✓ PRINCETON, N. J. Presented by Dt. F. U^/fos^-ton. BT 846 .L58 1861 Lister, William. Physico-prophetical essays on the locality of the ^Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library j https://archive.org/details/physicopropheticOOIist PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS LONDON PEINTED BT SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STEEET SQUAEE ON THE LOCALITY OF THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE ITS NATURE AND CHARACTER THE RESURRECTION BODY THE MUTUAL RECOGNITION OF GLORIFIED SAINTS BY, / THE EEV. LISTER, F.G.S. VICAR OF BUSHBURT, AND RURAL DEAN CHAPLAIN TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE THE EAEL OF BEVERLEY I rejoice at thy word, as on© that findeth great spoil — cxix. 62 LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1861 “ Hypotheses non fingo.” Newtox. PREFACE. The title of this work has been adopted because it rightly expresses its leading object or design, which is the examination of certain topics that form, on the one hand, subjects of prophecy, and, on the other, relate to matters which are of a physical nature, or rest upon a physical basis. Others of a different character are also, of necessity, embraced, and sometimes largely; but this is because the former are so associated with them that it would be impossible to discuss them alone. To many, some of the views propounded in these Essays, e.g., most of those in the First, will be very elementary, and such as they will have been long familiar with ; but they are fundamental as prophetical truths, and there was the same necessity for entering into the examination of them at this time, in order to place them in their present form, that there was that Paley should write his Natural Theology at the time he did. They form to other prophecies what Natural Theo¬ logy does to Eevealed — a foundation on which to rest. It will, I believe, be found that there is little or nothing that is imaginative or speculative in the A 3 VI PREFACE. volume, and as little that is merely hypothetical; but, throughout, the matters discussed have been derived directly from Scripture, which has been followed as the sole guide* upon the various topics which have come under examination : and upon none of them, I trust, will it be found that I have at any time ventured to dogmatize, or to make assertions for which proofs have not been advanced. I may have failed in my attempt at demonstration, but at least the attempt has been made. I have rigidly endeavoured to assume nothing; and if at any time the argument should appear somewhat prolix, this must be my apology. In some respects, the work may be said to be the first of its kind.^ I will venture to hope that it will not be the last, but that it will be followed by others of more ability, which, while proceeding on the same prin¬ ciples of research, will extend the inquiry into topics that I have not touched upon, or perfect others which I have left in an incomplete state. There is yet much to be done, and no surprise should be felt if this should continue to be the case; for, as remarked by Butler^, with almost prophetic foresight, ‘‘ As, it is owned, the whole scheme of Scripture is not yet understood, so, if it ’ I have no fear as to the final result of the existing controversy on the authority of Scripture, and have written accordingly. - Dr. Biu'net’s celebrated work, the Theory of the Earth, the physics of which are entirely fanciful, forms, properly, no exception to the above remark. ^ Analogy, Part II. c. iii. PREFACE, vii ever comes to be understood before the ‘ restitution of all things,’ and without miraculous interpositions, it must be in the same way as natural knowledge is come at — by the continuance and progress of learning and liberty; and by particular persons attending to, com¬ paring and pursuing, intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and disregarded by the gene¬ rality of the world. For this is the way in which all improvements are made: by thoughtful men’s tracing on obscure hints, as it were, dropped us by nature acci¬ dentally, or which seem to come into our minds by chance. Nor is it at all incredible, that a book which has been so long in the possession of mankind should con¬ tain many truths as yet undiscovered. For all the same phenomena, and the same faculties of investigation, from which such great discoveries in natural knowledge have been made in the present and last age, were ecjually in the possession of mankind several thousand years before. And possibly it might be intended that events, as they come to pass, should open and ascertain the meaning of several parts of Scripture.” In exact keeping and harmony with this, we find another of the great ornaments of our country remark¬ ing ^ — ‘‘To conclude, therefore, let no man, upon a weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think, or maintain, that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the Book of Grod’s word, or in ‘ Bacox, Advancement of Learning, b. i. vin PREFACE. the book of God’s works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress, or pro- hcience in both.” It is but too well known that the way in which the subject of prophecy has, with some few exceptions, been treated, has rendered even its very name dis¬ tasteful to sober-minded men, who have, perhaps, only occasionally directed their attention to it, and who have, therefore, seen little more than the fanciful in¬ terpretations which have been given to many of the expressions of Scripture, and which have made them feel that the language of the Bible may, in this way, be made to mean almost anything which a lively fancy can suggest, and that .anything like certainty with regard to its meaning is not to be expected. If I venture to entertain a hope that a very different result has, in some respects at least, been attained in the present work so far as it goes, I do so, not because I arrogate to myself any superior discernment, but because I have sought throughout to place myself under the guidance of an essentially different principle of interpretation to that which has, alas ! been so gene¬ rally followed. There are two methods or principles of prophetical interpretation — the one usually termed the Figurative, the other the Literal. The former allows large room for the exercise of the imagination in determining the meaning of a prophecy; the latter excludes every thing PREFACE. IX of the kind, and compels all alike to receive one, de¬ finite, and comparatively obvious meaning, which they must endeavour to understand as best they can. It insists that the prophetical Scriptures should be under¬ stood in their plain, natural, and grammatical sense, just as all the other parts of the Bible are to be taken, and just as we are in the habit of dealing with every other book of a rational character. This is as a rule. It must not, however, be inferred from it that there are no exceptions to the rule, or that it is easy in all cases to apply it. Far from it: all language is more or less figurative, and it is frequently difficult to say whether we have to deal with mere figure or positive symbol; and hence no clearly defined rule can be laid down which will meet all the varieties of the question. Ee- gard must be had to various considerations, such as the nature of the case, the subject-matter, the context, the style of the writing, whether it be prose or poetry, and whether narrative or symbolic vision, before a conclu¬ sion can be arrived at. But yet, I conceive, abundantly sufficient may be proved, and has been already proved, in the discussion of the subject which has of late years more especially been carried on, to establish a broad line of distinction between the two principles referred to, and also with regard to their application. There may he, and there are, numerous cases in which it is difficult to determine which must be followed ; but in very many others the application of the latter, the literal, namely, admits, I conceive, of positive demonstration. Of this X PREFACE. class 2 Pet. iii. 13, may be specified as an instance; and Isai. xl. 31, of the other. As to which of the two is to be followed in reference to any particular passage, is a question which can only be determined by a discussion of the character of the passage, and by a careful com¬ parison of it with other portions of Scripture. This has been done to a greater or less extent, as the nature of the case required, throughout the following work. When I have considered that a positive result was attainable I have not hesitated to say so, nor to admit, on the other hand, my inability, in other cases, to come to any safe or certain conclusion. But it will be found that, as a rule, I have strictly, and, I hope, consistently fol¬ lowed the literal principle as a guide, and have fairly endeavoured to meet the results which, in the cases dis¬ cussed, it brings before us. The course which I have pursued while endeavouring to carry it out, has been simply the following: — The meaning of the prophecy having been discovered or determined, I have endeavoured to view the things predicted, when of a physical nature, in the light of legitimate science, and have sought, in the world of actual nature, either past or present, for illustrative examples of what, it is probable, we should understand by them. How far I have been successful must be left to the judgment and decision of my readers. Buslibiuy Vicarage: April 8, 1861. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS* ESSAY I. — ON THE LOCALITY OF THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE. Part I.— Analytic. Page Introductory Remarks.3 The Sources of Knowledge ....... 4 Popidar View of the Locality of the Inheritance ... 8 The renewed Earth the true Locality . . . . .13 The Millennium . . . . . . . . . • 15 Analysis and Synthesis.17 First direct Proof respecting the Locality .... 18 Additional Proofs.'23 The Locality of Christ’s Kingdom.27 The Two Reigns of the Messiah.30 The Locality of Christ’s Kingdom,—Discussion renewed . 37 Connection between the Present and Future Earth . . 44 Scriptm-es speak of Change not Annihilation ... 46 And of Christ’s future Reign as One ..... 51 Part II. — Synthetic. Our Lord’s Promise to the Meek ...*.. 65 Psalm xxxvii. considered.58 Xll CONTENTS. Pago Twofold Sense of Propliecy ....... 00 Canaan said to be a Type of Heaven.02 The Meek said to have peaceable Enjoyment of the present Earth .......... 03 Connection between the Promise and the Characters to whom made . . . . . . . . .71 A Threat against the Ungodly.74 The Lord’s Prayer.80 His Promise to His Apostles.83 Christ said to come from Heaven, but not to return . . 85 Scriptiu’es close with a State of things on Earth ... 80 Bearing of the Discussion on the Inspiration of Scripture . 80 ESSAY II.—THE CONDITION AND CH4EACTER OF THE ETEPtNAL INHERITANCE. Introduction ......... 03 Much yet to be leamt from Scripture ..... 95 ^ I.—Its True Physical Character. Prevailing notions respecting the Character of Heaven . 98 Dr. Chalmers on the New Heavens and the New Earth . 100 A physical Condition the necessary Result of a Terrestrial State.. 105 Uniformity of Natural Causes ...... 100 Dr. Buckland on the Eyes of Trilobites .... 107 Predictions respecting futm-e Physical Changes . . .Ill Nature of those Changes ....... 114 Similar Phenomena in past and present Time . . . 110 Eflects of Earthquakes . . . . . . .110 Foregoing Facts applied ....... 121 Disruption of the Mount of Olives ..... 125 Fusion of the Mountains. . 127 Physical Eftects accompanying Christ’s Advent . . . 130 Descent of Jehovah on Sinai, Effects of ... . 133 CONTENTS. Xlll Probable Explanation of Efiects .... Pape . 135 Effects of Lightning ...... . 138 Past and future Descents will correspond . 142 Phenomena at Sinai. . 144 Phenomena at Second Advent .... . 146 Advantages derived from the Progress of Science . 160 Bible in Advance of Science .... . 158 Psalm xc. 2, Comment on. . 160 § II. — Its Advanced Character. The Millennial and Eternal Periods viewed as one . 163 Exalted Character of the Future State . 165 The New Jerusalem State. . 166 Man’s future Condition — his Mental Powers . 167 Condition of his Body. . 169 The Amoimt of Light. . 170 § III.—Its Fauna and Flora. Many unprepared to expect them . 171 Its Fauna . . 173 Lion to eat Straw like the Ox ... . . 176 Creation to be delivered from its present suffering State . 178 Its Flora . . 182 Progi’ession in the Future as in the Past . 185 Man ends the Series. . 192 The Reason for this .. . 193 The Final End accomplished .... * . 194 The Future of Man and the Earth — Question answered . 196 § IV. —No MORE Sea. Sea during the Millennial Period.198 The final Conflagi-ation at the Close of that Period . . 199 Figurative Interpretation of the Subject .... 200 Literal Interpretation of.202 XIV CONTENTS. Absence of Sea a Result of the Final Conflagration Page . 204 Fluidity of inner Ring of Satmm. • * • . 205 No Sea on primitive Globe • . • . 207 Primitive and future Globes compared • . 211 § V. —The New Jerusalem, Difficulties alike in Nature and Revelation . Preconceived Views to be guarded against . Literal and figurative Interpretations . Results of the two Methods .... Scattered Notices of a City to come Dimensions of the City. Subject Illustrated — The Planet Saturn Materials of the City and Walls . . . , The River and Tree of Life. Difficulties ........ Virtue of Tree of Life ...... Conclusion ........ Another View of the Subject — City above the Earth 214 217 218 223 224 226 232 235 239 241 245 247 249 ESSAY III.—THE RESURRECTION BODY. § I.—Its Materiality. Theory of Dr. Hitchcock respecting.257 I Cor. XV. 44. Prof. Baden Powell on.264 Meaning of Tenns in ....... . 266 Subject exemplified in Person of Christ .... 268 What the Nature of his Resun'ection Body . . . 270 Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom . . . 273 Expression explained.275 Art. IV. of Church of England.278 The Dead to be raised, how to be understood , . . 279 Exercise of Bodily Functions.281 Harmony of the Subject ....... 284 CONTENTS. XV § II. — Its Aspect. Page Future Body raised in Glory.287 Will be distinguished by a visible Brightness . . . 289 1. Hiis Doctrine directly asserted in Scripture . ■ . . 290 Subject Illustrated — Luminous Insects — Face of Moses . 293 The Righteous shall shine as the Sun ..... 295 2. The Doctrine fartlm- supported by xohat is revealed respecting the. Person of Christ ....... 29G 3. And by the Condition of Angels ..... 303 4. Also by the future Amount of Light ..... 310 A FEESH SoUKCE OF LiGHT.317 A Light exceeding that of the Sun already witnessed . . 321 The revealed Truth such as might be expected . . . 322 § III.—Its Powers. The Future Body raised in Power.327 Saints equal to the Angels.328 Powers of Angels. 330 Activity of Angels.332 Will the Saints visit other Spheres.337 Passage apparently in Favour of the View .... 338 Its Bearing discussed.341 Translations which have already occurred .... 346 Things done by Christ after his Resurrection . . . 349 Probabilities of the Case ....... 352 ESSAY IV.—THE MUTUAL RECOGNITION OF GLORIFIED SAINTS. Doubts upon the Subject.360 § I. — Causes of Existing Uncertainty. First, a Misapprehension of 1 Thess. iv. 13—18. . . . 364 State of the Heathen as ‘ Without Hope ’ . . . . 370 XVI CONTENTS. Page Second, prevailing Misapprehensions respecting the Nature of f uture Bodg ......... 373 Thied, Want of distinguishing letween a possible Recognition in Heaven, and Recognition at the Coming of Christ . . 377 State of tlae Departed.. , 378 Eflect of prevailing Views.38G § II. — Truth of the Doctrine determined from Scripture. First Proof — 1 Thess. iv. 13—18.392 Additional Proofs ........ 393 Social Intercourse among the Saints ..... 395 St. Paul and his Converts.396 The Judgment.400 Rewards.406 § in. — Its Consistency with the Conditions of the Question. Personal Identity ... .414 Locke on.416 Must lead to mutual Recognition. 417 Conclusion.. . 420 APPENDIX. A. Analysis and S 3 mthesis .. 425 B. The Final Conflagi-ation — Existing Provision for pro¬ ducing it. 427 C. The Disruption of the hloimt of Olives .... 432 D. The Succession of Animal Life ..... 437 E. Increase of habitable Space through the Absence of Sea . 439 F. Comparative Dimensions of the New Jerusalem and the Rings of Saturn.■. . . 444 G. Opinions of the Reformers on the Nature and Condition of the Resurrection Body. 445 CORRECTIONS and ADDITIONS. Page ix, line 5, after sense, add except where there is evident symbol. „ 4, note 1, line 1, after does, add a. „ 5, „ 2, „ for to read oL „ 295, line t),for from read than. ESSAY I. ON THE LOCALITY OF THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE. B THE LOCALITY OF THE ETEENAL INHEEITANCE. PART I-ANALYTIC. PART II-SYNTHETIC. ESSAY I. THE LOCALITY OF THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE. PART L —ANALYTIC . Whatever be the subject which may be engaging our attention, our first object should be to understand it aright, and to discover as far as possible the truth with regard to it. Truth is sacred; and in proportion as it is known by us will it lead us to good. Error is deceptive; and in the precise degree in which it is mixed up in our views are we suffering injury from it. This should be recognised as a rule from which, properly, there can be no exception. Again, the true view of every subject, whatever be its nature, will be sure to be found eventually the most practical. It will bring with it realities otherwise not seen, and it will have a force and bearing upon our minds and conduct which no other view, however plau¬ sible, can possibly have. In short, as it was with the empty speculations of philosophers before true science 4 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essat I. existed—man derived no benefit from them; and as the discovery of the laws of nature has since been the means of conferring upon him innumerable benefits, so has it been, and so will it ever be, with our views and speculations on subjects of a spiritual nature, or on those which relate to our future and eternal pros¬ pects. These will he useful and beneficial just in ‘proportion to their truth. Here again, a rule must be recognised from which no exception can ever be allowed. It would be dangerous, most dangerous, to admit such an exception in any degree. We might as well affirm, that while, generally speaking, whole¬ some food is of course essential, a little poison may yet be desirable.’ In the discovery of truth, or in the search for it, regard must be had to the source or sources from which it can be derived; and these will of course vary with the subject. Physical truth must be learnt from the Worlcs of God; spiritual truth, from His Word. There are no other sources of knowledge; and what Bacon laid down as his first axiom with « ‘ “ The least errors in theology always bear fruit. Never does man take up an incorrect principle of interpreting Scripture without that principle entailing awkward consequences, and colouring the whole tone of his religion.”— Bev. J. C. Bylo. Part I.] THE SOURCES OE KNOWLEDGE. 5 regard to tlie former, must also be recognised in its fullest possible bearing in reference to the latter; the only difference being, that, in the latter case, “Scrip¬ ture” is to be substituted in the place of “Nature.” “ Homo, naturae minister et interpres, tantum facit et intelligit quantum de naturae ordine re vel mente observaverit: nec amplius scit aut potest.”* The subject of this essay, as indeed of those which follow it, renders it necessary that both the above sources of knowledge should be borne in mind during the discussion of it, though they must be consulted in a very different way, and for very different ends. Our views, for instance, upon every topic which par¬ takes of a physical character, must of course be regu - lated by the teachings of Nature. But Nature teaches Tis nothing, or next to nothing, with regard to our eternal prospects^, and for information in reference to these, therefore, recourse must be had to the * Novum Organum. Aphor. 1. Sir John Herschel has given us the following rendering of this aphorism,— “ Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, is limited in act and understanding by his observation of the order of nature: neither his knowledge nor his power extends farfcher .”^—Discourse on the Study of Nat. Philosophy. ^ Notice will be taken, in a subsequent part of this essay, of the agreement between the suggestions of science and the express declara¬ tions of Revelation in reference to the future condition to the earth, and to man’s connection with it. 6 PIITSICO- PROPHETICAL ESSAYS, [Essay I. Word of G-od. To its aiitlioritative .teacliings the most unqualified submission must be yielded; and the more we come to its study with the mental sim¬ plicity of ‘‘ little children,” divested of preconceived views and misleading prejudices, the more likely we shall be to discover those “ pearls of great price ” which lie hid throughout the fields of its diversified pages. But wherever the Word of God would seem to lead us we should endeavour to follow; with humility in¬ deed, and with the utmost caution, carefully watching over ourselves that we do not go one step beyond the revealed boundary, nor take up with anything that is not authorised by the evidence afforded by the record which is to be our only guide. But wherever there is any light, however small, cast upon any region before us, into that region we should essay to go, for to this end is that light made to shine, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, xvliere- unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark 'placed' (2 Pet. i. 19.) What¬ ever is matter of revelation is a subject of legitimate inquiry. “ Secret things belong unto the Lord our God, hut those ivhich are revealed belong to us and Part L] THE TKUE SPIHIT OF INQUIRY. 7 to OUT children” (Deut. xxix. 29.) All we have to do is, to see that our inquiries are ever marked by that combination of firmness, on the one hand, and humility, on the other, which are in all cases so essen¬ tial, the one for the discovery of truth, and the other for the avoiding of error; and which have always, in their combined character, formed a marked and lead¬ ing feature in the minds of those who have been the most successful students and interpreters of the other record or source of knowledge to which reference has been made as open to man, namely, the Works of our God. Every true disciple of the school of Bacon and of Newton is intrepid in his progress when he has evidence to guide him, but none so immoveable when that evidence fails him. So should it be with the students and interpreters of the Word of God. As with the one, indeed, so should it be with the others. The same course should be followed by both. The principles for the guidance of both are the same. They are not different, they are identical; and with equal truth may we affirm of sound theology, what Chalmers has so justly said of true philosophy, that “as it is one of its maxims never to shrink from a 8 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. doctrine which has evidence on its side, so is it another of its maxims, equally essential to it, never to har¬ bour any doctrine when this evidence is wanting.”^ Let us take these two maxims with us, and we may proceed with a well-founded hope that success will attend our efforts, and that we shall be preserved from great and serious error; while we shall be animated with the encouraging assurance that we have bright regions of knowledge lying open to our inquiries of an extent which none can at present either determine or conceive. It will be presently seen that the view taken in these essays of the locality of the future inheritance differs materially from that which generally prevails. We rejoice, indeed, to know, that it has many sup¬ porters, and that the number of these is rapidly in¬ creasing, and we believe the day is not far distant when it will become all but universal, among the more scripturally-informed at least; but at present this is far from being the case. The most commonly received view of the subject is, that Heaven, what¬ ever may be understood by the term, is the place ‘ Astronomical Discourses. Disc. ii. Part I.] THE POPULAR VIEW. 9 where ‘^the Saiats ” will find “ their everlasting rest.” This opinion is rested in as one that neither admits of question, nor is exposed to doubt. It has pre¬ vailed more or less for centuries, and it has been, perhaps, greatly encouraged amongst ourselves, by that very popular work of the pious Baxter, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, which has now for such a length of time formed the popular standard upon the subject, — not indeed, upon the locality of the inheritance so much, as upon the inheritance itself, its character, and its joys. It is with no small measure of satisfaction and thankfulness, one remembers that, supposing the popular view of the subject to be, after all, not the correct one, the mistake will in no way either en¬ danger the safety of those who make it, or in any measure lessen their enjoyment of that happiness which they have looked forward to as their enduring reward in that ‘‘ Inheritance of the Saints ” which, as saints, they have so earnestly longed for, and for which many of them have freely gone to the martyr’s stake, or borne the cruel mockings of their unrelenting persecutors. No, their hopes were not ill-founded as to the great result. True, they may have mistaken 10 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. the spot where they are to meet their Lord, but they will meet Him, and meet Him in glory, and be with Him in glory for evermore! Yes, and who is there amongst us who, although better informed possibly than they were on this point, would not yet feel thankful, were he assured that hereafter he would shine as bright as some of them will do, and be an equal partaker with them in that eternal weight of glory ” which will be theirs for ever ? “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” (Ps. xvii. 15.) “In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. xvi. 11.) But the question remains •— What will he the locality of the eternal inheritance ? We have already seen what is the prevailing view upon the subject. It seems hard to say of that view, that, though so generally received, it is still altogether deficient in scriptural authority. Yet we know of no one opinion which is so generally held, that has so little in Scrip¬ ture on which to rest.^ But be the cause what it may. ‘ See “ Israel’s Future,” bj the Key. Capel Molyiieux, B.A. Lect. vii. Part L] UNSTIPrORTED BY SCKIPTURE. 11 this is the case. The popular view of the subject, is not only unsupported by the written Word, it is in some respects at direct variance with its testimony. It will doubtless surprise many, when they come to examine the subject, to find how far this is the case. They fancy they have only to ojien their Bibles to find a hun¬ dred passages wherewith they may stop the mouth of the gainsayer. The attempt to discover them will in all probability undeceive them greatly. It should, however, be made by all means, and made with care¬ fulness, in order that the true state of the case may be rightly understood. There is no great difficulty, we conceive, in dis¬ cerning the origin of the popular view as given above. It arose in all probability, and has since been per¬ petuated, through a misapprehension of the true mean¬ ing of various passages of Scripture, the phraseology of which would at first sight appear to favour it. Such, for instance, as the following :—The kingdom of heaven^^-~“ His heavenly kingdom’’^—“Laid ujp for you in heavenf — and the very large class of similar passages in which the term “ heaven ” is used. But the answer is obvious: in all these cases the term is intended to point out, not the locality, but 12 rilYSICO-PEOPnETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay L the character, of the kingdom. It will be, as abun¬ dant testimony proves, of a heavenly character. All its subjects will be truly holy and heavenly-minded. Heavenly affections will abound, and a direct com¬ munication with heaven will be maintained. (John i. 51.) “ The Lord’s Prayer” will then have been answered, and ‘‘the will of Grod will then be done on earth as it is in heaven.” And lastly, the King of Heaven, even He who is “ King of kings and Lord of lords ” will be the king of this heavenly king¬ dom. “In that day there shall be one Lord, and His name one.” And then with regard to those other passages in which certain things are spoken of as laid up in heaven, —for example, the spiritual life of the believer G and his great reward^,—it will be enough to remark, that these and similar things are uniformly represented as laid up and preserved in heaven, as in a place of perfect safety, in order that they may he brought forth in the great day of the Lordls appearing, and then he * “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Col. iii. 3.) ^ “ Keioice, and he exceedina; glad: for great is your reward in heaven.” (Matt. v. 12.) Part L] OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 13 made good to all those to whom they belong. It is in this sense that St. Paul speaks of his own expected reward: — “ Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appear¬ ing.'' (2 Tim. iv. 8.) This, however, is a point that will he more fully discussed hereafter, and there¬ fore need not be enlarged upon any farther in this place. It is now time that we should give to the ques¬ tion that has been asked a distinct reply, in order that we may proceed to the work of establishing its correctness. Our reply to that question then is this: — This earth, in a renewed and glorified state, WILL BE the locality OF THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE OF THE RIGHTEOUS. It will be OUT aim to support this statement with such an amount of Scripture tes¬ timony as will, we hope, be found sufl&cient for the purpose. It is of the eternal inheritance of the saints, and therefore of the corresponding Kingdom of the Ee- deemer, that we wish more especially to speak in this Essay. But while doing this, it will be absolutely 14 Pin'SICO-PROPKETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. necessary to notice also the Millennial period as con¬ nected with it, and probably designed to usher it in, and hence, apparently, embraced under the expression of “the kingdom.''' For there is but one reign and one kingdom^ expressly spoken of in Scripture, though this will, we believe, be divided into more than one period, e. g. into two at least, the millennial and the eternal. We could certainly have wished to have escaped the influence of those controversies that have prevailed so long on the subject of the Millennium, and the strong prejudices also which exist in many minds with regard to it, but which perhaps are scarcely matter of wonder, when it is remembered how wild and objectionable have been some of the theories, or rather fancies, which have been set'forth in con¬ nection with it, and which have had the effect of rendering even the very term “ Millennium ” offensive to many who have been but imperfectly acquainted with the subject; just as the subject of prophecy generally has been brought into disrepute by the great want of unanimity among those who have from * This statemfint refers to Christ’s own proper kingdom, commencing at hie second advent, and does not embrace his present reign at the right hand of the Father. 16 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essat I. used, and which therefore must be distinguished from other portions in which no symbol appears. There may be, and I am persuaded there are, many other portions of the Bible which refer to the same period as Eev. xx.; and it becomes an important duty to endeavour carefully to trace the connection between them; but still the difference in the character of the writing in the two cases, must not be forgotten, and the identification of their subjects must not be too readily assumed. A reign of Christ upon earth will be found clearly and expressly foretold in numerous places of the Word of Grod; but whether some par¬ ticular passage in which this is the case, and which may be under our consideration, refer to exactly the same period of this reign as Eev. xx. is clearly another question. The identity is frequently affirmed in a way which only shows the rashness of those who make it. One consequence of this mode of proceeding—the con¬ founding together the different periods of the Mes¬ siah’s reign, namely— has been, that the millennium has been made to assume undue and exaggerated proportions. It has been so magnified as to hide the eternal kingdom which lies beyond it. It may be a glorious fact, but assuming it to be so, it will Part I. ] THE MILLENNIUM. 15 time to time stood forth as its interpreters. But in both cases, eventually, “Wisdom will be justified of all her children.” Those prejudices and misconcep¬ tions, however, to which we have referred, form serious obstocles to the reception of truth, and one may be readily pardoned for wishing to be so fortu¬ nate as not to come into collision or contact with them. This, however, is more than can be rightly expected ; but it may serve to bespeak a candid hearing for what will be found propounded in these pages, if it be also found that neither human tradi¬ tion nor human fancy has been consulted or followed, and that the evidence afforded by Eevelation has alone been relied on. As to the Millennium, I may say in a word, that I believe, in the first place, that it will undoubtedly take place after the Second Advent; and, in the next place, that it will he a literal reign upon earth of Christ and His saints. I would, however, observe, that it must he remembered, the Millennium, pro¬ perly so called, that is, a period of a thousand years, is found expressly mentioned in only one place of Scripture (Kev. xx.), and that, too, in a part in which some amount of symbol would certainly seem to be Part I.] THE MILLENNIUM. 17 yet endure but for a thousand years. What, we may ask, is this to eternity? Yet many of its zealous advocates have had their minds entirely absorbed by it. Their whole attention has been confined to it, just as if there were nothing beyond it, and as if it were the great and crowning object of hope to the church of God. They forget, that “ even that which may be made glorious, hath no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which will be done away is glorious, much more that which will remain is glorious. (2 Cor. iii. 10, 11.) The course which I propose to adopt in reference to the evidence by which I hope to support the doc¬ trine laid down is, first to produce a certain amount of direct or positive evidence in favour of it, and then to apply the doctrine, when so discovered, to the elucidation of certain other passages in which it will be found necessarily involved or implied, and which cannot be satisfactorily explained on any other theory. The first process may be styled analytic or inductive; the second synthetic, or deductive'; ' These two processes will be found admirably expressed in the extracts given in Appendix A. C 18 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. and taken together, they must, I conceive, be ad¬ mitted to be conclusive, — assuming, of course, that the evidence produced he of a satisfactory nature. The direct evidence need not be lengthy, and for this reason — because it is direct. All we have to do is to be assured that it is this, and we shall then feel that the question must be regarded as decided, though it will add to our satisfaction and give strength to our conviction to follow it out by another process, and to find that the result is the same. It will readily be supposed that the first passage likely to be cited is the following,— “‘Nevertheless ive, according to his 'promise, look for neiu heavens and a neiv earth, wherein divelleth righteousness.^'’ (2 Pet. iii. 13.) On all hands these words are admitted to refer to the eterncd state, and they constitute, there¬ fore, the most complete testimony upon the subject under discussion that we could desire, because they determine for us both the time and also the locality. That they unquestionably decide the latter as well as the former, will be seen, it is hoped, when we have carefully examined the chapter in which they are found; and, seeing what a very important bearing this portion of Scripture has upon our subject, it Part L] THE FIRST PROOF CITED, 19 will be biglily desirable to give it as full an inves¬ tigation as our space will allow. All of course depends upon whether the words be taken literally or figuratively — literally of the ma¬ terial earth and heavens, or figuratively of some moral condition of mankind. These are the two alternatives before us. It must be admitted that they differ very widely from each other. There will, however, be but little difficulty in deciding between them. For how stands the case ? The subject is introduced by the Apostle’s noticing (ver. 3) the unbelieving taunts of certain scoffers who, it seems, will ask in reference to the second advent of the Eedeemer, “ Where is the promise of His coming?” and who will afBrm, that “ since the fathers fell asleep, all things con¬ tinue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” The phraseology of this passage, together with its context, clearly shows that the scoff is directed against the probability of any change in the physical or mate¬ rial world, -which they will have heard is to take place at the second advent of the Messiah, as well as against the advent itself. This is shown by the Apostle’s reply. To meet their assertion that no such change had ever taken place in past days, he refers 20 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. to the Noachian deluge, which, as he tells us, they were “ willingly ignorant of,’’ but which was of such a nature as to lead to the destruction of the ancient world. This was a purely physical catastrophe, pro¬ ducing, indeed, a moral result, in that it led to the destruction of the ungodly, but still in itself of a purely physical character. And this is seen in the specification which is made of some of the phenomena of the case: — “By the word of Grod the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the ivater and in the ivater^'’ (ver. 5). No rational being can doubt whether the material earth and heavens are here alone meant. There is no doubt upon the sub¬ ject. There is no room for any. Nor is there in reference to those which are next mentioned, as those which now exist: — “ But the heavens anid the earth, which are noiv, by the same word are kejDt in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and 'perdition of ungodly men" (ver. 7). All must of course admit, all do admit, that again the literal, ma¬ terial earth and heavens are meant; and all under¬ stand the Apostle to say, that as the world in the days of Noah was, as it were, destroyed by water, the world that now exists will hereafter be destroyed by Part I.] SUBJECT CONTINUED. 21 fire: and that as the former event was the means of destroying the ungodly of that day, so will the future one be the means of destroying those of the same character in its day. But the action of water and of fire are very different, and their destructive results differ immensely. The deluge would, in some measure, affect the surface of the earth, and effectually destroy its ungodly inhabitants; hut fire, and especially such fire as that foretold by the Apostle^, will not only destroy its inhabitants, but also the earth itself — not annihilate it, indeed, but render it utterly unfit any longer to be the abode of man. The conflagration will, it seems, be mighty and universal. “ The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass aivay ivith a great noise, and the elements shall melt ivith fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall he burned up’’’ (ver. 10). Again, it is clear that the literal, ma¬ terial earth and heavens are alone meant. It is im¬ possible that any other can be intended. The con¬ nection renders this necessary and certain. But must not this also be the case in reference to the earth • See AppE^^)IX B. 22 rnYSICO-PEOrilETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. and heavens which the Apostle next speaks of, when, after having reminded us of our duty in the prospect of such great and mighty changes as those he had predicted, he immediately proceeds to sa}": — “ Ne¬ vertheless we, according to his promise, look for new Icecvvens and a neiu earth, tvherein dwelleth righteous¬ ness’’^'^ (ver. 13.) Is it possible that any argument can be needed to show that this passage is so imme¬ diately connected with those which precede it, that the subject must be the same in both cases ? If in all the former verses the literal earth and heavens were certainly, nay, necessarily, meant, must not the same be the case here? To take the expressions in all the former verses literally, and to understand the same in this verse figuratively, is surely to violate all consistency of interpretation. It is difficult to speak of such a course with becoming coolness; for if but once allowed and carried out, it would render the Bible altogether unintelligible, and its meaning so utterly uncertain, that we never could be assured that we understood it aright. And there is here, we may add, neither symbol nor figure. Nay, if there be a clear and simple passage in the Bible this is one. Nor is the chapter in which it occurs symbolic, as, for in- Part L] SUBJECT CONTINUED. 23 stance, some in the book of Eevelation are; but it is throughout of such a character, in point of style and matter, that, if it is not to be understood in its plain, literal, and obvious sense, it would be difficult to name any chapter in the Word of Grod that should be so taken. ‘ This brief discussion as to the meaning of this passage was necessary, not only on account of its bearing upon our subject, and upon the principle of interpretation generally, but also because it determines the sense of three other important passages, two of which are immediately connected with this, and all of which evidently refer to the same subject. These are Isaiah Ixv. 17, Ixvi. 22, and Eev. xxi. 1. It is unquestionable that when St. Peter says, that we “ look for new heavens and a new earth according to God's promise," he alludes to the two former of these pas¬ sages, which run as follows:—“ For, behold, 1 create ' We hare here a case to which the celebrated rule of the “judicious Hooker”—never more “judicious” than when he wrote the words— may justly be applied:—“ I hold it for a most infallible rule in ex¬ positions of sacred Scripture, that where a literal construction wiU stand, the farthest from the letter is commonly the worst. There is nothing more dangerous than this licentious and deluding art, which changeth the meaning of words, as alchymy doth, or would do the substance of metals, making of anything what it listeth, and bringeth in the end all truth to nothing.”— Eccl. Pol. b. v. ch. lix. 2. 24 PHYSICO-PROPnETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. neiv heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not he remembered, nor come into mind.’’' (Isaiah Ixv. 17.) ‘‘For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shcdl your seed and your name remainF (Isaiah Ixvi. 22.) St. Peter evidently quotes or alludes to these passages, and he does so in a definite and specific sense, and in so doing he has determined for us the light in which they must be vdewed. It is true that no other sense can be rightly given to them, if in interpreting them we adhere to the common usage of terms, and do not attempt to force some mystical meaning upon them which they cannot, except with the greatest difficulty, be made to bear; but the Apostle’s authority has decided the matter for us, and we have no need to investigate it farther. Eev. xxi. 1, is an independent passage — independent of, and unconnected with, this of St. Peter. But it contains the same expressions, and manifestly refers to the same subject; and announces, in short, the fulfilment of the “promise” to which he alludes. We are surely, therefore, justified in saying, that since he uses the terms, “netu heavens and a neiv earth,’’’’ for literal heavens and a literal earth, the same terms Part I.] CONNECTED -WITH OTIIEES. 25 mean the same things when used by St. John in the following connection :— And I saiu a 7ieiv heaven and a neiv earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were 'passed aivay ; aiul there was no more seaA (Rev. xxi. 1.) But to return to 2 Pet. iii. 13. We may now assume, without further controversy, that we are distinctly taught by this passage of Scripture, that when the present material earth and heavens shall have been destroyed by fire, a new creation will fill their place, and that this new creation will form the eternal abode of the righteous. That the right¬ eous, or in other words “the saints,” are meant by the emphatic expression “ righteousness ” is obvious; for the abstract principle of righteousness, apart from person of some kind, could not “ dwell ” upon any earth. The redeemed saints therefore, are of course meant, and we have here, consequently, first the abode, and next its inhabitants—the one glorious, the other “blessed and holy.” (Rev. xx. 6.) That it will be their eternal abode will be seen from the following considerations: — It is introduced by * Kev. xxi. 27. 26 PHYSICO-PIIOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essav I. St. Peter, after the great destruction by fire of the present earth and heavens; and this exactly agrees with the order of events given in the book of Ee- velation. In Eev. xx. 11, for example, the earth and heavens are said to have “fled away, and no “place was found for theinfl’ and then it is an¬ nounced by the Apostle, in Eev. xxi. 1, that “ he saiu a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there ivas no more sea.'” This exactly agrees with the order of St. Peter; and seeing that no creation of any kind is announced as subsequent to these new heavens and new earth, we must necessarily conclude that these are the last that will be formed, and that they will therefore be eternal. This, indeed, is, in effect, expressly affirmed in one of those passages from Isaiah already qnoted, viz. chap. Ixvi. 22. “As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Loed, so shall your seed and your name remain.” This seems to be sufficient to warrant us in understanding that the new creation will be the last, and therefore that it will form the eternal abode of the righteous. It will be now necessary to enter upon the ex- Part I.] THE NEW EAETII THE ETEENAL ABODE. 27 amination of some fresh topics, and to connect, by a fresh chain of proof, the point we have already reached v/ith others which are involved in, and are necessary to., the general proposition, w’hich it is the object of this Essay to establish. What we have next to show is this,—That as this earth will be the eternal abode of the righteous, so WILL IT ALSO BE THE LOCALITY OF ChEIST’S ETEKNAL KINGDOM. If, indeed, it be the one, it will also be the other, for wherever the glorified Head will be, there will also be the Members. This, as we know, is repeatedly affirmed both by our Lord Himself, and also by His Apostles. It is, in short, one of the leading promises made to the believing members of the Church. “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant 6e.” (John xii. 26.) “And if I go and prepare a place for *you, / will come again, and receive you, unto myself.; that where I am, there ye may be also'"’ (John xiv. 3.) ^‘Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, he with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, ivhich thou hast given me.” (John xvii. 24.) “And if children, then heirs; heirs of Hod, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be 28 PITTSICO-rEOPnETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. that we suffer with Him, that may he also glorified together.’’’’ (Eom. viii. 17.) “That in the dispen¬ sation of the fidness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both ivhich are in heaven, and ivhich are on earth; even in Jdm.’’ (Ephes. i. TO.) ‘‘Then we which are alive and remain shall he caught up together Avith them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall tve ever he ivith the Lord.’’’’ (1 Thess. iv. 17.) Again, Avhile discussing the above topic, we shall also be led to consider the question of the connection of the present earth Avith that Avhich is to fill its place; and to examine the evidence that may be produced to show that the neAv creation Avill not be new in the sense of being produced out of nothing, but Avill rather be a renewal of the jAresent: in a Avord, that this present earth aauII not be annihilated, but Avill be remoulded 4 by creative poAver and fitted to be the abode of the righteous, in their reneAved and glorified state. In order to proceed Avith that part of our subject, Avhich we have now under discussion — the locality, namely, of the eternal kingdom—Ave mtist first notice that of the hvo reigns of Christ. For until these are understood the subject of His kingdom is never com- Part I.] CHRIST AND IIIS PEOPLE TOGETHER. 29 prehended aright. Texts are misunderstood and mis¬ quoted, and passages which refer to one period are ap¬ plied to another, so that nothing but confusion ensues. How, indeed, can it be otherwise, so long as we pro¬ ceed upon the theory that there is hut one reign of Christ, while, on the one hand, we are told His king¬ dom is to be ‘‘for everf^ and that of it there will be “ no end and on the other, that He is to “ de¬ liver iqo the kingdom to the Father"?^ — while, too, one class of passages expressly tell us that His throne will be upon “ Earth and another class as dis¬ tinctly speak of His reigning in Heaven.^ How, I ask, can any other than confusion be the result, so long as we attempt to make such discordant expres¬ sions refer to but one and the same kingdom ? Let me then here state what I believe to be the teaching of Scripture upon the subject, and I shall endeavour, as I proceed, to support the view by its testimony. Christ's kingdom, then, toill he upon Earth, not in Heaven. He is now, indeed, reigning in heaven, but He is not now upon His own, but * Ps. xlv. 6. ® 1 Cor. XV. 24. * 1 Cor. XV. 25. Luke i. 33. Jer. xxiii. 5. 30 PHTSICO-PKOPnETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. on His Father’s throne. His own proper kingdom as Messiahhas not yet commenced, nor will do so, until His second advent, when it will begin. The following tabular view of the subject Avill convey a clearer idea of it, and will exhibit it in a smaller compass than if put in any other form. The first column contains a selection of texts in which Christ’s 'present reign in Heaven is more or less directly referred to : the second, passages which in like manner refer to His future reign upon Earth. Only some of them, indeed, speak of the locality of this latter reign; but this wilf be more fully shown here¬ after.^ The results deducible from the texts pro¬ duced, are given at the foot of the columns, and should be compared together in the order in which they are numbered. THE TWO EEIGXS OF THE MESSIAH. I. The present reign of Christ in Hea-ven. The First Kingdom. 1. This was given to Him by the Father. “ The Lord said imto my Lord, n. The future reign op Christ on Earth. The Second Kingdom. 1. This He will enter n'gon at His Second Advent. “ I saw in the night visions, and * Ps. ii. 2, 0. * Ste p, 37. Part I.] TEE TWO EEIGNS OF CHRIST. 31 Sit thou at my right hand untd I make thine enemies thy foot-stool.” Ps. cx. 1. “For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet.For He hath put all things under His feet.” 1 Cor. xv. 25-27. “ Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He put all in subjection imder Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him.” Heb. ii. 8. “WTio is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him.” 1 Pet. iii. 22. 2. JFas given as the reward of His sujfermgs and work. “ And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Where¬ fore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” Phil. ii. 8, 9. “ Which (power) He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days ; and they brought him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a king¬ dom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him ; His dominion is an everlasting do¬ minion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”* Dan. vii. 13, 14. “ Whom the heaven must re¬ ceive imtil the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets, since the world began.” Acts iii. 21. See the parable of the noble¬ man receiving a kingdom, given in Luke xix. 11-27, which forms a striking illustration of the subject throughout. This, indeed, must have been its chief design. “ And as they heard these things. He added and spake a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immedi¬ ately appear.” He said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.” (v. * It may be fairly argued, that the time referred to in the commence¬ ment of this passage, as that in which He who was “ like the Son of man” was “ brought near before the Ancient of daj’s,” was that of the Ascension of Christ into heaven : but undoubtedly tlie “ dominion ” given to Him is that which He wiU enter upon at His Second Advent. The case, therefore, may be regarded as exactly parallel to that of the “ Nobleman who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return”, in order to take possession of it. Luke xix. 11-27. 3^ PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come ; and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church.” Ephes.i. 20-22. “ Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the .shame, and is set domi at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb. xii. 2. 3. In jproiwrly the Father's, not the Son's. “ To him that overeometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set do^vn nitli my La¬ ther in his throne.” Eev. iii. 21. “ The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at My right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot¬ stool.” Ps. cx. 1. 4. Is to he giuen iip to the Fatlur. “Tlien cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Fa¬ ther; when He shall have put 11, 12.) “And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then, &c.” (v. lo.) “ I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.” * 2 Tim. iv. i. 2. Is His own proper kingdom. “ The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.” Ps. cxxxii. 11. “ To him tliat overeometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne.” Rev. iii. 21. “Wlien the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit on the tlirone of His glory.” Matt. xxv. 31. “ He shall be great, and shaU be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His Father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.”* Luke i. 32, 33. ' The manner in which His “ kingdom " is here named in connection with His ^‘appearing," or advent, strikingly shows that they are both alike future and contemporaneous, and wiU begin together. ^ This is of course a repetition of the promise made in Ps. cxxxii. 11, and in many other places of the Old Testament, If we would see what are the results of the spiritualizing system of inter¬ preting Scripture on such promises as these, we may find a striking and painful example in the note of "Whitby on 1 Cor. xv. 28. It Part I.] THE TWO REIGNS OF CHRIST. 33 down all rule, and all authority, and power.” 1 Cor. xv. 24. 5. The Son from this time to be subject to the Father. “ And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be aU in all.” 1 Cor. XV. 28. 6. Will terminate at the Second Advent. “'Whom the heaven must re¬ ceive UNTIL the times of the re- . stitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of aU His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts iii. 21. “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make' thine enemies thy foot¬ stool.” Ps. cx, 1. “ For He must reign, until He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” 1 Cor. XV. 25, 26. F.B. When, therefore, this last enemy is destroyed. His present reign will terminate. But the dead wdl be raised at His second coming (1 Thess. iv. 13-18), therefore His present reign will then ter¬ minate. And it is most important to observe that throughout this See farther; Jer. xxiii. 5. Isai. xi. passim. Isai. ix. 7. 3. Is to continue for ever. “ And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be de- ' stroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and con¬ sume aU these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” Dan. ii. 44. “And there was given Him do¬ minion, and glory, and a king¬ dom, that aU people, nations, and languages should serve Him : His dominion is an everlasting do¬ minion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Dan. vii. 14. “ Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of Thy king¬ dom is a right sceptre.” Ps. xlv. 6. Comp. Heb. i. 8. “ I have made a covenant ■with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed -will I establish for ever, and build up Thy throne unto all generations.” Ps. Ixxxix. 3, 4. “Of the increase of His go¬ vernment and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth, even concludes as follows ;—“When there is no more a house of Jacob to reign over, or a throne of David to sit on.” Anything more terrible than this, as rendering the promises of God “ of none effect,” it is scarcely possible to conceive ; and yet Scott has quoted Whitby without protest, and therefore it is to be supposed approvingly ! D ,■54 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. chapter (1 Cor. xv.) it is the re¬ surrection of the believing dead alone that is spoken of. The death, therefore, that is to be destroyed is death in relation to them, not death generally or unirersally, for this will not take place until the close of the Alillennium. (Rev. XX. 5.) It is the ^'■last enemy" of His people that is referred to, and this will be destroyed the moment lie leaves “the right hand” of the Father. He will therefore “sit” there ‘■'■until" this enemy be made his footstool. I may add, that all our wTiters regard 1 Cor. xv. as referring only to the resurrection of “ them that sleep in Jesus,” and unless this be distinctly borne in mind, great confusion must ensue. H. B. We see, therefore, from the above passages :— I. . That this kingdom is pro¬ perly the Fathee’s, not Christ's, ■who is only appointed to it as Regent for a time. Rev. iii. 21. for ever. The zeal of the Lord oi Hosts will perform this.” Isai.ix. 7. “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke i. 32, 33.' “ And the seventh angel soun¬ ded ; and there were great voices in heaven, saying. The kingdoms of this world are become the king¬ doms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.” Rev. xi. 15. H. B. We see, therefore, from the above passages:— I. That this is the Messiah's own proper kingdom. Isai. ix. 7. Matt. XXV. 31. Rev. 3. 21. * It is important to.notice, however briefly, the import of the expres¬ sion, “ the throne of His father David," in order to observe that David’s throne, so far as its locality was concerned, was on earth; and so far as his people were concerned, they were essentially “ the house of Jacob," i. e. the Jews. How utterly unwarrantable to make this correspond to Christ’s present spiritual reign, the locality of which is heaven, and the subjects of which consists of Gentiles, as well as Jews, the former, as yet, in far greater proportion than the latter! AVhat is this, moreover, but to say that David's throne and God's throne are one, seeing that they are made to correspond the one to the other. To what marvellous lengths have men gone in their perversions of the word of God, in order to make it square with their preconceived views and theories ! Comp, with this, Ps. Ixxxix. 3, 4, Jer. xxiii. 5, Isai. ix. 7, in all of which we have the same truth couched in the same or similar expressions. Part I.] THE KESITLT OF THE ANALYSIS. 35 2. That His reign over it is to 2. That it will endure for ever, come to an end. 1 Cor. xv. 24. Dan. vii. 27. Isai. ix. 7. Eev. xi. 15. 3. That its termination will syn- 3. That it will commence at chronise with His Second Advent. His Second Advent. 2 Tim. iv. 1. Acts iii. 21. Ps. cx. 1. 1 Cor. xy. 25, 26. Now I submit that the above analysis of this important subject serves to remove every difficulty with regard to it; and, without doing violence to a single text, brings them all into harmony one with the other. How different this to the popular mode of viewing it, which so wrests many of the plainest and most ordinary expressions as to make them mean the very opposite to what they were evi¬ dently intended to convey, or passes them over as if they did not appear in the record! To bring all the passages that refer to the Messiah’s reign into har¬ mony with the theory of one spiritual reign— “Earth'''’ is made to mean ‘‘heaven,” or is passed over with¬ out notice, as the case may be. “ Jacob'” and “Israel'' become believing “ Gientiles ” as well as Jews! Take, on the other hand, the theory of two kingdoms, as given above, and the different classes of texts relating to the reign of the Messiah naturally fall into their respective places, and range themselves under their 36 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. appropriate heads, and every expression taken in its plain, literal, and obvious sense, becomes replete with meaning. As an illustTation of the subject, the parable of the nobleman going into a far country to re¬ ceive a kingdom and to return (Luke xix. 11—27) is invaluable, and is as clear and simple as any¬ thing that can be desired. It seems amazing how its obvious meaning and design could ever have been overlooked. But what will not preconceived views do in the way of blinding our minds to the plainest truths! We know what the expectations of the Jews were as to the kingdom of the Messiah in regard to themselves (Acts i. 6, 7) : they, it seems, thought that His kingdom would at this time “ immediately appear: ” to correct this notion, and also because He was now “nigh to Jerusa¬ lem,”—the capital, be it remembered, around whose sacred name so many prophecies clustered! ^ —om‘ Lord spake this parable.^ In it, the “ nobleman ” evidently represents our Lord himself; his “ going * e. g. “They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord!” Jer. ill. 17. ^ ‘If we hear in mind the custom of the day, or the cases on which in all probability our Lord has founded this parable, it will be felt to be 37 Part I.] TKE LOCALITY OF CIIMST’s KINGDOM. into a far country to receive for liimself a kingdom and to return,” shows that Christ must go into’ heaven to be invested with the kingdom which, on His return. He is to take rightful possession of, and to reim over in righteousness. But he must “re- turn ” to do this, for the nobleman’s kingdom was not in the “ far country,” but in that from which He departed when He left in order to go to be in¬ vested with it.^ So will it be with Him who is “ King of kings, and Lord of lords.” He is “ gone into heaven,” “ to receive the kingdom ” (Dan. vii. 14), to which He was the rightful heir; hut He will “ return,” and He will then “ sit on the throne of his glory,” and, while He will he “ King over the whole earth,” He will, in an especial manner, “ reign over the house of Jacob for ever.” (Luke i. 33.) It will be now necessary to enter more specifically, than we have hitherto done into the question of the LOCALITY of Christ's own proper kingdom. We have stiU more striking as an illustration of the views which it is here brought to exemplify. Three of the kings of Judaea, viz. Herod the Great, Archelaus, and Agrippa the Younger, went to Home to have their right to the throne recognised and confirmed by the Koman Emperor. * See Trench on this parable, p. 514. 38 PHYSICO'PEOrirETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. already seen, indeed, that it will be upon earth; but it will be necessary to confirm this view with a larger amount of proof than we have hitherto given, and with proof more direct in its bearing than has yet been produced. But it must be observed that the passages, which are now about to be produced, are not quoted as certainly referring to the eternal kingdom. Some of them, at least, we doubt not, relate to the mil- lenial, ratlier than to the eternal period. But they show conclusively that this earth will be the locality of Christ’s kingdom in some one or other of its phases ; and it will afterwards be shown how this links us on to the eternal state. The passages which speak of this earth as the locality of the Messiah’s reign are so numerous, that all we can do is to make a selection. Among them Jer. xxiii. 5, 6, is perhaps one of the most striking and conclusive:—“ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I ivill raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the Earth. In his days Judah shall he saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall he called. The Lord our Eighteousness.” On this Part I.] THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 39 we may remark that no shadow of doubt exists with 'regard to the person indicated. Jews and Grentiles alike understand the Messiah. He alone can be the ‘‘righteous Branch of David,” and can bear the in¬ communicable name of “ Jehovah-tsidkenu.” Where, then, is it said He will reign ? Again there is no room for doubt. In language that can admit of but one possible interpretation, we are told it will be upon “eart/i.” And as to the notion that this pro¬ phecy is even now receiving its accomplishment in the spiritual reign of Christ in the hearts of His people who are now upon earth, though He himself is in heaven, it may be replied, that this is so far from corresponding to the terms in which the predicted reign is expressed, that it seems truly astonishing that so loose a mode of interpreting them could ever have found a single advocate. Nor is this all. That the reign is yet future is conclusively proved from what follows in the seventh and eighth verses, where the recall of the Jews from “all the countries whither the Lord had driven them ” is foretold; and where it is moreover declared that this restoration to their “ own land ” shall be so illustrious and signal as utterly to throw into the shade their exode out of Egypt. No- 40 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. thing corresponding to this has yet taken place. It is absurd to say that this illustrious prophecy in its two-fold bearing as relating to the Messiah’s reign and to His people’s restoration to their ^‘own land,” re¬ ceived its fulfilment in the Jews’ return from Babylon. Whatever may be thought of that return, so far as they were concerned, in no sense did He then reign over them in justice and judgment as j^redicted. And as to ‘‘ Judah being saved and Israel dwelling safely ” from that time. His coming to them was qiiickly followed by their fearful overthrow by the Eomans and their subsequent dispersion into all the countries of the earth. This subject of Israel’s restoration will introduce us to a large class of passages which will, like the one wm have just noticed, serve to determine for us the ques¬ tion we are considering respecting the locality of the Messiah’s reign, seeing that to show that He is to reign over them in their “own land,” will amount to the same thing as proving that He will reign upon “ earth.” The following words, therefore, may be appropriately quoted as bearing upon the subject: — “ The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying. Moreover, thou Son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Part 1.] ISKAEl’s EESTORATION. 41 I Judali, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his com¬ panions : And join them one to another into one stick ; and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying. Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these ? Say unto them. Thus saith the Lord Grod; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And say unto them. Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, Avhither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their oivn land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: .... And David my ser¬ vant shall he king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments. 42 PHYSICO-PKOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall divell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: And my servant David shcdl he their 'prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of pjeace 'with them; it shall be an .everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their Grod, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.”—Ezek. xxxvii. 15—28. Comment upon this is scarcely necessary. It is, however, impos¬ sible to say with any measure of consistency that anything corresponding to a fulfilment of it has, as yet, taken place. The two branches of the Jewish family, Judah and Israel, namely, embracing the entire twelve tribes, are to form ‘‘one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one Icing shall he Icing to them cdl.” This will be “ in the land given unto Jacob, 'wherein their fathers dwelt which is Part 1.] CHARACTER OF MESSIAH’S REIGX. 43 thus minutely described, in order, apparently, to pre¬ vent any possible mistake as to what is meant,: over them while there, Grod’s “ servant David shall be a prince for ever; ” and with them at the same time God will make “ a covenant of peace which shall be an ever¬ lasting covenantf and will “ set his sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.^’’ Where are they now ? What is their state ? What the state of their city ? What that of “ the holy and beautiful house in which their fathers worshipped ” ? The answers which must necessarily be given to these questions prove how ab- surd it is, in connection with such a prophecy as this, to dream of the restoration from Babylon as a fulfil¬ ment of it, or to deny that its fulfilment must be yet future. It is, assuredly, as conclusive as words can make it in favour of the doctrine that the Messiah shall yet reign upon earth.^ IsAi. XI. is a portion of Scripture that should not be passed over without especial notice, though we can do no more than briefly remark on its general bearing upon the subject before us. It forms throughout a bright and glowing description of Messiah’s glory, and ' Compare with this, Ezek. xxxiv. 22—24; xxx\hi. 1—14; Jer. XXX. 9 ; Hos. iii. 5 ; Jer. iii. 16 —18. 44 PIIYSICO-PEOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. of the character of his reign and kingdom. This is universally admitted. That nothing approaching to a fulfilment of it has yet taken place must also be ad¬ mitted, if the obvious import of its terms be but duly considered; and if it be moreover remembered, that here also we have a prediction of Israel’s restoration “from the four corners of the earthf proving, as in the cases before noticed, that the time must necessarily be yet future. And yet that the scene of this righteous and glorious reign will be, not heaven, but earth, is readily seen from this— “the earth shall (then) he fall of the hioivledge of the Lord as the ivaters cover the sea ” (ver. 9). Throughout the chapter, indeed, the language is only applicable to a terrestrial, and not a celestial, state of things, except so far as the heavenly and peaceful character of that state is concerned. I have hitherto proceeded on the assumption that the “new earth” will be the present one in a renewed and renovated state; but I must not make this assumption any longer without endeavouring to support it by some amount of proof. This I now proceed to do. But it is right to apprize the reader that the evidence which will be laid before him on this point, will not be so full as that which has been produced on those which have Part I.] FUTURE PHYSICAL CHANGES. 45 already engaged our attention. Still, though the direct evidence will be but comparatively scanty, it will yet, I believe, be found perfectly satisfactory in its nature, and so also, I trust, will be the collateral and inferen¬ tial proof; and taken together they form an amount of evidence that has long since satisfied my own mind, and left not a doubt upon it. I am aware, indeed, how readily we think an opinion proved when “ the wish is father to the thought” that so it should be; but I think it can scarcely be said that this is the case in the present instance; and it will soon, I trust, be seen that while there is direct evidence on the one side, there is absolutely none of any kind whatever on the other. That great physical changes will be wrought in the condition of the earth admits, I conceive, of the clearest proof, and these will be hereafter noticed; but it is not equally clear that they belong to the very last period of its long, eventful history, when “ the new heavens and the new earth ” will be ushered in, but more pro¬ bably, some of them at least, relate rather to the time of the second advent and to the millennial period; whereas, what we want to have now proved is— that there will he a connection between the present earth and that new one which is to Jill its place, and which. 46 PIIYSICO-PROPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. as we have already seen, is undoubtedly to form the eternal abode of the righteous. The question to be decided, if possible, is this :—Will this present earth be annihilated in order to make room for another ? or will it not rather continue, but undergo such essential changes as to become by this means the new one so clearly foretold ? That the latter view is the correct one I can have no doubt. In support of this opinion, I may observe, in the first place, that the Scriptures never, in any case, that I am aware of, speak in a manner that, when examined and compared'^with other portions of them¬ selves, favour the idea of annihilation; but they do speak of change, and that too as about to take 'place at the very period 'when the neiv heavens and the new earth will undoubtedly be ushered in by their Almighty Creator} The passing away of the pre¬ sent system of things is, as we have already seen, frequently proclaimed in Scripture. It is so both in the Old Testament and also in the New. Our ' It is perfectly clear that Ps. cii. 26, Matt. xxiv. 35, and Eev. XX 11 all refer to the same great event, and that that event will be succeeded by the introduction of “ the new heavens and new earth,” appears from Rev. xxi. 1. Part I.] SUBJECT CONTINUED. 47 Lord authoritatively and emphatically announces it. “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, bid my word shall not pass aivay” (Matt. xxiv. 35.) Isaiah proclaims it:—“ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.’^ (Isai. li. 6.) The Psalmist in like exalted strains speaks of it: and now let us mark the terms in which as “moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. i. 21) he does so :—“ Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall he CHANGED : but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” (Ps. cii. 25, 26.) This is all-impor¬ tant as bearing upon the subject before us. It serves in a great measure to decide it. Here we have “ changef not annihilation;* and we may add * The same may he said in reference to the annoiincements made in Kev. xxi. 1. “ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first 4S niYSICO-PEOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay L that the latter is incompatible with the former. To say that a thing is changed is, in effect, to say that it is still in being, and this excludes the idea of its annihilation. And so when we read in this sublime portion of God’s word, that in the revolutions of time. He will ‘‘ change ” the earth and heavens that are now, and “ which are the work of His hands,” we undoubtedly infer, that they will not pass away in the sense of ceasing to exist, but will, by a fresh exercise of His creative power ^ be renewed and renovated, and thus made the suitable abode, in its advanced and exalted character, for those for whom His mercy and goodness will have provided it, and who, like itself, will be in an exalted and glorified heaven and the first earth were passed away: ” hut that they had not ceased to exist is immediately shown by what follows —And there .was no more sea.” This, it will be observed, is altogether inconsistent with the idea of annihilation, and implies that the earth was stiU in being, but so changed in condition as to appear entirely “ new,” and one great and distinguishing feature which served to mark this was the entire absence of sea. The following remarks are very conclusive in their bearing upon this subject;—“And while one class of these interpreters would thus explain away the words ‘ earth and heavens,’ another, not going so far, would yet stumble on the epithet ‘ new,’ maintaining that it must mean a different globe altogether, forgetting that Seri^Jtiu’e speaks also of a ‘ new man,’ thereby meaning, — not a different man, but the same man made new, — not one indi\ddual annihilated and replaced by another, but the same man made new, the same individual fashioned aright and purified,”—Rev. H. Bonau, Prophetical Landmarhs, p. 212. * Rev. xxi. 5. “ And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Part L] ANNIHILATION. 