ous duties. Were a circumstantial detail of! future blessings to be presented to the imagination, to the extent which curiosity might require, the human mind might be rendered unfit for the present state of things; and the humble faith, and pious hope, which are so acceptable to God, might give way to unseasonable ecstasies, or to a painful and culpable impatience.

We are, however, able to collect the following particulars, from the different representations given of a future state, in the sacred writings.

That state is always held forth to the righteous as a Promise. It is the promise of some great and lasting good; a good that will be adapted to the improved nature of man; and with which no sublunary good is worthy to be compared.

As the Gospel is professedly a Dispensation of Grace; as it perpetually offers pardon and reconciliation; as in every page, it addresses itself to the best feelings of the heart, it is continually expatiating upon the Blessedness of the future world, although in very indefinite terms. The lot of the irreclaimable children of their heavenly father, and the punishment to be inflicted upon them, are occasionally and reluctantly mentioned, by way of salutary admonition. These are not treated as the principal parts of their ministry, either by Christ or his Apostles. It is

observable, that whatever relates to the future destiny of the Wicked, is much more obscurely expressed. It may be considered as an awful and alarming threat, and not as an explicit revelation. As we are now examining the charac teristic excellencies of Christianity, in its display of the divine Benignity, we shall not intermix with it the particulars of so gloomy a subject, but reserve them for a distinct Enquiry.

The following circumstances are revealed to us respecting a Future State, which is promised as a Blessing.

1. It is denominated Life. "If thou wilt enter into life," says our Saviour to the Lawyer,

keep the Commandments." "They that believe not in the Son shall not see life." “As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will," and "because I live ye shall live also." "Verily verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live," &c.*

*See John v. 20. passim.

Jesus complains, "Ye will not come unto me that you may have life;" and he terms himself the "bread of life." All the Apostles have likewise adopted the same language. "If by one man's offence, death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of Grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ."*"We that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened; not for that we shall be unclothed but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."

"He that hath the Son hath life," says the Apostle John," and he that hath not the Son hath not life."

The idea universally entertained of Life is, that it is a state of conscious existence; a state in which all susceptible beings are rendered capable of sensation and perception, and of receiving impressions from surrounding objects. Rational and moral agents are made capable of thinking, examining, reflecting, and of acting, according to certain principles, in the discharge of various offices, and in the pursuit of various objects. We expect to lose these powers by death. The bodily frame is totally decomposed; and it can no longer serve as an instrument for the vital

Principle. All sublunary connections and sublunary concerns, are annihilated for ever. Nor can any satisfactory conceptions be formed concerning that energetic Principle, respecting its state of existence, or mode of existence; much less concerning any state of consciousness, or powers of activity, without correspondent organs. This is the Death which hath passed, and will pass upon the human race; and the Life promised in the Gospel, in opposition to death, must signify the restoration to conscious existence. Those to whom this promise was first made, and all their successors, who have not placed a greater confidence in their own speculations concerning the nature of the soul, than in the revelation of God, have never been able to understand the above and similar expressions, in any other sense. This, and this alone, corresponds with another particular revealed, concerning a future state,

It is observable that the Scriptures never direct the imaginations of the pious to a world of Spirits, existing independent of the corporeal frame dissolved in death; but they incessantly speak of a resurrection from the Grace. "I' am the resurrection and the life, and he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet

shall he live."*

"They shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life."t "When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind; and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be blessed at the resurrection of the just." The Apostles preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there be no resurrection from the dead, then is Christ not risen," &c.§ They that are in the Graves shall hear his voice. This corruptible, must put on incorruption, this mortal, put on immortality.-Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, Death, where is thy sting! Oh, Grave, where is thy victory!" &c. &c.

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The above quotations are but a small selection from passages of a similar import; nor should they have been so numerous were it not to evince, that a resurrection to life is a constituent part of the Christian Scheme; and, consequently, it is notmentioned in a slight and cursory manner. The doctrine is incessantly inculcated, in varied phrases; and this is the case with every other doctrine which the primitive teachers of Christianity knew. to be of the first importance. Occasional expres

John xi. 25.

+Ibid. v. 29.

§ 1 Cor. xy, 12.

#Luke xiv. 13. !