56 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



The nature of the heavenly felicity, and the 

 employments of the future world, are likewise in 

 cidentally s ated and illustrated. The founda 

 tion of happiness in that state is declared to con 

 sist in perfect freedom from moral impurity, and 

 in the attainment of moral perfection. &quot; No one 

 who worketh abomination can enter the gates of 

 he New Jerusalem.&quot; &quot; Christ Jesus gave him 

 self for the church, that he might, sanctify and 

 cleanse it, and that he might present it to himself 

 a glorious church, holy, and without blemish.&quot; 

 The honour which awaits the faithful, in the hea 

 venly world, is designated il a crown of righteous 

 ness.&quot; The inheritance to which they are desti 

 ned is declared to be &quot;undefiled&quot; with moral 

 pollution ; and it is &quot; an inheritance among them 

 that are sanctified.&quot; &quot; When Christ, who is our 

 life, shall appear,&quot; says the Apostle John, &quot; we 

 shall be like him,&quot; adorned with all the beauties 

 of holiness which he displayed on earth as our 

 pattern and exemplar. The employments of that 

 world are represented as consisting in adoration 

 of the Creator of the universe, in the celebration 

 of his praises, in the contemplation of his works, 

 and in those active services, flowing from the 

 purest love, which have a tendency to promote the 

 harmony and felicity of the intelligent creation. 

 &quot; I beheld,&quot; said John, when a vision of the 

 future world was presented to his view, &quot; and, lo, 

 a great multitude, which no man could number, 

 of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 

 tongues, stood before the throne, clothed in white 

 robes, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to our 

 God that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 

 Lamb. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and 

 thanksgiving, and honour, and power, be ascribed 

 to our God forever and ever.&quot; That the con 

 templation of the works of God is one leading 

 part of the exercises of the heavenly inhabitants, 

 appears, from the scene presented to the same 

 apostle, in another vision, where the same celes 

 tial choir are represented as falling down before 

 Him that sat on the throne, and saying, &quot; Thou 

 art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, 

 and power ; for thou hast created all things, and 

 for thy pleasure they are, and were created.&quot; 

 Such sublime adorations and ascriptions of praise, 

 are the natural results of their profound investi 

 gations of the wonderful works of God. In 

 accordance with the exercises of these holy intel 

 ligences, another chorus of the celestial inhabi 

 tants is exhibited as singing (he song of Moses, 

 ihe servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, 

 saying, &quot; Great and marvellous are thy works, 

 Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, 

 Jiou King of saints.&quot; 



The resurrection of the body to an immortal 

 life, is also declared, in the plainest and most 

 decisive language. This is one of the peculiar 

 discoveries of Revelation ; for, although the 

 ancient sages of the heathen world generally 

 admitted the immortality of the soul, they seem 



never to have formed the most distant conception, 

 that the bodies of men, after putrefying in the 

 grave, would ever be reanimated ; and honce, 

 when Paul declared this doctrine to the Atnenian 

 philosophers, he was pronounced to be a babbler. 

 This sublime and consoling truth, however, is 

 put beyond all doubt by our Saviour and his 

 apostles. &quot; The hour is coming,&quot; says Jesus, 

 &quot; when all that are in the graves shall hear the 

 voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth; 

 they that have done good, to the resurrection of 

 life ; and they that have done evil, to the resur 

 rection of condemnation.&quot; &quot; I am the resurrec 

 tion and the life : he thatbelieveth in me, though 

 he were dead, yet shall he live.&quot; &quot; Why should 

 it be thought a thing incredible that God should 

 raise the dead ?&quot; &quot; We look for the Saviour, 

 who shall change our vile bodv, that it may be 

 fashioned like unto his glorious body, according 

 to the energy by which he is able even to sub- 

 due all things to himself.&quot; We shall all be 

 changed, 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.&quot; The nature of this 

 change, and the qualities of the resurrection- 

 body, are likewise particularly described by Paul 

 in the fifteenth chapter of the first epistle to the 

 Corinthians. &quot; It is sown,&quot; or committed to 

 the grave &quot; in corruption ; it is raised in incor- 

 ruption&quot; liable no more to decay, disease and 

 death, but immortal as its Creator. &quot; It is raised 

 in Power,&quot; endued with strength and vigour 

 incapable of being weakened or exhausted, and 

 fitted to accompany the mind in its most vigor 

 ous activities. &quot;It is raised in glory&quot; destined 

 to flourish in immortal youth and beauty, and 

 arrayed in a splendour similar to that which 

 appeared on the body of Christ when &quot; his face 

 did shine as the sun, and his raiment became 

 white and glittering.&quot; &quot; It is raised a spiritual 

 body&quot; refined to the highest pitch of which 

 matter is susceptible, capable of the most vi 

 gorous exertions and of the swiftest movements, 

 endued with organs of perception of a more ex 

 quisite and sublime nature than those with which 

 it is now furnished, and fitted to act as a suitable 

 vehicle for the soul in all its celestial services 

 and sublime investigations. 



Such is a brief summary of the disclosures 

 which the Christian Revelation has made 

 respecting the eternal destiny of mankind a 

 subject of infinite importance to every rational 

 being a subject of ineffable sublimity and 

 grandeur, which throws into the shade the most 

 important transactions, and the most splendid 

 pageantry of this sublunary scene a subject 

 which should be interwoven with all our plans, 

 pursuits and social intercourses, and which 

 ought never for a moment to be banished from 

 our thoughts. I shall, therefore, conclude this 

 department of my subject with a remark or :wc 