49 condition. It will be “ Paradise Regained : ” but more than that,—for where sin abounded, grace will much more abound.” It may be here permitted me to remark, that, seeing there is nothing in Scripture to favour the idea of the future annihilation of our globe, we certainly cannot be justified in holding that view; for on this, as upon every other topic, it is not allowed us to add ” ^ to the Divine record. And we may observe farther, that as the idea of annihilation finds no sup¬ port in Eevelation, so neither does it in Nature. The universe, so far as we are acquainted with it, affords no example of the kind, and the operations of nature, so far as they are known to us, give not the slightest countenance to it; but the earth itself supplies us with a series of changes that have been in operation through untold ages, and have witnessed its passage from an originally rude and chaotic, if not nebulous, con¬ dition, to that in which it is at present found. The idea of annihilation, therefore, is as unphilosophic, as it is destitute of scriptural warrant; while the opposite view is in harmony with all that we know ‘ Deut. iv. 2 ; Eev. xxii. 18. 50 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. of the operations of nature as exhibited in the past history of our globe. I beg, however, that it may be distinctly understood, that I do not adduce this as evidence, but simply to show that so far from there being any jprimd facie assumption against the view now maintained, there is, on the contrary, much in favour of it. But a large amount of collateral evidence may be adduced from Scripture in favour of the theory now maintained, as to the connection between the present earth and that which is to succeed it, and which evidence is derivable from numerous passages in which that theory would seem to be necessarily involved; many of which have been already quoted. We may refer, e. g., to any of those in which the MessialCs reign is recognised as being upon eaetii, or, what amounts to the same thing, “ upon the throne of David,” and yet in which its perpetuity is de¬ clared. Take, for instance, Isa. ix. 7. “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall he no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and ivith justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Loed of Hosts ivill per- Part I.] Christ’s future kingdom. 51 form this.’^ Here we have a state of things which is to prevail undoubtedly upon earth, and yet it is to go on for ever. No intimation is given of a change to another globe. The language is not consistent with such a view of the subject. In short, suppose we had not read of a “ new earth ” as about to suc¬ ceed the present one, we should certainly have said, that nothing could be more clear than that the Messiah’s reign would be perpetuated for ever upon this. The whole phraseology seems to imply this. The perpetuity of the reign implies the perpetuity of its locality. And in keeping with this is another fact, viz., that His future reign is ahvays spoken of as but one. It is to commence at His advent, and from that time is to go on for ever. I charge thee, therefore, before Grod, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom.^’’ (2 Tim. iv. 1.) “And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall he no end.'’’ (Luke i. 33.) Througlmut, the reign seems to have an essential unity, as well as perpetuity. It begins on^ earth and goes on on earth. It commences at the advent 52 PHTSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. and goes on for evermore. It will certainly be di¬ vided into two periods, the millennial and the eternal, and yet it is uniformly spoken of as but one. Now, it seems difficult to reconcile these things with the idea that this earth mil be annihilated; but the difficulty is removed, if, instead of being anni¬ hilated, our globe will, on the contrary, be perpetuated in all its integrity, though in a renewed and glorified state. All this is very important as serving to show, that the connection now maintained between our present globe and the future one would seem to be cer¬ tainly involved in the general phraseology of Scrip¬ ture, and is thus shown to be in perfect harmony with, and not in any way opposed to it. * This ought to be the case if the theory be true. It * What is said of Abraham and his prospects may also be referred to under this head. Take, for instance, the following:—“ By faith, Abra¬ ham, when he was called to go oi;t into a place which he should after re¬ ceive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he w'ent out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of 'promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs 'with him of the same promise ; for he looked for a city which hath founda¬ tions, whose builder and 'maker is God.” (Heb. xi. 8-10.) But in his lifetime upon earth Abraham did not possess a foot of the promised land (Acts vii. 5) ; and if his expectations be ever realised, therefore, they must be so after the resurrection, and “the land of promise,” or something answering to it must be then in existence: and it must be remembered, that a portion of the surface of tlie “ new earth ” will correspond in point of locality or position with the literal Canaan as it now is. (&e pp. 64, 65.) Part I.] SUBJECT CONCLUDED. 53 would not be so if the theory were false. We need it as a synthetic application of that theory; and it is satisfactory to find that we have it. We do not rest our case upon it, but upon the direct testimony adduced; it is, however, confirmatory of that, as a synthetic sup¬ plement is to an analytic proof.. 54 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. PAET 11. — SYNTHETIC. And now this will lead us to what may be re¬ garded as the second division of our subject. Until the last few paragraphs, we have been engaged in investigating the subject analytically, or inductively; we must now inquire how far the entire question will bear to be S3mthetically handled, and that, not merely in reference to portions of Scripture which directly refer either to the kingdom of the Messiah or the future inheritance of the saints, but to others also which contain, it may be, only a general pro¬ mise to them, or denounce some evil that will here¬ after overtake the ungodly. In short, we must now see whether we have arrived at such a generalization of the subject as will embrace- the entire Scriptures. Here is a view, a theory, derived from a careful in¬ duction of various scriptural particulars — derived from an analysis of its expressions and announce¬ ments, which, it must be remembered, are to us Part II.] A PKOMISE TO THE HIGHTEOUS. 55 our facts and data, as those of nature are to the natural philosopher; — can we apply this theory, thus derived, to the explanation and elucidation of other passages, in order to show that our generali¬ zation is sound, and that the theory is true ? The theory, or doctrine is this:— This eakth, in a EENEWED AND GLOKIFIED STATE, WILL BE THE ETERNAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS. How far Can this be shown to pervade the entire volume of revelation, as a fundamental truth on which its general truths and promises rest ? Let us take first a 'promise to the Righteous. And let us take the following, as given by our Lord Himself in His sermon on the Mount:—“ Blessed are the meek : FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.” (Matt. V. 5.) Now here we have an exceeding great and precious promise,” and one that is expressed in very plain and simple terms, without symbol or figure, or anything that can render its meaning doubtful or ob¬ scure. It is, moreover, an essentially practical one, not doctrinal, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but solely designed to encourage the exercise of one of the practical graces of the Christian by the pro¬ mise of a certain reward. Here, then, the meaning 56 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. may fairly be expected to be both evident and certain; and it must be exceedingly important also that we should be well acquainted with it; for the passage is no ordinary one; it occurs as one of a series which has challenged, in no ordinary degree, the earnest attention of the entire Christian world, and has re¬ ceived it. The Sermon on the Mount, and especially that part of it usually denominated “ the Beatitudes,” may not improperly, perhaps, be regarded as the most striking and exalted of even our Lord’s moral discourses, so much is there of the air of heaven and of divine authority in every line of it. It is enthroned in all our minds as something supremely beautiful and perfect. It is in the New Testament what the decalogue is in the Old. In the midst of it occurs the promise we are now considering. What is its meaning? What is it ordinarily supposed to mean? The fairest, and also the most desirable way to answer the question, will be to consult a few commentators who give the popular view of the subject; and if we can find one who may be justly taken as a representative of the whole, we may make his remarks the subject of examination. None have given the prevailing views upon the subject more Part II.] rOPULAR VIEW. 57 clearly and satisfactorily than Scott ^ has done in his notes on our Lord’s words. He expresses himself as follows:—“ The temper itself (viz. meekness) is that of happiness; submission, resignation, peace, and love, are its essence ; contentions, murmurs, and a thousand mis¬ chiefs and miseries are avoided by it: and it is said that ‘ the meek shall inherit the earth.’ This, as it stands in the Old Testament (Ps. xxxvii. 10, 11), is spoken with reference to the promised land, the type of heaven; of which this meekness proves the possessor an heir, and for which it forms an essential qualifi¬ cation. But it also implies, that the meek, however poor in the world, have more actual comfort than any other persons; as if the whole of it were their inheritance. They are more beloved and respected in their families and connections, and are commonly left more undisturbed by their neighbours; they have more peace of conscience, tranquillity of mind, com¬ munion with Gfod, and consolation from His spirit, than other men; and facts in general contradict the declamations of those who contend that such a temper * For Scott, as a commentator and divine, the writer of these re¬ marks would desire to express his most profoimd respect and thankfulness. 58 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. and conduct will expose a man to intolerable injuries and evils in the world. Abraham is called the ‘ heir of the world; ’ and all believers are his children: and ‘ if Christ be ours,’ all things are ours, both in this world and the next.” This fairly gives the popular view of the subject, and it will be observed that there are two things in the statement that call for attention and observation. 1. In the first place, Canaan is declared to be a type of heaven, ivhich is thus hetd out as an object of hope to the meeh. 2. In the next place, the promise of the Saviour is also said to be even now fulfilled in the peaceable enjoyment ivhich the meek have of the present earth, or luorld. Let us carefully examine these state¬ ments in order to see how far they will bear ex¬ amination and meet the requirements of the case. 1. As to the first statement, it may be readily admitted, that when our Lord said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” he had before Him the corresponding expressions of the thirty-seventh Psalm. It must not, however, be for¬ gotten that His statement is an independent one, resting on His own authority, and may be intended to convey either what the expressions of the Psalmist Part IL] SUBJECT EXPLAINED. 59 convey, or much, more. We know how much of what He taught is to be found in the Old Testament, hut yet everything taught by Him assumes to some extent a new aspect, and in all cases becomes His own. But in the present instance, there need not be the slightest difficulty in admitting that He had regard to the thirty-seventh Psalm, and especially to its eleventh verse, when He gave utterance to the promise which we are now considering. As readily must it be admitted, that, throughout that Psalm, the term “earth,'’' is used primarily for the land of Canaan. But it cannot be confined to that, as our Lord’s use of it in the passage before us abundantly shows, and as is, indeed, admitted by all. In short, this Psalm, and especially those parts of it which make a promise to the righteous that they shall “inherit the earth," and, as it is added in the twenty-ninth verse, “ shall dwell therein for ever," is one of those numerous pro¬ phecies of the Old Testament which have a double * The term occurs six times in this Psalm, viz. in verses 3, 9, 11, 22, 29, 34, though in our English version it is in some cases translated "•earthy and in others “ AmcZ.” It occurs altogether about 2342 times in the Old Testament. 60 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. meaning or reference, a primary and a secondary— secondary, that is, in order, not in importance—and which will consequently receive a double fulfilment.^ The Hebrew word which is sometimes rendered in our English version by “ earth ,and in other cases by “land,^’ is used for both, throughout the whole of the Old Testament. And we cannot but * This principle is a most important one, and cannot be done without. It is exemplified in a large class of passages, to the full interpretation of which it is essential. The second Psalm may be cited as an instance. It is quoted in the New Testament as applicable in some of its expres¬ sions to what occurred at the first advent of the Messiah, (Acts iv. 24, 25.) and yet nothing can be more certain than that its language will only receive its complete fulfilment at His second advent. Again, aU those Psalms and other portions of the Old Testament which con¬ tain promises relating to the kingdom of David, and which received a partial fulfilment in himself and his son Solomon, in the first place, but which (as is admitted by all) receive, and will receive their full accomplishment only in the person of Christ, may be also given as in¬ stances. (See Ps. Ixxii.) The following remarks on this subject are truly admirable, and serve at once to explain and defend the principle in the clearest manner:—“This age of prophecy (viz. that of David and Solomon) in particular, brings the doctrine of the ‘ double sense,’ as it has been called, before us. For Scripture prophecy is so framed in some of its predictions, as to bear a sense directed to two objects, of which structure the predictions concerning the kingdom of David fur¬ nish a conspicuous example; and I should say an unquestionable one, if the whole principle of that kind of interpretation had not been by some disputed and denied.The double sense of prophecy, however, is of aU things the most remote from fraud or equivocation, and has its ground of reason perfectly clear. For what is it ? Not the convenient latitude of two unconnected senses, wide of each other, and giving room to a fallacious ambiguity; but the combination of two related, analogous, and harmonizing, though disparate subjects, each clear and definite in itself; implying a twofold tinith in the prescience, and creating an aggravated difficulty, and thereby an accumulated proof in,the completion.” —Davison, Biscotirses on Prophecy p. 195. See also Honar’s “Prophetical Landmarks,” p. 225—27. Part II.] EXPLANATION CONTINUED. 61 feel that this was designed for a special end, in order that, as in the present case, a passage might have a wider and more comprehensive meaning than it could possibly have, had the term been more li¬ mited and specific in its signification. As it is, the promises in the thirty-seventh Psalm which we are now considering, may be legitimately regarded as having two significations or bearings, similar in kind, and in a measure connected, but one far wider and more comprehensive than the other, and the fulfil¬ ment of which will be subsequent to that of the other, — as is always the case in every prophecy having a double sense; its greater and more com¬ plete fulfilment will be subsequent to its primary, which is the lesser. Thus the promise in ver. 11, ‘‘ The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall de¬ light themselves in the abundance of peacef may, without the slightest violence being done to any of its terms, be regarded as containing a promise of “ the land ” of Canaan, as the land of promise, to the “meek” among the Jews, in particular; and further, of “ the earth f as a whole, to all the “ meek ” both from among Jews and Gentiles, as their eternal inheritance. 62 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. Our Lord, whose statement, as before observed, is independent of every other, undoubtedly uses the term “ earth ” (Matt. v. 5) in the second and wider sense, in order to extend the promise to all the meek, not to them of the Jews only, but to them of the Grentiles also. No one thinks of doubting this. To question, or deny it, would be to strip believing Grentiles of all interest in His words.' This is felt by all. All our com¬ mentators feel it, and in order to meet it what do they say ? “ The promised land was the type of heaven, of which meekness proves the possessor an heir, and for which it forms an essential qualifi¬ cation.”—(Scott.)^ But, as I need scarcely remark, this is perfectly inadmissible. It is an assertion for which there is not the slightest warrant, and it must therefore fall to the ground. But let the principle ' And if confined to the Jews, it woidd be diiScidt to assign a suf¬ ficient reason why 010 " Lord repeated the promise of the Psalmist to them at this time, or of what use it was to them, any more than to us Gen¬ tiles, to whom in this case it would not be made; for very soon after this they (the Jews) were cast out of ''the land" (of Canaan) and have remained out of it ever since. It is true they will be restored to it hereafter, but untd they are restored, this promise cannot benefit them, and already eighteen hundred years have passed away, diming which it could not profit them. ^ “ Canaan was a type of the kingdom of God, and who is so likely to inherit glory as the man in whom the meekness and gentleness of Jesus dwell ? ”— Dr. A. Clarke. Pabt II.] SECOND POPULAR VIEW. 63 or notion on which it is founded be observed by all means, for it is instructive to notice how far men can sometimes depart from rationality in their treat¬ ment of the Bible. According to this method of interpreting our Lord’s words, we arrive at the fol¬ lowing result: — “ Earth ” means “ heaven so that when He says, “ Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, we are to understand Him to mean, “ Blessed are the meek for they shall in¬ herit heaven'"’ ! This is the first result of the popular or prevailing mode of interpreting His words. All we can say of it is, that it strikingly exemplifies the use of the reductio ad absurduni process. 2. The second notion upon the subject is this,— That the meek have a more 'peaceable enjoyment of the present earth than others have, and that a hope of this is held out in the promise of the Saviour to them. Most, if not all our commentators support this view, and some, as for instance, Whitby, confine them¬ selves to it, and reject the one which we have just considered. On this second notion it must be ob¬ served, in the first place, that it regards the Saviour’s promise to the meek as relating to the present time, and as even now receiving its fulfilment. But it is 64 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. clear that all the other beatitudes relate to the future, and it seems strange that this also should not do the same. What, however, are the words ? “ Blessed are meek, for they shall inherit (^KX'rjpovofiT^o-ovcn) the earth.” But this means the coming to it as heirs, not the present enjoyment of it. We have here, in short, the oft-repeated truth that believers are “ heirs of God,” and of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love him; ”—and where the locality of that kingdom will be we have already seen. But thus is it written:—“ The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ;' if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” (Eom. viii. 16, 17.) “He that overcometh shall inherit all things.'^ (Eev. xxi. 7.) Abraham, we are told, was heir of the worldj’’ (Eom. iv. 13); yet in his lifetime he had “ not so much of the promised land as to set his foot on,” so far as actual “inheritance,” or possession was concerned (Acts vii. 5); and if he did not inherit it * “ Joint-heirs (tnry/cATjpovo^oi) with Christ.” It has been well remarked by Ogilvy, that “ Christ is stiH an heir as respects the throne of David.” Pakt II.] THE CASE TESTED. 65 then, the promise remains yet to be fulfilled, and he still continues ‘‘an heir of the world,” and will so continue until “ the resurrection of the just,” when, with others, he will be put into actual possession of the promised inheritance.^ Nothing can be more clear and certain, I conceive, than that our Saviour refers to this great truth in His promise to the “ meek.” In short, to overlook it, would be to take away from His words the very point which they are more especially designed emphatically to teach. But yet, suppose for the sake of argument we waive this point, let us see how much better the case will be. That meekness is calculated to secure to the posses¬ sors of it many of the benefits which Scott and others have described, none would wish to deny, but rather rejoice to acknowledge. But yet how stands the case with regard to the meek, and their actual condition upon earth? In the first place, the great majority of them are jpoor, and if not actually poor, yet in a hum¬ ble condition, and they always have been so. “Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise * Compare the following passages :—Heb. xi. 8-10; and ver, 13-16. F 66 PKYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.” (1 Cor. i. 26.) Hearken, my beloved brethren. Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him ? ” (James ii. 5.) In the next place, numbers of them at various periods in the world’s history have been exposed to the most cruel molestations, and had to endure the most bitter persecutions, insomuch that their lives have been in constant danger, and their minds in continual dis¬ quietude and alarm. WJiat an account is the follow¬ ing ! “ WJio through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in flght, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deli¬ verance ; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourg- ings; yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were saivn asunder, were tempted, luere slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins; being destitute, Part II.] THE EESULT. 67 affiicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they tvandered in deserts, and in moun¬ tains, and in dens and caves of the earth.’’’’ (Heb. xi. 33—38.) And how often since their day have others, like them in character, been partakers in their afflictions I What took place under Nero, and Doini- tian, and others of the Eoman emperors? What in Spain and its Inquisition ? What in Italy, and France, and England, during the sixteenth century ? What in Piedmont in the seventeenth ? "Wdien the ruthless foe “roll’d Mother with infant down the rocks ” ? The meek ” (say our commentators), however poor in the world, have more actual comfort than any other persons, as if the whole of it were their inheritance.” Conceive this spoken in the ears of those “ meek ” to whose painful trials we have just referred, and who does not feel that they would regard it as little better than a cruel mockery of their sufferings ? Why,’' they would assuredly exclaim, “ if in this life only tve have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable”! (1 Cor. xv. 19.) “All the day long have tve been plagued, and chastened every' morning.’’’’ (Ps. Ixxiii. 14.) 68 PHTSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I, And yet, most certain it is, that the promise of the Saviour must be made to all “ the meek,'' not to some favoured few only whose comparatively comfortable condition upon earth scarcely needs the support which (according to the view we are combatiug) it is intended to convey; but to all of every age and every clime, who bearing the impress of His own meek image are, and have been, molested by the world, even as He their Lord and Master was, and who therefore do ' indeed need the support and comfort which this “ great and precious promise ” of His is intended to give them. This second notion, therefore, as to the meaning of our Lord’s words must, like the first, be abandoned. It does not meet the requirements of the case, but falls vastly short of them. So defective, indeed, is it, that no small measure of ingenuity and tact are needed on the part of the writers who maintain it to make out a case in its favour. There are so many difficulties in their way *, so many obstacles to be overcome, and so little agreement between the promise on the one hand, and their interpretation of it on the other, that I- > The remarks of Hammond on this passage (Matt, v. 5) afford a striking illustration of this. rj\RT IL] THE PROMISE VIEWED AFRESH. 69 unless great care be exercised by them in their state¬ ment of the case, it is much more likely to offend the minds of their readers than convince and satisfy them, so calculated is it to strip the Saviour’s words of all their value, and to leave scarce a wreck of truth behind. But now, on' the other hand, apply to the inter¬ pretation of this promise of the Eedeemer to the “ meek,” the view or theory now maintained, viz. that this earth, in its true, literal character, will be the locality of his people’s eternal inheritance — or rather view the promise in this light, as in reality affirming this — and what a mighty change takes place in its value! According to the former views of it, it seemed to contain so little that was real and tangible, that its value or import was scarcely appreciable,—unless, indeed, we assumed that “ earth ” meant “heaven,” which, as we saw, we had no war¬ rant to do. It could not be applied with any effect in a way of encouragement or comfort, for it failed most when most needed—it brought nothing to those who needed most. Thousands in a suffering con¬ dition could draw no comfort from it. It did not apply to their case; or if applied, seemed a mockery 70 rnYsico-PBorirETiCAL essays. [Essay I. of their state. But suppose the term “ earth ” really to mean earth; —suppose the promise to say, that the meek ” shall truly hereafter ‘‘ inherit ” the earth, and that too in a renewed and glorified state,—they t themselves moreover, being, as must be remembered, in a glorified condition, as well as in one of supreme happiness, freed from all those evils that oppress them here, for ‘‘the former things will then have passed away— suppose, moreover, the renewed earth to be the locality of Christ’s glorious and everlasting reign, as well as of His people’s eternal inheritance; suppose that here they shall “ see the King in His beauty,” and be with Him for evermore ■— in a word, that here they shall “ inherit all things ” which the Father hath prepared for them;—suppose this, I say, and then, instead of being comparatively valueless as the promise seemed before, how un¬ speakably precious does it become, and how full of meaning the words—“ Blessed are the meek, for THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH ”! Viewed in this light, assuredly the promise may well make “their hearts burn within them,” and cause them to rejoice at the prospect before them, “ with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.” Part II.] SUITABILITY OF PROMISE. 71 Nor must we, before leaving this subject, fail to notice the appropriate connection there is between the promise and the character of those to whom it is made. There is a connection of the kind in each of the Beatitudes, the promise in each case holding out the hope of a future condition which shall form an exact contrast with the present one; or an appropriate blessing. Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall he COMFORTED.” “ Blessed are the merciful : for they SHALL OBTAIN MERCY.” It will be Seen, that there is a peculiar suitability to the character of the ‘‘ meek ” in the promise made to them. Their non-resisting character is calculated to tempt the wilful opposition of those who differ from them, and who partake of a different spirit; and sometimes, as we have seen, they are exposed in consequence to fearful violence, and multitudes of them have been cut off from the land of the living, their earthly portion, whatever it was, being ruthlessly taken from them, or they from it. How exactly suited to their case, therefore, is the encouragement which the Saviour holds out to them in the promise which He has selected for their special comfort! In it He may be heard saying in effect to them:—Fear not, little flock, it is your 72 PHYSICO-PEOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I know your troubles. Your enemies have taken ad¬ vantage of your meekness to molest you in every way, and have even sought to cut you off from the earth, even as they did me; hut you are the very characters ivho shall inherit the earth for ever. The wicked and ungodly have cut you off from it, but hereafter they shall be cut off, and you shall be restored. And whereas your first enjoyment of it was very imperfect, your second shall be with¬ out alloy of evil. Yes; here, on this .earth, where many of you have been so cruelly persecuted, shall you be in a state of blessedness and joy; — here, where, like me, you have been hated and despised, shall you be crowned with ‘a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,’ which your former ‘ afflictions, which were but for a moment, will have worked for you ! ’ ” > Thus the promise is exactly suited, when thus understood, to the character and condition of those to whom it is made. It does not now, as it did before, fail when it is most wanted; but yields most where most is needed. It ‘ 2 Cor. iv. 17. Part IL] FEESH RESULT. 73 has comfort for all the meek, but more especially for those who endure most persecution for righteous¬ ness sake. It therefore fully meets all the require¬ ments of the case. What more can be needed to prove that the light in which it has been now placed is alone the true one ? Here, then, is the first-fruit of the theory which it is the object of this essay to establish. Here is the first synthetic or deductive application of it to the interpretation of Scripture. A passage which, according to the ordinary mode of viewing it, is found to have little or no pointy and but little prac¬ tical bearing, changes its character when viewed in the light of this theory, and becomes replete with the most important truth. Its every term is full of meaning, and its great leading doctrine fills the heart with hope and joy. An inductive process has put us in possession of a theory, which, applied de¬ ductively, explains a case that before remained ob¬ scure and inexplicable. The result is, I conceive, all we can desire. I have dwelt the longer upon it, both because of its own intrinsic importance, and because it affords a very striking and satisfactory illustration of our subject. T4 PHYSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. We have considered, for the sake of illustration, a promise to the righteous; let us next examine, for the same purpose, a threat against the ungodly. The following passage will afford us an opportunity of doing so : — “ The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cat off the remembrance of them from the earth.'''’ (Ps. xxxiv. 16.) Let this language be compared with what actually occurs at present, in order that it may be seen whether it is possible to confine it to the present time, or whether it is not absolutely necessary to view it in the light of the future; and ^hether, when so viewed, it is not true that, like the promise to the righteous which we have been considering, it can only be con¬ sistently interpreted on the principle that this earth % is to continue for ever. It must be remarked that the term “ earth meets us here also, and, as in the former case, it limits our reflections on the passage, seeing that we are compelled to consider what holds true of it, consis¬ tently with the use and meaning of this term. The very same things may be said of the use of it here * The same term as before, Part II.] ANOTIIEE CASE. as at page 59, et seq. in our remarks on Ps. xxxvii. It may be taken to mean either “ the land ” of Canaan, or “ the earth ” at large, but it is absolutely neces¬ sary that here, as before, the latter and wider sense should be embraced. As the promise to the “ meek,” or righteous, must be extended to all the meek, both among Gentiles as well as Jews, so of course also must this threat against the ungodly be regarded as embracing all of that character in every age and every nation. The point that calls for particular attention in this passage (Ps. xxxiv. 16) is this,—that it is, said the “ remembrance ” of the wicked shall be “ cut off from the earth.” That they themselves shall be cut off is again and again affirmed; indeed this is a truth which is constantly introduced by way of contrast to the promise made to the righteous, who, it is said, shall “ inherit the earth.” Thus :—“ For evil-doers shall he cat off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.” (Ps. xxxvii. 9; see also vers. 22, 34, 38.) Thus again,— “ The righteous shall never be removed; hut the wicked shall not inhabit the earths (Prov. x. 30.) But here it is declared that ‘G/ie remembrance of 76 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. evil-doers shall be cut off from the earth.” How then stands the case at present ? Is it true, or a fact, that there is less “ remembrance ” of the wicked than of the just? Or has it ever been so? What says history upon the point ? Has it nothing in reference to the names of ‘^evil-doers”? or rather, do we not, on the contrary, know that of the names which it has handed down to us, the far larger num¬ ber, alas! belong to evil, rather than to well-doers ? It is so in the inspired pages of Kevelation. And these give us the true state of the case when they tell us, “ There is no remembrance of the ivise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is, in the da 3 ^s to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? As the fool.” (Eccl. ii. 16.) These statements- are true in fact. They agree with the findings of experience. But we may observe that, in one sense, there is even less remembrance of the righteous, as a body, than there is of the unrighteous, seeing that, as before observed, the great majority of Hod’s people have in all ages been in a humble condition, and therefore not likely to be “ known to fame.” They have been knoivn to God, and they have been precious in His sight, and Part II.] ACTUAL FACTS. 77 He lias them still in remembrance, yea, even the humblest of them; but so far as the world is con¬ cerned, the remembrance of these humble but pious worthies has been so far condemned to oblivion as, at present, to have utterly perished. The same principles, in short, have held true in this respect in the moral, as in the physical world. “Pull many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” Not so, however, with the ^‘remembrance” of the “ evil-doers,” many of whom have done evil on a large scale, some of whom have “-swam to sov’reign rule through seas of blood,” and so have “ gotten themselves a name ” and a fame upon earth,—the “ remembrance ” of these has not yet perished. If, for instance, we look more particularly to “ the land '’—the land of promise—then we see that the “ remembrance ” of Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram; of Hophni and Phinehas (“ sons of Belial ”); of Ab¬ salom, of Jeroboam (“who made Israel to sin ”), and of Ahab and Jezebel, and that of many other “ evil¬ doers,” was no more “ cut off ” from it, than that 78 PHTSICO-rEOniETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay L of Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Elijah, and many other like servants of Grod. Nay, the very word of Grod itself was the means of keeping both classes of characters alike in “ remembrance,” seeing it was that which handed down both their names and their deeds to posterity. And then if we look to “ the earth,'"’ or world at large, we find that the same rule still holds good, — the names, and therefore the “ remembrance,” of the wicked are just as well known as are those of the upright and good. Nebuchadnezzar, Nero, Timour, Eobespierre, are names of world-wide celebrity, and yet form hut the fraction of a multitude. Without, however, en¬ larging any farther on details, the whole question may be tried and brought to an issue on a single case. Take, e. g. the first pair of opposite characters in the history of the world. Is the name of the murderer Cain less extensively known than that of the “ righteous AhelC who fell beneath the stroke of his fratricidal arm ? It is not. Where one is known the other is. They are never separated. They have come jpari passu down the stream of time. Yet one was an “ evil-doer,” and the other was a righte¬ ous man, and in the favour of God. It is difficult Part II.] RESULT OF OPPOSITE VIEW. 79 to reconcile with such facts as these, the statements of the passage, as ordinarily understood, which we are now considering, those namely, of Ps. xxxiv. 16, whether those statements he supposed to refer to the “ evil-doers ” among the Jews alone, in connection with “ the land ” of Canaan, or to “ evil-doers ” generally, in reference to this life. And in the latter case what, we may ask, is to he done with “the earth ,from which it is declared the “ remembrance ” of the wicked shall he “cut off”? How is the threat to he understood in connection with it at present? It is clear that it can no more he done so satisfac¬ torily, than the promise made to the “meek ” can. As in that case, so in this, the ordinary view of the matter entirely fails. But apply to the interpretation of this passage the doctrine of the perpetuity of the earth, and of its forming hereafter the locality of the eternal kingdom of the Eedeemer, and how terribly emphatic and re¬ plete with meaning is this threat against the ungodly ! It is no longer little more than a brutum fulmen, so far as multitudes of them are concerned, but it is seen to extend its dread announcement to every single in¬ dividual among them. And the announcement is this— 80 PHYSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essav I. that from the renewed and glorified earth, the seat of eternal blessedness, they will be for ever so perfectly excluded, that even the very “ remembrance ” of them will be “ cut off” from it. Again, therefore, the theory respecting the earth which it has been my object to establish, is found to be satisfactory, and meets the requirements of another case to which it has been applied. The prevailing mode of viewing it fails to do this; the subject is left by it in the most unsatisfactory state, but it becomes replete with meaning when viewed in the light of the doctrine now propounded. Enough, I conceive, has been already said in illus¬ tration of the doctrine of this earth’s perpetuity and future destination; but the subject may be followed out in other directions and into other passages of Scrip¬ ture, and that too with precisely the same result. The following may be given as a few cases in point. I forbear to enlarge upon them, feeling that a brief notice will be sufficient after the lengthened examina¬ tion which was given to those we have just left, in which the very same principles were involved as in those we are about to consider. (1.) In the Lord’s prayer, as it is usually termed. Part IL] THE lord’s prayer. 81 there occur the following words : — “ Thy kingdom come; thy will he done in earth, as it is in heaven'^ (Matt. vi. 10.) With regard to the ‘‘kingdoin,^^ the coming, or establishment of which is prayed for, we now say nothing; it belongs rather to the topics we have left, than to the one about to come under consideration; but with regard to the second member of the verse, which relates to the performance of the Divine will on earth, it should be asked. Will this petition ever he ansivered ? It has already been put up by the Church of Christ for eighteen hundred years,—is it possible to suppose that it will never be heard ? If it be replied “ The answer will be realis M dming the Millennium,” we willingly accept the statement. But what are we to understand by the Millennium ? If a state of wide¬ spread spiritual prosperity on the earth as it now is, when, for instance, “ the earth shall he filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,’’^ and if, moreover, we are to understand that this will take place previous to the second advent of the Kedeemer, all we can say is, that we can find in Scripture nothing to support such a notion, but much that is utterly opposed to it. Instead of such a state as this prevailing upon earth when the Son of man G 82 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. shall appear and his ‘‘kingdom” shall come, one of a totally different character will be found in that day— even one of wide-spread carnal security : “ As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Xoe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day luhen the Son of man is revealed.’’'’ (Luke xvii. 26—30.) But if we are to understand a posi-advent Millennium, such as is de¬ scribed in Eev. xx., the case is very different. If this, however, be allowed, then the whole question may be regarded as decided, for in this case it will be also admitted that, if the prayer be answered during the Millennium, it will also be through the eternal period, during which the earth, as we have already seen, will continue. Has the reader ever maturely considered what a terribly painful conclusion we should be brought to, if the bare possibility be but assumed that, after all, Part 1L] THE apostle’s THEONES. 83 the petition may never be answered ? Prayer will then have failed, and that too, though it has proceeded from millions of earnest and believing hearts, anxiously de¬ siring that what they prayed for may come to pass; for, like Elijah, they have been “very jealous for the Lord God of hosts,” and for the glory of his name, and being grieved to see multitudes turned aside to the service of Baal, they have continued to pray that Jehovah’s “will should be done in earth, even as it is in heaven.” It has never yet been so done: this is admitted. But assume that here, on this earth, will be “the inheritance of the saints in light,” and here the “kingdom” of God, and we instantly see that throughout eternity this prayer will be answered, and the desires of God’s people will be fulfilled. (2.) In Luke xxii. 28—30, we find our Lord speak¬ ing as follows to His Apostles:—“ Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a Idngdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, fudging the twelve tribes of IsraeU’ In St. Matthew xix. 28, we read thus:— ‘‘And Jesus said unto them. Verily I say unto you. That ye ivhich have folloiued me, in 84 [Essay I. PHYSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit ujoon tivelve thrones, judging the tivelve tribes of Israel.^'' If any one would see how little is made of this promise by many of our divines, and how grievously it is explained away and rendered nugatory by others he has only to consult most of our leading commentators upon it. But Scott adds to his notes on Luke xxii. 28—30 the following remark: “ Some special honour and dis¬ tinction in the world above seems to be more directly intended.” We have only, however, to consult the great truth respecting the earth’s perpetuity which has hitherto guided us, and we readily see that this passage, like all the others we have considered, be¬ comes replete with important truth, and that it Avill hereafter receive a great and literal fulfilment.^ (3.) There is a large class of passages which have been already quoted to illustrate former points, which may be referred to again here, with this single remark, that while it seems impossible to explain them satisfac- ' For instance, by Barnes, whose notes on Matt. xix. 28 afford a painful proof of what a perverse ingenuity may do in this way. It is clear that by such a mode of interpretation, almost any prophecy may be made to mean almost anything, or— notlimgy as Hooker remarks. 2 We find this, or kindred subjects, in other places, e. g. Isai. i. 26; 1 Cor. vi. 2; Eov. iu. 21. Pakt II.] ADDITIONAL FACTS. 85 torily, and in such a way as to give to all their terms their legitimate meaning, on the supposition that heaven mil be the eternal abode of man, they are all capable of a ready and perfectly satisfactory ex¬ planation, if we only assume that earth will be the locality of that abode. The following may be specified as examples :—Jer. xxiii. 5; Isai. lx. 21; Glen. xvii. 8. There are two more remarks which must be made — or rather there are two more facts to be noticed, in addition to all that has gone before, and they are these :— First. The Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testament, abound in passages which declare that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall come again “/rom heaven,” ^ but in no one single instance do they EVER SPEAK OP HIS RETURNING THITHER. HoW haS it come to pass that men have ventured to make such an extraordinary addition to the Word of Grod as to say, notwithstanding this, that He will return there? This, however, they necessarily do when, though they admit as they are compelled to do, that He will “ come ' “ And to wait for His Son from heaven.” “ For the Lord Himself shall descend/rom heaven with a shout.” (1 Thess. i. 10, and iv. 16.) 86 PHYSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. from heaven,” they yet speak of His reigning for ever in heaven. Second. The Sceiptuees close with the desceip- TION OF A STATE OF THINGS UPON EAETH, Or certainly, NOT IN HEAVEN. Whatever be our views, we must admit that the last two chapters of Eevelation give us the last particulars respecting the future, foretold in the Word of Grod. The last great subject is that of the “ New Jerusalem,” the great object of the believer’s hope'; and with regard to it we read as follows:— And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming doivn from Grod out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Eev. xxi. 2.) If the Scrip¬ tures tell us it will “ come down ” “ out of heaven,” and if they never give us the slightest intimation that it will ever return thither, does it not seem astonishing that we should have gone on for so long speaking of it as if it were to be in heaven, and to continue there, and in short, to be heaven itself? Conclusion. —It would be scarcely right to close this essay without noticing, as a corollary from the * “ For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is Grod.” (Heb. xi. 10.) Part II.] CONCLUSION. 87 whole, the bearing of its topics upon the following important point, — The inspiration of Scripture, as seen in the wonderful harmony of its teaching. Let it be remembered that the Bible, though now one volume, yet consists of many books, — written by different men in widely-different conditions of life^; —written at periods widely separated the one from the other,—a period of more than fifteen hundred years having transpired between the composition of the first and the last, and the others having appeared at various intervening periods;—written in different styles, which exhibit the natural cast of mind of the several writers;— some are simply historical, others prophetical, some devotional, others didactic, and others again epistolary:—and yet amidst this great diver¬ sity, we find the most exact and wonderful harmony in the truths these writings teach, and the things they lead us to expect. And this is found to be the case, moreover, though the particular subject which may be undergoing examination may be distinctly and broadly announced in one place, and but very * e. g. — By the exalted Legislator, — the warrior King, — the Herdsman of Tekoa,—the obscure Fisherman of G-alilee, — and the accomplished Scholar and early-trained Controversialist of Tarsus. 88 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. incidentally alluded to in another; and though the passages which refer to it may not be specifically treating of it, nor of the same, or of any kindred subject, when they introduce it, but of totally different subjects, which have, perhaps, not the slightest con¬ nection the one Avith the other ;—yet notwithstanding all this, we find, amidst much apparent confusion, the most substantial and essential harmony pervading the whole. The truth which is eventually arrived at, after much careful examination and collation— after much “ comparing of spiritual things with spiritual”—does not lie on the surface, nor is it even readily discovered; but when discovered, it is found that it forms a key to the whole,—that it runs lil^e a golden thread througfhout the entire texture of many colours, and that, applied deductively, it serves to explain, in the most satisfactory manner, various expressions which before seemed obsciue and inex¬ plicable, and even to involve the most serious con¬ tradictions. To give examples of all these things would carry us far beyond our assigned limits; but, as an illustration of them, I may specify the subject of the Messialts Kingdoya, which has occupied so large a share in our reflections. This, as we have seen. Part II.] CONCLUSION. 89 ranges through well nigh all, if not literally all, the books of Scripture. It meets us on every hand, some¬ times in large proportions, at others in small. Some¬ times one of its phases comes before us, and then a totally different one. The Messiah Himself appears under the most opposite characters,—sometimes, and frequently, simply as man; but at others, as clothed with all the attributes of the Giodhead. (Isai. ix. 6.) He is seen to “reign,” but the locality of His reign appears at first sight to be involved in confusion and contradiction,—at one time, he is reigning in heaven, at another upon earth. Suppose a person, altogether unacquainted with the subject—an intelligent heathen, say,—to sit down to examine it for the first time,— would he find it an easy task so to arrange its different parts as to make of them one great and consistent whole ? Far from it. The probability is, that he would utterly fail; and it is certain he would make great mistakes and fall into serious errors, for we have all done so, and we have all yet much to correct and much to learn; but yet we are now upon the whole accurately acquainted with the great outlines of the subject, both as regards the person and attributes of the King, the character of His Kingdom, and lastly. 90 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay I. the locality of His Eeign. At first there seemed much obscurity and even contradiction resting on all these points, hut on a more careful examination of them, we arrive at the most essential harmony. Yet the passages to be collated lie scattered through the writings of men who lived at very different periods of time, and who were, therefore, altogether unconnected with each other.^ They were “men of like passions -with ourselves,” as the varying style of their writings shows — but surely the facts which we have now been examining conclusively prove that, though men, they “spake as they were moved by the Holy GhosV^ (2 Pet. i. 21.) ' “lu tlie writings of men, especially when written by several men at several times, their writings do seldom or never agree, but differ and cross one another. And the reason is, because they are written by several men, who are all guided by several minds and judgments. But the Scriptures, though wi’itten by several men in several ages, many unacquainted wdth one another’s writings, yet they iiA consent andiy^ea^ the same truth; which is an evidence that it was one and the same Spirit that did dictate them.” — Sie Matthew H.ale : “ Of the Chief End of Man:’ ESSAY II. THE CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE. THE CONDITION AND CHAEACTER OF THE ETERNAL INHERITANCE. —*— § I. ITS TRUE PHYSICAL NATURE. § II. ITS ADVANCED CHARACTER. § III.-ITS FAUNA AND FLORA. § IV. -WILL H.4\’E NO SEA. § V.-THE NEW JERUSALEM. ESSAY 11. THE CONDITION AND CHARACTER OF THE ETERNAL INHERIT.VNCE. The subject of the former Essay must be regarded as the foundation both of this and of those which follow. Unless, therefore, that were fully settled, no good end could be attained; all would be uncertain, and our views upon many of the subjects which must come under discussion would remain obscure and indefinite. It was therefore necessary, not only to place it first in order, but also to investigate it at considerable length, so as, if possible, to remove every doubt, and establish it by the clearest and fullest evidence. It is hoped that this was really done. The subject ad¬ mitted of a far larger amount of proof than can be brought together on most of the topics which yet remain to be discussed. From this time the greatest care and caution will be necessary; not that these 94 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. were before uncalled for, or ever can be; but while the evidence abounded on every hand on almost all the topics touched upon in the last Essay, it will be found to be far less abundant in reference to those which are yet before us. Still we may and must proceed ; and if our direct proofs be but comparatively scanty, we must endeavour to make the most of them by a more careful examination and analysis of their exact nature. All we have to do is, to see that we do not go beyond them, nor let mere imagination fill their place; but this being guarded against, we may, and we ought to go to the full length, if possible, of the inspired Eecord. Where that would lead us, we should seek to follow, for whatever is contained in it is expressly given for our enlightenment. It would not have been revealed at all, if it had not been in¬ tended that we should read and understand it. And again, we must remember, that while there are “ secret things which belong to the Lord our God, those which are revealed,” whatever be their nature, “ belong to us and to our children.” And who shall venture to affirm that future generations, perhaps the coming one, may not discover many deeply important truths (in reference say, among other things, to oim Essay II.] SLOWNESS TO PERCEIVE. 95 future prospects), which are in a great measure, if not altogether, concealed from us at present ? — truths, and perhaps systems of truths, which lie hid from our eyes, which are ‘‘ holden that we should not know them ” ? How much was this the case in the days of our Lord. He spoke to His disciples of the sufferings which, as Messiah, He must undergo; of the death He must die, and of His resurrection afterwards, but “ they understood not the saying which He spake unto them.” These things were not seen in those days. They were to be found in “ the Scriptures,” and the Jews read the Scriptures, but they did not see that these things were contained in them. Fools, and slow of heart were they to believe all that the Prophets have spoken.” And “are we better than they? No, in no wise.” How have we gone on blundering for centuries, in reference to various matters which are clearly revealed in the books of the Prophets, but which we are only now beginning to understand aright; the prospects of Israel, for instance, the character of the Messiah’s kingdom, and the locality of the same ! And if this has been the case with us up to the present time, who shall venture to say that there are not yet many other great 96 PIETSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. themes yet lying before us in the pages of Eevelation, just as there are in those of Nature, which we have hitherto failed to discover, or even to notice ? The natural philosopher feels how much he has yet to learn; let divines be impressed with the same with regard to themselves. The mine they have to labour in is not exhausted. Perhaps some of them, more humble and painstaking than the rest, will ere long make important discoveries on subjects which are at present but very imperfectly understood; collect, after the example of the illustrious Cuvier, the disjecta membra of some great truth, and show how they can be put together and form a connected whole: do, in a word, what electricians have of late years done, who have detected a connection between various phenomena which in former days were supposed to be altogether unconnected; and having done this, and discovered the laws which regulate them, have turned their dis¬ coveries into instruments by which to further the best interests of the whole human race. "WTrat Science has in this way done, Theology may possibly do, in the province that more peculiarly belongs to her. Per¬ haps much more than is now knovm may soon be discovered on the subject of this and the following Essay II.] MATEKIALS COLLECTED. 97 Essays; but, in the meantime, we can only make use of the materials which are already in our power, and endeavour to turn them to the best account. Those which have been now brought together are offered as a small contribution to the general store. H 98 PHTSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. § I.— ITS TKTJE PHYSICAL CHAEACTEK. The first thing I would notice, then, with regard to the future inheritance of man is this — It will re¬ semble the 'present in its true physical character. This may seem little better than a trite remark after the somewhat elaborate discussion of its terrestrial locality in the last Essay. But much observation has convinced me of the necessity of making it, in order to call distinct attention to the subject, and, if pos¬ sible, to familiarise the mind with this instead of the opposite view, which has held possession of the popular mind so long that it will not be found easy to dislodge it from its throne. The idea that heaven will he the blissful abode of the righteous, is one with which we have all been familiar from our childhood. We know not, indeed, what heaven is, hut we have had a shadowy notion that it cannot well he material. It is holy, it is §1.] CHARACTEK OP HEAVEN. 99 spiritual, and the grossness of materiality neither be¬ longs to it, nor to any of the high and heavenly beings who inhabit it. It is not only of a higher and more glorious character than any’ thing we are at present acquainted with, it is also, as we suppose, of an essen¬ tially different nature. There is nothing in common between it and our fallen earth. The spirits of the departed righteous are there already, and, according to the teaching of multitudes of divines, are in a state of surpassing bliss and glory. This serves, we think, to show how essentially different it is to earth. Such are some of the notions which prevail upon the subject, and we are all, doubtless, more or less conscious of having entertained them. They were communicated to our minds in childhood, and we have grown up in them. The consequence is that we cannot immediately divest ourselves of them, nor easily free the mind from their influence. We continue to think and feel as we were wont to do when we had no doubt of their truth. Some have no wish to part with them, but, believing them right, show great displeasure against every attempt at disturbing them. Let it be but suggested, that our future abode will, after all, be un¬ doubtedly material, and in many respects will resemble 100 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay 11. the joresent much more than is generally supposed and a cry of “ carnal notions ” is immediately raised, and no very obscure intimations are given, that no ‘‘ spiritual mind ” can ever endure them. Spirituality and materiality, in short, are supposed by many to be altogether incompatible the one with the other. The old Manichsean notion with regard to matter would seem still to linger among us. It may be now giving way, and we rejoice to think that such is really the case; but that the notion, or at least something very nearly allied to it, was a prevailing one at a very late period, cannot, I think, be denied; nor that it is even still entertained by many. For these reasons, perhaps the gi'eatest contribution ever made to the stock of human thought upon the subject of man’s future in¬ heritance, was Dr. Chalmers’ discourse on “ The New Heavens, and the New EarthT^ It does not reveal a * -“ Though what if earth Be hut the shadow of heayen, and things therein Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?” Paradise Lost, v. 574. ^ While making this remark, I cannot but express regret at the title which he has given to another of his discourses: Heaven a Character, and not a Locality. I know not whether this, or the one on “ The New Heavens and the New Earth,” was first composed by him, but certain it is, that parts of the one are directly condemned by the other. The great design of the former, which is to show how much moral character has to do with the enjoyment of the future inheritance, §1.] CHARACTER OP PARADISE. 101 new fact, it only enforces a new idea, and makes vigorous attacks upon an old one. But it served to break the charm, or influence, of that which had so long held the popular mind spell-bound, as it were, upon the subject. It did this with a power of language and a richness of illustration which Chalmers alone could command. Though it be so generally known, I shall be pardoned for making the follo'vving somewhat lengthy quotation‘from it:— “It were venturing on the region of conjecture to affirm, whether, if Adam had not fallen, the earth that we now tread upon would have been the everlasting abode of him and his posterity. But certain it is. may be all very correct; but it was unnecessary, in order to show this, to do away with the* idea of locality. Yet we find him repeating in the discourse what is said in its title—“ Heaven is not so much a locality, as a character.” One would not “ make a man an offender for a word,” but what can be more objectionable and misleading than such a statement ? Character cannot exist apart from locality. It has itself no existence, except in connection with being or person of some kind, and that must be found somewhere. But the question is decided by the text of his other discourse: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousnessy (2 Pet. iii. 13.) The two discourses, taken together, how¬ ever, serve to show that this truly great and good man, to wliom we are under such great obligations upon this as upon other subjects, was only a pioneer in it. He helped to open the way into the new country, but he did not himself gO far beyond its borders. Human knowledge is progressive and continuous. The discoveries of one age are not so much superseded or refuted by those of another, as taken up into and embodied with them. Chalmers “ laboiu’ed, and we have entered into his labours.” Other men will enter into ours, beginning where we stop. 102 PIIYSICO-PEOPirETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. that man, at the first, had for his place this world, and at the same time, for his privilege, an unclouded fellowship with Grod; and for his prospect, an immor¬ tality which death was neither to intercept nor put an end to. He was terrestrial in respect of condition, and yet celestial in respect both of character and en¬ joyment. His eye looked outwardly on a landscape of earth, while his heart breathed upwardly in the love of heaven. And though he trod the- solid platform of our world, and was compassed about with its horizon, still was he within the circle of Hod’s favoured creation, and took his place among the freemen and the denizens of the great spiritual commonwealth. “ This may serve to rectify an imagination, of which we think that all must be conscious, as if the grossness of materialism was only for those who had degenerated into the grossness of sin; and that, when a spiritualizing process had purged away all our corruptions, then by the stepping-stones of a death and a resurrection, we should be borne away to some ethereal region, where sense, and body, and all in the shape either of audible sound or of tangible substance were unknown. And hence that strangeness of impression which is felt by you, should the supposition be offered, that in the place of eternal § 1 .] POPULAK VIEW OF FUTUKE STATE. 103 blessedness there will be ground to walk upon, or scenes of luxuriance to delight the corporeal senses, or the kindly intercourse of friends talking familiarly and by articulate converse together; or, in short, any thing that has the least resemblance to a local territory, filled with various accommodations, and peopled over its whole extent by creatures formed like ourselves— having bodies such as we now wear, and faculties of perception, and thought, and mutual communication, such as we now exercise. The common imagination that we have of paradise on the other side of death, is, that of a lofty aerial region, where the inmates float in ether, or are mysteriously suspended upon no¬ thing; where all the warm and sensible accompani¬ ments which give such an expression of strength, and life, and colouring to our present habitation, are at¬ tenuated into a sort of spiritual element, that is meagre, and imperceptible, and utterly uninviting to the eye of mortals here below; where every vestige of materialism is done away, and nothing left but certain unearthly scenes that have no power of allure¬ ment, and certain unearthly ecstasies, with which it is felt impossible to sympathize. The holders of this imagination forget all the while, that really there is no 104 PHTSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. essential connection between materialism and sin; that the world which we now inhabit had all the amplitude and solidity of its present materialism before sin entered into it; that Grod, so far on that account from looking slightly upon it, after it had received the last touch of His creating hand, reviewed the earth, and the waters, and the firmament, and all the green herbage, with the living creatures, and the man whom He had raised in dominion over them, and He saw everything that he had made, and behold it was all very good. They forget that on the birth of materialism, when it stood out in the freshness of those glories which the great Architect of Nature had impressed upon it, that then “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of Grod shouted for joy.” They forget the appeals that are made every¬ where in the Bible to this material workmanship; and how from the face of these visible heavens, and the garniture of this earth that we tread upon, the great¬ ness and the goodness of Grod are reflected on the view of his worshippers. No, my brethren, the object of the administration we sit under, is to extirpate sin, but it is not to sweep away materialism. By the con¬ vulsions of the last day, it may be shaken and broken PERPETUITY OF PHYSICAL LAWS. 105 §I.J down from its present arrangements, and thrown into such fitful agitations, as that the whole of its existing framework shall fall to pieces; and with a heat so fervent as to melt its most solid elements, may it he utterly dissolved. And thus may the earth again be¬ come without form and void, but without one particle of its substance going into annihilation. Out of the ruins of this second chaos, may another heaven and another earth be made to arise ; and a new materialism, with other aspects of magnificence and beauty, emerge from the^wreck of this mighty transformation; and the world be peopled, as before, with the varieties of material loveliness, and space be again lighted up into a firmament of material splendour.” That this earth will be the future abode of the righteous we must regard as proved; but the moment this is determined certain results necessarily follow: we have, for instance, a terrestrial state, a 'physical con¬ dition, subject to physical laiv, as a necessary conse¬ quence. Earth would not be earth if this were not the case. We have no notion of matter except from its properties, and these are learned from the laws which govern it. Change these, and you change it. The matter of our globe cannot, moreover (so far as 106 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. we can now compreliend the subject), be subjected to other laws than those which now regulate it, without ceasing to be what it now is. The most mighty changes may be brought about by means of those laws, under the direction of their Almighty Author, but the laws themselves must remain as unchanged as they have done ever since matter was first created. The past history of the earth proves this;—and that history, be it remembered, reaches back to immeasure- able ages; to periods commensurate, in point of time, with the illimitable distances of the heavenly bodies in point of space. It shows us the changes that have taken place in the condition of the earth, and we know that those changes have been very great, and have been constantly going on, gradually progressing, from the time when (as we have every reason to be¬ lieve) neither animal nor vegetable life was to be found on the globe, up to the present, with its in¬ numerable forms of organised life, and with intel¬ ligent man as the head of creation. But nothing can be more certain, than that the physical laws which govern matter, and therefore the causes which are now in operation, have remained unchanged while these pro¬ gressive mutations in the condition of the earth itself SUBJECT CONTINUED. 107 § !•] have been going on. All the reasonings of philoso¬ phers proceed on this principle. Indeed they could not take a step without it. Were it not true. Dr. Buck- land’s Bridgewater Treatise, for example, could not have been written. His investigations into the proofs of design in the case of extinct animals and plants, are all made upon the assumption that those animals and plants were subject to the very same natural laws as are now in force.^ And the slightest reflection on * See particiilarly his chapter on The Eyes of Trilobites. After having explained their mechanism, and their adaptation to various ends, he remarks;— “ The results arising from these facts are not confined to animal physiology; they give information also regarding the condition of the ancient Sea and ancient Atmosphere, and the relations of both these media to Light, at that remote period when the earliest marine animals were furnished with instruments of vision, in which the minute optical adaptations were the same that impart the perception of light to Crustaceans now living at the bottom of the sea. “ With respect to the waters wherein the Trilobites maintained their existence throughout the entire period of the transition formation, we conclude that they could not have been that imaginary turbid and compoimd chaotic fluid, from the precipitates of which some geologists have supposed the materials of the surface of the earth to be derived; because the structure of the eyes of these animals is such, that any kind of fluid in which they could have been efficient at the bottom, must have been pure and transparent enough to allow the passage of light to organs of vision, the nature of which is so fully disclosed by the state of perfection in which they are preserved. “ With regard to the atmosphere also we infer, that had it differed materially from its actual condition, it might have so far affected the rays of Light, that a corresponding difference from the eyes of existing crustaceans would have been found in the organs on which the im¬ pressions of such rays were then received. “ Regarding Light itself also, we learn, from the resemblance of these most ancient organizations to existing eyes, that the mutual relations of light to the eye, and of the eye to light, were the same at 108 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. the structure of those creatures must satisfy every one that this must necessarily have been the case. The state or condition of the earth varied, but the properties of matter and the laws which regulate it remained unchanged; and so long as matter con¬ tinues what it is, this must continue to be the case. Fresh results may be attained; fresh beings be called into existence; and new conditions of earth be formed to meet the necessities of those beings; but so long as materiality continues, those con¬ ditions must necessarily be of a physical character. There is no difficulty even now in understanding, that there may be the most signal change hereafter in the state and powers of the human body, while the physical condition under which it shall exist may continue, so far as its true physical character the time 'when Crustaceans endowed ■with the faculty of vision were first placed at the bottom of the primeval seas, as at the present mo¬ ment .”—Geology and Mineralogy, i. pp. 401—2. Again;—“ As far as our planet is concerned, the first act of creation seems to have consisted in giving origin to the elements of the mate¬ rial world. These inorganic elements appear to have received no sub¬ sequent additions to their number, and to have undergone no alteration in their nature and qualities; but to have ' been submitted at their creation to the self-same laws that regulate their actual condition, and to have continued subject to these laws during every succeeding period of geological change. The same elements, also, which enter the com¬ position of existing animals and plants, appear to have performed similar fimctions in the economy of many successive animal and vege¬ table creations.”— VAd. p. 35. § I.] SUBJECT CONTINUED. 109 is concerned, precisely what it is at present. The human body in its normal condition is now subject to pain, but it can be rendered in an abnormal state perfectly insensible to pain; and yet the physical conditions of its existence remain the same in both cases. The physical laws which govern it remain the same. The resurrection body of the believer will be delivered from the principle of mortality, for it will be made like to the resurrection body of the Eedeemer* which is now so, for ‘‘ Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Himbut we readily see, that though this great and blessed change will have taken place in it, its materiality and its subjection to physical law may yet remain unaltered. And we have reason to believe that this will really be the case. The earth which it will inhabit will be as material as it is now; and materiality on the part of the abode, necessarily im¬ plies materiality on the part of the body which will inhabit it. There is a necessary connection between the two in this respect: the condition of the one deter¬ mines the condition of the other. A spirit, ‘‘which ‘ Phil. iii. 21. no PHTSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. hath not flesh and bones as we have,” needs not, so far as we can understand the requirements of spirits, a material abode, or at least, not such as this earth is; but a being who consists, in part at least, of these, as we do now and shall do hereafter, necessarily re¬ quires such an one on which to dwell. These reflections may serve to show what we ought to expect in reference to the future condition both of the earth, as the abode of the righteous, and of the righteous themselves. From all we know of nature both in the Past and the Present, we have every reason to believe that the future condition of the globe mil be an essentially physical one, as physical as the present. And the declarations of Kevelation in no way contravene this; but, on the contrary, are in perfect harmony with it. They speak of wondrous things, and tell of consummations de¬ voutly to be wished,” but they tell us of nothing which is not in perfect harmony with physical law and a physical condition of the earth. But they tell us much that necessarily implies this; and seeing that we have reason to believe the ^^new heavens and the new earth” will not be new creations out of nothing, but a renewal of the 'present earth and heavens, we may FRESH PROOFS. Ill §!