Glass_ Book_ L_ ESSAYS. London : Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, New- Street- Square. ESSAYS THE RECOLLECTIONS WHICH ARE TO SUBSIST BETWEEN EARTHLY FRIENDS REUNITED IN THE WORLD TO COME ; AND ON £)tSer &ubjttt$ CONNECTED WITH RELIGION, AND IN PART WITH PROPHECY. By THOMAS GISBORNE, M.A. LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, STRAND; AND W. BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH, 1822. *& TO Mrs. HANNAH MORE, THE FOLLOWING WORK IS INSCRIBED, WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF RESPECT AND FRIENDSHIP, THE AUTHOR, CONTENTS. ESSAY I. On the Recollections which are to subsist be- tween Earthly Friends re-united in the World to Come, - Page 1 Chap. I. Introductory View of the Subject, - 1 Chap. II. On the Presumptions suggested by Reason, - - 5 Chap. III. On the Presumptions suggested by the Holy Scriptures respecting the Subject under Examination, 13 Chap. IV. The Testimony of the Scriptures continued, - - - - 35 Chap. V. On the Testimony supplied by the Scriptures in aid of the present Argument in their Representations of the Day of Judge- ment, ------ 61 Chap. VI. On Difficulties and Objections re- specting the Scriptural Doctrine which has been developed, - - - 77 Chap. VII. Application of the Subject, - 85 viii CONTENTS. ESSAY II. On Attestations furnished in the Bible to its own Truth, by remarkable Omissions and Insertions, ----- 97 ESSAY III. On the present State of Feeling between Cal- vinists and Anticalvinists ; and on the Com- bination of Calvinistic and Anticalvinistic Opinions, - - - - 154 ESSAY IV. On the lawful Extent of Prophetical En- quiry, - - " - 192 ESSAY V. On the Little Book of the Tenth Chapter of the Apocalypse, - - - - 21 5 ESSAY VI. On our Lord's Predictions recorded in Matth. xxiv., Mark, xiii., Luke, xxi., - - 232 ESSAY VII. On the Seventh Head of the Roman Wild Beast of the Apocalypse; and on the Eighth King, or Form of Government, - 259 ESSAY VIII. Plain Proof to the Poor that the Bible is the Word of God, - - - - 32 7 ESSAY I. ON THE RECOLLECTIONS WHICH ARE TO SUBSIST BETWEEN EARTHLY FRIENDS REUNITED IN THE WORLD TO COME. CHAP. I. INTRODUCTORY VIEW OF THE SUBJECT. X he question whether Christian friends, whose intercourse upon earth has been interrupted by the stroke of death, will renew their association in the heavenly kingdom of their Redeemer, and with mutual recollection of their past attach*, ment, and of its attendant circumstances, is not unfrequently proposed. It is an enquiry which flows from the warmest feelings of the heart; and frequently presents itself at seasons, when the en« B o quirer is ill fitted to answer it to himself. When the spirit is wounded by separa- tion from a beloved object recently borne to the grave ; the mourner, at the very time when he is the most anxious to discover whether reason has any sugges- tions worthy of confidence to offer, as to the probability of personal knowledge of individuals being prolonged into the eternal world, is the least able rightly to search out and to appreciate her de- ductions. When he asks, and with still more just solicitude, whether the gospel, which has brought life and immortality to light, has thrown a ray on'that parti- cular portion of the condition of immor- tal life, with which his bosom is labour- ing: the more will he be in danger of being dazzled by delusive gleams darted from his own imagination, or of fear- ing to trust the light which meets his eyes in the pages of Holy Scripture. The hour of tranquillity is the season for sober deliberation and solid conclusions. A question often proposed must often have been answered. It is possible, and may be probable, that the main sub- stance of every thing which can be brought forward upon the subject, may already have been at different times ad- vanced by different writers. A work, however, designed, by the assemblage and consideration of circumstances re- specting futurity, to give comfort to per- sons under affliction on the death of friends, and including a comprehensive selection of the sentiments expressed di- rectly or incidentally on the topic before us by various authors, many of them persons of eminence as divines, partly in sermons, partly in dissertations, is in my hands. * Without detracting from the merit either of the volume collectively, or of the individuals from whose publica- # The volume is entitled, "' Sermons and Ex- tracts consolatory on the loss of Friends;" 2d. edit, printed for Hatchard and Son, London, 1819. It contains selections from the works of Archbishops Tillotson and Wake ; Bishops Bull, Home, Green, and Porteus ; Dr. Paley, Dr. Maclaine, Dr. Dod- dridge, and other distinguished writers. Two Sermons of my own, which are honoured by the unknown compiler with a place among the rest, contain little relating to the particular subject of the present treatise. B 2 tions it has been compiled, it may be ob- served that, by no one of the writers, taken singly, has the particular question which I propose to examine been dis- cussed with the fulness which it admits and deserves; and that there are argu- ments and views connected with it which appear to have been overlooked by all. The proposed enquiry may commodi- ously be regarded as dividing itself into two distinct branches. L The presumptions which reason, whether by its natural powers, or as enlightened by the general truths of the Christian revelation, may suggest, II. The conclusions which may ap- pear to be incidentally involved in pas- sages of Scripture remotely bearing on the subject ; or to be implied or affirmed in passages, of which the bearing is close and direct upon it. CHAP. II. ON THE PRESUMPTIONS SUGGESTED BY REASON. In researches concerning the suggestions of reason upon any given subject, the concurrence of general opinion among mankind is deemed to be entitled to con- siderable weight. The unanimity, or the near approach to it, usually testifies that the tenet thus recognized accords with appearances presented to universal observation ; or that it harmonizes with reflections naturally excited by the topic of enquiry. If nations, dwellers in dif- ferent ages, in different climates, and at still more widely separated points in the scale of civilization, have been found unit- ed in a common persuasion that a Divinity exists ; the