himself with weakness and corruption—in other words, “Sin’s flesh’s identity”—that he might destroy the Diabolos. It is manifest from this the diabolos must be of the same nature as that which the Spirit assumed; for the supposition that he assumed human nature to destroy a being of angelic nature, or of some other more powerful, is palpably absurd. The Diabolos is something, then, pertaining to flesh and blood; and the Spirit or Logos became flesh and blood to destroy it.
Now, whatever flesh-and-blood thing it may be, Paul says that “it hath the power of death”—that is, it is the power which causes mankind to die. If, then, we can ascertain from Paul what is the power or cause of death, we discover what the thing is he terms the Diabolos; for he tells us that the Diabolos has the power of death.
Well, then, referring to Hos. xiii. 14, where the Spirit saith, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave,” Paul exclaims, in view of this deliverance as the result of a price paid, “O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, (sheol, or grave,) where is thy victory?” The power of a venomous serpent to produce death lies in its “sting;” therefore Paul uses “sting” as equivalent to “power:” hence his inquiry is, “O Death, where is thy power?” This question he answers by saying, “The sting (or power) of death is SIN, and the strength of sin is the law.” That the power of death is sin, he illustrates in his argument contained in his letter to the saints in Rome. In Rom. v. 12, he says, “Death by sin.” He does not say, “By the Devil sin entered into the world;” if he had, this would have given “the Devil” existence before Sin: but he says, “By one man, or Adam, sin entered into the world.” This agrees with Moses, who tells us that there was a p. 247 time after the creation was finished when there was nothing in the world but what was “very good”—“and Elohim saw all that He (the Spirit) had made, and behold, it was very good”—Gen. i. 31. Man is, therefore, older than Sin, and, consequently, older than the Diabolos. Man introduced it into the world; and not an immortal devil, nor God. Neither God, then, nor such a devil, was the author of sin; but the authorship was constituted of the sophistry of the serpent believed and experimented by the Man, male and female.
Man, then, having introduced Sin, “death entered into the world by Sin; and so death passed upon all men * * * to condemnation; for by one man’s disobedience the many were constituted sinners; and the wages of sin is death to those who obey it”—Rom. v. 12, 18, 19; vi. 23, 16. But though constituted sinners in Adam, if no law had been given after his transgression, his posterity would not have known when they did right or wrong; for Paul says, “I had not known sin, but by the law.” The law is, therefore, “the strength of Sin.” Sin reigns by “the holy, just, and good law,” through the weakness of the flesh”—Rom. vii. 7, 12; viii. 3. Where there is no law there is no sin; for “sin is the transgression of law:” so that “without the law sin is dead”—ch. vii. 8; 1 John iii. 4. This shows how inherently bad flesh is in its thoughts and actions, that a good thing should stir it up to wickedness. Its lusts and affections are impatient of control. Paul therefore said, “in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing.” When this, which is utterly destitute of any good thing, is placed under a good law, scope is afforded it to display itself in all its natural deformity; and to prove that “the law of its nature” is not the law of God, but “the law of sin and death.” Thus, the introduction of a good law, demanding obedience of that which has nothing good in it, is the occasion of sin abounding in the world (ch. v. 20), and thereby evinces its enormity, and shows that “SIN is an exceedingly great Sinner”—καθ’ υπερβολην ἁμαρτωλος—ch. vii. 13. In this expression Paul personifies Sin; and says that it deceived him, slew him, and worked death in him.
“SIN” is a word in Paul’s argument, which stands for “human nature,” with its affections and desires. Hence, to become sin, or for one to be “made sin” for others, (2 Cor. v. 21,) is to become flesh and blood. This is called “sin,” or “Sin’s flesh,” because it is what it is in consequence of sin, or transgression. When the dust of the ground was formed into a body of life, or living soul, or, as Paul terms it, a psychical or natural body, it was a very good animal creation. It was not a pneumatic, or spirit-body, indeed, for it would then have been immortal and incorruptible, and could neither have sinned, nor have p. 248 become subject to death; but for an animal or natural body, it was “very good,” and capable of an existence free from evil, as long as its probationary αιων, or period might continue. If that period had been fixed for a thousand years, and man had continued obedient to law all that time, his flesh and blood nature would have experienced no evil; and at the end of that long day, he might have been permitted to eat of the Tree of the Lives, by which eating he would have been changed in the twinkling of an eye into a spirit-body, which is incorruptible, glorious, and powerful; and he would have been living at this day. But man transgressed. He listened to the sophistry of flesh, reasoning under the inspiration of its own instincts. He gave heed to this, “the thinking of the flesh,” or carnal mind, which “is enmity against God, is not subject to his law, neither indeed can be.” The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, which pertain essentially to all living human, or ground, souls, were stirred up by what he saw and heard; and “he was drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” His lust having conceived, it brought forth sin in intention; and this being perfected in action, caused death to ensue—James i. 13. Every man, says the apostle, is tempted in this way. It is not God, nor the clerical devil that tempts man, but “his own lust,” excited by what from without addresses itself to his five senses, which always respond approvingly to what is agreeable to them.
