Essays on the recollections which are to subsist between earthly Friends reunited in the world to come

Chap. IV. The Testimony of the Scriptures continued, - - - - 35

Chap. V. On the Testimony supplied by the Scriptures in aid of the present Argument in their Representations of the Day of Judgement, ------ 61

Chap. VI. On Difficulties and Objections respecting the Scriptural Doctrine which has been developed, - - - 77

Chap. VII. Application of the Subject, - 85 viii CONTENTS.

ESSAY II.

On Attestations furnished in the Bible to its own Truth, by remarkable Omissions and Insertions, ----- 97

ESSAY III.

On the present State of Feeling between Calvinists and Anticalvinists ; and on the Combination of Calvinistic and Anticalvinistic Opinions, - - - - 154

ESSAY IV.

On the lawful Extent of Prophetical Enquiry, - - " - 192

ESSAY V.

On the Little Book of the Tenth Chapter of the Apocalypse, - - - - 21 5

ESSAY VI.

On our Lord's Predictions recorded in Matth. xxiv., Mark, xiii., Luke, xxi., - - 232

ESSAY VII.

On the Seventh Head of the Roman Wild Beast of the Apocalypse; and on the Eighth King, or Form of Government, - 259

ESSAY VIII.

Plain Proof to the Poor that the Bible is the Word of God, - - - - 32 7

ESSAY I.

ON THE RECOLLECTIONS WHICH ARE TO SUBSIST BETWEEN EARTHLY FRIENDS REUNITED IN THE WORLD TO COME.

Chap. I. Introductory View Of The Subject

X he question whether Christian friends, whose intercourse upon earth has been interrupted by the stroke of death, will renew their association in the heavenly kingdom of their Redeemer, and with mutual recollection of their past attach*, ment, and of its attendant circumstances, is not unfrequently proposed. It is an enquiry which flows from the warmest feelings of the heart; and frequently presents itself at seasons, when the en«

B o quirer is ill fitted to answer it to himself. When the spirit is wounded by separation from a beloved object recently borne to the grave ; the mourner, at the very time when he is the most anxious to discover whether reason has any suggestions worthy of confidence to offer, as to the probability of personal knowledge of individuals being prolonged into the eternal world, is the least able rightly to search out and to appreciate her deductions. When he asks, and with still more just solicitude, whether the gospel, which has brought life and immortality to light, has thrown a ray on'that particular portion of the condition of immortal life, with which his bosom is labouring: the more will he be in danger of being dazzled by delusive gleams darted from his own imagination, or of fearing to trust the light which meets his eyes in the pages of Holy Scripture. The hour of tranquillity is the season for sober deliberation and solid conclusions. A question often proposed must often have been answered. It is possible, and may be probable, that the main substance of every thing which can be brought forward upon the subject, may already have been at different times advanced by different writers. A work, however, designed, by the assemblage and consideration of circumstances respecting futurity, to give comfort to persons under affliction on the death of friends, and including a comprehensive selection of the sentiments expressed directly or incidentally on the topic before us by various authors, many of them persons of eminence as divines, partly in sermons, partly in dissertations, is in my hands. * Without detracting from the merit either of the volume collectively, or of the individuals from whose publica-

# The volume is entitled, "' Sermons and Extracts consolatory on the loss of Friends;" 2d. edit, printed for Hatchard and Son, London, 1819. It contains selections from the works of Archbishops Tillotson and Wake ; Bishops Bull, Home, Green, and Porteus ; Dr. Paley, Dr. Maclaine, Dr. Doddridge, and other distinguished writers. Two Sermons of my own, which are honoured by the unknown compiler with a place among the rest, contain little relating to the particular subject of the present treatise.

B 2 tions it has been compiled, it may be observed that, by no one of the writers, taken singly, has the particular question which I propose to examine been discussed with the fulness which it admits and deserves; and that there are arguments and views connected with it which appear to have been overlooked by all.

