thrown open to view will animate the attention, give a glow and vigour to the sentiments; that roused attention will never tire, those glowing sentiments will never cloy but the man now constituted of an indestructible body as well as of an immortal soul, may visit in eternal succession" the streets of the celestial "city," may "drink of the pure river of water of life, "clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of 66 God, and of the Lamb; " and dwell for ever in those abodes of harmony and peace, which, though 66 eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered "into the imagination of man to conceive," we are assured "God hath prepared for them that love "Him!" (d) But I leave you to pursue and improve this train of delectible reflection; and am Truly yours. (d) 1 Cor. ii. 9. 263 LETTER XXI. On Eternal Existence after Death. It is one of the grand peculiarities, and (as I doubt not you will find it, on consideration) one of the great excellencies of the New Testament, that it exhibits both promises and threatenings of eternal existence after natural death. These are presented to the contemplation of mankind under the character of reward and punishment, which are correlatives: the existence of one implies the existence of the other: the belief of the latter is as necessary as the belief of the former: for, without it, the belief of a future state will have little if any influence on the bulk of mankind. This is not a narrow notion confined to the minds of theologians of a rigid stamp: it is the sentiment of several acute philosophers, and wise politicians; of some indeed who have neither been condemned nor contemned for an undue attachment to what are fashionably termed religious dogmas. Montesquieu, for instance, affirms, "that the idea of a place of "future rewards necessarily imports that of a place or "state of future punishments; and that when the "people hope for the one without fearing the other, "civil laws have no force." (e) Lord Bolingbroke also observes, that "the doctrine of rewards and "punishments in a future state has so great a tendency (e) Spirit of Laws, vol. ii. book 24 ch. 14. "to enforce the civil laws, and to restrain the vices "of men, that reason, which (as he pretends) cannot "decide for it on principles of natural theology, will "not decide against it on principles of good policy."(ƒ) And even Mr. Hume, when speaking of the notions that "the Deity will inflict punishments on vice, "and confer infinite rewards on virtue," says, "those “who attempt to disabuse persons of such prejudices, "may, for aught he knows, be good reasoners; but "that he cannot allow them to be good citizens and "politicians, since they free men from one restraint "upon their passions, and make the infringement of "the laws of equity and society in one respect, more and secure." (g) 66 easy The ancient philosophers had some feeble glimmerings of a future state; but, as you have long ago learned, (h) they were sadly clouded by error and absurdity; and the awful idea of accountability was in great measure, if not entirely, excluded. This is not to be wondered at, considering how defective and erroneous their notions of the Supreme Being were. The belief of a God, and that of a future state, are indissoluble: no consistent Theist can believe that human existence ceases at death; nor, on the other hand, can any one who believes in a future world be an Atheist. Our ideas of these subjects, however, must have been very vague independent of Revelation : but "God hath brought life and immortality to light, (f) Bolingbroke's Works, 4to edit. vol. v. p. 322. through the Gospel." Christians are taught that man has two states of existence, the one temporal, the other eternal: ineffable, interminable bliss, is promised to those who are "faithful unto death;" while "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish," are represented as the eternal doom of "every soul of "man that doeth evil," and repenteth not. The Scriptures also suggest to us a remarkable and essential distinction, not only in regard to the duration, but to the nature, of the states before and after death. Here the capacity of enjoyment and that of suffering appear to have nearly an invariable ratio: those who have the richest sources of delight seem to have most avenues of pain; every new road to knowledge gives them a fresh insight into their ignorance; and every refinement upon pleasure renders them more alive to distress: while those who are blunted against the finer feelings seem in an equal degree hardened against the pressure of evil; so that though they may enjoy less, they likewise suffer less and the happiness of this life is, probably, much more uniformly diffused (the stings of conscience not considered) than cursory observers might suppose. But this balancing of bliss and woe will not be found beyond the grave. In the future world the capability of enjoyment will, to the blessed, be perpetually expanding, while that of suffering will be entirely destroyed: and, on the other hand, with those who are consigned to endless punishment, the capacity of suffering will, there is reason to fear, continually increase, while that of enjoyment will be blunted and annihilated;-for "the wrath of God "abideth on them." They are considerations like these, that give such unbounded importance to the concerns of the soul, and make us exclaim to those who regard them with supineness, 66 "O! be wise! "Nor make a curse of immortality. "Know'st thou the importance of a soul immortal? "Ten thousand add; add twice ten thousand more; "Then weigh the whole; ONE soul outweighs them all; "Of unintelligent creation poor." YOUNG. Allow me to place before you a few of the passages of Scripture, in which the nature and duration of the future state of existence are expressly declared. And first I shall quote part of the language of our Lord in his awful description of the solemnities of the judgment day. "Then the King will say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit "the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation "of the world." “Then shall he say also to them on "his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever"lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” "And these shall go away into everlasting punish"ment; but the righteous into life eternal." (i) In one of his prayers to his heavenly Father, the language of the Messiah was, "Father, I desire that those "whom thou hast given me may be with me where I 66 am, to behold my glory." (k) In his celebrated sermon on the mount, his language was, "Blessed are (i) Matt. xxv. 34, 41, 46. (k) John, xvii. 24. |