The future states...

Preface

TT1HE following work having been for some years out of publication, in consequence of the retirement of the publisher, and the absence of the author from England, is again offered to the world, four-and-twenty years after it was first designed, under the deliberate conviction that it sets forth moral and scriptural truths which, though not essential to our Christian faith, are yet of no light importance ; and that it may, through the Divine blessing, tend to the Divine glory, by representing, not unfaithfully, yet in stronger and darker colours than usual, the true condition of man, if without the mediation of Christ, and a knowledge of His Gospel. Time has not changed the writer's belief, that the soul of man is naturally mortal — being, when separate from the body, naturally incapable of independent consciousness ; that without the Redeemer, it can have no life, and that, even through the Redeemer, it has none until the Day of Redemption. He cannot accept the popular notion, that ^the saints which

PREFACE, sleep" are all awake, and that "the dead" are now alive.

To those who think otherwise, — whether because they judge the above-stated views to be opposed to the language of Holy Scripture, or to the belief of the primitive Church, or to physical or moral truths, — he can but suggest the perusal of the work itself.

On one subject only, — a question of the interpretation of certain unfulfilled prophecies, the author would wish to modify, and partially retract (as he has indeed in some measure done already in the Appendix to page 377) an opinion formerly maintained. There are not a few persons who suppose, that the soul of a believer, upon its separation from the body, is immediately in a heavenly state, with Christ and the holy angels, and the saints of all former generations ; and that, secondly, at the commencement of the Millennium, the body being reunited to the soul, it lives and reigns with Christ, on the present earth, in greater glory still ; and that, in the third place, having, at the expiration of this thousand years of triumph, been put upon its trial, and solemnly "judged out of the things written in the books," and ascertained to be " found written in the Book of Life," it enters upon its final and eternal condition.

PREFACE.

Thus are two intermediate states, possibly of many thousand years' duration, interposed between the present world, and that promised in the closing pages of the Divine revelation.

The second of these supposed intermediate states, it is thought, will be preceded by a general conversion of the Jews, and the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, and all the saints without exception, — of whom those who are of the seed of Abraham shall occupy the land of Israel, enjoying the visible presence and personal government of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Persuaded that these anticipations will not be realised, the writer has endeavoured to show that all the Divine promises to Abraham and his seed will be fulfilled in a heavenly Canaan, after the present heavens and earth have passed away. This interpretation of prophecy he would now so far retract, as to admit that a conversion of the Jewish people to the Christian faith, and their consequent restoration to the land whence they have been banished, will precede the Millennium : a retractation, however, in no wise affecting the main positions, that " it is appointed unto men once to die ; and after that — the judgment :" and that not until the judgment can they, unless in rare and exceptional cases, " enter into Life Eternal."

PREFACE.

For the rest, the writer's convictions remain unchanged. Many Catholic Christians, men learned and wise, men holy and " taught of God," will differ from him in opinion, and that widely. But these differences are of comparatively little moment, if only, through Divine grace, we are able, when our flesh and our hearts are failing, to resign our souls without fear into the hands of Him, who holds the keys of Hades and of Death.

Contents

Page

Introduction 1

Book I. The Physical Evidences Of A Future Life

Chap.

I. On the Dependence of the Human Mind on the

Body; and on Sleep 22

II. The Dependence of the Mind upon the Brain 38

III. The Body no Impediment to the Mind 51

IV. The Utility of the Body in Mental Processes 72

V. The Argument from the Indivisibility of Mind.... 75

VI. The Argument from Man's physical Superiority 97

VII. Conclusion and Recapitulation 105

Note. In the work, Chapters IV. V. VI. VII. are numbered V. VI. VII. VIII.

Book II. The Moral Evidences Of A Future Life

I. Introductory 116

II. Sentiments of the Heathen on Natural Religion 131

III. On the Arguments for Immortality founded upon

the Sufferance of Evil 153

IV. The Argument for Immortality, from the Great-

ness of human Desires 188

V. The Argument from the Perfectibility of the Species 209

VI. The Argument from Moral Derangement 216

Book III. The Future States As Revealed In Scripture

1. Introductory 225

II. Immortality begun in Spiritual Life 231 viii CONTENTS.

Chap. Page

III. On the Intermediate State 239

IV. The Intermediate State, continued 259

V. The Intermediate State, continued 291

VI. The Intermediate State, concluded 332

VII. The Day of Judgement 341

VIII. The Future State of Punishment 348

IX. The New Heavens and Earth 360

X. General Conclusion 385

ERRATA.

