T. B. Thayer

Name: The American Cyclopædia
Author: T. B. Thayer

Summary

“The American Cyclopædia”, published in 1879, is a work by T. B. Thayer. It explores elements such as Universalists, punishment and sin.

Quotes from The American Cyclopædia (T. B. Thayer)

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ VI. Of the Resurrection. The resurrection is not merely a physical but a moral and spiritual change. It is not only clothing the soul with an incorruptible body, but it is an anastasis, a raising up, an exaltation of the whole being into the power and glory of the heavenly; for, “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” It is a change, they say, by which we become as the angels, and “are children of God, being (or, because we are) children of the resurrection.” It must, therefore, be something more than clothing the soul in a spiritual body. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ They hold the same doctrine respecting punishment: that it is consequential, not arbitrary—the natural fruit of sin; that it is for restraint, correction, and discipline; and that God loves as truly when he punishes as when he blesses, never inflicting pain in anger, but only because he sees that it is needed to prevent a greater evil. They affirm that the law is made for the good of man, and that of course the penalty cannot be such as to defeat the object of the law. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ They teach that salvation is not shelter nor safety, nor escape from present or future punishment. It is inward and spiritual, and not from any outward evil, but deliverance from error, unbelief, sin, the tyranny of the flesh and its hurtful lusts, into the liberty and blessedness of a holy life, and supreme love to God and man. This is an important doctrinal and practical point with Universalists, and is constantly enforced in their preaching and writings. They urge on all to seek salvation, not from the torments of a future hell, but from the present captivity of sin. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ On the subject of rewards and punishments, the Universalist belief is substantially, that holiness, piety, love of God and man, are their own reward, make their own heaven here and hereafter; and that in the nature of things no other reward is possible. If men love God with all their hearts, and trust in him, they find, and are satisfied with, the present heaven which love and faith bring with them. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ Transgression brings misery or punishment, which is designed to correct and restore to obedience, because obedience is happiness. They maintain that pain ordained for its own sake, and perpetuated to all eternity, is proof of infinite malignity; but God, they say, is infinitely beneficent, and therefore all suffering must have a beneficent element in it, all punishment must be temporary and end in good.—The Universalists believe that traces of their main doctrine may be found in the earliest Christian writings. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ In reply to the objection that millions die in sin, in pagan ignorance and unbelief, they answer that no one is wholly saved in this life, but that all men are saved, in a greater or less degree, after death; and assert that the power of Christ over the soul does not cease with the death of the body, but that he continues the work of enlightenment and redemption till he surrenders the kingdom to the Father, which does not take place till after the resurrection is complete. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ They believe that Adam was created upright, but liable to sin; that all men are formed, as Adam was, in the moral image of God; and that this image, though it may be disfigured by sin, can never be wholly lost. Faith and regeneration remove the stains and defilements of sin, and renew or reform the soul in the divine likeness. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ They believe the new birth to be that thorough change of heart which takes place when a man, wrought upon by divine truth and grace, forsakes his sins, or turns from his former life of worldliness and indifference toward God and the Saviour, and is drawn into fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and, thus quickened into new spiritual vitality, consecrates himself to a life of active goodness and piety. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ They also believe in the perfection of the divine justice; and affirm, on this ground, that God would not impose on finite beings a law infinite in its demands and penalties; but that, being perfectly just, he will deal with every man according to his works, whether good or bad. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ It is, besides this, growth in spiritual strength and power, in knowledge, in holiness, in all the elements and forces of the divine life, until we reach a point of perfectness and blessedness described by the term heaven. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ They do not believe in instantaneous regeneration, though they teach that there may be a turning point in the life of every man, when his attention is specially directed to religion. Conversion is only the commencement of religious effort. ”

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Source: Wikisource

T. B. Thayer, The American Cyclopædia (1879)

“ They uniformly reject the doctrine of the Trinity, making Christ subordinate to the Father. They believe that he is gifted with spirit and power above all other intelligences; that he is “God manifest in the flesh,” i. e., that God has displayed in him the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, as in no other being tabernacled in flesh ”

T. B. Thayer

Summary

Quotes from The American Cyclopædia (T. B. Thayer)

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