Future recognition...

Front matter

t UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.!

FUTUEE RECOGNITION

FRIENDS.

Chapter I. On Death

This world death's region is, the other, Ufe's: And here, it should be one of our lirst strifes. So to front death, as each might judge us past it: For good men but see death, the wicked taste it

JoNSON.

Death's but a path that must be trod,

If man would ever pass to God. Parnell.

It is said of an ancient philosopher, that, being asked what the life of man was, he answered not a word, either because he thought the question required no answer, or because he would follow the custom of the age, w^hich, for the most part, conveyed its instructions by gestures and symbolical representations. He therefore entered into an adjoining chamber, and immediately passed out; causing his disciples thus to understand that the life of man is no more than a coming into the world, and a going out of it. " What is your life?^^ saith St. James. " It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.'' Our frame is made of perishable materials. It is a curious and delicate piece of mechanism, admirably contrived, but, like other mechanical contrivances, wears with use, and must finally be destroyed by time. The animal fibre, while in a living state, is in perpetual activity; the motions of the vital organs never cease; or the moment they do, there is an end to the life of the individual; and though the human frame contains a power of resistance to its own dissolution, yet it must be remembered, that the principle of vitality is not only a supporting, but a destroying principle. It finally consumes the very body which, for a season, it preserves.

Many are the remedies, that, under different names and forms, have been invented for the prolongation of life. But these, instead of being conducive to the end for v/hich they were designed, not unfrequently abridge the period of existence, stimulating the system into an excess of action, which prematurely consumes the power of life. Any agent, of w^hatever nature, that increases the activity of the vital powers beyond what is natural, or what the frame in a healthy state requires, or, which reduces the strength and activity below the standard of health, must equally induce debility and accelerate decay. To keep the system, therefore, in that degree of strength, and of sensibility to stimuli which is most in unison with the laws of nature, seems impossible, unless we could previously secure the corporeal fibre against the tendency to decay which is inherent in all organized matter; and which sooner or later manifests its force in the dissolution of man, as well as in that of all the animal and vegetable tribes. These have all their periods of beauty and deformity, of youth and age, of life and death. They come up and are cut down^, — »they are vigorous and alert, then motionless and cold, — they are sensitive, and they soon cease to feel.

To give therefore any thing like perpetuity to the life of man, seems impossible, unless we could infuse into his frame a durable principle of resistance to the consuming force of the never-ceasing internal and external stimuli, and slow but certain agency of time. Nay, we inherit a principle of dissolution from our great progenitor, whose eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree

^* brought death into the world,

And all our wo."

The moment, therefore, we begin to live, we begin to die — our first step in life is a step towards the grave. Death is the fixed and inevitable consequence of life. *^^By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.^ ^ '' The days of our years are three score years and ten: and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut ofi", and we fly away.''

Though w^e are not able by the discovery of any remedy, or by the adoption of any regimen, to protract our existence beyond the allotted period of threescore years and ten, yet, it is certain that it is often terminated within that period by our indiscretions and immoralities. All excess must necessarily, from its physical operations on our frame, render our lives either shorter than they would have been, or else bring upon us a degree of debility to which we should not otherwise have been exposed. For though there be much pain and sickness against which no ordinary foresight can guard, and which no caution can prevent, yet no small part of our sufferings are of our own creation. If, according to the supposition of some, "a certain definite quantity of vital power be communicated to each of us, which, with a proper degree of caution in the use, would be sufficient to preserve us in moderate health, and if, instead of economizing this precious, and when lost, irrecoverable deposit, we expend as much of it in one day as ought to last us for ten, it is evident that such an improvident use of life must shorten its duration or accelerate its decay. If a spendthrift will not only lavishly dissipate his interest but his capital, it is plain that he is marching with perpetually increasing strides towards the brink of penury and wo. If a certain definite sum of animal gratification be not appropriated to each of us, yet it is certain that the powder of producing it is subject to rigorous restrictions; that the sensation of the same pleasure becomes, by an almost imperceptible gradation, less on every repetition; and that consequently we ought not, if w^e wish to preserve the sensibility to pleasure with which we are endowed, prematurely to exhaust the power and consequently the stock of enjoyment by an inordinate frequency of indulgence.'' In this view, we perceive the temporal recompense of religion, that "godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is^ and of that which is to come.^^ A rational piety may therefore be regarded as one of the safest and least costly preservatives of a long and happy life.