fact is admitted into its place among the attestations to the being of a God. However extravagant may be the absurdities, however gross the supersti- tions, however multifarious the idolatries, b 3 6 however base and detestable the practical abominations, with which the persuasion is accompanied ; its testimony to the general truth is not impaired. If in every part of the world, and among all known generations, past and present, of its inhabitants, and with no exception unless it is to be traced in some tribe depressed by barbarism almost to the level of the brute animals of the wilder- ness, the mind recoils from the idea of annihilation ; the fact is accepted among the presumptions of the destined immor- tality of the soul. Of whatever kind may be the fancied region which the savage or the philosopher may assign to departed spirits ; in whatever occupa- tions ignorance, whether more or less speculative, may employ the dead; through whatever changes and transmi- grations it may ordain them to pass ; the support of the testimony to the probabi- lity of a future state is unshaken. Now, it seems to be indubitably true, that, in all periods, nations, in looking forward to a state of existence beyond the grave, have connected with that state the ex- pectation of renewed and conscious in- tercourse with their earthly companions, and even of association with individuals unseen by themselves in the present life. If Socrates delighted himself in the pros- pect of conversing with Orpheus and Musaeus, and Hesiod and Homer ; if Cicero exulted in the anticipated re- union with Cato amidst the assembly of the great and good \ if the Greeks and the Romans peopled their Tartarus and their Elysium with spirits retaining all their ancient remembrances ; the senti- ment of the untutored heathen is simi- lar at this day. The mother, in the islands of the Pacific, mourning for her children, comforts herself with the belief that after her own death she shall rejoin them. The Gentoo widow burns that she may be replaced with her husband. Why does the Indian of North America stretch his hand with joy towards the un- known world beyond the summits of the blue mountains ? It is because he is con- fident that the chase of the bear and the elk, and the pursuit of the ancient ene- mies of his tribe, will there be renewed b 4 8 by him in the society of his contempora- ry and kindred chieftains, and in con- junction with the spirits of his fathers. And what if he also deem that, " Admitted to that equal sky, " His faithful dog shall bear him company?' 7 The artless and characteristic addition detracts not from the earnestness of his desire to be united with the deceased warriors of his race ; nor from the fulness of his conviction that he shall be their associate. In the concurrence, then, so nearly universal of mankind in the persuasion, that the personal and mutual knowledge of individuals will be extended into a fu- ture world ; we have a presumption, sug- gested by reason, in support of that opi- nion. The belief of a future state, when once it is established in the mind, naturally suggests the conclusion that the present life, and that to which we look forward, are not two unconnected and unallied conditions of existence ; but that the an- tecedent period of being is appointed as a preparation for that which is to follow* Spring is evidently ordained and calcu- lated to be the introduction to summer, summer to autumn, infancy to childhood, childhood to youth, youth to manhood. If the omnipotent Creator and all-wise Disposer of our lot has now placed us in this earthly province of his universal em- pire, and with a settled and known de- termination on his part, however com- municated to man, that in due time we shall be transferred into another portion of his kingdom ; reason decisively guides and impels us to the conviction that in this prior stage of the progress there are qualities to be cultivated, and habits to be formed, which shall be developed and matured and brought to their perfect ex- ercise in that future abode where we are to dwell for ever. Whatever may be the earthly qualities and habits which reason would indicate as designed for perpetuity j an early place in the catalogue would be appropriated to those which constitute human friendships. Hence one of the earliest presumptions of reason respecting futurity would be infavour of a gracious in- b 5 10 tention on the part of the Supreme Being, that virtuous friendships should be reviv- ed beyond the grave ; and with the en- dearing consciousness that the attach- ments had commenced upon earth. There seems also, on the natural principles of reason, enlightened by the general truths of the gospel, no slight foundation for the presumption, that persons who have been trained together on earth in the doctrines of one common faith, who have dwelt in habitual intercourse as servants of one common Redeemer, are not destined hereafter to meet as strangers in the man- sions of their Father's house. They have walked together in the earthly temple of God as friends. They have been fellow- soldiers under the Captain of their salva- tion. They have fought, side by side, un- der his banner, the good fight of faith. They have pursued, under the guidance of his Spirit, the same path of holy obe- dience. They have been rendered, under the hand of Providence, instrumental each to the other in Christian edification. They have been fellow-members of that 11 kingdom of God which is begun on earth and is to be perfected in heaven. When this mortal shall have put on immortality, when they shall have been translated from this preparatory scene of existence into the immediate presence of their Saviour j will it be that they shall lose all recollec- tions of their former Christian fellowship, and of its accompanying events and sym- pathies ? Surely that would be a conclu- sion, which, if the irrefragable authority of revelation does not command men to adopt it, may be regarded as deeply marked with the characters of antecedent improbability. The moral and religious faculties of the mind which, as means employed by the sanctifying spirit of God, render men conformed on earth, according to the humble measure of human attainment, to the Divine image, and are the grand sources of happiness in earthly friend- ships, are not to be disjoined