"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God;
and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey
not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where
shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" 1 Peter iv:17, 18.
In our last we have attended to the first two divisions of our
subject--viz: what we were to understand by judgment beginning at the
house of God, and who were the righteous, and in what sense they were
scarcely saved. We now invite the attention of the reader to the
remaining division of the subject. _Third--who were the ungodly, and
where they appeared_. By the _ungodly_ and the _sinner_, we are to
understand the unbelieving Jews, the murderers of Christ and the
persecutors of his followers. It has _exclusive_ reference to them and
not to the ungodly who lived subsequent to the destruction of
Jerusalem, much less does it refer to all the wicked that have ever
existed, or shall hereafter exist, as common opinion asserts. This
needs no further explanation.
Under this head, we were also to show _where the ungodly and the
sinner appeared_. We have already had occasion to state, that Peter in
our text refers to the destruction coming upon the Jews. The time was
come when that judgment of persecution, which began at the christians,
was to be returned upon the heads of their persecutors in seven fold
vengeance and suffering. Their city and nation were to be destroyed,
and their magnificent temple, where their devotions were offered, was
to be laid even with the ground. Not one stone was to be left upon
another, but the whole become one general heap of ruins. Then
according to the prediction of Jesus, was there to "be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this
time, no, nor ever shall be." Then was "wrath to come upon them to the
uttermost." Then was he to "take vengeance on them that know not God,
and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Then were "the
children of the kingdom to be cast out into outer darkness where there
was wailing and gnashing of teeth." Then, as a nation, were "they to
go away into everlasting punishment;" for "these were the days of
vengeance when all things, that were written, might be fulfilled," and
"all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel
to the blood of Zacharias, should come upon that generation."
Titus led the Roman army against them, surrounded the walls of the
city on the day of the Passover, where a great part of the Jewish
nation were then assembled, and to which others had fled for refuge,
being driven by the terror of his arms like chaff before the
whirlwind. Here they appeared! Husbands and wives, parents and
children, brothers and sisters, (one promiscuous throng) were gazing
in breathless solicitude, while consternation and dismay were depicted
in every countenance, and fearful expectation pervaded every bosom!
Death, a long lingering death, was gathering around them in all its
horrors! Old men and young, maidens, matrons and little children
poured forth their lamentations to heaven, invoking the protection of
the God of Israel. But, alas! "the things, that made for their peace
(as Jesus forewarned them) were hidden from their eyes!" Their hour
was come, and the triumphant shouts of the enemy were heard around
their stubborn walls, which (massy as they were) dropped to the ground
under the subduing power of the battering-rams of war. With these
massive engines of destruction, they laid the two first walls in ruin!
But the third and last wall it was not in the power of the enemy to
gain. The Jews fought with desperation, and by valiant exertions kept
the enemy at bay, and for a while seemed to triumph in the fond hope
of victory over the foe. The Roman army was driven to great extremity,
and even to hesitation, while many of their most valiant men fell in
action, and impending victory seemed to hang doubtful. In this moment
of suspense, they came to a determination to make no further attack
upon the city, but guard it and reduce its inhabitants to submission
by famine. All supplies were accordingly cut off, and every avenue
blocked up by the vigilant Romans. In addition to this, intestine
divisions, civil wars and pestilence raged within the walls of the
city. Having no employment in fighting the enemy, they fell to
butchering each other. These things proved their ruin, and their
national sun went down in blood. Every day thousands closed their eyes
in death through famine and pestilence; and thousands by endeavoring
to escape to the enemy and surrender themselves up as prisoners for
safety and protection, were either cut down by the Roman sword, or met
the same fate from their own countrymen. Here they appeared! All hopes
of life cut off, nothing presented itself to their view, to end their
woes, but the certain prospect of an untimely tomb! Fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, gazing upon each other in silent expectation, saw
death gradually advancing in all its horrors. They were driven to the
most dreadful extremities, until (is Josephus informs us) "they
devoured whatever came in their way; mice, rats, serpents, lizards,
even to the spider"--and lastly mothers were driven to eat the flesh
of their own children! Here were lamentation and wo indeed! Such
tribulation as our Saviour says never was, and never will be. In
imagination the mind runs back to the period, and to the fatal spot.
It surveys the painful scene, characterized by nought but moral and
physical woes--madness and revenge, cruelty and carnage, pestilence
and famine, and all the mingled horrors of war! It surveys the
starving child clinging to the maternal bosom for help and protection,
but alas! That bosom becomes its grave. Here the ungodly and the
sinner appeared in deep despair! Unfeeling mortal, do you say that
their punishment and sufferings were not sufficiently great, without
adding that of immortal pain in the future world? Are you not
satisfied without arguing that they ought to suffer endless misery in
addition to their woes? Look with an unjaundiced eye over this scene
of distress; and as you gaze let justice (if not compassion) once more
take the throne of the heart, and then pronounce the shocking sentence
of your creed if you can.
That their sufferings were overwhelming is evident from scripture as
well as from history. In Lam. iv. The prophet Jeremiah says--"The
hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children, they were
their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." In Lev.
Xxvi. Moses describes their sufferings as follows--"And I will bring a
sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when
ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the
pestilence among you, that shall make you few in number; and ye shall
be delivered into the hand of the enemy. And when I have broken the
staff of your bread ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and
they shall deliver you your bread again by weight; and ye shall eat
and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me
but walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in
fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And
ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters
shall ye eat." This did come upon the sinner and the ungodly, and it
was "according to their sins." Moses, Jeremiah, and Jesus spake
particularly of the sufferings of the Jews in the destruction of their
city and they all agree in concluding their chapters. Moses in
conclusion says, "and they shall accept of the punishment of their
iniquities, even because they despised my judgments, and because their
soul abhorred my statutes; and yet for all that I will not cast them
away neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly and to break my
covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God." And Jeremiah, after
describing their sufferings in the 4th chapter of Lamentations
concludes with these words--"The punishment of thine iniquity is
accomplished, O daughter of Zion," &c. And Jesus, after denouncing
upon them the judgments of heaven in Matt. xxiii. Concludes thus: "For
I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say,
blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Thus we see that
they agree in testifying to the same fact, that the punishment of the
ungodly and the sinner, which mean, no other than the Jewish nation in
their overthrow and dispersion as we have already noticed, shall end.