•] fairly argue, that this will hold true throughout eter¬ nity, that a 'physical concUtio'n of things will prevail for ever. Of this various proofs will be afforded in the course of our succeeding remarks, especially in the next section, in which it will be shown that great and mighty changes will, in many respects, be wrought in the condition of our globe, yet we have no inti¬ mation of any thing that will, in the slightest degree, affect its materiality or true physical character. The following passages all bear upon the general question which is now engaging our attention:— And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall he established on the top of the mountains, and shall he exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” Isai. ii. 2. ‘‘Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall he a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward 112 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, King of Judah: and the Lord my Grod shall come, and all the saints with thee.” Zech. xiv. 3—5. Again: “All the land shall he turned^' (margin, compassed) “ as a plain from Geha to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem; and it shall be lifted up, and in¬ habited'’ (margin, abide) “in her place, from Bcti- jamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s wine-presses.” ver. 10. It is by no means necessary for our present purpose to attempt to determine with certainty the time, or times, to which these passages relate; though we may remark, that the first from Zechariah (xiv. 3—5) seems clearly to refer to the time of the second advent, as proved by the concluding words: “And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” (ver. 5.) And I suppose it will he very generally admitted, by all literal interpreters at least, that Isaiah ii. 2 also relates to the same period, for the close of the chapter undoubtedly does so, as, for in- THEIR LITERALITY. 113 § !•] stance when it is said: And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” (ver. 19—21.) This, I conceive, distinctly relates to the second advent; the time, however, in which the things predicted will take place is not what we have now to consider, so much as their nature and cha¬ racter. Neither will it be necessary to enter into the question as to whether these passages are to be understood literally^ or allegorically, for to do this we should have to repeat again the remarks and arguments which were employed before when discussing the same ques¬ tion in reference to those passages which have already come under our notice. It will be sufficient to remark here, that there is nothing whatever to favour an allegorical interpretation, but everything to support a I 114 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IT. literal one. And especially is this the case in re¬ ference to the first quotation from Zechariah, where, it will be observed, reference is made (ver. 5) to a literal fact, an “earthquake,” namely', which had actually occurred in the days of Uzziah, and to the alarm which that, like every phenomenon of the kind, had naturally created; and where, moreover, it is declared that the same alarm and attempts to flee from danger shall occur again, when the things now foretold shall take place. This is abundantly sufficient to prove that the two events, the past and the future, are of exactly the same literal and physical character. The same may be said of what is foretold in the tenth verse. Assuming, then, the literality of these passages, it will be seen that they all point to some great changes as about to be wrought hereafter in the land of Pales¬ tine, and seeing that, in all probability, they relate to the same period, they may be regarded as all * We have a notice of this earthquake in Amos, i. 1. “ The words of Amos, who vas among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah King of Judah, and in the days of Jero¬ boam tlie son of Joash King of Israel, ttco years before the earthquake."' Palestine is one of those countries which are much subject to earth¬ quakes. See a striking account of one that occurred in 1837, and caused fearful ravages in Safed and elsewhere, in The Land and the Book, by W. IVL Thompson, D.D. London; Nelson and Sons, 1859, p. 276, et scq. PHYSICAL CHANGES, 115 § I.] pointing to the same events. What, then, are these events, and what will be their nature ? They are all 'physical phenomena. They may, indeed, for the most part, be termed geological phenomena. They are matters with which geologists are perfectly fa¬ miliar. The earth exhibits numberless similar cases which have occurred at various periods, and that too throughout the whole of its surface. There is not a region of the globe in which they have not occurred again and again. They will consist in the upheaval of some parts of the land, and in the depression and dislocation of others. Such things may seem startling and al¬ most incredible to those who are unacquainted with geology, but there is nothing with which that science has made us acquainted that comes more frequently under our notice than phenomena of this kind. The terms by which they are expressed have become as familiar in our ears as ‘‘ household words.” Look, for instance, at that which is foretold in Isaiah ii. 2: — “ The mountain of the Lord's house shall he esta¬ blished" (margin, prepared) ‘‘ni the top of the mountains, and shall he exalted above the hills." Again, that in Zechariah xiv. 10:— All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geha to Rimmon south 116 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. of Jerusalem; and it shall he lifted upJ Here we have cases of what is termed elevation, or an up¬ heaval of the strata by some force from below. What that force may be it is unnecessary to determine, but the phenomenon is one which has been, and still is, one of constant occurrence. Every mountain and moun¬ tain-chain throughout the world owe their origin to it. All the lands and continents of the present day have been again and again subjected to an action of the kind, and also, on the other hand, to one of depres- sion, or subsidence, as they have become successively sea and dry land, which they have done again and again. And the process is still going on. Of this, numerous proofs and examples may be seen collected by Sir Charles Lyell in his “ Principles of Oeology,” and it may be well to refer to a few of them here in order to illustrate our subject, and also to familiarize the mind with the truth which we have now before us. We may remark, then, that the coast of Chili has been permanently altered by the elevation of its level no less than three times during the present century, viz., in 1822, 1835, and 1837. On the last of these occasions, which was on November 7th, 1837, ‘‘the bottom of the sea was raised more than eight feet. EFFECTS OF EARTHQUAKES. 117 § 1.] Some rocks formerly covered at all times by tbe sea were now constantly exposed, and an enormous quan¬ tity of shells and fish in a decaying state, which had been thrown there by the waves, or suddenly laid dry during the earthquake, attested the recent date of the occurrence. The whole coast was strewed with up¬ rooted trees.”* In reference to the upheaval that took place in 1822, it is remarked: — ‘‘On the 19th of November, 1822, the coast of Chili was visited by a most destructive earthquake. The shock was felt simultaneously throughout a space of 1200 miles from north to south. St. Jago, Valparaiso, and some other places, were greatly injured. When the district round Valparaiso was examined on the morning after the shock, it was found that the coast, for a consider¬ able distance, 'zt’us raised above its former level. At Valparaiso the elevation luas three feet, and at Quintero about four feet. Part of the bed of the sea remained bare and dry at high water, with beds of oysters, mussels, and other shells adhering to the rocks on which they grew, the fish being all dead, and exhaling most offensive effluvia.”^ As to the extent of country * “Principles of GeoloerPi” ch. xxviii. p. 431. Seventh edition. 2 Ibid, p. 435. I 3 118 PIIYSICO-PROPEETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. elevated it is remarked:—“ By some observers it has been supposed that the whole country from the foot of the Andes to a great distance under the sea was up¬ raised in 1822, the greatest rise being at the distance of about two miles from the shore. The rise upon the coast was from two to four feet; at the distance of a mile inland it must have been from five or six or seven feet. It has also been conjectured by the same high witnesses to the convulsion, that the area over which this permanent alteration of level extended may have been equal to 100,000 square miles,”—“ an extent just equal to half the area of France, or about five-sixths of the area of Great Britain and Ireland. If we sup¬ pose the elevation to have been only three feet on an average, it will be seen that the mass of rock added to the continent of America by the movement, or, in other words, the mass previously below the level of the sea, and after the shocks permanently above it, must have contained fifty-seven cubic miles in bulk; which would be sufficient to form a conical mountain two miles high (or about as high as Etna), with a circum¬ ference at the base of nearly thirty-three miles.” * * “ Principles of Geology,” eh. xxTiii. pp. 436, 437. “Whoever considers what the extent of that power (the volcanic) SUBJECT CONTINUED. 119 § i-J The foregoing are cases of elevation produced by- earthquakes: in the destruction of Lisbon in 1755, when in about six minutes sixty thousand persons perished from the same cause, there occurred one of depression, or subsidence. “ Among other extra¬ ordinary events related to have occurred at Lisbon during the catastrophe, was the subsidence of a new quay, built entirely of marble at an immense expense. A great concourse of people had collected there for safety, as a spot where they might be beyond the reach of falling ruins; but, suddenly, the quay sank down with all the people on it, and not one of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface. A great number of boats and small vessels anchored near it, all full of people, were swallowed up, as in a whirlpool. No fragments of these wrecks ever rose again to the surface, and the water in the place where the quay had stood is stated in many accounts, to be unfathomable; but Whitehurst says he ascertained it to be one hundred fathoms.”* * All the preceding cases of change of level were the must be that can raise a district larger than the British Islands from a depth of thousands of feet, and lift the vast mass a single inch higher than it was before, or could throw up all Chili, with the Andes on its back, eight feet at one tremendous heave, will not need to imagine any other force as requisite to produce the elevation of continents or mountain chains .”—Quarterly Review, July, 1859, p. 145. * “ Principles,” p. 474. 120 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. result of convulsive action, caused, or accompanied by earthquakes; but there are others in which the move¬ ment of the land both up and down is exceedingly slow, gradual, and insensible, but long-continued. Thus, some parts of the coast of Sweden and Norway are known to be constantly rising, and others subsiding; so also parts of Greenland. The rate at which the coast of Sweden is being raised is from three to four feet in the century. The area in the north of Europe over which the up¬ heaving movement extends is not determined, but “ it seems probable that it reaches from Gottenburg to Torneo, and from thence to the North Cape, the rate of elevation increasing always as we proceed farther north¬ wards. The two extremities of this line are more than a thousand geographical miles distant from each other; and as both terminate in the ocean, we know not how much farther the motion may be prolonged under water.”' “ To the south of Stockholm the upward movement ceases, and at length in Scania, or the southernmost part of Sweden, it appears to give place to a movement in an opposite direction.” ^ The west coast of Greenland likewise is said to be sinking, for * “Principles,” p. 502. ^ Ibid, p. 506. § I.] FOEEGOINa FACTS APPLIED. 121 a space of more than 600 miles from north to south.^ That of Newfoundland is said to be rising. In 1850 there were given in The Neivfoundland Times facts establishing “ the probability that the whole island is rising out of the ocean with a rapidity which threatens, at no distant period, to materially affect, if not utterly destroy, many of the best harbours on the coast of Newfoundland.” Now let these facts be applied to the elucidation of those passages of Scripture which we have under con¬ sideration, and in which it is predicted, that, at a certain period, there shall be an elevation of some parts of the land of Palestine, viz., Isai. ii. 2, where it is said, ‘‘the mountain of the Louifs house shall he established in the top of the mountains, and shall he exalted above the hills f and Zech. xiv. 10, where it is written, “All the land shall he turned as a plain from Geha to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem: and it shall he lifted upT ^ Apply to these passages the facts * “Principles,” p. 506. ® Seeing that the phenomena foretold in the former part of Zecha- riah xiv., and those also in the tenth verse of the same chapter, mrist he taken literally, it follows that what is said respecting the “ waters ” in the eighth verse must also be so understood. This last subject seems to connect itself obscurely with what is foretold in Ezek. xlvii. 1—12; Joel iii. 18; and Rev. xxii. 1. Again, this eighth verse of Zechariah xiv. serves to show that it is 122 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay 11. before us and we readily see, that there is not the slightest reason, from the nature of the case, why the things foretold in them should not be literally fulfilled. We see immediately that they are not of a nature to render their fulfilment either impossible or improbable; they are neither impossible nor improbable. They are only what have occurred again and again in other parts; nay, only what has already occurred in the very spot to which these very prophecies relate. The Mount of Olives, and indeed the whole of Palestine, have been already “ exalted ” and “ lifted up.” They con¬ sist for the most part of aqueous, or stratified rocks, which were deposited originally at the bottom of the sea, and have since been raised up to their present level; or, as is the case in some parts of the country, that which is now land was once in a molten state, and has been thrown up from below, and forced through the stratified rocks d but in both cases the phenomenon in question, that of elevation, namely, has taken place. Why, then, seeing that this has occurred before, should the onillennial, and not the eternal state, that is referred to, seeing that here the “sea” is in existence, whereas in the eternal state there will he “ no sea.” * In Lieut. Lynch’s “Narrative” of his passage down the Jordan to the Eed Sea, frequent mention is made of “ traj},” which is an igneous rock. §1.] AKGUMENT CONTINUED. 123 we think it strange if we are told that it shall occur again? Is it more improbable that it should take place in the Future, than in the Past ? The process is going on in other parts, as we have already seen, at this very moment; though it may be after a somewhat different manner to that in which it will be realized when these predictions will be fulfilled. The process, for instance, now in action is a gradual one; and it would seem probable that when the things foretold are fulfilled, it will be a convulsive one. But this again, will be nothing new; this also, as we have seen, has occurred within our own time; why then should it not occur again ? If the things foretold were of a nature that would render their literal fulfilment neces¬ sarily impossible, the case would be different. There are passages in which the things described are of this character, e. g. Eev. xii. 1:—“ And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” Here there is no room for question whether the exjiressions be literal or symbolical; we see that, from their very nature, they are necessarily the latter. But such is not the case ■Huth those passages from Isaiah and Zechariah >vhich 124 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. we are now considering. They have all the character of literality about them, and though at first sight we are somewhat startled at what they predict, yet upon a re-examination of them, we find that they only foretel natural phenomena, things which have been, and which therefore may be again. We must therefore receive them as the Lord has set them before us. He will accomplish them in their time. ‘‘ He hath said it, and shall He not bring it to pass ? ” “ The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this.” Let us proceed to the examination of the other passage quoted, viz., Zech. xiv. 4, where we are told, “ The Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toivard the ivest, and there shall be a vei'y great valley; and hcdf of the mountain shall remove toivard the north, and half of it toivard the south.” Here, again, the things predicted, though at first sight so very wonderful as to seem utterly improbable, are yet of a perfectly natural character, and there is not the slightest reason why they should not be literally accomplished hereafter, seeing that they too may be compared with other pre¬ cisely similar phenomena which have already occurred in times past, and that too again and again. §1.] DISRUPTION OF MOUNT OF OLITES. 125 The case we have now to consider is one of fissure, disruption, or fault. "Without pretending to indicate the exact mode by which the JMount of Olives will be divided, and a valley formed through the midst of it, it will be sufficient for oiu* present purpose to show, that the phenomenon foretold is one that is fully un¬ derstood as a fact which has been of very frequent occurrence in the past history of our globe. It is so generally known that the rocks and mountains of the earth exhibit proofs of disruption, in almost every form and shape, that it would be useless in this place to bring examples of the kind. We find the strata composing them lying at every possible angle or in¬ clination ; some are in an undisturbed state, while others are fractured, contorted, and rent, and thrown into the most confused assemblage of forms. Some rise at a gentle inclination, others are found in a per¬ fectly vertical position, and in some few cases they have been actually turned over, so that their true re¬ lative order of superposition has been reversed. We have cases innumerable of elevation, subsidence, and of lateral pressure. In some instances the strata have been elevated and fractured or disturbed in the process of the movement; in others, what is usually termed a 126 PIIYSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. fatdt has been produced; the strata on one side of a line being found lower, or higher, as the case may be, than the corresponding strata on the other side of the line. The coal measures abound with examples of the kind, as may be seen on reference to a map and sections of any of our coal fields. An instructive section of the kind may be seen in Dr. Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise; ” most works on Geology, in¬ deed, contain somethiug of the kind. The disruption of the Mount of Olives after the manner predicted, may be produced by any of the above processes. Some of them, indeed, would lead to effects which would more exactly correspond with the requirements of the case, as indicated by the language employed, than would others, but the result of each would be the dis¬ ruption of the mountain. I have, however, given in an Appendix (C.), some sections which will illustrate the case for those who are not familiar with these matters better than any description coidd possibly do, and this must be my apology for introducing them. Much as we have said about it, we have not yet done with this remarkable locality, the Mount of Olives. There are still other predictions which must be con¬ sidered in connection with those which we have just § I.] .MELTING- OF THE MOUNTAINS. 127 been examining, seeing that they certainly relate to the same time, and the phenomena described in them are not only of a physical nature, but must be regarded as associated in a measure with those which we have been endeavouring to explain. The passages we now refer to are the following:— Isai. Ixiv. 1—4. “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the moun¬ tains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou earnest down, the mountains flowed down at thy pre¬ sence. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, 0 Grod, beside thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him.” Micah, i. 3, 4. “ For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the val¬ leys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.” 128 PHYSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. On these verses it must be remarked,— First, That they both undoubtedly refer, in their ultimate bearing, to the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to His descent to earth. And seeing that the verses from Zech. xiv. which have been already considered, do the same, it follows that they all relate to the same period. Secondly, Seeing that Zech. xiv. 4, gives us the exact locality on which the Lord Jesus Christ will descend,—(“ AmZ His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives,^') — it would seem more than probable, that by the mountains spoken of in these two passages, Isai. Ixiv. 1—4, and Mic. i. 3, 4, namely, we are to understand more particularly the mountains in the immediate neighbourhood of Jeru¬ salem, and the Mount of Olives more especially; not that it is necessary by any means, I conceive, to limit the expression to that particular locality, for others are in all probability meant as well; but yet it would seem to he quite necessary to include it, even if it he not especially and exclusively referred to. This is rendered the more probable from a com¬ parison of the third verse of the first chapter of jMicah with the fifth, for the latter may he said to CONNECTION OF PASSAGES. 129 § !•] explain the former. In the third verse we read of “ the high jplaces of the earth (land),” and in reference to these it is asked in the fifth verse, “ And what are the high places of Judah ? are they not Jeru¬ salem ? ” Then, again, it is impossible not to feel that the expression in the fourth verse of Micah, “ And the valleys shall he cleftf points, in all proba¬ bility, to the same convulsion that, as foretold by Zechariah (ch. xiv. 4), shall lead to the cleaving of the Mount of Olives, and to the formation of a “ val¬ ley ” through it; for though, in the one case, it is a mountain that will be cleaved, and in the other a valley, yet we cannot but remember the close vicinity to the Mount of Olives, both of the valley of Jehoshaphat, and also that of Hinnom. And then again, it must be further remembered, that Isai. ii. 2, distinctly shows us that great disturbance and dislo¬ cation of the strata must necessarily take place in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem at this period, viz. the Second Advent. Thus, therefore, we have good grounds for connect¬ ing all these passages together, and for regarding them as all relating to the same period, and in all probability to the same locality, inclusively, at least, K 130 PHTSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay 11. though not perhaps exclusively. But even if this were not the case — even supposing they were not so immediately connected as we believe they are — the remarks which we are about to make on them Avould in no way be affected by this circumstance. The two last-quoted passages — viz. Isai. Ixiv. 1—4, and Micah i. 3, 4 — are undoubtedly connected, that is, they both relate to the same great event viz. the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth at His Second Advent In the former there is a 'prayer that He would do this; in the latter, a prediction that He will do so. What, then, let us now ask, will be the effects of His coming upon the loccdities on which He wilt descend? His “presence” will be that of Jehovah, seeing that He is “ one with the Father” (John x. 30), and in “ Him dwelleth all the fulness of the srod- O head bodily.” He is “ the brightness of the Father’s ' MicaE i. may have reference to some prior events as vel]; but that, in its ultimate bearing, it relates to the period of the Second Advent, the identity of the matters predicted in the fourth verse vuth those de¬ scribed in Isai. Ixiv. 1—4, which relates soleli/ to that period, is abun¬ dantly sufficient to prove. And this is stdl further confirmed by Ps. xcvii., which relates to the same time, and in the fifth verse of which we have the same identity of expression and of circumstance as in the other cases, — “ The hills melted like wax at the 'presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Loed of the whole earth.” EFFECTS OF CHEIST’s ADVENT. 131 § 1.] glory, and the express image of His person,” and what holds true of the one may he predicated also of the other. What was true of Jehovah’s descent to earth, will be true also of Emmanuel’s. What, then, we again ask, will be the effect of His coming, as predicted here and elsewhere? It will be soon seen that there is a wonderful harmony throughout the whole of the inspired Eecord on this subject; a subject of the greatest interest as well as sublimity. We speak not now of the Advent generally, nor of the great assemblage of events which will tend to make it so awful and sublime, but only of the 'physical effects that will be produced upon natural localities by the presence of the Son of God. Let us notice some of the phenomena which will be caused by that presence. “ Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens,”—is the intensely fervent prayer of the Spirit speaking by the mouth of one prophet—“ Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the 'mountains might flo'w doivn at Thy presence, as 'when the melting fire hurneth, the fire causeth the waters to hoiV’ (Isai. Ixiv. 1, 2.) “ The mountains shall he molten under Him,''’ — 132 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. is the prediction of the other prophet, — ‘‘ And the valleys shall he cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the ivaters that are poured doivn a steep placed (Micah i. 4.) From these declarations, therefore, it appears, that when the Divine presence of the Saviour reaches earth, the very rocks will be rent, and the very mountains will be molten under Him. The manner, too, in which the latter circumstance will take place is shown; it is compared to the flowing of “ water down a steep place,” and to that of “melted wax.” Let us see whether we can obtain a fuller insight into this sub¬ ject, or learn any more with regard to it, by bringing other passages to bear upon it; and also by comparing the predicted phenomena with some which Science has shown us have already taken place. There are many other passages which speak on this subject, and which serve to throw much light upon it. One, already quoted, viz. the third verse of Isaiah Ixiv. is exceedingly important in this respect, for it refers to a similar event in times then past, to that which, in the preceding verses (ver. 1, 2), is foretold as about to take place in times then, and, we believe, still, future, and it thus supplies us with a key to Jehovah’s descent on sinai. 133 §i.J the future one. Eeference, it will be observed, is made to the descent of the Divine 'presence on Sinai, and to the effects tvhich were produced on that occasion; and these, it will be further observed, are precisely the same as those which are looked for as about to accompany the future descent of Jehovah to earth. ‘‘When Thou didst terrible things which we looked not for. Thou earnest doivn, the moun¬ tains floived doivn at Thy presence.'"’^ So in other places this is declared to have taken place. Thus, “ Loed, when Thou wentest out of Seir, when Thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trem¬ bled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped 1 “ When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, Thou earnest down,” &c. How full of meaning are these words ! As if he had said, “ If Thoii didst such things when we had no reason to look for them, seeing that they had not then been promised, how much more wilt Thou do them hereafter, now that they are expressly the sid)jects of promise.” This reasoning must not be overlooked. For, in the first place, it determines the necessity of applying a principle of literal in¬ terpretation to the subject; seeing that the things expected in the future are precisely the same as those referred to as having been experienced in the past; and no one doubts whether the latter were literal, — literal facts of a physical nature; e. g. the trembling of the earth, the melting of the mountains, accompanied liy lightning, and smoke, and flames of fire. (Ex. xix. 16—18.) And, in the next place, this serves to show us how unreasonable and unjustifialfle is our incredulity and “slowness to believe ” that such “ terrible things ” as these shall take place hereafter, “ when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire,” seeing that they are now the subjects of repeated prophecy. If they were done in past times, when “ looked not for,” not having then been pro¬ mised, — how much more surely will they be done hereafter, now that they are expressly foretold ? 134 PHYSICO-PEOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IT. water. The mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai, from before the Lord God of LsraelT (Judg. V. 4, 5.) “ His lightnings enlightened the world : the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the lohole earth.'’’’ (Ps. xcvii. 4, 5.) ^ Let us, then, endeavour to discover, as nearly as we can, what we are to understand by these oft-re¬ peated expressions. They are very remarkable, and the idea they convey is very sublime. Perhaps there is nothing like it throughout the entire Bible. It exceeds every other thought upon the subject. It is doubtless in allusion to it — to the fact, namely, that even the very mountains were melted by His pre¬ sence — that it is declared elsewhere, Our God is a consuming fire.'’'’ How, then, was the fact alluded to accomplished ? Were the entire mountains destroyed'? or, was the entire mass of Sinai fused, so that it flowed down like “ water,” or like melted “ ivax ” ? We have cer¬ tain proof that this was not the case. Sinai still exists, ' This Psalm has undoubtedly reference to the futm-e, and to the Second Advent; but it is clear tliat, in the language here used, the description of the future is foimded on the experience of the past, and is alUce applicable in both cases. § I.] PEOBABLE EXPLANATION OF EFFECTS. 135 and it is constantly referred to in Scriptui’e as being still in existence, even as it was before. It is clear, therefore, that this is not the correct view of the subject, and that some other must be looked for. There are two other ways of understanding it, either of which, or both, may be right, and may have actu¬ ally held true at the time referred to. 1. There may have been at the time an eruption of molten matter. If such was really the case, the ejected matter would be seen flowing like water over the surface of the rocks, just, for instance, as it is in an eruption of Vesuvius, or of Etna, when the liquid lava is seen running in streams down the slopes of the mountains, and over the adjacent plains. And in connection with this thought, it may be well to remember that the Sinaitic rocks are for the most part granitic, and seeing that granite is an igneous rock, and that it is not all of the same antiquity, but is the product of various ages, some being comparatively recent, it is by no means improbable that there was an eruption of it, or of some kind of molten matter at this time. This idea is still farther favoured by the fact about to be presently noticed, that there were other phenomena beside the flowing down of 136 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. the mountains witnessed at this time, all of which are more or less associated, and which frequently, if not generally, accompany each other *: e. g. trem¬ blings of the earth, lightnings, eruptions of fire, flashes of fire, and rendiug of rocks. These, with the ejec¬ tion of molten matter, may be regarded as so many associated phenomena, and they were all witnessed at Sinai at the time referred to. 2. But still I confess I am strongly disposed to question this view of the subject, and am much more inclined to believe that the wonderful phenomenon in question, viz. the flowing down of the rocks like water and like melted wax, was rather owing to the united action of the lightnings and the fire which were in operation at the time, and which were such terrible, but yet such apt and striking, emblems of His presence, who is declared to be “ a consuming fire ” ! As we have already seen, the mountains them¬ selves were not melted, and it, therefore, could only have been their surface that was so. Now it is a deeply interesting fact, that we have actual proof that rocks are fused, as well as shattered, by the intense * “ In all times and countries there is a striking uniformity in the volcanic phenomena.”^— Lyell, Frinciples, b. ii. ch. xxiv. SUBJECT CONTINUED. 137 I.] action of the electric fluid. And we are, moreover, fully justified, I conceive, in assuming from the lan¬ guage employed in the description of the scene that occurred at the time, as well as from the peculiar circumstances of the case, that the thunders and the Imhtninofs that were witnessed at Sinai when Jehovah descended to earth to give His law to the children of men, were such as had not been witnessed before, even from the foundation of the world. “ The hills melted like luax at the 'presence of the Lokd, at the PEESENCE OF THE LOED OF THE WHOLE EAETH ” ! ‘‘ The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the peesence OF God, the God of Iseael ! ” ^ And seeing, more¬ over, that the “ lightnings ” and the ‘‘ fire ” which were then seen were all undoubtedly natural, — that is, were ordinary in kind, though extraordinary in degree,— we are justified in regarding their effects as also natural, or such as would have been produced by the same causes at any other time. It is therefore * The darkness, the hail, and the locusts, witnessed in Egj^t at the Exode of Israel, though ordinary in kind, were exceptional or extra¬ ordinary in degree, in order to distinguish the event. The principle, therefore, assumed above in reference to the lightnings, &c., at Sinai, ia distinctly recognised in Scriptm’e. (See Ex. ix. 18, 24.) 138 PIITSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. an exceedingly important fact, that we have cases recorded of the surface of rocks being actually fused by the action of even ordinary lightning, — ordinary, I mean, in degree or quantity. “ Eocks and the tops of mountains often bear the marks of fusion from its intense heat, and occasionally vitreous tubes, descending many feet into banks of sand, mark its path. Dr. Fiedler exhibited several of these fulgurites in London of considerable length, which had been dug out of the sandy plains of Silesia and Eastern Prussia. One found at Paderborn was forty feet long.” ^ Instances of like kind will be found given in an interesting article “ On Fossil Lightning f by Dr. Gr. D. Gibb, in “The Geologist” for May, 1859. The following is an extract from it:— “The evidence of the power of atmospheric elec¬ tricity are at times made fearfully manifest during thunderstorms, when the electric fluid shatters rocks and scatters immense fragments to considerable dis¬ tances, splitting and tearing up trees, levelling houses, fissuring thick walls, and melting substances which have been looked upon as infusible. Of the last, we have * Mrs. Somerville’s “Connexion of tlie Physical Sciences,” sec. xxviii. Ninth edition. § I.] EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING. 139 an illustration, according to Saussure, in the slaty hornblende on the Dome du Goute, one of the summits of Mont Blanc; he found, in 1787, vitreous blackish beads, of the size of hempseed, which were attributed most clearly to the effects of lightning. Eamond ob¬ served the entire surface of certain rocks on several summits of the Pyrenees, especially the Pic du Midi and Mount Perdu (the latter upwards of 11,000 feet high), and also the rock Sanadoire, in the Puy de Dome, varnished with a coating of enamel, and covered with vitreous heads of the size of peas, the result of the same cause; the interior of the rock being found quite un¬ changed. On the summit of the Pico del Frayle, the highest pinnacle of the volcano Toluca, in Mexico, upwards of 15,000 feet in height, Humboldt noticed the electric effect of lightning. He brought away pieces of a mass of trachyte pierced by lightning, and glazed on the inside like lightning-tubes ; in it the lightning bad made cylindrical tubes three inches long, in such a manner that the upper a,nd lower ojienings could he distinguished apart, the rock surrounding these openings being also vitrified. Arago refers to the vitrification of rock (without tubes), which has been seen at a vertical height of 26,650 feet, over an extensive surface, at the 140 PHYSICO-rROrHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IT. Lesser Ararat and other places.^ I possess a specimen of rock from Canada., which (being at the present time mislaid, I cannot therefore say positively what it is, but I believe it to be syenite is thus covered on its exposed surface by a distinct coating of enamel. Se¬ veral well-attested facts have been collected by Arago, showing the actual vitrification of stones, bricks, and other bodies, by lightning.” As a farther illustration of the power and effects of lightning. Dr. Ctibb gives the following extract (which will also be found in Lyell’s ‘‘ Principles,” b. ii. ch. XX.), from Dr. Hibbert’s “ Shetland Islands ”:— “ At Funzie, in Fetlar, about the middle of the last century, a rock of mica schist, 105 feet long, 10 feet broad, and in some places four feet thick, was in an instant torn by a flash of lightning from its bed, and broken into three large and several small fragments. One of these, 26 feet long, 10 feet broad, and four feet thick, was simply turned over. The second, which was 28 feet long, 17 broad, and five feet in thickness, was hurled across a high point to a distance of 50 yards. ' ITumtoldt's “Cosmos,” vols. i. and iv. ^ “ yyenite,” a species of granite. § I.] THE TWO SOLUTIONS. 141 Another broken mass, about 40 feet long, was thrown still farther, but in the same direction, quite into the sea. There were also many smaller fragments scattered up and down.” ^ I give these two modes of explaining the phenomenon in question, the flowing down of the mountains, namely, for the consideration of the reader: which of them is the right one, or whether both may not he correct, I will not pretend to determine; but one or other, or both, must, I conceive, be admitted to supply the true key to the subject. The latter seems to me, I confess, the more probable, as more in keeping with the insjiired expressions, in which it seems to be im¬ plied that the mountains were melted ” by heat from without, or ah extra, rather than covered by molten matter ejected ah intra, or from beneath the mountain. We are told “ the hills melted like ivax this surely suggests the idea of extraiieous heat; and if so, it ’ It would be exceedingly interesting, if a careful exaipination were made of the Sinaitic range, and especially of Mounts Sinai and Horclj, mth a view to seeing whether "hny parts of their surface still exhibit proofs of fusion. Very possibly, however, the lapse of 3300 years will have been sxifficient to have so far obliterated such effects as to render them no longer discernible. A fine photograph of Sinai, published by the Architectural Photographic Society, shows large quantities of debris lying against its base and sides, testifyifig to the effect of long-continued atmospheric action. 142 PIITSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. favours the views just expressed. The fact itself, however, is certain, that the “ mountains ” did “ flow down,” even as “ water,” and as “ melted wax; ” and it is equally certain that the mountains themselves, that is, their entire mass, did not do this, but only their surface, and' either this was caused by an eruption of molten matter, or by the electric fluid of the ‘‘ light¬ nings ” that flashed with such fearful intensity over them, and by the “ Are ” that wrapped them in flame, and enveloped them in smoke. Thus much as to the meaning of the expression, ‘‘ The mountains flowed down at Thy presence ” in reference to the Past. But the descent of Jehovah on Mount Sinai at the giving of the law will be admitted, I suppose, on all hands, to be, as regards some of the accompanying circumstances, the counterpart or type of the descent of Emmanuel on the Mount of Olives; for it is cer¬ tainly referred to in this light in numerous places of Scripture, some of which will presently have to be noticed. It is implied, e. g. in the passage from Isaiah which we have had to make such frequent .reference to, viz., ch. Ixiv. 1—3, where, as we have seen, the Pro¬ phet first prays that the Lord would “ come down, that the mountains might floiu down at His presence, &c.; §1.] PAST AND FUTUKE DESCENTS. 143 and then immediately after, refers to the way in which he had already done this, viz., at Sinai; thus making the past descent the type or example of the future one. And further than this, the words of the fourth verse distinctly prove that the entire passage relates to the things of the Messiah, for they are quoted by St. Paul (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10) in this light, as referring, in the first place, to the spiritual mercies of the Gospel, which are now realised by believers, being revealed unto them by the Holy Spirit, but which could not have been even conceived by those who lived under the old dispensa¬ tions ; and secondly, as pointing to those future glories which the Holy Spirit has revealed to us as laid up for the people of God, but which are of so transcendant a character that our minds are quite incapable at pre¬ sent of even comprehending them. The hvinety-seventh Psalm also still further confirms this view, seeing that it is, as before observed, so constructed that, while it is a prophecy of the Future, it founds its description of the Future on the experience of the Past, so that its language is alike applicable to both, to the Past and the Future. This point, therefore, being clear, we may proceed to compare the two descents together, the one with the 144 PIITSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay If. other, in order to its being seen how exactly the one answers to the other in all the great leading features which are distinguished by physical phenomena,—the only things, be it remembered, that professedly form the subjects of our examination and inquiry. And here I would remark, that as, in our geological re¬ searches, we explain the Past by the Present, so must we explain the Future by the Present and the Past, which in this case become one, or two parts of one continued series. I need scarcely add, that we must proceed in the same way in our examination of any physical phenomena, which we find predicted in the word of Grod, as about to accompany the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth. 1. The descent of Jehovah on Sinai was marked by the following phenomena^:— ' The following is the account given to us by Moses of that event. It will be observed that some of the phenomena given above are not mentioned by him, though celebrated by several of the other inspired writers. “ And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire ; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” Ex. xix. 16—19. I have put in italics the words which express the §1.] PHENOMENA AT SINAI. 145 (a.) By the flowing down of the mountains at His ^presence. “ WTien Thou didst terrible things which we looked not for. Thou earnest doivn, the mountains floived doiun at Thy ‘presence.’’'’ (Isai. Ixiv. 3.) “ The mountains melted from before the Lord, even that S'lnaifrom before the Lord God of LsraeW’ (Judg. v. 5.) “ The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.” (Ps. xcvii. 5.) (6.) By seismic phenomena, or earthquakes. “ The whole nwunt quaked greatly (Ex. xix. 18.) “ Lord, when Thou wentest out of Seir, — the earth trembled.’’’’ (Judg. v. 4.) “0 God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people ,—the earth shook.'’ (Ps. Ixviii. 7, 8.) ‘‘ Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord.” (Ps. cxiv. 7.) phenomena that form the subjects of our inTestigation. “ The voice of the trumpet ” is not one of them, but I have marked it as affording another parallel circumstance ■with one -which -will distinguish the Advent of Christ, as we learn from 1 Thess. iv. 16, “ For the tord himself shall descend from heaven -with a shout, -with the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God." So in both cases “ clouds ” are seen. See above, ver. 16 ; and in numerous places we are told that Christ win come on them. L 146 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. (c.) By lightnings. “ And it came to pass, that there were thunders and lightnings."^^ (Ex. xix. 16.) “ He shot out light- nings, and discomfited them.” (Ps. xviii. 14.) (d) By fire. “The Lokd descended upon it in fire.'” (Ex.xix. 18.) “ Fire out of his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it.” (Ps. xviii. 8.) (e.) By smoJce. “ And Mount Sinai was altogether in a smoJce.” (Ex. xix. 18.) “ There went up a smoke out of his nostrils.” (Ps. xviii. 8.) > 2. The descent of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth will be marked by the same phenomena:— (a.) By the flowing down of the mountains at His ^presence. “ And the mountains shall he molten under Him.” (Mic. i. 4.) “ Oh that Thou wouldest rend the PHENOMENA AT SECOND ADVENT. 147 § I.] heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might fioiu down at Thy pre~ senceT (Isai. Ixiv. 1.) The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LordT (Ps. xcvii. 5.) “The mountains quake at Him, and the hills meltT (Nah. i. 5.) (6.) By seismic phenomena, or earthquakes. “ The mountains qucike at Him.” (Xah. i. 5.) “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry landl^ (Hag. ii. 6.) Comp. Heb. xii. 26 : “ Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying. Yet once more I shcdce not the earth only, but also heaven.” “ 'WTien He ariseth to shcdce terribly the earth! ” (Isai. ii. 19, 21.)^ “ And great earthquakes shall he in divers places.” (Luke xxi. 11.)^ ’ See “ The Land and the Book,” by W. M. Thomson, D.D., London: Nelson and Sons, p. 276. - In the 2oth Terse of this chapter (Luke xxi.) we read of “ the sea and the waves roaring.” It is weU to remember, that the agitation of the sea is one of the associated phenomena of earthquakes ; and when all the Tarious things which are predicted as about to mark the second advent are considered and compared, it will be felt, I conceive, that they all seem to point to great volcanic action as about to distinguish that solemn event. We have the agitation of the sea, earthquake, lightning, fire, and smoke. And in reference to the last phenomenon. 148 PIITSICO-rEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IT. (c.) By lightning. “ Cast forth lightning, and scatter them.” (Ps. cxliv. 6.) “Our Grod shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.” (Ps. 1. 3.) The presence of light¬ ning seems to be here clearly implied. So also in the following:—“ The Loan hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.” (Nah. i. 3.) {d.) By fire. “ Our Grod shall come, — a fire shall devour before Him.” (Ps. 1. 3.) “ For, behold, the Loed will come with fire.^’ (Isai. Ixvi. 15.) “The Lord Jesus shall he revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in fiaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not Grod, and how strikingly do the words in Joel ii. 30 remind one of the description given hy the younger Pliny of the eruption of Vesuvius, a.d. 79. “ A dense column of vapour was first seen rising vertically from Vesuvius, and then spreadhig itself out laterally, so that its upper portion resembled .the head, and its lower the trunk of the pine, which characterizes the Italian landscape. This black cloud was pierced occa¬ sionally by fiashes of fire as vimd as lightning, succeeded hy darkness more profound than night.”— Lyell’s Principles, h. ii. ch. xxiv. PHENOMENA AT SECOND ADVENT. 149 § I*] that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thess. i. 7, 8.) With this, compare the following;—Heb. x. 27; Zeph. hi. 8 ; Joel, ii. 30. (e.) By smoke. ‘^Bow Thy heavens, 0 Lord, and come down : touch the mountains, and they shall smoked (Ps. cxliv. 5.) “ And I will show wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood and fire, and pillaTS of smoked'^ (Joel ii. 30.) * “ He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth : He toucheth the hills, and they smoked^ (Ps. civ. 32.) A glance at the two preceding series of texts will be sufficient, I conceive, to satisfy us that there is an immediate connection between the two great events to which they relate; and farther, to enable us to identify the nature of the things which they severally set before us, as having already occurred in the one * This -was quoted by St. Peter on the day of Pentecost. (Acts ii. 19.) The prophecy, however, was only partially fulfilled at that time, and ^vill not receive its complete fulfilment till “ the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” (Joel ii. 31.) 150 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. case, and as about to occur in the other. We see that as the one class of facts, those namely, in the first case, were undoubtedly 'physical, so must those in the other be. They will be wrought for great moral ends, but in themselves they will be of a purely physical character, and they must, therefore, be judged of by those laws which are known to regu¬ late such phenomena. This is most important. It connects us with the Future, and shows us how to deal with it; and it teaches us, moreover, that it will form an integral part of that vast series which already embraces in like manner the Present and the Past. And here we cannot but pause for a moment, to notice the advantages we derive, in connection with Revelation, from the progress of advancing science. We hear much of the disadvantages arising from this source, or of the difficulties which it has been the means of originating. We believe the time will come when these difficulties will be all satisfactorily solved; but, in the mean time, if these be urged, it is but right that the others should be* also enforced. Five hundred years ago, then, whatever might have been our philological acquirements, we could not have § I.] ADVANTAGES FEOM PKOGRESS OP SCIENCE. 151 entered into the investigation of the subjects which have been engaging our attention in the way we may now do. And why ? Because the matters to which they relate would have been then but very imperfectly understood by us. We should, consequently, not have seen the significancy of the terms by which they are expressed in the inspired Record, and in all probability we should have laboured to discover some mystical meaning which we should suppose was couched beneath them. This we know has constantly been done when the things predicted have seemed to the expositor to be of an uncommon or extraordinary character. If they have been strange to him, he has either avoided them as altogether incomprehensible, or concluded that they were never likely to be realised literally, and his ingenuity, therefore, has been im¬ mediately put into exercise to determine what they might mean in a spiritual way. His limited know¬ ledge precluded the idea of literality with regard to them. But we know that to enter successfully into the examination of any subject, it is not only neces¬ sary to know something of it, but also of kindred topics, and that we cannot reasonably expect to ac¬ complish much unless this be the case. The natural 152 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. philosopher knows this well, and also that in order to make discoveries in any one branch of science he must he, to some extent at least, acquainted with others as well. He ought to be prepared to detect resemblances and analogies in various directions, and between distant particulars, and thus to work his way to some law or general principle, the discovery of which is the great end of all his labours. Such, however, is the connection, not only of scientific, hut of all knowledge, that a man cannot be efiBcient on one subject while he remains ignorant of every other. The more he knows of others, especially of Idndred or related subjects, the more likely is he to be suc¬ cessful in his researches on any particular one to which he may direct his attention. These principles hold strictly true in reference to the contents of the sacred volume, and to our attempts at explaining them. Those contents are very diver¬ sified in their nature, and, according to their nature, must be our preparation for examining them. Those which are purely spiritual must be explained solely by comparing one part of the volume with another. Nature cannot help us here. The only w'ay to pro¬ ceed is to “ compare spiritual things with spiritual.” SUBJECT CONTINUED. 153 §!•] (1 Cor. ii. 13.) But when the passages we are con¬ sidering relate in any way to the ivories of God, the case is very different. Now it becomes necessary, if we would he safe and efficient expositors, that we should know something of those works, and of the laws that govern them, and the more we know the better. It is not that our previous knowledge is to determine the truth of the written word, but to help us in discovering its meaning. It is not to sit as an authority, but to act as an interpreter. And the more enlarged it is, the more efficient is it likely to be. Very different are the conceptions of the astronomer, on reading the sublime burst of the Psalmist,— “ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handy work ” — to those of the unin¬ structed, though it may be pious, rustic. And the case is similar, whatever may be the nature of the subject. Should the portions of the word under examination relate, for instance, to the manners and customs of the Israelites, or to those of some of the other nations of antiquity — to those of Egypt, or Babylon, or Nineveh — or to the natural objects of the Holy Land, we well know that the more familiar we have made ourselves with these several subjects, by 1S4 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. having studied them previously from other sources, the more readily shall we he able to expound the meaning of that which is written. This, in short, is a rule from which there cannot well be any excep¬ tion. Hence, I repeat, the advantages we derive from the progress of knowledge generally, and from that of science in particular. We are, for example, better prepared now, than we were only a hundred and fifty years ago, to discuss the subjects which have lately been engaging our attention. Geology, which was then scarcely in its infancy even, could have done very little for us in the way of helping us to do this ; but it has since that period so far matured its discoveries as to put us in possession of various im¬ portant truths which we can bring to bear upon nume¬ rous passages of Scripture, and which help us greatly in understanding something of their meaning. Thus, it is written, as we have seen, that ‘‘ the mountain of the LoRD'shouse shall he established in the top of the mountains, and shall he exalted above the hillsf (Isai. ii. 2) ; and again, that “ the land shall he turned as a plain from Geha to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem and that '‘‘it shall he lifted upJ (Zech. xiv. 10.) What in former days could be made of such expressions? SUBJECT CONTINUED. 155 § 1 .] Either, as we have before intimated, they would be avoided as relating to things too wonderful to be un¬ derstood, or they would be taken in a purely spiritual or mystical sense, their terms being made to mean something, for example, respecting “the Christian Church,” and “ the triumph of Christianity upon earth! ” ^ or, even supposing that some believed that the things foretold would be actually accomplished in a literal, and not after a spiritual manner, yet they would not be able to look upon them as belonging to the natural order of things, and therefore they could not proceed to reason upon them. None would, of course, deny that Giod could do them if He saw good; but then their accomplishment must have been looked for solely as the result of miraculous power, and not as about to be produced by the operation of natural causes, directed by the Divine hand. The very same thing, in a word, has occurred in reference to many of the * We read in Isaiah i. 1, as follows : — “ The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem;” and in ch. ii. 1, — “ The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:” and yet while, in the first case, no one ever di’eams of understanding the terms '•‘■ Judah and Jerusalem'' in any other than a literal way, ninltitiides consent, in the second case, to understand by them the establishment and adrancement of Christianity, or of Christ's spiritual kingdom, as they express it, tliroughout the world ! 156 PETSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. events foretold in Scripture, that held true with regard to many of the phenomena of nature before science had explained them,—they were regarded as altogether exceptional, and their connection with other things was not seen. And as the history of philosophy teaches us that, formerly, many things were regarded as either occult or incomprehensible, or unapproachable by man, which have since become known, and their causes ex¬ plained, so has it been in refence to certain phenomena foretold in the Word of God; they have been placed beyond the line of natural things, or such as are wrought by natural causes; and, if looked for in a literal sense at all, it has been supposed that miracle alone could accomplish them. Thus, to talk, before geology had become a science and had made its won¬ derful discoveries, of mountains being raised or de¬ pressed, or severed in the midst, and of valleys being produced, by these means, through them, would have seemed to many the very height of extravagance; and even now, perhaps, there are not wanting persons who would so regard such an expression of opinion. But assuredly these persons will not be found among the cultivators of that science. Others may smile at such things, but the geologist is prepared to affirm with regard SUBJECT CONTINUED. 157 § 1.] to them, that they have been already, are occurring even noiv, and therefore may be again hereafter. Thus we are, unexpectedly as it were, placed in a new position for viewing them. We are led to see that we may take the Word of Grod as we find it, whatever be the nature of its revelations, that, wonderful as are the things it tells us of, they may yet belong to the natural and the probable. We may now, therefore, to some extent, reason upon them, and examine them, even as we do present phenomena, for we see that they will be of the very same nature as the present, and must therefore be subject to the same laws, and be explained on the same principles. Their peculiar end and aim, as means for the accomplishment of the Divine purposes, are in no way interfered with by such a view. These remain what they were before. The hand of Grod is no less seen, but seen more clearly than it was before. We learn how in these, as in all other things, He is acting who seeth the end from the beginning,” and who “ maketh even the flames of fire to be His ministers.” The difference lies in this, that we are now permitted to comprehend something of the nature of that which, in his own time. His word tells us He will assuredly accomplish. 158 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IT. And we are now led to reflect further, that the Bible has manifestly been in advance of out science, so that if that had but made earlier progress, we should sooner have understood the meaning of the written word. It has been a want of knowledge that has kept us ignorant of the true meaning of much of that word, and has also led us to give a mystical signi¬ fication to many of its disclosures with regard to the future, because we could not conceive it possible that they could be ever literally fulfilled. The experience of the past ought to warn us how ice follow the same course for the future. We see how advancing science throws light on one subject after another, and thus enables us to comprehend clearly matters that, in former days, seemed to rank themselves among the mystical, the fabulous, or the incredible; and what it accomplishes in this way with regard to the phenomena of Nature, it also does in reference to the teachings of Scripture, when these relate to matters which science may be fairly expected to take cognizance of. Most of the things which have lately been engaging our attention, — the upheaving and subsiding of mountains, the formation of valleys, and the flowing down of the mountains,—would be regarded in former days as so 160 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. when so taken, its teaching is in marvellous harmony with actual truth, as learned from other sources.^ ' A striking instance how the true meaning of Scripture may escape us, through a want of knowledge on our part, is afforded by Calvin’s note on Ps. xc. 2; ‘■‘■Before the 'mountains were hrouqht forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God.” “Moses” (he says) “designs to set forth some high and hidden mystery, and yet he seems to speak feebly, and, as it were, in a puerile manner. For who does not know that God existed before the world?” Had Calvin been a geologist he would not have wTitten thus, nor thought it necessary to apologise, as it were, for the language which Moses has used. It may be fearlessly asserted that there is no passage in the Bible which is more calculated, when rightly understood, to give us enlarged conceptions of the eternity of the Divine Being. We cannot embrace infinity, nor grasp immensity, except to a limited extent; and it is well known, that in order to our comprehending any thing extremely vast, either in space or time, it is necessary that our minds should have some standard by which to judge, and that our thoughts should be carried forward by degrees from one step to another, that thus the imagination, or conception, may be assisted in its efforts, and be gradually enlarged. “ How,” — to boirow the language of another®,— “how do we gain the fullest impression of the immensity of space? Is it by gazing at once on the clear sky? No; this may convey some impression of vastness, but far short of the truth. How then may we expand this vague feeling into a juster view of the grandeur of the universe ? A middle term must be brought into the reckoning. From distances familiar to our senses the astronomer de¬ termines, first, the size of the globe on which we dwell. From the size of the earth itself, by a measurable proportion, he rises to the dimension of its annual orbit. And now, with millions of miles for our unit, we ascend by a second step of sublime geometry, and obtain a limit for the least distance of the nearest star. And thus, at length, by these inter¬ mediate stages of ascent, we attain a far nobler, larger conception of the immensity of God’s visible creation than we could ever have gained by gazing directly on the starry firmament.” On this very principle, appa¬ rently, are founded the words of Moses in this tridy sublime passage. (Ps. xc. 2.) It carries us back by degrees, and by the employment of one vast scale of measurement after another, enlarges our conceptions to the \itmost possible extent of which they are capable. Geology has taught us that “ the mountains ” of the earth are not all of the same o * The Rev. T. E. Birks, in his discourse on “ The First Resurrection.” Bloomsbury Lectures, 1843, p. 243. §1.] BIBLE IN ADVANCE OF SCIENCE. 159 utterly strange and improbable, that few, if any, would be induced to believe they could ever take place; but yet such things are now proved to belong to the ordinary operations of nature; and we learn that similar things have occurred again and again. But the knowledge of this has only very recently been attained; we were unacquainted with it for ages; yet the Bible has all along contained numerous passages in which these things are treated as actual veritiesj and as about to be wrought hereafter, even as we now know they were wrought in time past. The Bible, therefore, we repeat, has thus for ages been in advance of our science. Why should ive doubt whether it is not still so? There are, and there must be, many remaining difficulties, — are we not justified in expecting that, as knowledge progresses, these will be successively re¬ moved, and one after another be fully and clearly explained ? Let us learn to wait for light, and, while waiting, not hesitate to acknowledge our present igno¬ rance. But let us not attempt to wrest the Word of God from its plain and literal meaning, because we cannot make its language square with our present attainments. When we know more, we shall see that what we ought to do is, to take it as it is; and that. LAPSE OF TIME. 161 § I.] age, bxit vary immensely in this respect some being comparatively recent, while the upheaval of others was at a date so distant that we in vain strive to form the slightest conception of it. The “ bringing forth of the mountains,” therefore, supplies us with the steps, or divisions, of a vast chronology, which reaches back into periods inconceivably remote; and which, leading us on from one step to another, serves to give us a comprehension of the whole such as other\\dse we could not possibly have. We may stand on one mountain range, which had its origin at one period, and look forward on another which is immeasurably older; and, beyond that again, descry a third, far older still; and, yet farther in the distance, a fourth, belonging to a time far far more ancient than either of the former. Even the first in the series, though its actual age be not known, must carry us back immensely into the womb of time, but as we successively contemplate the others we feel that we are borne into ages so distant and so vast that eternity alone can exceed them. The very process through which the mind is carried in the contemplation of such periods, serves to enlarge its powers of concep¬ tion. But the process is not yet exhausted. After giving us the suc¬ cessive mountain ages as a scale, and bearing us in imagination to that remote period when the very first of them was brought forth, the inspired mind again flies back to another still more remote, even to that in which “ the earth and the world were formed” or first called into being; and then again, leaving this point — the illustrative re- sonrces of the universe being exhausted — it plunges into the infinitude of eternity itself, exclaiming, as it does so, “Even from everlasting to everlasting thou aet God!” “ “For instance, we have no doubt that the Grampian, Lammermuir, and Cumberland mountains were dry land long before the Alps were reared from out of the sea, and while the greater part of the area of Europe was occupied by the ancient ocean.”— Prof. J. Phillips, Guide to Geology, p. 45. Third edition. M 162 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. § II. — ITS ADYANCED CHARACTER, Our attention must now be directed to a differ¬ ent subject, and to the attainment of a different end to that which we have lately had in view. Up to this time our object has been to connect the Future with the Present and the Past, our aim will now be to show hoiv greatly it will differ from them. But however great the difference, it will not affect the cpiestion which all our preceding remarks were chiefly designed to establish, namely, the true 'physical cha¬ racter of the future inheritance. This great truth will not be affected by that which it will be our next object to prove, namely, that that inheritance will BE OF A FAR HIGHER CHARACTER THAN THE PRESENT. It has been already shown, and that too at con¬ siderable length, that great and material changes may take place in the condition of the earth, and in the fauna and flora found on its sm-face, and yet the § II.] CHANGES IN CKEATION. 163 whole continue subject to the same physical laws that were in force at the beginning. This has ac¬ tually been the case already, and it may therefore be so again. The difference between the present condition of the earth, and that which prevailed at, and before the commencement of the Silurian periods, must be something immense; yet it admits of demon¬ stration that the laws which regulate the material universe are the same. And thus will it be in re¬ ference to that ‘‘ new earth ” which the omnipotent Creator will call forth. It will be subject to the same natural laws as the present and the past, and yet it will differ most essentially from them both, in that it will be of a far higher character in respect to its condition, and to that of its privileged inhabi¬ tants. This we must now endeavour to prove by such evidence as the Scriptures supply us with; nof that we suppose that any will be inclined to question it, but we wish to assume nothing without subjecting it to some amount of examination and proof. It will be necessary, however, here to repeat again what has been on more than one occasion said before, namely, that I shall be obliged to look upon the millennial and eternal periods as one, being unable M 2 164 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. as I freely confess, to distinguish between them with certainty at all times, or to show to which of them the several passages to which reference is about to be made properly apply. The description, indeed, of the New Jerusalem -— all, in short, which is contained in the two last chapters of the Apocalypse—I should say certainly belongs to the eternal period; but I should quite fear to allocate some of the other pas¬ sages. They may refer to the Millennium alone, or to that, and to the eternal period as well. It is always dangerous to limit the application of a pas¬ sage. None of those about to be quoted, however, relate to a time 'prior to the Second Advent, but all refer either to it or to a time ’subsequent to it. We saw in the first Essay, that the Scriptures uniformly speak of “ the kingdom ” of the Messiah as one, though we know it will be divisible into at least two periods, the millennial and the eternal; and I must again treat the entire period subsequent to the first com¬ mencement of that kingdom, which will synchronize with ■ the Advent, as but one period, though I hold it to be well-nigh certain that the millenniuni ivill be a TRANSITION state between the present and the eternal one. It will be quite sufficient, however, for § II.] EXALTED CHAEACTER OF FUTURE STATE. 16.5 iny present purpose, to show, generally, with regard to man’s future inheritance, that, though subject to physical law like the present, it will yet be of a far higfher and far more grlorious character. This, I conceive, is clearly taught us by a passage already quoted, and also briefly remarked on, and which is perhaps universally viewed in this light,— '■‘For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor 'perceived by the ear, neither hcdh the eye seen, 0 God, beside Thee, what He hcdh pre¬ pared for him that ivaiteth for Him." (Isai. Ixiv. 4.) All the expressions in this verse serve to convey the idea that the things to which they relate will be of a wonderful and extraordinary character. The repeated assertions, indeed, with regard to their never in any way having been experienced before, would, on any other hypothesis, be unintelligible. The words are quoted, as we have before had to notice, by St. Paul (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10) who adds, with regard to the things spoken of in them, ‘^but God hath re¬ vealed them unto us by His Spirit.” They relate, therefore, in part, to the things of the Gospel, and to such as are realised now in the spiritual experience of the enlightened believer, but we have already seen 166 PHYSICO-PEOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. that the entire passage, as given us by the prophet, from the first to the fourth verse inclusive, namely, has undoubtedly reference to the Second Advent, or to the descent of Christ from heaven, and therefore the unheard-of things foretold in the fourth verse must necessarily embrace the things now laid up for the people of God, and which will be bestowed on them when “ He who is their life shall appear.” In¬ deed, it would be well-nigh absurd to exclude these, or to suppose that they were not the principal things intended. In a word, the truth seems to be, as before observed, (p. 143) that the words may be re¬ garded, in the first place, as referring to the spiri¬ tual mercies of the Gospel which are now realised by believers being revealed unto them by the Holy Spirit, and which could not have been conceived by those who lived under the old dispensation; and, in the next place, as pointing also to those future glories which the same Holy Spirit has revealed, as being laid up for the people of God, but which are of so transcendant a character as to be beyond the reach of our present comprehension. All the other revelations of Scripture on the subject are in keeping with this view of it. Take, for instance. § II.] EXALTED CIIAEACTEK OF FUTUEE STATE. 167 the description of the New Jerusalem in Eev. xxi. Whatever we are to understand by that description, it is clear that it sets before us a state of things which is indeed such as neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath yet been conceived even in the most lofty flight of our imaginings. In this respect, therefore, it is what it ought to be, according to prior predictions. And this must be held to be a highly important con¬ sideration. If the New Jerusalem state were o'epre- sented as one which was exalted, indeed, but yet level with our conceptions, it would not he such as %ce have been taught to expect. But such is not the case, and the fact that it is not, is proof of correct¬ ness, because in harmony with prior predictions. Mails future condition may be urged as a further argument in favour of the exalted character of his inheritance. There will be a correspondence between him and it, as there always is between the habitat and the creature or being who inhabits it. And if this rule hold true hereafter, as it doubtless will, then advanced and exalted indeed will be the condition of this globe, when it has become the abode of renewed and glorified man. For whether we look to man's mental powers hereafter, or to his bodily condition, we are alike 31 4 168 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. brought to the conclusion that a mighty change will have been wrought in them, and that his state as a whole will be amazingly in advance of his present one. As to his mental powers, the following passage decides the question :—‘‘ Charity never faileth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For noiv we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; hut then shall I know even as also I amknotunF (1 Cor. xiii. 8—12.) It would be useless to speculate on the condition which these words set before us. It would, indeed, be very delightful to do so, for even the bare conception of it is sufficient to fill the mind with joy, and to make it look forward with lofty aspirations. But fancy may mislead us, or the imperfection of our present knowledge may cause us to err; and it is far better, therefore, to con¬ fine ourselves to the simple fact revealed, namely. § II.] EXALTED CHAEACTER OF FUTURE STATE. 