Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents

The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

 - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    XIII. Witnesses Span Centuries; Opponents Invoke Same Arguments

    It should be observed that in all this Layton was not defending Coward, with whose works he had little acquaintance, but was expressing his own convictions and conclusions on the counterargument projected by Coward’s opponents. He seriously “answers every argument that had then been advanced in behalf of the immortality of the soul, at full length,” including the constantly recurring objection that Conditionalism is “bold, singular, and heretical.” When he started writing, in 1670, Layton felt somewhat like Elijah—that he alone held the true view, but he soon found that there were “seven thousand” others of similar belief of whom he had been unaware. As to the charge of being “heretical” Layton says:CFF2 202.9

    “The passing an intermediate time betwix death and judgment, (which time to the dead is nothing) doth no way infeeble the certainty of future rewards and punishments; but places the expectation of them upon a right and a firm foot or foundation, maintained by a concurrent testimony throughout the scripture, and fortified by the articles of our several Creeds.” 5757) Quoted in Blackburne, op. cit., p. 78.CFF2 203.1

    And as to the novelty of Conditionalism, he contends truthfully and significantly that—
    “there have been testimonies all along in the church against the separate subsistence of souls, except in the 600 years wherein the thick darkness of popish ignorance overspread the Christian world, viz., from An. 600 till An. 1200.” 5858) Layton, A Search After Souls, part ii, pp. 21-23, quoted in Blackburne, op. cit., pp. 79, 80.
    CFF2 203.2

    And he further observes that use was then being made of the same arguments to meet him as were employed against the unpopular Reformers by the “papists in the infamy of the Reformation.” These were: “The authority of the church, the imputation of heresy, and even of Atheism, the promoting of vice [evil], by taking away the fear of purgatorial pains, etc.” 5959) Ibid., p. 80.CFF2 203.3

    This, he said pointedly, is “remarkable,” for—CFF2 203.4

    “the separate existence of the soul, is one of these doctrines which popery borrowed from paganism, and is so necessary to the support of the better half of the popish superstitions, that it is not a little marvellous the reformers should think so little of removing the ground work, when they were so zealously bent upon demolishing what was built upon it.” 6060) Ibid.CFF2 203.5

    His was a remarkable polemical defense of Conditionalism. He was a notable champion.CFF2 203.6

    MAJOR 17TH CENTURY WITNESSES TO CONDITIONALISM
    No. Page Name Date Place Religion Position Nature of Man Intermediate State Punishment of Wicked
    1 134 Legatt, Barth 1611 England Anabaptist Denied innate immortality Soul asleep in death
    2 134 Wightman, Edward 1611 England Anabaptist Denied innate immortality Soul asleep in death
    3 138 Baptist Conf. 1660 England Baptist Mortal state State of insensibility Perish forever
    4 142 Caffyn, Mathhew 1665 England Baptist Preacher—teacher No immortality now Awaits resurrection
    5 144 Biddle, John 1654 England Unitarian Theologian Immortality— saints only Utter destruction
    6 150 Milton, John 1655 England Anglican—Pur. Poet—statesman Whole man mortal Sleeps unconsciously
    7 160 Wither, George 1636 England Puritan Poet—writer Sleeping
    8 163 Overton, Richard 1642-59 England Baptist Pamphleteer Wholly mortal Ceases to be till res.
    9 169 Canne, John 1643 England Baptist Preacher— publisher Wholly mortal Ceases till res.
    10 171 Chamberlen, Dr P. 1601-83 England Ind.—Baptist Phys.— preacher Immortality at res. Unconscious sleep
    11 176 Stegmann, Joach. 1651 Germany Lutheran Author— translator Immortality at res. Unconscious in death
    12 181 Homes, Nath. 1641 England Independent Minister— author Consciousness at res.
    13 183 Richardson, Sam. 1658 England Baptist Minister Total destruction
    14 185 Barrow, Isaac 1670 England Anglican Prof.— theol. Conditional immort. Total destruction
    15 187 Locke, John 1671 England Anglican Philos.— teacher Mortal No consciousness Ultimate destruction
    16 191 Tillotson, John 1690 England Anglican Archbp. Canter. Innatism not Biblical Not necessarily eternal
    17 193 Stosch, F.W. von 1692 Germany Lutheran Denies eternal torment
    18 193 Coward, William 1702 England Anglican Phys.— theol. Invested at res. Unconscious sleep
    19 199 Layton, Henry 1670 England Anglican Barrister— theol. Not immortal Sleeps in Christ Not eternal torment
    (Restorationism begins to reappear sporadically under the term “‘Universalism.”)

    SUMMARY OF CONDITIONALISM DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

    Conditionalism in the seventeenth century opens, just as the sixteenth closed, with cruel persecution, even unto death—as with Legatt and Wightman. This was followed by the widely attested Baptist Confession of Faith, “owned and approved” by more than 20,000. Then follows a succession of prominent Conditionalist witnesses, chiefly in England but with Stegmann and von Stosch in Germany.

    The British witnesses are about equally divided between Baptists and Anglicans, but also include Puritan, Independent, and even Unitarian adherents. No Jews are noted. In spread of professional and official proponents, they now embrace preachers, teachers, physicians, poets, writers, statesmen, publishers, philosophers, and barristers—with even an Anglican archbishop. So Conditionalism was not confined preponderantly to any one group or religious persuasion.

    In doctrinal emphasis it was distributed rather evenly over the three main points of (1) the mortality of man, (2) the unconscious sleep of the soul between death and the resurrection, and (3) the ultimate and utter destruction of the impenitently wicked. And it must not be forgotten that those who held to the final destruction of the wicked thereby automatically held that not all souls are innately immortal—else such could not ultimately cease to be.

    There is now a still slow but steady augmenting of Conditionalist ranks and a diminishing of persecution, so that in the latter half of the century opposition is virtually confined to oral and printed attack—with attendant ostracism. Nevertheless, the credibility of Conditionalism is increasingly recognized, as shown by the caliber and growing number of its conspicuous proponents.

    Such is the status of Conditionalism during the seventeenth century.

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents