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labours, and their works do follow them" (Rev. xiv. 13). Their works do follow them like the track of light that follows the sun, and is a part of his essence. 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 ever" (Dan. xii. 3). A life of beneficence is the truest evidence of immortality in the liver, one excellent characteristic of another: as St. John also intimates in several of his sayings, especially in this, " We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (John I. iii. 14): as on the contrary, “he that loveth not his brother abideth in death" (Ib.).

But when God himself is represented by the prophet, as clothing himself with created properties, the expression may be understood more literally; as e. g. "He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garment of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke" (Isai. lix. 17). And only upon this one article of salvation may be exemplified the manner in which acts, or the properties, &c. composed of them, will belong to their subject, and effects to their object. For regarding salvation as an incidental in this case, the property will be chiefly his from whom, and secondarily theirs to whom this blessing proceeds; in the same manner as harmony is first the property of the musician, and next of those who hear it. So the Psalmist avers, "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord; and thy blessing is upon thy people" (Ps. iii. 8). And so the gift of song is thine, O heavenly bard; while the blessing, or effect, is theirs who have the gift to feel its music and eloquence.

§ 6. If under the preceding heads the constituents of the kingdom may seem to have been wound up to the highest degree of complexity, from their simplest appearance, in the acts or accidents of which they are composed, their survey will not, however, yet seem complete without an allusion to their chronological as well as physical order

in respect of the observer, after the second of the two forementioned methods of dividing the subject*. And this will bring to mind three states or periods, the past, present, and future: of which any one may have as good a general apprehension as of east and west, with the space between, in respect of locality. But as east and west may seem rather mysterious distinctions on a particular consideration, so will two of these states, the past and future, at least; and their observation also, of some consequence to the knowledge of the present. Standing, therefore, in the midst between that which is past and that which is to come, as it were between east and west, and considering the whole life to be, as it has just been described; not a particular property of the kingdom, but the same in substance formed, by successive combinations, of its own specific tendencies, acts, and consequences; we may therefore suppose, first the three several states, parts, or positions aforesaid; and then, placing the present, or middlemost as a centre, we may suppose next, three several stages, or periods either way; namely, first on either side one, that may be called continuous, there being no particular breach or interruption between its two parts, one way to the birth, the other way to the death of the subject, as youth and age for example; and next to these, two stages either way; that may be called intromitted the first of the two one way being antenatal, or prior to the birth of the subject; the second supramundane, or prior to the creation of the world-the first of the two, the other way, being posthumous, or after death, (a temporary indulgence to many) the second ultramundane, or after the world, a state of eternal bliss, or torment-all together as follows, v. g.

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But in considering these several states, it will be necessary to proceed from a beginning instead of the centre, if we can find a beginning for the past any more than we can for the east.

1. First, therefore, consulting our experience with regard to the past in order to make out something of a Preexistence, and finding that nothing happens ever without a cause, nor yet without ways and means, we may thence infer and clearly perceive two subjects of such a state, namely, 1 the cause, and 2 the means; as the subjects of such pre-existence; whereby the question is narrowed so as to turn wholly on a third object, namely, the effect, or product. And what we shall now have to consider is, whether any of the effects or productions that we now perceive in existence may have existed before, and in what manner. The flower that now glows, for example, in perfect bloom was three days since an opening bud; three weeks before, it was neither bud nor flower, but still to be what it is: what then could it be when it was not; or where could its present being and appearance, or essence and presence, have begun? The present being of the flower, say a rose, has two beginnings, one in the purpose of the Creator, and one in his creation: but its present appearance; what beginning had that? It may be said, The same: the present, whether in being or appearance, in essence or in presence, being but a part of the whole, only one scene in the beautiful exhibition of a rose. So we may presume the Kingdom of God in all its glory to have been at first both generally and particularly as it is now and to be in virtue and liability; the same also in progress or continuity, the mode or first purpose naturally growing to its proper effect, if nothing hinders; like "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew " (Gen. ii. 5); as the same lay SLUMBERING IN ITS MODE, waiting a joyful resurrection.

This we may presume, although presumption on such points be not so smooth as some may imagine: and more we may inquire too concerning the past; though

we know that it is more Christian-like, or more the Christian mode, to inquire prospectively than retrospectively, in this case; considering the end of our existence, to which we may and must concur in some sort, rather than the beginning or early part of it which we cannot influence now, if we ever could. Yet such an inquiry will not appear to be without its consequence, nor the present occasion unfavourable to a short review of the arguments on either side, especially as far as the inquiry may happen to turn on a PERSONAL PRE-EXISTENCE, the mode of which has been already defined in the abstract. Understanding therefore the reality of an abstract pre-existence, or a pre-existing course and outline of persons now in existence; we may advance a step, but inquiring now, instead of understanding, as to the FULL AND ACTUAL pre-existence of a person or tenant of the present state in some other or others, somewhat as follows.

Being here such as I am, and different perhaps in some respects from what I have been within my own remembrance; admitting also the common ingredients of which I am compounded, or some of them, to have had a being before I was born, or it may be any one else, or, if required, that they even existed before the first man was created in the same mode or general medium by which my dear self is described, and in virtue likewise together with such mode or medium from eternity-though the precise mode of such an eternal existence is too subtle a point, and too speculative to demand my attention this moment; for many reasons I could wish to know and understand, and need not be afraid of attaining at least to some general conclusion on the subject, whether the same portion of intellect by which this question is now agitated has ever existed before? Have my soul or my body, or both, or any less complex constituent or constituents of my self, either jointly or severally existed before their appearance in my present state?

There has been a belief, and a wide belief certainly of

was.

both these conditions; that is of both a partial and an entire, or a spiritual and a personal pre-existence, in the human kind at least, and that founded in religion: some holding the doctrine of a metempsychosis, or a pre-existence of the soul only; others, that of a continual renovation, or something like a personal pre-existence by joints or successions in a sort of concatenated being: and others may think, that if neither a whole person, nor any considerable part of him, if neither soul nor body, yet some act or experience at least, if not some property, or perhaps one element that he deploys in life, might have pre-existed for him as a sort of nucleus, or else as a part of what he But supposing first, our acts to be our own, it will be hard to conceive how they could be so much beforehand with us; one should think there must needs be a general beginning somewhere, or none. Or, supposing secondly, our properties to be made of our acts, as aforesaid, they could not begin severally either. And thirdly, these being the sum and foundation of elements, the preexistence of elements too will not seem more plausible than that either of the forementioned less complex constituents. While, fourthly, with respect to the pre-existence of either part: as of the soul or immaterial for example, though one should rather expect the material to be the elder, if any odds, on account of its comparative simplicity—in either case the hypothesis would seem about as consistent, as that of the pre-existence of one integral part only: and to understand the soul existing before the body, or the body before the soul, would, considering the general and indispensable union as well as distinction between all our essential constituents before remarked, not be more rational, than to understand a man's body coming into the world a century or two before his head, or the head a century or two before his body. And as for the doctrine of a continual renovation, though it implies no absurdity, with those who believe in one renovation by the resurrection of the dead, and may even be

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