I. Bishop Courtenay—Wicked End in “Total Cessation of Being”

Bishop REGINALD COURTENAY, D.D. (fl. 1843-1865), of Kingston, Jamaica, is worthy of note because of his location in the Caribbean, in the Western World. He was an Oxford graduate, and when rector of Thornton Watlass, Yorkshire, issued a 430-page book called The Future States, ... on Principles Physical, Moral, and Scriptural. Typical quotations must suffice. First, the wicked are to be “extinguished for eternity“:
“Everyone certainly would wish to believe, were it possible, that the future state of the unrighteous, their ‘second death,’ was an utter destruction, total cessation of being. The mind naturally shrinks back appalled from the bare conception of hopeless eternal misery. And it has been observed, that many of the images employed in Scripture to pourtray [sic] the future punishment are such as would lead us to expect an annihilation. Thus the wicked are called ‘wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever;’—who shine, as it were, with baleful light for a time, to be extinguished for eternity.” ^{11) Reginald Courtenay, The Future States, Their Evidences and Nature Considered, on Principles Physical, Moral and Scriptural (1843), p. 352. The last sentence, in quotes, is from Archbishop Whately, of Dublin, from his Future State.}CFF2 379.2

The wicked will be utterly consumed, devoured, destroyed:
The image most commonly used is that of fire. Now fire both causes acute pain, and destroys or consumes that which is exposed to it. In which sense then is it used in Scripture? Is ‘everlasting fire’ a flame that torments for ever,—or a flame that utterly destroys There are certainly some reasons for preferring the latter sense. When, at the end of the world, God shall gather his wheat into his garner,—to be preserved, ‘He shall burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire;’ with a flame which cannot be extinguished, till the chaff has been utterly consumed. Such shall be the case also of the ‘tares,’ and of the ‘unprofitable branches.’ In like manner, as it would seem, God is called ‘a consuming fire.’ The Gehenna then, ‘where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,’ may mean, it would eem, a place of destruction, into which whatever is thrown shall be utterly devoured.” ^{22) Ibid., pp. 352, 353.}CFF2 380.1

There will be no deliverance, no revival, no restoration:
“Again, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be ‘suffering the vengeance of eternal fire:’ where it is certainly intended that fire which the Lord rained upon them of old, and which destroyed them utterly. Not the future ‘everlasting fire,’ for these cities, and their past fate, are ‘set forth for an ensample;’ as a warning to the ungodly of what they are to expect hereafter. The expressions ‘eternal death,’ and even ‘everlasting punishment’ might be interpreted, did the language of Scripture in other places allow it, in a similar manner. ‘They may mean merely that there shall be no deliverance, no revival, no restoration of the condemned.’” ^{33) Ibid., p. 353.}CFF2 380.2

Such were the bishop’s published beliefs.CFF2 380.3