186 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



ipirit of their minds,&quot; and endowed with those 

 noly dispositions which alone can qualify them 

 for relishing substantial happiness, and for par 

 ticipating in &quot; the inheritance of the saints of 

 light.&quot; How could Malignity associate with 

 Benevolence, Contention with Friendship, or 

 War with Peace ? How could the sons of 

 iiscord dwell in unity, in an assembly where all 

 4 s harmony and love ? How could the malicious 

 and revengeful spirit find delight in the employ 

 ments of kindness and pure benignity? How 

 could the man who now finds his chief pleasure 

 in hounding and horse-racing, in brawling and 

 fighting, have any relish for the sublime adora 

 tions, the enraptured praises, and the lofty and 

 refined contemplations, of the celestial inhabi 

 tants ? The thing is impossible, unless the mo 

 ral order of all worlds were completly subverted. 

 Such characters will be banished from the abodes 

 of bliss ; not by any arbitrary decree of the Al 

 mighty, but in virtue of the moral constitution of 

 the intelligent universe. 



It is, therefore, evident, that the happiness of 

 heaven must be founded upon the exercise of love, 

 affection, harmony, perfect good-will to fellow- 

 intelligences, and the infinite variety of ramifi 

 cations into which such principles may diverge ; 

 combined with profound, enlightened, and venera 

 ble views and affections, in relation to the God 

 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When 

 these and similar dispositions are uniformly ex 

 ercised, without the least mixture of any one in 

 gredient of moral evil, it is easy to conceive, 

 with what transports of delight the inhabitants 

 of heaven will contemplate the displays of Di 

 vine Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, and inves 

 tigate the history of his dispensations in the 

 moral government of our world, and in the ar 

 rangements of all the other worlds whose physi 

 cal and moral economy may be laid open to their 

 view.* 



Such views are in perfect accordance with 

 the representations of Scripture. &quot; Without 

 holiness, no man shall see the Lord.&quot; &quot; The 

 pure in heart (and they alone) shall see God.&quot; 

 &quot;Nothing that worketh abomination, can enter 

 within the gates of the heavenly city.&quot; &quot; As we 

 have borne the image of the earthly, (says the 

 Apostle,) so shall we bear the image of the hea 

 venly.&quot; &quot; Christ Jesus gave himself 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 crown 

 of glory, reserved in heaven for the faithful, is 

 designated &quot; a crown of righteousness.&quot; &quot; The 



The Author will have an opportunity of illus 

 trating this topic in more minute detail, in a work 

 entitled, &quot; The Philosophy of a Future state; or, an 

 Illustration of the Connexion of Science with the 

 Eternal World, and of the Aids which its discove 

 ries afford, for enabling us to form a conception of 

 -he perpetual improvement of the celestial Inhabit 

 wits In knew edge and felicity.&quot; 



spirits of just men,&quot; in the future wor.d, &quot; ar 

 made perfect,&quot; freed from every taint of moral 

 pollution, and unrestrained in the exercise (ft 

 their moral powers. The inheritance to 

 which they are destined, is &quot; undefiled&quot; with 

 the least stain of corruption, or with the exam 

 ple of impure and malignant spirits. &quot; Wheo 

 Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall be 

 like him ;&quot; transformed into his moral image, 

 and animated with those Divine principles and 

 virtues, which he displayed in his conduct, when 

 he tabernacled among men. The saints &quot; shall 

 walk with him in white,&quot; an emblem of their 

 perfect moral purity ; &quot; they shall receive an in 

 heritance among them that are sanctified ,&quot; and 

 &quot; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, 

 nor crying ; for the former things shall have pass 

 ed away.&quot; 



V. From the preceding illustrations we may 

 learn something of the nature and essence of fu 

 ture punishment. If the exercise of love, in all its 

 diversified modifications, constitutes the founda 

 tion and the essence of happiness, the unrestrain 

 ed operations of malevolence must be the source 

 and the sum of misery. We cannot form a more 

 dreadful picture of future punishment, than by 

 conceiving the principles of falsehood, deceit, 

 and malignity, and the passions of pride, hatred, 

 malice, and revenge, raging with uncontrolled 

 and perpetual violence. We need represent to 

 ourselves nothing more horrible in the place of 

 punishment, than by supposing the Almighty 

 simply to permit wicked men to give full scope 

 to their malevolent dispositions ; leaving them 

 &quot; to eat of the fruit of their own ways, and to be 

 filled with their own devices.&quot; The effects 

 produced by the uncontrolled operation of such 

 principles and passions would be such, as may 

 be fitly represented by the emblems of &quot; the 

 worm that never dies,&quot; of&quot; devouring fire,&quot; and 

 of their necessary concomitants, &quot; weeping, and 

 wailing, and gnashing of teeth.&quot; (See Chap. 

 II. Sect. iv. pp. 55. 58.) What other ingre 

 dients of misery, arising either from local cir 

 cumstances, from the recollection of the past, or 

 the anticipation of the future, may be mingled 

 with the cup of future wo. it becomes not us par 

 ticularly to determine. And, whether this scene 

 of misery will ever come to a termination, must 

 be determined by the consideration, whether the 

 effects produced by such a punishment will have 

 a tendency to produce repentance and reforma 

 tion on the minds of the sufferers. If, after a 

 lapse of ages, the principles of hatred to God, 

 and to surrounding intelligences, continue to 

 operate with increasing violence, without pro 

 ducing the least desire of returning to their al 

 legiance to God, or the least symptom of reforma 

 tion, then, we may conclude, that the misery 

 of wicked intelligences will continue so long a* 

 they remain in existence. 