The proposed enquiry may commodiously be regarded as dividing itself into two distinct branches.

L The presumptions which reason, whether by its natural powers, or as enlightened by the general truths of the Christian revelation, may suggest,

II. The conclusions which may appear to be incidentally involved in passages of Scripture remotely bearing on the subject ; or to be implied or affirmed in passages, of which the bearing is close and direct upon it.

Chap. II. On The Presumptions Suggested By Reason

In researches concerning the suggestions of reason upon any given subject, the concurrence of general opinion among mankind is deemed to be entitled to considerable weight. The unanimity, or the near approach to it, usually testifies that the tenet thus recognized accords with appearances presented to universal observation ; or that it harmonizes with reflections naturally excited by the topic of enquiry. If nations, dwellers in different ages, in different climates, and at still more widely separated points in the scale of civilization, have been found united in a common persuasion that a Divinity exists ; the fact is admitted into its place among the attestations to the being of a God. However extravagant may be the absurdities, however gross the superstitions, however multifarious the idolatries, b 3 however base and detestable the practical abominations, with which the persuasion is accompanied ; its testimony to the general truth is not impaired. If in every part of the world, and among all known generations, past and present, of its inhabitants, and with no exception unless it is to be traced in some tribe depressed by barbarism almost to the level of the brute animals of the wilderness, the mind recoils from the idea of annihilation ; the fact is accepted among the presumptions of the destined immortality of the soul. Of whatever kind may be the fancied region which the savage or the philosopher may assign to departed spirits ; in whatever occupations ignorance, whether more or less speculative, may employ the dead; through whatever changes and transmigrations it may ordain them to pass ; the support of the testimony to the probability of a future state is unshaken.

Now, it seems to be indubitably true, that, in all periods, nations, in looking forward to a state of existence beyond the grave, have connected with that state the expectation of renewed and conscious intercourse with their earthly companions, and even of association with individuals unseen by themselves in the present life. If Socrates delighted himself in the prospect of conversing with Orpheus and Musaeus, and Hesiod and Homer ; if Cicero exulted in the anticipated reunion with Cato amidst the assembly of the great and good \ if the Greeks and the Romans peopled their Tartarus and their Elysium with spirits retaining all their ancient remembrances ; the sentiment of the untutored heathen is similar at this day. The mother, in the islands of the Pacific, mourning for her children, comforts herself with the belief that after her own death she shall rejoin them. The Gentoo widow burns that she may be replaced with her husband. Why does the Indian of North America stretch his hand with joy towards the unknown world beyond the summits of the blue mountains ? It is because he is confident that the chase of the bear and the elk, and the pursuit of the ancient enemies of his tribe, will there be renewed b 4 by him in the society of his contemporary and kindred chieftains, and in conjunction with the spirits of his fathers. And what if he also deem that,

" Admitted to that equal sky, " His faithful dog shall bear him company?' 7

The artless and characteristic addition detracts not from the earnestness of his desire to be united with the deceased warriors of his race ; nor from the fulness of his conviction that he shall be their associate.

In the concurrence, then, so nearly universal of mankind in the persuasion, that the personal and mutual knowledge of individuals will be extended into a future world ; we have a presumption, suggested by reason, in support of that opinion.

The belief of a future state, when once it is established in the mind, naturally suggests the conclusion that the present life, and that to which we look forward, are not two unconnected and unallied conditions of existence ; but that the antecedent period of being is appointed as a preparation for that which is to follow* Spring is evidently ordained and calculated to be the introduction to summer, summer to autumn, infancy to childhood, childhood to youth, youth to manhood. If the omnipotent Creator and all-wise Disposer of our lot has now placed us in this earthly province of his universal empire, and with a settled and known determination on his part, however communicated to man, that in due time we shall be transferred into another portion of his kingdom ; reason decisively guides and impels us to the conviction that in this prior stage of the progress there are qualities to be cultivated, and habits to be formed, which shall be developed and matured and brought to their perfect exercise in that future abode where we are to dwell for ever. Whatever may be the earthly qualities and habits which reason would indicate as designed for perpetuity j an early place in the catalogue would be appropriated to those which constitute human friendships. Hence one of the earliest presumptions of reason respecting futurity would be infavour of a gracious inb 5 tention on the part of the Supreme Being, that virtuous friendships should be revived beyond the grave ; and with the endearing consciousness that the attachments had commenced upon earth.