Seeing that man had become a transgressor of the divine law, there was no need of a miracle for the infliction of death. All that was necessary was to prevent him from eating of the Tree of Lives, and to leave his flesh and blood nature to the operation of the laws peculiar to it. It was not a nature formed for interminable existence. It was “very good” so long as in healthy being, but immortality and incorruptibility were no part of its goodness. These are attributes of a higher and different kind of body. The animal, or natural body, may be transformed into a deathless and incorruptible body, but without that transformation, it must of necessity perish.
This perishing body is “sin,” and left to perish because of “sin.” Sin, in its application to the body, stands for all its constituents and laws. The power of death is in its very constitution, so that the law of its nature is styled “the law of Sin and Death.” In the combination of the elements of the law, the power of death resides, so that “to destroy that having the power of death,” is to abolish this physical law of sin and death, and instead thereof, to substitute the physical “law of the spirit of life,” by which the same body would be changed in its constitution, and live for ever.
By this time, I apprehend, the intelligent reader will be able to answer p. 249 scripturally the question, “What is that which has the power of death?” And he will, doubtless, agree, that it is “the exceedingly great sinner SIN,” in the sense of “the Law of Sin and Death” within all the posterity of Adam, without exception. This, then, is Paul’s Diabolos, which he says “has the power of death;” which “power” he also saith is “sin, the sting of death.”
But why doth Paul style Sin διαβολος? The answer to this question will be found in the definition of the word. Diabolos is derived from διαβαλλω, diaballo, which is compounded of δια, a preposition, which in composition signifies across, over, and answers to the Latin trans; and of βαλλω, to throw, cast; and intransitively, to fall, tumble. Hence, diaballo, is to throw over or across; and intransitively, like the Latin trajicere, to pass over, to cross, to pass. This being the signification of the parent verb, the noun diabolos is the name of that which crosses, or causes to cross over, or falls over. DIABOLOS is therefore a very fit and proper word by which to designate the law of sin and death, or Sin’s flesh. The Eternal Spirit drew a line before Adam, and said, Thou shalt not cross, or pass over that line upon pain of evil and death. That line was the Eden law; on the east of that line was the answer of a good conscience, friendship with God, and life without end; but on the west, fear, shame, misery, and death. To obey, was to maintain the position in which he was originally placed; to disobey, to cross over the line forbidden. But “he was drawn away, and enticed by his own lusts.” The narrative of Moses proves this. The man was enticed of his own lust to cross over the line, or to disobey the law; so that his own lust is the Diabolos. Thus, etymology and doctrine agreeing, our definition must be correct.
But διαβαλλω has secondary and ternary significations. It signifies to traduce, to attack character, to slander, to libel; and thirdly, to deceive, mislead, impose upon. Hence, diabolos will also signify a traducer, slanderer, deceiver, impostor. In this sense, Judas is styled a diabolos—John vi. 70. So also the pious scribes and Pharisees, priests and rulers, who, though as priests, officially holy, were as Jesus said, “of father the Diabolos, and the lusts of their father (the flesh) they would do. The same was a man-killer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie he speaks of his own things, for he is a liar, and the father of it”—John viii. 44. And “he that committeth sin is of the Diabolos, for the diabolos sinneth from the beginning”—1 John iii. 8. All this is perfectly intelligible when understood of Sin’s flesh, in which dwells no good thing, and which of itself can neither do right nor think aright. Man’s ability to do either is derived from a higher source—from the truth indoctrinated p. 250 into him. When this is declared and reasoned into him, and he comes to understand it, to believe it, and to love it, a power is set up within him called “the law of the Spirit of life,” which is counteractive of “the law of sin and death,” and brings the man to “the obedience of faith,” by which he is manifested to the skilful in the word as a son of God. The disobedient are all of father Diabolos; and his spirit, which is the spirit of the flesh, works in them. Hence the clergy, Jewish and Gentile, are all of what they call “the Devil,” being ignorant, and consequently disobedient of the gospel of the kingdom.
But, Diabolos is discoursed of in scripture in its imperial as well as racial manifestations. John says, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Diabolos”—1 Jno. iii. 8. When the Diabolos and his works are destroyed “every curse will have ceased”—Rev. xxii. 3. The works of the Diabolos are the Works of Sin. Look into the world, ecclesiastical and civil, and the reader will see Sin’s works on every side. The thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers; Greek, Latin, Mohammedan, Pagan, Protestant, Sectarian, and “Infidel,” superstitions of all “Names and Denominations,” are all the works of Sin, which festers and ferments in all “the children of disobedience.” They are all based upon the transgression of the divine law; and are all officered and sustained by the children of the Diabolos. The Messiah’s mission is to destroy them all. John, the baptizer, proclaimed this in pointing to Jesus, and saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away THE SIN of the world!” which, by Paul and John the apostle, is interpreted as the Son of God that destroys the Diabolos and his works—the flesh and all its institutions: for the time comes at the end of the Thousand Years, when flesh and blood nature will be abolished from the earth; and by consequence, all evil and death, “the last enemy,” which are its wages in all the earth.