169 that SO exalted shall be our mental powers hereafter, that, whereas we see everything at present only in a very imperfect manner, we shall hereafter know even as we are known. As to the condition of the body hereafter, this we shall have to consider at length at a future sta^e of our inquiries, when we come to examine what is written respecting the resurrection body of the believer. Simply to refer to it is about all we can do here, but this will be sufficient to show its bearing upon our present question. I refer not now to the fact that the resurrection body will be no longer subject to disease, and pain, and death; but, to what I hold to be an undoubted truth, that it will be distinguished by a visible brightness, the emblem or visible mani¬ festation of that glory which the Eedeemer will, according to His promise, have bestowed on His people, and which will yet only be a reflection, as it were, of that which will, in a still higher degree, distinguish His own divine person. Ample proofs of this will, it is hoped, be supplied hereafter; for the present, it must be assumed by us, and, assuming it, we readily see its important bearing on our present question—the advanced condition of the future in- 170 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IT. lieritance. Wonderful, indeed, must be the state and character of that inheritance, before it can be a suitable abode for beings so exalted in condition as the redeemed will then be. Immediately connected with the last topic is another which, with that, will be discussed more at length at a subsequent stage, but which can only be briefly noticed here, and that is, the degree of light which ivill prevail hereafter, and which we learn will be immensely greater than that which prevails at present —another proof of an advanced condition of things. But this is clearly revealed to us in the following words:—“ Moreover, the light of the moon shall he as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall he sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” (Isai. xxx. 26.) § III-] FUTURE FAUNA AND FLORA. 171 § III.-ITS FAUNA AND FLORA. A GLIMPSE, though little more, is afforded us iii Scripture respecting the Fauna and Flora of the new inheritance, but this is highly important. Such is the state of feeling induced in our minds by our visionary views of the future—expecting, as many seem to do, that, to use the words of Chalmers, “We shall float about in ether,”—that something akin to surprise is apt immediately to spring up in our minds, when mention is made of such things as a flora and fauna, or of a vegetable and animal king¬ dom, in connection with that abode which is looked forward to as man’s future and eternal inheritance. We do not, at such times, stop to consider what the negative of the question would land us in. We seem to think that such things as these must then have passed away, though why they should do so we know not, nor have we, perhaps, taken the trouble to inquire. But we feel strongly that they can belong only to the 172 PIIYSICO-PROPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. Present and the Past, and many are really shocked at what they consider to be the grossness of the suppo¬ sition, that the}^ will be found again in the Future. But how unreasonable, and even absurd, is this! Will the “ new earth ” be a barren plain; a blank on which nothing will be seen save its glorified inhabitants? Would this be an advantage, or would it be an ad¬ vance on the present condition ? Yet if not a blank, what will there be ? What an abode would we make for ourselves; we strip it of the things which form the most lovely and attractive features of the present, and we have nothing to propose in their stead! But if we look to the Past, we find that a fauna and flora have ever prevailed on our globe from their first introduction upon it, even as at present, though they have been marvellously changed from time to time during the lapse of ages; and a moment’s serious and rational reflection, therefore, must necessarily show us that, judging from all analogy, the Future will not differ in this respect from the Present, but will be in essential harmony with it and with the Past. It may differ, indeed, in the character of the things which will distinguish it, and we are desirous at this moment to show that this will certainly be the case, but so § III.] FUTURE FAUNA AND FLORA. 173 far as the great outlines of the subject are concerned, Ave ought undoubtedly to expect that they will be greatly similar to the present. How great is the delight which we now derive from the sight and con- templation of the beauties of creation in all their wonderful variety ! “ 0 Lord, hoiv manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is fidl of Thy riches !'’’ Except the joy derived from spiritual communion with our God, and from the study of His word, there is, perhaps, no more pure and exalted pleasure than that which we derive from the contemplation of His works. Ought we to suppose for a moment that there will be no room for its exercise hereafter? Eather, is it not at least far more philosophic to expect, that, not only will the new earth have its fauna and its flora, but that they will also be far in advance of, and therefore far more perfect and glorious, than the present? We shall, I trust, have reason to see, that such will be the case. Among the scriptural passages which have an im¬ portant bearing on this subject, is the following :— “ Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created; and Thourenewest the face of the eartliT (Ps. civ. 30.) The reference is to the lower animals, of whom it is 174 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. said in the three preceding verses :—“ These wait all upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That Thou givest them they gather: Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled : Thou taJcest aivay their breath, they die, and return to their dustT In what sense are we to understand the words that follow ? “ Tlioih sendest forth Thy sjpirit, they are created; and Thou renewest the face of the earth^’f It is, perhaps, very generally taken for granted, that all that is meant is simply the renewal of animated nature in the present ordinary course of the same. But, critically, this cannot be the meaning. It may, in¬ deed, be intended that a general idea of the kind should be conveyed to the mind, as falling in with the current of the Psalmist’s thoughts; but the words affirm far more than a renewal by ordinary generation, for they properly mean a creation of fresh creatures^ ' Suppose this to be cori’ect, viz., that there will be a creation of fresh creatures,—will the command, “ Be fniitful and multiply ” cease to he in force with regard to them"! We must remember that such will be the case in reference to glorified mankind. “ Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” (Matt. xxii. 29, 30.) And we must remember farther, that we are also told that, “ The creation itself also {kuI avr^i f ktIctis) shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” ,(Eom. viii. 21.) § ni.] FUTUKE FAUNA AND FLOKA. J75 hy the 'power of the Holy Spirit, such as was wrought, for instance, at the Adamic creation, as described in the first chapter of Genesis, to which, undoubtedly, allusion is made. Some, feeling this, have supposed that the words teach us that there will be a resurrec¬ tion of the brute creation; but to say nothing of the strange results which this would produce, it receives no countenance from the words used. These affirm, not a resurrection, but a creation of animals (for the expression is “ created, not raised), and a renewal of the face of nature generally, but by the creative power of the Holy Spirit, as at the first. This view of the subject is supported by the next verse, which seems clearly to point to the perpetuity of the new creation, and is therefore in harmony with what we are expressly told elsewhere (Isai. Ixvi. 22), that ‘‘ the new heavens and the new earth ” shall “ remain ” before the Lord, — “ The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever; the Lord shall rejoice in His ivorlcsT ^ * The term is the same as in the first verse of Genesis, and which most generally means a creation out of nothing, and not a mere formation out of matter already existing. ^ The succeeding verse may also be regarded as pointing forward to the same time, and therefore to be taken in the same connection, for it seems clearly to refer to those great physical changes which we have seen will take place at the Second Advent; “ He looketh on the earth, 176 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. Here, then, I conceive, we are distinctly taught the important truth, that there shall be a new creation of animated nature; it may be even more than one, as, for instance, at the Advent, and again when ‘^Hhe new heavens and the new earth ” are formed. The eleventh chapiter of Isaiah relates entirely to the period of the Advent and Kingdom of the Mes¬ siah, and the following verses show us, I conceive, what will be the condition of the fauna of that period:— The tuolf also shall chuell ^vith the lamb, and the leopard shall lie doivn iviih the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the hear shall feed; their young ones shall lie doivn together: and the lion shall eat straiv like the ox.^ And the sucking child shall play on the hole and it TREMBZErn ; he toucheth the hills, and they smoke” (ver. 32). This is the view taken of the passage throughout by Dr. De Burgh, iu his very valuable “ Commentary ou the Book of Psalms.” Dublin, 1860. ' “ The lion shall eat straw like the ox.” It is readily seen that this would seem to imply a material change, not only in the habits, but also in the structinre, of the lion, which being now a carnivorous animal is formed accordingly. But the accomplishment of the prophecy must be left in the Lord’s hands, whose resources are infinite, and who will bring it to pass in His ovni time, and in a way knovni to Himself, though not to us. Very possibly, however, a much less degree of change, in the case of the animals mentioned in this passage, -will be necessary in order to the fulfilment of the prediction than we are apt at present to suppose. Dr. Livingstone, iu his “ Travels in Africa,” has § I'l-J FAUNA AND FLOEA. 177 of the asp, and the iveaned child shcdl put his hand on the cochatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Loed, as the waters cover the sea.” (Ver. 6—9.) This beautiful picture of a variety of animals all rendered innocuous, mingling together in peace and harmony, is one which it is delightful to contemplate. It is a state, we must remember, that is to mark the kingdom of “ The Prince of Peace and it is just such as we might expect as in keeping with His reign,—if it were ever safe for us to speculate on d priori grounds on what is fitting and probable. But we may, without impro¬ priety, note the agreement which seems to exist be¬ tween any two things, and trace the apparent harmony between them; for in particular cases, as for instance given us a case that is very suggestive on this point. I pretend not that it is really parallel to the predicted one, hut yet, singular to say, it does afford us an instance of carnivorous animals voluntarily feeding on vegetable productions. Valeat quantum valet. After describing a water-melon which grows in Africa in great abundance in some rainy seasons, and after observing that “ animals of every sort and name, including man, rejoice in the rich supply,” he proceeds to say, “ the various kinds of antelopes feed on them with equal avidity, and lions, hyeenas, jackals, and mice, all seem to know and appreciate the common blessing.” “ * “ Missionary Travels in Africa,” p. 48. N ITS PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. the present, such harmony ought to he found, and when found, is a corroboration of the correctness of our views on the subject, derived, as those views have been, from the evidence which has suggested them. Apparent discrepancy is always felt to be an argument against a doctrine, and apparent agreement must, in like manner, be admitted as so much proof in its favour. This, therefore, which is observable between the prophet’s description of the animal world under Messiah’s reign, and all that we learn elsewhere re¬ specting the peaceful and happy character of that reign, should be carefully noticed. It is another link in the chain of evidence, serving to give completeness to the subject, and to our views upon it. A striking and important connection may be readily traced between this prophecy of Isaiah, — as also be¬ tween that of the Psalmist in Ps. civ. 30, — and another, which is given us in the eighth chapter of Eomans, and which undoubtedly relates to the same period as this, namely, to that of Messiah’s advent, and of His reign of righteousness. The whole crea¬ tion now groans and travails in pain together,” and the condition and habits of the present animals serve in a great measure to produce this state of things: § III-] FAUNA AND FLORA. 179 if, therefore, they are changed, “ a consummation most devoutly to be wished ” will have been attained. Bat this, we are told, they will be, and the fact is in exact harmony with what we are further told re¬ specting the eager expectation of the entire creation for a given period, and of its longing desire, as it were, for “ the manifestation of the sons of Grod,” because that manifestation ” will take place when “ He who is their life shall appear,” and when His reign of righteousness, and peace, and love, shall commence. I have before shown how the followingr passage should be rendered, and give it accordingly: “ I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, hut by reason of Him %uho hath subjected the same in hope; because the creation itself also shcdl be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For %ve knoiu that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until noiv. 180 PIITSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. And not only it, hut ourselves also, wliieh have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even ive ourselves groan ivithin ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to ivit, the redemption of our body A (Eom. viii. 18—23.) This passage, along with that last considered, namely, Isai. xi. 6-—9, serves clearly to show us that the great anomaly of creation, as we cannot but view it at present, namely, the sujfiering which now prevails throughout it, and which, as proved by innumerable geological facts, has prevailed even from the first, just as it does at present, will hereafter be removed and cease for ever. After all that has been said upon this subject, and after all the attempts that have been made to lessen its paradoxical character, it is still, like the origin of evil, a matter which baffles every attempt at explaining it. We cannot account for it; and we see not how it can be reconciled with the love, and benevolence, and infinite power of the Di¬ vine Being. The Apostle does not attempt to ac¬ count for it in the.above passage; he simply resolves it into the will of the Creator, and there leaves it. “ The creation,” he says, “ was made subject to vanity, not willingly, hut by reason of for rather by) Him vjho hath subjected the same in hope,”— uXka hia top § «!•] FAUNA AND FLORA. 181 viTOTCi^avra sir iXTrihi} For myriads of ages, mar¬ vellous to say, has this state of things continued, one part of creation living upon another, and necessarily producing an amount of pain that staggers the mind to contemplate; or death, in the natural course of things, has removed them from the scene of their existence. Many attempts have been made, as for instance, by Paley, Buckland, Hitchcock and others, to show an optimism in the case ; but allowing for some slight success as having attended their efforts, the great fact that “ creation groans and travails in pain ” still remains unaccounted for, and is but slightly affected by their attempts to “ extenuate the difficulty,” as Paley says. But, as if to do honour to the reign of “ the Prince of Peace,” whose “ rest shall be glorious,” it would seem that this apparently * Some commentators understand this to refer to Adam, and not to God. But this is little better than absurd; for, to say nothing of its being altogether inconsistent with the Apostle’s argument, in what sense, it may he asked, did Adam subject the creation “ ho])e” 1 Let the comma be placed either before or after the words “ in hope,” the sense is alike obscure if he be understood as the person referred to. And then it must be further remembered that, as stated above, the siilfering state referred to prevailed for ages before Adam was created: he therefore could not have caused it. " Vide Paley’s Natural Theology, ch. xxvi.; Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise, ch. xiii .; Hitchcock’s Religion of Geology, lec. iii., “ Death a universal Daw of organic Beings on this Globe from the beginning in which there is much valuable matter bearing on the subjects now before us. 182 niYSICO-rROPirETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. anomalous condition of creation shall begin to be re¬ moved when He appears, and a new state of things shall eventually be introduced from which it will cease for ever! Whether we are justified in affirming quite thus much, however, some perhaps may be in¬ clined to question, for it may strike them that in saying this we have slightly exceeded our evidence ; but thus much, at least, must be conceded as un¬ doubtedly affirmed by the inspired Eecord — creation will be delivered from its present bondage of corrup¬ tion, and be made a partaker in the glorious liberty of the children of God ; while a great and essential change will be wrought in the condition of the animal world, insomuch that animals of the most opposite nature will feed and lie down in peace together! The following passages serve, I conceive, to show us that great changes will hereafter be wi’ought in the Flora of the earth, as the preceding texts taught us will be the case with regard to its fauna:— Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city: because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, § III.] FAUNA AND FLOKA. 183 a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit be poured upon tis from on high, and the wilderness he a fruitful field, and the fruitful field he counted for a foresV^ (Isai. xxxii. 13—15.) As it will be admitted on all hands, that the thorns and briars ” spoken of at the commencement of this passage are to be under¬ stood literally, so must also “the fruitful field” and “ forest ” be viewed in like manner. But the intro¬ duction of the Holy ‘^Spirit" would certainly seem to have reference, not only to His converting in¬ fluences on the hearts of the people, but also to His creative energy in the material world. The passage, therefore, may, in this respect, be regarded as a pa¬ rallel one to Ps. civ. 30, “ Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created; and Thou renewest the face of the eartliT Again; “ The wilderness and the solitary place shcdl he glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.'’’ (Isai. xxxv. 1, 2.) “ I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in 184 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay 11. the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will'plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the jir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together; that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.” (Isai. xli. 18—20.) For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off"’’ (Isai. Iv. 12, 13.) It would seem probable that all these prophecies relate to the same period, namely to the time in which the Lord will show favour to Israel, and this may without difficulty be joroved to be connected with His own appearing (Ps. cii. 16); but the time of their fulfilment is not the question which we have in view in quoting them. Neither is it necessary to § ni.] PROaEESSIOIv. 185 enlarge on them for the particular pm-pose for which they are produced; for, in a great measure, they speak for themselves; and seeing that our only de¬ sign with regard to them at present is, to notice their bearing on the question of the future physical condi¬ tion of the earth, it will be sufficient to observe, that they evidently teach us that a great change will be wrought in the vegetable kingdom, and that the change will be one in advance; in other words, the neiv state of things which they 'predict will he of a higher and superior character to the present. We have now, therefore, arrived at a deeply impor¬ tant truth ; one whose bearing on the general question of the Future should be carefully noticed. Our in¬ vestigations have shown us that we may trace this all-important connection between the Future and the Past; in both there is peogeession in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. There is nothing in reference to which geology has done more for us, or has exercised a more important influence on our knowledge, than in the discovery it has made of worlds unknown before, and of the varieties of animal and vegetable forms which have 186 PIIYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay If, prevailed successively on the earth during the vast periods which have elapsed in its past history. It has also shown us, that they have appeared in a certain order, in which a ‘progression from a lower to a higher organization has been observed. As far as our discoveries have as yet gone, and judging from the order in which organized remains have actually been found, the progression has been constant. For ages, apparently, the Crustacean and Cephalopod were at the head of creation; then the vertebrated Fish appeared, then the Saurian, then the Bird, then the IMammal, and lastly IMan.^ But enormous periods of time elapsed between the introduction of the different orders—periods so vast as to be utterly beyond our present powers of conception; and yet the principle of progression was steadily kept in view, and was never for a moment lost sight of or suspended. The onward course was ever followed. Step by step a higher and still higher position was attained. The order in which the different races of animals and plants have appeared as nearly as possible corresponds with that in which naturalists have arranged or classi- * See Appendix D. § IIT.] PROGRESSION. 187 fied those which now exist; a fact, we may observe, that serves to show very strikingly the correctness of that classification, and also to make us feel, that, in all probability, our future discoveries of organic re¬ mains will not materially alter the order which, guided hy actual discoveries, we have found it absolutely necessary to lay down as that in which life has been developed on the globe. But thus we see, that the present system of things may be said to embrace all those which preceded it; that is, it embraces all the classes and orders, though the genera and species are new. But looking at it as a whole, it includes all previous systems; their various heads are now all seen together, the Crustacean, the Fish, the Bird, the Mammal, form parts of one system; which is, however, crowned by an additioncd and far nobler creature than ever existed before — rational and accountable Man. These generalizations are of vast importance, and are deeply instructive. They are results which could only be obtained by the comparison of immense periods of time; periods which, as relating to this world, were unknown and unthought of until geology made us acquainted with them. But if they have been truly 188 PIIYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IL realized in our reflections, we shall feel that any theory which is in harmony with them carries with it strong presumptive evidence of its own truth. We shall, in this case, expect, from, the analogy of the Past, that there will, in all probability, be an essential agree¬ ment between the Future and it—that if progression prevailed in past time, it will also do so in time to cornel When the terms of a series are found extend¬ ing, in unbroken order, through immeasurable ages, that order, or the principle on which it is founded, assumes all the force and character of a law; and its analogies also become in a great measure irresistible, for we necessarily feel that it is little better than absurd so to limit them as to make them absolutely terminate with the present period, seeing that this * “ Since it thus appears that general laws of yariation connect the phenomena of all geological periods, from the most ancient to the most modern epoch, into one grand system of natural revolutions, it follows that we may look upon the present condition of our globe as one term of a magnificent series of appointed changes, to which others may from analogy be expected to follow, according to the same laws. The creation of intelligent man is indeed an event not in the calcidation which man can make of the effects of such laws; nor, indeed, is it given to us, creatures of a day, exactly to know the laws of variation which bind all the phenomena of nature—past, present, and to come — into one great system of appointed effects, flowing from a predetermined cause, much less to deduce these effects. Yet let not the search for these laws — which comprises the whole of geological theory — be censured as a chimerical inqxiiry. ... In searching for general theory we shall at least find limited truth.” — Phof. John Phillips, A Treatise on Geology, vol. i. pp. 102, 103. § in.] PEOGEESSION. 189 may be only one point in the series, and, for aught we know to the contrary from natural sources, of no more importance than any which have preceded it; except, indeed, in one essential particular, which certainly marks it as peculiar, viz., the introduction of rational man upon the scene} We feel compelled, therefore. ‘ We have just heard Prof. J. Phillips suggest that very possibly the advent of man upon earth may make such a change in the prospect of the future as may alter the whole question. Sir Charles Lyell has discussed the subject with his usual clearness in the ninth chapter of his “ Principles of Geology.” He is, or xcas, opposed in a measure to the theory of progression, but this only slightly affects the bear¬ ing of the following remarks on the point for which they are here introduced;— “ In reply to this question,” — Cwhether the introduction of man can be considered as one step in a progressive system) — “ it should first be observed, that the superiority of man depends, not on tho.se faculties and attributes which he shares in common with the inferior animals, but on his reason, by which he is distinguished from them.” .... “If this be admitted, it would by no means follow, even if there had been sutficient geological evidence in favour of the theory of progressive development, that the creation of man was the last link in tlie same chain. For the sudden passage from an irrational to a rational animal, is a phenomenon of a distinct kind from the passage from the more simple to the more perfect forms of animal organization and instinct. To pretend that such a step, or rather leap, can be part of a regular series of changes in the animal world, is to strain analogy beyond aU reasonable bounds.”— Princvplcs,” pp. 144, 145. To a similar effect, in reference to the distinction between man and the lower animals, the author of the Essay on “The Plurality of Worlds,” usually supposed to be Dr. 'Wliewell, remarks: — “ Similarity of organization is not the point in question. The endowments and capacities of man, by which he is man, are the great distinction, w'hich places all other animals at an immeasurable distance below him. The closest approximation of form or organs does nothing to obliterate this distinction. It does not bring the monkey nearer to man, that his tongue has the same muscular apparatus as man’s, so long as he cannot talk; and so long as he has not the thought and ideas which language implies, and which are unfolded indefinitely in the use of^ language. The step, then, by which the earth became a human habitation was an immeasurable advance on all that existed before; and, therefore, there 190 PIIYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. to extend the analogy of the Past to the Future, and, seeing that progression has prevailed in the one, to expect that it will also do the same in the other. I But here we must stop, if Nature be our only guide.^ It may, and it does, suggest certain abstract principles as likely to hold true hereafter, but beyond this it is a question whicli u'e are, it seems, irresistibly prompted to ask. Is this the last such step? Is there nothing beyond it?” — Ch. xiii. p. 394. ' “ The establishment, by geological evidence, of the first intervention of such a peculiar and unprecedented agency (the human), long after other parts of the animate and inanimate world existed, affords grounds for concluding that the experience during thousands of ages of all the events which may happen on this globe, would not enable a philosopher to speculate with confidence concerning future contingencies.” — Sir C. Lyell, Principles, ch. ix. p. 148. “ All these subjects are covered with a veil of mystery, which science and philosophy can do little in raising.” — On the Plurality of Worlds : an Essay, p. 392. “ Turning from a retrospect into past time for the prospect of time to come, — and I have received more than one inquiry into the amount of prophetic insight imparted by Palaeontology,—I may crave indulgence for a few words, of more sound, perhaps, than significance. But the reflective mind cannot eAmde or resist the tendency to speculate on the future course and idtimate fate of vital phenomena on this planet. “ There seems to have been a time when life was not; there may, therefore, be a period when it will cease to be. “ Our most soaring speculations still show a kinship to our nature ; ■we see the element of finality in so much that we have cognisance of, that it must needs mingle with oirr thoughts, and bias our conclusion on many things. “ The end of the world has been presented to man’s mind under divers aspects : — as a general conflagration ; as the same, preceded by a millenial exaltation of the world to a Paradisaical state, — the abode of a higher and blessed race of intelligence. “ If the guide-post of Palaeontology may seem to point to a course ascending to the condition of the latter speculation, it points but to a very short way, and in leaving it we find ourselves in a wilderness of conjecture, where to try to advance is to find ourselves ‘ in wandering mazes lost.’”— Prof. E. Owen, On the Classification and Geographical Distribution of the Mammalia, Appendix, p. 61. § III.] PEOGEESSION. 191 cannot go. It is the part of Eevelation, however, to make known the Future, or at least to make some disclosures with regard to it; and it is, I conceive, impossible to mark the suggestions of science, on the one hand, and the positive disclosures of Scripture, on the other, without being struck with the remarkable and beautiful agreement between them. We have seen that there has been progression in the past con¬ ditions of our globe; and, reasoning from analogy, we ought to expect that such will also be the case in the future. What, then, do the Scriptures teach us will actually be the case hereafter ? They show us, and that too in the clearest and most unequivocal manner, that a new state ^ of things will be introduced. ’ I ought, perhaps, more properly to have spoken in the plural, and said “ new states for if the milleniuin will be, as I have ventured to suggest before, a transition state between the present and the eternal one, this will be the case, and the argument for the correspondence between the future and the past will be stiU. further supported. There wlLL in this case be two steps instead of one. Even supposing, however, that something resembling the natural sequence of physical phenomena, both in the animate and inanimate world, should go on to the end of the millennium, yet a break will then undoubtedly take place, caused by the final conflagration; but the principle of progression will be still maintained in the entirely new state of things which will be made to succeed it. This, however, will certainly be caused by a direct inter¬ position of Divine Power, — “ And He that sat upon the throne said; Behold, I make all things new.’' (Kev. xxi. 5.) The resurrection of man from the dead, moreover, will be the means of connecting him with his present physical state, though he himself wiU be in an advanced con¬ dition ; but this again will undoubtedly be through a Divine inter¬ position, amomiting to a fresh act of creative power. 192 rHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. which will, in all respects, ee gkeatly in adyance op THE PRESENT. The general physical condition of the globe will be so; the Fauna and the Flora of the earth will he the same: Man himself, the head of the present creation, he, also, will be in a state so ad¬ vanced and exalted that, with it, his present condition cannot be compared! And HE ENDS THE SERIES. So we have reason to be¬ lieve; for we have no indications given us respecting a creature of any higher order than man, as likely to be introduced to take his place as an inhabitant of this earth ^: on the contrary, the evidence afforded by * A fact noticed by Professor Owen in reference to the decrease in the number of species of the Quadrumana as the genera approach nearer and nearer to the human form, may justly be cited here as a proof, alForded by the present state of science, that man ends the series of animal life, and that no other creature, resembling him in the physical part of his nature, but of a higher order, is to be expected as about hereafter to succeed hhn and to fill his place. The number of species decreases until they are reduced to unity. The lines converge until the apex of the pjT’amid is formed: the figure is, therefore, complete. How consentient are the teachings of Nature and of Revelation! Professor Owen remarks: “ It is not without interest to observe, that as the generic forms of the Quadrumana approach the Bimanoxis order, they are represented by fewer species. The gibbons {Hylohates) scarcely number more than half a dozen species ; the orangs {Pithecus) have but tw'o species, or at most three; the chimpanzees ( Troglodytes) are repre¬ sented by two species.” “The unity of the hiiman species is demonstrated by the constancy of those osteological and dental characters to which the attention is more particularly directed in the inve.stigation of the corresponding characters in the higher Quadrumana.” “ Man is the sole species of his genus, the sole representative of his order and subclass.” — On the Classification and Geographical Bis- trihution of the Mammalia, 1859, App., p. 103. § III-] SERIES COMPLETE. 193 Scripture respecting the future prospects of both the earth and also of man, determines the question, I conceive, that there will be no other, seeing that the “ new earth which shall remain ” will be the abode in which the “ righteous ” from among men will dwell for ev&)\ And vje are also in possession of the reason why the series will then he complete, and why (so far as we can at present see) no advance will be made in the order of the creation that will hereafter possess the earth, so far, at least, as the Head of creation is con¬ cerned.' For, to say nothing of the fact that man him¬ self will be in so exalted a state, in the person of Him who is man's representative perfection will have been ' The inspired declaration of the Psalmist (Ps. viii. 6), that God has “placed all things under the feet of man,” will be then verified abso¬ lutely. This is not the case at present, as noticed Ijy the Apostle, wlio, however, shows in whose person it wiU hereafter be fulfilled and hold true ;—“ For unto the angels hath he not put in sidjjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one, in a certain place, testified, saying. What is man, that thou art mindfid of him ? or the son of man, that thou visitest him ? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him M-ith glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands; thozi hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all (things, to. irdvra) in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But vie see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the sutfering of death, crowned with glory and honour.'’ (Heb. ii. 5—9.) To the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. ii. 5) aU nature in its widest sense, even the very elements and the laws that govern them, will be in absolute subjection. “ What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! ” “ All power is given me, in heaven and in earth ! ” O 194 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. attained, and a point will have been reached beyond which progression cannot go. The archetype of form, which was seen for ages gradually developing itself as one creature after another was called into being, will have been realized and carried out in that of man, in whose corporeal frame it will be complete; and as to intellectual and moral qucdities, these will have reached absolute perfection in the person of the great Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, who em¬ braces in himself the two extremes, the human and the divine natures; being united through the one, as man, to the physical creation, and by the other to Deity. Thus, so far as we can at present see, nothing will remain. which will not have been accomplished; the series will be complete, and the great end will have been attained which was designed from the be¬ ginning, when the first foundations of the world were laid, and which has been steadily and uniformly kept in view throughout all the intervening periods ! And will not that end he ivorthy even of such a preparation? Myriads of ages will, it is true, have passed away ere it will be attained, but they will have been all pre¬ paratory to it; and as to their immensity, this is only in exact keeping with what we already know of the § III.] END DESIGNED. It)5 usual proceedings of Him with whom “ one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” “ He seeth the end from the beginning,” and frequently the end does not appear until ages after that beginning took place. Who can doubt, for instance, but that in the substance of our fossil fuel, namely, coal, and in the relative position in which it is now found, so different to what it was originally, the superintending hand of the Creator is to be seen making provision for man’s convenience and man’s necessities ages before he was brought into being.* But the end designed was a great and beneficial one, and it is now in course of accomplishment. And so the long series of events of every kind, natural and moral, which will have transpired from the first creation of the world until “ the new heavens and the new earth ” will be intro¬ duced, may be regarded as a vast preparation for the glories of that state. And again I ask, will not that state, with its “ exceeding weight of glory,” be a fitting climax even for such a series, and for such a vast and mighty preparation ? ' See Dr. Buckland’s two admirable cliapters (xLs., xx.) on this subject in his Bridgewater Treatise. 196 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. Conclusion. —I may be permitted, in conclusion, to submit, that a distinct answer has, to some extent at least, been now given to the inquiries that have been often raised as to the future of man and of the earth. Many have been the speculations, and especially of late days, which have been made upon this subject, and approximations to the truth, more or less correct, have been arrived at by one and another; but there has been a great want of clearness and consistency in the views put forth; and this, I conceive, has arisen entirely from the authors of them not being acquainted with the great truth which it was the object of the first of these Essays to establish, viz. that this earth, in a renewed and glorified state, will be the locality of man’s eternal inheritance. Most of the writers re¬ ferred to have partaken in the prevailing opinion, that Scripture holds out Heaven, not Earth, as the place where the righteous will for ever dwell; but this they have found to but ill accord with their philosophical speculations respecting the Future, in which they have been in a great measure guided, it may be, by the analogies of the Past and the Present, and which, therefore, have been far more correct than have been the views which have formed part of their § ni.] CONCLUSION. 197 religious belief, and which they have vainly endeavoured to make harmonize with them. The obscurity which has, in a great measure, rested on this subject, has been, I trust, to some extent now removed. It has, I would fain hope, been clearly shown, that the Future, both of man and of the earth, will be intimately con¬ nected with the Present and the Past, and will be marked by the same principles; in a word, that the condition both of man and of his domicile hereafter, will resemble the present, in that it will be essentially ^physical in its nature, though immensely in advance of it, and though, so far as man’s moral nature is concerned, an amazing change will have been wrought. We may now see, therefore, that the Past, the Present, and the Future will form One great series, all the parts of which will be essentially connected, and which will alike be marked by a principle of unity, both of nature and of plan! They will not be isolated, nor broken and disjointed fragments, without any link of connection between them, and therefore needing to be treated separately and on different principles; they will be parts of one great whole, one scheme, one building in which the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Divine Architect will be everywhere seen. 198 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essat II. § IV. — " NO MORE SEA.” The fact announced in the heading of this section is one that relates, as I believe, to the last, or post- millennial period. The relative times, however, in which the various events we have to consider will occur, are matters on which, as I have so frequently stated, I always fear to speak with confidence; hut, whatever the period will be in which it will occur, the fact itself is one of the greatest moment, and one which should be examined on its own grounds apart from any particular time. It is declared in the following terms: — “ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more SEA.” (Eev. xxi. 1.)‘ * It would seem certain that there will he sea during the Millennial period; and this is most important, as pointing out one great distinction and difference between the condition of the earth during that period, and its state during the eternal one. I cannot but believe that the last four chapters of the Book of Eevelation are designed to give us § IV-] NO MORE SEA. 199 The first question to be asked with regard to these words is this — In what light are we to understand the true order of the events recorded in them. According to this view, ch. xix. gives us the Advent, ch. xx. relates to the Millennial period; and the general judgment, which is described at the end of it (ver. 11—15), takes place at the close of that period. But the sea is see7i to he then m existe^ice, as appears from ver. 13, "■And the se.4. gave up the dead which was in it.” Yet the “ new heaven and new earth” are not formed till after this, ch. xxi. 1. This I conceive to be well-nigh decisive of the question; and it is most important in its bearing upon our subject generally. It shows us. for example, that whatever changes maj' be wrought in the state of the earth, and in the animal and vegetable world, at the Advent of the Redeemer, and therefore at the commencement of the Millennium, (and it would seem probable, if not certain, that great changes 'will be wrought at that time), the great and final change which will mark the introduction of the “ new heavens and the new earth ” will not take place at that period; and therefore the conflagration described hy St. Peter (2 Epist. iii.) will not take place until the close of the Millen- oiial period. Much has been said upon this important question, and many are of opinion that the language of St. Peter should lead us to expect that the confiagration described by him will occirr at tlie com- menceme^it of the Millennium, indeed immediately on the Advent. The facts noticed above, however, and a comparison of Rev. xx. 11 with Rev. xxi. 1, clearly prove, in my opinion, the contrary. And there is nothing in St. Peter’s account which should lead us to hesitate in acknowledging this. At first sight, indeed, it might seem to be otherwise; but we well know that there is really no more striking peculiarity in the inspired writings than the way in which they frequently omit the mention of facts which are not essential to the subject in hand, and bring into close affinity and connection matters which are widely separated in point of time and in the order of their occurrence. To give all the examples of this which those uvitings afford would be endless. They occur alike in the Old and New Testament. A striking instance, however, may be seen in the accoiuit which Moses has given us of his own birth; and it will be sxxfficient to illustrate the subject. “ And there went a man of the house of Levi, emd took to wife a daugh¬ ter of Levi; And the woman conceived and bare a son ; and whe7i she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three mo7iths.” (Ex. ii. 1, 2.) It would be difficult to find a passage in any author more consecutive than this appears to be; and, if other portions of Scripture history did not instruct us to the contrary, who would hesitate to assert from these verses that Moses was the first-born child of his parents? The marriage of the parents, and the birth of the child, are two facts which seem to be placed before us in direct and 200 rnrSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. them‘d in a literal, or in a symbolical sense? For on the answer given to this question everything de¬ pends. The whole case alters its character according as the one or other view of it is adopted. If the expressions are to be regarded as merely symbolical or allegorical, they do not bear upon the subject which it is the design of this Essay to discuss, viz. the physical character of the future condition of the earth. If symbolic, .they are symbolic of some moral qualities, or shadow forth some moral condi¬ tions, which do not come within the scope of our present inquiries, and which conditions, I may add, are most uncertain, seeing that we have nothing what¬ ever, save our own imaginations, to guide us in de¬ termining what they will really be. One consequence of this must necessarily be, that no two interpreters, if kept apart, would give us the same result. As an immediate sequence. Who would think, therefore, of interposing two children where the sacred text, apparently so consecutive, passes over all notice of such a circumstance, and clearly speaks of Moses as the first¬ born ? Yet we know that he had a brother and a sister older than himsolf This fact, however, only comes out incidentally in other parts of the history, and is not so much as alluded to here, because foreign to the matter in hand.’' The same rule is followed in numerous other eases; I am persuaded it is so in St. Peter’s description of the final conflagration, as given in the third chapter of his second Epistle. * See The, Christian Observer for 1834, p. 386. § IV ] NO MORE SEA. 201 illustration, however, of what may he said upon the subject, we may take Scott’s interpretation of the words, which is as good as any I know, according to the symbolic or figurative mode of rendering them. He remarks in his commentary on this passage : — “ In this new world ‘ there was no sea; ’ which aptly represents an entire freedom from polluting and con¬ flicting passions, distressing temptations, tempestuous troubles, changes, and alarms, and from whatever can divide or interrupt the ‘ communion of saints ’ with each other. Some think it implies also that there is abundance of room in that blessed world, as a very large proportion of the earth is now covered with the sea.” But why these things are “ aptly represented ” by there being ‘‘ no sea,” I confess I am at a loss to perceive, or to understand what con nection there is between them. The imagination of one man may trace such a connection, but that of another may see nothing of the kind. And it is of course quite certain that there cannot possibly be any necessary or certain connection in the way, e. g. between the absence of sea and “ freedom from polluting and conflicting passions; ” and the whole subject, therefore, upon this view of it, must remain 202 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. in doubt and uncertainty, and the question as to what is the true meaning of the expression must continue unanswered. But if the words are to be taken literally the case is very different. Then they not only bear upon our present subject, but we have certainty as to their meaning. And that they are to be construed literally follows, I conceive, as a necessary consequence from the fact that the former expressions in the verse, those, namely, which speak of “ the new heavens and the new earth,” are to be so understood. This we have already seen. The remarks made (Essay i. pp. 19—23) upon the words of St. Peter (2 Epist. iii. 13) respecting ‘‘ the new heavens and the new earth” were abundantly sufficient to prove it. But whatever ‘‘ the new heavens and the new earth ” mean in that passage they also mean in this from the Apocalypse; and as they there undoubtedly mean literal heavens and a literal earth, so must they do here; and this being the case, then we are bound in all consistency to understand the next announcement in the verse as also intended to reveal to us a literal fact, namely, that on the new earth there will be no more sea^ I see not how it is possible to avoid § rr.] NO MOEE SEA. 203 this conclusion, and must proceed to reason accord¬ ingly. The fact, assuming it to be a fact, seems at first sight a very startling one. It does violence to our feelings. We are not prepared for such a change in the condition of our globe. There are many of us who so love the sea, that we hear with pain the probability that it will be done away. What so glo¬ rious— what so profoundly interesting—what so cal¬ culated to enlarge the mind’s conception of the vast — as the mighty ocean, with its blue and boundless waters ? But, after all, the question is — not what is pleasing, but — what is true ? It is not for us to attempt to determine what shall be hereafter by con¬ sulting our present feelings', but by looking to evi¬ dence, and following the only sure guide upon the subject, — the inspired Eecord. We must embrace whatever that teaches; and who can doubt but that whatever will be true hereafter, will also be most ' Though spoken in reference to a very different subject to that which is here treated of, the following remark of Oersted may well he quoted as confirmatory of what is expressed in the text“ Should we not feel inwardly ashamed if we caught ourselves in the endeavour to desire a different truth than that which actually exists ? And what folly it would be if we allowed ourselves to he determined in our opinions hy our desires! Our wishes and desires could not make it true .”—The Soul in Nature, p. 172. 204 PHYSICO-rEOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. gratifying to the mind, as well as best in itself? We are not in a condition now to judge aright of what we shall think and feel then. “A change will have come o’er the spirit of our dream.” We shall doubtless find that the glories of the new creation will be such as abundantly to compensate even for the absence of the glorious sea. A matter of much more importance, however, than what is likely to be pleasing hereafter, is the fact that this announcement that there will be “no sea” in the “ new earth” is in harmony with the teaching of the inspired Eecord in another respect, and also with what our knowledge of physical agencies should lead us to expect. It is a highly important consideration that it would seem to be a necessary consequence of the final conflagration foretold hy St. Peter (2 Epist. iii. 13) that, for a time at least, there could he “ no more sea ” on the earth. The effect of such an amount of igneous action as is implied by “ the elements melting with fervent heat,” and “the earth, with the works that are therein, being burned up,” would be, that the waters of the sea would be entirely evaporated, if not converted into their constituent gases. Whether, if left to themselves, they would be NO MORE SEA. 205 § IV.] again precipitated on tlie earth, we have no means of determining; but it would appear certain that the effect which we have just intimated must necessarily be produced by the action of the heat that will then be in operation; and we may add that the probability —judging simply from the nature of the case so far as revealed to us •— is, that the elements of our present seas will be made to enter into fresh combinations, and either form a ring or a fresh envelope of vapory atmosphere round the new globe, or possibly con¬ stitute some new material substance, and thus form part of the solid earth. But conjecture as to what will in this case be done, or how it will be done, is utterly vain; and to attempt to speculate any further upon it would be to imitate the * A ring. This is no mere suggestion which there is nothing in actual nature to render probable. The inner ring of the planet Saturn is transparent, for the body of the planet is seen through it, and it is, therefore, in aU probability, either vjater or ice. “Mr. Lassell made the remarkable discovery of a dark transparent ring, whose edge coincides with the inner edge of the interior ring, and which occupies about half the space between it and Saturn. He compares it to a band of dark-coloiu-ed crape drawn across a portion of the disc of tlie planet, and the part projected upon the blue sky is also tran.sparent. At the time these observations were made at Malta, Captain Jacob discovered the transparent ring at Madras. It is conjectured to be fluid; even the luminous rings cannot be very dense, since the density of Saturn himself is known to be less than the eighth part of that of the earth.”—Mrs. Somerville. —Connection of the Physical Sciences, Sec. LX. 206 PHYSICO-PEOPEETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. example of our early cosmogonists, Burnet, Whiston, and others, whose temerity and rashness are now effectually exposed, as ours assuredly would he by future discoverers, who would smile at our fancies even as we do at those of the men who have gone before us. It is the part of true Science to know where to stop, and not to mix up unwarranted speculation with legitimate induction. It were most unphilosophic to speculate as to the new arrangements or combinations that may he made of the material elements in ‘‘the new heavens and the new earth,” hut it is not so to reason on the known properties and agencies of matter according to those physical laws which we know have always been in operation, and which, as we have before seen, it would be unphilosophic to suppose will not continue to ope¬ rate in time to come. To some extent the inspired Eecord supplies us with data on which to reason, and we are therefore justified in doing so. When, e. g., it tells us that “ the elements shall melt with fervent heat,” we are at liberty to consider what must neces¬ sarily be the effect of this on all aqueous matter that will be subjected to its action; and we readily see that the effect must be just that which we have already stated; the waters of the earth would be evaporated § IV.] NO SEA ON PRIMITIVE GLOBE. 207 and driven off from its surface. Tliis is a conclusion that we may safely draw; hejmnd this we should not he justified in going. “ There is no new thing under the sun ; ” and it may be well at this point to look back upon the Past and consider its probable analogies in connection with the Future. It is, then, somewhat more than probable that the ancient or ‘primitive globe had ‘‘no sea.” It may not be quite safe to assume as certain the fluid or molten condition of our globe originally, but the evidence in favour of it must he admitted to be all but conclusive, if not quite so, and there are two con¬ siderations which alone serve to show its high pro¬ bability.* The first is the figure of the earth, which. • I have specified only two considerations in the text, as calcidated to render probable the original molten condition of the globe ; but there are others, as is well known, that may also be given, some of which are as strong in their bearing as the two abeady named. The author of the article on “ The Progress of Geology” in the Quarterly Beview for July 1859, specifies the four following “undoubted facts” as better explainable on this hypothesis than upon any other. “1st. The form of the earth, which is exactly that which it woiild have assumed if the hypothesis be true, namely, the form of a spheroid, bulging g^th part of its diameter, or to an extent of some 13 miles on all sides about the equator, as if in obedience to centrifugal force acting on a rotating fiuid. “ 2nd. The specific gravity of the earth, which is not greater than five or six times that of water; whereas its density must apparently have been much greater if it had not been kept out to its present di¬ mensions by the expanding force of internal heat. “ 3rd. The present internal temperature of the earth, which, ac¬ cording to all observations in deep mines, and on the temperature of 208 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. as described by Dr. Buckland, is “an oblate spheroid, compressed at the poles, and enlarged at the equator, and is that which a fluid mass would assume from re¬ volution round its axis.” ^ The second is the fact that all the bottom rocks in every part of the globe hitherto explored are igneous. And as, again to use the words of Dr. Buckland, “ there is little doubt that the fluid con¬ dition in which all unstratified crystalline rocks origi¬ nally existed was owing to the solvent power of heat,” ^ so does the fact that these rocks are found lying in all cases below the stratified ones serve to show that the entire globe was originally in a molten state. But if this was the case, then there could not of course have been any seas upon its surface, for until the temperature^ the water of deep wells, increases internally at the rate of 1* *^ Fahr. for every 50 or 60 or 100 feet of descent. “ 4th. The. volcanic action, consisting in the ejection of intensely heated matters from a deep source in the interior of the earth, which is now going on, and appears always to have been going on from the earliest geological period to the present day.” * Buckland, Bridg. Treatise, vol. i. p. 39. 2 Il)id. p. 41. 2 This conclusion should be compared with that most remarkable description which is given us in Prov. viii. 22—29, of the gradual production of our terraqueous system of the earth with its covering of waters and envelope of clouds, and which agrees so very strikingly in its details with the processes through which, on physical though as yet but theoretic grounds, we cannot but believe our globe must have passed. Surely this description has anticipated our discoveries, and is even now ahead of our science, and proves that the Wisdo.m who is supposed to speak was indeed with “ The Lord in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.” See p. 138. § IV.] EFFECT OF FINAL CONFLAGRATION. 209 had fallen below 212°, at which water boils, whatever water there might be would at once be converted into vapour; and it would seem probable, therefore, that the waters which are now upon the earth must have been at that time in that state, or in a gaseous one, enveloping the earth like an atmosphere, and probably extending far into space around it. And now this suggests what may again be the actual state of things during the progress of the conflagration described by St. Peter. The effect of that conflagration must necessarily be to evaporate the waters of the ocean. Thus the past state of the globe throws light upon the future, and the future on the past; for while geologists have so very generally maintained that the most probable condition of the earth originally was a mol¬ ten one, they have seldom, that I am aware of, noticed sufficiently the necessary consequence of such a state of things in reference to the waters of the present seas, viz. that they could not have been in existence then as they are now, but must have been in a state of vapour, or of gas, beyond the surface of the globe. ‘ * The subject is briefly noticed in the article on “ The Progress of Geology” in the Quarterly Review for July 1859, which is referred to at page 207. It is remarked that, assuming the original molten con- P 210 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. They have, as Dr. Buckland has done in the sixth chapter of his Bridgewater Treatise, very generally passed on from the consideration of a molten globe dition of the globe, “ the elements of the atmosphere and the water oould then only have existed as greatly expanded gases surroimding the fluid ” (p. 140). It may help us to realize the idea of a sealess globe to remember that our satellite, the moon, is sxich at present, — a7id this, too, though she is not in a fluid or molten state. Yet it is certain that there is ‘‘no sea” upon her surface,—not on that which is turned towards the earth, at least, whatever there may be on the other side. But it is impossible not to feel persuaded, from what can be observed of her condition, that there is the highest probability, amounting indeed to almost certainty, that what is true of one side is time also of the other. It were absurd or fancifid to suppose the contrary. There may be, and there doubtless is, the same diversity over her entu’e surface that is observable between her northern and southern limbs, the latter aboundii:g more in volcanic forms than the former; but, with this ex¬ ception, we are bound by all analogy to suppose that the two sides are exactly similar in character, and that as there is certainly no sea on the one, neither is there on the other. Every fact of this kind is exceedingly useful to assist us in realizing the truth which we are now considering as apparently revealed to us by Scripture respecting the future condition of om’ globe. And we undoubtedly need such help, for so much are we the creatures of habit, in thinking as well as acting, that we are slow to admit anything that is contrary to present experience, or to the views which expe¬ rience and observation have led us’ to entertain, and more especially when not only our o-wn, but those of our forefathers also, have led to the same. The impression is deepened as the experience widens, and as the universal observation of mankind has made them familiar with a condition in which sea and land alike prevail, it strikes them as not only improbable, but as really unnatural, that the earth shoidd ever be wuthout sea. Yet there is nothing un¬ natural nor even improbable in the idea. It is one that holds true of the moon at this moment. Y^ery possibly further discoveries as to the other planetary bodies of our system — to say nothing of what the universe as a whole may afford—may show that it is true of some of them also; but vdth regard to the great central body of the system, the Sun, namely, we are perhaps weUnigh already con¬ vinced that such is the case. “YATiy should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God” should make a earth" in which there shall be ‘‘xo moee sea” ? § IV.] PRIMITIVE AND FUTURE GLOBES. 211 to remark on the action of water, without sufficient notice of the question as to where the ivater came from. It must be admitted, indeed, that the question is a very obscure and difficult one, but others equally difficult have been discussed; and it seems to me, that in the examination of it in such a treatise as this, we may be pardoned if we regard the predicted events of the future as throwing at least some probable light upon it. It is but right, however, to observe, that it is only in this particular,—the absence of sea, namely, in the two cases,—that a connection can be traced between the ancient earth and the future one. In all other respects they are the very opposite of each other. They form the two extremes of a long series—they are the first and the last of that series ; and while one was at the bottom of the scale of life, the other will be at the top. One, indeed, was altogether devoid of life; in the other life will have attained its highest development. (See Appendix E.) 212 PETSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. § V.—THE NEW JERUSALEM. Most of my readers will, I am persuaded, hold me readily excused, if I say that it is with considerable reluctance I venture to enter upon the discussion of a question so full of difficulties as the one that stands at the head of this section. I confess to have hesitated long whether I would do so at all, not only because of the acknowledged difficulties of the question, which I can do so little to remove, but also lest what I may have to say might shock or offend the minds of some of my readers, who may be unprepared to receive it; and lest, by others, it should be supposed that the uncertainty connected with this subject must also be extended to those which have been already discussed, in this and the preceding Essay. But such is not the case; and nothing could be more unphilosophic than to reject what has been said on one topic, because what is advanced on another may prove unsatisfactory, or even altogether erroneous. We may be right up to § T.] DIFFICULTIES OF THE SUBJECT. 213 a given point, but we may be wrong afterwards. The views which will be propounded on the question now before us may not prove really sound, but this will afford no proof that those which were set forth on the previous topics were also indefensible. On the con¬ trary, I shall, I trust, be pardoned if I venture to affirm that the correctness of very many of them at least, was in a great measure demonstrated; and where this was not attainable, the fact has been readily and distinctly acknowledged. But I desire it may be understood, that I am about to discuss our present subject rather as an Inquirer than as an Expounder; and it should not, therefore, create surprise, if I freely point out difficulties which have to be met and removed, but which I am myself unable to encounter. I have no hypothesis to support, and have, therefore, no other object in view than to elicit truth. Should I succeed in throwing any light, however small, on the subject generally, or on any of its details, I shall be thankful. Those who come after me will do more than I can. The knowledge of the subject will advance, and the time may come when most if not all its mysteries will be unravelled, and the true order and connection of its parts be clearly 214 PHYSICO-PROPEETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. seen. Its difficulties are indeed great and formidable, but we should not despair of seeing them removed, as others have been which, in their nature at least, have been as great. There is reason to fear, that to many the very fact that the subject is so very difficult forms a serious stumbling-block. But why, it may be asked, should we be shocked or disturbed at finding things in the Bible which, notwithstanding all our efforts, we are unable to explain or understand ? Do we not find this the case in Nature also ? A host of cases might readily be given ^ in which the facts to be encountered ^ I may specify as a case of the kind, and one which remains stiU nnaccounted for, the fact (for we must now assume it to be a fact, though it seems almost incredible)” that two of the satellites of Uranus move in a retrograde direction from that of all the other planetary bodies, whe¬ ther primary or secondaiy; that is, they move from east to west, while all the others move from west to east. This is not only anomalous, hut is apparently in direct opposition to all that we had previously learned respecting the bodies of our planetary system, and to all that might have been considered fiindamental and essential in their motions. Surely, with such a fact before us, we should be careful how we rashly affirm, in reference to any of the apparently anomalous expressions of Scripture or the facts proclaimed in it, that they cannot be true because inconsistent with our present knowledge. “ “These anomalous peculiarities, which seem to occur at the extreme limits of our system, as if to prepare us for further departure from aU its analogies, in other systems which may yet be disclosed to us, have hitherto rested on the sole testimony of their discoverer, who alone had ever obtained a view of them. I am happy to be able, from my own observations from 1828 to the present time, to confirm in the amplest manner my father’s residts.” — Sir J. F. W. Herschel, Treatise on Astronomy, ch. ix. § 469, note. The Editor of Arago’s “ Popular Astronomy ” states in a note § V.] ANALOGY OF NATURE AND REVELATION. 215 and explained have seemed of the most contradictory character, and for years have baffled the most earnest attempts to unravel them. It is a mistake to suppose that the same should not hold true of the Bible, or rather of the things revealed in the Bible. Many of these, indeed,—such, for instance, as those which are essential to the knowledge of salvation,—may be ex¬ pected to he so clearly revealed that there should be but little difflculty in the way of any sincere inquirer in discovering the truth. And such is really the case. So plain is the highway of life, that “ wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein,” and so clear the directions that stand on the wayside, that “ he who runs may read them.” But such is not the case with all the revelations of the Bible,—far from it. Though they are all important and all designed for the good of man, and therefore intended to be studied and known by him, many of them are more remote in their bearing upon his interests than others, and are therefore more difficult of discovery. And in this respect again there is a perfect harmony and analogy between them and the facts of nature. That which is (vol. ii. p. 630) that “ There is reason to believe that the satellite of Neptune revolves with a retrograde motion.” 216 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. essential to the bare existence of man is readily dis¬ covered by him even in his rudest state; but those things the knowledge of which is necessary to his well-being and comfort in an advanced and advancing condition are not so readily learnt, but have to be discovered by long and patient research, and by the united efforts of many minds and many hands. There are many such that are as yet altogether beyond his reach and which he knows nothing about, and many, in the investigation of which he is now earnestly engaged, the difficulties of which seem all but in¬ surmountable, but, cheered by the success that has attended past efforts, he perseveres, in the strong hop& that those he is now making shall not be in vain. This is done by the natural philosopher, the student of God’s Works*: shall those who are engaged in the ' “ The character of the true philosopher is to hope all things not impossible, and to believe all things not unreasonable. He who has seen obscurities which appeared impenetrable in physical and ma¬ thematical science suddenly dispelled, and the most barren and un¬ promising fields of inquiry converted, as if by inspiration, into rich and inexhaustible springs of knowledge and power on a simple change of our point of \dew, or by merely bringing to bear on them some principle which it never occuiTed before to try, -will surely be the veiy last to acquiesce in any dispiriting prospects of either the present or future destinies of mankind; while, on the other hand, the boundless views of intellectual and moral, as well as material, relations which open on him on all hands in the course of these pursuits, the knowledge of the trivial place he occupies in the scale of creation, and the sense con¬ tinually pressed upon him of his o-wu weakness and incapacity to suspend § V.] SUBJECT OF EXTEAOEDINARY CHAEACTEE. 217 study of His Word be slow to follow his praiseworthy example? If, however, they would be successful in their search for truth, then, like him, they must pro¬ ceed in a cautious and humble spirit, and adopt nothing as true which has not been proved to be so. It may be well, moreover, that we should bear in mind, that there is no subject in the Bible in reference to which it is more necessary to guard against the influence of preconceived views, than the one we are now about to examine. It relates pre-eminently to things which are among those that are least understood by us, because farthest off; and which are altogether new to us, because belonging to a state that will be new; and which, therefore, we are least qualified to judge, or even to comprehend. Nor is this all; we are expressly taught (1 Cor. ii. 9) that ‘‘the things which Grod hath prepared for them that love Him ” will be so extraordinary in their cha¬ racter as quite to transcend whatever our present ex¬ perience has made us acquainted with. Among those or modify the slightest movement of the vast machinery he sees in action around him, must effectually convince him tliat humility of f)re- tension, no less than confidence of hope, is what best becomes his character.” — Sir J. F. Heeschel, Discourse on the Stud, of Nat. Phil. 218 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IL things the New Jerusalem must not only he reckoned, but must also hold the foremost place; and therefore, as has been already argued, unless it be of a trans- cendant character, it will not be in keeping with what we have been taught to expect. To what degree this should be the case we have no means of discovering, but it is clear that it must be so to a very great one. If the description of the New Jerusalem could ap¬ parently be readily understood by us, and if the subject seemed level with our comprehension, then there would be strong grounds for suspecting that we had in some way or other misapprehended it. But if it be of an extraordinary character, something which must strike us with amazement on reading it, then it is, in tJds respect, such as we ought to expect. It is essential that this should be borne in mind while we are engaged in examining the details of the subject. Another preliminary matter which it is essential to notice is the principle of interpretation on which we should proceed. As in former cases, so in this, the whole case depends upon the way in which it is viewed. The results of the literal and the figurative interpretations are so totally dissimilar as to have nothing in common. It is therefore necessary, before § V.]. LITERAL AND EIGURATIYE INTERPRETATIONS. 