from the soul on its separation from the body. Not only will they survive the stroke of death j but they will be so purified, so exalted, as to be the essential instruments of bless- b 6 12 edness to glorified spirits. Hence arises an additional presumption that the exer- cise of these faculties in the heavenly intercourse which shall subsist between glorified individuals who had previously been associates in this lower world, will not be debarred from the heightenings of happiness, which would result from the consciousness of antecedent endearing ties. To compare the actual state of those faculties in the world above, their strength, their expansiveness, their puri- ty, their sanctity, with the narrow limits and the feeble and sullied powers permit- ed to them in the region of mortality ; to contrast the immeasurable acquisitions of knowledge and of blessedness, opened and opening to them throughout eternity, with the slender attainments which could be reaped on earth ; may well be a lasting source of mutual gratulation, may well be a cherished accession of felicity, to the spirits of just men made perfect. IS CHAP. III. ON THE PRESUMPTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE HOLY SCRIPTURES RESPECTING THE SUBJECT UNDER EXAMINATION. Of the passages in the word of God* which appear applicable to the present enquiry, some have a more direct and powerful bearing on it than others. While there are some which remotely indicate or corroborate the conclusion, to which the deductions of reason have pointed in the preceding chapter; there are others so strong and explicit, that each of them might almost seem individually sufficient to decide the question. That justice, however, may be fully rendered to the subject, and as different readers are variously impressed by different forms and grounds of argument ; it is requisite that the passages of either description should be brought forward. But no cita- tion will be given, which is not, in my apprehension, fairly relevant. 14 The passages to be produced from the Scriptures, will be arranged and examined one by one. The relevancy of each to the subject of our investigation ; and, if the relevancy be admitted, the degree of force which the passage possesses, may thus be the more satisfactorily developed for the consideration of the reader. And if there be any passage which he may finally deem irrelevant, it may be dismissed by him without injury to the rest. 2 Samuel xii. 22, 23. And he said ; " While the child was " yet alive, I fasted and wept : for I said, " who can tell whether God will be gra- " cious to me, that the child may live ? " But, now he is dead, wherefore should " I fast? Can I bring him back again? " I shall go to him ; but he shall not re- turn to me." These words of David may be under- wood in two different ways. They may be taken either as a simple declaration of the Psalmist, that in due time he should be consigned, like his departed offspring, 15 to the sepulchre; or as an averment of his conviction that he should rejoin and recognize his child in a future world. If the first meaning be all that is implied in them, they have no connection with the present enquiry. If the second be their real signification, they convey to us the judgement of David on the subject. That the latter signification is implied in them fully or exclusively, is rendered highly probable, if not absolutely certain, by the following considerations. The king, according to the preceding part of the chapter, had exhibited the most poignant anguish in anticipating the death of his son. The event took place. At once David not only discontinued the religious exercises adopted under a glimmering of hope that, in pity to his sufferings, and in acceptance of his contrition, the de- clared purpose of his offended God that the child should not recover might be shown to have been conditional, and might graciously be recalled; but dis- played a tranquillity, nay, even a cheer- fulness of deportment, which denoted solid consolation within, and excited the 16 astonishment and the enquiries of his at- tendants. Whence could the consolation arise ? Not from the bare recollection of the fact that ultimately he also should die. The child whom he had lost, was not, on that assount, lost to him the less. But suppose the father to cherish a firm conviction, that by death he should be reunited to his son; and all is intelligible and accordant. The ground of the com- fort is clear ; the expression of it, natural and appropriate. Still it may be replied, that, admitting the validity of these observations, we are presented merely with the individual opi- nion of David. It is true. It is also true, that, although David was largely gifted with inspiration, it would be too much for us to conclude that every opinion, even on a solemn occasion, which might be incidentally recorded in the Scriptures as pronounced by him, was the dictate of the Holy Ghost. Yet it seems no irra- tional supposition, that the declaration of his judgement on a general question, so interesting not only to himself, but to all men in every age, should be one of 17 the occasions, on which he spoke under the guidance of the Spirit of God. And that supposition furnishes a more strong and pointed explanation than otherwise might be obvious, why the transaction was inserted by the sacred writer. 1 Cor. xv. 54 — 57. " When this corruptible shall have put " on incorruption, and this mortal shall " have put on immortality ; then shall " be brought to pass the saying that is u written, Death is swallowed up in " victory. O Death, where is thy sting? " O grave, where is thy victory? The " sting of Death is sin ; and the strength of " sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, " who giveth us the victory through our " Lord Jesus Christ." The consequences of sin form the sting of death ; produce the victory of the grave. One of these consequences, es- tablished by the law of God, which enacts death and its results as the penalty for transgression, is the separation of relative from relative, of friend from friend. If men had not sinned, the 18 union of earthly attachments would have been unbroken and immortal. . If the victory to be conferred on the redeemed by their Redeemer is to be complete ; must not all the consequences of sin be terminated and annulled? Must not all lost privileges be restored? Must not the association of human friendships, with all their endearing consciousnesses and recollections, be replaced on the basis on which it would have rested for ever, if the ruin of man by the fall had not been effected ? The preceding line of argument is justly deemed forcible, when applied to the resurrection of the body. Whatever happiness in a future world might be granted to the souls of the righteous; yet, were not the body rescued from the grave, death would remain in possession of a part of its prey, sin would triumph in a part of its consequences unrepealed. This corruptible must put on incorrup- tion, this mortal must put on immortal- ity, to render the victory purchased by the Son of God for his servants complete. The reasoning appears cogent also in the 19 case to which it has been applied in the present article. Matthew, xxvii. 