But, though there are few who are not convinced of the brevity and uncertahity of life, yet how small is the number who show forth the fruits of this conviction in their lives! How few^ live as if they were soon to die! The uncertainty of our earthly tenure seems neither to damp the ardour of our vain and empty speculations,"-to moderate the eagerness of our unprofitable pursuits, — or to contract our schemes of avarice and ambition.

We should consider that as life is short and uncertain, that our principal duty is to make the most of it, to leave as small a portion as possible without some useful and profitable employment. For notwithstanding its brevity, our fitness for the fruition of eternity depends on the use we make of our time, according to the circumstances in which we are placed, and the opportunities which we possess. No truth is more plainly taught in the sacred Scriptures than that our recompense in a future life will be proportioned to our diligence in this; that as we live, so shall we die; that as we sow, so shall we reap. Short, then, as life is, an eternity of bliss depends on the use we make of it, — on the good to which we render it subservient. How important, therefore, that we offer up the Psalmist^s prayer! "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. '' The great business of life is to prepare for death, — is to be qualified for the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

3""

For death is only a point of separation between us and endless life. The way to immortality is through the grave. This consideration should render death an object of joy rather than dread; and, on the wdiole, more to be desired than deprecated. But, at the same time, from the everlasting interest which is connected with the event, it cannot but be an object of continual solicitude and unceasing care.

Finally, We have said that the relation which the future life bears to this, is much the same as that which seed time bears to harvest. Though the harvest cannot literally be said to be a continuation of the seed time, yet there certainly is a relation between them of the closest continuity; for the fruits of harvest always bear a certain proportion to the quality and quantity of the seed sown. So, in like manner, the life to come being a continuation of this, is it not probable that w^e shall carry with us beyond the grave not only the stock of moral qualities which we have improved, but also the intellectual stores which we have acquired? For we cannot suppose that death w^ll separate that connexion w^hich now subsists between wisdom and virtue, piety and knowledge, an acquaintance with the works of God and obedience to his will. As therefore we cannot suppose that the knowledge which we acquire, any more than the virtues which we practise, will perish with us in the tomb, let us be diligent in the great work for w^hich we were sent into the world, — the cultivation of the mind and heart; let us work while it is called to-day^ ever remembering that as we sow in time we shall reap in eternity, and that as we toil on earth we shall be rewarded in heaven^ by Him who, in the days of his humiliation, said to the man who had improved the talents committed to his care, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.^'

24 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE

Chapter II. On The Intermediate State Of Those Who Die In The Lord

Still seems it strange, that thou should'st live for ever 1 Is it less strange, that thou should'st live at all'? This is a miracle; and that no more.

Young.

What becomes of man after death? What is he, and where is he? Is he unconscious or conscious? These are questions which deeply interest us; and will lead us to consider the nature of the state into which we are to pass immediately after death.

In the sacred scriptures, we are taught to regard ourselves as mortal, and yet immortal; as dying, yet deathless. When we die, our body returns to dust, whence it was taken, and our soul returns to God who gave it. As the bird, when its cage is broken, flies away to seek its liberty and pleasure; so when the body is broken by death, the soul soars above the heavens, where it finds rest and happiness. Yes, the day is coming when our tabernacles shall be dissolved — when the prison doors of the spirit shall be flung wide open, and the captive be set free. And oh ! if the captive be only redeemed by Christ, and washed in his blood, with what joy shall it hail the day of its release! How will it exult in its newly acquired liberty, and soar from these dull elements to realms of purity and bliss, —

" With sunshine on its joyful way, With freedom on its wings!"

When the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

The soul of every man immediately after death has its proper place and state assigned, either happiness or misery, as the man has been righteous or unrighteous. Hence we read that Judas went to his own place, and that when Lazarus died he was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom, while the rich man lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment. The period of the soul's existence in the disembodied state is of unknown duration. As it extends between death and the resurrection, it is different with different individuals, according to the age of the world in which they die. It may be short or long: but this is of no importance to our present purpose. Whatever be the duration of the soul's disembodied existence, it must he in some place and state.