219 we proceed, to let it be understood which we propose to adopt. The latter, the figurative, makes but light work of the difficulties of the question, but it gives us a result that is of but little value, — only one, in short, with which we are already acquainted, having learnt it from other sources: the other, the literal, encounters difficulties that stagger and astound us, but it opens a field of wonders that are altogether new, and which are so great and glorious as to make us feel that they may well be among those incompre¬ hensible things which Grod hath prepared for His chosen ones. An examination of the writings of the figurative interpreters will show, that all they attempt to do is to deduce from the inspired description of the New Jerusalem some general notions of greatness, magni¬ ficence, and splendour. It is regarded by them as designed to impress the mind with the extreme happi¬ ness and glory of the eternal state, but not intended to convey any definite idea as to any particular with re¬ gard to it. The notion of a literal city, whether on earth or in heaven, is repudiated; therefore all distinct¬ ness of idea is set aside as often as it presents itself, and undefined magnificence and glorv are all that are O O 220 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. allowed to remain. Some of our commentators, as for example Scott, attempt, indeed, the difficult and hazardous task of giving the meaning of each separate symbol; but there is nothing whatever to prove the cor¬ rectness of the sense they attach to them, and but little ingenuity need be exercised to produce twenty others equally probable. I confess for one, therefore, that I cannot derive the slightest satisfaction from any of these attempts. The uncertainty attached to them is so great that there is nothing to rest upon. How is it possible, therefore, to draw comfort from, or to feel interest in, any of the thoughts which are put forth for our edification, as founded on this view of the subject? As to the general views of glory and happiness which are said to be derived from the gorgeous figures em¬ ployed, these, it must be remembered, are readily derivable from other portions of the Bible, which announce them in the plainest terms; and it is really difficult to understand why such a complicated ap¬ paratus should be employed to secure an end that has been already attained by so much more simple means. It is asserted, in^leed, that the very idea of expecting a literal fulfilment of the prophecy is LEGITIMATE COURSE OF INQUIRY. 221 § V.] “ absurd,” ^ and tbat we have therefore no alternative but to have recourse to the figurative; but this is to assume the very question in debate, and to make ourselves the judges of what it is possible, or probable will be produced hereafter, than which, as has been again and again remarked, no course can be more unwarrantable or unsound. The only legitimate, the only philosophic course to pursue, is, first, to endeavour to discover in what light the rules of criticism require that the language under examina¬ tion should be understood, and then, when this has been determined, to receive the result as certain, how¬ ever extraordinary, however incredible it may appear. WTiat more improbable, what apparently so incredible as this — Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear * Thus Barnes (who is, however, only one of many who speak to precisely the same effect) observes on Eev. xxi. 2: •— “ This, of course, does not mean that this great city was literally to descend upon the earth, and to occupy any one part of the renovated world; but it is a symbolical or figurative representation, designed to show that the abode of the righteous will be splendid and glorious. The idea of a city literally descending from heaven, and being set upon the earth with such proportions,—three hundred and seventy miles high (ver. 16), made of gold, and with single pearls for gates, and single gems for the foundation, — is absurd. No man can suppose that this is literally true, and hence this must be regarded as a figurative or emblematic description.” Again ; “ Of course this cannot be understood literally; and the very idea of a literal fulfilment of this shows the absiirdity of that method of interpretation.”—On ver. 16. 222 PIITSICO-rKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. a son ” ? Yet this has been literally fulfilled. Nothing so seemingly contradictory to all experience is an¬ nounced in reference to the ‘‘ city of Glod, ” though there is much that is quite as far above our compre¬ hension. But we must again repeat, that to deter¬ mine the course we will pursue by the result we are likely to arrive at, is to reverse the proper order of procedure. To determine in this way what is the meaning of Scripture is essentially wrong. It is the very opposite course to that which the philosojDhy of induction allows ; it is directly opposed to every rule of right reasoning. We must rather do as the alge¬ braist or differential calculator does. We must aban¬ don ourselves to the terms of our formula, and await the result as certainly true, though while the process is going on we know nothing whatever of what the result will be. We do not so much object to the result of the system of figurative interpretation as to the system itself, and to the principle on which it is founded. It is an algebraic system, whose signs have no definite meaning,— a formula, all the quan¬ tities of which are unknown quantities;—who can work it ? or what possible result can it yield for the cor¬ rectness of which any reason can be assigned ? RESULTS OF THE TWO METHODS. 223 § V.] But suppose, therefore, that we set the figurative interpretation aside as altogether unsatisfactory, do we, then, escape the difficulties of the question ? Quite the reverse. It is now that our difficulties really begin. The figurative interpreter explains them all away, and for him, therefore, there is no obstacle to bar his progress. It is otherwise with the literal interpreter. For him the difficulties are formidable realities, and yet he feels that he has nought to do hut to look them honestly in the face. Wlien he contemplates their magnitude he almost despairs of ever overcoming them; this forms no reason, however, why some attempt to do so should not be made, nor why the subject should not be carefully examined in the hope that something of it, at least, may be understood. If a way be but opened in a right direction, future explorers will doubtless extend their discoveries into the region that is at present so little known. We will not pursue this question of literality or non-literality farther; but we must remark, that a step has been taken, in a subsequent part of this work, towards proving that the subject of the New Jerusalem is to be understood literally. This is done in Essay III. § ii. 4, to which the attention of 224 PHTSICO-PEOPnETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. the reader is directed. We see not how the reasoning there employed can well be rejected; and if it be correct, .tlien it is proved that Eev. xxi. 23, and Eev. xxii. 5, are to be understood by us only in a literal sense. But if one part of the description of the city be literal, the other parts must be the same. We cannot with any consistency resist this conclusion. This is still further supported by some other pas¬ sages of Scripture which speak of a “cfty” as an object of hope to the righteous of old, and which it is impossible not to connect with “the city of Grod,” “the New Jerusalem;” but the language used with regard to it has certainly all the character of such as should be literally interpreted. There are some few passages in the book of Psalms^ in which this is the case, but I now refer more particularly to the following in the Epistle to the Hebrews:— “ For he looked for a city which hath foundations^ whose builder and maker is GocV’ (Heb. xi. 10.) “ But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore Grod is not ashamed to be called ^ Ps. xlvi. 4: “ There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.” Ps. Ixxxvii. 3: “ Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 city of God." LITERALITY OF CITY. 225 § V.] their Grod: for He hath prepared for them a city." (ver. 16.) ‘‘ But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." (Heb. xii. 22.) “ For here we have no continuing city, hut ive seek one to come." (Heb. xiii. 14.)‘ On these verses we may remark:— First. That we see not upon what grounds it is possible to understand the term ‘‘ city ” in any other way than as really meaning a city; that is, a literal one. There is nothing to lead us to apprehend any symbol, or even figure here. Secondly. That some of the particulars affirmed with regard to it serve to identify it with the New Jerusalem; e. g. “ Its maker and builder is God." This exactly agrees with what we are told of the New Jerusalem, both as to its coming down from heaven, having been * Wliat are we to understand by the “ everlasting habitations ” in the following passage ? “ And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, the-^ ma>/ receive you into everlasting habitationsV (Luke xvi. 9.) In the Greek we have els ras alwyluvs OKrjvds; but (TK^yv not unfrequently means dwelling, or habitation, and is rightly translated so here. See the Greek of Eev. xxi. 3. The corresponding Hebrew term used in Ps. xlH. 4, frequently has the same meaning, and it would have been better, as it seems to me, to have rendered it by habitations in that Psalm. Q 226 PIIYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. first prepared of God, and also as to its extraordinary character. The city ‘‘whose maker and builder is God ” must be one that could not be raised by human hands, nor by any means which man can employ. Here, therefore, we have a note of preparation, so to speak, for the wonderful disclosures of the Apocalypse upon the subject. And these scattered and incidental notices are of immense importance. They serve to show us what a place the subject holds in the councils of the Almighty, and in the expectations of His people, and more particularly in the hopes of those among them who have been especially favoured by revelations directly from Himself, as Abraham was. Let us now, then, direct our attention more im¬ mediately to some of the particulars of the case, as given us in the Apocalyptic description of the heavenly city; only to those, however, which present the most formid¬ able difficulties in the way of our comprehending it. 1. The first we would notice are tee dimensions of THE CITY. These are given in the following terms:— “ And the city lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs; the length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal. And 228 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IT. be 1500 miles in height; according to the latter^ it will be, only 375 miles. The height of the wall is 144 cubits only, equal to 216 feet, taking the cubit at 18 inches. This is less than the walls of Babylon, accord¬ ing to Herodotus, who says they were 350 feet high. Scott, however, understands the 144 cubits to give us the breadth of the wall, and not its height; but he assigns no reason for this view, and it does not seem to fall in with the natural course of the narrative. It is not stated here whether the city itself will be of the height given (whichever measure be taken), or whether its extreme elevation will not be caused by its resting upon, or being made to cover, the side of a mountain of that height. But the analogy of other and allied passages seems to show that the latter will be the case. The expressions used, for example, in Isaiah ii. 2, appear strongly to favour this view, which I believe to be the correct one :—And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall he established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it.” So also Ps. Ixxxvii. 1—3. His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the § V.] PROPORTIONS OF CITY. 227 / he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.” (Eev. xxi. 16, 17.) There is a material difference of opinion as to how the 12,000 furlongs should be understood, viz., whether they are designed to give us the length of only one side of the city, or of the four sides. Perhaps the former view is the one that strikes us first on reading the account, yet there is nothing to prove that it is more correct than the other; nothing, at least, that I have been able to detect. There seems, in short, nothing to decide the question, though possibly some¬ thing might be gathered from the usus loquendi of some of the other inspired writers in similar cases. But there is no exactly parallel case. The following passages may indeed be compared, but they are so far unlike to this that they do not enable us to determine anything. As far as they go, however, they seem to favour the opinion that the 12,000 furlongs are the measure of only one side of the city:—Ezek. xli. 13 —15; xlii. 15—20; xlviii. 9—17. Scott, and I be¬ lieve most others, understand the longer measure ; Barnes (another figurative interpreter), the shorter. According to the former measurement, the city will § T.] PKOPOKTIONS OF CITY. 229 dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 city of God.” Now it is true, that it may be justly argued that both these passages * seem rather to refer to the millennial, than to the eternal period; but I have little doubt that, like many other similar and connected passages, they are intended to adumbrate the latter also. In most cases of the kind, in short, the language would seem to be expressly designed to have that double application which we have already seen so many prophecies undoubtedly have. But I confess my inability to point out exactly the limits of the millennial period, or to determine, in many cases, whether some particular passages relate solely to it, or to the eternal period, either in whole or in part. All, therefore, that I can venture to say upon the present question is, that, assuming its literality, it seems to me that we are undoubtedly to understand that the extreme height of the city will be caused by its resting upon a mountain of either 3000, or 12,000 furlongs high, as the case may be. I may add, that I am also inclined to believe, that the larger measure is the one intended to be understood; but I am unable to prove with certainty that this opinion is correct. * Compare Zech. Tiii. 3. 230 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IL I need scarcely say, that I am perfectly sensible that a host of formidable objections may be readily raised against such a result as the literal interpreta¬ tion leads us to. But with these I can have nothing to do. If, indeed, it can be shown that this mode of interpreting the Scriptures which bear upon the subject is wrong, it will be a different matter ; but unless this can be done, the result, whatever it is, must be received by us, if the Scriptures are to be our authority and guide on the question. In this case the question is, not what seems reasonable, or what probable, but what is written ? I am as much disposed as any man can be to shrink from such a view of the subject as that which has just been pro¬ pounded, but what I feel is this — that it is our duty, on this as on all other subjects, honestly to follow out the evidence of Scripture to its legitimate results, and having discovered these, then to receive them as true. If this be not done by us, we stop short in our duty, and in the only course which can be called either legitimate or reasonable. But, then, it is affirmed, that the very idea of a city 375 miles high, and much more one of 1500 miles, is so manifestly ‘‘ absurd ” that it is quite useless to CONDITIONS OF THE QUESTION. 231 § V.] discuss it.* But what, we must ask, is there to prove this ? No doubt the thought is absurd, and supremely so, too, if judged by our present knowledge and ex¬ perience ; but those who affirm this of it seem strangely to have forgotten the peculiar conditions of the question. Throughout all their writings upon the subject, it is assumed that the things foretold, whatever we are to understand by them, will be of a transcendental character, so much so, indeed, that, even had they been described, we should not have been able to comprehend them, — which is correct: but then, how comes it to pass that this fact is not borne in mind, when the dimensions and materials of the city are the points in debate? It is a fact that alters the whole question. It reminds us that * As time rolls on, strange changes take place in the views of men as to what is really “absurd,” or should he considered such. The following case, given by Arago in his “Popular Astronomy,” is an illustration of this; — “Doctor Elliott had maintained, as early as the year 1787, that the light of the sun arose from what he called a dense and universal twilight. He further believed, with certain ancient philosophers, that the sun might be inhabited. When the Doctor was brought before tin; Old Bailey for having occasioned the death of Miss Boydell, his friends, Dr. Simmons among others, maintained that he was mad, and thought that they could prove it abundantly by showing the writings wherein the opinions which we have just cited were found developed. The conceptions of a madman are in the present day generally adopted. The anecdote appears to me to be worthy of figuring in the history of science. I am indebted for it to the article on Astronomy, by Dr. Brewster, inserted in the ‘ Edinburgh Encyclopaedia.’ ” — Popular Astronomy, vol. i, book xiv. eh. iiix.: Is the Sux Inhahited ? 232 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IE the case is not one that can be judged by the pre¬ sent natural standard, nor by one which may seem reasonable according to our present knowledge; but which must be estimated by a totally different standard, by one, namely, that must be supplied by what will be hereafter, rather than by what exists at present. Let us, however, examine the matter a little fur¬ ther, and see whether, even according to our present experience, the idea that there should be a city, or a mountain covered by a city, (say) 1500 miles high, with a base of the same dimensions, is so manifestly “ absurd ” as is generally supposed. The untaught rustic may be readily excused, if he affirm at once that this is the case; but would the astronomer be equally justified should he make the same assertion? All the orbs of heaven with which we are at present acquainted, our own among the number, are simple spheres, without anything additional either resting upon, or beyond, the surface. But there is one as¬ tonishing exception, and that of so marvellous a cha¬ racter, judged by what prevails in the case of all the other bodies so far as we are acquainted with them, that we need not fear to affirm that, not only could it never have been anticipated from aught that was SUBJECT ILLUSTEATED. 233 § V-] previously known of the universe, but that had it been suggested as probable, the very idea would un¬ doubtedly have been pronounced supremely “ absurd.” I need scarcely say that I refer to the planet Saturn. In addition to its eight moons, this planet is surrounded by a ring, or rather rings, which, though only about 100 or 150 miles thick, yet stretch out from its surface to the astonishing distance of upwards of 45,000 miles! Now, let us suppose a case. Sup¬ pose this planet had never been seen by human eye — and its ring was only discovered a little more than two hundred years ago * — and suppose that it had been foretold in the book of Eevelation, that hereafter there would be a globe of the kind, with these extraordinary appendages, and that it would form the eternal abode of the righteous —loliat luoulti ' Galileo observed it for the first time in 1610, but supposed it to be a star on each side of the planet, and that, with the planet, they formed a triple body. But as the position of the planet changed, these sup¬ posed stars became invisible, and great was the perplexity of the poor astronomer! Arago has given us an interesting account of the circum¬ stance. “There arrived” (he says) “an epoch (in 1612) when the two lateral stars were no longer visible to Galileo. The planet then appeared to him to be perfectly round. It appears that this circumstance threw him into a state of profound discouragement; he even went so far as to imagine that, in all his former observations, the glasses of his telescopes might have deceived him, and transformed into a real object w'hat was merely an illusion. The language of disappointment may be seen in a letter addressed to Welser in 1612. What is certain is, that from this epoch Galileo no longer occupied himself with Saturn .”—Popular Astro¬ nomy, vol. ii. book xxix. ch. iv. 234 PIIYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. have been thought of it ? "WTiat would all our figura¬ tive interpreters say ? What would our philosophers say ? The former would at once conclude that a sym¬ bolic meaning was the only one to be dreamt of; and the latter would in all probability say, the question was one that was so extraordinary that they could not be expected to entertain it. But such a globe already exists; and what in comparison with it, or rather with its ring, are the predicted dimensions of the New Jerusalem^ even assuming the larger mea¬ sure with regard to it ? According to this, the city will rise from the surface of the earth to the height of fifteen hundred the ring of Saturn stretches out from his surface to the distance of forty-five thou¬ sand miles! What is the one when compared with the other ? It literally dwarfs before it! — {See Appendix F.) Nor are the dimensions of this body, astonishing as they are, by any means the most wonderful feature in the case. Its form, construction, and nature are, if possible, still more remarkable; and would be thought still more improbable and incredible, had they been subjects of prophecy rather than actual verities. Here is an appendage to a planet, equal in § V.] MATERIALS OF THE CITY. 235 breadth to more than one-half of that planet’s dia¬ meter, yet so thin as to be, at most, only one-three- himdredth part of its own breadth; nor is it one body only, but three at least, and one of them almost cer¬ tainly in a fluid state! These things must be reflected on before their astonishing character can be felt. But surely no one will attempt to deny .that, in comparison with them, the idea that a portion of the earth’s sur¬ face should be elevated to the extent of one-fifth only of its diameter is rationality and probability itself. In making these remarks, I am not, I may be allowed to say, overlooking the fact, that the rings of Saturn, though so extraordinary every way, are yet circular in form, whereas the New Jerusalem will, apparently, stand out as a protuberance from the surface of the “ new earth.” But, except the shifting of the centre of gravity from its present point, which of course would ensue, I see not that this would make any farther difference than tend to afford another example of that diversity which pervades the universe. (See p. 214.) 2. The materials of the city and walls. These are described as follows: — 236 PHrSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. “ And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was of pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first founda¬ tion was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chal¬ cedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.” (Eev. xxi. 18—21.) My remarks upon this head must be in a great measure of a different kind to those which were made by me on the last. On that I was able to point to something with which our present experience of nature has made us acquainted, and which served at least to illustrate the subject, though not to explain it; but here I can produce nothing of the kind. Neither, however, as it seems to me, is it necessary to do so. We have only to remember, that of the city we are considering “ the maker and builder is Gon,'^ and we THE WALL. 237 § V.] shall feel that all we have to do is at once to resolve the whole matter into the exercise of His creative power. The material of the city and gates will, ac¬ cording to this, be the result of a fresh exercise of that power: not of natural causes. The pearls, for instance, which are to form the gates of the city, may be true pearls, so far as composition and structure are concerned, but created such, not formed by the secretions of an animal, as in the case of existing ones. And so with the precious stones: these too must, of course, be regarded as the result of a fresh creation. To view the subject in any other light than this is, as it seems to me, to forget its true conditions. Yet there is little doubt that, whenever the question of its literality has been proposed, these very obvious considerations have been overlooked, and hence the hasty conclusion that has been at once arrived at, that the idea was too absurd to be enter¬ tained. Our reply to such an objection must be. Is anything too hard for the Lord ? ” “If it he ma'i'^ellous in our eyes, should it also be marvellous in the eyes of the Lord of Hosts V' (Zech. viii. 6.) The “Wall,” we are told, “was of jasperf and 238 PIITSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. its foundations were “ garnished with (not built of) precious stones^’’ (wer. 18, 19), of which the names are given; but into the nature of which I shall not attempt to enter, for it is not that, but their size, that constitutes the chief peculiarity of the case.^ Their characteristic qualities will be found noticed at some length by Calmet and by Dr. Adam Clarke, in their respective works on this portion of Scripture. “ The city was of pjure gold,’’^ but “ like unto clear glcLSs” (ver. 18); and “the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass (Ver. 21.) The gold with which we are now acquainted is not transparent, but opaque, and this gold therefore must be different in kind to that which this world affords at present. Wherein the difference will consist I am ' It is a singular and significant fact that we find the following re¬ markable promise made to desponding Israel: — “0 thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.” (Isaiah liv. 11, 12.) “ Carbuncles," literally, “ stones of earb^incles." The word translated “ car¬ buncles,” occurs only in this passage, and nowhere else in the Bible. Gesenius remarks on it:—“A gem of some kind; as far as may be judged from the etymology (from to burn), fiery and sparkling" This answers very remarkably to the effects produced by the substance called nacre, the inner pearly coating of shells, when moved about in the light. § V.] RIVER AND TREE OF LIFE. 239 unable to form the slightest opinion. But I hold it to be a significant fact that, in the typical temple of old, the most holy place, the “pattern of heavenly things” (Heb. ix. 23), was covered throughout with gold even to its floor (1 Kings vi. 21, 22, 30), as if to foreshadow by this, what will be found in “ the city of Grod,” the very “ street ” of which will be of “pure gold.” It is unnecessary that I should notice here what is said in verse 23 of this chapter, and in verse 5 of ch. xxii. respecting the light of the city, for this subject will be discussed at considerable length in the Third Essay, § II. 4. 3. The river and tree of life. There can be no doubt that the five first verses of ch. xxii. ought to have been attached to the previous chapter, for they are a continuation of the description of the city; the Eiver and Tree of Life, therefore, belong to it, and form part of the same subject. Kegarding them as emblems and not literalities, the spiritual signification which is given to the for¬ mer of them by figurative interpreters must be ad¬ mitted to be a very obvious, and therefore a very satisfactory one; we cannot say so much for the meaning 240 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. given to the latter. The river proceeding out of the throne of Giod and of the Lamb ” is intended, it is supposed, to point out the source of all spiritual blessings; and the throne being described as that of “ the Lamh,^^ as well as of God, shows us that, while those blessings come from God, they will do so through Christ: all which seems very natural and very rea¬ sonable. And so would be the signification given to the second emblem, the Tree of Life, provided there were but one tree, instead of many. The tree is supposed to represent the Saviour, and the healing virtues of its leaves to be designed to show the benefits of His redemption, enjoyed by those who will be "with Him in glory, and who 4vill then be delivered from all the evils connected with their former state while in the flesh upon earth. This would be very satis¬ factory were there but one tree ; but since there are undoubtedly many, it seems difficult to understand how they can form an emblem of the Eedeemer who is but one, though, it is true, they are all of one kind. For, though this be the case, we cannot but ask, ‘‘ Is Christ divided ? ” But having before said that we consider we are shut up, as it were, to the literal interpretation of the subject, we must proceed to § DIFFICULTIES. 241 view this part of it, as we have others, ou that principle. Two very formidable difficulties meet us as soon as we begin to do this. There is a difficulty in under¬ standing how there can be a “ river ” and yet “ no sea; ” and how the healing virtues of the leaves of the Tree of Life can be needed by the ‘‘saved"’ nations. But in all probability these difficulties are purely of our own forming, and are only the result of our misconception of the subject, as has been already shown is constantly the case in other instances. We confound things which have nothing to do with each other, and picture to ourselves a state of things which has in reality no existence. It is not surprising therefore that we meet with difficulties. We lay down false conditions, and we cannot but arrive at false conclusions. Hence the necessity of observing in such a case as this the rule of Newton,— To admit no objections against the conclusions we have arrived at by analysis, which are not drawn directly from the same authority and source as that from w'hich our conclusions are drawn. {See Appendix A.) Every other course is dangerous, and must necessarily lead to error. R 242 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. A still more formidable difficulty than either of the preceding is presented by the connection which apparently exists between the description of the ob¬ jects in question (the Eiver and Tree of Life) con¬ tained in the Apocalypse, and that which we find in Ezek. xlvii.^ In the latter case we read of waters which issue from under the threshold of the house,” (not the throne), and of trees which stand on either side of the river formed by these waters, ‘Hhe fruit whereof should be for meat (food), and the leaves whereof should be for medicine ” (margin, bruises and sores), ver. 12. It is impossible not to feel that there is at least an apparent connection between this and the account given in the Apocalypse of the Eiver and Tree of Life. But this chapter in Ezekiel is associated with much that seems utterly irrecon¬ cilable with the eternal state, and yet the xxi. and xxii. chapters of the Apocalypse seem undoubtedly to refer to that state: hence a difficulty of a very formidable kind. But possibly the connection is only apparent, not real. We must be careful how we assume that these two portions of Scripture relate ' As also with that which is found in Joel iii. 18. Zech. siv. 8, also seems to point in the same direction. § V.] TEEE AND RIVER OF LIFE. 243 to precisely the same things and the same period. It may be that the latter has reference solely to the eternal period, while the former, Ezekiel, namely, may be designed to refer primarily to the Millennial period, though it may adumbrate also a state of things which will mark the eternal one. Here, however, we undoubtedly have a question that presents difficulties which we are not at present able to encounter and explain. But let us remember, what we have so often had occasion to remark, that this is only what the analogy of Nature leads us to expect. That has its mysteries which we cannot penetrate; Eevelation must be expected to have the same.’ Our duty under such circumstances seems clearly pointed out to us in the following words, the order of which has been transposed:—‘‘Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” “ And if in anything ye be other¬ wise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” (Phil. iii. 16, 15.) ' “Hence, namely from analogical reasoning, Origen has with singular sagacity observed, that he who believes the Scripture to have pro¬ ceeded from Him who is the author of Nature, may well expect to find the same sort of diiiiculties in it as are found in the constitution of nature.”— Butlee, Analogy. Introduction, 244 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. It has been often remarked, that the description which is found in Eev. xxii. 1—5 is calculated, and perhaps designed, to give us an idea of ‘^Paradise Kegained.” There was “ a river ” in Eden, and there also was the “ Tree of Life.” These were literal — why not those which are yet to come ? It is scarcely possible not to feel that there is an allusion to one of them, the Eiver, namely, in the following words of the Psalmist: — “ There is a eivee, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy 'place of the tabernacles (the dwellings) of the Most HighT (Ps. xlvi. 4.J And, again, in those words of our Lord, addressed by him to the woman of Sa¬ maria : — ‘‘ Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John iv. 13, 14.) We know, indeed, that by these expressions we are to understand, primarily at least, the influences of the Holy Spirit on the soul; but is there not some¬ thing more intended? is the question. The words appear to me undoubtedly to have a farther bearing. There is a fact-like character about them which seems YIETUE OF IEEE. 245 § V.] to call for something more than a mere figurative accomplishment; and very possibly they will yet re¬ ceive a more literal fulfilment in, and through, that “ water of life which will proceed out of the throne of Grod and of the Lamb.” The Tree of Life which stood in Eden was, we must repeat, undoubtedly a literal tree, and as un¬ doubtedly must it have been endowed with a peculiar property or virtue for prolonging life. How it was qualified to do this we know not. The question is a deeply mysterious one; and so is the entire subject of the tree itself. It comes before us in the com¬ mencement of the Bible,—just shows itself for a moment in figurative allusions in the middle of the book— and then reappears in the most striking manner at its close! It is never seen in any other parts. But when the tree comes before us at the close of the sacred volume, it is no longer a single tree, but many, though undoubtedly all of the same kind.^ But with regard to them we are told that they * In the Book of Proverbs. See ch. iii. 18 ; xi. 30 ; xiii. 12 ; xv. 4. ^ According to oiu^ English translation of Rev. xxii. 2, there would seem to be but one tree, and yet that it stands on either side of the river. There is evidently, therefore, a correction needed here. Pro¬ fessor Scholefield has supplied two in his remarks upon the verse, in his “Hints for an improved translation of the New Testament.” — “ Ch. xxii. 2. Was there the tree of life. ^vKov ^oorjs. Was a tree of 24G PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. too, remarkable to say, will be endowed with a virtue, not of prolonging life, but of healing. We do not, as before observed, see the necessity of this in the case of those who it is said will derive benefit from it, assuming them to be “ the saved nations; ” but there may be reasons for it wdth which wm are altogether unacquainted. Apart, however, from this question, — \\Tiat, we may ask, is there incredible, or even improbable, in the idea that ‘‘the leaves of the tree ” should have a physical, remedial efficacy ? Assuredly there is no more in this case than there was in that of the Tree of Life which stood in Eden of old: and the judicious remarks of Dr. Hitchcock in reference to the latter may, as it seems to me, be with perfect propriety applied also to the former:— “ The very name (Tree of Life) implies that it was intended to give or preserve life. That it had in it a power to preserve life is evident from the sentence pronounced on man. ‘And the Lord Grod saith. Behold, the man hath become as one of us, to know life.” This is Bishop Middleton’s correction, in order to avoid the in¬ consistency of saying, that the one tree vas on each side of the river. Another interpretation, however, has been advanced by X)r. Owen, which is entitled to some consideration ; “And the river bemg on either side of it.” And this might be cai-ried even a little farther: “ In the midst of the street of it and of the river, being (viz. both the street and the river being) ‘ on either side of it ’ (the tree).” CONCLUSION. 247 § '^•1 good and evil; and now, lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and live for ever, therefore the Lord Grod sent him forth from the garden of Eden.’ Now, it appears to me to he in perfect harmony with the principles of physiology to suppose that there might be a virtue in the tree of life, either in its fruit or some other part, to arrest that tendency to decay and dissolution which we now find in all animal bodies. It does seem that it would require only some slight modification of the present functions of the human frame to keep the wheels of life in motion indefinitely. When in Eden, man had access to this sure defence against disease. But after he had sinned, he must forfeit this privi¬ lege, and, like the plants and inferior animals, submit to the universal law of dissolution. Surely of all the expositions that have been given of the meaning of this passage, this is the most rational.” '■ Conclusion. I wish to deal but as little as possible in a 'priori reasoning, but now that the subject has been examined analytically, we may venture with ' “ Religion of Geology.” Lect. iii. 248 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. more propriety to do so to some slight extent, and to consider it in the light of analogy. It mil be shown in a subsequent part of this work (Essay IV.) that we have the clearest evidence for believing there wull be, not only mutual recognition among the glorified saints hereafter, but also social intercourse, and this seems to render it but natural and probable that they will inhabit cities. This is no unwarranted inference, but one that cannot well be avoided.* It is relied on without question on other subjects. “ If the lunarians (says Professor Baden Powell, when discussing the question whether the moon is inhabited) are beings of at all similar social nature with ourselves, they would naturally inhabit cities.” ^ And if the saints hereafter at all resemble their former selves in this respect, we may certainly make the same inference with regard to them. But it has been proved, we conceive, that the Future will undoubtedly be a continuation of the Present, in very many essential respects at least, and it seems difficult ' Do not the following words of our Lord clearly point this way— “ And I say unto you, make to yoirrselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into ever¬ lasting habitatums" 1 (Luke xvi. 9.) ' Essays, “ Unity of Worlds,” § i. p, 216. ANOTHEE VIEW OF SUBJECT. 249 § V.] to understand that it should not be so in this; while that there should be no city on the new earth ” hereafter, is rendered almost absurd by the analogies of the present earth, and of man’s life upon it. But assume that there will be one — and we have now seen what Scriptural authority we have for believing this — and what, from the ver}^ nature of the case, should we expect will be the character, in reference to its majesty and grandeur, of that city ‘‘ivhose 'maker and builder is God ”— which will be the me¬ tropolis of the renewed and glorified earth — the city of the great King ”— the city whose name shall emphatically be, “ Jehovah Shamma,” “ the Loed is THEEE ? ” It is, as is well known, believed by some of our prophetical interpreters, that the New Jerusalem will be over, or above, the earth, and will be the abode of the Lord Jesus Christ and his glorified saints, while the new earth itself will be inhabited by Israel and the converted nations, the former having an earthly Jerusalem for their metropolis, there being “ some sort of a connection ” between it and the New PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. 2.')0 Jerusalem above it.' This, which in no way inter¬ feres mth its literality, may be a true view of the subject, and that there is nothing impossible or ab¬ surd in it seems to be proved by the case already referred to of Saturri’s rings, which may again be appealed to in illustration of the subject. These rings do not rest on the body of the planet, but are over it, or rather separated from it^, by, however, an im¬ mense space. But if the New Jerusalem be over the earth and not on it, how can the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it ” ? which we are told they will do. (Rev. xxi. 24.) This, I confess, seems to me an insuperable objection to this view. But it must also be remarked, that it is not * Thus, the Rev. Capel Molyneux, in |his very able work, “ Israel’s Future,” expresses his belief, “ That over this earth, and in connection with Jerusalem and its temple, will be the New Jerusalem or heavenly city, in which Incarnate Deity, Jesus Christ the Lord, will together witia His risen and glorified saints—the Bride—dwell; that this wid be the court of the Great King, and from thence, by the agency of His saints and His own personal visitation, the administration of His government over the earth wiU be carried on ; that the nations of the earth will walk in the light of that heavenly city, and the kings of the earth will bring their honour and glory unto it.”—Lecture vii. ^ It is, however, the opinion of our first authorities on the subject, e. g. M. Otto Struve and Mr. Bond, that the inner ring is rapidly approaching the body of the planet, and that “ we may expect sooner or later, perhaps in some dozen of years, to see the rings united with the body of the planet.” See Sir D. Brewster’s “ Life of Sir Isaac Newton,” (1855) vol. i. ch. xiii. pp. 370, 371. ADVANTAGES OF. 251 § '^•1 one that has been arrived at by any inductive pro¬ cess, or analysis of Scripture, for not a single text, that I am aware of, is ever quoted as suggesting it, but it is simply an hypothesis which has been framed to meet certain difficulties and to answer certain re¬ quirements. It should be remembered, however, that, if this be the case, but little confidence can be placed in it. The history of all attempts of the kind proves but too clearly that they are almost always failures. It was doubtless under a conviction that this was the case, as also that the process itself is unphilosophic, as he himself has shown, that the illustrious Newton said “ Hypotheses non JingoJ’ * On the other hand, it must be admitted that many points, which otherwise seem most difficult of solu¬ tion, are fairly met by this hypothesis. The per¬ petual fulfilment, for instance, of promises which are • “Principia.” Scholium Generale. See also the extract from his Book on Opticks, given in Appendix A. It must be remembereil that there are two kinds of hypothesis,—the one derived from experiment, or from particulars of some kind, according to the nature of the subject, and suggested, either in whole or in part, by them; the other, without any previous process of this kind, framed solely in order to meet and explain certain difficidties, which require solution. The former, which may be as rightly termed theory, is the great end of all philosophy; the other is inadmissible in our search for truth. “ Quicquid enim ex phsenomenis non deducitur, hypothesis vocanda est; et hypotheses sen metaphysicse, seu physicse, seu qualitatum oceultarum, seu mechanics, in philosophia experimentali locum non habent.”— Ibid. 252 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay II. made to the literal Israel, especially in reference to the city which they shall hereafter inhabit, and their separation from the other nations of the earth, may, according to this view, be accomplished without in¬ terfering with other promises which at present it seems difficult to reconcile with them. But it is highly necessary, in reference to all such points as these, to remember the break in the continuity of events that must necessarily be introduced by the final conflagration, and the bringing in of ‘‘the new heavens and the new earth,” whenever that will take place. ESSAY III. THE RESURRECTION BODY. THE EESUEEECTION BODY. —♦— § I.-ITS MATERIALITY*. § II.-ITS ASPECT. § III.-ITS POWERS. Essay III.] INTRODUCTORY. 255 ESSAY HI. THE RESURRECTION BODY. The course pursued in these Essays is one from generals to particulars. In the First was discussed the Locality of man’s future inheritance; in the Second, its Con¬ dition and Character; and now we have to direct our attention to the condition of man himself, not, how¬ ever, to his state generally, so much as to that of his body in particular. This is a subject of fundamental importance when viewed in reference to the leading design of these Essays as indicated by their title; and it is of the utmost consequence that we should, if possible, arrive at clear and definite views upon it. It bears, moreover, a similar relation to some of the other topics which we shall hereafter have to consider, e. g. to that of the succeeding, or Fourth Essay, as that of the First did to the Second. 256 PEYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. § I. — ITS MATEKIALITY, It was observed in the commencement of the Second Essay that, after all that had been said in the previous one respecting the terrestrial locality of the future inheritance, it might seem like uttering a mere truism to affirm afterwards that it would be really and essen¬ tially 'physical. Yet to do this was proved to be ne¬ cessary. I may now observe that, notwithstanding all that has been said in our past course, which had any bearing upon the point, it is quite necessary to call distinct attention to the fact, that man’s resuscitated, or resurrection body will he essentially material. It is perfectly astonishing how slow many are to see and to acknowledge this truth; and among them there are some from whom we should have expected exactly the reverse, from the fact that they have treated kin¬ dred subjects in a way that one would suppose would have insured right views on this: but such is not the case. A striking instance of the kind is afforded in that very valuable work to which reference has been §I.J NATUEE OF EESUEEECTION BODY. calready more than once made — TAe Religion of Geology, by Dr. Hitchcock. The talented author has been at great pains to show at considerable length in one part of his wOrk (ch. xi.), that this earth will be man’s future abode. He quotes largely from several other authors in favour of this view, and amono- them he gives a long extract from Dr. Chalmers' discourse ‘‘ On the New Heavens and the New Earth,” parts of which were given in the Second of these Essays. One would have supposed, therefore, that when he came to speak of the nature and condition of man’s body hereafter, he would certainly regard it as material and physical, seeing that this would appear to be necessarily called for by the nature of his habitat or abode. A material earth calls for a material body to inhabit it. The nature of the one determines the nature of the other. There must always exist between them the same or a similar relation that there is at present. But what does Dr. Hitchcock suppose may be the nature of man’s body hereafter? To those who are unacquainted with it, the answer must appear extraordinary indeed, coming from such a source. He conceives that, very possibly, the resurrection body may consist of a “ luminiferous ether:’ He should. s 258 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. however, speak for himself. After treating of the last conflagration, as described by St. Peter, and of certain imaginary difficulties which this may be sup¬ posed to place in the way of the earth being again inhabited by man, he proceeds to remark as fol¬ lows:— “ But is it not possible that our difficulty of con¬ ceiving how the spiritual body can enter at once upon its residence in the new heavens and earth, while yet the globe is only a shoreless ocean of fire^ results from a mistaken conception of the nature of the spiritual body? Do we not judge of it by our present bodies, and imagine that it must necessarily possess such an organization as would be destroyed by the extremes of heat and cold ? And are we authorized to draw such an inference ? The Scriptures have, indeed, left us very much in the dark as to the specific nature of the future glorified body, which Paul calls a spiritual ' It may well indeed be difficiilt to conceive how a “ spiritnal body,” or any other body, could do this; but it seems amazing that this ta¬ lented author should not have seen the error of supposing that the earth will be inhabited at all after the conflagration, before “All things have been made new” (Eev. xxi. 5 ). _ We have here, however, a striking illustration how a mistake on one subject leads us astray on another; and how constantly it is the case, that we are found laboriously engaged in endeavouring to meet and remove difficulties, which are pureb^ of our own creation. §1.] NATURE OF RESURRECTION BODY. 259 body. He does not mean that it is composed of spirit, for then it would not differ from the soul itself, by which it is to be animated. He certainly means that it is composed of matter; unless, indeed, there be in the universe a third substance, distinct both from matter and spirit. But of the existence of such a substance w'e have no positive evidence ; and therefore must conclude the spiritual body to be matter; called spiritual, probably, because eminently adapted to form the immortal residence of pure spirit. Yet we learn from the Apostle’s description that it is not composed of flesh and blood, which, he says, cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither is it capable of decay, like our present bodies. Indeed, the illustration which he derives from the decay and ger¬ mination of a kernel of wheat shows us that the future body will be as much unlike the present as a stalk of wheat is different from the seed whence it sprang;' and in appearance scarcely any two things are more unlike. Hence we may suppose the resurrection body of the righteous to be as different from that which the soul now animates as matter can be in its most diverse forms. ‘‘Now, the question arises. Do we know of any form 260 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. of matter in the present world which remains the same at all temperatures, and in all circumstances, which no chemical, or mechanical agencies can alter ? a substance which remains unchanged in the very heart of the ice around the poles, and in the focus of a volcano; which remains untouched by the most powerful reagents which the chemists can apply, and by the mightiest forces which the mechanician can bring to bear upon it ? It seems to me that modern science does render the existence of such a substance probable, though not cognizable by the senses. It is the luminiferous ether, that attenuated medium by which light, and heat, and electricity are transmitted from one part of the universe to another, by undulations of inconceivable velocity. This strange fluid whose existence and action seems all but demonstrated by the phenomena of light, heat, and electricity, and perhaps, too, by the resistance experienced by Encke’s, Biela’s, and Halley’s comets, must possess the extraordinary characteristic above pointed out. It must exist and act wherever we find light, heat, or electricity; and where do we not find them? They penetrate through what has been called empty space; and, therefore, this ether exists there, propagating its undulations at the astonishing §1.] NATURE OF EESUERECTION BODY. 261 rate of two hundred thousand miles per second. They emanate in constant succession from every intensely heated focus, such as the sun, the volcano, and the chemical furnace; and, therefore, this strange medium is neither dissipated nor affected by the strongest known heat. Both light and heat are transmitted through O ice; and, therefore, this ether cannot be congealed. The same is true of glass, and every transparent sub¬ stance, however dense; and even the most solid metals convey heat and electricity with remarkable facility; and, therefore, this ether exists and acts with equal facility in the most solid masses as in a vacuum. In short, it seems to be independent of chemical or mechanical changes, and to act unobstructed in all possible modifications of matter. And, though too evanescent to be cognizable by the senses, or the most delicate chemical and mechanical tests, it possesses, nevertheless, a most astonishing activity. Now, I am not going to assert that the spiritual body will be composed of this luminiferous ether. But, since we know not the composition of that body, it is lawful to suppose that such may be its constitu¬ tion. This is surely possible, and that is all which is essential to my present argument.” He pro- 262 PIITSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay HI. ceeds to show that, “ admitting its truth,” certain con¬ clusions follow, as, for instance, that ‘‘ the spiritual body would he unaffected by all possible changes of tempera¬ ture,” and be “ unharmed by chemical and mechanical agencies,” &c. (Ch. ix.) We learn from a subsequent page, that this theory is not properly his own, but was suggested by another^; and that “ a similar view ” had also been previously presented by Mr. Isaac Taylor in his “ Physical Theory of Another Life.” But what strikes one as so astonish¬ ing is this,—that such a view of the subject should for a moment be entertained by such a man as Dr. Hitch¬ cock, and more especially, seeing that he has even laboriously sought to prove the materiality of that ‘‘new earth” which man is hereafter to inhabit; and to establish, in short, its identity, so far as its substance or matter is concerned, with the present earth which is now inhabited by him. We shall presently see what the teaching of Scripture is upon the subject; but the nature and analogies of the case ought surely to have prevented the adoption of such a view as that which this theory presents. A material earth calls for a * By Townsend, in his work “ Facts in Mesmerism.” NATURE OF RESURRECTION BODY. 263 § I.] material body. We see this necessary connection be¬ tween the present earth and its present material in¬ habitants; but of what use would it be to bodies composed of “ luminiferous ether ” ? They may re¬ side in “ empty space,” one would suppose, as well as on a solid globe like this; nay, we see not why they should not dwell “ in airy nothing ” and find therein “ a local habitation and a name.” But the idea is too extravagant to be soberly discussed, and it would not have been noticed here at all, except for the purpose of showing what has actually been put forth by men of eminence and men of science, and that too at a most recent date; and to justify, moreover, the remark before made, that, notwithstanding all that has been said and proved in these Essays with regard to the material nature of man’s future inheritance, it was still necessary to show that his resurrection body will be essentially material, and therefore in harmony with it. The case may also serve as a warning to all who, like the writer, are engaged in the investigation of subjects of this kind, how they ever allow empty speculation to fill the place of proofs derived either from the facts of Nature, or from the words of Beve- lation. When we have these to guide us we may 264 PHTSICO-PEOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay HE proceed with confidence, but without them we can do nothing. In the present case, however, we are not left mth- out a guide, nor without positive data to reason upon. The Scriptures abound in references to the subject, and in positive declarations upon it, and these all alike imply the materiality of the future BODY. There are a few passages, however, which are sup¬ posed not to do this, but rather to teach the contrary, and to a misapprehension of their meaning is doubtless, in a great measure, to be attributed the very prevail¬ ing idea that the resurrection body will be a kind of spiritual substance, very different, if not essentially so, from that of our present material frames. The following is the leading text of the kind : — It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual bodyT (1 Cor. xv. 44.) On this a recent author*, who stood deservedly high in the world of science, remarks: — ‘‘If there be one point clear in their (the Apostles’) declarations, it is that the resuscitated • Professor Baden Powell, “ Essays on the Spirit of the Inductive Philosophy,” p. 294. § l.l THE ANIMATING PEINCIPLE. 265 body will not he material. “ It is sown a natural body —it is raised a spiritual body! ^jrv^iKov . ’rTvsvfxaTLKov.) 1 Cor. xv, 44.” Had this statement been reversed, and had it been affirmed that one of the clearest points in the apostolic writings, and in the New Testament generally, is, that the resuscitated body will be, what the present body is, essentially material, the assertion would have been somewhat nearer the truth. But a very little consideration of the above passage must readily convince any one that it determines nothing whatever as to the materiality, or non-mate¬ riality of the body, but simply shows what will be the principle of life, or the animating principle, in the resurrection body of the believer in Christ, whose soul has already been in this life regenerated by the Holy Spirit. (Eom. viii. 11.) In the case of our present bodies, that principle is the {psyche) ; in that of the resuscitated body it will be the TTvsyga {pneuma), or Holy Spirit. But if the argument of Professor Baden Powell were correct, it would prove that our present bodies are “ not material,” any more than our future ones will be, as maintained by him, for the which animates them, is no more 266 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. materiaP, according to his view, than the irvsviia is. It seems strange that this should not have occurred to him, and also to others who have argued much as he has done. But as this is a point of the first importance, and one on which very much depends, and one, moreover, on which much misconception prevails, it will be de¬ sirable to examine it somewhat more at length. Our English version of the above passage does not convey an adequate, or correct idea of the meaning of the original; nor indeed does it appear to be in our power to give an exact rendering of it in English, for we seem to have no term which precisely corre¬ sponds with 'xlrv'x^i.Kov, nor any which will fully and definitely convey its meaning to the English reader. The words, however, are, I conceive, more fairly ren¬ dered as follows, than in any other way. ‘‘There is an animal body, and there is a spiritual body.” This is Whitby’s term. The Latin, too, gives “ corpus animate.’’^ Coverdale ^ has “ soulish.^' ■xlrvxi'/cov {psy- chicon) is derived from (psyche, breath, life, ' “ No more material ”—that is, in the sense in which the body is material, and this according to Prof. Powell’s own showing.— Essay iii. § iv. p. 467. ^ “Kemains,” p. 181. Par. Soc. Ed. MEANING OP TEEMS. 267 § 1.] soul), and is employed in the New Testament for that which is merely natural, or corrwpt, as distinguished from that which has been produced by the Holy Spirit.‘ Thus, “But the natural (yjrvxi'Kov) man, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God;” &c. (1 Cor. ii. 14.) “ Sensual having not the Spirit.” (Jude 19.) (jpsyche') from which, as before observed, '^v'x^lkov is formed, exactly corresponds in meaning with the Hebrew (yiepkesh), which is the term that occurs in the passage quoted by the Apostle (ver. 45), viz. Gen. ii. 7. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul ” ^ {ne%)hesh). What the Apostle ’ It is used only in the following places : — 1 Cor. ii. 14; xv. 44, 46, in aU of which it is rendered '’^natural," in oiu’English version; again, in James iii. 15, and Jude 19, in both of which it is rendered ‘'sensual.” Eut it will he observed, if reference be made to the Greek of 1 Cor. ii. 14 and 15, that St. Paul there uses the two very same adjectives, viz. >j/uxiKbj/ and iz.evjxaTiKhv, to distinguish respectively the regenerate and unregenerate man, as he does to describe the two kinds of body; and it is certain that he must do so in both cases on the very same grounds, or for the very same reason ; namely, because in the natural man, as in the natural body, the Holy Spirit is wanting, and because in the spiritual man, as in the spiritual body, the Holy Spirit is present. Comp. Horn, viii. 11.^ This, I conceive, is sufficient to decide the question. * It is a^ great mistake to suppose that this passage tends to prove, or that it in any way asserts, iAe immortality of the soul. It does nothing of the kind. It might with equal propriety have been rendered, “ man became a living creature^ 2^2? {nephesh), which is employed in a great variety of senses, is the term used to designate the lower ani¬ mals in Gen. i. 21, 24, and ii. 19,—“Every living creature” It is also used for “ body,” and even where a “ dead ” body is meant, e. g. Lev. 268 PHYSICO-PHOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. asserts, therefore, in the passage we are considering (1 Cor. XV. 44) is, in effect, this,—That there is a body which being animated by the must be called an animal, or soulish body {o-wfia ylrv)(^iKbv ); and that there is {e.g. in the person of Christ), and will be (in the person of Himself and people) a body which, because it will be animated by, or instinct with, the Holy Spirit, must be called a SpiHtuaV^ body {croifia iTvsviiariKbv). But it must be remembered, that it is THE SAME BODY IN BOTH CASES, Only altered in condition, and that the difference consists in, or is caused by, the animating principle. The yjrvxv is a perishing thing, or substance, whatever it may be, and hence the body which is animated by it is mortal; but the Holy Spirit is not so, and therefore the body which will be animated by Him will never perish. All this has been already exemplified in the person of the Great Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ. The body with which He appeared among men was, like our present bodies, a “ natural,^’’ {y^vjgKov) body, derived from His human parent* *, and xxi. 11, Num. ix. 6, 7, 10. Yet its most usual meaning, perhaps, is life, as is that of ^vxv {pysche). * “ Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ, came.”—Eom. ix. 5. §1.] AGENCY OF HOLT SPIEIY. 269 was therefore mortal —though even then ‘‘a temple of the Holy Ghost, as is the present body of the re¬ generated believer in him; but the present body of Christ is not a “natural,” but a “Spiritual {irvsv- fxajLKov) body,” and is therefore no longer mortal, “ Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion oven^ Him.^’ And far¬ ther, the same thing was true in the case of His re¬ surrection from the dead, as will be true in that of His people — in both cases the Holy Spirit is the agent, or the eficient power luho accomplishes the work. Thus we read in reference to the revivifying of Christ’s body,—“ For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the SpiriH (1 Pet. iii. 18.) And thus with regard to the revivifying of the believer’s body, — “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.’’^ (Pom. viii. 11.) In both cases, it will be observed, there is a quickening of a mortal body, and in both cases by the same power. We are now, therefore, in a position to see the 270 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. meaning of another assertion of the Apostle in this same chapter (I Cor. xv.) viz. that, “as ^ve have home the image of the earthy (man) ive shall also hear the image of the heavenly (man).” (ver. 49.) In other words, we shall he made like unto Christ in reference to the body which He now bears, now that He has been raised from the dead, just as we have been made like Adam in reference to the body which he bore. The declaration has reference of course only to the hody of Christ. And thus we read else¬ where, “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile hody (to 71)5 Taireivdicrsws rjyoyv), that it might he fashioned like unto His glorious hody {tu> adyarL rys So^gs avTovf according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Phil. hi. 21.) But this brings us at once to the question. What is the nature of Chrisis resurrection hody? To that shall ours be made like, and in that, therefore, we have a standard of comparison.^ Now, we have the * The extent of the resemblance between our resurrection body and that of Christ, together with the respects in which it will be maintained, will be more fully discussed hereafter; the only point which it was necessary to discuss here was the materiality or non-materiality of the body of the Kedeemer, after His resurrection from the dead. §1.] Christ’s resurrection body. 271 clearest, and the most demonstrative evidence, that our Lord’s resurrection body was a material body, precisely as much so as that which He bore before His death, for in reality it was the same body, only when raised from the dead, it had been “quickened by the Spirit.” It is well in this case to trace the different steps of the question. The body, then, with which the Saviour “ went about doing good,” was the body which was laid in the tomb when he was dead; it was this same body which was raised from the tomb, as was proved, among other things, by the fact that it bore the very marks of the nails and of the spear which had pierced it while it hung upon the cross. The unbelief of Thomas seems to have been permitted and recorded for the very purpose of proving this. And how very striking is the record of the fact!— “ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore, said unto him. We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see hi His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, 1 will not believe. And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas 272 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said. Peace be unto you. Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my Grod I ” (John xx. 24—28.) Of the identity of the Redeemer’s body, therefore, after He rose from the dead, there could be no doubt; and as little of its being as substantial, and material as it was before, for, in addition to the above, we find Him saying to His disciples on another occasion, ‘‘ Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a s'pirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me haveB (Luke xxiv. 39.) In a word we see, that His body was the very same body as before, having the same properties, the same organi¬ zation, and capable of exercising the same functions. It was visible to sight, it was sensible to touch; it saw, it walked, and talked, and even ate and drank;— “ And they gave Him a j)iece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb. And He took it, and did eat before themA (Luke xxiv. 42, 43.) “Him God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly; not to all the WHAT CAN INHEEIT THE KINGDOM. 273 § I.] people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Rim after He rose from the dead.” (Acts x. 40, 41.) But, after all, it may be objected, we find it written, that Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God:^ (1 Cor. XV. 50.) True; but “flesh and hones ” can, for, as we have just seen, the Saviour declared with regard to His body, which had now been raised fiom the dead, that it had both these ; and w^e know that that same body of wFich He said this afterwards ascended into heaven', and is now sitting at the right hand of God, « Angels, and principalities, and powers being made subject to Him.” It is desirable again to have the full record before us of the occasion when this was spoken by Him. “ And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith He Icd them out as far as to Bethany; and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” Luke xxiv! PhlL^^ ^ the Lord Jesus Clmist which until then, by the space of forty days, had in very deed ^ly shewed himself unto His disciples, that He was risen from tlie dead Tnf!! ®“tial body,—even He, the very same that had taken ^ disciples out unto Bethany, and from Tff ^oyglit He them further to Mount Olivet; and in the same place r.T.i'nt'’ ^1 + 1 ^ tiands (no doubt bodily and human hands, yea, with the wounds) He blessed them, namely. His disciples, that IS, He salu^d them, as the manner is of those that take their leave s, an so He departed from them, and set His body coimoraUy in heaven, as in one place.”— Co\’eedai.e’s Eemains, p. 150. Par. Soc. Ed. T 274 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. iinto them. Peace he unto yon. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spiritJ And He said unto them. Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when He had thus spoken, He shewed them His hands and His feet. And while they believed not for joy, and wondered. He said unto them. Have ye here any meat ? And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb. And He took it, and did eat before them.” (Luke xxiv. 36—43.) Now, it is all-important to observe, before we pro¬ ceed, that we learn from this, not only that the re¬ suscitated body of the Eedeemer is material, but also of what kind of matter it consists, so to speak. We learn, namely, that it is still a fleshly body. It was so before His death, it was so after His resurrection, it is so still,—modified, or altered, indeed, very mate¬ rially, as it would seem, in reference to its condition, in some important respects, as we learn elsewhere; ' And they would have been evidently right if, as many suppose, we are to understand St. Paul, when he tells us that “ there is a natural and there is a spiritual body,” to mean that the resuscitated body will be, not a material, but a non-material substance, a spiritual thing. FLESH AND BLOOD, MEANING OF. 275 § I.] but yet truly and essentially a body of flesh, for this the Eedeemer Himself calls it. Why, then, we may ask, if Christ’s body be of this nature—a body that is, of flesh crncl hones ”—why should we esteem it, as some seem to do, inconsistent with the dignity of our future condition, to have bodies of the same? Is it not sufficient that «the servant should be as his Lord ? We are told that as we have borne the image of the earthy, toe shall also hear the image of the heavenly; ’ must not our utmost desires, and even our highest aspirations, be satisfied with such an assurance as this, whatever be its meaning ? We have now, however, I trust, seen something of that mean- ing; more remains which we shall have to consider hereafter; but this must suffice for the jjresent. But the objection we have noticed, as derived from the Apostle s declaration that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” is, in truth, of no weight, and the supposed difficulty admits of an easy solution. After what has just been said, it will be readily seen that what is meant by the terms “ flesh and blood is simply our nature in its present state, as corrupt and sinful; just as the term ‘‘flesh” is used in Rona. viii., and elsewhere, for an unconverted 276 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. and unregenerate state of the soul, without any reference whatever to the materiality or non-mate¬ riality of the body. Thus, — “ they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” (Ver. 5.) And again, “So then, they that are in THE FLESH canuot'please God.^’ (Ver. 8.) The Apostle is not here speaking of two parties, of whom one class are in a fleshly body, and the others not so; but of the unregenerate and regenerate, both of ivhom are alike in the same body, and that our present fleshly, corrupt, and mortal body. What should we think of any one who should attempt to argue to the contrary, and labour to prove from the Apostle’s expressions in this case that the re¬ generate are now not in the body ? Yet surely with as much reason may it be urged that they will not be in a material body hereafter, because it is said, “ Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” This is indeed true, for “corruption cannot inherit incorruption;” but “this corruptible (body) shall put on incorruption, and this mortal (body) shall put on immortality,” even as has already been done in the person or body of the Kedeemer; so § !•] CHUECH’s view of subject. 277 that the venerable patriarch Job was justified in exclaiming, I know that my Eedeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though after my skin worms destroy this body, YET IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GrOD : ivliom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.’’’’ (Job xix. 25—27.) Christ’s resus¬ citated body, with which He now sits at the right hand of G-od', “waiting till His enemies be made His footstool,” and in which He will return to judge the quick and the dead, is, as we have seen, the same body with which He trod this earth at His first Advent, no longer indeed subject to death and corruption, and therefore changedf as we are told we must all be but yet the same material body, which He himself has told us is a body of (at least) flesh and hones’’ The Scriptural evidence for this is complete and conclusive, and hence nothing more is necessary to * “ He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill — -fidfil, margin) all things.” Ephes. ^ yoii a mystery; We shall not all sleep (die), hut we shall all be ch.^nged, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed," 1 Cor. xv. 51—52. 278 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. challenge for it our ready assent; but yet, methinks, I shall be pardoned if I appeal to another testimony which, though not of itself an authority, is yet highly important. The Articles of the Church of England are no proof of truth, but simply declare what she holds to be truth. As such I give, with no small measure of thankfulness, the IVth: “ Of the Reauri'ection of Christ. Christ did truly rise again from death, AND TOOK AGAIN HiS BODY, WITH FLESH, BONES, AND ALL THINGS APPERTAINING TO THE PERFECTION OF MAN’S NATURE ^; WHEREWITH He ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, AND THERE SITTETH, UNTIL He RETURN TO JUDGE ALL MEN AT THE LAST DAY. {See APPENDIX G.) There remain yet a large number of passages of Scripture which might be brought to bear in support of that view of the subject at which we have now arrived, namely, the true corporal character of the resurrection body, whether it be that of Christ, as the great Head of the Church, or that of His people. Enough has been said in reference to the former; but ’ In the Ilnd Article it is affirmed, that “ the two natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood,” which are “joined together” in Christ are “ nevee to be divided.” § I.] HOW THE DEAD WILL BE RAISED. 27!! it is desirable to go a little more at length into the question of the latter, in order that it might be seen how little there is, on the one hand, to support the very prevailing view respecting its spirituality, and, on the other, how much in favour of its true materiality. I think it will be felt, after the examination of the subject which ,we have now made, that if it were not for oiir preconceived views, which yet are very visionary and undefined, we should feel as a matter of course, that whenever the Scriptures speak of “the dead being raised,” or, whenever they make use of any expression to this effect, we should understand that, when raised, they will resemble in all essential re¬ spects their former selves, having the same form and organisation, and endowed with the same functional powers; as also with the same mind ; though both body and mind Avill be in a greatly advanced, and even in a very highly exalted condition, in comparison with the present. This, I say, is the natural and obvious view of the case, and would be immediately felt to be so if a disturbing influence had not affected the judgment. \\ hen, for instance, we are told that the great object of the Church’s desire, and for which she waits, is, ‘‘The redemption of the body” (Rom. viii. 23), what 280 PUYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. should lead us to understand by the term any other than a literal body such as we now have ? The word is used in a known, definite, and recognised sense, and there is nothing either here or elsewhere to interfere with or to alter that sense. The obvious meaning, therefore, ought clearly to be adopted without scruple. To depart from it is to go needlessly into obscurity, when we have light before us. Then, again, when we read that “ the dead shall be raised,^ or that “ Qod will raise the dead^^ or that “aW that are in the graves shall come forth, at the voice of the Son of God, why do we not at once understand that they will do so with their true veritable bodies, seeing that all the expressions obviously and naturally imply this, and moreover would really be obscurity itself if they did not do so? If, indeed, there be other passages which qualify their meaning, they should be taken into account, and we have already seen, and shall do so still further in a subsequent part of our discussion, that there are passages which show that, at least, the resuscitated body will be so far altered in its condition as that “ death shall no more have dominion over it; ” but this, as we have also seen, does not affect its materiality, nor its true corporal character, which §1.] EXERCISE OF BODILY FUNCTIONS. 