There seems also, on the natural principles of reason, enlightened by the general truths of the gospel, no slight foundation for the presumption, that persons who have been trained together on earth in the doctrines of one common faith, who have dwelt in habitual intercourse as servants of one common Redeemer, are not destined hereafter to meet as strangers in the mansions of their Father's house. They have walked together in the earthly temple of God as friends. They have been fellowsoldiers under the Captain of their salvation. They have fought, side by side, under his banner, the good fight of faith. They have pursued, under the guidance of his Spirit, the same path of holy obedience. They have been rendered, under the hand of Providence, instrumental each to the other in Christian edification. They have been fellow-members of that kingdom of God which is begun on earth and is to be perfected in heaven. When this mortal shall have put on immortality, when they shall have been translated from this preparatory scene of existence into the immediate presence of their Saviour j will it be that they shall lose all recollections of their former Christian fellowship, and of its accompanying events and sympathies ? Surely that would be a conclusion, which, if the irrefragable authority of revelation does not command men to adopt it, may be regarded as deeply marked with the characters of antecedent improbability.

The moral and religious faculties of the mind which, as means employed by the sanctifying spirit of God, render men conformed on earth, according to the humble measure of human attainment, to the Divine image, and are the grand sources of happiness in earthly friendships, are not to be disjoined from the soul on its separation from the body. Not only will they survive the stroke of death j but they will be so purified, so exalted, as to be the essential instruments of blessb 6 edness to glorified spirits. Hence arises an additional presumption that the exercise of these faculties in the heavenly intercourse which shall subsist between glorified individuals who had previously been associates in this lower world, will not be debarred from the heightenings of happiness, which would result from the consciousness of antecedent endearing ties. To compare the actual state of those faculties in the world above, their strength, their expansiveness, their purity, their sanctity, with the narrow limits and the feeble and sullied powers permited to them in the region of mortality ; to contrast the immeasurable acquisitions of knowledge and of blessedness, opened and opening to them throughout eternity, with the slender attainments which could be reaped on earth ; may well be a lasting source of mutual gratulation, may well be a cherished accession of felicity, to the spirits of just men made perfect.

IS

Chap. III

ON THE PRESUMPTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES RESPECTING THE SUBJECT UNDER EXAMINATION.

Of the passages in the word of God* which appear applicable to the present enquiry, some have a more direct and powerful bearing on it than others. While there are some which remotely indicate or corroborate the conclusion, to which the deductions of reason have pointed in the preceding chapter; there are others so strong and explicit, that each of them might almost seem individually sufficient to decide the question. That justice, however, may be fully rendered to the subject, and as different readers are variously impressed by different forms and grounds of argument ; it is requisite that the passages of either description should be brought forward. But no citation will be given, which is not, in my apprehension, fairly relevant.

The passages to be produced from the Scriptures, will be arranged and examined one by one. The relevancy of each to the subject of our investigation ; and, if the relevancy be admitted, the degree of force which the passage possesses, may thus be the more satisfactorily developed for the consideration of the reader. And if there be any passage which he may finally deem irrelevant, it may be dismissed by him without injury to the rest.

2 Samuel xii. 22, 23.

And he said ; " While the child was " yet alive, I fasted and wept : for I said, " who can tell whether God will be gra- " cious to me, that the child may live ? " But, now he is dead, wherefore should " I fast? Can I bring him back again? " I shall go to him ; but he shall not return to me."