Some think the spirit is no where; — that as a spirit has no parts, or extension, it has no relation to place. This, however, is a mere philosophical refinement. We know that the spirit now bears some relation to place as it is confined within the body. And if it has now a local existence, why not also after death? Others suppose that it goes at once to its

26 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE

place of eternal abode — the righteous to the heaven into which they will be received after the resurrection, and the wicked to the torment in which they wdll be confined for ever.

Wherever and whatever paradise or Abraham's bosom may be, to which we are taught the righteous go immediately after death, one thing is certain, that they in some w^ay enjoy the presence of the Lord; for St. Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And yet it must be equally certain that the soul in the disembodied state is not capable of that degree of happiness and glory which shall be revealed at the resurrection and final judgment.

The condition of the man between death and the resurrection is different from his previous and ultimate condition. He exists in a disembodied or imperfect state. The larva and chrysalis states are passed, but the highest is not attained. ^Tis a state of expectancy, a looking forward to the coming of the Lord, to raise his vile body from the dead, and fashion it like unto his own glorious body, that he may enjoy his "perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul.'^

There can be no doubt but that the soul of man was designed for, and adapted to a material body; and this is its natural and most desirable mode of existence. It thus began to exist, and after the final judgment wdll thus ever continue to exist. The intermediate state is, therefore, no part of our original and natural course of being.

We are taught, however, that notwithstanding the imperfection which characterizes the condition which immediately succeeds death, that it is yet preferable to the present. St. Paul says '' to depart and be with Christ is far better:^' and " to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.^^ In whichever, therefore, of the mansions which Christ went to prepare for his people. Paradise may be, one thing is certain, that all the allusions of scripture warrant us in believing that the righteous immediately after death, and during the whole of their intermediate existence, are conscious, active, and as happy as their condition will admit in the presence of their Lord, and in the society of the redeemed. And one of the elements of their happiness is the anticipation of yet greater happiness, and brighter glory at the consummation of all things, when their bodies shall be restored, improved, immortalized, united to the soul, and conducted into " the joy of the Lord.'^ It is enough to know that immediately after death, the faithful shall be where Christ^s human spirit sojourned between death and the resurrection, — a place now lighted up by his soul-cheering presence. It is enough to know that the intermediate state is a farther manifestation of that shining light whose orient beams fall on our path, but whose meridian rays are reserved for " the perfect day.^^ Enough, that it shall be a calm repose of the spirit, ere the archangel's trump shall summon it to join the hosts of the skies. Enough, that it shall be the first stage in that moral progress, in which the spirit

28 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE

is changed from glory to glory, never completing the number of its perfections in finding that it can attain to more. Enough, that we shall there fear no more, fight no more, fall no more; that the tongue shall never falter, nor the heart grow weary. Is not this a consummation devoutly to be wished? Job so regarded it, when he longed to be where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. And St. John so viewed it when he heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours.^^

Bishop Taylor thus summarily gives us his views of the separate and final states of the righteous: — ^^In (this) world we walk and live by faith: in the state of separation we live by hope; and in the resurrection we live by an eternal charity. Here we see God in a glass darkly; in the separation we shall behold him, but it is afar oS*, and after the resurrection we shall see him "face to face ^^ in the everlasting comprehension of an intuitive beatitude. In this life we are warriors; in the separation we are conquerors; but we shall not triumph till after the resurrection.^^