5% 53. " And the graves were opened, and " many bodies of saints which slept " arose ; and came out of the graves " after his resurrection, and went into " the holy city, and appeared unto * many." Whether the bodies of righteous men thus delivered from the tomb by our Lord, as he arose triumphant from the dead, relapsed into dust, when, by their ap- pearance to numbers of their former asso- ciates in Jerusalem, they had sufficiently attested his victory ; or were exalted by Him to heaven, as honoured fruits and evidences of his resurrection; is a ques- tion with which, in the present enquiry, we are not necessarily concerned. Put the less probable supposition, that they slept again. Is it then to be expected that these holy men, when they shall be reunited for ever in the mansions of bliss, will be deprived of all remembrance that they were distinguished by their Re- deemer from among the general mass of 20 the dead as the first-fruits of his harvest, as the first trophies of his conquest ? Is it to be expected that their righteous friends at Jerusalem, to whom they were permitted to manifest themselves, shall possess no recollection of their own ex- traordinary privilege in being rendered the objects and witnesses of the re-ap- pearance of their departed associates? Is it credible that no such recollection, no joyful interchange of communications springing from such recollection, shall take place, when the individuals to whom the manifestation was made, and they who had been restored to life for the purpose of being so manifested, shall be through eternity companions in glory, and partakers of the presence of that Redeemer who had bestowed the memo- rable privileges ? And can we suppose that the righteous men to whom the pre- fixed quotation from St. Matthew's gos- pel relates, shall be the only righteous men who shall preserve human recollec- tions? Does not the inference reason- ably extend itself to all the spirits of the righteous ? 21 If we assume, not that the bodies of the saints raised at the resurrection of our Lord experienced a merely transient reprieve from the power of the grave, and were then returned to its prison, but that they were rescued from its do- minion as immediate and permanent proofs of the Redeemer's triumph over death : to suppose that these saints were subsequently deprived of all remem- brance of their early resurrection, and of the cause of it, and of the accompanying and succeeding circumstances, would be still more evidently in the face of all pro- bability. Acts, vii. 52, 53. " Ye — have received the law by the " disposition of angels/' Galatians, iii. 19. " The law was ordained by angels in " the hand of a mediator." 1 Cor. iv. 9. " We are made a spectacle— to " angels." Matt, xviii. 10. " 1 say unto you, that in heaven their 22 " angels do always behold the face of " my Father who is in heaven." Luke, xv. 10. " Likewise I say unto you ; there is " joy in the presence of the angels of " God over one sinner that repenteth." Luke, xii. 8, 9. " Also I say unto you, whosoever " shall confess me before men, him shall " the Son of man also confess before the " angels of God. But he that denieth " me before men, shall be denied before " the angels of God." Luke, xx. 36. " Neither can they die any more ; for " they are equal unto the angels." Heb. xii. 22. " Ye are come — unto the city of the " living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, " and to an innumerable company of " angels." Heb. i. 14. " Are not they all ministering spirits, " sent forth to minister for them who " shall be heirs of salvation ?" The argument under the present ar- ticle will be of an analogical nature. The 23 prefixed passages are adduced to show the intimate interest, which, under the appointment of God, the holy angels have ever taken, and will ever continue to take, in the welfare of men indivi- dually ; and the permanent and blessed association which is to subsist in heaven between the angels and the righteous. Is it not then in the highest degree pro- bable that, in the heavenly intercourse between particular angels and the very persons respecting whom their ministra- tions had been specially employed, those persons should be enabled to know that their present associates had been their unseen and guardian protectors through the trials and dangers of mortality ; and that gratitude on one side and encreased attachment on both sides should thus be augmentations of bliss throughout eter- nity ? Nay, to put the case of some single ministration : When the shepherds of Bethlehem shall be, as we trust that we may deem them already, the glorified companions of the hosts of heaven who announced to them the nativity of the incarnate Son of God j shall there be 24 no recognition, no communication, no rapturous interchange of remembrance respecting that mission of tidings of great joy, between the angelic messengers who conveyed the intelligence, and the fa- voured individuals who received it? Shall not those individuals possess recollections of that message from above? And shall not each of them also know his earthly com- panions of that memorable night, now that they are standing by him in glory ; and recognize them as having been fellow-par- takers with himself in the privilege of the miraculous revelation that a Saviour was born ? And does not the analogy extend to mutual recollections and recognitions in all the spirits of the righteous ? John, xii. 26. a If any man serve me, let him follow " me ; and where I am, there shall also " my servant be." John, xiv. 2, 3. " In my Father's house are many c < mansions : if it were not so, I would " have told you. I go to prepare a place " for you. And if I go and prepare a 25 * place for you, I will come again and '* receive you unto myself; that, where I " am, there ye may be also." John, xv. 11. " These things have I spoken unto " you, that my joy might remain in you, " and that your joy might be full." John, xvii. 24. " Father, I will that they also whom " Thou hast given me be with me where " I am, that they may behold my glory 4t which Thou hast given me ; for Thou " lovedst me before the foundation of « the world." I bring these passages together, because they all manifestly relate to one subject, and concur in suggesting and in sup- porting an observation important to the present enquiry. The observation which appears deducible from them is this : Their language is exactly such as might have been anticipated on the supposition, that the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ were hereafter to be for ever re- united before Him and with Him into one great family ; and with the posses- c 26 sion of their earthly recollections as to their Lord, and as to the intercourse which in their mortal state subsisted be- tween themselves and that Great Re- deemer, and mutually between each of them with the rest of their number. With any other supposition, the lan- guage will not easily and naturally accord. Assume that our Lord, when he had pronounced the passages which have been quoted, had subjoined to them a declaration to the following effect : " Do not, however, imagine, O " ye my apostles and attendants, that " when ye shall be re-assembled in my " heavenly kingdom to behold and to " share my glory, throughout eternity, " ye shall retain any remembrance that " ye have been companions upon earth " and fellow-labourers in my service. " Me ye shall be enabled individually to " recognize ; but not one another. Thou, " my beloved disciple John, shalt recol- " lect that thy brother James, and Peter, " and Andrew, and others, were thy daily " associates in the work of the ministry ; «< but thou shalt not be conscious in 27 " heaven that they are standing in glory " at thy side. So likewise shall it be u with all the rest. Henceforth so long " as the world shall last, let no one who " shall embrace my gospel dream that in * the world to come he shall recognize iC any of my servants, who were dear to " him below." Would not this declara- tion, as combined with the preceding- passages, have been received with ex- treme surprise ? Could it be regarded otherwise than as pointedly opposite to the expectation, which they must ob- viously excite ? Ephes. iii. 14, 15, " I bow my knees unto the Father of " our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the " whole family in heaven and earth is " named. " This passage is produced for the sake of the term family, which is here applied by the apostle as a descriptive expression^ comprehending the already departed ser- vants of God, as well as those who should subsequently be added from the earth to the holy assemblage above. The word c 2 <28 answers with accuracy to the original term Trargia, which denotes a collection of per- sons descended from a common father, and is elsewhere rendered (Luke, ii. 4.) " lineage" and (Acts, iii. 25.) " kindred." The expression presents to the mind a body of relatives in the reciprocal and full enjoyment of intimate recollections and sympathies : and thus corroborates the inference recently drawn from parts of the Gospel of St, John. Luke, xx. 35, 36. " They which shall be accounted worthy u to obtain thatworld,andtheresurrection u from the dead, are equal unto the an- " gels ; and are the children of God, " being the children of the resurrec- " tion." Matt. xxv. 34. " Come, ye blessed children of my " Father, inherit the kingdom prepared xt for you from the foundation of the " world." Rom. viii. 16—21. " The Spirit itself beareth witness with *' our spirit, that we are the children of 29 " God: and if children, then heirs, heirs u of God and joint heirs with Christ. For " the earnest expectation of the creature " waiteth for the manifestation of the sons " of God; because the creature itself also " shall be delivered from the bondage of " corruption into the glorious liberty of " the children of God." Scriptural instances, too numerous to be cited, or to stand in need of specific reference, occur, in which the phrases, the children of God, the sons of God, the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, are applied to persons, individually, or collectively, who are sincere followers of righteousness. In the quotations from the Gospels of St. Matthew and of St. Luke, and from the Epistle to the Ro- mans, placed at the head of the present article, such titles are applied to the righ- teous, viewed collectively, as united after death in the kingdom of heaven. These appellations obviously tend to confirm the remarks which have been offered in the two preceding articles. c 3 30 1 Cor. xv. 6. a After that, He (Christ) was seen of ** above five hundred brethren at once." Ephes. vi. 23. " Peace be to the brethren, and love, 4i with faith, from God the Father, and Qi the Lord Jesus Christ." These examples are cited as specimens from among at least a hundred to be found in the New Testament of the de- nomination of brethren being applied as the characteristic distinction of Chris- tians. Feelings and actions correspond- ing to that distinction are inculcated frequently and emphatically. Sometimes the injunction is conveyed in simple and energetic precepts. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. Love the brotherhood. Let brotherly love con- tinue. Add to godliness brotherly kind- ness. This commandment have we from Him, That he who loveth God love his bro- ther also. Love as brethren. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. * * Rom. xii. 10. 1 Pet. ii. 17. iii. 8. Heb. i. 13. 2 Pet. i. 7. 1 John, iv. 21. 1 John, iii. 16. 