These words of David may be underwood in two different ways. They may be taken either as a simple declaration of the Psalmist, that in due time he should be consigned, like his departed offspring, to the sepulchre; or as an averment of his conviction that he should rejoin and recognize his child in a future world. If the first meaning be all that is implied in them, they have no connection with the present enquiry. If the second be their real signification, they convey to us the judgement of David on the subject. That the latter signification is implied in them fully or exclusively, is rendered highly probable, if not absolutely certain, by the following considerations. The king, according to the preceding part of the chapter, had exhibited the most poignant anguish in anticipating the death of his son. The event took place. At once David not only discontinued the religious exercises adopted under a glimmering of hope that, in pity to his sufferings, and in acceptance of his contrition, the declared purpose of his offended God that the child should not recover might be shown to have been conditional, and might graciously be recalled; but displayed a tranquillity, nay, even a cheerfulness of deportment, which denoted solid consolation within, and excited the astonishment and the enquiries of his attendants. Whence could the consolation arise ? Not from the bare recollection of the fact that ultimately he also should die. The child whom he had lost, was not, on that assount, lost to him the less. But suppose the father to cherish a firm conviction, that by death he should be reunited to his son; and all is intelligible and accordant. The ground of the comfort is clear ; the expression of it, natural and appropriate.

Still it may be replied, that, admitting the validity of these observations, we are presented merely with the individual opinion of David. It is true. It is also true, that, although David was largely gifted with inspiration, it would be too much for us to conclude that every opinion, even on a solemn occasion, which might be incidentally recorded in the Scriptures as pronounced by him, was the dictate of the Holy Ghost. Yet it seems no irrational supposition, that the declaration of his judgement on a general question, so interesting not only to himself, but to all men in every age, should be one of the occasions, on which he spoke under the guidance of the Spirit of God. And that supposition furnishes a more strong and pointed explanation than otherwise might be obvious, why the transaction was inserted by the sacred writer.

" When this corruptible shall have put " on incorruption, and this mortal shall " have put on immortality ; then shall " be brought to pass the saying that is u written, Death is swallowed up in " victory. O Death, where is thy sting? " O grave, where is thy victory? The " sting of Death is sin ; and the strength of " sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, " who giveth us the victory through our " Lord Jesus Christ."

The consequences of sin form the sting of death ; produce the victory of the grave. One of these consequences, established by the law of God, which enacts death and its results as the penalty for transgression, is the separation of relative from relative, of friend from friend. If men had not sinned, the union of earthly attachments would have been unbroken and immortal. . If the victory to be conferred on the redeemed by their Redeemer is to be complete ; must not all the consequences of sin be terminated and annulled? Must not all lost privileges be restored? Must not the association of human friendships, with all their endearing consciousnesses and recollections, be replaced on the basis on which it would have rested for ever, if the ruin of man by the fall had not been effected ?

The preceding line of argument is justly deemed forcible, when applied to the resurrection of the body. Whatever happiness in a future world might be granted to the souls of the righteous; yet, were not the body rescued from the grave, death would remain in possession of a part of its prey, sin would triumph in a part of its consequences unrepealed. This corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality, to render the victory purchased by the Son of God for his servants complete. The reasoning appears cogent also in the case to which it has been applied in the present article.

Matthew, xxvii. 5% 53.

" And the graves were opened, and " many bodies of saints which slept " arose ; and came out of the graves " after his resurrection, and went into " the holy city, and appeared unto * many."