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that this representation of the intermediate state, which sub» stantially accords with the views of Bishops Burnet, Bull, Tomline, and other divines of the reformation, gives no countenance to that stronghold of Romanism — the supposed existence of a place " where the souls of those who die in venial sin are purified by fire from the corruption of their nature, and delivered from their sufferings by the interposition of the church.'^ The doctrine of purgatory, like the fables of the Greeks and Romans respecting their infernal world, is but a corruption of the truth, as well as a fiction of comparatively modern date. The prayers of the primitive church in relation to the holy dead were, in substance, that it might please Almighty God to complete their felicity ^ and to " hasten his kingdom/' It cannot be denied that the platonic notion of a purifying process in the nether world by fire began soon to appear in the church, and that the seed was thus sown of the monstrous superstition in question. It is our happiness, however, to be assured that the departed righteous '' are in joy and felicity," and that if they are not immediately present with the " Sun of righteousness," they yet may behold his distant glory, and feel incessantly the influence of his vivifying beams. Nor does such a view of their condition appear by any means to supersede the solemnities of that judgment to come, which will fully display the character of God, in what alone can be called the retributions of his mercy and justice, when he shall doom the wicked to "everlasting punishment," and welcome the "righteous into life eternal."

Chapter III. On The Final State Of Those Who Die In The Lord

Shall I be left forgotten in the dust,

When fate relenting, lets the flower revive?

Shall nature's voice, to man alone unjust,

Bid him, though doom'd to perish, hope to livel

Is it for this, fair virtue oft must strive

No, heaven's immortal Springs shall yet arrive,

And man's majestic beauty bloom again.

Bright through the eternal year of love's triumphant reign.

Beattie.

In the previous chapter, we have seen that the intermediate state, with all its joys and pleasures, is imperfect, — imperfect, because, apart from the body, man is an imperfect creature, incapable of the full enjoyment of his nature. This accounts for the fact, which must have struck every one who has carefully read the New Testament, that its writers continually direct our attention to the second advent of Christy as the grand event in which all our hopes centre. Instead of being taught to look forward to our decease with joyful anticipation, the second coming of our Lord is the event for which we are to pray, and stand prepared. Open almost any of the apostolic epistles, and you will find it to abound in promises and exhortations touching the event in question. Thus, for example, when St.

Paul entreats the Philippians to be followers of himself, the motive which he sets before them is, " For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself" When he would excite the Colossians to greater spirituality, to mortification of their sensual appetites, the argument with which he enforces his appeal is, " When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.'' When he would console the Thessalonians under bereavement, and teach them that they, as Christians, had no cause to sorrow for their dead, as others who were without hope, — though this, of all others, would have seemed a fit opportunity for speaking of the soul in the intermediate state, showing that it is happy, and that consequently death is the cause of pleasure to the believer — still he turns to the same engrossing subject, which seems indeed to have taken exclusive possession of his mind, and, omitting all mention of what is to intervene between death and the resurrection, exclaims, " For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.'^

The same striking characteristic distinguishes the epistles of St. James, St. Peter, and St. John. " Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.^^ "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as he is.^' Such are the exhortations which the apostles severally address to the whole body of believers.

But why is it that the attention of the children of God is thus almost exclusively directed to one object, the second advent of Christ? Why is death, and the condition of the soul immediately after death, comparatively disregarded, passed over, as it were, in the survey of what the Christian shall be hereafter? The answer is obvious : the scriptures every where regard our " perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul,^^ as the great end towards which we are tending, and for which we live and die. Hence all that is preliminary and intermediate, are only so many steps by which the great end is to be attained; and consequently, their consideration is omitted as comparatively unimportant. So Moses, when he stood upon the summit of Pisgah, took no note of the scenes immediately around him. It was to the land of promise that his eye was eagerly directed. It was the hills, and plains, and opening glades of Canaan, that he hailed in distant prospect. And thus the eye of faith, while it looks forward, pauses not upon any thing that is intermediate and secondary, but glancing over the dark valley on which the shadow of death is brooding, — glancing over all that intervenes between the present and the glorious future, — rests satisfied at last upon the fulness of joy, and exuberance of bliss which await the soul reunited to the body, at the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

When, therefore, we remember that man was created neither as an angel, of a nature altogether spiritual and heavenly, nor simply of matter, as the sun or stars, but a compound being, oi matter and spirit y it is a self-evident truth, that unless the body partake of the same happiness as the soul, man cannot be absolutely or perfectly happy. The resurrection of the body, in which the glorious truth is declared, that the whole man triumphs over death, is one of the noblest and most interesting mysteries of our holy religion. The wisdom of the w^orld, with all its boasted lights, and heathen philosophy, with all its subtilties, could never attain to the knowledge of this comfortable doctrine. But, though reason cannot discover this glorious truth, yet as soon as enlightened by grace, it perceives all its consolations, and acknowledges its necessity.