Page 23, line 1, for as read is. •

117, line 2 from bottom, for any other counteracting read any

counteracting effect. 346, line 3 from bottom, for become lost read beware lest.

THE FUTURE STATES, THEIR EVIDENCES AND NATURE,

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

WE are commanded, in one brief sentence of Scripture, to " try all tilings," and " to hold fast to that which is good ;" and experience has shown, upon a very extensive scale, at once the practical difficulty and the importance of reconciling the two precepts. It has been found, that minds habituated to a free range of speculation sometimes acquire a fatal inclifferency in religious matters ; and are inconstant even to approved objects of belief. They are anxious to hear what can be said on all sides of all subjects, but indifferent about conclusions. Others are anxious for a conclusion, indifferent about its premises : clinging too eagerly and blindly to what they imagine to be true, without a sufficiently candid examination of other things, they become incapable of expanded views, and are attached to error more frequently than to truth. In the eastern world, from China to the shores of the Caspian, are to be found nations which have from century to century, with little vacillation, held each to its own particular form of error ; while

B

Introduction

on the opposite side of the globe, beyond the Atlantic, men hold fast to no forms of doctrine whatever, and may sometimes be seen to exchange, without compunction, a creed nearly apostolic for some extravagant invention of a presumptuous philosophy, — because, perhaps, the arguments and the eloquence of the controversial preachers whom they have followed were at length exhausted, or they happened, for some trivial reason, to change their place of worship.

Thus, through frequent changing, do many minds become, in process of time, incapable of a really firm faith. No doctrine can be so fully expounded to them, and enforced by such a weight of moral evidence, but that they will soon be ready to ask, Can any one show us a doctrine more probable than this ? They are never more highly interested, than when an effort is made to shake the foundations of their belief, and propose to their view opinions new, startling, incongruous. The Church history of Europe furnishes similar instances, though the extreme opinions are not so far apart, to those of Asia and North America. The Romanists have failed to escape from those errors of doctrine to which every church is liable through the corruption of human nature, in consequence of their neglecting the command to try all things, while they professed to hold fast to that which was good; and Protestants have fallen into error, even into fatal heresies, in consequence of their neglecting to hold fast the truth, while they sought to try all things.

INTRODUCTION.

Arid even within the Anglican Church are two parties, which charge each other with neglecting the one or the other branch of the twofold apostolic precept.

But the difficulty of reconciling a sufficiently impartial exercise of reason, with an entire readiness to adopt as an article of faith whatever appears to be, in fact, declared by the infallible word of God, would be much diminished, if men would remember that every point of doctrine which the mind has once tried, and found to bear the impress of Scriptural truth,* is to be adopted and held fast before it is tried again ; that though speculation is not forbidden, it must not be allowed to loosen the hold of truth which the mind has taken, upon a fair examination of testimony.

If such a doctrine as that of the future states be first cordially believed in and embraced on the authority of the Scriptures, which expressly declare their existence, and partially reveal their

* The writer would not be understood to say, that each mind must rely solely on its own powers ; for this, even in temporal matters, would often be a presumptuous and a dangerous course ; but that the ultimate reference should be to Scripture only : that aid should be sought, from every available quarter, though authority should be appealed to in none, in determining whether Scripture does, or does not, unequivocally lay down the doctrine in question. Many will dissent from this position ; but happily those truths respecting a future life, in which Christians are most interested, are laid down in the Bible in general terms, so plainly that he who runs may read and understand ; and there is no need to appeal to another authority, if such there be.

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nature, many speculations on this profoundly interesting topic become not only safe, but serviceable to the cause of truth, which, had they been entered upon before the mind had taken a firm hold of the Gospel, might have tended to keep the truth back. One who from childhood to middle age had been accustomed to travel from country to country, without a permanent home to be the object of hope or regret, — who had been early familiarized to barbarous as well as to more civilized society, would probably become incapable of strong attachment to a particular spot ; and if towards the close of his days he settled at all, would be not unlikely to prefer a semi-barbarous people, and a mode of life of which enlightened men cannot approve. But if he had been educated in a home in which he became accustomed to the refined pleasures of civilized life, it is probable that no subsequent wanderings would endanger his well grounded attachment to his native country and his birthplace. It is well that men should be prejudiced, to a certain degree, in favour of these ; and should not lightly change their place of abode, and transfer their feelings of patriotism to another country ; but it is also well that they should entertain no blind attachment, and there may be circumstances in which a change would be both expedient and truly philosophic. And so it is in religion, with this only difference, affecting the relative duties of holding fast and of trying, that the Creator would have men be all of one

INTRODUCTION.

religion, though not all of one country. It is well for a man to be attached to the creed of his forefathers, and not desert it merely because the creeds on the face of the earth are many ; but well also that he should be open to conviction of error. And the same observation applies to creeds in general ; and also to those smaller matters of belief which are contained in the creeds, but are not essential parts of them.

