CHAPTER VI.

Terms of Duration.

We come now to Dr. Adams' last great proposi tion, to wit:

VII. THE DURATION OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT IS EXPRESSED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT BY THE TERMS EMPLOYED TO DENOTE ABSOLUTE ETERNITY.

Here, again, before entering upon the discussion of this proposition, we must, as in the preceding division, strike out the word future prefixed to punishment, because it has no Scripture grant for being there. We shall not discuss with our friend the duration of future punishment, in the popular sense of the phrase, until he furnishes some sort of Scripture warrant for its use. But the question before us is the duration of punishment. And now, in the outset, against the Doctor's assumption, we file our own, viz:-That the terms employed to express the duration of punishment, are never employed to denote, of their own force, absolute eternity. The Doctor continues :

"There is, we all admit, such a thing as forever. If the Bible speaks of the natural attributes of God, his eternity is of course brought to view, and there must be a term or terms to convey the idea."

On this we have to remark, that the fact of God's eternity being associated with the considerate thought of his being, does not involve the certainty that the ancient languages had any one term literally to express the idea. And we shall find that the Greeks had not any one word in familiar usage which expressed this idea of its own single force. The word akatalutos comes nearer to that import than any other; but that denotes quality rather than duration, literally signifying indissoluble, or that which cannot be dissolved. It occurs but once in the Scriptures, (Heb. vii. 16,) and is rendered endless. Speaking of Christ in his spiritual priesthood, it is said, he is "made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless (properly, indissoluble) life."

But aion and aionios, rendered forever, everlasting and eternal in the Scriptures, do not, of their own force, when applied to any subject, "denote absolute eternity." And if it were not that many great and good men have overpowering foreign motives for repeating and perpetuating the counter assumption, this question could not be considered debatable. It is not a question of opinion, but of literal, tangible fact.

And now, what are the facts? What is the natural and proper meaning of aion and its derivatives? Some, in order to throw the burden of proof upon those who believe the punishment to be limited to which this word is applied, assert that it primarily and properly signifies unlimited duration. We are willing always to bear the burden of proof, by argu

ment from the nature of the subject, that aionion punishment is of limited duration; but we do not admit this definition of the word in question, because it is not true.

Though Professor Stuart, in his Exegetical Essays, assumes that the proper signification of aion and aionios, as used by the Greek writers of the Septuagint and New Testament, is eternity and eternal, and that when they are used in a limited sense it is a catachrestic, or forced and unnatural use, yet he has presented no facts to support such an assumption. He has given us no authority for departing from the following definition of aion, by the learned Orthodox lexicographer, Parkhurst. Aion, from aei, always, and on, being, always being. It denotes duration, or continuance of time, but with great variety." This he gives as the proper and radical meaning of the word, "duration, or continuance of time;" and then adds, "but with great variety." He then gives examples of different uses of the word, by reference to certain places of Scripture, of which places every reader of the Bible is to judge for himself.

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DONEGAN, defining the word in its classical usage, gives it thus:" Aion-time; a space of time; lifetime." Such is its proper meaning.

But you will say that if aion is compounded of aei, always, and on, being, the radical meaning of the word is endless duration, or eternity. Let us look then at the signification of the word aei, which is the component part of aion that applies to duration, and is rendered always. "Aei, from a, intensive, and eo,

to be. 1. Always, ever. Acts ii. 51: "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye." 2 Cor. vi. 10: "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." These are the only cases which Parkhurst brings to support his strongest sense of the Greek aei; and in these, the reader perceives that the word means no more than continual. His second definition is "Always, ever, in a restrained sense, i. e. at some stated times." And third, And third," Very frequently, continually." And to these definitions he quotes Mark xv. 8" And the multitude, crying aloud, began to desire him (Pilate) to do as he had ever done unto them." And 2 Cor. iv. 11" For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake." And 2 Peter i. 12" Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things." Such is the signification, and such the Scripture use, of the word aei, which with the word on, being, makes aion, the Greek term under consideration. It is plain, therefore, that the proper and radical meaning of this word is, as Parkhurst has defined it, simply duration, or continuance of time; indefinite duration. When therefore we undertake to define the duration expressed by it, we must do this by arguing from the nature of the subject to which it is applied. The same remarks will apply to the adjective aionios, which, as Professor Stuart remarks in his Essays, p. 39, corresponds in meaning with aion, the substantive.

Thus much I have thought proper to present with regard to aion and aionios, to show that when my opponent assumes that the proper signification of

these words is eternity and eternal, he assumes a false position; that the proper signification of these words is duration indefinite; and that consequently whoever asserts that either aion or aionios does in any given case apply to endless duration, is bound to support his assertion by argument from the connection, or the nature of the subject.

I admit, however, that a word may become gradually changed by use, until it comes to be commonly employed in a sense quite different from its radical meaning. If any assert that this was the case with aion in the time of the Greek writers of the Scriptures, that it had then come into use to signify, properly, or by its own force, eternity, or endless duration, let the assertion be judged by the fact which appears in the Scripture use of this word. I have taken time to examine, for myself, 351 cases of the use of aion and aionios in the Septuagint, which are nearly all the cases of their occurrence in the Old Testament. In those cases which I have examined, they are rendered by the English words ever, forever, everlasting, and eternal. In 220 of these cases the words are applied to the duration of times, things, and events, unquestionably of a temporal nature, in the earth. In the remaining 131 cases, the words are applied to God, his attributes, his praise, the kingdom of the Messiah, and of the Saints, &c. Thus in nearly two-thirds of the instances of the use of aion and aionios in the Greek of the Old Testament, they are used in application to the duration of transient times and things on earth. Does this