281 remains just what it did before, as was fully shown to be already the case in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, therefore, we must repeat, that, if it were not for our preconceived and really erro¬ neous views upon the subject, we should never think of departing from the plain, literal, and obvious sense of those numerous passages which, with varied ex¬ pression, but with uniformity of meaning, declare that ‘‘ GrOD WILL RAISE THE DEAD.” But there are certain portions of Scripture which call for a more specific examination than this, and which compel us to view the subject under a still more definite aspect. We read, for instance, of the exercise of the hodily functions, and we cannot but inquire into the meaning of the passages in which this is the case. We have already seen that in the case of the resuscitated body of the Eedeemer, those functions were all exercised (p. 272), have we reason to believe that such will be true also in the case of the resuscitated bodies of his people ? Let the following passages answer the question. Whether they speak of the millennial, or the eternal period, or of both,^I will not attempt to determine; they undoubtedly refer to a time subsequent to the re~ 2S2 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay HE surrection, and this is all that we need be anxious about at present. (a) And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit doion with Abra¬ ham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. viii. 11.) (b) “ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of Grod, and you yourselves thrust out.” (Luke xiii. 28.) (c) “ Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a king¬ dom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Luke xxii. 28—30.) “ But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day ivhen I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matt, xxvi. 29.) {d) After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white EXEECISE OF BODILY FUNCTIONS. 283 § I-] robes, and palms in their hands; and o'ied with a loud voice, saying. Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”i (Eev. vii. 9, 10.) I will make no comment on these passages, but rather let them speak for themselves, only remarking that they must be viewed in the light of those which have been already quoted, and which record what was done by the Eedeemer after He rose from the dead, and which, moreover, seeing that they clearly prove that His bodily substance remained, and His bodily functions were exercised after that event, show us that there is a pHmd facie assumption in favour of the opinion that ours shall do so. If such was the case mth His, why should it not be also with ours ? The only course to pursue in order to arrive at the truth, IS to divest ourselves as much as possible of preconceived views ^ on the subject, and to keep til,-,), 7 to the introduction of f i* *"' Ff? “ ‘i'^'^^tion under examination, because they bu7 h7 "" figurative or symbolical light^ texts^oTotI7 objection can be made to the otlier T 3 ^ essentiaUy literal character. I con- * 2 mn evidence they afford can be resisted. inan the preconceived notions which we may form on any subiect ;n ich IS a matter of revelation, nothing can be more unsafe as a guide, ilad we, e. g. been consulted as to the scheme of redemption, or been asked to determine what was antecedently probable, we should not have made 284 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. strictly and rigidly to the Scriptural evidence upon it, readily adopting whatever view of it that may set before us. In concluding this’ section of the present Essay, I may be permitted to call attention to the fact, that, in the views propounded in it, there will be seen a harmony and a consistency which, when duly reflected on, must be felt to be essential to the truth of any theory which may be proposed on the subject; and this harmony, moreover, will be seen, not only between I the views now maintained in reference to the resur¬ rection body, but also between these and the results arrived at in the preceding Essays on the topics which were discussed in them. The materiality and true physical character, for instance, of man’s future abode were very fully shown in those Essays; and, as before remarked, a material abode calls for a material in¬ habitant. But such the resurrection body will not be, according to those who expect it to be a s'piritual substance, and there would, therefore, be a total want the Son of God horn in a stable, and cradled in a manger, — the son of a carpenter, — frequently without where to lay his head, — despised and rejected of men,—the laughing-stock of a brutal soldiery; — nor should we, at length, have put him to death between two thieves, and that, too, by the most cruel and ignominious death of the day. §1.] NECESSITY OF CONSISTENCY. 285 of adaptation between it and its material abode. But it is far otherwise with the body which the Scriptures recognise; that, as we have seen, is a material body, and therefore fitted, just as the present body is, for living on a material earth. But farther: Of ivhat use vjould such a body he, if its functions are not to he exercised? Evidently none, and we must surely feel, as soon as the question is proposed, that it is little better than absurd to contemplate such a contingency. Even the most determined opponent of final causes would hesitate to entertain it. It would make the whole structure of the body null and void, so far as its use or adaptation was concerned. But, in order to test the question,—Are the saints, let us ask, to be endued hereafter with far greater mental powers than at pre¬ sent ; and are they to make no communication to each other of those glorious thoughts that will occupy their minds ? And if it be absurd to suppose this, then by what means or instrumentality is it likely they will communicate them ? Will it not be by that of the material tongue? It was so, be it again remembered, in the case of our Redeemer after He rose from the dead; can any shadow of reason be assigned why it will not also be the same in the case of His people ? 286 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. Consistency of principle, therefore, seeing that there will be a material body, calls for the exercise of the bodily functions. This it has, I trust, been shown, there really will be. It is not only involved, but directly asserted in the passages of Scripture which have been appealed to. The whole subject, therefore, is in harmony. There is no contradiction or incon¬ sistency between its parts. The whole agrees, and this must be admitted to be a corroborative proof of the truth of the positions advanced. ASPECT or THE RESURRECTION BODY. 287 § n.] § II. ITS ASPECT. When, in a former Essay, I was about to show the advanced condition of the future earth, I observed that, up to that point, I had been engaged in en¬ deavouring to prove its similarity to the present, but that I had then to point out wherein it was pro¬ bable it would differ from it; so must I now do in reference to the resurrection body. In the last section, and especially at the close of it, its identity with our present body, so far as its essential characteristics are concerned, was maintained, but I must now pro¬ ceed to show how, as I believe, it will in some re¬ spects differ materially from it. W^ith this purpose in view, it will be necessary that we should again recur to St. Paul’s words in 1 Cor. xv., upon the subject of the present and of the resuscitated body, and on the points of contrast between them. All flesh,” we find him sajdng, ‘‘is not the same flesh. but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of 288 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” (ver. 39—44.) It was, I conceive, abundantly proved in the last section, that the Apostle’s remarks in this passage do not, as many suppose, militate against the true materiality, or the real physical character of the resurrection body, but are in perfect harmony with both; while, however, this is undoubtedly true, his description of it yet clearly shows, that most material changes will be wrought in its condition, which will make it differ in some respects very greatly from the present. Some of these changes we have already had to notice, as for instance, the change from mortality to immortality, which, as we saw, will be caused by a change in the animating principle, the TrveOyaa, or Holy Spirit taking § II,] IN WHAT ITS GLORY WILL CONSIST. 289 the place of the or animal soul. But there is another point of difference which we must now notice, and that is the change from “dishonour^"’ to “GLORY,” which we are told shall take place. What the glory will consist in we are not here told; it is simply declared that such a change will take place. But the expression implies that a most material change will be wrought in the actual condition of the body itself, for (as should be carefully noticed) the various expressions of the Apostle do not refer to a state or condition external to the body — to one, in short, in which it will be placed — hut to the con¬ dition of the body itself. It is sown in a state of corruption, weakness and dishonour; it will be raised in one of incorruption, power, and glory. It is by no means difficult, I conceive, to show wherein this “ glory ” of the future body will in all probability consist. There is nothing here to point it out, but there is so much in other parts of the inspired volume which would evidently seem to bear upon it, that there can be no reasonable ground of doubt as to what will be its nature — in some respects at least. This, I believe, can be clearly proved, viz. that THE RESURRECTION BODY WILL BE DISTINGUISHED U 290 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. BY A VISIBLE BRIGHTNESS.^ And if SO, then we cannot hut connect this fact with the « glory ”2 ^yhich we are told shall mark its condition. But be this as it may, the proposition just stated admits, I conceive, of full and conclusive proof; and this I now pro¬ ceed to endeavour to show. 1. It mill be found directly assoled in numerous passages of Scripture. The first we would select f Treatise “On the Hope himgiA en in Coverdale’s Bemains, and is thus stated by MVherefore the glorified bodies shall be clear, bright, and shining bodies even as the body of Christ was in His Transfiguration upon thf Mount ofThabor; of whom it is specified in the Gospel, that ‘his face was as bright as the sun, and his clothes did shine as the light.’ After the resurrection did the Lord show unto his disciples his palpable and Yisible that IS, lus very true, substantial body: but the brightness and shine he reserved (in order) to teach and instruct the weak here beneath Like as also after the resurrection he did eat and drink, not that he needed any such thing, but that he so woidd declare and prove the tnie resurrection of his body. The glorification also is set directly against le low estate and dishonour, as Paul evidently declareth, saying • ‘ He shall change our _^le body, that he may make it like unto His oivn glOTious and glorified body.”’ Bemains, Parker Soc ed BuUinger also writes to the same effect, and employs the same argu- ment Decades, yol. i. 174, 175. Parker Soc. ed. ^ - St. Paul appKes the term “glory” to the visible splendour of Moses’ fa^ when he came down from the Mount, and has thus, I conceive determined ftie question (2 Cor. iii. 7). It is also used after the same 'i^t® -1] Transfiguration: “And! behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias • appeared «« gxoey ” (Luke ix. 30, 31). So in reference to the light that shone round the shepherds to whom the birth of the Saviour was an¬ nounced: ‘ And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the globy of the Lord slwne round about them ” (Luke ii. 9). So also by St. John : And after these things i saw another angel come down from heaven haying great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory” (Key' iivaiL 1^, farther, Ezek. xliiL 2^ and 1 Kings yiii. 10, 11, § II.] VISIBLE BRIGHTNESS OF FUTURE BODY. 291 for consideration is the following:—“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and euer.” (Dan. xii. 2, 3.) Here we are surely taught these two things, viz. First, that a visible brightness ivill distinguish the persons of the Saints hereafter; and Secondly, that it will admit of degrees; for there is first the brightness of the visible firmament, and next that of the stars. This passage alone, therefore, ought to be considered sufficient to decide the question, and no doubt would be at once admitted to be so, were it not for the old controversy about literality and spirituality; if, in short, the notion had not taken possession of some minds that the words are to be understood in a purely figurative or spiritual sense, and not in a literal one, and therefore that the brightness fore¬ told will be, not visible or physical, but purely moral. It would be found, however, to be no very easy task to show how such a view can be made to comport with the words, or what in this case the 292 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. expressions actually mean. That brightness, or light, is employed in Scripture in a figurative sense there can be no doubt; as, for instance, by our Lord, “ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven: ” but it would be absurd to argue from this that the term is always so used; e. g. when it is said, Let there be light, and there was light.” In short, the nature of the subject, or the context, it may be, must in all cases decide the meaning. These are abundantly sufficient in the present in¬ stance to show that the literal and obvious meaning of the words is the only true one. I repeat, there¬ fore, that we are here taught that the persons of the glorified saints will be distinguished by a visible brightness, and that that brightness will be marked by degrees.* And this agrees with the illustration ^ I am very desirous that all that appears in the text of these Essays in the way of direct proof should he made to rest as much as possible solely upon the evidence of Scripture; I therefoi’e give the following in a note, rather than embody it in the text, though it is rather intended for illustration than for proof. We have already heard the Apostle say, '^All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of flshes, and another of birds; ” that is, they are all alike, material and physical, but differ in kind. And thus, he says, will it be in reference to the future body when compared with the present one: “ So also is the resurrection of the dead.” He has exemplified his subject thus far, it will be observed, by a reference to the animal § ”*J SUEJECT ILLUSTEATED. 293 of St. Paul upon the subject, as, one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resur- afterwards by comparing “celestial bodies” examples are taken from Now, It IS perfectly legitimate, and the example of the Apostle proves t to be so, to Illustrate great things by small, however gJeat m^ay be the difference between them, if only the principle on which the coLa! rison IS made be but a sound one. I venture, therefore, to remark that have animal bodies which are truly se/f.luMinous,-^lii shine, that is, with a brightness sufficiently great to make themselves beautifuUy visible by night, though not by day, when the superior of the siin prevails._ I need scarcely say that I refer to the varilis orders of luminous insects of which this is true. As for instance oiJ wf noctiluca), the fire-flies {Mater noctiluca) of South America, and the lantern-flies {Fulgora lanternaria) of India all of which, though diminutive creatures, are yet as true examples of ^elff luminous animal bodies, and serve as much to exemplify the idea in¬ volved in smh an expression, as if they were among the magnates of creation. They are quite sufficient to illustrate our subiect fnd to show us that _;here is no reason whatever why we should regard the idea as anything so veiy extraordinaiy, or even indeed new^thatthS resuscitated body sliall be distinguished by a visible splendour, for we see that we have something of the kind already. The difference would seem to be only one of degree. The creatures above referred to as be onging to the present creation, are luminous, but yet their light is resm-rectimi body ^ ill be sufficient to do this by day, and that too, as we have rra^l^t -^-h But it must be remembered that an actual case of the kind,—that is suffipSl^” a visible brightness, and that, too^ sufficiently great to render it con.spieuous even under the light of day— has already occurred. I now refer to the case of Moses when he came down from the Mount, and when ^Hhe skin of his face shone ” with a splendour that, until he had covered it with a veil, the Israelites were unable to bear, for (to use St. Paul’s words) “they could not stedfastlv ^hold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance ” (2 Cor iii 7) * therefore must have been its splendour! And ^ remembered, that however typical or symbolic this cir- S been, —and that it was symbolic we learn from tb' rmnarks upon it still its real and actual character remains -F el) ' r+i ^ nghtness may have been emblematic of the glory, or excellence of that dispensation; and the veil, of its metaphorical cdiaracter, See the whole account of this circumstance, Exod. xxxiv. 29_35. 294 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. rection from the dead.'’’’ His primary object, I con¬ ceive, in the passage of which these words form a part, is simply to show that the resuscitated body will in some respects differ materially from the pre¬ sent one, though in all that is essential to its true corporal nature it will be the same; hence his other illustration, “ all flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, and another of fishes, and another of birds; ” but when he draws a comparison between the various celestial bodies, and observes that one star differs from another star in glory,” he certainly seems to refer to the different degrees of glory which will distinguish the saints hereafter, and which will, as I seeing that its various rites and ceremonies covered, as it were, spiritual traths ; and it might also have been a significant emblem of the darkness of the Jewish mind, in reference to the true meaning of the law; but all this leaves the reality and literality of the event, viz. of the brightness of the face, and of the veil put upon it, untouched and unaffected. The brightness, notwithstanding any spiritual signification it might have, yet afforded a true and actual case of man’s person being distinguished by a visible splendom*. And this shows us that the very same thing may hold true hereafter in reference to the brightness which will distin¬ guish the persons of the glorified saints. That, too, may be, and I doubt not will be, emblematic, —emblematic, that is, of their moral condition,—■ but it will not on this account be the less real and actual. The two things, viz. the reality and the signification, are not opposed to, or destructive of each other, as many seem to suppose, but are mutually supporting, and add greatly to each other’s significancy. The bodily splendour, or glory, will be throughout eternity a visible emblem of their moral glory, the different degrees of the latter being, in all probabdity, marked by the varying degrees of the former: but that must be real and actual, or its use and significancy as an emblem coidd not exist. FAKTHEK PROOFS. 295 § n.] conceive, undoubtedly mark the degree of their re- ivard. The Apostle Paul and the penitent thief will be alike in the kingdom of heaven, but the reward, and therefore the glory, of the one will be immensely greater from that of the other. Into this subject, however, though so deeply interesting, it is not my intention to enter farther, but rather to confine myself to the establishment of the.former truth, viz. that the persons of the glorified Saints will be distinguished by a visible brightness, which may be termed their “ glory.” Another passage which may be cited in favour of this view, is the following: “ Then shall the righteous shine foi'th as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath eai’s to hear, let him hear.” (Matt, xiii. 43.) It is unnecessary to comment on these words; they declare, as plainly as words can, the truth they are cited to prove. To give them any other than a literal meaning, consistently at least, is, I conceive, impossible. Such an attempt must strip them of all their value, and reduce them to a mere poetical expression; and how could this be re¬ conciled with the solemn command immediately at¬ tached to them, “MTio hath ears to hear, let him 296 PHYSICO-PPtOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. hear”? But we are not left to mere conjecture as to how the words should be understood ; we may com¬ pare them with others, with regard to the meaning of which there is no doubt, nor any room for doubt. And it is only by “ comparing spiritual things with spiritual” that we can hope to arrive at the truth. It is the only legitimate course to pursue. We ob¬ serve, therefore, that to ‘‘shine as the sun” is an expression which is used in a connection which fixes its meaning, — it is employed in reference to the person of our Lord Himself, as seen on the Mount of the Transfiguration. Thus we read, “ And He was trans¬ figured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.” (Matt. xvii. 2.) We shall immediately have to recur to this passage again, and need not therefore enlarge upon it here; but, I conceive, we have only to compare with it the declaration of our Lord with regard to “ the righteous,” viz. that they “ shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” to be satisfied that this “ great and precious promise ” to them must, and shall he, literally fulfilled. 2. The view propounded is still farther supported by luhat is revealed respecting the person of our § II.] GLOEY OF cueist’s PEESON. 297 Lord Himself. I must here be permitted* to remind the reader once more of the frequency of the assurance given us, that the saints shall hereafter be made like unto their Lord. 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.” (Phil. hi. 20, 21.) “Beloved, now are we the sons of Giod, 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.” (1 John hi. 2.) In these, as in many other cases, the idea of likeness, it will be observed, is still maintained. Now it admits of the clearest proof, I conceive, that the glorified person of the Eedeemer will undoubtedly be distinguished by a visible glory, and when therefore we are assured that “ we shall be like him,” we cannot but conclude that the likeness will consist in a resemblance to Him in this respect, at least, in whatever other way it may hold good. One mode of discovering what will be the personal appearance of our Lord, when He shall come to set up His kingdom, is to look to His Trans- 298 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. figuration (which, as before shown, was undoubtedly designed to illustrate it), and to some points con¬ nected with that event, such as the parties who ac¬ companied Him, and the condition in which they too were likewise found. When He comes again. He will be attended by, in addition to the holy angels, First, those who sleep in Him; Secondly, those who will be alive at His coming, but who will then be “ changed.” Now these two parties were respectively represented on the Mount of Transfiguration, by Moses, on the one hand, who died, and by Elijah, on the other, who did not see death, but who was translated. And let us note the description given of the appearance of our Lord at this time, and of those who accompanied Him. The facts have been recorded by three of the Evangelists. St. Matthew (ch. xvii. 2) tells us, in reference to our Lord, that He ‘‘was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was xuhite as the light.'’' St. JMark (ch. ix. 3), that ‘‘His raiment became shining, ex¬ ceeding white as snoiv; so as no fuller on earth can white them.” St. Luke (ch. ix. 29—31), that “as he prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment ivas ivhite and glistering. And, GLOKY OF Christ’s person. 299 § II*] behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory. Now, from these accounts we learn, first, with regard to our Lord, that both His person and His raiment were bright and shining; and secondly, with regard to JMoses and Elijah, that they too were in glory, that is, were in a glorified state, being distinguished by a visible splendour after the fashion of their Lord. The terms and expressions used in reference to Christ and His raiment, convey the idea of exceeding splen¬ dour, His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was ivhite as the light,'^ white and glister¬ ing'' And it is admitted on all hands, that this event was designed to give us some idea of His glorified person, now that He is at the right hand of the Father, and also when He shall come again to judge the quick and the dead, and to enter upon His king¬ dom. It forms, I conceive, only an illustration; more than this, however, was at that time impossible, seeincc that other things would not admit of more; and for the same reason (as was remarked by the author of the treatise on “ The Hope of the Faithful ’), the visible glory was not exhibited by Him after His resurrection, because incompatible with the circum- 300 PHYSICO-rKOPUETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. stances of the time, and because it was necessary that he should continue to hold intercourse with His disciples until His ascension into heaven, in order that He might teach them the things that remained, ‘‘pertaining to the kingdom of God.” (Acts i. 3.) But we have reason to believe, that no sooner had He left the earth and entered heaven, than he assumed that glory which he will retain for evermore. This may be inferred, as from other things, so from the fact that when He appeared to Saul of Tarsus, when on the road to Damascus, “ a light above the bright¬ ness of the sunf shone round about the future Apostle, and those who journeyed with Him. (Acts xxvi. 13.) And in the description of His person given us in the first chapter of the Apocalypse; which, however, it must be remarked, is at least partly figurative or symbolical, which is not the case with the passage just given from the Acts; we read, “And His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength’’' (ver. 16), which exactly agrees with St, Matthew’s description of His appearance on the Mount: “ His face did shine as the sun." All these passages, therefore, when taken together, serve to throw mutual light upon each other, and they are, I conceive, all HIS RAIMENT. 301 § «•] calculated to show us, that the glorified person of our Eedeemer will undoubtedly be distinguished by a visible glory. And seeing that, when He appears. He will “ change our vile body, that it might be fashioned like unto His glorious or glorified body,” (tw ( x 6 ^laTi TVS Hvs airov) it follows that our persons also will be distinguished in like manner; though, as we shall hereafter endeavour to show, in all probability in a far inferior degree. Moses and Elias « appeared in glory,” as well as Jesus, but it is only of His appearance that we have particulars afforded us, as if to show that, so great was His splendour, theirs might not be compared with it. Nor must we here fail to notice another point of identity or likeness between the personal aspect of the Eedeemer at this time, and what we have reason to believe will be that of His glorified saints here¬ after. We have seen that not only His countenance, but His “ raiment ” also was white and glistering, (XsvKos s^aa-rpdiTTcov). Now there is, I conceive, every reason to think that such will also be the case with that of His saints, to whom He has expressly made the promise that they too shall be “ clothed %n white raimenty “He that overcometh, the same shall be 302 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay HI. clothed in white TcdmenV (Eev. iii. 5.)^ We are not, indeed, expressly told that their raiment will, like that of their Lord, be “ shining as well as “ white, but as much may, I think, be fairly inferred from a comparison of the different parts of the sub¬ ject ; and also from the fact (which we shall presently have to notice again) that, whereas in two or three cases in which reference is made to the Angels who appeared at the time of Christ’s resurrection, and again at His ascension, we are simply told they were clothed “ in white; ” ^ in others we read that they were arrayed in “shining^ garments;” the brilliancy or splendour not being specified in the former cases, but, as we learn from the latter, is to be understood. Again, it is true, that we are told, “ the fine linen is the righteousness of Saints ” (Eev. xix 8), i. e. is emblematic of it; but, as has been already shown in reference to the brightness of the body (p. 293) this does not prove that the raiment will not at the same time be real and literal; on the contrary, its reality and its brightness are absolutely essential to its being, * See farther, Eev. iv. 4; vi. 11; vii. 9; xix. 8, 14. * “ In white," Alark xvi. 5; John xx. 12 ; Acts i. 10. ® “ In shining garments,” — dcrpa-irrovaais, —Luke xxiv. 4, the same word that is used by him (cli. ix. 29) in reference to the raiment of Christ, there rendered “glistering.” CONDITION OF ANGELS. 303 § n-] what we believe it certainly will be, a visible emblem througbout eternity of that ‘‘righteousness” which they will have secured through faith in the Son of Giod (Phil. iii. 9); while the degree of the splendour, which will vary, will in all probability mark the degree of the reivard. We may, therefore, thus see, I conceive, in what sense we are to understand those beautiful words of the prophet: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lokd, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” (Isai. Ixi. 10.) 3. It is in harmony with what we knoiu respect¬ ing the condition of the holy Angels, the future com¬ panions of the Saints. I beg it may be distinctly understood, that all I affirm here is, that the view I am maintaining is in harmony, so to speak, with what we know of the angelic state ; and, farther, that this is not adduced as proof, but simply to corroborate what was before supported by direct proof; to show, in short, that, if it be true of Angels that they have been seen distinguished by a visible glory, there can be no 304 PHTSICO-rROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. valid reason why the glorified Saints should not be distinguished in like manner. It will soon be shown, indeed, that the two parties will hereafter be directly associated together, and this affords a still farther ground for believing in a probable similarity in their condition. But apart from this, it is satisfactory to know that actual cases of the kind, such as are ex¬ pected hereafter, have already occurred. This, I say, removes all ground of assumption against their future occurrence. It proves that there is nothing un¬ natural, or improbable, or so marvellous as to be incredible, in the idea of glorified Saints being distinguished by a brightness of person. Angels are so, and have been seen to be so, and why should not the saints be honoured in the same way? We are not indeed expressly told that we shall be made like unto the Angels, as we are that we shall be made like to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and it must not be supposed that I am proceeding on any such assumption; all I am anxious to show is simply this, that we have reason to believe, from the testimony of Scripture, that the Saints will hereafter be distinguished by a visible brightness, and that this is in harmony with what is revealed to us respecting CONDITION OF ANGELS. 305 § II-] the actual state of Angels, as well as with regard to that of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Head of the Church. It has already been shown that some at least of the angelic host, who have been seen on earth, were bright and shining in their aspect ^; and it has also been pointed out that the same was in all probability true of others with regard to whom it is simply said that they were clothed “ in white.” But there is an¬ other case which has not yet been referred to, but which now must be noticed, that, namely, of the mighty angel who rolled back the stone from the se¬ pulchre of the Saviour, and whose appearance is thus described by St. Matthew : — “ And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the Angel of the Lord de¬ scended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His counten¬ ance was like lightning, and his raifment white as snow.” (Matt, xxviii. 2—3.) There is something ad¬ ditional here, it will be observed, to what was given ‘ It may be well to notice the following in connection with the cases already quoted, and with those about to be so;— “ And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great pov ei, and the earth was lightened with his glory!' Rev. xviii. L ’ behold, the Angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined tn thi jyrison." Acts xii. 7. X 306 PHTSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. in the other cases recorded. Here the 'person'^ of the Angel is represented as bright and luminous, as well as the raiment, while in all the other cases the raiment alone was said to be so. It may be farther observed that, as in the case of our Lord, so here also, the brightness of the countenance exceeded that of the raiment. “ His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment ivhite as ‘snoiv'"’ So with regard to our Lord, “ His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light." (Matt. xvii. 2.) Now it must not be forgotten, that in all these cases we have actual examples of a visible glory dis¬ tinguishing the person; and that, moreover, we are not dealing with accounts which are of a figurative or ’ There is a case recorded in the Old Testament 'VYhieh should he compared with this, namely, that of the Angel who appeared to the wife of Alanoah. In relating the matter to her husband, we find her saying; “ A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an Angel of God, very terrible!'’ (Judg. xiii. 6.) It is not expressly said that his face shone, and was thus “temble,” or a^\Tul to behold,—just as the Israelites felt that that of Aloses was when he came down from the Alount; we cannot howeA-er but infer this from Avhat we know of other cases. On comparing this, for instance, with that of the Angel who rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre, whose “ countenance was like lightning," we must feel that, in all proba¬ bility, we are to understand that in both cases the face shone AAdth a visible splendour. And if the case of Stephen, Avhen before the Council, be compared AA-ith these two, thus compared with each other, no doubt, I think, can remain as to whether his face, too, was not distinguished by the same, or a similar supernatimal brightness. We are told that, “ All that sat in the Council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel" (Acts vi. 15.) ANGELS AND SAINTS ASSOCIATED. 307 § ii-] allegorical character, but with pure history, the his¬ tory of real and actual facts, which were witnessed by living men. If then such things have been already, why scruple to believe that they may occur again ? Or why, if we believe them in reference to Angels, should we think it incredible that similar things should be true heieafter of glorified men? W^e are expressly told that, in some respects at least, they will be ‘‘equal to the Angels. (Luke xx. 36.) Why think it strange that in others they should be like them ? And then, as already intimated, it must be borne in mind, that Angels and glorified Saints will hereafter be associated together. This forms no proof, indeed, that they must mutually resemble each other in the brio’ht- ness of their persons, but it certainly gives increased probability to it, and tends to corroborate the view which has been taken of the whole subject. When we reflect that the Angels, and the glorified Saints, and their divine and glorified Head will be all asso¬ ciated together, and that they will, as now shown, be alike distinguished by a visible glory, we cannot but feel that the whole subject is in keeping, one part being in harmony with another. How glorious, then, the company that will then appear I Surely, ‘‘ eye 308 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. hath not seen, nor heart conceived ” the transcendant glories of that assembly ! That the Angels and Saints will, in some way, be associated together, is, I conceive, certain. In the first place, we know that they will both accompany our Lord at His coming. “The Son of man shall—come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy Angels.” (Luke ix. 26.) “ Them which sleep in Jesus will Grod bring with Him.” (1 Thess. iv. 14.) But it would also seem clear that the companionship will be permanent, for this is held out as one of the ob¬ jects of hope to the believing church: “Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com¬ pany of Angels^ (Heh. xii. 22.) To explain this of any thing hut 'the future is absurd. “ The heavenly Jerusalem ” is not yet set up, and though we are al¬ ready come to the ministrations of Angels, — for “ are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”—we are not come into open and personal fellowship with them, which yet is the thing evidently contemplated in the above passage. But the truth is, they will be the attendants of our Lord while on His throne and in § n.] ANGELS AND SAINTS ASSOCIATED. 309 His kingdom, and we shall behold them as such, doin^ honour to His person, and engaged in performing the high behests of His will, and that of the Father, and thus maintaining a continued and visible communica¬ tion, apparently, between earth and heaven. This would certainly seem to be the meaning of our Lord’s words, when He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you. Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” (John i. 51.) I purposely avoid doing more than thus briefly introducing this subject, for it is one on which we know so very little that to attempt to go into detail would certainly lead into error. I would, therefore, merely add that the connection which I have supposed as about to be maintained hereafter between the glorified Saints and the Angels will be farther seen in Eev. v. 7 —14, with which, perhaps, Dan. vii. 9, 10 should be borne in mind, though by no means directly related to it; and farther, that it would seem to be in¬ volved to some extent in every such passage as the following: “ Also I say unto you, whosoever shall con¬ fess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess hefore the Angels of God; but he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the Angels of 310 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. Godr (Luke xii. 8, 9.) We know that one of the parties here spoken of, those, namely, from among men will be visible at the time: it follows that the other party, the Angels, namely, will be so too.^ 4. It is still farther in liamiony ivith ivhat is re¬ vealed respecting the amount of light whieh ivill pre¬ vail hereafter. I must here again repeat a similar remark to one I made before, namely, that there is no such necessary connection between the brightness of the saints’ persons, and the truth about to be propounded, as that if the one be true the other must likewise be so. On the contrary, the one may be correct and the * I have often tlionglit that some of the lofty imaginings of Milton may help ns in forming some slight conception of what shall be realized and seen by us hereafter. Possibly we may find that there has been more actual truth in them than has been generally supposed. But look, for instance, at his description of the form and aspect of the Angel Baphael, his departure on his mission to earth, and the effect produced by his presence, as he approaches Adam and Eve in the garden;— “ So spake the Eternal Father, and fulfill’d All justice: nor delay’d the winged saint After his charge received ; but from among Thousand celestial ardours, where he stood ’\'’eil’d with his gorgeous mngs, up springing light. Flew through the midst of heaven.” Par. Lost, B. v. 246. “ Haste hither. Eve, and worth thy sight behold, Eastward among those trees, what glorious shape Comes this way moving; seems another morn Eisen on mid-noon; some great behest from Heaven To us perhaps he brings, and will vouchsafe This day to be our guest.” Ibid. 308. §11.] INCREASE OF LIGHT. 311 Other not so; but supposing them to be both true, it will be readily seen that they are in keeping one with the other, and that there is a kind of natural con¬ nection between them. What I am now about to show is this; that the amount of physical light WHICH WILL PREVAIL HEREAFTER WILL BE MUCH GREATER THAN THAT WHICH PREVAILS AT PRESENT. If this will be the case then there is what may be called a natural con¬ nection, or afl&nity between it and the future condition of the saints’ persons. The two subjects are in harmony. They have both reference to the same thing, namely, the element of light. They alike prepare us to expect a new state of things which will be marked by a peculiar feature or character to which they are both related. I need scarcely remark that the subject is one of pure evidence. It must be decided solely by the testimony of Scripture. The question of probability must not be allowed to interfere with it, nor to intrude itself in any way. We are not in a position to judge of its pro¬ bability; we must take the evidence supplied by the word of Grod, and adopt whatever that would seem to teach us. The result may seem very wonderful, but that forms no reason why it should not be true. X 4 312 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. It is the besetting sin of our minds to be ever ready to make our present experience and knowledge the standard of what is probable and possible, and it re¬ quires no small amount of philosophic schooling and care to correct it. But the advance of knowledge ougrht to do this for us. Things not dreamt of in o o the earlier philosophies are now familiar truths. It is surely high time that Ave should be prepared to believe and expect anything which is not absolutely impossible. If it can be shown that the Scriptures clearly jioint to a certain state of things as about to prevail hereafter, then we must look forward to it, however wonderful it may seem, as sure to be accom¬ plished in its time. Their disclosures on the subject before us relate, it must be remembered, to a time when the general standard will be immensely in ad¬ vance of the present. It is not in one respect only, but in all, apparently, that “ eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived ” what will then be realized. 3Iuch has been said throughout these Essays about the future inheeitance of God's people, — the following expression used in reference to it is of the greatest significancy and importance: “ The inheritance of the NATUEE OF. 313 §IIJ saints in light."^ What “ light ” are we to imderstand— spiritual, or physical light ? That the ‘‘ saints will enjoy a great amount of spiritual light or knowledge hereafter, is certain; hut that surely is not the only thing referred to here, though it may be, and doubtless is, included. But if it were the only thing referred to, the phrase would not be what it is. The expression is evidently used in reference to the con¬ dition of the inheritance in which the saints will he found, not in reference to the amount of know¬ ledge which they will possess. It has regard to the * “ Gmng thanks niito the Father, which hath made us meet to he 'partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Col. i. 12. It is only at fii'st sight that the next verse, in which we read of “being delivered from the power of darkness'' will seem to be opposed to the literal interpretation of the term “light” in this. That “darkness” is frequently used in a figurative sense, e. g. for sin and error, there can be no doubt; but most will be prep:u’od to admit that, in such passages as the following, some of which refer to the same “p)ower," though these things (sin and error) may be embraced, yet that something more is certainly meant: “For if God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to heU, and delivered them into chahis of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” 2 Pet. ii. 4. Comp. Jude 6 : “In everlasting chains xinder darkness " (inrh ^6(po ).—“ To whom is reserved the black¬ ness of darkness for ever." Vei’. 13. But I have no doubt whatever, that both spiritual and physical light are embraced by this text (Col. i. 12), and so, prol}ably, all will be pre¬ pared to allow, whether they hold that heaven is the locality referred to, or earth; and whether they believe that the words relate to the condi¬ tion of glorified saints now in heaven, or to their state at the coming of the Lord. The only difference between my treatment of the passage and theirs consists in this, that, while they clweU chiefly on the spiritual view of it, I, on tlie contrary, dwell almost entu’ely on the physical. They, in a word. Anew it from a spiritual, and I from a physical stand¬ point. This, it will be remembered, is rendered necessary by the design of my AA'ork. 314 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. glorious and transcendant character of that inheritance, and is intended to point out the privilege which they will enjoy in being made partakers in it. It shows what will he its great distinguishing feature, namely, that it will, like their own persons, he marked hy abounding light. If the phrase stood alone we might hesitate in attributing such a meaning as this to it; hut such is not the case ; there are others which convey, or involve, the same truth, and, when taken together, they compel us, I conceive, to admit that the future inheritance will certainly enjoy an amount of actual light which will vastly exceed that which prevails at jDresent. The following is one such passage: — ‘‘ Moreover the light of the moon shall he as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall he sevenfold h as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord hindeth up the h'each of His people, and healeth the stroke of their ivoimdi’ (Isai. xxx. 26.) Again the question recurs. On what principle are these words to he interpreted ? I confess, I see no other ' Tlie light then received by the earth from the sun -u-ill be verj' nearly that which is now received by the planet Mercmy. His light is about seven times greater than that of the earth.— Heeschel’s Astro- nomy, p. 277. WHAT MEANT BY. 315 § n-] alternative than to take them literally. It is custo¬ mary, we know, to regard the whole as an emble¬ matical prediction of spiritual blessings; ” and numbers are satisfied with the use of such an expression, without considering how far it really meets the case, and without attending to the grave and formidable objections which are ready to present themselves against such a mode of treating the passage. What, for instance, are we to understand by the “moon,” and what by the “sun”? Of wdiat are they symbols? It is ab¬ solutely necessary, if they be regarded as symbols, to give a distinct and separate meaning to each, or the passage is made ridicidous; yet none of our figurative interpreters, that I am acquainted with, attempt this, but content themselves in this, as in other similar cases, wdth culling one general idea from the verse, leaving its particular expressions unattended to, as if it were quite unnecessary to suppose that they 5vere designed to have any specific meaning. But anything more derogatory to the word of God cannot be conceived than such a course. No more fatal blow could be directed against its divine authority and plenary inspiration. It is, indeed, customary among those who favour the figurative principle of prophetic in- 316 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay TIL terpretation to regard the Sun as an emblem of the Church, or the ecclesiastical power in a State, and the Moon of the Civil power; but even supposing this be correct as a rule (which I altogether doubt), or to hold true in some cases (which I also question); yet it can scarcely be made to apply here, for on this supposition, or theoiy, what is that “ light,” enjoyed at present by the civil power, symbolised by the IMoon, which is hereafter to be increased until it reaches the amount at present enjoyed by the Church ?* I feel that nothing approaching to a satisfactory answer can be given to this question; and I confess, I cannot but regard such a mode of treating the subject as highly objectionable. I hold, therefore, that we are compelled to take this passage literally. And ivlty should we not do so ? What is there involved in such a conclusion that should make us hesitate in adopting it ? It is clear that, as in a multitude of other cases, so in this, we are deterred from taking the obviously right course through imaginary difficulties, conjured up by our present limited experience, and consequently contracted views. I confess, that it seems to me to be * The same or a similar question might be asked as to the meaning, on the same theory, of Isai. lx. 19, 20, and Jer. xxxi. 35, FEESH SOUECE OP LIGHT. 317 § II-] our obvious duty in the present case to take the pre¬ diction in a literal sense. Let this be done, and there is no difficulty in understanding it. It plainly declares that the amount of physical light hereafter will be vastly increased beyond what prevails at present. And this, it will be seen, is in perfect har- mony with that expression of St. Paul, before noticed, the inheritance of the saints in light.” The two passages, when thus viewed, alike point to one and the same thing, — to one and the same physical con¬ dition of the world, in reference to the element of Light. A FEESH SOUECE OF LiGHT. We now approach a subject which, to my own mind at least, is one of the most wonderful and extraordinary of any that form, the subject of prophecy in the word of God. It is therefore all the more necessary to approach it with care and caution, and to see that we do not allow our preconceived views to disturb our judgments, or deter us from embracing a truth which would seem to be clearly taught us in the word of God. It is when dealing with such subjects as are either new to us, or which exceed our present conception, that we need more jiarticularly to keep rigidly to the evidence 318 PIITSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. that should guide us, and be prepared to follow it wherever it would seem to lead us. What at first may seem so extraordinary as to appear incredible, may soon lose that character, or completely change its aspect. It would be folly in us to ask, with Nico- demus, How can these things be ? ” it is sufficient for us that Giod has revealed them, and He will in His own time and way accomplish His word. It is not my intention, however, to enter at any great length into the discussion of the subject before us, but rather to content myself with briefly introducing it, and arranging, to some slight extent, the Scriptural proofs which bear upon it. We have seen that there is reason to believe that the light emitted by the sun and moon will here¬ after be greatly increased; there is, I conceive, also reason to believe, that there will be a fresh source of light, and that it ivill far exceed in power that of the sun and moon, even in their cdtered condition. This is intimated, though only indirectly, in the followincf words: — ‘‘ Then the moon shcdl be con- founded, and the sun ashamed, when the Loud of Hosts shcdl reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, FRESH SOURCE OF LIGHT. f 319 § «•] and before His ancients gloriously'' (Isai. xxiv. 23.) Now we learn from other parts of Scripture, how and why it is that this will he the case; but here, it will ,be observed, the reason is not assigned, and the very fact that it should not be so is a circumstance to be carefully noticed. A great result is obscurely or in¬ directly alluded to, but its exact nature is not disclosed, and had we nothing more than this upon the subject there w^ould be great room to doubt as to what was precisely meant. But we turn to other passages, which yet would seem to have no direct connection with this, and, as will be immediately seen, we there find the key to the difficulty, the verani causam of the pre¬ dicted result. All this is calculated, I conceive, to show us the importance and magnitude of the subject which is thus slowly and gradually revealed, but which may be seen, from the glimpses afforded us, to be occupying the entire space behind the veil which now conceals its glory. The reason why the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion ” is plainly and directly given in the following words by the same prophet:— The sun shall he no more thy light by day, neither for bright- 320 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. ness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraiv itself: for the Lord ^ shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.’’^ (Isai. lx. 19, 20.) From this, therefore, we see that so transcendant will be the visible glory that will surround the person and throne of Emmanuel, that the brightness of both the sun and moon, though greatly increased from what they are at present, shall yet be eclipsed by it. Cen¬ turies elapsed from the days of Isaiah before the book of Eevelation was produced, but we turn to it and to its closing pages, which are occupied in bringing the glories of the New Jerusalem before us, and we find the same great fact revealed to us there also, though with that variety which marks all the disclosures of prophecy, what is now said being simply that the sun and the moon are “ not needed “ And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof'' (Eev. xxi. 23.) So again (ch. xxii. 5): And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither the light of the sun; CASE ALEEADY WITNESSED. 321 § «•] for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever.’’' ‘ Now there are two observations that I would make on this subject before leaving it. 1. In the first place it must be remarked, that a light, exceeding that of the ‘present sun (or of the sun in its present state) has been already luitnessed; and farther, that it was caused by that very Presence, that, namely, of the Son of Grod, the glory of which tvill, we are told, hereafter obscure by comparison even the brightness of the future sun. In St. Paul’s ac¬ count of his conversion before Agrippa we find him saying, “ At mid-day, 0 King, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed with me.” (Acts sxvi. 13.) The slightest word of Scripture is important, and is designed by the Holy Spirit to be so. A single word ^ in the present instance gives us * Without pretending to determine the exact meaning of the following passages with their contexts, or the time to which tliey primarily relate, we may yet see in them additional proofs or examples of the truth which has now been advanced, namely, that the Divine presence is accompanied by a visible glory, or brightness. Ezek. xliii. 1—2, and ch. x. 4. We cannot, I conceive, but see in the language used in these verses a conclusive proof that the Shekinah in the Temple of Solomon was an emb'em of the glory which will illumine the “city of God” hereafter. ^ The “light from heaven” was “above” the brightness of the sun, even at “ mid-day ” ! Y 322 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. all we need. It supplies us with a fact that bears upon the entire subject which has been occupying our attention, and the passage in which it occurs decides the question for us. We learn from it, that the presence of the Saviour is even now accompanied by a visible glory that transcends in splendour the greatest degree of brightness with which we are acquainted; and we can therefore readily conceive how, when He comes again in the full blaze and power of His glory, and sits in majesty on “ the throne of His glory,” how then, even the sevenfold light of the renewed sun shall be “ confounded and ashamed.” 2. In the next place, it must be remarked, that, wonderful as this may now appear to us, it is yet not more than may well be expected. For let us remember whose glory it is that will be so transcendant. It will be that of Him who, as a reward for His hu¬ miliation and sufferings while upon earth, is now placed at the right hand of glory in heaven ! Can any honour which will be bestowed on Him hereafter exceed that which He now enjoys, seated as He is on “ the Father’s throne,” the throne of the universe, “far above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but § n.] ONLY WHAT SHOULD BE EXPECTED. 328 also in that which is to come.” (Ephes. i. 21.) On the contrary, we ought assuredly to expect that, when He leaves His present exalted state. He will take to one that will in some way correspond to it in honour and glory. For this purpose we can understand why, with regard to this earth and all associated with it, it should be said by Him who sitteth upon the throne. Behold, I make all things new ! ” We should not marvel, if not only this eartb, but the system of which it forms a part, should be greatly raised, or advanced in their condition, relatively to the other orbs of heaven; if, e. g. the Sun, the great centre of the system, should be made to shine far brighter than before, in order to distinguish it among the myriads of its kind; nor if even the brightness of the great centre of the system should be eclipsed by that globe on which the Son of Grod will have accomplished the mission on which He was sent forth of His Father. When we remember what will have taken place on, and in connection with this earth ; when it is borne in niind that here the everlasting Son of God wrought out by His expiatory sufferings and active obedience the great work of man’s redemption; that here, consequently, will be the locality of His throne for ever, that He 324 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. may reign where before He was rejected and despised; should we wonder if, among the orbs of heaven, this one, in reference to which all this will be true, should shine transcendant far above all ? “ He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied ! ” § in ] POWERS OF RESURRECTION BODY. 325 § III. — ITS POWERS. The branch of our subject which now lies before us is one of great interest, but, alas ! it is one on which we have but little direct or decisive scriptural evidence to guide us. But here, as is usually the case, imagination has been active, where authority has been wanting. The most pleasing anticipations have been entertained as to what we shall be able to do and see hereafter, and the most delightful reveries have been indulged in on the same subject. The reins have been thrown on the neck of fancy, which has not failed to take a course that has been about as daring and unadvised as that of the youthful charioteer whose temerity and unhappy end have alike combined to make his name proverbial for these things. One error leads to another; and there can be no doubt but that to the erroneous and visionary notions which have so generally prevailed respecting the nature of the future body, is in a great measure to be attributed much of what has been put forth respecting its powers. Its materiality and true 326 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. physical character have been well-nigh lost sight of, and we can scarcely wonder, therefore, at what it has been supposed it will be capable of doing. Not even Ariel passed with greater facility from tree to flower, or roved at will through airy regions with speedier flight, than the glorified saint has been supposed to do from orb to orb, and from sphere to sphere, in order to visit other and distant worlds. Possibly something of this kind may really be done hereafter, but as yet no sufficient proof has been produced that such will be the case. Yet without proof, it is folly to proceed ; and if we venture into such an unknown region without a guide, we cannot do otherwise than expect to wander from the right path. With such a danger before us, the most pleasing anticipations, when not well sup¬ ported, should afford us but little pleasure, and how¬ ever delightful it may be to speculate on the future prospect, the inclination to do so should be restrained within at least very sober bounds. Some of the speculations, however, which have been indulged in have not been altogether without foundation, though sufficient care has not been taken to distin¬ guish between what has really been of this character and what has not, nor to keep strictly within the § III.] BODY RAISED IN POWER. 327 bounds marked out by that evidence on which alone we can rely; and hence even that which is true has been thrown into uncertainty through being associated with much that is in all probability erroneous. What we have to do is, to proceed with the greatest caution, and in our discussion of the subject to be careful to weigh well the real and exact import of the various passages of Scripture which can be brought to bear upon it. It will be my endeavour to state the case as fairly as possible, and to show where, as it seems to me, its boundaries lie at present. The statements made by St. Paul in 1 Cor. xv. re¬ specting the future body, must be again referred to. They have already done much for us, and they must do yet more. In reference, then, to the change that wall be wrought in the condition of the body we find him saying: “ It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is soivn in weakness, it is raised in power.” (Ver. 42, 43.) Not hy power, but in power {sv Svvdjjbsc); that i.s, in a state in which it will be endowed with great powers or capa¬ bilities. Of what kind they will be we are not told, nor is there anything here from which we can infer their nature. But that they will be great is readily 328 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. seen from the connection of this part of the subject with that which goes immediately before. The changes previously announced, viz. from “ corruption ” to “ in¬ corruption,” and from “ dishonour ” ’ to “ glory,” are great and essential, and to be in proportion with them, this must be the same. Thus far, therefore, we have sure ground on which to stand. But we have as yet no particulars, and it is when we come to these that our difficulties begin. Yet we are not Avithout some very important revelations on the subject, though they are but comparatively few in number, and they do not enable us to go into details upon it. Our knowledge still remains general and comparative only, not special. Though it is most difficult to define its boundaries, the bearing of the following Avords, spoken by our Lord, cannot but be felt to be very great and very important:— “ And Jesus answering said unto them. The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: but they Avhich shall be accounted Avorthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neithei' can they die any more: for they are equal uisito the angels { lo - ayysXoi ) ; and are the children of God, being the children of the re¬ surrection.” (Luke XX. 34—36.) That Ave have equality § III-] SAINTS EQUAL TO THE ANGELS. 329 Avith the angels announced here is certain, but to what extent remains a question. In another and kindred passage we have simply likeness of condition, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of Grod. For in the re¬ surrection they neither marry, nor are given in mar¬ riage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” {ws dyysXot). (Matt. xxii. 29, 30.) The great question to be considered in reference to the expression ladyysXot, “ equal to the angels,” is,—Whether it is to be confined to the particular case in reference to which it is used, namely freedom from death, or whether it is to be understood as announcing equality in all other respects. There are some who hold the latter opinion: I confess I cannot do so; for it seems to me to assume far more than the case will actually warrant. We should not think of arguing from the latter passage (Matt. xxii. 30), that the likeness there spoken of extends beyond the particular mentioned, and we should be careful, therefore, how we make the equality in the other do so; for the two subjects are evidently connected, and the two passages most probably form parts of one and the same conversation. Campbell renders the term ladyysXot, “angel-like.” According to Bloomfield “The 330 PHYSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. commentators are agreed that since ladyysXos is formed after the model of laoOsos, it should be rendered, not equal to the angels, but like unto the angels; (viz. in respect of immortality and the nature of their bodies) as in Matt. xxii. 30, 6)s ctyysXoL.” Some of our theo¬ logians, however, hold, as we shall presently see, that the term should be understood to mean equality gener¬ ally, or equality in all respects. Suppose this to be the case, let us see what follows. 1. “ The angels,” we are told, “ excel in strength ” (Ps. ciii. 20), and some of the cases in which their strength, or power, was exerted show how marvellously great it is; e. g. the angel who passed over Egypt slew, in one night, all the first-born in the land, so that ‘‘ there was not a house in which there were not some dead.” “The angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thou¬ sand.” Kings xix. 35.) Another angel, sent to execute the Divine wrath against the Israelites when David num¬ bered the people, destroyed, by means of “ pestilence,” seventy thousand of the people. Other instances show how marvellous are their capabilities, so to speak; e. g. the angel that appeared to Manoah and his wife “ did wondrously; for it came to pass, when the flame WHAT IMPLIED HY IT. 331 § ni.] went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the Lokd ascended in the flame of the altar.” (Judg. xiii. 19, 20.) The angel who delivered Peter out of prison appeared at his side, though the prison doors were all closed, and the keepers before the door kept the prison. He smote Peter on the side, and his «chains fell off from his hands.” They went out to¬ gether, and «the iron gate that led into the city opened to them of its own accord.” (Acts xii. 7—10.) Now, will glorified saints be clothed with such powers as these and other similar instances imply? In the absence of direct proof upon the subject, we may remark, that it seems scarcely probable that they will, and for this reason,—such things seem utterly inconsistent with the nature and condition of man, as a being having a material structure, subject to physical laws, and every way fitted for inhabiting a world like this, however advanced and exalted may be his and its condition. The mere probability of the case, however, must not be regarded as conclusive proof upon the subject, if indeed it be admitted as any proof at all; for, as we have had again and again to remark, we can never depend on any reasoning of the kind, nor are we ever in a condition to determine with certainty what is. 332 PHTSICO-PKOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. or what is not probable or likely to occur; and when, therefore, we have not direct authority to guide us we must be content to remain in doubt; though at such times we can scarcely do otherwise than be influenced in some measure, by the conditions of the question and by the inferences that are fairly deducible from them. 2. Again,— The angels can pass from heaven to earth, and that too with incredible speed. Will glori¬ fied saints be able to do so? Daniel was engaged in prayer in behalf of himself and people, and the angel Gabriel was sent to communicate to him the Divine will. But the record of the event seems to imply that he must have left heaven after the prayer of the prophet had commenced, and yet reached him before it was terminated, and if this was the case, with what incon¬ ceivable swiftness must he have flown on his errand ! (Dan. ix. 20, 21.) But that the angelic host have the power to pass from heaven to earth, and therefore from sphere to sphere, is certain, and is of course proved by every instance in which any one of them has visited this globe. Seeing, then, that we are expressly told that the glorified saints, “those who shall be ac¬ counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resur¬ rection from the dead,” shall be “ equal unto the § III-] POWERS OF ANGELS. 333 angels,” it certainly becomes a most interesting sub¬ ject of inquiry, whether they will possess this power, and so be able to leave this world and to visit at will the other orbs of heaven. Many have been the specu¬ lations that have been made upon it, and that too, not by divines only, but by philosophers also, some of whom, both philosophers and divines, have taken the affirmative side of the question, and have speculated accordingly. In very many cases, however, it will be found that this has been done without sufficient data on which to proceed, and not unfrequently with an entire forgetfulness of what will be the nature and properties of the resurrection body. The question, however, must be decided solely by the evidence of Scripture, and our views of it must be regulated by the measure of that evidence which can be brought to bear upon it. But this, as before observed, is but small. The passage in which it is affirmed that the saints will be equal unto the angels ” is by far the most important we have, and the bearing of even this upon the question is far from certain. Some of our most valued writers are of opinion that we may clearly infer from it that such a power as that we are consider- ing, the ability to pass, namely, from orb to orb, will 334 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. certainly be possessed hereafter. The author of that very valuable little work, The Lunar World^, has ex¬ pressed himself to this effect, and has quoted another able writer who takes the same view of the subject. He remarks, in an Appendix (H) :— “ That the word IcrdyysXoi, used in the latter passage (Luke XX. 36), should not be confined to the particular case referred to, is, I think, evident from the very nature of the expression. If man is to be ‘ equal to the angels,’ we must suppose an equality, not in one but in all particulars. This resemblance opens (with¬ out entering minutely into matters with which we are not acquainted) a glorious and happy prospect for man. Selecting only one of those powers which angels we know possess—that of rapid and boundless motion—what a deeply interesting thought is sug¬ gested ! The following passage, from Dr. Dwight’s ‘ Theo¬ logy,’ will best explain it: — “‘In Luke xx. 36, our Saviour declares that the righteous will, in the dvdaraaLs or future state of existence, be ladyjsXoi, ; literally, “ equal to the * The Lunar World, by the Eev. Josiah Crampton, A.M. Dublin, George Herbert. § in-j activity of angels. 335 angels;” but perhaps intended here to denote, “like the angels; ” that is, possessing in a near and kindred degree the attributes which they possess. Accordingly, in the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse, we are taught that the four-and-twenty elders, the representatives of the ancient and the modern churches, are placed round about the throne, together with the four living ones, the representatives of the angelic host. The resem¬ blance here exhibited is such as strongly to exemplify this declaration of Christ. Their station is substan¬ tially the same; their employments are the same. “ ‘ The activity of angels is disclosed to us by the Scriptures in many passages, and in language of the greatest force. The ninth chapter of Daniel particu¬ larly contains, as I observed in the first discourse concerning these glorious intelligences, a remarkable illustration of this subject. Here we are told, that Gabriel received a command in heaven, while Daniel was employed in prayer, to interpret his vision; and that “ being caused to fly swiftly, he touched Daniel about the time of the evening oblation.” The activity here declared is plainly superior both to conception and calculation; and exceeds that of the sunbeams beyond any proportion perceptible by our minds. Simi- 336 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. lar to this representation will be the activity of the righteous in the future world. “ ‘ To recur to the illustration adopted in the former part of this discourse. We are now, as we are styled in the Scriptures, worms of the dust: slowly and humbly creeping upon the earth, appointed for our habitation. With these reptiles we die, and are lost in the tomb. Like them also we shall revive to a new and nobler existence ! and wander freely at our pleasure through regions shut to us hitherto by an immovable law of our nature, and to our apprehension existing only in argument or fancy. “ ‘ To act is the end of all rational existence, and to act at pleasure the necessary concomitant of happy existence. Like Moses and Elias, if we obtain a part in the first resurrection, we may hereafter visit distant worlds with incomparably more ease than we can now pass from one continent to another; and find the oceans of space by which they are separated merely means of illustrating our activity, and furnishing de¬ lightful opportunities of expatiating at our pleasure.’”— Dwight’s “Theology,” Ser. clxv. p. 813. I have before observed that I am unable to take this view of the subject, and cannot but feel that more § III.] WILL THE SAINTS VISIT OTHER SPHERES. 337 is inferred from the passage in question than is really warranted. But we may compare it with another which has a direct bearing on the subject, and it will, I think, be seen that this second passage at least limits, if it does not determine, the meaning of the first. In St. Paul’s description of the Second Advent given in 1 Thess. iv., we find him saying (ver, 17), ‘‘Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up to¬ gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” From this we learn that the saints will, for once at least, really leave the earth, but we learn also that on this occasion, whatever they may do on others, they will not leave it by a power of their own, but by the power oe others. They will be caught up, (dpTrayyaoysda)^ which implies that they will not ascend of themselves. And this is rendered still more certain by the fact that we are taught elsewhere how, or by whose power, it is they will ascend. We are expressly told that the Angels will be employed by their Lord to raise or bear them up; And He shall send His Angels^ with a great sound of a trumpet; is the one used in Acts riii. 39; 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4; 2 With this agrees the command giren in Ps. 1. 