ion and
salvation. Justin Martyr and Irenaeus warn men of everlasting
punishment, though they believed in the annihilation of the wicked.

MORAL RESURRECTION.

In some instances the resurrection is used in the same way as the new
birth, to denote conversion. Such is John v. 21-29. The change thus
indicated is commonly called a moral resurrection. My critic would
have the last two verses refer to the general resurrection at the end
of the world; while he seems to admit that all the rest relates to a
moral resurrection, two things as unlike as they possibly could be.
Such is not our Lord's mode of teaching. I understand the whole
passage as confined to one subject, the moral resurrection. He divides
the subject into two parts, to be sure, but it is the same subject in
both parts--first, the moral resurrection then in progress; and
second, the moral resurrection "coming" on a more extensive scale,
even embracing all men. Jesus changes one word only, using
_graves_,--more properly _tombs_,--instead of _death_. But coming out
of death into life, and coming out of the tombs into life, are
essentially the same thing. Both are figurative expressions. I insist
that where Jesus says, "The hour is coming and now is," he conveys
the impression that the then present process was in its nature the
same as the coming one, only that the latter would be more extended,
even universal.

THE WORD A GOD.

That Trinitarians should translate this expression, The Word was God,
in John i. 1, might be expected; but by the rules of translating the
Greek language into English, the expression should be, The Word was a
god. The rule of Middleton that the article must not be used in the
predicate of a sentence may hold good, when it conflicts with no
superior rule; but if taken absolutely, it has many exceptions. I
suppose the renowned Origen understood the Greek language. He
interprets the passage before us as I do. "Origen uses [Greek: theos]
(god), not in our modern sense, as a proper name, but as a common
name. This use of the term, _which was common to him with his
contemporaries_, and continued to be common after his time, is
illustrated by his remarks on the passage, 'and the Logos was God'; in
which he contended, that the Logos was god, in an inferior sense;--not
as we would say God, but _a god_, not _the_ divine being, but _a_
divine being. (Opp. iv. p. 48, reqq.)." See Norton's Statement of
Reasons, p. 120, note.

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