Whether the bodies of righteous men thus delivered from the tomb by our Lord, as he arose triumphant from the dead, relapsed into dust, when, by their appearance to numbers of their former associates in Jerusalem, they had sufficiently attested his victory ; or were exalted by Him to heaven, as honoured fruits and evidences of his resurrection; is a question with which, in the present enquiry, we are not necessarily concerned. Put the less probable supposition, that they slept again. Is it then to be expected that these holy men, when they shall be reunited for ever in the mansions of bliss, will be deprived of all remembrance that they were distinguished by their Redeemer from among the general mass of the dead as the first-fruits of his harvest, as the first trophies of his conquest ? Is it to be expected that their righteous friends at Jerusalem, to whom they were permitted to manifest themselves, shall possess no recollection of their own extraordinary privilege in being rendered the objects and witnesses of the re-appearance of their departed associates? Is it credible that no such recollection, no joyful interchange of communications springing from such recollection, shall take place, when the individuals to whom the manifestation was made, and they who had been restored to life for the purpose of being so manifested, shall be through eternity companions in glory, and partakers of the presence of that Redeemer who had bestowed the memorable privileges ? And can we suppose that the righteous men to whom the prefixed quotation from St. Matthew's gospel relates, shall be the only righteous men who shall preserve human recollections? Does not the inference reasonably extend itself to all the spirits of the righteous ?

If we assume, not that the bodies of the saints raised at the resurrection of our Lord experienced a merely transient reprieve from the power of the grave, and were then returned to its prison, but that they were rescued from its dominion as immediate and permanent proofs of the Redeemer's triumph over death : to suppose that these saints were subsequently deprived of all remembrance of their early resurrection, and of the cause of it, and of the accompanying and succeeding circumstances, would be still more evidently in the face of all probability.

" Ye — have received the law by the " disposition of angels/'

Galatians, iii. 19.

" The law was ordained by angels in " the hand of a mediator."

1 Cor. iv. 9.

" We are made a spectacle— to " angels."

Matt, xviii. 10.

" 1 say unto you, that in heaven their

" angels do always behold the face of " my Father who is in heaven." Luke, xv. 10.

" Likewise I say unto you ; there is " joy in the presence of the angels of " God over one sinner that repenteth." Luke, xii. 8, 9.

" Also I say unto you, whosoever " shall confess me before men, him shall " the Son of man also confess before the " angels of God. But he that denieth " me before men, shall be denied before " the angels of God."

Luke, xx. 36.

" Neither can they die any more ; for " they are equal unto the angels." Heb. xii. 22.

" Ye are come — unto the city of the " living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, " and to an innumerable company of " angels."

" Are not they all ministering spirits, " sent forth to minister for them who " shall be heirs of salvation ?"

The argument under the present article will be of an analogical nature. The prefixed passages are adduced to show the intimate interest, which, under the appointment of God, the holy angels have ever taken, and will ever continue to take, in the welfare of men individually ; and the permanent and blessed association which is to subsist in heaven between the angels and the righteous. Is it not then in the highest degree probable that, in the heavenly intercourse between particular angels and the very persons respecting whom their ministrations had been specially employed, those persons should be enabled to know that their present associates had been their unseen and guardian protectors through the trials and dangers of mortality ; and that gratitude on one side and encreased attachment on both sides should thus be augmentations of bliss throughout eternity ? Nay, to put the case of some single ministration : When the shepherds of Bethlehem shall be, as we trust that we may deem them already, the glorified companions of the hosts of heaven who announced to them the nativity of the incarnate Son of God j shall there be no recognition, no communication, no rapturous interchange of remembrance respecting that mission of tidings of great joy, between the angelic messengers who conveyed the intelligence, and the favoured individuals who received it? Shall not those individuals possess recollections of that message from above? And shall not each of them also know his earthly companions of that memorable night, now that they are standing by him in glory ; and recognize them as having been fellow-partakers with himself in the privilege of the miraculous revelation that a Saviour was born ? And does not the analogy extend to mutual recollections and recognitions in all the spirits of the righteous ?

John, xii. 26. a If any man serve me, let him follow " me ; and where I am, there shall also " my servant be."

John, xiv. 2, 3.

