Some of these terms are figurative and some of them are literal. In some instances it may be difficult to determine whether a term is literal or figurative, but in some it is not difficult. It is clear, however, that whatever terms are used, they all apply to the same things. Such a phrase as “beaten with many stripes,” we doubt not, is figurative, and so is “gnashing of teeth.” But “punishment” is literal, no matter in what it consists. No matter what term is applied to it, nor whether literal or figurative, the idea of “punishment” is always in it, always present. No matter _how_ they will be punished, what the means of punishment, or of what the punishment will consist, there is still the reality—the punishment. This is what the Lord calls “everlasting,”—“everlasting punishment.” See Matthew xxv. 46. “These shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal.” In the original we have the same word (_aionion_) for “eternal” and “everlasting.” In the same sentence the Lord uses the same word to express the duration of the punishment and the duration of the life of the righteous, and there is as much reason, and no more, for concluding that the “eternal life” shall terminate, as that the “everlasting punishment” of the wicked shall cease. At the same time that the righteous enter into life, the wicked “go away into everlasting punishment,” and the same word, in the same sentence, in the lips of our Lord, expresses the duration of both; and we have just as much respect for an expositor of Scripture that undertakes to prove that the state of glory shall cease to exist as for the expositor that undertakes to prove that the punishment shall cease to exist, no matter whether he be called Restorationist, Universalist, Soul-sleeper or what. The man that thinks of “eternal life” merely as eternal _conscious existence_, has no adequate conception of the meaning of the term. It is used to express the entire state of glory, with all that pertains to it. In the same sense the phrase “second death” is used to express the state of perdition, including all that is in it. The terms “saved” and “lost” are used in the same sense. “Saved” includes the entire inheritance of the saints; all they shall have and enjoy. “Lost” includes all that shall be inflicted on the condemned; the entire state and all that is in it. Mortality is never applied to the soul of man in Scripture, nor is immortality. We never read of a mortal or an immortal soul, nor of a soul being made mortal or immortal. Mortality and immortality are applied to the body and not to the soul. The body is mortal, but in the resurrection will be made immortal.