The fourth beast of Daniel is the symbol of the Diabolos in Imperial manifestation. It represents “the Kingdom of Men” upon “the whole habitable,” which, in the days of John, in regard to the Fourth Beast, extended from the Tigris to the Atlantic; and from the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euxine, to the Atlas Mountains and Upper Egypt; the Mediterranean lying in the midst. Since the apostle’s time, the territory of this dominion has been greatly extended by the addition of Germania and “All the Russias.” Upon this platform “the kingdom of men” mainly rests. It is the Kingdom of Sin, or the Empire of the Diabolos, which has passed through various constitutional phases, but always in harmony with its diabolism. This, in apostolic times, was of that species of heathenism, according to which the flesh worshipped p. 251 Jupiter, and all the Olympian deities, through the works of men’s hands. The magistrates of this pagan power were not only individual diaboloi, but the officials through whom the Imperial Fourth Beast Diabolos oppressed, tempted, persecuted, and destroyed the Saints. All the prisons of the Habitable belonged to the Diabolos, whose spies and informers “walked about, as a roaring lion, seeking whom they might devour.” This power is entitled in Rev. xii. 9, “the great red Dragon, that Old Serpent, surnamed the Diabolos, and the Satan, which deceives the whole Habitable.” The “Dragon” is the serpent-symbol of the power which sought to seduce the faithful from their allegiance to Christ—to cause them to transgress—to cross the line of “the law of faith.” It was, therefore, truly “surnamed THE DIABOLOS” by the Spirit. It was also “the Adversary” to everything not pagan; and, therefore, rightly “surnamed THE SATAN.” It was adversary to Jesus, and crucified him; it was adversary to all the apostles whom it slew and persecuted; and to the Saints for two hundred and eighty years, when it was “cast out of the heaven.” For further information, in connection with this subject, the reader is referred to page 139, under the caption, “He is Coming with the Clouds.”
This was then the Diabolos who, the Spirit predicted, would cast some of the Smyrneans “into prison, that they might be tempted;” for all Asia Minor was under its dominion. The purpose of their imprisonment would be to tempt them to abandon the faith. The manner in which the Diabolos tempted, is illustrated in the case of Polycarp. When he was apprehended, they sat him upon an ass, and led him into the city. “The Irenarch Herod, and his father Nicetes, met him, who, taking him up into their chariot, began to advise him, asking, “What harm is it to say, Lord Cæsar! and to sacrifice, and be safe?” At first he was silent, but being pressed, he said, “I will not follow your advice.” When they could not persuade him, they treated him abusively, and thrust him out of the chariot, so that in falling, he bruised his thigh.
When brought before Statius Quadratus, the proconsul, he began to exhort him, saying, “Have pity on thine own great age—and the like. Swear by the fortune of Cæsar; repent; say, ‘Take away the atheists.” Polycarp, with a grave aspect, beholding all the multitude, waving his hand to them, and looking up to heaven, said, “Take away the atheists.” The proconsul urging him, and saying, “Swear, and I will release thee—reproach Christ.” Polycarp said, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath never wronged me, and how can I blaspheme my King who hath saved me?’ The proconsul still urging, ‘Swear by the fortune of Cæsar,’ Polycarp said, ‘if you still p. 252 vainly contend to make me swear by the fortune of Cæsar, as you speak, affecting an ignorance of my real character, hear me frankly declaring what I am: I am a Christian; and if you desire to learn the Christian doctrine, assign me a day, and hear.” The proconsul said, “Persuade the people.” Polycarp said, “I have thought proper to address you; for we are taught to pay to magistracies and powers appointed by God, all honor consistent with a good conscience. But I do not hold them worthy that I should apologise to them.” “I have wild beasts,” said the proconsul: “I will expose you to them unless you repent.” “Call them,” replied Polycarp. “Our minds are not to be changed from the better to the worse; but it is a good thing to be changed from evil to good.” “I will tame your spirit by fire,” said the proconsul, “since you despise the wild beasts, unless you repent.” “You threaten me with fire,” answered Polycarp, “which burns for a moment, and will soon be extinct: but you are ignorant of the future judgment, and of the fire of Aion-punishment reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay?—Do what you please.” The proconsul was visibly embarrassed; he sent, however, the herald to proclaim thrice in the midst of the assembled multitude, “Polycarp hath professed himself a Christian!” Upon this, they all, both Gentiles and Jews, who dwelt at Smyrna, with insatiate rage, shouted aloud, “This is the teacher of Asia, the father of Christians, the subverter of our gods, who hath taught many not to sacrifice nor to adore.” They now begged Philip, the Asiarch, to let out a lion against Polycarp. But he refused, observing, that the amphitheatrical spectacles of the wild beasts were finished. They then unanimously shouted, that he should be burnt alive. Whilst he was praying, he observed the fire kindling; and turning to the faithful that were with him, he said, “I must be burnt alive.” The business was executed with all possible speed, in which the Jews distinguished themselves as usual. As soon as the fire was prepared, the usual appendages of burning were placed about him. And when they were going to fasten him to the stake, he said, “Let me remain as I am; for he who giveth me strength to sustain the fire, will enable me also, without your securing me with nails, to remain unmoved in the fire.” Upon which they bound him, without nailing him. The burning, however, not proceeding satisfactorily, the confector plunged his sword into his body, by which his existence was terminated.