31 Sometimes commendation for the dis- charge of the duty is added. As touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it towards all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obey- ing the truth through the Spirit unto un- feigned love of the brethren ; see that ye love one another with a pure heart for- vently. * Sometimes brotherly love is singled out as the test of a Christian. Our Lord had said, By this shall all men Imow that ye are my disciples, if ye have Jove one to another A In conformity with this declaration are the statements of St. John. Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him ; how dwelleth the love of God in him ? We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. * 1 Thess. iv. 9, 10. 1 Pet. i. 22. + John, xiii. 35. c 4 32 He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother "whom he hath seen ; how can he love God whom he hath not seen ? In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil ; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his bro- ther. * Sometimes evil conduct is re- presented as aggravated in consequence of being directed against the brethren* Neither doth he himself (Diotrephes) receive the brethren ; and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. Through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience y ye sin against Christ. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend t. * 1 John, iii. 10. 14. 17. iv. 20/ f 3 John, 10. 1 Cor. vi. 8. viii. 11, 13. 33 When the reader shall have appreci- ated the collective force of these passages concerning Christian brotherhood ; let him judge whether it be consistent with their import to suppose that a reciprocal attachment thus peremptorily command- ed, thus recommended and sanctioned with reiterated earnestness, thus pre-emi- nently distinguished as the badge of the followers of Christ, is to be annihilated by the stroke of death, is thenceforth to be for ever as though it had never been. Let him judge whether it is supposable that this union of affection, founded on the word of God, growing between indi- viduals on earth in correspondence with their growth in grace, matured in the maturity of their Christian character, is destined, at the very moment when the word of God shall have accomplished its office, when grace shall have completed its work, when the Christian character shall assume its perfection in heaven, to be instantly and for ever obliterated* Let him judge whether it is supposable that the consciousnesses on which it was formed, invigorated, and exalted, shall c 5 34 be no more, when the individuals shall enter together into their everlasting blessedness in the presence of that Re- deemer, who, throughout the period of his public ministry, and equally on his trium- phant return from the grave, having ho- noured with the endearing appellation of brother every one of his true servants, so now on the throne of his eternal glory is not ashamed to call them brethren. * * Matt. xii. 48, 49. xxv. 40. xxviii. 10. Mark, iii. 33, 34. Luke, viii. 21. John, xx. 17. Heb. ii. 11, 17. 35 CHAP. IV. THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES CONTINUED. 2 Thess. i. 6—10. " It is a righteous thing with God to " recompense tribulation to them that CK trouble you ; and to you who are " troubled, rest with us, when the Lord " Jesus shall be revealed from heaven " with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, " taking vengeance on them that know " not God, and obey not the gospel of " our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be " punished with everlasting destruction " from the presence of the Lord and from " the glory of his power, when he shall " come to be glorified in his saints, and " to be admired in all them that believe ; " because our testimony among you was c believed, in that day." The value of this passage, as applicable to our subject, results from the general c 6 < So impression which the language conveys* The natural inferences from the words of the apostle seem to be the two follow- ing. First, That the obstinate persecu- tors of the Thessalonian church, when they shall be experiencing in the world to come the avenging wrath of the Lord Jesus Christ, will know that they are receiving the recompence of their enmity against his followers. Secondly, That the persecuted and faithful Christians, when united with the apostles in heavenly rest, will Imow themselves to be reaping in that rest the recompence of having believed and obey- ed the testimony of the inspired ministers of the gospel: and, farther, that they will recognise those instruments of their con- version and salvation associated with them in that glorious rest. It will not be supposed by any person that a permanence of antecedent con- sciousnesses will be exclusively appro- priated as a punishment or as a privilege, to the persecutors and to the persecuted of Thessalonica, or of any other place or season. The inferences, if established, embrace mankind • 37 Matt. xxii. 31, 32. " As touching the resurrection of the M dead, have ye not read that which was " spoken unto you by God, saying, I " am the God of Abraham, and the God " of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God " is not the God of the dead, but of the " living." The authority of the words of God to Moses, as cited in the passage and inter- preted by our Lord himself, is decisive in proof, that the doctrine of the resur- rection was clearly discoverable, and was intended to be distinctly discerned, in the Jewish Scriptures, before the days when life and immortality were fully brought to light by the gospel. The quotation from the New Testament is now selected as justifying the following question. Is it conceivable that when God is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob* and while these Patriarchs are enjoying life eternal in the presence of God, and while each of them knows for himself that the God before whom he stands in 38 glory is his God, that they should not know each of them the other two ? Matt, viiu 11. " 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." Luke, xiii. 28. " There shall be weeping and gnashing " of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, " and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the pro- " phets in the kingdom of God, and you " yourselves thrust out." With reference to the former of these texts, I would, in the first place, enquire, as in the preceding article, whether it is compatible with the lowest degree of probability