These remarks may assist in showing that reason, when employed in the trial of opinions on any matter connected with Revelation, is better employed in illustrating truths previously admitted on that authority, than in recommending or introducing Revelation as of its own authority. We know the Revelation to be true ; — this book is not designed for those who would call it in question, — and philosophy undertakes a dangerous task, when it voluntarily loosens its hold of that which has been tried and approved to be good, for the purpose of showing some new principle upon which it may be embraced. Men's minds may be unsettled by such endeavours to convince them, and they may be induced either to doubt of the truths revealed, or take up inaccurate notions concerning them, and such as Scripture would never have suggested.

Thus does religion suffer from an indiscreet use of philosophy. And if religion does not suffer any detriment, it will be often found that philosophy is brought into disrepute. It is true that there are many and strong analogies be-

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tween the system of Nature and that of Revelation ; but religion teaches us that the Works of God, and among them the mind and heart of man, are not as at first, very good, and like the Word that created them, and " answering His great idea ;" but that the earth was cursed for man's sake when he fell, and that the system of Christian theology is remedial ; and we should not, therefore, wonder if there be things on earth not analogous to things in heaven ; and if human philosophy should on some questions prove either utterly inefficient to determine any thing ; or, if a conclusion be extorted from it, adverse to the Word of God*

In the opinion of the writer, no part of Revelation has suffered more from the indiscretions of philosophy, than that which declares the future states of happiness and misery. There is a very strong tendency in many modern writings on theological subjects, to convert or at least endeavour to convert every fact which observation can discover, whether in the physical or in the moral world, into an Evidence of Religion. And it is probable that this might be done with success, if men, in seeking to reconcile reason with Scrip-

* Reason is decidedly adverse, for instance, to the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Much confusion is created in some minds by contrasting Reason and Revelation. When we speak of any Revelation being opposed to Reason, we must mean, to the conclusion to which our Reason would have come, had that Revelation never been made to us. Once made, the Revelation should be the basis of all subsequent reasoning.

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ture, would remember that discord has been introduced into the world — that the unregenerate is the natural state of man — and that Scripture contains threats as well as promises. For hence we might be led to expect that the constitution of the natural man would contain indications rather of his future condition without, than with, salvation by Christ. Natural theology is not necessarily, nor is it in fact, concordant with Christian theology : and there are many truths discoverable by reason, which prove only that man is in a state of degradation and corruption, and has, as^ it were, strayed away into the gloomy dominions of an evil power, and become an alien and an enemy of God. But these melancholy truths have been too often overlooked in philosophical writings ; and endeavours have been made to show that the world inhabited by fallen man, and cursed for his sake, does, in fact, contain nothing of death, — that its sting may be taken away without a knowledge of Christ, — that the whole universe testifies to a blissful immortality reserved for the human race. That such an immortality is reserved for the followers of Christ, is indeed a glorious truth, and one to which some testimony is afforded even by things in this fallen world : but in Scripture another state also is revealed, of perpetual death, if not of perpetual misery also, of which many things in this world afford a previously intelligible indication, or at least a strong confirmation. "Natural Religion," it has been finely observed by Dr. Chalmers, " has

INTRODUCTION.

been called the basis of Christianity. It would better accord with our own views of the place which it occupies, and of the high purpose which it undoubtedly serves — if it were called the basis of Christianization. * * As a prompter to inquiry it is of inestimable service, but as an informer little to be trusted. * * Christianity rests on its own proper evidence ; and, if instead of this, she be made to rest on an antecedent natural religion, she becomes weak throughout, because weak radically."

Accordingly we should endeavour to trace the consistency of Revelation not with that view of nature which we might have been inclined to take beforehand ; but with that view which the Revelation itself points out to be the most just and true. Whoever will enter on the contemplation of nature with the Bible in his hand, will obtain a key to the solution of difficulties which else would have been altogether insurmountable. A firm faith in the Word of God will enable him to discern in His Works relations before unobserved, and harmonies before unsuspected. Any one who was proceeding to examine the construction of a complicated piece of machinery, would find his examination greatly facilitated by his being previously informed of the purpose for which the machine was made.