In various ways are we taught the fact, nay, the necessity of the resurrection of the body. In the first place, it may be stated that God made not a covenant with a part of man, but with the whole man^ as he is composed of soul and body; therefore, the body must needs rise, that it may partake of the glory and happiness implied in the covenant. Besides, we read that God is not only the Father of spi-

4* rits (Heb. vi, xii. 9,) and the God of the spirits of all flesh, (Num. xvi. 21,) but he styles himself in general, the God of Mraham^ and of his seed, Gen. xvii. 7. He is not only the God of the soul, or of the body alone, but of the entire person of believers. With this argument Christ opposed the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection :^ — "Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you, by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,'' Matt xxii. 31, 32. Again; " God hath adopted us by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,'' (Eph. 1.) to make us the heirs of his kingdom, and joint heirs with his Son, Rom. viii. 17. From this we may gather an assured hope of the resurrection ; for when the Father of mercies shall behold our bodies lying in the dust, he will take compassion upon them, and say, " These are the bodies of my children, the members of my dear Son; it is not just that I leave them for ever in this state of ignominy and corruption, nor will my fatherly tenderness sufier it." It was doubtless this consideration that caused St. Paul to call the redemption of our bodies by the name of adoption; for by that he assures us, that God will bring out of their graves the bodies of all them whom he hath adopted, and that our resurrection is the effect and necessary consequence of our adoption. Besides, our Saviour himself speaks of it as the same thing, to be the child of God, and the child of the resurrection, Luke xx. 36. Again; death considered in itself is the wages of sin^

Rom. vi. 23, — the punishment of our crimes. But Christ has made satisfaction for sins with respect to believers, and consequently their bodies must needs rise again. Besides, if death held our bodies in the grave, it could not be said that Christ had swallowed up death in victory, 1 Cor. xv. 54, and that he is the destruction of the grave, Hosea xiii. 14, since death and the grave would remain victorious over our miserable bodies.

Again; the Saviour suffered both in body and soul, and thus purchased to himself both our souls and bodies ; nay, the express language of inspiration is, " Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's,'^ 1 Cor. vi. 20. Finally, as God the Holy Ghost hath sanctified our bodies, and made them his temples, 1 Cor. iii. 16, we infer the resurrection as a necessary consequence: for, we cannot suppose that God will suffer the temple of his holiness to lie in perpetual ruin and desolation : he will most assuredly rebuild the pavihon of his glory, cast down by death.

To the end that the resurrection may appear less unaccountable, God has been pleased to give many images and types of it in nature; as, for example, when the sun goes down, and the earth is covered with the dark shadows of night, man's declining, and the darkness of the grave, are represented. And when the moon loses all her light and splendour, and covers herself with a veil of darkness, it is " the image of death, and represents to us that veil which it draws over our eyes; but when, by reason of the sun's aspect, it resumes its former brightness and glory, it discovers to us, in some measure, that which shall happen to our bodies, when the Sun of Righteousness shall dart upon them the rays of his countenance.

"Spring, summer and autumn, pass away successively, and winter represents to us the horrors of the grave; but when the sun begins again his race, and clothes the earth with new verdures, we have a most lively picture of the resurrection.

" The trees, that are in winter without flowers, fruit or leaves, discover to us the most hideous and frightful aspect of death, that strips man's body of every thing that is beautiful and charming. But when the same trees flourish again, and are adorned with fresh leaves and fruit, they put us in mind of the blessed resurrection of our bodies.

" The seeds that corrupt and perish in the earth, are a lively im.age of the body's corruption and perishing in the grave; but when these seeds appear above ground and flourish, they admirably w^ell express to us the blessed state of our bodies rising again to new life and new beauty. This similitude the Son of God himself recommends to us, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit,' John xii, 24; and the apostle St. Paul insists at large upon this comparison; w^hence he takes occasion to cry out against the stupidity of those who will not believe that a dead body can be restored to life, ' Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die,' 1 Cor. XV. 36.