to suppose, that when Abra- ham, and Isaac, and Jacob are sitting together in the kingdom of heaven, Abraham shall have no conscious recol- lection that he is actually beholding his beloved Isaac, the child of promise, the ordained forefather of many nations, the appointed ancestor of the Messiah, in whom all the nations of the earth should 39 be blessed ; that Isaac shall have no consciousness that he is dwelling in glory with his revered earthly father, before whom he submissively placed himself to be bound as a sacrifice upon the altar: that Jacob shall have no knowledge of his own parent, nor of the father of the faithful; that the three patriarchs shall be each to the other as three individuals incidentally brought together into an abode of happiness from three different quarters or periods of the globe, or from three different planets? In the second place, let me ask whether it can be deemed probable or possible, in consist- ency with the words of St. Matthew, that the " many" who come from the east and from the west, (and, as St. Luke adds, xiii. <29- from the north and from the south,) and sit down in the kingdom of God with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, shall not be conscious that they are associated with those exalted cha- racters ; nor be enabled to know which among the glorified assemblage are seve- rally the three individuals ? And why is it emphatically stated as a prominent 40 circumstance accompanying the admis- sion of all these strangers from each quarter of the globe into the kingdom of God, that they shall be associated with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Ja- cob ? Why should it be interesting to those strangers to be joined in heavenly intercourse with those patriarchs ? Why, but because the characters and actions of those patriarchs, when living upon earth, the station which had there been assigned to each patriarch, and the signal favour and blessing which had there been vouchsafed to each by his God, would be subjects of universal knowledge and recollection to the inhabitants of heaven ; and because the heavenly in- tercourse of these strangers with the three illustrious saints would thus be rendered in the highest degree interest- ing and delightful ? If any doubt can be imagined to sub- sist as to the two leading points, already stated, of our inquiry, first, whether it be conceivable that the three Patriarchs shall not be known each to the other ; and, se- condly, whether they shall not be known 41 to the collected multitudes from the north and from the south, and from the east and from the west; it is removed directly as to the second point, and con- sequently by irresistible implication as to the first, in the quotation from St. Luke: " When ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac* " and Jacob, and all the prophets in the " kingdom of God." The words are irrefragably conclusive. There are two circumstances, which render the conclusion the more impres- sive. The persons who are described as having this knowledge, that certain par- ticular individuals on whom they are gazing are Abraham, and Isaac, and Ja- cob, and the "prophets of the Most High* are not righteous men exalted after death to a state of union and blessed familiarity with these eminent servants of God ; but men who lived in wickedness, servants of sin, children of the devil, themselves thrust away from the kingdom of God unto weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. And, farther, this knowledge is not described in terms which indicate an attainment impressed by a special in* 42 terposition of divine agency on the wicked as a punishment, and on the righteous as a privilege. When ye shall sec Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God. The words are those of simple and ordinary narra- tion. They seem to speak of the know- ledge, as though it were a matter of course ; as the natural consequence and fruit, so to speak, of recollections, or of powers, accompanying the soul as a part of itself from the present world into the next; as analogous to the knowledge which a person admitted to contemplate an earthly assembly comprising many celebrated characters would speedily pos- sess as to their identity ; partly, it might be, from some measure of antecedent intercourse ; partly from the conversa- tions which he would hear, from pro- ceedings w 7 hich he might witness, and from enquiries which he would have immediate opportunity to make and to pursue. In concluding this article, let the reader be requested to consider whether it is rationally supposable, that the stran- 48 gers from all the different parts of the world shall be replete with knowledge respecting Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and shall have no knowledge or recollec- tion respecting themselves and the r own earthly friends, then reunited with them ? Is it supposable that the Jews, when seeing and knowing the patriarchs and all the prophets seated in the king- dom of God, shall have no remembrance, no recognition of their own earthly in- tercourse with their companions in evil still at their side ? MatTo xix. 28. " And Jesus said unto them ; Verily I " say unto you, that ye which have fol- " lowed me in the regeneration, when " the Son of man shall sit on the throne " of his glory, ye also shall sit upon " twelve thrones, judging the twelve 11 tribes of Israel." This promise was the answer of our Lord to St. Peter's enquiry, what should be the recompence of the Apostles, who had forsaken all to follow Christ. Re- specting the exact import of the promise, 44 different opinions prevail, on account of the subsisting uncertainty whether the phrase " in the regeneration," is to be connected with the words which precede it, or with those which are subsequent to it; and what is the meaning which, if the latter connection be preferred, the phrase may bear. " Ye who have followed me in the regeneration :" Ye who have been my companions, and my delegated mini- sters, in this my office of converting and regenerating the world, ye, when I shall be enthroned to judge the world, shall be enthroned as my assessors in pronoun- cing judgement on the twelve tribes of Israel. Or, " in the regeneration ye shall sit on twelve thrones: 99 In that day, in which I shall have renovated all things by the reception