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Or let the man who rests his objection to this doctrine on its contrariety to reason and philosophy, say by what process it can be shown to be impossible that the body of man should be made to resume its vital functions, when they have once ceased. The philosophers of the present age may justly have proposed to them the question which silenced the objectors of a former period :-"Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?" If those who hesitate to receive cordially the resurrection, err on the one hand by not knowing the Scriptures, they err no less on the other by their disregard to "the power of God."

We would here inquire of those whose hesitation we are seeking to remove, what those principles of an intelligent nature are, with which they conceive that the notion of a future state of existence is at war? Can it be affirmed that it is a sentiment which meets with no kindred faculty-which kindles no appropriate feeling -which is adapted to no beneficial effect? The very contrary of all this is notoriously the fact. The idea of a future life is one which our minds, formed as they are for anticipation, and to feel in futurity a present interest, receive most readily, and feel with instantaneous power. The light of revelation presents to us but the very hopes for which, in the darkness of nature, we had been pining, and finds us ready to spring forward to the possession of the whole region of which the prospect is opened to our view. Its adaptation to our nature is an eminent confirmation of its truth, and entitles it to be hailed by sound reason and enlightened philosophy as an inestimable acquisition to their treasures.

If, once more, complaint should be made, as a last resource, of the mystery which hangs over the life to come, and of the ignorance in which we are held of its practical details; we join with the complainant in acknowledging our ignorance, but we cannot draw from it his conclusion. We admit that it is difficult, if not impossible, while we are in the body, to conceive of the modes of action of disembodied spirits, and, while we are in this world, to declare the employments of the next; but we cannot see why our ignorance of these things should lead to the rejection of a truth so well established as the existence of a future state itself. It is making a bad use of our ignorance, to render it a pretext for limiting our knowledge; and if a man will not believe that there is any other state than the present, because he cannot comprehend other modes of existence than his own, to be consistent with himself, and to carry out his principle, he must no longer believe that the winds blow or

the trees blossom, since he is equally ignorant of the methods of both.

The sacred Scriptures thus establish the existence of a future state. The application of the doctrine of a future state is important and solemn. This life to come is the state from whence our Maker has drawn motives to enforce on us his law. "Obey me," says he, "because hereafter I will render to every man according to his works." What vast and awful objects thus present themselves to us! What a boundless range of being! What intensity of blessedness or woe! Shall we really be, and shortly be, in this dread eternity? And which will be ours,-its sorrows or its joys? Tremendous question! As transgressors against God, we all deserve its deepest woes. Have we repented of iniquity? Have we fled for refuge from the wrath to come? Have we entered the narrow way that Have we embraced cordially, and are we following wholly, Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, the Life?

leads to eternal life?

(To be continued.)

THE ENGLISH MONTHLY TRACT SOCIETY,

20, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON;

AND

J. F. SHAW, BOOKSELLER, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, LONDON.

J. & W. Rider, Printers, Bartholomew Close, London.

A FUTURE STATE.

PART II.

A FUTURE STATE.

PART II.

THE certainty of a future state being ascertained, it is to be expected that the mind should demand some information as to its nature and the circumstances under which our existence will be protracted in it. It would be strange, if an individual about to take up his residence in some distant part of the globe, from which he had not the prospect of ever returning to the scenes amid which he had been brought up, were to manifest no desire to ascertain the particular features of the locality on which he should soon enter, and pay no regard to the probability of its being a happy exchange, or otherwise. Ordinary prudence would conspire with natural curiosity to constrain to such inquiries. Certain then as we are of another state of being, it is not only natural, but wise, that we should press inquiry with respect to the characteristics by which futurity is distinguished, the nature of the future state. The sacred Scriptures enable us to do so with a considerable degree of success. They meet us in our solicitude, and afford us at least some general ideas of what awaits us.

From their pages we collect, for instance, that the condition of the body, although truly raised from the dead, and the same body which it had ever been, will be greatly modified. To this effect we have the express testimony of the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 50, 42, 44: "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption . . ... It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." We conceive the sentiment to apply to the raised body of man universally. It will not be a natural body, but a spiritual body. Not the body transformed into a spirit, but rendered suitable to a world of spirits, and to all the modes in which spirits act. The precise nature of the change which this expression indicates, it is of course impossible to ascertain, but it would seem necessarily to involve the idea, that every

thing heavy and cumbrous will be done away, as well as every thing adapted to limit the acting of the soul."

The future state will be characterized by great expansion of powers. It does not appear that the intelligent constitution of man will undergo any change as to its nature or mode of operation. So far as the mental process is concerned, we shall perceive and reflect-we shall feel and determine on the same principles as we do at present-but all with much greater vigour and intensity. Decisive indications of this are to be found in the force and even vehemence which is thrown into the Scriptural representations of the future condition of men. It is not described so much in simple language, as in metaphors taken from the most striking objects, and of the utmost possible strength. Their happiness is life-their misery death. The former is expressed by glory, crowns, a kingdom-the latter by torment, fire, the worm that never dies. The former utters itself in songs and everlasting joy-the latter in weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Such language is clearly meant to describe something far exceeding either the ordinary pains or pleasures of mortality.

This sentiment is in perfect harmony with the circumstances of the case. When we consider that the soul is a spiritual existence, it becomes obvious that it is capable in its own nature of much more extended and vigorous action than it now performs. As a spirit, it could discern and converse with spirits, and act with the force and velocity of a spirit; and although the body furnishes its present means of perception and operation, the actual effect of this conjunction is, not to augment the capabilities of the soul, but to limit them. The body being suited only to an earthly state, it prevents the powers of the soul from coming into action, except in as far as they are adapted to a similar condition. It contracts the sphere of our vision to regions which the eye can command; it limits the objects we pursue to the competency of an arm of flesh; and restrains our very emotions within the dimensions which a feeble body can sustain. We have many proofs that the soul is capable of much more intense feeling than the body can bear, inasmuch as emotions of alarm, and even of joy, have occasionally overcome the mental frame, not only to faintness, but to death. It seems manifest, therefore, that nothing more than the mere occurrence of death is needful to an immediate expansion of the mental powers, as when an elastic spring escapes from the pressure by which it had been previously and closely confined.

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