But philosophy is too often employed, and with pernicious effect, not in recommending, nor in illustrating, but in seeking to establish revelation ; — to show that the fundamental doc-

INTRODUCTION.

trines of Scripture are all highly probable and reasonable, and such as we should, beforehand, naturally expect to find them. The ambition of modern theologians, and their desire to avoid all imputations of illiberality, in assuming, on the authority of the Bible, whatever they could not show to be antecedently probable, has often induced them to take up this untenable position : and it seems to have been tacitly assumed by both parties, in many a theological controversy, that the leading truths of religion were to be supported, as on their strongest and broadest basis, by modern physical discoveries. But, whoever seeks to prevail against any stronghold of infidelity, and to plant there the banner of Revelation, must arm himself for the conflict in the whole armour of God; or notwithstanding the goodness of his cause, he will have no security against defeat.

Dr. Butler has devoted a considerable part of the first chapter of his Analogy of Religion — one of the earliest, and unquestionably the greatest of the works which show the extent of relation between the visible world and the world known to us by reason, or by faith — to the proving that the phenomena of death furnish no reasonable presumption against the doctrine of a future life. And in so far as he has confined himself to such arguments as tend to show that the continuance of life and consciousness is by no means impossible, he has done some service to the cause of truth. But when he ventures further than this,

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endeavouring to establish the doctrine of immortality on grounds independent of Revelation, and to " prove it to a very considerable degree of probability" he takes up a position which, if the principles maintained in the first two books of this work are not incorrect, is altogether untenable. A numerous train of minor theologians have since taken the same path, each confidently advancing his favourite philosophical demonstration of an eternity of happiness reserved for the human race, and addressing himself to readers who were too well satisfied with his conclusion to be much concerned about the method by which it was, ostensibly, made out. But this is an abuse of philosophy, which is calculated to bring into disrepute truths of infinitely higher value than any which philosophy can make known. When the theologian, not content with establishing out of the Bible the certainty of those things wherein he has been instructed, quits his impregnable fortress, to be defeated, as surely he may be, on the neutral ground of human philosophy, the sceptic, giving him credit for greater prudence than he has actually exercised, may imagine that one of the strongest positions whence to defend the truth has proved unserviceable. " My adversary," he may argue, " would not have abandoned his texts for weapons of man's forging, had he not been sensible that the contest, after all, must mainly depend upon their aid."

There is perhaps no doctrine of the Christian religion, not even the fundamental doctrine of the

INTRODUCTION.

unity of the Godhead, of which reason can find a demonstration, capable of effecting that complete conviction, which the records of Revelation produce in a philosophically humble mind.* The doctrine of man's immortality, in particular, as it is laid down in Scripture, is utterly beyond the reach of unassisted reason. This, it is hoped, that the following pages will fully prove. Neither the certainty of a future and everlasting life, nor the resurrection of the body which is essential to it, nor the conditions requisite for its attainment, are discoverable by the powers of man. Scripture declares that the future life will be a life of soul and body. And strange indeed it is, that any natural theologians should suppose themselves to be rendering an important service to the cause of revealed truth, in arguing in favour of the survival, after the dissolution of the body, of a disembodied soul. By such ill directed endeavours to support the cause of truth, endeavours as unsuccessful, if the present writer is not deceived, in their immediate object, as in their ulterior purpose, they have given to the question of the probability or possibility of a separate consciousness an importance which did not properly belong to it ; and have rendered it well worth while to re-examine arguments much in vogue, and which to many minds appear to affect the truth of Revelation. In fact, such arguments are beside the purpose ; they can have no influence upon the mind of a

* See Appendix.

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sceptic, whether in themselves conclusive or not. His main objection to this part of the scheme of Revelation attaches to the doctrine of a corporeal resurrection ; nor is he brought one step nearer to a belief in this, by any however plausible demonstration of the natural immortality of mind. And whoever, on the other hand has, by the word of God, been brought to believe in a resurrection, will have no apprehension lest mind should be mortal : for resurrection itself implies a renewal of consciousness. " The doctrine concerning what is called the immateriality of the soul," says the author of " The Physical Theory of another Life," "should ever be treated as a merely philosophical speculation, and as unimportant to our Christian profession."*

But the probability of a future state may be rested upon moral grounds, without any reference to the nature of the soul. The question then will be, whether from what we know, without Revelation, of the character of the Deity, of the constitution and condition of man, and of the ends for which each individual was called into being ; f there is a probability that his Creator will place him in another world, upon his departure from the present. This question is not, like

* Physical Theory. Chap. I.

f Each individual : for it is plain that, perhaps those generations only need live again, in whom the scheme of terrestrial progress is brought to perfection ; and for whom, as we may suppose, a higher sphere of existence is prepared.

