Charles Buck Theological Dictionary: ABYSS

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Charles Buck Theological Dictionary: ABYSS

Subjects in this Topic:

ABELIANS
ABESTA
ABILITY
ABLUTION
ABRAHAMITES
ABSOLUTION Signifies acquittal. It is taken also from that act whereby the priest declares the sins of such as are penitent remitted. The Romanists hold absolution a part of the sacrament of penance: and the council of Trent and that of Florence declare the form or essence of the sacrament to lie in the words of absolution. "I absolve thee "of thy sins." According to this, no one can receive absolution without the privity, consent and declaration of the priest; except, therefore, the priest be willing, God himself cannot pardon any man. This is a doctrine as blasphemous as it is ridiculous. The chief passage on which they ground their power of absolution is that in Joh_20:23 : "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." But this is not to the purpose; since this was a special commission to the apostles themselves, and the first preachers of the Gospel, and most probably referred to the power he gave them of discerning spirits. By virtue of this
ABSTEMII
ABSTINENCE
ABSTINENTS
ABYSS
ABYSSINIAN CHURCH
ACACIANS
ACADEMICS
ACCLAMATIONS
ACCOMMODATION OF SCRIPTURE
ACCURSED
ACEPHALI
ACOEMETAE
ACOLYTHI

In a general sense, denotes something profound; in its literal sense it signifies without a bottom; in a more particular sense it denotes a deep mass or fund of waters. In this last sense the word is used in the Septuagint for the water which God created at the beginning with the earth, which our translators render by deep. Thus it is that darkness is said to have been on the face of the abyss, Gen_1:2. Abyss is also used for an immense cavern in the earth wherein God is supposed to have collected all those waters on the third day, which in our version is rendered the seas, and elsewhere the great deep. Abyss is likewise used to denote the grave or common receptacle of the dead, Rom_10:7 : also hell, or the bottomless pit, Luk_8:31. Rev_9:1. Rev_11:7.

See DELUGE.