5: “Gather m 7 j saints together unto me; those that hare made a covenant with me by Z 338 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matt, xxiv. 31.) Here, I repeat, we find the risen saints leaving the earth, hut it is not by a power of their own; and we cannot but infer from this that they tvill not have the jpoiver, or it would be exerted by them on this occasion. And if they have it not at this time, which will he subsequent to the resurrection, it must be assumed that they will not have it at an¬ other, or rather will not have it all. This passage, therefore, I conceive, determines the bearing of the other (Luke xx. 36) upon the subject, and well-nigh proves, if it does not quite do so, that the equality with the angels there foretold will not be general or universal. But there is another passage which, at first sight, seems to have a different bearing, and may be regarded as supporting the opposite view of the subject. It is the following: — “ Why sayest thou, 0 Jacob, and sacrifice.” It may be further observed that the angels ■will be employed in removing the wicked from the kingdom of onr Lord, as they -^1 in gathering the righteous together to Him. This appears from a com¬ parison of Matt. xiii. 30 with ver. 39. “ Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn, them ; but gather the wheat into my bam.” {N.B. the same “ reapers ” are to “gather” both the “tares” and the “wheat.”) — “The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” The soul of Lazarus was “ carried hy the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” Luke xvL 22. § III.] WILL THE SAINTS VISIT OTIIEH SPHERES. 339 speakest, 0 Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my Grod? Hast thou not knovvn, hast thou not heard, that the ever¬ lasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power'to the faint; and to them that have no might He in- creaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait u'pon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not he weary; and they shall ivalk and not fainV^ (Isai. xl. 27—31.) There are, perhaps, but few interpreters of Scripture who will take these words in any other than in a figurative or spiritual sense; and that they are designed to convey spiritual comfort and encouragement to those who may be ‘Sveary and faint in their minds,” whenever and wherever they may be found, I have not a shadow of doubt; but I should fear to affirm positively that they end here, and that they have no future reference, and may not yet have a literal fulfilment. For if spiritual faintness and weariness be alone meant, why, it may be asked, are “the youths” and “young men” intro- 340 PHTSICO-PROPnETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. duced ? for they are as subject to weariness of this nature as are those who are more advanced in life. And yet, unless we are consistent and treat the whole passage in the same way, we shall find this confusion in its metaphors— the bodily, or physical strength of even the young shall fail, but the spiritual strength of those who wait upon the Lord shall be renewed. But there can properly be neither comparison nor contrast between things 'that are of dissimilar natures. I con¬ fess, therefore, that, having regard to these reasons, I think there is room for doubt whether a spiritual sense is the only one which should be given to these words. It may, moreover, in this case be argued that they seem to promise more than is actually intended, or than will be done, and that they must therefore be taken with some reduction in the sense; but such, I believe, is never the case. Grod will exceed His pro¬ mises, but never fall short of them. It must be ad¬ mitted, however, that very much may be said on the other side, and many will doubtless argue that the passage is a purely figurative one, belonging to a large class in which we have very similar metaphors, and which must necessarily, or certainly, be interpreted figuratively and spiritually; e. g. “ He shall cover thee § III.] WILL THE SAINTS VISIT OTHER SPHERES. 341 with His feathers, mid under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler:' (Ps. xci. 4.) “ For thus said the Lord, Behold, He shall fly as an eagle, arvd shall spread His wings over Moab." (Jer. xlviii. 40.) Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. (Hab. i. 8.) “Ye have seen what I did nnto the Egyptians, and henv I bare you on eagles’ ivings, and brought you unto myself.” (Exod. xix. 4.) “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Ps. ciii. 5.) All these, and other similar passages, may, apparently, be fairly urged to show that the one in cpiestion is not designed to have any other than a spiritual sense, and that its expressions are figurative and poetical. But suppose, for the sake of argument, and in order to investigate the subject, we take the opposite view, and regard the passage as one that will yet receive a literal fulfilment — Whed will be the result f What, in this case, does it teach us? and how does it hear upon the question we are now considering, namely, the 342 PHTSICO-PEOPIIETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. power of glorified saints, and especially whether they will have the power to leave this earth and visit other spheres ? 1. In the first place, it proves that they certainly will mount up from the earth’s surface, but it does not determine by ivJiose 'power they will do this. It affirms that “ they shall mount up with wings as eagles,” but it leaves it an open question whose wings they will be, whether their own or those of others, and also what will be their nature, whether natural or artificial. But they will certainly not be their own, for they will have none, as is proved, among other things, by the person of their Lord, whose re¬ surrection body will be the type of theirs. The pas¬ sage simply affirms, therefore, that they shall mount up from the earth, and this, as we have already seen from 1 Thess. iv. 17, they will certainly do — once, at least; though it must be admitted that this passage, in whatever sense it be taken, would seem to speak of repeated action, rather than of such as may be exerted on some one particular occasion only, and hence that it would seem to require that the Saints shall mount up from the earth, not once merely, but from time to time continuously. But as to whether § in.] "WILL THE SAINTS VISIT OTHER SPHERES, 343 they will do this by their own power, or by that of others —by that of Angels namely —we must be guided in our views of this question rather by 1 Thess. iv. 17, which tells us they will be caught up,'' than by the passage before us, and for this reason — that ex¬ pressly indicates the mode, this does not; and while the meaning of this is doubtful, the meaning of that is not so. That, therefore, must be our guide, and not this. That must determine for us the meaning of this, not this the meaning of that, Incerta certis proban- tuT. To reverse this rule would be absurd. 2. In the next place, it must be remembered that all that is here affirmed, even assuming the literal view of the words, is that the Saints will, by some means or other, « mount up ” from the surface of the earth “like eagles;” but there is nothing to coun¬ tenance the idea that they will, therefore, be able to visit other spheres. To affirm this, or to make this inference, would be to exceed our authority, and, in effect, to “ add ” to the inspired record. 3. Lastly, it is affirmed in this passage that the exertion of running and walking will be performed without weariness. And, assuming this to be literal, it throws an exceedingly interesting light on the ex- PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay HI. pression of the Apostle, when he tells us that, whereas tte body is <‘so™ in weakness,” it shall be “raised m FOWElt:’ It serves to show us that, in one respect at least, there will be the following result, tAe remrrecfion body will be superior to loeariness and fatigue, which, again, seems to imply that there will not be the exhaustion of the corporeal system that there is at present. And here it may be well to compare, with what may be done hereafter, cases of a similar nature ^ohich have occurreel already. It is always important to do this when we can. To begin, therefore, with the last-fhat, namely, of the Saints running and walking without weariness- we find that something of this kind has been already done. Elijah, for instance, went for “forty days and foHy nights unto Horeb, the Mount of God,” in the strength of the single meal of food supplied him by the Angel. (1 Kings xix. 8.) In this case there could not have been the exhaustion of the system that is usually caused by the exertion of travelling, or the journey would not have been continued for so long a time as -forty days and forty nights” continuously'; and the fact that it was so continued shows that there § lll.J WILL THE SAINTS VISIT OTHEE SPHEKES. 345 could not have been the weariness that is ordinarily experienced from such exertion. Yet Elijah was now in the flesh and unchanged; and if, therefore, this could be done by him at this time, through the strength afforded him for the purpose, how readily may we understand that the risen Saints will be able to do so in what may be regarded as their normal state. They will have been raised “ in power,"' and one proof of this may be that ‘Hhey will rnn and not he iveary, and ivalh and not faint! Then, looking, in the next place, to what is usually termed “ the rapture of the Saints, i. e., their being “ caught up to meet the Lord in the air, which I must now assume will be accomplished, as already proved, not by their own power, but by that of Angels, looking, I say, to their ascent from earth, whether for once only, viz. at the Second Advent, or frequently. > It is wonderful what may be, and is done even now, in exertion, simply by the use of natural means A case ^ fessor J F. W. Johnston, in his “ Chemistry of Common Life, of a man who, without food of any kind, and '''i^l^out any other sustenance th that afforded by the coca leaf, the narcotic of «ie e , ^ he chewed every two or three hours, was employedin very htous dig ging” for five successive days, taking only two hours^ sleep each uigM and who, when this task was_finished, accompanied his e“P%eL » was on his mule, a two days’ journey of twenty-three leag omount level heights. He was willing, moreover, to undertake same amo of work, without food, if but allowed a sufficient supply of coca X this man was sixty-two years of age. — See Chcrmstry of om f, vol. ii. ch. XX. p. 151. 346 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. from time to time afterwards, we may compare with this certain cases of removal, or translation, which have already occurred. We learn that there have been several, and they are well fitted to prepare the mind for the consideration of those which will take place hereafter. Enoch, then, was removed from earth, though we are not told how; but the entire man, body and soul, was taken up to Grod, whether in a changed or unchanged state does not appear. Elijah also was taken away from the earth and carried up to heaven, and in his case we know the mode in which this was done. He ascended in “ a chariot and horses of fire.” This was the appearance which the instru¬ mentality employed assumed, but the probability is that the power was that of Angels. Philip was re¬ moved suddenly, not from earth to heaven, but from one locality on earth to another, being snatched away while conversing with the Ethiopian eunuch, and was afterwards found at Azotus.” In this case it was the Holy Spirit who conveyed the person away; for we are told that,—“ when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up ^ Philip, that * “ Caught up ” (TjpTTaa-f), the word used in 1 Thess. iv. 17. § in.] WILL THE SAINTS YISIT OTHER SPHERES. 347 the eunuch saw him no more.” (Acts viii. 39.) In this case the person removed was still in the flesh and unchanged, as we have reason to believe, in every respect. Such also was the case with Ezekiel ; though whether he was ever really translated in body from one place to another, or only in vision, does not in all cases certainly appear. “ Whether in the body or out of the body” it is hard to tell.’ But on several occasions he tells us that he was translated, and in each case he says “ the Spirit ” removed him. He was ‘‘by the river of Chebar” (ch. i. 1), when, having received a command to go and speak to the Israelites, “ Then,” he says, “ the Spirit took me up ” (ch. iii. 12); and again, “ so the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away.” (Ter. 14.) Again, on another occasion: “And He put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the Spjirit lifted me up be¬ tween the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem.” (Ch. viii. 3.) * The case of St. Paul being “ caught up to the third heaven ” (2 Cor. xii. 2—4), might be added to the list, but is, like that of Ezekiel, doubt¬ ful as to the actual translation of the body. We cannot aflu-m that he was not so translated, for he could not himself do this. But could we but assume that he was so removed, his case would have a most impor¬ tant bearing on the question as regards the future. As it is, even, the bare fact that he should have felt that he might have been caught up in body should not be passed over. It shows what he deemed possible even under the present condition of things. 348 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. These cases are exceedingly important in connection with the subject under consideration, serving, as they do, to show us that what we look forward to has, under other forms and conditions, already taken place; and they thus enable us to realize the future far better than we otherwise could, and perhaps to understand it better. In each case, it will be observed, the trans¬ lation was effected hy other 'power than man's. This was to be expected, of course, in these instances, but it would also seem to point significantly to the future, and certainly the whole weight of Scripture evidence is in favour of that view which these several cases countenance. There is yet another direction in which it is neces¬ sary to follow up this question of the powers of the resurrection body, and another light in which it is desirable to examine it. We have already had to notice more than once the great truth that the resur¬ rection body of the believer in Christ will be made like unto that of his Lord, according to that oft-quoted saying of St. Paul,— ‘‘ Who shall change oar vile body, that it might he fashioned like unto His glorious hody^ according to the luorking whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." (Phil. iii. SAINTS VISIT OTHER SPHERES. 349 § III.] WILL THE 21.) Now, after His resurrectioa from tlie dead, our Lord wasknowu to do, among other things, the follow¬ ingHe appeared suddenly among His disciples though the doors were shut where they were assembled together. (John xx. 19.) WTiile conversing with the tw°o disciples whom He met on the road to Emmaus, and after He had made Himself known to them in breaking of bread, He suddenly vanished out of their sight. (Luke xxiv. 31.)' When the time was come that He should be taken up to the Father, He ascended to heaven in a cloud in the sight of His disciples. (Acts i. 9.) Seeing, then, that the glorified Saint will be made like his glorified Lord, it becomes an important sub¬ ject of inquiry whether he will have the power to do such things as these. At first sight it might seem a legitimate inference that he will, and some, I believe, make this inference and rely upon its accuracy. But there are two considerations which militate seriously against it. In the first place, it is not said by St. Paul that we shall have the same poivm as our glorified Lord, ' cicrbs &(pa.VT0S 'yhero dir' auTuiv. He became invisible to them. 350 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. but that our bodies shall be made to resemble His — ‘‘ our vile bodies shall be fashioned like unto (avjx- fiop(f)ov) His glorified body;” i. e. (as I understand it), shall be made to bear the same aspect, and shall, like His, be no longer subject to death; not that we our¬ selves shall in all respects be clothed with the same powers as our Lord, for many of those which He will exercise will be in virtue, not of the powers of His body, but of His Divine nature. There is, therefore, necessarily a limit in the resemblance which will cer¬ tainly not be passed, and this may at once show how unsafe and illogical it is to argue a general or universal analogy between us and Him, because we are told that there will be a partial one. In the next place, it seems to be but right to regard the things we have specified as having been done by our Lord on earth after His resurrection; e. g., His suddenly appearing among His disciples, in one case, and His vanishing out of their sight, in another, as extraordinary, or in other words, as rendered necessary by the circumstances of the time, and as done in virtue of His miraculous or Divine power, and therefore not as examples of what our bodies shall be capable of doing. Before His death, and therefore while in His § III.] WILL THE SAINTS VISIT OTHER SPHERES. 351 mortal body. He walked upon the sea, but this aflforded no proof that lue can do so at present. This was not a normal act of His then condition, like His eating, and walking, and speaking, but was an extraordinary one, performed for a special purpose. So, I conceive, were those to which we have referred as having been done by Him after He ’rose from the dead. To the question, therefore, whether we shall here¬ after, when in a glorified state, have the power to move from sphere to sphere, and to visit other worlds at pleasure, I feel bound to answer in the negative. That we shall not be able to do so by any power of which we shall ourselves be possessed, I feel fully per¬ suaded, and think it but possible that we shall do so by that of others. If we except Isai. xl. 31, there is but one passage, i. e. 1 Thess. iv. 17, which tells us that we shall leave the earth at all, and that only speaks of our doing so on a particular and signal occasion, viz. at the Advent of the Lord, when there must necessarily be a gathering of His people both from heaven and from earth (Ephes. i. 10); and even then, it must be remembered, those of them who will be on earth at the time and will have to meet Him in 352 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay III. the air, will be “ caught” or conveyed up, and will not ascend of themselves. In addition to the above, we may remark, though rather by way of probable corroboration than of proof, that the negative of the question, — viz. whether we shall be able to visit other worlds than our own,—seems to receive support from the fact that, so far as we have reason to believe. Our Lord ivill not leave this earth after He has once taken ^possession of the “ throne of His glory; ” and this would seem to render it probable that neither will His people do so; for “ where He is, there they shall be also.” Such, as it seems to me, is the state of the case as determined by Scripture, so far as its testimony can be brought to hear iqDon it. That testimony certainly stops short of the affirmative of the question. It does not lead us to expect that we shall by any means be able to extend our range of motion to other spheres, though there is nothing in it which is absolutely opposed to such a supposition, but the weight of jiroof seems to lie against its probability. If it were safe, which it is not', to go a single step ' In reference to every attempt of the kind, such words as the fol¬ lowing sound ominously in the ear: “ And the word of the Loud came § III.] PROBAEILITY OF THE CASE. 353 beyond where Scripture leads us, and to speculate on other grounds as to what may possibly be done by us hereafter, the following consideration might be urared: — It has long been felt, that when a desire or sentiment is found to be so very deeply and generally experienced by man as to render it probable that it has been implanted in his nature by his Creator, that, in this case, the very existence of the sentiment is a proof of its correctness, and a pledge that the desire will be eventually gratified. Thus, it has been very generally regarded, that that “ fond desire,” that “ longing after immortality ” which is common to man, is a proof that he was designed to live in another and a future state. Nothing, it is true, so strong and general as this can be affirmed of that desire to know, if not to visit, other spheres which is experienced by those who have re¬ flected on the subject while gazing on the heavens with that reverential awe which is necessarily excited by the thought that they are studded with innumerable worlds, all doubtless differing in some respects from our own; unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that proj)hesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts. Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God, Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! ” Ezek. xiii. 1—3. A A 354 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay 111. but it must be admitted that this feeling or desire is very strong indeed, and in its power is perhaps second only to the other, to which reference has just been made, and which is of itself admitted to be some proof of its own correctness. Is, then, the existence of this sentiment of inquiring curiosity to be regarded as any proof that opportunities will be afforded hereafter for its gratification ? And should such be the case, will the desire be gratified through means of our vastly- increased knowledge, when “ we shall know even as we are known,” or by actual inspection, and by our being permitted to visit those worlds which, from some cause or other, may have especially attracted our attention, or excited our curiosity? It may be that an indul¬ gence of the latter kind, even, may be afforded to us hereafter, as a similar one is now in reference to localities which are clothed with peculiar interest to our minds. But all this, be it remembered, is purely speculative, and being destitute of the proof that is necessary to make it safe, can in no degree be relied on, but may hereafter be found to be altogether desti¬ tute of any foundation in truth Still, it is not improbable, that reasoning of the kind will continue to be regarded as affording evidence in § in-] REFLECTIONS ON. 355 favour of the affirmative of the question to which it relates. The feeling in favour of that view is, as before observed, very strong, and the probability is that it will continue to produce various speculations on the future, as it has hitherto done. It has given rise to reflections which may be justly termed very beautiful, and which only need the element of cer¬ tainty to make them as valuable as they are pleasing and delightful. We should rejoice if we could but be assured that they were true.^ ' See, e. g., “ The Lunar World,” ch. Tin., and “ Physdeal Theory of Another Life,” by the author of “ Natui’al History of Enthusiasm.” Ch. XT. V A A 2 ESSAY IV, THE MUTUAL RECOGNITION OF GLORIFIED SAINTS. the mutual recognition of glorified SAINTS. § I. CAUSES OF EXISTING UNCERTAINTY. § 11. —TRUTH OF THE DOCTRINE DETERMINED FROM SCRIPTURE. §111. —ITS CONSISTENCY WITH THE CONDITIONS OF THE QUESTION. Essay IV.] FUTURE RECOGNITION. 359 ESSAY IV. THE MUTUAL KECOGNITION OF GLORIFIED SAINTS. We now approach the consideration of a subject on which, unlike the last, there undoubtedly prevails a very general agreement among divines ; and this, moreover, seems to have been the case from the earliest periods of the Christian Church, when it was certainly believed that the Saints will mutually re¬ cognize each other in glory: and it is well known how many of our most able divines in more modern days have held and taught the same, sometimes assuming the affirmative of the question as undoubted, at others supporting it with arguments more or less cogent and convincing. A'et is it an undoubted fact that they have failed to communicate, by means of this truth, a corresponding comfort to the Church. The doctrine is highly calcu- A A 4 360 PHYSICO-PKOPnETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. lated to administer a large amount of consolation and comfort — few, indeed, more so, — for it is exactly- suited to meet that strong natural yearning for re¬ union which is always experienced when beloved ones are removed, and those who love them are left behind. Never, perhaps, does a case of the kind occur — and the occurrence is daily — but this takes place. It is an ever-recurring fact. It is scarcely possible, there¬ fore, to estimate too highly the importance of the subject, or the necessity there is that it should be placed on a right and firm foundation, and that, should there be any doubts still resting upon it, and those doubts be really unfounded, then that they should be removed. But that the subject has never yet been placed in this condition, notwithstanding all that has been said upon it, and that divines have, in a great measiue, failed in making it that channel for comfort which it would seem to be so highly calculated for, is, I think, undeniable. Numerous facts may be appealed to in proof of this. Not only is there a wide-spread feeling of doubt upon the subject, and, in many minds, an absence of anything like that assurance which alone can fully support the heart in its hour Essay IV.] DOUBTS ON THE SUBJECT. 361 of sorrow, but we constantly bear the question dis¬ tinctly put — “ What think you — shall we know each other hereafter ? ” or, ‘‘ in heaven ? ” as the case may be. Now, if the subject had been really set at rest, or if it had been very generally treated in a satisfactory way, and supported by sufficient proofs from Scripture, this question would not con¬ tinue to be asked as it now is. And then again, from time to time, fresh works upon the subject come forth from the press, expressly for the purpose of proving that the desired reunion may be de^jended on as certain, each one taking up the work of con¬ firming the doctrine, and each by this very course showing that the demonstration of its predecessor was esteemed incomplete. It may be that the sub¬ ject is one that does not admit of conclusive proof, and that it is, from its very nature, or from a paucity of Scripture evidence, one that must continue to re¬ main in doubt: this may be the case, but all we are now concerned in is, the fact that this doubt exists. That many have a confirmed opinion that believing friends will know each other in glory, is not for a moment denied ; all that is here afSrmed is, that, with num¬ berless minds, this is not the case ; that, on the 362 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. contrary, the subject is felt by very many to be one on which great uncertainty rests; and that, in short, the feeling of multitudes with regard to it is this, that it may be true, or may not be so, but that its certainty has not yet been proved. Nay, there would seem to be great reason to believe that, even in the case of many who profess to hold the affirma¬ tive of the question, there is yet a secret feeling that they rather hope the doctrine may be true, than are convinced that it has been really proved to be so, and that very possibly they may, after all, be mistaken. It is not impossible but that some of my readers may consider that the amount of doubt which prevails on the subject has been somewhat overstated. I do not think so, and I have certainly no desire to exag¬ gerate in the slightest degree; but thus much at least will, I conceive, be freely admitted by all, that much uncertainty does exist in many minds upon the ques¬ tion, and that it is undoubtedly very far as yet from being the means of administering to the members of the Church generally that amount of comfort which it ihay fairly be expected to communicate, assuming it to be true. Now what I propose to do in this Essay is, first. Essay IV.] DESIGN OF THE ESSAY. 3G3 to point out what I believe to have been the chief causes of the uncertainty which prevails upon the subject; secondly, to give in a brief form some of those proofs of the truth of the doctrine which I conceive the Scriptures afford; and then, lastly, to consider what may be inferred from the necessary conditions of the question. Very possibly this fresh attempt to discuss the subject may, like its prede¬ cessors, fail to remove entirely the doubt now resting on it, and may not give it that certainty which is so earnestly to be desired; but should it assist in any measure in dispelling the one, and in establishing the other, I shall be thankful. 3C4 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. § I.-CAUSES OF EXISTING UNCERTAINTY". Among the reasons which may be assigned for the doubt which prevails on the subject, I would certainly name this as the first, and perhaps the chief: — A misapprehension of ivhat was the particular design which St. Paul had hi vieio in writing as follows to the Thessalonians :— ‘‘I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also Yvhich sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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 §1.] CAUSES OF EXISTING UNCERTAINTY. 365 together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. \Mierefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thess. iv. 13—18.) Now, what was the primary and immediate object which the Apostle had in view in writing these words ? Had he any special end ? and if so, what was it ? That he had, is clearly proved by the tone of his open¬ ing remarks, in which he tells the Thessalonians that he would not have them ignorant of the subject on which he was about to write, implying by this, that an acquaintance with it was highly important for them, and that he was consequently very anxious to call their attention to it. What, then, was the par¬ ticular tiuth, or truths, which he wished to impress upon their minds ? It is admitted to be highly pro¬ bable that they had recently lost some of their friends or relations, either through persecution or natural causes, and that they were mourning over their loss in a manner that was inconsistent with the consola¬ tions of the Gospel. The Apostle was, therefore, de¬ sirous of instructing them in a truth in reference to their departed brethren, which they either had not known, or had in a great measure overlooked, but 3t6 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. which, if known and properly understood, would either remove their grief or greatly assuage it. What, then, was this truth ? A reference to commentators^ will but too clearly show, that, for the most part, they have only seen in this important passage an assertion of a future state, a resurrection, especially of the body, from the dead, and a prospect of eternal happiness with Christ — all- important truths, indeed, and more important even ' As an example of what I am anxious to point out, \iz., the way in which commentators have overlooked the design of the Apostle in this case, I might refer to the remarks of that great ornament of oitr Church, Bishop Jewell, as atfording a very striking one. It would be difficult to find, even in his writings, anything more beautiful than his comment on the passage as a whole; hut yet it is nevertheless true that he notices no special design in it, no attempt to convey comfort by means of some particular truth, any more than might be conveyed by the general and well-known truth, that those w'ho had believed in Christ had not perished for ever, but woidd rise again from the dead, and appear with their Lord in glory; all which is undoubtedly taught in the passage, but, as observed in the text, it does not form the particular truth which the Apostle desired to impress on the minds of the Thessalonians, and it is, moreover, one with which they were already acquainted. Macknight is the most satisfactory I have seen upon the subject. Short as his remarks are, they give the particular truth which the Apostle had more especially in view, clearly and prominently. Thus, in his paraphrase of ver. 3:—“Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them who die, that ye might not be afflicted with excessive grief, even as the heathen who have no hope of seeing their dead friends again." And thus in his Note on the same verse ;—“ St. Paul’s discourse, therefore, concerning these grand events, must have given much consolation to the Thessalonians under the death of their Illations, as it assured them, that if they died in Christ they should all meet again, and spend an endless life in complete happiness, never more to part. In this light death is only a temporary separation of friends, which is neither to be dreaded nor regretted.”-— ]M.wknight on the Epistles. CAUSES OF EXISTING UNCEETAINTY. 367 § !•] than that which we hold has been overlooked; but they are truths which the Thessalonians hneiv already, and therefore, if there be here nothing more than these, it seems difficult to understand what should lead the Apostle to introduce them in the way he has done. That the Thessalonians were really acquainted with them — though not, it may be, with the exact order and manner in which they will occur, and which were now more fully revealed by the Apostle,— but that they knew them, or things exactly corresponding with them, is rendered certain by this very Epistle. Thus, they are told by St. Paul, in ch. i. 3, that he “ remembered without ceasing their work of faith, and labour of love, and 'patience of hope (patience full of hope) in our Lord Jesus Christ.” But one of the objects of their hope must have been the glory that the Grospel, which had come to them “ in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance ” (ver. 5), had taught them to expect at the coming of Christ 5 and another must have been the everlasting life which would follow that coming, and which was one of the first things proclaimed by the Gospel, and promised to those who believed it. In short, take this away, and what remains of the Gospel ? Withhold this, and how 36S PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. can the Grospel be preached ? Hence, since the Thes- salonians knew the Giospel, they must have known that there would be a resurrection * from the dead, and a future existence, and they would not, therefore, be mourning for their departed frieuds under the im¬ pression that they had perished for ever, as was sup¬ posed by others, i. e. the heathen, who knowing nothing of the Gospel, were ignorant of a future state. But the tenth verse of this chapter (ch. i.) decides the question, for it shows us that they were so fully assured of the certainty of the Second Advent of the Saviour, that they were “ waiting ” for it as their gi’eat object of hope,— ^‘For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to ivait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” It is clear, therefore, that they were already convinced of these two things;— First, tiled Christ ivould come again; and, secondly. ' As pointed o\it by Calvin, their ease must not be confounded with that of the Corinthians, among whom there were some who said “ the resurrection was passed alreadj^” “For see,” he observes, “how lie chastises the Corinthians with severity, but here lie speaks of it (the hope of a resurrection) as a thing that was not doubtful .”—Commentary on 1 Thess. iv. 13. §1.] CAUSES OF EXISTING UNCEETAINTT. 369 that there would he a future state of happiness and gloi'y for those who believed in Him, and this they were assured their departed friends had done. But since they knew these things already, it could not add much to their comfort to be told them again; yet to comfort them was manifestly the special object which the Apostle had in view in writing to them in the way he did. How then does he seek to do this ? Clearly, by leading them to see that since their departed friends, having been raised from the dead, would be brought again with Christ, and seeing that they themselves would be taken to meet Him, they would then he again keunited to them, and be with them in glory for evermore. His great and primary object is to convince them of the eeunion that would take place. All that he says in reference to the resurrection and the advent is subservient to this end. The facts he reveals, though inexpressibly important and precious for their own sakes, and calculated to enlighten us on the great subject of the Lord’s coming, yet are now brought forth by him more for the purpose of confirming a particular truth than for any more general end. That truth is the one which the wounded feelings and sorrowing hearts of the Thessalonians particularly called 370 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. for, and the great Head of the Church, in His tender compassion for them, and for all like them, directed His Apostle by His Spirit to indite this passage in order to give them that comfort ” which it is so well calculated to afford. It is an echo of that voice which said, “ TUT brothee shall rise again!” This is still farther evident from another feature in the case. The Apostle speaks of those who in their sorrow had “no hope ; ” — “No hope ” of what? Not so much of a future state, or of the salvation of those whose loss the}'^ deplored—for of salvation or perdition the parties referred to knew nothing—as of never see¬ ing again the friends they had lost. He refers to the Heathen, and with the prospect of a resurrection from the dead they were altogether unacquainted; it was impossible, therefore, that they could have any well-grounded hope of meeting their friends again, once they had committed their mortal remains to the tomb.' It is to this painful feature in their condition * Archbishop Whately, in his “View of the Scripture Eevelations concerning a Future State,” has given us (Lecture I.) two letters (the one from Servius Sulpicius to Cicero to console him for the loss of a beloved daughter, the other from Cicero in reply), as “ furnishing a me¬ lancholy and instructive comment on the Apostle’s expression relative to the heathen, ‘who sorrowed as having no hope.’” Without reading some such writings as these we are not in a condition to realize aright, STATE OF THE nEATHEN. 371 §!•] that the Apostle refers when he says to the Christians at Thessalonica, I would not have you to be ignorant, even in imagination, the actual state of the heathen mind in reference to a future state and future prospects. “ Gospel light,” as remarked by the Archbishop, “ is so famdiar to us, that we are apt not to value it as we ought, unless we now and then, by the help of the imagination, transport ourselves for a few moments into Pagan darkness, and then the contrast strikes us.” But imagination alone is not enough, we must hear the heathen speak for themselves before we can understand their state; and the two letters which he has quoted are indeed all-important for this end. I woidd give, as a farther illustration of the subject, the following extract (as translated by Murphy) from the pen of the accom¬ plished Tacitus. It forms the closing paragraph of his “Life of Agricola,” his father-in-law:— “ If in another world there is a pious mansion for the blessed; if, as the wisest men have thought, the soul is not extinguished with the body; may you enjoy a state of eternal felicity! * From that station behold your disconsolate family; exalt our minds from fond regret and unavail¬ ing grief to the contemplation of your \drtues. Those we must not lament; it were impiety to sully them with a tear. To cherish their memory, to embalm them with our praises, and, if our frail condition will permit, to emulate your bright example, wiU be the truest mark of our respect, the best tribute your family can offer. Your wife will thus preserve the memory of the best of husbands, and thus your daughter will prove her filial piety. By dwelling constantly on your words and actions, they will have an illustrious character before their eyes ; and, not content with the bare image of your mortal frame, they will have, what is more valuable, the form and features of your mind. I do not mean by this to censure the custom of preserving in brass or marble the shape and stature of eminent men; but busts and statues, like their originals, are frail and perishable. The soul is formed of finer elements, and its inward form is not to be expressed by the hand of an artist with unconscious matter: our manners and our morals may in some de^ee trace the resemblance. All of Agricola that gained our love and raised our admiration, stdl subsists, and will ever subsist, preserved in the minds of men, the register of ages, and the records of fame. Others, who figured on the stage of life, and were the worthies of a former day, wiU sink, for want of a faithful historian, into the common^ lot of oblivion, inglorious and unremembered; whereas Agricola, delineated with truth, and fairly consigned to posterity, will survive himself, and triumph over the injuries of time.” We have here some slight expectation of a future state, but none of a resurrection, and “ no hope ” of a reunion. * “ Placide quiescas,”—may you enjoy a state of calm repose. B c 2 372 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” “ You,” he may be supposed to say, are in a very different position to them. You know that your de¬ parted friends, whose faith in Christ you were assured of, will rise again at the glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that they will come with Him when He comes, and you, therefore, ought to be assured that you will have the joy of meeting them once more, and of holding intercourse with them throughout eternity. This is but a necessary consequence of the great and glorious truths you are already acquainted with: wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Now, if this be correct — and how can it be well doubted ? — then this ^portion of GocVs ivord ivas luritten for the express purpose of pointing out, and therefore of confirming the very doctrine under con- sideratlon—the mutucd recognition of the Redeemed in glory. To call particular attention to it was the special end which the Apostle had in view when he penned the passage. Properly, therefore, it determines the question. And how deeply is it to be deplored that it has not been always kept steadily in view, and §1.] CAUSES OP EXISTING UNCERTAINTY. 373 placed prominently before the mind of the Church; for had it been so there must have been, instead of the doubt and uncertainty which now so generally pre¬ vail, the most assured confidence that those who had known each other in the faith of Christ here, would as intimately know each other in His glory hereafter. It is to the overlooking of the Apostle’s design, therefore, that the present state of feeling on the subject must be in a great measure attributed. Had that design been clearly seen, it must have determined the ques¬ tion, even had there not been another text in Scripture bearing upon it. Here is a portion of Scripture which was written for the very purpose of teaching that the desired reunion will take place: nothing more therefore is wanted. But its design has been mistaken or very generally overlooked, and we cannot wonder at the result. Not that all have failed to dis¬ cern it, far otherwise; but it has been so very fre¬ quently and generally overlooked that, as regards the great mass of the members of the Church, the effect has been much the same as if it had been entirely or universally so. 2 . Another reason which I would assign for the doubt which is found to rest on the subject is the mis- B B 3 374 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. a'p'prehension that 'prevails respecting the nature and character of the resurrection body} We have already seen how strange and cloudy are the views which prevail on this point, and how generally the true materiality of the body is overlooked. We have also had to remark, more than once, how error on one subject necessarily leads to error on another, especially if the two are in any way associated. And such is the case with the question of the materiality of the future body, and that of the mutual recognition of glorified Saints. If that body be material,— as material and corporeal as it is now; if it will consist of members, and of the same members as at present, then we can readily understand that it may be recog¬ nized again: recognition in this case would seem to be as natural and probable as it is now. But if, instead of being material and corporeal, it be something so attenuated and etherealized as to he scarcely dis¬ tinguishable from spirit,—and this, as Ave have seen, is ’ In one of the most recent works published on this subject this mis¬ apprehension is very clearly pointed out, and the materiality of the future body is distinctly maintained: “ Our Friends in Heaven ; or the mutual Eecognition of theEedeemed in Glory demonstrated,” by the Eev. J. M. Killen, AI.A. Part ii. ch. 1. This is the first work I have seen in which this is the case, and the fact is a striking instance of the progress which knowledge is making on this as on other subjects. § I.] CAUSES OF EXISTING UNCERTAINTY. 375 the opinion of many, if not the prevailing opinion,— then the case is very different. What powers of dis¬ cernment the Saints in glory may have hereafter we know not, but, at present, knowing nothing of such a body as this imaginary one, we feel instantly at a loss, the moment we attempt to realize the act of recog¬ nizing it. And the obscurity of one part immediately extends itself to the whole. We feel in the dark about the body to be recognized, and we are consequently at an utter loss to understand how it can be known. Thus our want of acquaintance with one subject keeps us back with regard to others. It is the case in every branch of knowledge, and it is so here. So long as the true materiality of the body is overlooked, it is clear we are but little in advance of the heathen with their shades of Elysium. Eecognition, be it remem¬ bered, was supposed to take place even among them; yet they were but shadows’, without the slightest approach to material structures. We have more glorious hopes. “ Ayaimt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy hones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with. -Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence! ” Macbeth. B B 4 376 PEYSICO-PROPirETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV but our views of the way in which they will be realized are nearly as obscure as theirs were. This ought not so to be; nor need it be. We have a light to guide us which they had not; and had we but simply followed that light, instead of the ignes fatui of our own imaginings, we should now be rejoicing in cer¬ tainty, where, as it is, harassing doubts beset our path. The importance, therefore, of those views which I have endeavoured to establish in the First and Second Essays, respecting the Locality of the Eternal In¬ heritance, as also its Nature and Character, and, again, in the Third Essay, respecting the Eesurrection Body, will be readily seen in connection with the topic which is now engaging our attention. Let but the state of things there set forth be reabzed, and there will be no difficulty in also realizing the recognition of glorified Saints. It is a state which will so resemble the present in respect to its great physical features that we have no difficulty in comprehending it. It comes readily within the range of our comprehension, and we can therefore reflect upon it with much feeling of certainty. Hence the necessity of establishing, at the commence¬ ment of our course, the truths which the earlier Essays comprise, in order that they might form a CAUSES OF EXISTING UNCERTAINTY. 377 § I-] foundation for others. Their bearing on the one now under consideration is another proof, I conceive, both of their truth and also of their importance. 3. Immediately connected with the last, is the next cause which I would assign for the doubt which rests upon the subject, namely. The habit of not distin¬ guishing between a possible reeognition among de¬ parted spirits in heaven, and recognition among glorified Saints at the coming of our Lord; and applying to the former, passages of Scripture which relate only to the latter. The vast majority of writers and preachers on the subject employ a language and phraseology which throughout imply that the reunion will take place in Heaven. All the expressions used, which bear upon it, proceed upon this assumption. And this is constantly the case: hence it has become the habit of the great body of the Christian world to think and speak in the same way. — ‘‘We have lost our beloved friend! but we hope to meet again in heaven.”—“ When we meet in heaven we shall have no fear of another separation, but shall enjoy eternity together !”—“They are now happy ■with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the king¬ dom of Heaven ! ” These, and similar expressions, may 378 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. be beard almost daily. But little care is taken, be¬ cause it is not felt to be necessary, to distinguish between such a reunion as this implies and the reunion that the Scriptures lead us to expect at the coming of the Lord, — one that will take place after the resurrec¬ tion from the dead. On the contrary, they are both spoken of in precisely the same way and in the same terms, and the same passages of Scripture are quoted as bearing upon and alike confirming both. Now, it forms no part of my design to attempt to prove that separate spirits in heaven do not know and recognize each other; on the contrary, I am prepared to admit the probability that they do *, and that some few passages of Scripture may be quoted which seem to favour that view of the subject — though whether they also countenance such a state of things as would admit of that communion and intercourse which are supposed to prevail even at present amongst those who are already in heaven, is a very different question. * It is but right, however, to notice as a significant fact, and one which is calculated to show how little clear and decisive evidence we have on the subject, that one of the ablest vTiters of the day, namely, Ai’chbishop Whately, celebrated particularly for his judgment and dis¬ cernment, and whose two “ Lectures on the Intermediate State,” in which this question is involved, are marked by great care and candour, seems evidently to lean to the opposite opinion. See his third and foiu’th lec¬ tures on “ The Scripture Eevelations concerning a Future State.” STATE OF THE DEPARTED. 379 §!•] And it mil be observed that there is nothing whatever in them which speaks of a reunion of the saints, much less do they make any promise of it, or refer to it as an object of hope. In short, it vdll be seen that they are not cases in point, but are altogether of a different character to others which will be quoted, in which reunion and intercourse are either directly asserted or assumed. The following passages, however, un¬ doubtedly seem to favour the idea that the absent spirits of believers are in a state that admits of their knowing each other, and certainly, as it seems to me, cannot be easily reconciled with the theory that they are in a state of unconsciousness : —“ Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor. v. 6—8.) “ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” “For I am id a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” (Phil. i. 21, 23.) “And Jesus said unto him. Verily I say unto thee. To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke xxiii.43.) “And, behold, there appeared unto them 380 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. Moses and Elias talking with him.”' (Matt. xvii. 3.) And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of Grod, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying. How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Eev. vi. 9—11.) Some of the expres¬ sions in this last passage are undoubtedly figurative or symbolical, as for instance that which represents the souls as under the altar,'’’ but notwithstanding this, it must, I think, be regarded (as remarked by Barnes in his comment on this passage,) “ as one of the incidental proofs in the Bible that the soul does not cease to exist at death, and also that it does not cease to be conscious, or does not sleep till the resurrection. These souls of the martyrs are represented as still in existence; as remembering what had occurred on the * Moses and Elias: but this, for many reasons, must be esteemed an exceptional case which cannot be made to apply to saints in general, much less to the separate spiiuts now in heaven. STATE OF THE DEPAETED. 381 earth ; as interested in what was now taking place; as engaged in prayer; and as manifesting earnest desires for the Divine interposition to avenge the wrongs they had suffered.” ^ But I must repeat* the remark before made, that these cases are not applicable to the question now under discussion. There is not the slightest connection between them, or any of them, and that great reunion ‘ In addition to the aboTe, I would give, separately, the following pas¬ sages as bearing more or less directly on the subject, and as seeming to favotir the idea of recognition, and even action, among the departed, both saved and lost. I say, seem to favour, for in every case some objection may be raised against their being viewed in this light. Some of them, as for instance the two fii'st (Isai. xiv. and Ezek. xxsii.), are highly poetical, and although this, as has been justly argued, is not inconsistent with truth, it is yet certainly not clear that tlie scenes described are to be understood as having actually and literally occimred. Others, such as those which represent Moses and Elias as seen by the Apostles on the Mount of Transfigm-ation, and Samuel by the Witch of Endor, are ex¬ ceptional; while grave objections may be urged against the parable of the Eich Man and Lazarus being quoted as proof on the sxibject.® But, notwithstanding all this, it must, I think, be admitted that the following passages do certainly seem to favour, and that very strongly too, the idea of recognition and also action among the departed:— 1. Recognition among the lost. Isaiah xiv. The reception of the King of Babylon into Sheol, rendered in ver. 9, “Hell;” in the margin, “Grave.” Ezek. xxxii. The reception of the King of Egypt in like manner into the same.—ver. 21. 2. Recognition between the lost and the saved. Luke xvi. 19—31. The rich man and Abraham. 3. Action among the saved. Eev. vi. 9—11. The souls under the altar speaking in prayer. Luke ix. 28—35. Moses and Elias talking with Christ. 4. Appearance of the saved to persons yet in the flesh. 1 Sam, xxviii. Samuel to the Witch of Endor (ver. 12); and to Saul (?), ver. 14. Luke ix. 28—35. Moses to the Apostles. “ See Trench “ On the Parables,” ch. xxvi., and Whately’s Lectures on “ The Scripture Kevelations concerning a Future State,” Lect. iii. 382 PHTSICO-PEOPEETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. which the Scriptures set forth as the object of hope to Christ’s people. That is to be realized only at the coming of the Lord, and is never represented in any other light; but in that light is made a leading subject of remark in various parts of the New Testament. But ivhere is there a single “passage that treats a pos¬ sible recognition among separate spirits in heaven in this way ? There is not one. Those referred to above do nothing of the kind. They will not bear such a construction. Take, for example, the last,—^that relating to the souls under the altar, Kev. vi. 9—11. Here we have an impatient desire for change, not the peace and joy and happiness which will mark the con^dition of the Saints in glory; nor any thing which in any way corresponds with such a reunion as that which we are contemplating as the hope and desire of the righteous. And as to the former passages — those in which we find St. Paul speaking of being absent from the body and present with the Lord,” ‘‘which,” he tells us, “is far better” — that the ex¬ pressions in these verses cannot be taken to mean that he was looking forward to the time of his departure from earth as that in which he hoped to meet those whom he had loved upon earth, those, for example. §1.] STATE OP THE DEPAETED. 383 who had been in a special manner the direct fruit of his own ministry, is clear from this, that he else¬ where 6xpT6ssly specifies the dciy of the LotcVs cominy as that in which this will he done, — ‘^For what is our .hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye IN THE PRESENCE OP OUR LoRD JeSUS ChRIST AT HIS COMING?” (1 Thess. ii. 19.) And again, “As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your re¬ joicing, even as ye also are oiirs in the day op the Lord Jesus.” (2 Cor. i. 14.) Yet once more,—“ Hold¬ ing forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the DAT OP Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” (Phil. ii. 16.)* From these pas¬ sages, as has been frequently observed, it is manifest that St. Paul expected to meet his converts again, and to be able to point to them as such, or they could not be to him ‘a joy and crown of rejoicing.’ But when, and under what circumstances, does he expect thus to meet them?—While his and their spirits are in heaven, their bodies meanwhile mouldering in the dust ? Not so ; but in the great day of Christ’s appearing. Then, ' So St. John, “And now, little children, abide in him ; that w'hen HE SHALL APPEAR, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” 1 John ii. 28. 384 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. as we know, they and he will be in a complete and perfect state,—then their bodies and souls will be reunited, and then, therefore, recognition and the most intimate intercourse and communion may take place among them, even as among the living now on earth, — with this only difference, however, that the commu¬ nion which will'be held hereafter will, in all probability, be of a still more intimate, as well as exalted character than that which prevails at present, seeing that, in every respect, in reference to both mind and body, they will be in an advanced and much more exalted condition, rendering possible modes of intercourse and communi¬ cation which at present are not kno\vn, and perhaps would be impossible. And in harmony with this view of the case, is the fact before noticed that the Scrip¬ tures never speak of the day of the believer’s death as the day of his reward, but uniformly point to the day of Christ’s coming as the time in which the crown of righteousness,” and of “glory” shall be bestowed upon him. (2 Tim. iv. 8.) The true state of the question, therefore, we find to be really this; There may be recognition in heaven,— no assertion has been here made to the contrary — but with regard to the condition of separate spirits the PREVAILING VIEWS OF SUBJECT. 385 § I-] Scriptures are comparatively silent; they do not make it a subject of remark or of direct revelation, but only speak of it in an indirect and incidental way; while in no case do they ever hold out to us a joyful reunion of, and consequent intercourse between, our souls when we die and the souls already in heaven, as an object of hope, or as a matter to which we should be looking forward with earnest desire as about to be realized by us at the hour of death. Yet it would be easy to quote pages without number in which such a reunion among departed spirits in heaven, is treated as an undoubted truth, — in which separate spirits are supposed to exercise all the parts and functions of an entire and perfect man, — in which, moreover, the most pleasing things are said, and the most pleasing hopes held out, to sorrowing friends, who are encouraged with the thought that but a few brief years at most must pass away before they will be reunited to those whom death has deprived them of, and who are, it is supposed, only ‘‘gone home before them! ” having a little preceded them into the man¬ sions of everlasting glory! One feels the greatest reluctance to interfere with such delightful pictures, which, doubtless, are not unfrequently the means of .386 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. administering some measure of comfort to sorrowing hearts; but yet there is, unhappily, no room for doubt that they are little better than imaginary; and, if the plain truth must be spoken with regard to them, then we must affirm that they are altogether unwarranted by the Word of God. The prophets who have sent them forth, have “ followed their own spirit, and have seen nothing.” (Ezek. xiii. 3.) Let us now observe the effect of these things on the great question which we have in hand, viz., that of the mutual recognition of glorified Saints. I have said that passages of Scripture which relate only to glorified Saints, and to them at the coming of the Lord, are applied to separate spirits in heaven. All those passages which seem to prove recognition at all, and at any time, may be said to be so applied. For nothing is more common than to meet with reflec¬ tions which relate solely to the souls of the departed now in heaven, and which are intended to impress us with the exalted happiness of their condition, imme¬ diately follo’wing the quotation of such passages, and as soon as the evidence has been pointed out which they contain in favour of the opinion that recognition and intercourse will certainly take place among the EFFECT OF EEEVAILING VIEWS. 387 § !•] Saints hereafter. Once this has been shown the whole case is regarded as proved; and those who are dis¬ coursing upon it seem to think themselves at liberty to descant at large on the happiness of heaven and on the blessed union and intercourse which are going on among its glorified inhabitants. — They are with “Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; ” — they see them, and not them only, but all the Saints and worthies of Grod who have departed this life after having run their course of faith upon earth. The Lord Jesus Christ himself, too, is beheld by them in all his glory, and this completes their joy and the fruition of their utmost hopes. They tune their harps and sing His praises, as the Angels do who are their companions in the heavenly state. Can we therefore for a moment wish them back upon earth ? It were cruelty to do so. No; let us rather prepare to follow them, — let us walk even as they walked, and then, when a few short years have run their course, we shall be united to them once more, and we shall not only see their happiness but be partakers in it for evermore! It is quite unnecessary to produce examples of this mode of treating the subject, the reader’s memory will, doubtless, supply him with a sufficient number. But 383 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. the effect which such a system as this must have upon the mind may be readily conceived. It necessarily in¬ troduces doubt and uncertainty into the whole subject. Men cannot realize the things which are set before them for their edification and comfort. They hear of heaven and its heavenly inhabitants, and they find them described in language which is exactly suited to earth and to the doings of those who live on it; but they remember that, while the latter are in bodies which are exactly adapted for such things, the former are only spirits, having no such material frames, and how, therefore, they can do all that man in his com¬ plete and perfect state can do, seems to them highly mysterious and perplexing. Still, the evidence for reunion, and recognition, and intercourse, seems to be very strong and very conclusive, and they know not how to reject, or even to question it. While that evi¬ dence was being produced and reasoned upon, nothing could be more satisfactory and conclusive than the subject appeared; but when the application came, the case was different. The whole matter then as¬ sumed an unnatural hue and character. A painful sense of incongruity came over the mind, and sadly interfered with the pleasure which had been previously § I.] EFFECT OF PBEVA.ILINa VIEWS. 389 experienced. Those who were engaged in the investi¬ gation of the subject feared, it may be, to acknowledge the reality of their own doubts, and felt that it would perhaps he better and more pious to suspend the farther examination of the question, and wait till farther light could be procured upon it. But there was an irresistible conviction that there was a mistake somewhere, — whether in themselves, or on the part of those whose teachings they had been following, they knew nQt; but they could not reflect upon the subject without feeling that some error or other most certainly existed in connection with it. This I believe to be the process that is going on in the minds of multitudes. A little intercourse with them discloses the fact. The result of the whole is, that a subject, on which there ought not to be a shadow of doubt, has the greatest doubt resting upon it; and many of those great and important advantages which the truth, if known, is calculated to secure, are in a great measure lost to the members of the Church, to whom, as an inheritance, they rightly belong. If, indeed, there he any passages which speak of a reunion of glorified spirits in heaven, by all means let them be produced. But do not quote for this pur- c c 3 390 PHYSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essat IV. pose passages which relate only to the day of Christ’s coming, and to the reunion that will then take place among His people. But neither is it right to sjpeah even of this as about to take place in heayen,” pro¬ perly so called; i. e. in that place where Christ now is, and where, as we have reason to believe, the spirits of the just are also. The first meeting of the Saints and their glorified Head will be “ in the airf as taught us by St. Paul (1 Thess. iv. 17); but there is nothing to lead us to suppose that, having met in the air above this earth, they will afterwards go to heaven. On the contrary, the whole weight of evidence is directly against such a view of the subject, and there is not a single passage in favour of it. For, as we have already seen (p. 85), while there are numerous passages which speak of our Lord’s coming/rom heaven, there is not one single text which speaks of His returning there. How unwarrantable, therefore, is it, on our part, to assert, notwithstanding this, that such a reunion of Him and His people, as is so often assumed and de¬ scribed, will be realized “ in heaven,” and there be perpetuated for evermore ! Every sentence that has been written to this effect has been without authority. The entire phraseology which assumes it is all Avrong. §1.] EECOaNITION WILL TAKE PLACE. 391 There has been a mistake, both as to the time and the locality of the reunion. The only one which the Scrip¬ tures recognize is that which will take place at Christ’s coming, and that will be, not in heaven, but first ‘‘ in the air,” and then on earth, where (the earth being in a renewed and glorified sj:ate) it will be perpetuated for evermore. To speak, therefore, of “the mutual re¬ cognition (meaning thereby a reunion) of glorified Saints ” (not spirits) “ in heaven,” is a mistake. We have nothing whatever to justify the expectation of such an event,— not a syllable of Scripture to war¬ rant it. But will there ever be such a mutual recognition^ in any 'place, or at any time'? "VYe have already anti¬ cipated the answer that must, we conceive, be given to this question. The answer is an affirmative one; and what we hold to be a just ground of complaint against us theologians is, that there should ever have been any doubt allowed to remain upon the subject. Had there not been great mismanagement in the treatment of the question, this doubt would never have existed. It will be a happy day for the Church when it has been entirely removed. c c 4 .392 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. § II. — TRUTH OF THE DOCTRINE DETERMINED FROM SCRIPTURE. f The second thing which it was proposed to do in this Essay, was to produce such proofs of the doc¬ trine of the mutual recognition of glorified Saints as the Scriptures are believed to afford. But now that the misapprehensions which prevail upon the subject have been pointed out, it will be unnecessary to examine those proofs to the extent that otherwise would have been desirable. Some of the proofs, moreover, have already been referred to; but it will be well, indeed, necessary, to refer to them again, in the order and connection in which they should be viewed. Much of what we are now about to do has been already frequently done by others, and it would have been a work of supererogation to do it again had it not been for those misapplications and mistakes which have done so much to obscure the question. 1. The first in order which should be produced is 1 Thess. iv. 13 —18. This, as has been so largely PROOFS FROM SCRIPTURE. 393 § II-] pointed out, I hold to have been written expressly for the purpose of establishing the doctrine for which I must now contend, viz., that glorified Saints will know each other hereafter, and will hold as intimate communion and intercourse together as any that can possibly prevail among the Saints now on earth. If I am right in the view I have taken of this passage, then there is an end of the controversy. In this case the doctrine is directly taught us in Scripture, and there is no room for any farther question upon it. It may be held and rejoiced in, without any drawback produced by that doubt which we have had so often to refer to, and which so sadly interferes with the comfort and consolation which the truth is calculated to convey. 2. The passages which stand next in order for con¬ sideration, because most direct in their bearing upon the subject, though not more conclusive than others, are the following:— “ And I say unto you. That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. viii. 11.) “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 394 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of Grod, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of Grod.” (Luke xiii. 28, 29.) Now on this we may remark, in the first place, that the time at which the events predicted will take place is fixed for us;—it will be at the time of the kingdom, which we have before proved will be subsequent to the resurrection and the Advent. And the context to the last-quoted passage (Luke xiii. 28, 29), shows that what is there foretold is to succeed the last judgment, and therefore at a time when the wicked will have been raised as well as the just. (See ver. 23—27.) In the next place, the locality is determined for us, as well as the time. “ The kingdom of heaven,” which is called by this title because of its character, not its place, will be on Earth, not in heaven, as was abund¬ antly proved in the First Essay. We see, therefore, that the recognition and inter¬ course which are foretold in these verses are to take place at a time, and under circumstances and condi¬ tions which will render their occurrence perfectly SOCIAL INTEECOUKSE. 395 § n.] natural, as well as possible, seeing that the Saints will be then in a complete and perfect state, and as capable of being seen, and of holding intercourse together, as they were while they were upon earth. And the ex¬ pressions not only imply, but assert, that recognition will take place among them hereafter. Those who are cast out into outer darkness will “ see Ahraliain, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the 'prophets, in the king¬ dom of Gfod.” To “ see ” them is to know them—to know that they are Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets. The expression can only be under¬ stood in this sense. It is impossible to give it any other; and we have here, therefore, a direct assertion that recognition, or identification, will be made here¬ after—of some at least of the Saints; and if of some, then, of others. And these verses must also be regarded as affirming that social intercourse will also take place among them. What else can we understand by these words, “ And I say unto you. That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit doivn luith Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Idngdom of heaven ” f And why, let us ask, should there not be such social inter¬ course hereafter? We have only to realize the con- 396 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. dition in which the people of Christ will be found when His kingdom is set np, to see that an intercourse and communion as complete as that which prevails among them now will and must take place among them then. Every consideration we can give the subject, and every light in which it can be viewed, necessarily bring us to this conclusion. Nothing but the most shadowy notions could ever lead ns to doubt it. Altogether, we are led to expect a state that, in all essential particulars, will resemble the present, though far more exalted, and entirely freed from all its evils, both physical and moral. This being the case, the words of the Saviour above noticed afford us indeed abundant matter for reflection of the most delightful kind. 3. St. Paul’s Epistles contain numerous passages, relating more immediately to his own ministry and to his hopes in connection with it, which are only intelli¬ gible on the supposition that he himself will be known, and that his converts, or those who had been benefltted by his ministry, will be the same. The following are of this kind, and they are given together in order to avoid repetition in our remarks, for what is applicable to one is, in a great measure, applicable to the whole;— For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? SAINT PAUL AND HIS CONVEHTS. 397 § II.] Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming V* (1 Thess. ii. 19.) ‘‘ As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord JesiLS.’^ (2 Cor. i. 14.) “ Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” (Phil. ii. 16.) “Now we beseech you, brethren, hy the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and hy our gathering together unto him."” (2 Thess. ii. 1.) “ Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.’' (2 Cor. iv. 14.) “ WTiom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Coloss. i. 28.) Now, as Paley has remarked ^ on the last passage, all these verses “ afford a manifest and necessary inference, that the Saints in a future life will meet and be known again to one another; for how, without knowing again his converts in their new and glorified state, could St. ' Sermon on Col. i. 28. ■398 PHTSTCO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. Paul desire or expect to present them at the last day ?” Yes, the inference is, indeed, a “ necessary” one; it cannot be avoided. The words are unintelligible upon any other view. These, and numerous other Scriptures, necessarily demand, therefore, in the first place, the identification of the Ajpostle himself; for without this he could not receive his reward — his “ own reward, according to his own labour,” as we are told every labourer in the Lord’s vineyard shall do. (1 Cor. iii. 8.) For this purpose he must be known, and his labours must be discovered and detailed, in order that it may be seen what amount of reward should be given to him. And seeing that the more he laboured, and the more he was prospered in his labours, and the greater number brought to Christ and to glory by means of his labours, the greater would be his reward, it was natural for him to look upon his people as persons in whom he had a peculiar interest, and for whom he could not but feel a peculiar or special affection, just as a parent does for his own children. And thus we find him calling them his “joy and crown of rejoicing,” and in every case speaking of them in a way which implies that between him and them there exists an intimate and peculiar connection. SAINT PAUL AND HIS CONVEETS. 