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the former, one upon which the Atheist and the Christian might come to the same conclusion; — it involves an admission of all the main doctrines of Natural Religion ; and is, therefore, on its own account, well worth examination.

Though Natural Religion has been, to a considerable extent, superseded by the Revealed,* so that the most certain, although the most circuitous path, by which to arrive at a conviction of the Being, and a true knowledge of the attributes of God, and the moral condition of man, is that which traverses the writings of the apostles and prophets, under the guidance of the celestial light which is given to all who ask, and with the aid of sacramental rites and Church services, the light of nature still shines, like the moon in the day time, faithfully though feebly rejecting the rays of the Sun of Right eousness. This secondary light has appeared to many moral writers so clear and strong, that even under the glorious noon of the Gospel they profess to be able to walk by it. And it is much to be apprehended, that they have in many instances mistaken the source of their knowledge ; or have been misled through wilfully shutting their eyes to the " greater light" which is to rule the Christian world ; sometimes erroneously asserting that they could demonstrate by the help of mere reason truths which are to be found in Scripture, and in Scripture only ; and sometimes confidently advancing, for the purpose, as they

* See Appendix.

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imagine, of vindicating Scripture, things which may or may not be plausible conclusions for the imperfectly illuminated mind of man to arrive at, but which are inconsistent with the word of God. Thus does one of the most eloquent and ingenious of modern philosophical writers take for granted, that " human nature in its present form is only the rudiment of a more extended and desirable mode of existence" and that for man, — that is, it would seem, all men, for no exception is made — " is destined a future spiritual structure, imperishable, and endued with higher powers, and many desirable prerogatives." In the same manner also does Dr. Thomas Brown, to take one instance more out of multitudes, boast that " there is within us an immortal spirit," which after death is to ascend to heaven, and enter into communion with the Deity. And the chief ground of his confidence appears to be, that mind is immaterial. But if the immateriality of mind does prove its immortality, it surely cannot prove its happy immortality.

" There is," says Bishop Butler in allusion to the scepticism so fashionable in his day, " a certain fearlessness with regard to what may be hereafter under the government of God, which nothing but a universally acknowledged demonstration on the side of atheism can justify." Nowhere is this strange indifference to the terrors of a judgment to come more strikingly displayed than in the pages of Christian writers, who promise to all men indiscriminately, as owners of

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imperishable souls, an eternal, exalted, and desirable life. Whereas the founder of Christianity has declared, on the contrary, " Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it ; and wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." The language of men does not contain stronger expressions than have been employed by the inspired writers to mark the difference between the two future states reserved for men.* Some shall have "everlasting life," others shall " utterly perish in their own corruption." And since, without the mediation of Christ, all men are liable to condemnation, and shall surely die, whatever be the nature of the punishment denounced in those mysterious words — does not Revelation make it probable beforehand, if we would submit to judge of nature by the light of Revelation, as well as of Revelation by the light of nature, that the " natural man," the lineal descendant of fallen Adam, would be found to contain in his constitution only the seeds of mortality ; that in the administration of the world beyond Paradise, should be found indications rather of prevailing evil and unsparing justice, than of remedial love, and intervening mercy ; and that the clouds which hang over the boundary of human life, should portend only a future day of storms, or an everlasting night ? It is not Natural

This is treated of at length in the Third Book.

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Theology, it is Christianity alone that can give us assurance amid the mystery of evil, and inscribe words of hope over the dark gates of death. It does not indeed explain away that mystery in any degree, but gives us assurance ; like a guiding star in heaven, which is sufficient for our footsteps, though it does not dispel the night, nor perceptibly illuminate the earth.

It is a mere enthusiasm, an attractive but fallacious fervour, that induces religious men to speak of the human soul as a thing in its own nature pure, excellent, inexhaustibly energetic, essentially immortal, waiting only for release from the chains and darkness and defilements of its earthly prison-house, to put forth its before latent powers, to go on from strength to strength and from glory to glory, and to assume the image and somewhat of the attributes of Divinity. Such a view is at once utterly inconsistent with all sound philosophy, and with that Revelation which declares that the children of Adam have no life in them, except by a second birth from above. In the regenerate there truly is somewhat of a godlike nature, which is militant now, and will at length be triumphant ; but in them