This account, which is condensed from Milner, may serve to show how the Diabolos was “resisted steadfast in the faith,” as well as how he tempted the resistants. Polycarp was an elder of the ecclesia of the Smyrneans in A. D. 107, when Ignatius visited him on his way to suffer p. 253 death in Rome. Both Ignatius and Polycarp were acquainted with the apostle John; and is highly spoken of by Ignatius, who says of him and others, “they live as in the presence of the glory of God.” Polycarp was put to death sixty years after Ignatius, A. D. 167. If he was one of those in Smyrna to whom the Spirit saith, “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty—but thou art rich;” and if he continued “rich in faith” to the end, (which his martyrdom is no proof of, as many of “the synagogue of the Satan” also suffered,) then he was clothed with “the whole armor of the Deity;” and his examination before the proconsul exhibits “the wiles of the Diabolos,” and how Polycarp stood against them in the armor,—Eph. vi. 11, 16; quenching all the fiery darts of the wicked one, or Diabolos, with the shield of faith.—1 Pet. v. 9.
5. “Ten Days’” Tribulation
“Ye will have tribulation TEN DAYS.”—Verse 10.
Domitian, the Roman emperor, was slain A. D. 96. John was in Patmos at the time; therefore the letter to the Smyrneans was before that date. Domitian was succeeded in the throne by Nerva, who published a pardon for those who were condemned for impiety, recalled those who were banished, and forbade the accusing of any men on account of impiety, or Judaism. Others, who were under accusation or under sentence of condemnation, now escaped by the lenity of Nerva. This brings us to the close of the first century, in which we behold the Christians, for the present, in a state of external peace. Under this full toleration the apostle John recovered his liberty, and, at the age of about one hundred, fell asleep in Christ before the short interval of tranquillity was closed by the persecuting spirit of Trajan.
The mild and aged Nerva adopted Trajan A. D. 98, and declared him his colleague and successor in the empire. When Nerva deceased, and Trajan became sole master of the Habitable of the Diabolos, the spirit of persecution broke out afresh; and appears to have been very severe in the region of the Seven Ecclesias. The “tribulation” continued ten years, until the death of Trajan, A. D. 117.
While the Smyrneans, and their brethren in Asia Minor, were enduring the tribulation of the symbolical “ten days,” Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, a character well known in pagan history, wrote the following letter to Trajan, which sufficiently explains itself.
p. 254C. Pliny to Trajan, Emperor
“Health.—It is my usual custom, sir, to refer all things, of which I harbor any doubts, to you. For who can better direct my judgment in its hesitation, or instruct my understanding in its ignorance? I never had the fortune to be present at any examination of Christians, before I came into this province. I am therefore at a loss to determine what is the usual object either of inquiry or of punishment, and to what length either of them is to be carried. It has also been a question with me very problematical, whether any distinction should be made between the young and the old, the tender and the robust; whether any room should be given for repentance, or the guilt of Christianity once incurred is not to be expiated by the most unequivocal retractation;—whether the name itself, abstracted from any flagitiousness of conduct, or the crimes connected with the name, be the object of punishment. In the meantime, this has been my method with respect to those who were brought before me as Christians.
“I asked them whether they were Christians: if they pleaded guilty, I interrogated them twice afresh, with a menace of capital punishment. In case of obstinate perseverance, I ordered them to be executed. For of this I had no doubt, whatever was the nature of their religion, that a sullen and obstinate inflexibility called for the vengeance of the magistrate. Some were infected with the same madness whom, on account of their privilege of citizenship, I reserved to be sent to Rome, to be referred to your tribunal.
“In the course of this business, informations pouring in, as is usual when they are encouraged, more cases occurred. An anonymous libel was exhibited, with a catalogue of names of persons, who yet declared that they were not Christians then, nor ever had been; and they repeated after me an invocation of the gods and of your image, which, for this purpose, I had ordered to be brought with the images of the deities: they performed sacred rites with wine and frankincense, and execrated Christ—none of which things I am told a real Christian can ever be compelled to do. On this account I dismissed them. Others named by an informer, first affirmed, and then denied the charge of Christianity; declaring that they had been Christians, but had ceased to be so some three years ago, others still longer, some even twenty years ago. All of them worshipped your image, and the statues of the gods, and also execrated Christ.
“And this was the account which they gave of the nature of the religion they once had professed, whether it deserves the name of crime p. 255 or error; namely, that they were accustomed on a stated day to meet before daylight, and to repeat among themselves a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an oath, with an obligation of not committing any wickedness; but on the contrary, of abstaining from thefts, robberies, and adulteries; also of not violating their promise, or denying a pledge; after which it was their custom to separate, and to meet again at a promiscuous harmless meal, from which last practice they however desisted, after the publication of my edict, in which, agreeably to your orders, I forbade any societies of that sort. On which account, I judged it the more necessary to inquire by torture, from two females, who were said to be deaconesses, what is the real truth. But nothing could I collect, except a depraved and excessive superstition. Deferring therefore any further investigation, I determined to consult you. For the number of culprits is so great as to call for serious consultation. Many persons are informed against, of every age and of both sexes; and more still will be in the same situation. The contagion of the superstition hath spread not only through cities, but even villages and the country. Not that I think it impossible to check and correct it. The success of my endeavors hitherto forbids such desponding thoughts: for the temples once almost desolate, begin to be frequented, and the sacred solemnities, which had long been intermitted, are now attended afresh; and the sacrificial victims are now sold everywhere, which once could scarcely find a purchaser. Whence I conclude, that many might be reclaimed, were the hope of impunity, on repentance, absolutely confirmed.”
