Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

In the first place, it meets in the best possible manner, our ideas and hopes of happiness.

Spirits there may be, of a superiour order, which have no connexion with any material system, and are not dependant for their knowledge or their enjoyments, on any sens ble organs. But of their modes of existence, and their sources of happiness, we can frame no conception. All our ideas, and all our pleasures, come to us through the medium of sense and our spirits are of such an order, as has been before remarked, that their knowledge, their felicity, their perfection, depend on their connexion in some way with a corporeal system. Every thing connects us with the body, every thing attaches us to the body. Even the severest afflictions, the keenest pains, do not quench in the soul, this strong and inextinguishable love of its companion; unless guilt, by creating despair, has first induced a dread of future existence. Hence the apostle has said; we, who are in this tabernacle, do groan, being burthened, not that we would be unclothed; not that it is the object of these anxious wishes to be disembodied, but clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven; with that celestial, that regenerated body, which shall be freed from all the pains and imperfections of this mortal flesh, and which is only our present nature exalted to its ultimate perfection and glory. The earnest expectation of the creature, continues the same apostle, waiteth for the munifestation of the sons of God, at the resurrection of the just. The whole creation graneth: even those, who have received the most precious gifts of the Spirit, groan within themselves, waiting for the redemption of the BODY. What, indeed, would be the pleasure of existence to the soul, if we could suppose it, conscious of existence, deprived of the action and the aid of the senses, which are at present the only inlets of its knowledge, and the chief sources of its enjoyments?

The christian doctrine of the resurrection, then, corresponds with the dearest hopes and wishes of the human heart. It assists, likewise, the perceptions of faith. We are not now left in total uncertainty and darkness with regard to the nature of our future being. Some conjectures we can frame concerning it, without the hazard of being lost entirely in the unsubstantial re

gions of fancy. A future existence is no longer an inscrutable mystery. Although it offers to our hopes a condition of being inconceivably improved above the present, still we can discern between them some points of resemblance, which present to us ideas on that subject, at once intelligible to reason, and infinitely precious to the human heart.-There, believer! your faculties will be employed as here: but with an activity and vigour inconceivably augmented, in searching into the wonderful works of God; in admiring the order, the beauty, and harmony of the universal system; in adoring, and, with the angels, endeavouring to penetrate the astonishing mysteries of divine grace to man. Blessed and eternal sources of knowledge and of happiness! The faculties which you now feebly exert in the search of truth, in the love and service of your Creator, your Redeemer, and your fellow-men; will be new created in celestial vigour, and raised in a state of undescribable excellence and perfection. All the obstacles to your advancement in knowledge, at present arising from the narrowness of this corporeal sphere, the imperfection of these mortal powers, the inactivity and sluggishness of these gross and earthly organs, will be for ever removed. That carnal and disordered mass, which now renders the body the seat of impure passions, and impedes the holy aspirations of the soul, will be refined and purified. A body of celestial and incorruptible light, a spiritual body, as it is styled by the apostle; that is, a body active and unembarrassed in its movements, like spirit, rapid as imagination and thought, will in heaven be the fit instrument of the glorified soul, in its sublime and blissful em ployments.

From the doctrine of the resurrection of the same body, results another happy anticipation; the future knowledge of our pious friends, with whom we have been connected on earth, the re-union, in the highest felicity, of the same hearts which have been united here in the tenderest affections -Delightful and rav ishing hope! What pictures may imagination frame of friendship renewed in heaven; of the mutual joys of pious friends, who meet on that happy and eternal shore, escaped from all the

[blocks in formation]