" In my Father's house are many

c < mansions : if it were not so, I would

" have told you. I go to prepare a place

" for you. And if I go and prepare a

* place for you, I will come again and '* receive you unto myself; that, where I " am, there ye may be also."

John, xv. 11.

" These things have I spoken unto " you, that my joy might remain in you, " and that your joy might be full."

John, xvii. 24.

" Father, I will that they also whom " Thou hast given me be with me where " I am, that they may behold my glory 4t which Thou hast given me ; for Thou " lovedst me before the foundation of « the world."

I bring these passages together, because they all manifestly relate to one subject, and concur in suggesting and in supporting an observation important to the present enquiry. The observation which appears deducible from them is this : Their language is exactly such as might have been anticipated on the supposition, that the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ were hereafter to be for ever reunited before Him and with Him into one great family ; and with the possesc sion of their earthly recollections as to their Lord, and as to the intercourse which in their mortal state subsisted between themselves and that Great Redeemer, and mutually between each of them with the rest of their number. With any other supposition, the language will not easily and naturally accord. Assume that our Lord, when he had pronounced the passages which have been quoted, had subjoined to them a declaration to the following effect : " Do not, however, imagine, O " ye my apostles and attendants, that " when ye shall be re-assembled in my " heavenly kingdom to behold and to " share my glory, throughout eternity, " ye shall retain any remembrance that " ye have been companions upon earth " and fellow-labourers in my service. " Me ye shall be enabled individually to " recognize ; but not one another. Thou, " my beloved disciple John, shalt recol- " lect that thy brother James, and Peter, " and Andrew, and others, were thy daily " associates in the work of the ministry ; «< but thou shalt not be conscious in

" heaven that they are standing in glory " at thy side. So likewise shall it be u with all the rest. Henceforth so long " as the world shall last, let no one who " shall embrace my gospel dream that in * the world to come he shall recognize iC any of my servants, who were dear to " him below." Would not this declaration, as combined with the precedingpassages, have been received with extreme surprise ? Could it be regarded otherwise than as pointedly opposite to the expectation, which they must obviously excite ?

Ephes. iii. 14, 15,

" I bow my knees unto the Father of " our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the " whole family in heaven and earth is " named. "

This passage is produced for the sake of the term family, which is here applied by the apostle as a descriptive expression^ comprehending the already departed servants of God, as well as those who should subsequently be added from the earth to the holy assemblage above. The word c 2

<28

answers with accuracy to the original term Trargia, which denotes a collection of persons descended from a common father, and is elsewhere rendered (Luke, ii. 4.) " lineage" and (Acts, iii. 25.) " kindred." The expression presents to the mind a body of relatives in the reciprocal and full enjoyment of intimate recollections and sympathies : and thus corroborates the inference recently drawn from parts of the Gospel of St, John.

" They which shall be accounted worthy u to obtain thatworld,andtheresurrection u from the dead, are equal unto the an- " gels ; and are the children of God, " being the children of the resurrec- " tion."

Matt. xxv. 34.

" Come, ye blessed children of my " Father, inherit the kingdom prepared xt for you from the foundation of the " world."

" The Spirit itself beareth witness with *' our spirit, that we are the children of

" God: and if children, then heirs, heirs u of God and joint heirs with Christ. For " the earnest expectation of the creature " waiteth for the manifestation of the sons " of God; because the creature itself also " shall be delivered from the bondage of " corruption into the glorious liberty of " the children of God."

Scriptural instances, too numerous to be cited, or to stand in need of specific reference, occur, in which the phrases, the children of God, the sons of God, the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, are applied to persons, individually, or collectively, who are sincere followers of righteousness. In the quotations from the Gospels of St. Matthew and of St. Luke, and from the Epistle to the Romans, placed at the head of the present article, such titles are applied to the righteous, viewed collectively, as united after death in the kingdom of heaven. These appellations obviously tend to confirm the remarks which have been offered in the two preceding articles.