To this the emperor replied as follows:
Trajan to Pliny
“You have done perfectly right, my dear Pliny, in the inquiry you have made concerning the Christians. For truly no one general rule can be laid down, which will apply itself to all cases. These people must not be sought after. If they are brought before you and convicted, let them be capitally punished, yet with this restriction, that if any one renounce Christianity, and evidence his sincerity by supplicating our gods, however suspected he may be for the past, he shall obtain pardon for the future, on his repentance. But anonymous libels in no case ought to be attended to; for the precedent would be of the worst sort, and perfectly incongruous to the maxims of my government.”
Thus the Diabolos and his pagan Satan “cast them into prison that they might be tempted” to renounce the faith. Their tribulation was p. 256 great. They had foes without, foes within, who said they were Christians, but lied, and their flesh with all its affections and lusts to contend with. But they were “rich” in faith and good works, and zealous against the Docetæ or Gnostics, and the Ebionites, both of which, we have shown, constituted the Nikolaitans, or Vanquishers of the people of God’s flock.
When Ignatius was at Troas, where Paul and his companions abode seven days (Acts xx. 6,) he wrote to the Smyrneans commending them for their faithfulness, and zealously warning them against the Nikolaitans. In his view the evil of their heresy consisted in a nullification of Jesus as a covering for sin, and of the resurrection. Let the clergy and those deceived by them, hear him, and be instructed. “I glorify Jesus Anointed, our God, who hath given you wisdom. For I understand that ye, Smyrneans, are perfect in the immovable faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; who REALLY was of the seed of David according to the flesh; and born of a virgin REALLY; who REALLY suffered under Pontius Pilate. For those things he suffered for us that we might be saved. And he TRULY suffered; as also he TRULY raised up himself; not as some infidels say, that he SEEMED to suffer. I forewarn you of these beasts (2 Pet. ii. 12; Jude 10) who are in the shape of men; whom you ought not only not to receive (2 Jno. 10,) but if possible not even to meet with. Only you ought to pray for them—if they may be converted (2 Tim. ii. 25)—which is a difficult case. But Jesus Christ, our true life (Col. iii. 3) has power to save to the uttermost” (Heb. vii. 25.) I have inserted references in parentheses to show how the scriptures were acting upon the mind of Ignatius while he was writing his epistle. It seems that the “infidels” who pretended to be true Jews or Christians, with the usual artifice of such persons, labored to work themselves into the good graces of Ignatius, who was an influential man among the saints. But he saw through their craftiness, and says—“for what doth it profit me if any man commend me, and yet blaspheme my Lord, denying him to have come in the flesh? They separate from ἡ ευχαριστια the giving of thanks (that is, “the Lord’s Supper) and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharistia to be (representative of) the body of our Saviour Jesus Anointed, who suffered for our sins. They who contradicted the gift of God (Gal. i. 4; ii. 20; Eph. v. 25; 1 Tim. ii. 6; Tit. ii. 14) die in their reasonings.”
Ignatius suffered death in this Trajan persecution of the “ten days.” When he was led to execution, he was attended by a number of the brethren who accompanied him to Rome, and were residents of that city. When about to suffer, he prayed in behalf of the Ecclesias, that p. 257 a stop might be put to the persecution, and that their love might be continued one toward another. He was then led into the amphitheatre, and speedily thrown to the wild beasts, who soon devoured him, leaving only a few bones, which the deacons carefully collected and afterwards burned at Antioch.
The concluding remarks of the narrative of the execution of Ignatius are expressed in terms which indicate their writers’ understanding of the Diabolos in the case. They style him “the magnanimous witness of Christ, who trode under foot the Diabolos.” Now the pagan Roman power cast him into prison, and put him to death; yet he trode it under foot in the sense of not yielding to its temptations, and dying with the assurance of rising again; or, as it is expressed in this letter to the Smyrneans, of “not being hurt of the Second Death.” The contemporaries of Ignatius evidently regarded this power as Sin in imperial manifestation, and therefore “the Diabolos.”
6. The Ten Days, or Day for a Year
This letter to the Smyrneans is the first place in the Apocalypse where “days” stand for years. The Apocalypse is a book of symbols, in which the greater is represented by the less. Its agents, and their operations, and its times preliminary to the thousand years, are all miniature representations of the reality—great things illustrated by small. This is the rule of prophecy, whether the truth be stated literally or by symbols—the verbal always falls short of the real, which is “joy unspeakable and full of glory;” things which cannot be expressed. Because of the Spirit’s working by this rule it is that so much has been revealed in so small a book. It is a condensed view of the deep things of the Deity, which, if they had been magnitudinously revealed, “I suppose,” as John says, “that even the kosmos itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
Condensation, then, is the general principle of divine revelation; but of the symbols, it is the special. The apocalyptic times are an apportionment of the times of the Holy City, or of the Saints, concurrent with “the Times of the Gentiles,” during which Jerusalem’s polity, Hebrew and Christian, is trodden under their feet. Hence Jerusalem has her times, and the Gentiles have theirs; but the two sets of times are not times of concurrent prosperity and triumph. On the contrary, when Jerusalem’s polity is subject, her times are times of adversity; and those of the Gentiles relatively prosperous; and when she “arises and shines because her Light is come,” she becomes victorious, and the p. 258 Gentiles prostrate, according to the word of Isaac, who said to Jacob, “Let the peoples serve thee, and the nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee; cursed is every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee”—Gen. xxvii. 29.