I see therefore no arguments, that can be drawn from our text, to
prove a future judgment or endless misery in the immortal world. If
the objector can see a shadow of evidence in this passage to support
such a sentiment, yet I must frankly acknowledge that, for myself, I
cannot. There is certainly no word in the text, that has the most
distant allusion to the final condition of man. The _judgment_ began
at the apostles and christians. But is the _"last judgment"_ to begin
at them? Certainly not. But admit that it is; we would further
inquire, did the last judgment begin as early as the days of Peter?
Impossible. Then he could certainly not have had any allusion to such
a day, for he exclaims: "_the time is come_ that judgment must begin
at the house of God." Here the judgment to which he refers had
commenced, or at least the _signs_ portending it had commenced, and it
was to end upon the ungodly inhabitants of Jerusalem. This fact is
evident from the context--"Beloved, think it not strange concerning
the _fiery trial_ which is to try you, as though some strange thing
had happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of
Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be
glad also with exceeding joy." From this quotation there can arise no
misapprehension as to Peter's application of the text, nor of the
persons it involves. They were the persecutors of the christians, and
no one will dispute that these were the Jews.
If then this judgment was at hand, it cannot of course refer to a
period at the end of time; and it is in this case equally certain,
that the _scarce salvation_ of the christians can have no reference to
the immortal world. These facts being irresistible, the argument must
be wholly given up that "the ungodly and the sinner" were to appear in
a state of inconceivable torment beyond the grave, because the
_condition_ of "the ungodly" stands in contrast with the _scarce
salvation_ of the righteous, and this _salvation or deliverance_ was
to be in a day nigh at hand, and from a tribulation or judgment in
which their adversaries and persecutors were to be involved, and the
_signs_, by which the apostle was admonished of its proximity, had
already appeared when he wrote the words of our text. The meaning of
his words, I humbly conceive, is simply this--The time _is come_ when
the persecutions, predicted by Christ as a _sign_ of the approaching
destruction of Jerusalem, must begin at us. And if we the righteous
who are innocent, have to endure so many "fiery trials," what will the
dreadful punishment be of our disobedient persecutors? And if we are
_scarcely saved_ from this impending destruction, by fleeing to the
mountains of Judea, where will our thoughtless and sinful appear? We
have endeavored to show you where they appeared--have pointed out the
narrow escape of the christians, who were "scarcely saved," and
referred you to the _signs_ by which Peter knew this judgment was at
hand. It is therefore unnecessary to offer any thing further in
defense of our views, as the text is, no doubt, plainly understood by
every reader.
We close this discourse by noticing one very common objection, made by
our religious opposers, to our application of several scriptures. I do
this, because I am not aware that it has been done by any Universalist
as a _designed_ answer to the objection. The substance of the
objection is this:--
_There is not a passage in the New Testament which speaks of a day of
judgment, of the end of the world and of the coming of Christ, but
what Universalists apply to the destruction of Jerusalem. Then, they
contend, "every man was rewarded according to his works," consequently
all subsequent nations are not to be rewarded, nor are they to
experience a day of judgment_.
In reply to this objection I would remark, that we are not answerable
for the many passages which the Saviour and his apostles applied to
that event. But if we make a wrong application of any scripture, why
do not our opposers point out the error? We will now show why the
apostles wrote so much in reference to that period. They do not so
frequently speak of that event merely on account of the destruction of
their temple city and nation, (though that might justify their
frequent reference to it) but there were circumstances of a more
imposing and momentous character to attract their attention to that
catastrophe. These were the abrogation of the Mosaic rituals and the
introduction of a new order of things by Jesus Christ of whom Moses
and the prophets wrote. This was a period when every christian was to
be delivered from the persecution of the Jews, and the spread of the
gospel was to be retarded no longer by their opposition. The Jews as a
nation were to be punished for their deeds of blood, and that
_spiritual reign or judgment_ commence which should pass upon all
subsequent generations of men, rewarding every man according to his
works.
The _gospel reign_ is called "the _judgment of the world_" by Jesus
Christ, in the same sense that Moses judged the world two thousand
years by the law. Jesus says, "Think not that I will accuse you to the
Father, for there is one that _judgeth_ you even Moses in whom ye
trust." From this it is evident that Moses was then judging the Jews.
But this covenant was abolished at the destruction of Jerusalem. Paul
says, "he taketh away the _first_ that he may establish the _second_."
The word of God, in this covenant, is spiritual and sharper than any
two-edged sword--it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart, while that of Moses was outward, and took cognizance of the
conduct only. The objections of our opposers are therefore unsound.
And though we apply those passages, which speak of a judgment, to the
destruction of the Jews, yet that judgment or reign of Christ which
then commenced, is yet going on, and will continue till all are
subdued to himself. He then came in his kingdom, and will continue to
reward every man according to his deeds till his kingdom ends. So we
this day experience the effects of his coming, and of his judgment or
reign, and are justified or condemned according as we embrace or
reject the words of everlasting life. We see therefore the propriety
of the apostles dwelling so much upon that great event, which should
witness the passing away of the types and shadows and the
establishment of the gospel of Jesus Christ.