ills and dangers of life; of their sweet intercourse, purified from all the passions and weaknesses of the flesh, which disturb the harmony of this world; of the range, they may be permitted to enjoy in society with each other, among the innumerable glories of the heavenly world, to nourish their devotion, and to diversify their happiness; of those flights which they may be allowed to take together into distant provinces of the universal empire of God, to collect the knowledge of nature, or to admire and adore him in the astonishing operations of his hands; or of the rapture, with which, every ray of the Sun of Righteousness will penetrate their hearts, when they turn their faces towards the heavenly Zion, the more immediate residence of the divine glory, to raise their common devotions to the Father of the universe, and to recognise, at the foot of his throne, their mutual and boundless obligations to redeeming love?-But, restraining all unlicensed excursions of fancy; exquisite, and how ineffable must be the felicity springing from a thousand different sources, which you shall enjoy from meeting in those blissful and everlasting habitations, the friends whom you have most tenderly and affectionately loved upon earth. Oh! how is the religion of our everblessed Saviour adapted to the best and most excellent feelings of human nature! How is it fitted to cherish the noblest and sweetest sympathies of the human heart! Away with that cold philosophy, which would destroy these precious consolations! which at death would devote our existence to eternal oblivion, and hopelessly rend asunder those delightful unions, which form the dearest portion of ourselves; the chief joy of our being ?— Yes, christian friends! beloved relatives! though you may be separated by death from those whom you have most loved; although you may often be clothed with the emblems of mourning and grief, which but feebly express the deep affliction which penetrates your hearts, religion points you to a source of divine and eternal consolations. You are separated for a moment, only to be restored to one another in a most blissful and eternal union. A tear, a pang you are allowed to give to nature; but it is the command of the gospel, weep not, as those who have no hope. Jesus Saviour! who art the first fruit of the resurrection from

the dead; who art thyself the resurrection and the life! we adore and bless thee, who hast given this consolation to suffering humanity!

The doctrine of the resurrection of the body, seems also to be intimately connected with our accountable state in this world, and with our future judgment. In this view, it will have the most important moral influence upon the conduct of mankind. If the soul were not to be re-united to the body, not being the same persons hereafter that we are here, might we not lose the consciousness of a former existence, and of our accountability for the actions of a being in all respects so different? But, believing in the resurrection of the body, in the completeness of the same person, in the consciousness which each one shall have of all that he has done in a previous state of existence; then every action, every word, every thought becomes important in its reference to eternity, and is continually impressing some colour, or some shade of colour on our everlasting destinies. The body which shall be raised being included in the present, being of its substance, having the same organization, the whole man shall preserve the same dispositions, habits, and affections, which form the character in the present life. These shall decide our condition in happiness or in misery, on which, the judgment of heaven shall fix its everlasting seal. What we have been, we shall be for ever. The impressions, which we receive, the pursuits in which we have been engaged, the inclinations, which have been created and cherished in the heart in our probationary existence, shall form the basis of our character throughout an immortal duration.

What are the conclusions then, what are the exhortations we should derive from these serious and interesting truths? The same which the apostle has already urged on all christiansLet not sin reign in your mortal bodies; purify yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, and of the spirit. Dishonour not your bodies by intemperance or lust, for they are the temples of the living God. And never let it escape your memory and attention, in whatever you undertake or do in necessary business, or in lawful amusement, in the plans of deliberate design, or under

the impulse of more sudden passion, that we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to receive according to what we have done in the body, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

Christians! what sublime and glorious prospects does our holy religion present to the imagination! What blessed and delightful hopes to the heart!-I speak of sincere believers; for although the doctrine of the resurrection applies also to the wicked, who will rise to shame and everlasting contempt, yet the apostle in this passage confines his reflections wholly to the destiny of the righteous.

But what tongue of men or of angels can describe the heavenly Jerusalem, the seat of their happiness, the celestial Eden, the paradise of God? Those scenes of everlasting peace and blessedness, those mansions illuminated by the eternal splendours of the Sun of Righteousness, those bodies of light, those souls of fire! It would require the eloquence of heaven to speak of them as they deserye; to understand them fully would require the ripened powers of immortality. For eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the things which God hath prepared for those that love him-Christians! disciples and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ! are you destined to such glory and happiness? Have you the same foundation for this precious hope as for your religion itself?—Let it prove the most powerful motive to you to cultivate in your hearts those affections of piety, in your lives those habits of holiness, which will prepare you for your eternal existence in the heavens. By temperance, by purity, by the exercise of every virtue, endeavour to assimilate more and more these perishing bodies to that pure and celestial nature, in which you shall hereafter behold the glory of God.

Listen, christians! to one reflection more on this interesting subject. The hope of the resurrection strips death of its greatest terrours. Death is no longer what it appears to be the destruction of our being. It yields to the grave only the grossest parts of these mortal bodies. The finer essence shall still cleave to the soul, and be improved with immortal vigour and glory, in the resurrection at the last day. The stroke of death shall

« ПредишнаНапред »