Day is frequently used in scripture to represent a year. The first intimation of this is in Gen. xlvii. 9, where Jacob says, “the days of my pilgrimage are 130 years;” and in ver. 28, “the days of the years of his life were 147 years.” In this we have 47,450 days of pilgrimage represented by 130 years. Now, as many thousand days are condensable into a few years, upon the same principle many years may be compressed into a few days. Hence, “the days of the years were 147 years,” or, Jacob lived 147 days, each day for a year of days, or 52,691 days.
This principle of the ideal condensation of a great while into a little, is practically exhibited in Numbers xiv. While the twelve tribes of Israel were in the wilderness, they sent twelve spies to search out the land of promise; “and they returned from searching of the land after forty days.” Now these were literal days, and so would have remained purely and simply, but for an incident which was made the occasion of converting them into typical or symbolical days. The spies caused the tribes to despise the land, so that they refused to go up and take possession of it. Therefore the Spirit said, they should wander in the wilderness forty years. His words are, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.” Here is the day for a year rule plainly indicated. Forty days searching of the land in a faithless spirit, working disobedience in the multitude, made typical of forty years bearing of iniquity, ending in death in the wilderness.
The next notable example of a day being appointed to represent a year, is in Ezek. iv. 4. In this place he states that he was commanded to lie upon his left side 390 days, during which he would be considered as bearing the past iniquity of the house of Israel. After these were expired, he was to lie upon his right side 40 days, to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah, making in all 430 days for the iniquity of the whole twelve tribes. All these were sign-days, for the Spirit said, “I have appointed thee each day for a year.” They were memorial of the past, and prophetic or significant of the future. They memorialized the iniquity of the nation, from their revolt against the house of David, in the fourth year of the reign of Rehoboam, to the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 589, when the temple was burned, an interval of 390 p. 259 years; and the iniquity of Judah from the fourth of Solomon, when the fourdation of the temple was laid, to the fourth of Rehoboam, when his dominion was restricted to Judah and Benjamin. The whole 430 years marks the existence of the temple built by Solomon, a period of national transgression coextensive with the interval between the typical Confirmation of the Land-Covenant with Abraham, (Gen. xv. 7-21,) and the end of the sojourning in Canaan and in Egypt—Exod. xii. 40. This text is obscure as it stands in the English Version and the Hebrew, unless we read “who dwelt in Egypt” as a parenthesis, thus, “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel (who dwelt in Egypt) was 430 years.” That is, “their sojourning was 430 years,” partly in Canaan and partly in Egypt, and is so expressed in the Septuagint, which, after Egypt, adds the words και εν γη χανααν, and in the land of Canaan.
But the 430 days of Ezekiel became typical of 430 years, during which the children of Israel “should eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them,” saith the Spirit—ver. 13. That is, as Ezekiel eat defiled bread for the 430 days he typically bore their iniquity, so the people scattered by Nebuchadnezzar should eat their defiled bread 430 years. History shows this to have been literally fulfilled in the condition of the nation from the burning of the temple to the recovery of independence under the Maccabees, B. C. 169. Thus, 430 years of transgression were visited with 430 years of national humiliation, the former memorialized by 430 sign-days, and the latter typified by the same.
The next instance that may be adduced is illustrative of a day representing years in prophecy, as found in Dan. viii. 14. In the previous verse the question is asked, “For how long the vision of the Daily, the desolating transgression, to give both the holy (city) and the host, for a treading underfoot?” The answer is, “For an evening-morning of two thousand and three hundred, then the holy shall be avenged.” In Gen. i. 5, Moses says, “the evening and the morning were one day.” Here then is one day of 2300. This is a long day. Is it a day of 2300 days, weeks, months, or years? When the answer was given, the Holy City was nothing but heaps of ruins, and the host of Israel scattered abroad. Now 2300 days are six years, three months, and twenty days; but the period could not be literal days, because from no date that can be selected with the least plausibility did the things predicted come to pass at their expiration. The fulfilment belongs to the times of the Little Horn Power, and this did not appear in the Holy City until B. C. 63. No termination, therefore, before that event can be admitted. The only conclusion that can be arrived at is that it is a day of 2300 years. This long day was to form an interval at the expiration of which means p. 260 would be instituted for the vindication of the Holy from violence. The years have expired, and “the time of the end” has come in which the vindication is to be consummated. It is a day containing the first, second, and part of the third, days of Hosea vi. 2, where the Spirit represents Israel as saying, “AFTER two days will he revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” These are days of 1000 years each; of the third of which 586 years have passed away. Some time in the third day of a 1000 years the twelve tribes of Israel are to be the subject of a national resurrection.