of my servants into my heavenly kingdom, ye shall be through- out eternity seated on twelve thrones, and dignified as heads and rulers under Me of my glorified tribes of Israel . It has also been imagined that the sentence, on the supposition that the dubious words are to be taken in the latter connection, may 45 relate to some deputed superintendence over the tribes of Israel to be visibly or invisibly exercised by the Apostles dur- ing the millenian reign of our Lord. But whichever of the two connections be chosen, whichever of the three interpre- tations be adopted ; in every one of the cases it is equally clear that the promise to the Apostles, that they shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, relates to a period which was to be posterior to the time of the death of the Apostles. Neither is it less evi- dent that the Apostles, in thus judging the tribes of Israel, are severally to know the persons judged by them to be of the tribes of Israel : in other words, that the Apostles are severally to retain, after death, their human consciousnesses and recollections. The reasoning applies it- self with equal clearness to departed Is- raelites who shall perceive themselves to be the subjects of this Apostolical judge- ment, whatever it may be. They mani- festly will know themselves to be Israel- ites, and to be judged by the Apostles. 46 Luke, xvi. 22 — 25. " And it came to pass that the beg- " gar died, and was carried by the angels " into Abraham's bosom : the rich man " also died, and wasburied. Andinhellhe " lift up his eyes, being in torments ; and " seeth Abraham, afar off, and Lazarus " in his bosom. And he cried and said, H Father Abraham have mercy on me j " and send Lazarus, that he may dip the " tip of his finger in water and cool my " tongue : for I am tormented in this 6i flame. But Abraham said, Son, re- " member that thou in thy lifetime re- " ceivedst thy good things, and likewise " Lazarus, evil things : but now he is " comforted, and thou art tormented." It might scarcely be too strong a posi- tion to affirm, that the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, delivered by our Lord himself, is in itself decisive on the ques- tion which is discussed in the present essay. The authority of the speaker h incontrovertible. The language employ- ed is unequivocal. The whole parable is pervaded by the assumption, the argument 47 of the parable is constructed and is re- gularly dependent on the assumed fact, that the rich man retains in the world into which he is removed, and in the state in which he is unalterably fixed, his earthly consciousnesses and recollec- tions, and becomes knowingly conversant with individuals unseen by him in the body. He discovers Lazarus afar off, and at once knows him as distinctly and determinately as formerly when a beggar lying at the gate. He possesses a clear perception of the circumstances of his father's house, and of the character of his own five brethren. He is enabled immediately to recognize the patriarch Abraham personally ; and addresses the Father of the faithful as his ancestor, and appeals to his paternal compassion. On what basis does Abraham build his reply ? On these very consciousnesses and recol- tions abiding in the bosom of the un- happy man. " Son, remember that thou " in thy lifetime receivedst thy good " things ;" those things which alone the rich man had prized and sought as con- stituting happiness j " and likewise La- 48 * zarus evil things," poverty and pain, under whose discipline the event proves that Lazarus had been led to fix his heart on God and bliss eternal. The rich man tacitly admits his remembrance of all these particulars ; and shows that he fully enters into Abraham's reference to the writings of Moses and of the pro- phets. To the very last word the para- ble proceeds consistently on the ground- work, on which it began to establish its argument. Still it may be alleged by an objector, that a parable is but a parable ; that it adopts fictitious representation ; that it is not to be estimated as a real history, nor to be regarded as designed to be doctrinally conclusive on points incident- ally comprehended in its texture. This statement would be just. But while it is true that the circumstantials of a parable may be fictitious, and that the slighter ap- pendages are not unfrequently selected simply for the sake of giving coherence and life and emphasis to the story ; it is equally true that the specific scope of every parable of our Lord's is an inspired argu- 49 ment, and that the essentials of the parable are intended to prefigure reali- ties. If any addition to the observations which have been offered on the parable before us be requisite ; we may ask, whe- ther it is supposable that our Lord, if there were to be no recognition of indi- viduals beyond the grave, would have so constructed and carried forward this parable, that it should not only des- cribe the existence of such recognition, but should constitute that recognition the basis of the general argument. Rev. vi. 9 — 11. " And when he had opened the fifth " seal, 1 saw under the altar the souls " of them that were slain for the word " of God, and for the testimony which " they held. And they cried with a " loud voice, saying, How long, O " 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, D 50 " until their fellow-servants also, and u their brethren that should be killed as " they were, should be fulfilled." The Apocalypse contains a series of prophetic and emblematical visions, bear- ing in many points a resemblance to parabolic composition. On that account, I adduce the present passage next in order to the parable discussed in the preceding article. In this passage, to whatever period or event the prediction may be applied by expositors, it is ob- vious that, throughout the prediction, and as its very basis, the souls of the departed martyrs are described as evi- dently and intimately knowing one ano- ther ; and likewise as retaining their general knowledge of the events which had befallen them upon earth. The re- marks, therefore, which were subjoined to the parable recently considered, may be transferred to the verses which have now been cited from the Revelations. Rev- v. 8—10. " And when he had taken the book, u the four beasts (£W, living creatures) £1 " and four