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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 1810, Edition 1 of 1, Page 246, 246 On Matt. xxv. 41.

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    • 246 On Matt. xxv. 41.

      246 On Matt. xxv. 41.

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      Dec. 27,1.80$. . That The Phraseology Of...

      guage of the text is borrowed from those words of the prophecy of Isaiah , in chap , xxx . 33 . " Tophet is ordained of old * yea , for the king it is prepared ) he hath

      made it deep and large , the pile thereof is fire and much wood , the breath of the Lord , like a stream of brimstone , doth kindle it . " The prophet says that Tophet is a place of fire and much

      wood ; Jesus Christ will say to the wicked , Depart from me , ye cursed , into everlastingJire . The prophet says , Tophet is ordainpd of old , yea for the king it is prepared ; Jesus Christ says , the

      everlasting fire is prepared for the devil and bis angels ; and though our Lord does not here repeat , respecting this fire , what he had said of the kingdom , v . 34 « . that it was prepared from the founda

      tion of the world , yet that seems to be implied from the connection of the passages , and from the manner of expression he here uses . Again , as Tophet was a valley of fire , so , in the New Testament ,

      the place of future punishment is

      called a lake of fire ; and as the prophet says of the fire of Tophet , that the breath of the Lord , like a Stream of brimstone ^ doth kindle it ; so the New Testament says of that lake , that it burns with fire and brimstone . These

      resemblances may be sufficient to show , that our Lord in these words had an immediate reference to those words of the prophet Isaiah ,

      especially as there is not any other passage , to which the Jews , to whom these words were addressed , could suppose tliem to allude .

      In the prophecy it h said , for the king it is prepared ; in the passage under consideration it is said , prepared for the devil and his

      Dec. 27,1.80$. . That The Phraseology Of...

      angels * Theking ^ for whom To * phet is said to be prepared , is the king of Assyria , not as an indivi . dual , but as including those who acted under him . The Assyrian army which invaded Jerusalem in

      the days of Hezekiah , and which was the strength and glory of the king of Assyria , was destroyed in Tophet . Babylon was the capu tal of Assyria , and the king of Babylon and of Assyria are sometimes identified with each other

      in the Scriptures , especially as the oppressors and persecutors of the people of God . Hence it is , that the name Babylon is , in the New Testament , given to that persecuting power which shed the blood of the saints and of the

      martyrs of Jesus . By the devil and his angels , then , our Lord , I apprehend , means the supreme persecuting power , and the agents , instruments , or messengers , by which the machinations of that power are carried into effect . The word diabolos , rendered devil , means a

      false accuser * and is so rendered

      2 Tim . iii . 3 . and Titus ii . 3 . and slanderers I Tim , iii . 11 . and is properly applied to oppressors and persecutors , for all persecution and oppression proceed upon the ground of false accusation-On this ground , Judas is said to be a devil , John vi . 70 . Our Lord says to the church in

      Smyrna , Behold , the devil shall cast some of you into prison , '' The great dragon that persecuted the woman , is said to be , Rev . xii . 9 . " that old serpent , called the devil and Satan . " And in v .

      11-he is denominated " the accuser of the brethren / ' In all the above cited passages the term is evidently applied , not to spiritual and invi-

      246 On Matt. Xxv. 41.

      246 On Matt . xxv . 41 .

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  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1810, page 246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02051810/page/30/