But we come to understand that the 2300 is a period of years from the evidence afforded in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. These relate to the Holy and the Host, and the suppression of the Daily, as well as the 2300. The seventy are evidently weeks of years; for they are stated as beginning at the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, and ending at the cutting off of Messiah the Prince, which was exactly 490 years to a day; and containing seven seventy times.
The Lord Jesus spoke according to the day for a year rule in Luke xiii. 32. When certain of the Pharisees said to him, “Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee”; he replied, “Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons, and I do cures to-day, and to-morrow, and the third day, I shall be perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk to-day and to-morrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” In this passage a day is used six times for a year. Jesus ministered during the latter half of the seventieth week, or the last three years and a half of the 490. When the Pharisees warned him of Herod, there were yet three years for him to occupy; and these years he represented in his reply by as many days.
From these examples we see that a day, according to the nature of the subject treated of, may signify a year, a thousand years, or two thousand three hundred years. In Numb. xiv. and Ezek. iv., for the Old Testament; and in Luke xiii. and Apoc. ii, for the New, the day for a year cypher is clearly adopted. And I may remark here that the apocalyptic times can be correctly interpreted upon no other. It is true, that the day for a year cypherists have not hitherto succeeded in interpreting the book; but it is also as eminently true that those who affirm, that a day in symbolic writing means a literal day of twenty-four common hours, have as signally failed as their opponents. What they have urged in support of the tradition delivered to them by Romanist and German controversialists and critics, has so little weight in it, that it is not worth the time and space of a formal refutation in these pages. We shall therefore give the objectors the go-by, and p. 261 when we treat of the apocalyptic times as they severally occur, show the correctness of the principle by the fitness and historical accuracy of the interpretation.
7. The Second Death
The letter to the Presbytery and Heritage in Smyrna, concludes by promising those among them who overcome that they shall “not be hurt of the Second Death.” The words of the passage are, “Be faithful until death, and I will give to thee the coronal wreath (στεφανον) of the life. He having an ear let him hearken to what the Spirit saith to the ecclesias. He that overcometh shall not be injured of the Second Death.” Be faithful until death. They had a course of tribulation to run; for “it is through much tribulation that the saints must enter the kingdom of God” where the crown is to be obtained and worn—Acts xiv. 22. The kingdom and its crown of life and glory is “the prize.” All the faithful in the times of the apostles knew this. Hence Paul, in 1 Cor. ix. 24, writing to the christians in Corinth says, “Know ye not that they which run in a race,” the Athletes in the Grecian Games, “all run, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every combatant is temperate in all things; but they are so that they may receive a perishable coronal wreath (στεφανον); but we one incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as beating the air. But I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when having preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The pagans contended in their games for crowns or coronal wreaths of laurel; but the saints for wreaths of unfading leaves from the forest of the life pertaining to the Aion and the Paradise of Deity.
But they were not to expect the unfading wreath till after death; for they were exhorted to be faithful until death. They were, then, to expect to die; for the Fourth Beast would make war upon them in the tribulation of the “ten days,” and prevail against them, and put many of them to death. They would be injured by this death, with great suffering. But there is “a Second Death” that would be more tormenting and of more bitter anguish than the first. In the first, men and women “were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others had trial of mockings, and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, p. 262 afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect”—Heb. xi. 35-40.
This first death was indeed terrible in all its forms. It laid its victims low “in the dust,” where it retains them “invisible” for centuries. But the apostle addressing the Saints, says to them, “death is yours”—1 Cor. iii. 22. They do not belong to death, but on the contrary, death belongs to them. The Serpent hath bruized them in the heel, and they now lie wounded in prison. But the wound is not incurable; they have been wounded as it were to death, but their deadly wound will be healed; for in regard to them death hath lost its sting; for “the sting of death is sin,” and all their sins have been forgiven, so that it is impossible that they can be holden of it for ever. For them death hath no sting; and over them “Hades,” “Hell,” “the Grave,” or “Invisible,” has no final victory; for their death will be swallowed up of life and victory, through their Lord Jesus Anointed—1 Cor. xv. 54-57; 2 Epist. v. 4.
Then, though invisible in the dust, or in common parlance, dead, or scripturally, “asleep in Jesus,” they have “not received the promise,” neither can they, for God’s arrangement is, that all the Saints shall with Christ be “glorified together”—Rom. viii. 17, 32. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets and apostles all, (Enoch, Moses, and Elijah, Jesus, and those who came out of their graves after his resurrection, alone excepted,) yet sleep in their graves waiting for redemption. But that redemption will not be revealed till all the saints are separated by “the obedience of faith” from among the Gentiles; for Paul testifies, that they are not to be made perfect without us; that is, if there be now a saint living who has not been glorified, then they have not been glorified, and will not be without him; for all are to be glorified and to receive the promise at the same time and together.
