APPENDIX. The compiler of this volume has so far changed his plan as to throw into this appendix a few passages from the writings of those who have been distinguished advocates of the doctrine of Endless Hell Torments, in order that the ordinary reader may see the beauty of the Truth, when in immediate contrast with the foul deformity of Error. Theological Literature is full of such blasphemy, and the Christian Church has the bad pre-eminence of having given the worst idea of Deity this world has ever seen. Nowhere, in all the extravagances and delirium of religionists, can we find sentiments in relation to God, at once so low, so base, so sensual, so fiendish, as can be found in Christian Literature. Ransack the lore of Antiquity. Collate from the parchments and books of ancient and modern times, written outside of the pale of Christianity, all the terrible, all the savage ideas you can find, and I will point you to far worse sentiments, uttered by those who professed to believe that God is Love, but who supposed also that He would consign a portion of his intelligent offspring to never-ending wretchedness and wo. It is lamentable to be compelled to acknowledge that Christians, in their talk of God, and Heaven, and Hell, have, delivered thoughts more abhorrent to every finer feeling of the human heart; more repulsive to every generous soul; more derogatory to the character of God; descriptions of Heaven and Hell more unspiritual and sensual, than can be found among unbelieving heathen. Christian Theology contains, to-day, opinions uttered in language which contain a concentration of blasphemy, and malediction, and execration, which has never yet been equalled. It speaks of the dear God who loves us all, as only Satan can properly be spoken of, were he worse than his heartiest believer ever dreamed ;-of the redeemed in Heaven, as more cold-hearted, unfeeling and fiendish than the devils have ever been represented; of the lost, as more cruelly treated than a pirate would treat his worst foe. Who can read such descriptions as the following without emotions of unutterable disgust? from BOSTON'S FOURFOLD STATE. It is "The lamb of God shall roar as a lion against them; he shall excommunicate and cast them out from his presence forever by a sentence from the throne, saying, depart from me ye cursed. He shall adjudge them to everlasting fire, and the society of devils forevermore. And this sentence, we suppose, shall be pronounced with an audible voice, by the man Christ. And all the saints shall say: "Hallelujah, true and righteous are thy judgments." None were so compassionate as the saints on earth, during the time of God's patience. But now that time is at an end, their compassion on the ungodly is swallowed up in joy, in the Mediator's glory and his executing of just judgment, by which his enemies are made his footstool. Though sometimes the righteous man did weep in secret places for their pride, and because they would not hear; yet then he shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. No pity shall be shown them by their nearest relations. The godly wife shall applaud the justice of the judge, in the condemation of her ungodly husband; the godly husband shall say, Amen, to the damnation of her who lay in his bosom; the godly parents shall say, Hallelujah, at the passing of the sentence against their ungodly child; and the godly child shall from his heart approve the damnation of his wicked parents, the father who begat him, and the mother who bore him." How much do we gain in relinquishing Woden and the Vallalla-in rejecting the barbarities of Mexican idolatry, or the worship of Jug gernaut, if we admit such a heaven and such ideals of saintly excellence, as are here seen, and such a God as this? And yet, all these things must occur hereafter, if what is believed is true. The good must hereafter be steeled against all pity, or Heaven would be a realm of despair. When one of these fairly relishes the common error, how wild and high his blasphemy ascends. It seems as if Total Depravity,-the absolute Evil, was incarnate, and we were listening to its worst words. Says Dr. Jonathan Edwards, the head of modern American Orthodoxy : "Every time they [the saints] look upon the damned, it will excite in them a lively and admiring sense of the grace of God in making them so to differ. The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever." What a delectable place must Heaven be, and how much meaner and more supremely selfish and cold-hearted must its inhabitants be, than the basest children of earth. The savage Doc tor revels in his evil words : "The saints will not be sorry for the damned; it will cause no uneasiness or dissatisfaction to them; but on the contrary, when they see the sight, (the endless torments of the damned,) it will occasion rejoicing, and excite them to joyful praises." |