399 § ir-] But this again, in the next place, necessarily demands an identification of them, as well as of him. They must he as intimately known as he will be. Their con¬ nection and their intercourse mth him, and the circum¬ stances under which that intercourse took place, must all he investigated and known, or their mutual connec¬ tion and interest in each other cannot be proved. And here we may anticipate for a moment in order to ob¬ serve, that this is in harmony with what we know, from other sources, respecting the transactions of that period called the day of the Loi'd,^’ when He whose day it will be, will “both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the coun¬ sels of the hearts; and when every man shall have praise of Grod.” (1 Cor. iv. 5.) Both subjects alike require the identification of individuals, and far more— even the ‘particidars of their lives. Those who were the fruits of St. Paul’s ministry must be known as such, but this, as we must repeat, involves the necessity of the whole of their intercourse with him being also known ; and seeing that it will form a matter of judg¬ ment, or of investigation, for the purpose of reward, it follows that it may also form a subject of conversation afterwards among themselves. And doubtless it will 400 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. do so: and thus we are led to see how the connec¬ tions of the present life will be perpetuated in the life to come, and how the intercourse of eternity will, in many respects, resemble that of time. As to the con¬ nection itself which will exist, that is certain; and we have only to follow out the truth and consider what is involved in it, to see also how much must necessarily follow once its certainty is proved. 4. Most, if not all, those numerous passages which relate to the future Judgment necessarily bring us, as before intimated, to the same conclusion that we have already arrived at. They involve the same necessity of the identification and recognition of individuals, and the same remembrance of past deeds and past connections. A few passages will serve to illustrate the subject full as well as many more would do. ‘‘ These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” (Ps. 1. 21.) “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Eccles. xii. 14.) “ For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not THE JUDGMENT. 401 §n.] liereby justified : but He that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ; and then shall every man have praise of Grod.” (1 Cor. iv. 4, 5.) ‘ k or we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Cor. v. 10.) “ But I say unto you. That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matt. xii. 36.) The obvious remark that must be made on all this is, that it necessarily implies that those who are judged must be known to be the persons they are and were, or there could be no judgment of them. The identifica¬ tion of the individual is essential to his judgment. And in this respect the Divine judgment will not differ from that of men, as the expressions which are used to describe it clearly show. Grod will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing; ” nay more. He will do that which no human court of judicature can ever do, — He will “ make manifest (even) the 402 PIITSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. counsels of the hearts.” ‘‘To make manifest ” is to make known, — to discover them to others; and thus the individual, whose secret “ counsels ” they were, will be made far more intimately known than he had ever been before. The same particularity is maintained in that declaration of our Lord — “for every idle word which men shall speak they shall give an account in the day of judgment." Thus the actions, the thoughts, and the wmrds of each will be disclosed; and altogether, therefore, the subject, however viewed, compels us to believe that every individual must be known hereafter; and not only so, but even known more intimately than any can possibly know him at present! This result will show the perfection of the Divine judgment, and will prove its infinite superiority over that conducted by even the best and wisest of men. “ Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” (Ps. li. 4.) 5. The following passages, though relating to judg¬ ment, should be considered apart from those we have just left:— “Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world ? And if the world shall be judged by you, are THE JUDGMENT. 403 § id] ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters ? Know ye not that we shall judge Angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?” (1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.) And Jesus said unto them. Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matt. xix. 28.) “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto you a king¬ dom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Luke xxii. 28—30.) It is by no means clear that these verses, especially the two last, do not refer to civil government, or to ruling as civil governors, rather than to the exercise of judicial functions, or, still more probably, to both combined, as in the case of Moses and the Jud^res * But, anyhow, the result will be about the same, so far as our present question is concerned. It is im- ^ > The following passages may be examined in connection with those 404 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. possible not to feel that, either way, the twelve Apos¬ tles must be known to be those who had filled the apostolic office in the present dispensation; and along with their recognition, must be called up the peculiar circumstances under which they exercised their func¬ tions. And then the twelve tribes must also be distinguished from the rest of mankind, or these twelve men could not sit on twelve thrones to judge them. But altogether, both in these two passages, and also in the first, where it is said the Saints shall judge the world, a state of things is contemplated so exactly resembling the present, so far as essential particulars are concerned, that it becomes well-nigh absurd to suppose that the fullest recognition of particulars will not take place. It would be just as rational to expect that the world might now go on, and that particular persons might fill particular offices, and perform all their duties, and yet that amidst the thousands thus connected together there should be none who would have any knowledge of each other. A world of strangers! Each conscious of his own identity, but knomng nothing of that of any other I This, assuredly, would not be more impossible at present than it would hereafter. But from such a view of the future, as THE JUDGMENT^ 405 § n.] that which we have inferred and endeavoured to maintain, many seem to shrink, so much so, that in all probability the literality of the passages we have been considering would be strongly rejected by them on the ground of what they would term its grossness. We can, however, only remark in reply, that they have evidently derived their views of the future from some other source than Scripture, reminding us of those artists who sketch, not from nature, but from some combinations of form and colour which their own imaginations have supplied. The result is not a natural one. And it is the same in both cases. If words have any meaning, then those which we have now before us undoubtedly contemplate such a state of things as necessitates the recognition of indi¬ viduals, their connection with others, and such a knowledge of their respective doings as that which takes place among us at present. The past and the then present must be linked together, as the past and the present are now, by a remembrance of the one and a consciousness of the other. The Apostles will be thus conscious, and will thus remember; and those over whom they will exercise authority, and whom they will judge, will do the same. There must, therefore, DD 3 406 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. be the most intimate knowledge of individuals, in such a state of things as that which those passages of Grod’s word set before us. 6. This view of the subject is still farther confirmed by the teaching of Scripture respecting rewards. That there will be a reward of work is as clearly taught as that salvation is of grace through faith.' But the two, instead of being antagonistic, as many suppose, are in perfect harmony, and without the former the reward of work, namely, it would be impossible that the Scriptures could be fulfilled. But they not only enunciate this truth in the most clear and express terms, they also show us, as they do in reference to judgment, such a minute particularit}’’ in its adminis¬ tration as clearly j)roves how thoroughly all the actions of the present life will be hereafter called up and known. Thus we read ; — He that receiveth a pro¬ phet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man, in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward. And ivhosoever shall give ' “ The Christiau expects his reward, not as due to merit; but as con¬ nected, in a constitution of grace, with those acts which grace enables him to perform.”— Cech, Remains, ch. i. EEWAEDS. 407 § II*] to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no luise lose his reiuarcV (Matt. X. 41, 42.) If a prophet's reward and a righteous man’s reward be one and the same, why are they dis¬ tinguished the one from the other in the way they are ? Unless it be known that a cup of cold water has been given to a disciple in Christ’s name, and unless a specific reward be given on account of it, how can our Lord’s solemn declaration be fulfilled ? Every passage of the kind requires, in all its bearings, such an iden¬ tification of individuals, and such an acquaintance with their actions, as necessarily imply the fullest knowledge of their persons and character. And the same is more or less true of all the numerous passages which relate to reward, and to the recomjjense that shall be given to every one according to his deeds.. Thus,— “ Who will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life; hut unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of mam that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of D D 4 40S PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. the Gentile: hut glory, honour, and ‘peace, to every man that worketh good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without laiu; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall he judged hy the law.'’’’ (Eom. ii. 6—12.) For I am now ready to he offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: hencefoi'th there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, hut unto all them also that love His appearing." (2 Tim. iv. 6—8.) “ Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his oivn reward, according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with Grod: ye are God’s hus¬ bandry ; ye are God’s building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master- builder, I have laid the foundation, and another huildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he huildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, pre- KEWAKDS. § II-] 4'J9 cions stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall he made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: hut he himself shall he saved; yet so as by fire.” (1 Cor. iii. 8—15.) Again we see the necessity of a minute examination of the conduct of every man before the due reward of each can be determined. The amount of the reward can only be discovered by an investigation of the works. There must be a just adaptation of the one to the other — an adjustment of their claims and their proportions. The case of ministers, as described by St. Paul in the last passage, is particularly striking and conclusive. He supposes two ministers to build on one and the same foundation, and that the right one; but one to build on it perishable materials, the other such as will endure the fire. He supposes both to he saved; but while one receives a reward, the other will not do so; there must, therefore, necessarily be a difference in their condition, or in the amount of glory which will be awarded to them respectively hereafter. But 410 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. all this implies that they will he known personally, and that the character of their ministry, as well as their individuality will also be known. And once more,— The way in which the reward will he hestoived proves that there will be made hereafter a marked distinction of individuals, on account of some specific acts or some particular line of conduct. Thus we find our Lord saying: — “ Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess cdso before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.’’^ (Matt. x. 32, 33.) ‘‘ He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I ivill confess' his name before my Father, and before His Angels.'’’’ (Kev. iii. 5.) “ Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you. They have their reward. But when thou EEWAEDS. 411 § II-] doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly.^’ (Matt. vi. 1—4.) A single remark on these passages will be enough. The declaration made in the last cannot relate to the general reward, so to speak, of the people of Grod, by which they will have eternal life bestowed upon them, but to specific rewards on account of particular acts — acts of benevolence, namely, done from a right motive and in a right way. These, being done in secret, shall receive an open recognition on the part of Christ. A specific reward shall be given on account of them, and that reward shall he openly bestowed. Could anything possibly prove more clearly that there will be the fullest knowledge and the most distinct recognition of each individual hereafter ? I refrain from enlarging on the subject, or on the arguments which may be urged in reference to it, for they are so very obvious that it would be a waste of time to both writer and reader to do so. So much then for the scriptural proof, which it is unnecessary to carry any farther. That proof is, I conceive, as complete and conclusive as could be ex- 412 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. pected or even desired in favour of the doctrine that glorified Saints will recognize and know each other hereafter, and nothing would be gained by the produc¬ tion of any additional number of passages in favour of it. But there is yet another light in which it may be viewed. § HI.] 413 CONDITIONS OF THE QUESTION. » § III. — ITS CONSISTENCY WITH THE CONDITIONS OF THE QUESTION. It was affirmed at the close of the last section, that the scripture proofs in favour of the doctrine under discussion are complete and conclusive; and if this be the case, there can of course be no necessity to extend the examination of it any farther; but yet there is another direction in which it may be well to follow it, in order, as in former cases, that its consistency with other and acknowledged truths may he seen, We may inquire, for instance, into The conditions of the QUESTION, AND CONSIDEH WHAT ARE THE INFERENCES THAT SHOULD BE DRAWN FROM THEM. We have ana¬ lyzed the language of Scripture upon it, and we find that we are uniformly brought to one and the same conclusion. But what of the a 'priori probabilities of the question ? There is reason to believe that glorified Saints will mutually know each other hereafter — is this to he expjected f rom the very nature of the case ? 414 PIIYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. « It will be perfectly legitimate to discuss this question, now that we have examined the subject inductively and arrived at our conclusion. That conclusion is not de- pendent on what we are now about to do, nor would it he affected by it, even should this prove erroneous. What we are now about to attempt is not for proof, but for corroboration. This is a very different thing to examining probabilities in the first place, and then making them a part of the proof. In this case, the proof would be in a measure dependent on them, and if they failed, it would fail in the same proportion. But our proof rests on no such foundation as this, but on the only legitimate one—the testimony of Scripture. But having discovered the doctrine in Scripture, it will be satisfactory to apply it to what the nature of the case would seem to render antecedently probable, that it may be seen that here also we meet with the same harmony and agi’eement which everywhere met us while comparing one part of the Word of Grod with another. When, then, we contemplate our state at present, we readily see that our certainty of our own identity is caused by a consciousness of present existence and a remem- hrance of the past. The one alone cannot produce this § ni.] PEESONAL IDENTITY. 415 effect; the two things must combine to do so. For a mere consciousness of existence must not be confounded with a consciousness of personal identity. It is true that the one is never felt without the other; yet is it essentially necessary to distinguish the one from the other. A sense of personal identity necessarily em¬ braces the past, through the action of memory. We not only feel that we are, but that we are certain indi¬ viduals, of whom certain things are true; as, for in¬ stance, that we have existed for a certain amount of time, have done such and such things, and are known as such and such persons. There is a continuity of feeling — a connecting of the present moment with the past, and of that with those which went before it; and associated with this consciousness of continuous ex¬ istence, there is more or less a remembrance of the acts and circumstances of our past lives. All this may be said to be necessary to a full conviction of our own per¬ sonal identity. We could not be what we are, nor do what we do, if it were otherwise. As observed by Professor Sedgwick:—“ Consciousness (in the sense in which Locke uses the word) is the proof of our own identity to ourselves; and it is through this principle in our nature that we know that we continue one and 416 PHTSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. the same being, and feel that we are personally respon¬ sible for our past actions. Kemembering or associating the past with the present is one of the faculties of a rational being.” ^ Apply this to our state hereafter, and what does it show us to be antecedently probable ? Even that the same must hold true hereafter that holds true now. Consciousness and memory must combine hereafter, as they do now, to give to each the conviction of his own personal identity. This he must have, or he cannot be a rational being.^ And memory must be annihilated ' “ Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge,” p. 48. Note, Fifth Edition. * This consciousness of personal identity, embracing as it does a re¬ membrance of the past, is, as Locke has pointed out, essential also to the administration of rewards and funishments. For imless there be a re¬ membrance of past conduct, how could it be seen and felt that the re¬ ward or punishment was rightly applied? “ In this personal identity is founded all the right and justice of reward and punishment; happiness and misery being that for which every one is concerned for himself, and not mattering what becomes of any sub¬ stance not joined to, or affected mth that consciousness.”— Essay on the Human Understanding, Book ii., ch. xxvii., § 18. Again, “ To punish Socrates waking for what sleeping Socrates thought, and waking Socrates was never conscious of, would be no more of right than to punish one twin for what his bi’other twin did, whereof he knew nothing, because their outsides were so like, that they could not be dis¬ tinguished; for sxich twins have been seen.”—Ibid. § 19. Once more, “ This personality extends itself beyond present existence to what is past, only by consciousness, whereby it becomes concerned and accountable, owns and imputes to itself past actions, just upon the same ground and for the same reason that it does the present. All which is founded in a concern for happiness, the unavoidable concomitant of con¬ sciousness ; that which is conscious of pleasure and pain, desiring that that self that is conscious should be happy. And therefore whatever past actions it cannot reconcile or appropriate to that present self by con- § III.] PERSONAL IDENTITY. 417 or this conviction must of necessity be felt. But we know that the powers of the mind will be far greater than they are at present, and the memory, therefore, must be so or the others would not, for they could not act without it. Knowledge cannot exist without memory. And seeing that our mental powers Avill be so great that we shall know even as we are known,” it follows that our personal identity must be felt by us, not more sensibly it may be, but if possible even still more fully than it is now, because we shall have a fuller and deeper acquaintance with our own condition and our own acts. But this sense of personal identity on the part of each glorified Saint must necessarily lead to mutual recognition among them. If they hold communication together, this result must follow just as it does at sciousness, it can be no more concerned in than if they had never been done : and to receive pleasure or pain, i.e. reward or punishment, on the account of any such action, is all one as to be made happy or miserable in its first being, without any demerit at all. For supposing a man punished now for what he had done in another life, whereof he could be made to have no consciousness at all, what difference is there between that punishment, and being created miserable ? And therefore conformable to this the Apostle tells us, that at the great day, when every one shall ‘receive according to his doings, the secrets of all hearts shall be laid V sentence shall be justified by the consciousness aU persons shall have, that they themselves, in what body soever they appear, or what substances soever that consciousness adheres to, are the same that committed those actions, and deserve that punishment for them,”—Ibid, § 26 . 418 PHYSICO-PROPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. present. They must discover who each is, or was. And they will do this though a material change may have taken place in their personal appearance —just as is frequently done now, when, for instance, two friends meet who have been separated from each other for many years, and who have become so changed in per¬ son that they have not immediately recognised each other; but a little communication has soon proved to each the identity of the other. And so must it be hereafter. We have reason to believe that a material change will be wrought in the personal aspect of the Saints: we have reason to expect that each will be distinguished by a visible splendour ; but this will create no difficulty in the way of mutual recognition, because that will depend, not so much on the personal aspect of each, as on the communications which each ivill be able to make respecting himself. In this way, e. g. St. Paul may readily discover Abraham, though he has never seen his face in the flesh. And in the same way those who have been intimate friends upon the pre¬ sent earth may very soon discover each other, however great the multitude clothed in white, and however great the change that may have been wrought in their personal aspect. § III.] PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO THE FUTURE. 419 We readily see, moreover, that these results must necessarily ensue, even on the ordinary conditions and principles that prevail at present. We have simply to apply those principles, and to carry them out in refer¬ ence to the future, and they lead us to the foregoing conclusions, with which, as we have seen, the teaching's of Scriptm’e are in exact harmony. But it is not suf¬ ficient to view the subject simply in this way. These principles, so far as they go, must necessarily hold true hereafter as they do now; but we must remember that our future state will, in all respects, be far in advance of, and far more exalted than the present, and therefore not only must mutual recognition be as certain, but mutual knowledge must be even more full and intimate than it can possibly be now. And yet, from education and habit, we are apt to fancy that the very reverse of this will be the case. Our views of the future are, for the most part, vague and undefined, and we seem to think that the things of the future will be so too. Keality and distinctness startle us. We seem to expect that much that lies before us must be mystical and shadowy. How greatly do we err! This life, indeed, has its shadows. “What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue! ” exclaimed one who had seen E B 2 420 PHTSICO-PEOPHETICAL ESSAYS. [Essay IV. something of the world. But assuredly such language would be altogether out of place if used in reference to that state with regard to which we read : — “ Eye hath NOT SEEN, NOK EAR HEARD, NEITHER HAVE ENTERED INTO THE HEART OF MAN, THE THINGS WHICH GOD HATH PRE¬ PARED FOR THEM THAT LOYE HiM.” Conclusion. — My brief task is done. Its chief aim was to clear the doctrine we have been discussing from some of the various misconceptions which have en¬ cumbered and obscured it; but at the same time to exhibit some of the scriptural proofs of its truth. The character and design of these Essays preclude, in a great measure, my attempting to trace the conclusions at which we have arrived to their legitimate results, and to show their bearing on collateral topics. This has been frequently done, in reference to some of those topics, by others, and done more effectually than I could do it. Their reflections, though on some points mistaken; as, for instance, when heaven is erroneously substituted for earth, are yet in the main correct, and serve to bring before us in a very delightful manner some of those future prospects, the expectation of which ought to be a present joy to our hearts. The two fol¬ lowing extracts, the one from the pen of the pious § ni-] CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIPS. 421 Baxter, and the other from the eloquent pen of Egbert Hall, will sufficiently exemplify my meaning:— “ I must confess, as the experience of my own soul,” says Baxter, “ that the expectation of loving my friends in heaven principally kindles my love to them on earth. If I thought I should never know them, and consequently never love them, after this life is ended, I should in reason number them with tem¬ poral things and love them as such, at the same time allowing for the excellent nature of grace; but I now delightfully converse with my pious friends, in a firm persuasion that I shall converse with them for ever; and I take comfort in those of them who are dead or absent, as believing I shall shortly meet them in heaven, and love them with a perfect love, which shall there be perfected.” We have only to put for “ heaven,” the kingdom of Christ, and these remarks are as scriptural as they are excellent. So, too, are the following:— “Friendship, founded on the principles of worldly morality, recognized by virtuous heathens, such as that which subsisted between Atticus and Cicero, which the last of these illustrious men has rendered immortal, is fitted to survive through all the vicissitudes of life; E £ 3 422 PHYSICO-PROPHETICA.L ESSAYS. [Essay IV. but it belongs only to a union founded on religion, to continue through an endless duration. The former of these stood the shock of conflicting opinions, and of a revolution that shook the world; the latter is destined to survive when the heavens are no more, and to spring fresh from the ashes of the universe. The former pos¬ sessed all the stability which is possible to sublunary things; the latter partakes of the eternity of Grod. Friendship founded on worldly principles is natural, and, though composed of the best elements of nature, is not exempt from its mutability and frailty; the latter is s'piritual, and therefore unchanging and imperish¬ able. The friendship which is founded on kindred tastes and congenial habits, apart from piety, is per¬ mitted by the benignity of Providence to embellish a world, which, with all its magnificence and beauty, will shortly pass away; that which has religion for its basis will ere long be transplanted, in order to adorn the paradise of Grod.”* jNIay the reader and the writer of these pages be amonfif the number of those whose eternal abode and eternal portion will be in the “ new heavens and the ) NEW EARTH, WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS ” ! ‘ Eobert Hall, “Funeral Sermon fur Dr. Eyland." APPENDIX. APPENDIX. A. Analysis and Synthesis. ]Sote to p. 17. “ In the following words (taken from the Preface of the first edition of the Principia)., Newton has recorded Avith great simplicity his own method of arriving at philosophic truth. ‘ Omnis philosophic difficultas in eo versari videUir, ut a phcnomenis motuum investigemus vires nature, deinde ab his viribus demonstremus phenomena relic[ua. Ex pheno- menis igitur celestibus, per propositiones mathematice de- monstratas derivantur vires gravitatis, quibus corpora ad solem et planetas singulos tendimt: deinde, ex his viribus, per propositiones etiam mathematicas, deducuntur motus planetarum, cometarum, lune, et maris.’ “ Near the end of his book of Opticks, he Avrites in the same philosophic spirit. ‘ As in mathematics, so in natural philosophy, the investigation of difficult things by the method of analysis ought ever to precede the method of composition. This analysis consists in making experiments and observations, and in drawing general conclusions from them by induction, and admitting of no objections against the conclusions, but such as are taken from experiments, or other certain truths. For hypotheses are not to be regarded in experimental philo- 426 APPENDIX A. sopliy. And altliongh the arguing from experiments and observations by induction be no demonstration of general conclusions, yet it is the best way of arguing which the nature of things admits of, and may be looked upon as so much the stronger, by how much the induction is more general. And if no exception occur from phenomena, the conclusion may be pronounced generally. But if at any time afterwards, any exception shall occru’ from experiments, it may then begin to be‘ pronounced vuth such exceptions as occur. By this way of analysis we may proceed from compounds to ingredients, and from motions to the forces producing them; and in general, from effects to their causes, and from particular causes to more general ones, till the argument end in the most general. This is the method of analysis. And the synthesis coijsists in assuming the causes discovered, and established as principles, and by them explaining the phenomena pro¬ ceeding from them and proving the explanations.’ “ The former of these methods, when applied to the in¬ vestigation of physical phenomena, has long been known by the term induction : the latter, in one of the writings of Sir John Herschel, is called the method of deduction. This word had nearly been forgotten, but was wanted, and is again be¬ coming current in the language of philosophy.”— Sedgwick’s Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge, App. p. 99. Fifth edition. “ One leading difference in these two kinds of reasoning is, that in deduction we infer particular from general truths: in induction on the corftrary, we infer general from particular.” — IVREWEhh, Mechanical Euclid, p. 177. APPENDIX B. 427 B. The Final Conflagration — existing 'provision for 'producing it. Note to p. 21. It is scarcely possible, I conceive, to read the sublime description which the Apostle has given ns of the last great conflagration of our globe, without being reminded by it of the vast provision there is, apparently, in the present condition of the earth for the Mfilment of his prediction. It is difficult, in the limited space of an Appendix, to convey anything like an adequate idea of the amount of evidence which may be produced in favour of this opinion. But I may just briefly indicate some of the leading facts that may be appealed to for this purpose. 1. First in order, in the way of proof, comes the Theory of Central Heat, which may now be regarded as admitted on almost every hand, and which shows us that at no great depth from the suilace — less than a hundred miles — the whole internal matter of the globe is in an incandescent state. Wherever excavations have been made below the surffice of the earth, it has invariably been found that the temperature has risen in proportion to the depth that has been reached, and the average rate of increase has been determined to be one degree of Fahrenheit for every forty-five feet. At this rate all known rocks would be melted at a depth of about sixty miles. And although causes may be in operation which may possibly diminish the rate *, yet there can be no doubt ‘ See British Association Keport for 1853 ; Address of the President, W. Hopkins, Esq., by whom, and Mr. Eairbairn and Mr. Joule, a series 428 APrENBIX B. tliat at a depth of not more than a himdred miles from the sui-face, the matter of our globe must form a fiery mass, a molten sea ! How little may be necessary to make it break forth through the rocky crust, and, like the overflowings of a volcano, cover the surface, not of a single region merely, but of the entire globe, and subject even the crust itself to a heat that must reduce it once more to a liquid state ! The theory of central heat, and with it the view now under discussion, undoubtedly derives great, if not conclusive support, from the peculiar figure of the earth. This, as is shown in another place (p. 208), is an oblate spheroid, or in other words, it is flattened at the poles, and therefore precisely the form which a body originally fluid would assume under the influence of rotatory motion. 2. The evidence to be next noticed is that which is afforded by VOLCANOES, which are found active in so many lands, and the proofs of the action of which, either in ancient or modern times, are to be seen in almost every region of the globe. “ Tliree hundred active volcanoes,” says Dr. Hitchcock* * , “ and still more numerous extinct ones, have opened their mouths, and poured forth their molten contents from a great depth, to bear witness to the existence of vast masses of melted rock beneath the earth’s crust.” In the British Association’s Report for 1858, there is a seismographic (earthquake) map by Messrs. R. and J. TV. Mallet, on which are given the “ volcanoes, fumaroles, and solfataras, now active or presumed so, within historic or recent geologic periods,” and the points of experiments was instituted in order to discover the effects of pressure on the temperature of fusion. “The results obtained,” it is said, “in¬ dicate an increase in the temperature of fusion proportional to the prcs~ sure to which the fused mass is subjected.” * Religion of Geology, Lect. xi. APPENDIX B. 429 marked as their localities, number no less than about 700; and this, though there are 111,000,000 square miles of ocean, and the greater part of this is to us, of course, a blank. What do all these bespeak with regard to the actual condition of the earth ? “ In the state of tranquil equilibrium,” says Dr. Buckland i, “ which our planet has attained in the region we inhabit, we are apt to regard the foundation of the solid earth as an emblem of dm-ation and stability. Veiy diffe¬ rent are the feelings of those whose lot is cast near the foci of volcanic eruptions; to them the earth affords no stable resting-place, but during the paroxysms of volcanic activity, reels to and fro, and vibrates beneath their feet: overthrowino- cities, yawning with dreadful chasms, converting seas into dry lands, and dry lands into seas. To the inhabitants of such districts we speak a language which they fully comprehend, when we describe the crust of the globe as floating on an internal nucleus of molten ele¬ ments; they have seen these molten elements burst forth in liquid streams of lava; they have felt the earth beneath them quivering and rolling, as if upon the billows of a sub¬ terranean sea; they have seen mountains raised and valleys depressed, almost in an instant of time; they can duly appreciate, from sensible experience, the force of the terms in which geologists describe the tremulous throes and con¬ vulsive agitations of the earth; during the passage of its strata from the bottom of the seas, in which they received their origin, to the plains and mountains in which they find their present place of rest.” 3. Immediately connected with volcanoes are earthquakes ; and a glance at the map just referred to is sufficient Bridgewater Treatise, ch. v. 430 APPENDIX B. to show how wide-spread in all lands has been their observed action. In all probability no part of the globe is exempt from that action, and, whatever may be its cause or causes, it is impossible not to feel that it is connected with such an internal condition of the globe as bespeaks the presence of mighty igneous agencies which may at any time break forth and wrap the world in flames. 4. To the above must be added the effects of CHEMieAL COMBINATIONS in generating heat; as exhibited, for instance, in the spontaneous combustion of beds of bituminous shale, and of refuse coal thrown out of mines. i 5. And, lastly, the inconceivable amount of caloric peiwading the materials of the earth’s surface, in the shape of latent HEAT, must be noticed. No material is without it. It per¬ vades every particle of matter around us and in us; and we have constant proof how little, in the way of friction, collision, or spontaneous combustion, is necessary to call it forth from its latent state, and make it exhibit itself in fierce, fiery action, sufficient to consume even the very materials in which but a moment before it lay concealed. Who can wonder at anything that may happen hereafter in a world where the element of heat is so absolutely universal! And here it may be well to notice the term which the Apostle employs when he announces the effects which shall be produced by the final conflagration foretold by him. “ The elements,” he says, “ shall vielt ” (Xvdtjcroi'rat) not Jlame^ “ with fervent heat.” This, as suggested to me by a philosophic friend, is calculated to remind us that the materials of the earth’s surface are, for the most part, the result of fire, and therefore not inflammable. But they are aU fusible, and * See Lyell’s “ Principles,” B. ii. ch. xxxii. APPENDIX B. 431 aie all pervaded by latent heat, just as much as those which are also inflammable. Viewing the question, therefore, as a whole, we see how vast and mighty is the provision, observable on every hand, tor the fulfilment of that jii'^diction ivhich declares, that “ the earth, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up.” “ When we consider,” says Sir C. Lyell \ “ the com¬ bustible nature of the elements of the earth, so far as they are known to us,—the facility with which their compounds may be decomposed and made to enter into new combinations, the quantity of heat which they evolve during these pro¬ cesses ; when we recollect the expansive power of steam, and that water itself is composed of two gases which, by their union, produce intense heat; when we call to mind the number of explosive and detonating compounds which have been already discovered, we may be allowed to share the astonishment of Pliny, that a single day should pass without a general conflagration : —“ Excedit profecto omnia miracula, ullum diem fuisse quo non cuncta conflagrarent.” ‘ “ Principles,” B. ii. ch. xxxiii. 432 APPENDIX C. C. The Disruption of the Mount of Olives. Note to p. 126. There are various ways in which this may be produced, and numerous examples may be given in which a similar effect has taken place, and which therefore serve to illustrate the different processes that would lead to it. The following ideal section will serve to exemplify some of them. Let the dotted line A A, represent the mountain as it now is; then suppose a subsidence at a and a; or a force acting vertically at 6, in consequence of an eruption from beneath; the consequence in both cases would be the disi’uption of the mountain, and the formation of a valley at b. In the latter case, it would be what geologists call a Valley of Elevation : and it may be well to remember that an elevatory process is really predicted in reference to the neighbouring locality, the Mountain of the Lord’s house,” namely, which it is said “ shall he exalted above the hills." And there should be also borne in mind what has been pointed out at length at pp. 146 —149 respecting the volcanic phenomena which it seems probable wiU occur- at this same time. APPENDIX C. 433 The formation of valleys and the various ways in which Aey have been produced, form exceedingly interesting and miportant subjects in a purely geological point of view, apart from their bearing upon the question before us. It was shovm by Dr. Blickland, in a paper read by him before the Geological Society of London, February 8th, 1825, that some valleys owe their origin to “ the elevation of the \trata that enclose them, and not to denudation." The paper was on “ The formation of the Valley of Kingsclere,” near Newbury, and in it he explained the peculiar characteristics of such valleys in being surrounded by bold escarpments, the strata of which dip away from each other outwards. i The following is part of the section given by Dr. Buckland to illustrate his paper, though far more striking cases of the kind might now be specified: — Dr. Buckland refers to numerous other examples of the kind, both in England and Wales, and he afterwards re¬ mar -s: _ “ The facts, then, which we have examined, con¬ spire to lead us to the conclusion, that not only many enclosed va eys similar to that of Kingsclere, but also, in a less degree many open valleys similar to that of Pewsey and the great central valley of Kent and Sussex, though largely modified by paper, and of the principl^ estabhshed 434 APPENDIX C. denudation, oive their origin to an antecedent elevation and fracture of their component strata; and these phenomena may be regarded as of fi-equent occurrence in the formations of all ages, and as indicating the multitude of distiu’bing causes by which the earth’s surface has been affected.” The following section gives a case of the disruption of the strata of a locality by the intrusion ®f an igneous rock, almost certainly in a molten state, which occurs near Vallecitas, in North America, where “ there is a distinct intrusion of the finer-grained granite (protogene) observed through the coarser rock, which has tilted a mass of gneiss rock, one thousand feet in thickness, to an angle of 30°, presenting a large anticlinal axis, the gneiss and mica slate dipping away from it both to the east and west.” ^ I have said that the predicted disruption of the Mount of Olives may be produced by a fault. Faults vary in depth from a few feet to some hundreds, and, in some cases, thou¬ sands of feet. Doubtless, Palestine exhibits many cases of the kind, but a highly probable one is expressly mentioned by Lieut. Lynch in his “ Narrative of the United States Ex¬ pedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea.” He observes (p. 313), “ There were huge borilders of sandstone in the bed of the ravine;.and high up, to the summits of the beetling cliffs, the sandstone lay in horizontal strata, with per- ’ Transactions of the Geol. Soc. o f London, 1826, pp, 124, 5. 2 See Report of an Exploratory Journey made by order of the American Congress for the discovery of the best Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Washington, 1857, vol. vii. p. 120, PL viii. appendix c. 435 pendicular cleavage, and limestone above, its light brown colour richly contrasting with the deep red below. The sandstone below limestone here, and limestone without sand¬ stone on the opposite shore, would seem to indicate a geologi¬ cal fault.” The following diagram exemplilies the case he describes:— limestone level of dead sea Again, we find him remarking (p. 378), in reference to the same region, which was that on which Abraham looked down when he beheld the smoke thereof as the smoke of a fur¬ nace;’’—‘‘The inference from the Bible that this entire chasm was a plain, sunk ^ ovenvhehned' by the wrath of God, seems to be sustained by the extraordinary character of our soundings. The bottom of this sea consists of two sub¬ merged plains, an elevated and a depressed one; the last averaging thirteen, the former about thirteeji hundred, feet below the surface.” There is no positive proof that these disruptions took place at the time aUuded to, but neither is there any valid reason that I am aware of why they should not have done so. But the fact of the disturbance, and the time at which it occurred, are two distinct questions which must not be confounded together. But after all, it is by no means improbable that the pre¬ dicted phenomenon will be one of simple rent, or fissure, how¬ ever caused, of which numerous examples may be given. Our own country affords one of great interest and beauty! I refer to the Avon at Bristol, the bed of which, there is every reason to believe, is the result of a convulsion which rent the rocks that now form its sides, and which rise on either side F F 2 436 APPENDIX C. to about three hundred feet from the bed of the river. The following sketch Avill serve to give to those who are unac¬ quainted ■with the locality an idea of its character: — I had long been convinced that the valley through which this river flows was the result of a convulsion, and that it is a case of rent or fissure, not of denudation; but fearing to de¬ pend upon my own judgment in the matter, I requested a fi'iend, without informing him of my object, to write to one of the best geological authorities of the district, Handel Cossam, Esq., F.G.S., for his opinion upon it, and the reply was as follows: — “ The Clifton gorge was undoubtedly a rent. The sides match, and there is every indication that the cause was volcanic.” Here, therefore, in addition to the previous examples given, we have a striking and satisfactory illustration of the mode in which the predicted disruption of the Mount of Olives may be accomplished. APPENDIX D. 437 D. The Succession of Animal Life. Note to p. 186. The order in which animal life has appeared on the globe is thus eloquently described by Professor Sedgwick, in his “ Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge: ”_ “ The elevation of the Fauna of successive periods was not made by transmutation, but by creative additions; and it is by watching these additions that we get some insight into biature s true historical progress. Judging by our evidence (and by what else have we any right to judge ?) there was a time when Cephalopoda were the highest types of animal life. They were then the Primates of this world j and, correspond¬ ing to their office and position, some of them were of noble structure and gigantic size. But these creatures were de¬ graded from their rank at the head of Nature, and Fishes next took the lead: and they did not rise up in Nature in some degenerate form, as if they were but the transmuted progeny of the Cephalopoda ; but they started into life (if we are to trust our evidence) in the very highest ichthyic type ever created. Following our history chronologically, Eeptiles next took the lead, and (with some almost evanescent excep¬ tions) they flourished during the coimtless ages of the Second¬ ary Period as the lords and despots of the world; and they had an organic perfection corresponding to their exalted rank in Nature s kingdom; for their highest orders were not merely great in strength and statui-e, but were anatomically raised far above any forms of the Eeptile class now living in the rr 5 438 APPENDIX D. world. We have seen, however, that this class was, in its turn, to lose its rank at the head of Nature, and what is more, we have seen that it underwent (when considered collectively) a positive organic degradation before the end of the Secondary Period, and (if we may trust our evidence) this took place countless ages before terrestrial Mammals of any living type had been called into being. Mammals were added next (near the commencement of the Tertiary Period), and seem to have been added suddenly. Some of the early extinct forms of this class, which we now know only by ransacking the ancient catacombs of Nature, were powerftil and gigantic; and we believe they were collectively well fitted for the place they filled. But they, in their turn, were to be degraded from their place at the head of Nature, and she became what she now is, by the addition of Man. By this last addition she is more exalted than she was before. Man stands by himself the despotic lord of the living world; not so great in organic strength as many of the despots that went before him in Nature’s chronicle, but raised far above them all by a higher development of the brain — by a framework that fits him for the operations of mechanical skill — by superadded reason — by a social instinct of combination — by a prescience that tells him to act prospectively — by a conscience that makes him amenable to law — by conceptions that transcend the narrow limits of his vision — by hopes that have no fiill fruition here — by an inborn capacity of rising from individual facts to the apprehension of general laws — by a conception of a cause for all the phenomena of sense — and by a consequent belief in a God of Nature. Such is the history of Creation.”— Dis¬ course, p. ccxvi. appendix e. 439 E. Increase of Habitable Space through the Absence of Sta. Note to p. 211. It is at once manifest that the absence of sea has an im¬ portant beanng on the question of the amount of habitable space that will be available hereafter on the earth’s surface or those who will be its privileged inhabitants. At present more tlian three fifths of the surface are covered by the ' ocean, aiid if from^ the remaining part we deduct the space occiipie y polar ice and eternal snow, by sandy deserts, portion“‘I habitable portion will scarcely exceed onejijlh of the whole.” ■ The absence of sea. therefore, will make a vast difference in the amount of the space that m.ay be occupied by mankind. ut still. It may be ui-ged, even this will go but a very short way in meeting the difficulty. When it is considered what innumerable millions have already inhabited the earth o say nothing of those who may yet do so. it seems impos¬ sible that there sliouldbe space for them, even though the site of the earth should be much greater than it is at present 2 > Bakewell, quoted by Buckland, Bridg. Trea. i 101 I have made the above remark because it tine i ’ not improbable that the size nf thiv ^ ^ ^ seemed to me hereafter. There is I LZlf , Sreatty increased far greater at one time than Ti.; ing to discuss this subiect at anv ipnrytv, ®pace forbids my attempt- more mountainous districts of the ^ section of any of the of Scotland or of Wales be consiVl ^ as the Alps or the North leagth of line is affSld br°h‘ “ y tratificdtion, which, rising in some FF 4 440 APPENDIX E. But there is a strange oversight made in this argument. It assumes that all who will have lived before upon the earth will live again upon it; whereas, there is nothing on which the Scriptures are more express than in teaching us that it is THE RIGHTEOUS ONLY that ivill inherit the earth," and that “ the wicked shall be cut off from it.” (See pp. 74—80.) This at once reduces the number of those for whom space must be provided, not only to an immense, but also to an in¬ definite degree, and the question, therefore, becomes altogether changed in its conditions. It is now seen that, without any increase of surface, there may yet be room enough for all who will require it. And there is another fact connected with the question which should be borne in mind, and it is this, the number of the righteous has been alirays small in comparison with that of those who have been of an opposite character. This has been the case in every age of the world, and we have every reason to believe that it will continue to be so even to the end of this dispensation. Then, as now, the flock of Christ will be a “ little " one, and the encouraging voice of the Saviour will be as necessary as ever — “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Upon this view of the subject, however, another difficulty or objection is raised. “ See,” it is said, “ what numbers are parts above the horizontal base, frequently bears a similar proportion to it that two sides of an equilateral triangle do to the third. Let this line be stretched out into one continuous horizontal one, and what an in¬ crease of sui’face is at once attained. It seems to me clear that we have on every hand proofs of lateral pressure, caused by a contraction of the earth’s crust. If, when “ all things are made new” by “ Him w'ho sitteth on the throne,” the density of the.earth be made like that of some of the other planets (that of Saturn, for instance, which is about eight times less than that of the earth), its bulk would, of course, be propor- tionably increased. APPENDIX E. 441 by it excluded from the fliture abode of blessedness.” But to this it may be remarked in reply_ 1. What we have to do is to deal with facts, not proprieties. There are a multitude of existing facts that are as strange and as difficult of reconciliation with the supposed requirements of justice, and with the character of the Divine Being as a God of love and justice, as ever this can be. How great, for ex¬ ample, has been the portion of mankind who have been allowed to remain for ages in a state of barbarism, destitute alike of the benefits of civilisation and the blessings of revelation; and how small in comparison the number of those who have en¬ joyed these advantages ! Yet this must necessarily be viewed as an appointment of God’s sovereign will. And even among those who have formed part of the favoured nations who” under the old and new dispensations, have had “ committed to them the oracles of God ; ” alas ! how small a proportion have duly profited by their privilege and given signs of true con¬ version of heart and sincere devotion to God! Yet, though the responsibility of man be assumed, which it must be, the sovereignty of God must be again remembered, and there'still remains, therefore, in connection with the question, the stern truth which philosophy, no less than revelation, compels us to admit, that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” Nor is it in providence and in grace only that we meet with facts which we find it impossible to reconcile with our a priori views of the Divine character, the domains of Nature abound with such as are, if possible, still more startling and difficult. One, which is noticed in another place (p. 180), is this — Fzom the very first introduction of animals upon this globe, down to the present moment, they have been subject to a suf¬ fering condition. It was long thought that this condition with 442 APPENDIX E. all its numerous evils, death included, had been induced by the fall of man, and that the Bible taught this; but the Bible does nothing of the kind. It simply affirms the undoubted fact, that “ the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,” but it assigns no cause for it, but simply resolves it into the will of the' Creator. The stern fact, there¬ fore, remains, that, for myriads of ages, “ the creation was made subject to vanity,”—to pain and suffering, and death, — “not willingly,” for it had no choice or action in the matter, but “ by reason of Him (z. e. by the appointment of Him) who hath subjected it” to that condition. Who does not stand confounded at the contemplation of such a fact! Yet, as Hugh Miller has justly remarked, “In the Divine government, the matter of fact determines the question of right.” 1 2. And, lastly, it must not be forgotten, that the condition of those who will be excluded from the “ new earth ” will^ like that of those who will inherit it, differ immensely. This tnrth is far from being as generally borne in mind as it ought to be. We speak of “ the lost,” and we picture them to ourselves as being all in the same state. But this is, undoubtedly, a great mistake. It is quite certain from Scripture that their condi¬ tion will vary, and there is every reason to believe that it will necessarily do so to an immense extent. The advantages and disadvantages of their state in this life, as well as their actual deeds, will be taken into account in their future judgment, and their award of punishment will be regulated accordingly. Those who “ have sinned without law, shall also perish without law., while those who have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." (Rom. ii. 12.) “ That servant who knew his * Testimony of the Rocks, p. 76. APPENDIX E. 443 Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his Avill, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” (Luke xii. 47, 48.) “Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee Bethsaida ! . . . . it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.” (Matt. xi. 21, 22.) “ Verily I say unto you. It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.” (Matt. X. 15.) The principle laid down in all these j^assages, all of which, it will be observed, relate to those Avho will not be partakers of the kingdom of God, has only to be remembered, and we must readily see, that between the future condition of some and of others of them, there must necessarily be a vast and mighty difference. But let it not be forgotten, that what we have to do is, not to attempt by a priori reasoning to detei-mine what ought to be, but, by having recourse to the recognised authority, to discover what will be. This being found, aU room for objec¬ tion ceases. “Verily, verily I say unto thee. Except a MAN BE BORN AGAIN, HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GoD.” 444 APPENDIX F. F. Com'parative Dimensions of the New Jerusalem and the Bings of Saturn. Note to p. 234. The following diagrams will serve to illustrate the case. They are given on the long-recognised principle that, — “ Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.” The first represents the earth, with elevations answering to the dimensions of the New Jerusalem, according to both the larger and the smaller measures, viz. of 1500 and 375 miles: in the form, also, of a square of the larger dimensions, and in that of a mountain. For the purpose of comparison, Saturn is reduced in size one tenth. The earth is given on a scale of one eighth of an inch to 1000 miles. APPENDIX G. 445 G. Opinions of the Reformers on the Nature and Condition of the Besurrection Body. Note to p. 278. I cannot refer to the Fourth Article of the Church of Eng¬ land without, at the same time, calling attention to some invaluable remarks on the same and some connected subjects which appear in Coverdale’s Remains, an extract from which was given at p. 2i3. They are embodied in a treatise en¬ titled, “ Of the Hope of the Faithful,” and were translated by Coverdale from a treatise on the subject by Otho Wermullerus, or Vierdmullerus, an eminent scholar and divine of Zurich, who was a contemporary of the bishop. i It is truly refreshing to read the clear, masculine. Scriptural views respecting the futiu-e condition of man’s body which are maintained through¬ out this treatise; and also to observe the manner in which the Scriptural proofs are handled. TFe have had nothing since its day, at least that I am acQuainted Avith, that ap¬ proaches to this work upon the subject, and I really could not convey to another the satisfaction with which, some years ago, I perused it for the first time, holding, as I then did, and long before, the leading sentiments which I have now sought to embody in these Essays. But these writings of the Re¬ formers, taken in connection with the noble statements of the P ourth Article of the Church, serve to shoAV how far we have ' Coverdale’s Bemains, p. 137, Parker Soc. Ed. 446 APPENDIX G. retrograded on these, as on some other subjects, from the Scriptural standard of the sixteenth century. But as a specimen of the manner in which the materiality of the resurrection body is spoken of in this Treatise on “The Hope of the Faithful,” I may give the folloAving extracts: — “ Now, as I suppose, I have sufficiently and plainly de¬ clared, that the true flesh of all men, yea, even our OAvn body, and else none for it, yea, even the human true body shall rise again from death, namely, formed and fashioned with his own right proportion, measure and property, as a true body; so that the measure and property of the true body, which now is divided and parted in his members and joints, remaineth, that is, he shall have true flesh, blood, bones, sinews, joints, mem¬ bers, &c.” (p. 175.) Again, he thus quotes the remarks of Jerome, on the subject: — “ Yet in the same book hath the said Jerome set his own opinion touching the resurrection of the flesh, directing the oration unto Bishop John, and saying: ‘ If you will now con¬ fess the resurrection of the flesh after the truth, and not after fantasy, as thou sayest, then look that unto the words which thou hast spoken to content the simple, that even in the body, wherein we die and are buried, we -shall rise again, thou add these words also, and say. Seeing the spirit hath not flesh and hones^ as ye see me have : and forasmuch as it Avas so distinctly spoken unto Thomas, Put thy flnger in my hands^ and thy hand in my side, and be not faithless, but believing ; therefore say thou, that Ave also after the resurrection shall have eA'en the same members that we daily use, yea, the very same flesh, blood, and bone ; the works Avhereof the Holy Scripture con- demneth and rejecteth, and not their nature. And this is the right and true acknowledging of the resurrection; AAdiich so appendix g. 447 givetli honour unto the flesh, that therewith it minisheth nothing the verity of the flesh.” i As a farther proof of how the Eeformers thought and spoke on this subject, the following may be quoted from Cranmer ‘‘And Gregory Nazianzen meant that Christ should not come at the last judgment in a corruptible and mortal flesh, as he had before his resurrection, and as we have in this mortal life (for such grossness is not to be attributed to bodies glori¬ fied); but yet shall he come with such a body as he hath since his resurrection, absolute and perfect in all parts and members of a man’s body, having hands, feet, head, mouth, side and wounds, and all other parts of a man visible and sensible, like as we shall all appear before Him at the same last day, with this same flesh in substance that we now have, and with these same eyes shall we see God our Saviour! Marry to what fineness and pureness our bodies shall be then changed, no man knoweth in the peregrination of this world, saving that St. Paul saith, “ That he shall change this vile ‘ We find the same view of the subject maintained by the Apostolic Fathers. Thus Ignatius But I know that even after his resurrec¬ tion he was in the fiesh; and I believe that he was so. And when he came to those who were with Peter, he said unto them, Take, handle vm, (md see that I am not an incorporeal demon. And straightway they felt him and believed, being convinced both by his fiesh and spirit For this cause they despised death, and were found to be above it ' But after his resurrection he did eat and drink with them, as he was'flesh • although as to his spirit he was united to tlie Father.”— to the omyrnceans, § iii. Thus, too, CuEivpNT : “ And let not any one among you say, that this very flesh is not judged, neither raised up. Consider, in what were ye saved, in what did ye look up, if not whilst ye were in this flesh ? We must, therefore, keep our flesh as the temple of God. For in like man¬ ner as ye were called in the flesh, ye shall also come in the flesh. Even o^ ord Jesus Christ, who has saved us, being first a spirit was made flesh, and so called us. Wherefore we also shall in this flesh receive the t^r^slation Epistle to the Corinthians, § ix. Archbishop Wake’s 448 APPENDIX G. body, that he may make it like unto his glorious body.” But that we shall have diversity of all members, and a due pro¬ portion of men’s natural bodies, the Scripture manifestly declareth, whatsoever you can by a sinister gloss gather .of Nazianzen to the contrary, that glorified bodies have no flesh nor grossness.” — Cranmer's Worlcs, i. 141, Parker Soc. Ed. “ I know that St. Paul saith that in the resun-ection our bodies shall be spiritual, meaning in the respect of such vile¬ ness, filthiness, sin, and corruption, as we be subject unto in this miserable world: yet he saith not that our bodies shall be all spiritual. For notwithstanding such spiritualness as St. Paul speaketh of, we shall have all such substantial parts and members as pertain to a very natural man’s body. So that in this part our bodies shall be carnal, corporal, real, and natural bodies, lacking nothing that belongeth to perfect men’s bodies. And in that respect is the body of Christ also carnal, and not spiritual. And yet we bring none other carnal imaginations of Christ’s body, nor mean none other, but that Christ’s body is carnal in this resjDect, that it hath the same flesh and natural substance which was born of the Virgin Mary, and wherein he suffered and rose again, and now sitteth at the right hand of his Father in glory; and that the same liis natiu-al body now glorified hath all the natural parts of a man’s body in order, proportion, and place distinct, as our bodies shall be in these respects carnal after our resurrection. Wliich manner of carnalness * and diversity of parts and > It is worthy of notice that the Article in the Apostles’ Creed which we have translated in our English Creed, the resurrection of the body, was delivered both by the Greek and Latin Churches in these words, the resurrection of the flesh; and the Chiu’ch of Aquileia propounded it to every single believer in a still more specific manner, the resurrection of this flesh. Peabson on the Creed, Art. xi. APPENDIX G. * 449 members if you take away now from Christ in beaven, and from us after oiu’ resurrection, you make Christ now to have no true man’s body, but a fantastical body, as Marcion and Va-* * lentine did: and as concerning our bodies, you rim into the error of Origen, which fancied and imagined, that at the resur¬ rection all things should be so spiritual, that women should be turned into men, and bodies into souls.” — Ihid. p. 177. But though so clear on the subject of the future condition of the body, the author of the Treatise “ Of the Hope of the Faithful,” yet partook in the prevailing opinion that heaven, not earth, ivill be the locality of their future inheritance. He is, however, consistent in maintaining distinctly that heaven must be a locality, “ for,” as he says, “ heaven is a certain assured placed and not only a name and declaration of the estate and being in heaven. Therefore when it is said, ‘ Christ is gone up into heaven,’ it is not so much as only to say. He hath takeD upon Him an heavenly estate or being; but also. He dweUeth bodily in heaven, as in one place.” (p. 151.) In the opinion that “ heaven is a certain assured place,” I confess I cordially agree. Many reasons may, I conceive, be urged in favour of it, while strange results must be admitted if the negative of the question be maintained. “ But if heaven be a locality, where is it?” We have no data on which to found an answer to this question, and in the absence of some authority to guide us, any opinion which may be hazarded upon the subject is of but little worth. With this understanding, I may venture, though not without much hesitation as to the propriety of doing so, to say, that it has long been a fond and favourite idea of my mind, and one -III . - . ■ --—— * So Bullinger;—“T herefore heaven, into which the Lord ascended, is the name of a place, not of a state or condition. Decades, vol. v, p. 448. Par. Soc. Ed. 450 APPENDIX G. which seems to gain strength by every recurrence, that pos¬ sibly what we understand by heaven may be the great CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE, around which, in wider and still wider circle, revolve the innumerable orbs of heaven. The progressive discoveries of astronomy seem to me strongly to favour this idea, for, as the Sun, with its entire planetary and cometary systems, is proved to be moving towards the con¬ stellation Hercules', as if revolving roimd some unknown centre, so it seems to be rendered probable that that point, whatever it may be, may be also in motion round some other centre, still more remote, and thus system after system, and cluster after cluster be going on in endless revolution round that mighty, and — must we not add ? — awful centre where stands the throne of the Eternal ! The probable existence, I may add, of a great centre to the entire universe is recognised by our best authorities. “ If,” says Mrs. Somerville we raise our views to the whole extent of the universe, and consider the stars, together with the sun, to be wandering bodies, revolving round the common centre of creation, we may then recognise in the equatorial plane passing through the centre of gravity of the universe the only instance of absolute and eternal repose.'’’’ ’ See Nichol’s “ Thoughts on some important points relating to the System of the World.” Edinburgh, 1846, p. 100. And Mitchell’s “Orbs of Heaven,” Lee. x. The latter remarks : “ We are now able to pro¬ nounce the following wonderful results; The Sun, attended by all its planets, satellites, and comets, is sweeping through space towards the star •marked ir in the constellation Herctdes, with a velocity which causes it to pass over a distance eqiicd to 33,350,000 miles in every year!" * “ Connection of the Physical Sciences,” Sec. iii. INDEX OE TEXTS. Genesis i. 1. p. 175. „ i. 21, 24. p. 267. „ ii. 7. p. 267. „ „ 19. p. 267. „ xvii. 8. p. 85. Exodus ii. 1, 2. p. 199. „ ix. 18, 24. p. 137. „ xix. 4. p. 341. „ „ 16. p. 146. „ „ 16-18. p. 133. „ „ 16-19. p. 144. „ „ 18. p. 145, 146. ,, xxxiv. 29—35. p. 293. Leviticus xxi. 11. p. 268. Numbers ix. 6, 7, 10. p. 268. Deuteronomy iv. 2. p. 49. j, xxix. 29. p. 7, Judges V. 4, 5. p. 134, 145. „ xiii. 6. p. 306. „ „ 19, 20. p. 331. 1 Samuel xxviii. 12—14. p. 381. 1 Kings vi. 21, 22, 30. p. 239. „ viii. 10, 11. p. 290. „ xix. 8. p. 344. 2 Kings xix. 35. p. 330. Job xix. 25—27. p. 277. Psalm ii. p. 60. „ „ 2, 6. p. 30. „ viii. 6. p. 193. „ xvi. 11. p. 10. Psalm xvii. 15. p. 10, „ x\dii. 8, 14. p. 146. „ xxxiv. 16. p. 7d, 75, 79. „ xxxvii. p. 58. n 9.P.75. „ „ 10, 11. p. 57,59, 61. „ 22. p. 75. „ „ 29. p. 59. „ 34-38. p. 75. „ xlv. 6. p. 29, 33. „ xlvi. 4. p. 224, 225, 244. „ 1. 3. p. 148. „ „ 5. p. 337. „ „21. p.400. „ li. 4. p. 402. „ Ixviii. 7, 8. p. 145. „ Ixxii. p. 60. ,, Ixxiii. 14. p. 67. ,, Ixxxvii. 1—3. p. 224, 228. „ Ixxxix. 3, 4. p. 33, 34. „ xc. 2. p. 160. ,, xci. 4. p. 341. ,, xcvii. 4, 5. p. 130, 134, 143, 145, 147. „ cii. 16, 25, 26. p. 46, 47, 184. ,, ciii. 5, 20. p. 330, 341. ,, civ. 30. p. 173, 178, 183. ”, „ 32. p. 149, 175. ,, cx. 1. p. 31, 32, 33, 35. „ cxiv. 7. p. 145. G o 2 452 INDEX OP TEXTS. Psalm cxxxii. 11. p. 32. „ cxliv. 6. p. 148. „ „ 5. p. 149. „ cxlix. 9. p. 403. Proverbs iii. 18. p. 245. ,, viii. 22—29. p. 208. „ X. 30. p. 75. ,, xi. 30. p. 245. „ xiii. 12. p. 245. ,, XV. 4. p. 245. Ecclesiastes ii. 16. p. 76. „ xii. 14. p. 400. Isaiah i. 1. p. 155. „ „ 26. p. 84, 403. „ ii. 1. p. 155. „ „ 2. p. Ill, 112,*115, 121, 129, 154. „ ,, 19-21. p. 147. „ ix. 6. p. 89. „ „ 7, p. 33, 34, 35, 50. „ xi. p. 43. „ „ 9. p. 44. „ „ 6—9. p. 176, 180. „ xix. 9. p. 381. „ xxiv. 23. p. 319. „ XXX. 26. p. 170, 314. „ xxxii. 1. p. 403. 5s sj 13—15. p. 183. „ XXXV. 1, 2. p. 183. „ xl. 27—31. p. 339, 351, „ xli. 18—20. p. 184. „ H. 6. p. 47. „ liv. 11, 12. p. 238. „ Iv. 12, 13. p. 184. „ lx. 17. p. 403. „ „ 19, 20. p. 316, 320. „ „ 21. p, 85. „ Ixi. 10. p. 303. „ Ixiv. 1, 2. p. 147, 131, „ „ 1—3. p. 132, 142, 145. „ „ 1—4. p. 127, 128, 130, 165. „ Lxv. 17. p. 23, 24. Isaiah Lxvi. 15. p. 148. „ „ 22. p. 23, 24, 26, 175. Jeremiah iii. 17. p. 36. „ „ 16—18. p. 43. „ xxiii. 5, 6. p. 29, 33, 34, 38, 85. „ XXX. 9. p. 43. „ xxxi. 35. p. 316. „ xlviii. 40. p. 341. Ezekiel i. 1. p. 347. „ iii. 12, 14. p. 347. „ viii. 3. p. 347. „ X. 4. p. 321. „ xiii. 1—3. p. 353, 386. „ xxxii. 21. p. 381. ,, xxxiv. 22, 24. p. 43. „ xxxvii. 1—14. p. 43, „ „ 15—28. p. 42. „ xli. 13—15. p. 227. „ xhi. 15—20. p. 227. „ xliii. 1, 2. p. 290, 321. „ xlvii. 1—12. p. 121, 242. „ xlviii. 9—17. p. 227. Daniel ii. 44. p, 33. „ vii. 9, 10. p. 309. „ „ 13, 14. p. 31, 33, 37- „ „ 22. p. 403. j) 5> 27. p. 35. „ ix. p. 335. „ „ 20, 21. p. 332. „ xii. 2, 3. p. 291. Hosea iii. 5. p. 43. Joel ii. 30. p. 148, 149. „ „ 31. p. 149. „ iii. 18. p. 121, 242. Amos i. 1. p. 114. Micah i. 3, 4. p. 127, 130,132, 146. „ „ 3—5. p. 128, 129. Nahum i. 3. p. 148. „ ,, 5. p. 147. Zephaniah iii 8. p. 149, Haggai ii. 6. p. 147. Zechariah viii. 3. p. 229. INDEX OF TEXTS. 453 Zechariah vlii. 6. p. 237, „ xiv, 3—5. p. 112. „ „ 4. p. 124, 128, 129. „ „ 5—10. p. 114, 115, 121, 154. j. ,, 8. p. 242. Matthew v. 5. p. 55, 62, 68. „ „ 12. p. 12. „ vi. 1—4. p. 411. » ,, 10. p. 81. „ viii. 11. p. 282, 393, „ X. 32, 33. p. 410. „ „ 41, 42. p. 407. „ xii. 36. p. 401. „ xiii. 30—39, 40. p. 295, 338. „ xvii. 2. p. 296, 298, 306, 5> 3. p, 380, „ xix. 28. p. 83, 84, 403. „ xxii. 29, 30. p. 174, 329, 330. „ xxiv. 31. p. 338. » 35. p. 46, 47, „ XXV. 31. p. 32, 34. „ xxvi. 29. p. 282. „ xxviii. 2, 3, p. 305. Mark ix. 3, p. 298. „ xvi. 5. p. 302. Luke i. 32, 33. p. 29, 32, 33, 34, 37, 51, „ ii. 9. p. 290. » V. 11, 12, 15. p. 31, „ ix. 26. p. 308. ») >» 28—35. p. 381, „ ,, 29. p. 302. „ „ 29—31. p. 290, 298. „ xii. 8, 9. p. 310. „ xiii. 23, 27. p. 394. „ ,, 28, 29. p. 282, 394. „ xvi. 9. p. 225, 248. 5) „ 19, 22, 31. p. 338, 381. „ xvii. 26—30. p. 82, 83, 84. „ xix. 11—27. p. 31, 36. Luke XX. 34—36. p. 307, 324, 328, 338. „ xxi. 11, 25, p. 147. „ xxii. 28—30. p. 282, 403. „ xxiii. 43. p. 379. „ xxiv. 4. p. 302. 5) j, 31. p. 349. „ „ 36—43. p. 272, 274. » „ 50, 51. p. 273. John i. 51. p. 12, 309. ,, iv. 13, 14. p. 244, ,, X. 30. p. 130. „ xii. 26. p. 27. „ xiv. 3. p. 27. „ xvii. 24. p. 27. „ XX. 12. p. 302. ,, „ 19. p. 349. „ „ 24—28. p. 272. Acts i. 3. p. 300. )> 5, 0 7. p. 36. >) )) 9. p. 349. „ „ 10. p. 302. ,, ii. 19. p. 149. „ hi. 21. p. 31, 33, 35. „ iv. 24—25. p. 60. „ vi. 15. p. 306. „ vii. 5. p. 52, 64. „ vih. 39. p. 337, 347. „ X. 40, 41. p. 273. „ xii. 7—10. p. 305, 331. „ xxvi. 13—16. p. 300, 321, Eomans ii. 6—12. p. 408. „ iv. 13. p. 64. „ viii. 11. p. 265, 267, 269. ,, „ 5, 8. p. 275, 276. „ „ 16, 17. p. 28, 64. „ „ 18—23. p. 174, 180, 279. „ ix. 5. p. 268. 1 Corinthians i. 26. p. 66. „ ii. 9—10. p. 143, 165, ., „ 13. p. 153. „ „ 14—15. p. 207. 4 454 INDEX OF TEXTS. 1 Corinthians iii. 8—15. p. 398, 409. „ iv. 4—5. p. 399, 401. „ vi. 2, 3. p. 84, 403. „ xiii. 8 —12. p. 168. „ XV. p. 34. „ „ 19. p. 67. „ „ 24. p. 29, 33, 35. „ „ 25-27. p. 29, 31, 33, 35. ,, ,, 28. p. 32, 33. „ „ 39—44. p. 264, 265, 268, 287, 327. „ „ 44—46. p. 267. „ „ 49. p. 270. „ „ 50. p. 273. „ „ 51, 52. p. 277. 2 Corinthians i. 14. p. 383, 397. „ iii. 7. p. 290, 293. „ „ 10-11. p. 17. „ iv. 14. p. 397. ,, ,, 17. p. 72. „ V. 6—8. p. 379. „ „ 10. p. 401. „ xii. 2—4. p. 337, 347. Ephesians i. 10. p. 28, 351. „ „ 20—22. p. 32, 323. „ iv. 10. p. 277. Philippians i. 21, 23. p. 379. „ ii. 8—9. p. 31. „ „ 16. p. 383, 397. „ iii. 9. p. 303. „ „ 16, 15. p. 243. „ „ 20—21. p. 109, 270, 297, 348. Colossians i. 12. p. 313. ,, ,, 28. p. 397. „ iii. 3. p. 12. 1 Thessalonians i. 3—5. p. 367. „ „ 10. p. 85, 368. „ ii. 1. p. 397. „ ' „ 19. p. 383, 397. „ iv. 13—18. p. 33, 365, 366, 368, 392 1 Thessalonians iv. 14. p. 308. „ 16. p. 85,145. „ 17. p. 28, 337, 342, 343, 346, 351, 390. 2 Thessalonians i. 7—8. p. 149. 1 Timothy ii. 5. p. 193. 2 Timothy iv. 1. p. 32, 35, 51. „ 6—8. p. 13, 384, 408. Hebrews i. 8. p. 33. ii. 5—9. p. 31, 193. ix. 23. p. 239. X. 27. p. 149. xi. 8—10. p. 52, 65, 86, 224. „ 13, 16. p. 65, 225. „ 33—38. p. 67. xii. 2. p. 32. „ 22. p. 225, 308. „ 26. p. 147. xiii. 14. p. 225. James ii. 5. p. 66. „ iii. 15. p. 267. 1 Peter iii. 18. p. 269. „ „ 22. p. 31. 2 Peter i. 19. p. 6. „ 21. p.47, 90. ii 4. p. 313. iii. p. 199, 200. „ 3. p. 19. „ 5. p. 20. „ 7. p. 20. „ 10. p. 21. „ 13. p. 18, 22, 25, 101, 202, 204. 1 John ii. 28. p. 383. „ iii 2. p. 297. Jude 6. p. 267. „ 13. p. 313. „ 19. p. 313. Revelation iii 5. p. 302, 410. „ „ 21. p. 32, 34, 84. ,, iv. p. 335. „ „ 4. p. 302. INDEX OF TEXTS. 455 Eevelationv. 7—14. p. 309. „ Ti. 9—11. p. 302, 380, 381, 382. „ vii. 9—10. p. 302, 383. „ xi. 15. p. 34, 35. „ xii. 1. p. 123. ,, ,, 5. p. 337. „ xviii. 1. p. 290. 305. „ xix. p. 199. „ „ 8, 14. p. 302. „ XX. p. 15, 16, 82. „ „ 4. p. 403. „ „ 5. p. 34. „ „ 6. p. 25. „ „ 11—15. p. 26, 46, 199. Revelation xxi. p. 167. „ „ 1. p. 23, 24, 25, 26, 46, 47, 198, 199. „ „ 2. p. 86, 221. )) ,, 3. p. 22o. „ „ 5. p. 48, 191, 258. n j, 7. p. 64. „ „ 16, 17. p. 221, 227. ,, „ 18—21. p. 236, 238. „ „ 23. p. 224, 239, 320. It tt 24. p. 250. It tt 27. p. 25. „ xxii. 1—5. p. 121, 224, 239, 244, 245, 320. „ „ 18. p. 49. THE END. LONDON P U I N T E D BY SPOTTISWOODE AND new-street square. C O.