The Smyrneans have not, then, as yet, obtained the unfading wreath of the life of the Aion, for they have not been “made perfect,” and the Aion is not yet arrived. Those of them who were faithful until death, have conquered though they fell, and await the healing of their wounds, for the promise is to such, and such alone. They who could not endure the terrors of the death they had to face, were vanquished when they fell; or, if they rose from this death in accepting deliverance, they miss the “better resurrection,” and become obnoxious to the sorer and more fearful terrors of the Second Death. Though they will rise, it will be to condemnation—John v. 28, 29, not to the resurrection of the life. p. 263 “Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection.” This is the great epoch of retribution for weal or woe; then, and not before, the living and the dead receive according to their works—kingdom, power, glory, and endless life for the saints; the Second Death for the faithless, faint-hearted, and abominable.
The phrase “the Second Death,” occurs in three other places of the Apocalypse besides this. First, in Rev. xx. 6, which saith, “Blessed and holy he that hath part in the first resurrection; over these the Second Death hath no power, but they shall be priests of the Deity and of the Anointed, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” Here it is testified, that the Second Death hath no power over those who compose the First Resurrection: then consequently, it cannot injure the faithful Smyrneans who were faithful until death; for they are to have unfading life, and it has no power to affect that. They will be of the first rank in resurrection; so that their class being preëminent, the resurrection of which they are the subject, is “THE FIRST.” The post-resurrectional death has no power over them, and nothing pertaining to it can injure them. The First Death was at the control of the Diabolos; the Second is subject to them for the punishment of their enemies, and the enemies of God. It is styled “the second death” because multitudes, though not all, who will be injured by it, will have been previously dead. To them who have been dead, and afterwards rose again to life, and after that pass through its preliminary terrors and die again, it is a second death. To that class of the resurrected, and to all living contemporaries, it is THE Second Death, though the last may not have previously died at all. It is the resurrected who are condemned to it that characterize the death as “the second;” if no one who shall be subject to it had ever before died, it would not have been styled “the second;” it is the class that designates the death, and not the death the class.
The second text is in the fourteenth verse of the same chapter. Here we have the death symbolically defined in the words, “And the Death and the Invisible were cast into the lake of the fire;” for, says the Spirit, “this is the Second Death.” The consuming of the Death and the Invisible in the lake of a certain fire is the Second Death. What lake of fire is this? That mentioned in Rev. xix. 20, into which the Beast and False Prophet are to be cast alive. And what are “the Death and the Invisible?” Whosoever is not found written in the book of the life—Rev. xx. 15. “Death and the Invisible” are used metonymically for the subjects of them, who are to be postresurrectionally condemned to contemporary and conjoint destruction with the Beast and False Prophet, in the judgments by which these allied powers p. 264 are to be utterly destroyed. “The Death and the Invisible” are the symbols of the unwritten. These, while still living souls, are “dead in trespasses and sins”—“miserable sinners” by their own confession; and when they cease to breathe, they “die in their sins;” and when they come out of the ground again, they rise in their sins; and as “the wages of sin is death,” they come out of where they have been concealed from human ken, heirs of the terrors of the Second Death. What more appropriate by which to represent these dead of the invisible, than by their inheritance, death and invisibility, past and for ever? Hence, unpardoned sinners doomed to the torment of the Second Death, and to subsequent exclusion from life for evermore, are symbolized by “the death and the Hades,” or Invisible, and are destroyed with the Beast of Eight Heads and its False Prophet, styled by Jesus, in Matt. xxv. 41, “the Diabolos and his Angels,” in the lake of the fire and brimstone, which he terms το πυρ το αιωνιον, THE AION-FIRE.
The third place beside our text is Rev. xxi. 8. This informs us of the character of the dead “in the Death and the Invisible,” who are delivered up for the judgments of the Second Death. They are styled, “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the liars, whose part shall be in the lake being caused to burn with fire and brimstone, which is the Second Death.” This is a formidable and comprehensive list of criminals. Who of all the clergies of “Christendom,” and their pietistic followers will escape condemnation on the ground of exempttion from the specifications of the text? Are they not all “unbelievers?” Who among them believe “the Gospel of the Kingdom;” or, believing it, have obeyed it? Are they not all “fearful” to avow and preach what is not popular with the people? Is not whoremongering proverbially “the ministerial sin?” Like priest like people. Within the pale of the Old Mother of their churches we look for nothing else. And who are sorcerers, and liars, and inventors of lies, but sacramentarians of all sects, who practically give the lie to God in teaching the infusion of “spiritual grace” into the souls of faithless and ignorant infants and adults? “Without faith,” saith Paul, “it is impossible to please God;” and by the Spirit, we see from the text before us, the unbelieving are condemned to the fiery indignation and sore punishment of the Second Death.
But we forbear to anticipate more under this head. The epoch of the Second Death will present itself for consideration under the missions of the second and third angels of Rev. xiv. 8-11. Sufficient has been said here explanatory of the Second Death in connexion with the epistle to the ecclesia of the Smyrneans to make it intelligible. Not to p. 265 be injured of the Second Death was great consolation to those who lived in constant jeopardy of life for the truth’s sake. They might be slain by the sword, but they would rise again; and wield the two-edged sword against the enemy in the execution of “the judgment written” (Psal. cxlix.); yet amid all the dangers, vicissitudes, and terrors of the crisis, they should “not be injured by the Second Death.”