tinued to him: for in regard to any merely natural circumstances we may say, "a living dog is better than a dead lion."d And this continued enjoyment of Christ—yea, and this increased enjoyment of him-is fully borne out by the 33d verse, where the Apostle says, "that he has a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better" than remaining in the flesh.

There is a text even still more explicit; for it proves, that what the Apostle means by being with Christ is, the enjoyment of his visible presence.-"Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord; (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord."e

These two Scriptures are very embarrassing to Dr. Burnet and those writers who follow him in this particular; and they struggle greatly to get rid of their force. I cannot pretend to follow them through all their arguments: I shall select one or two which appear to me to be the strongest. An anonymous writer has translated the fourth chapter of Burnet "De statu Mortuorum, &c." adding copious notes; and as he does full justice to the original, and handles the subject ably, I shall quote from his translation.

"Again, in such expressions as we are considering, the object is evidently an antithesis: as indeed may easily be remarked, both in Corinthians and Philippians; the words "to be with Christ" being contrasted with our continuance in this world. For, indeed, when we quit this life, we are not extinct, we are not annihilated; and where are we? With God, with Christ: we live unto God. (Luke xx. 38.) We are present to Christ; and he will bring us back, flourishing and of life, with himself also, to the theatre of this world. We therefore shall not wonder to find St. Paul exclaiming, "For me to die is gain." (Phil. i. 21.) We are rather surprised that he says so little than that he says so much in favour of death, when so many evils, so many troubles, so many perils, so many labours, encompassed him; who had endured both hunger and thirst, with cold, and nakedness, and wounds and stripes, and prisons, and rocks, and shipwrecks, and every sort of affliction, both by sea and land. That death should be esteemed more desirable than such a life, who can wonder? If it be only rest, and a remission of trials, still it is so far "gain."-Let us, then, learn to think somewhat more moderately concerning our wretched selves and our reward; and no longer promise to ourselves and others the beatific vision of God upon the instant of our eyes being closed;

a Eccles. ix. 4. e2 Cor. v. 6-8.

when we see the Apostle of the Gentiles (who of all men best merited any reward which the christian religion holds forth) presenting no such hope, either to himself or to others."

His Translator and Commentator begins the subject at verse 5 of the above place in Corinthians, and writes thus:

"Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing'— Who is he? Is it not the Holy Ghost; the whole Godhead Triune?-as the Apostle writes: "Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God! who hath also given unto us [already] the earnest of the Spirit;" therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in this unredeemed body, (which, like the microscope, is at once the means of boasted investigation, and at the same time the preventive of almost all sight;) whilst we are enveloped with this shroud, the flesh; while all things are distorted by its impurity and nothing seen aright by reason of its refraction; while sin is mingled in our every thought, and the better they are the more literally that is crucified;-'while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord."" P. 672.

The first thing I notice in these extracts is, that the Doctor, by coupling the two texts together, adroitly diverts our attention from the antithesis in 2 Cor. v. and treats only of that in Phil. i. The second thing I notice is, that his Translator, when giving his own opinion on the former passage, entirely passes over the important parenthesis,-"For we walk by faith not by sight;" which is nevertheless the key to the right understanding of the whole. For what may the Apostle mean by these words? To me he appears to anticipate the objection which would immediately present itself to a spiritual man, when the Apostle speaks of being absent from the Lord:-How can we be absent from him, when to live is Christ, and every believer walks with him, and enjoys the sense of his presence? Yes, (answers the Apostle,) we certainly live and walk with him now; but whilst in the body it is by faith, and not by sight: but when we are absent from the body, then we shall walk in the enjoyment of his visible presence-by sight and not by faith. This I consider the real antithesis of the passage.

If I understand the view which Dr. B.'s Translator takes, it is, that the presence to be enjoyed when apart from the body is a spiritual one;-The Holy Ghost having given to us an earnest now, will then give us a greater fulness. I grant that we have here many drawbacks and hindrances, which prove a clog upon our spiritual enjoyment; but in the heart of every believer, Christ does nevertheless dwell by the Spirit; and his

John xiv. 18, 21, 23; Rom. viii, 10; 2 Cor. xiii. 5.

body, though vile, is nevertheless the temple of the Holy Ghost. It therefore destroys the essential distinction between the righteous and the ungodly, to say, that Christ is not with the believer now, in this present life. And it destroys the antithesis of this passage; which is, not the having less of the Spirit whilst in the body, and out of it the fulness; but the walking in the body with Christ by faith, and when out of it being with Christ by sight.

I must here however observe, that though I feel assured, that the enjoyment of Christ with the saints is a visible one; yet am I equally persuaded, that they have not yet ascended up on high to be present with him in the heavens. The material sun is said to be present with us, and is unquestionably seen and felt by us when it shines in our heavens, though it is separated from us by millions of miles: why may not "the Sun of righteousness" equally gladden the saints in Paradise, by some similar manifestation of himself, and communication of his beams from the highest heavens?-Certainly Stephen had such a manifestation, when he cried,-"Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God."

I shall finally notice, in regard to the separate state, Rev. xiv. 13; "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them." The latter part of this text "their works do follow them"-I may probably enter upon at some future period: for the present I must confine myself to the other words-"They rest from their labours;" words which, though apparently of a negative signification, do nevertheless, when duly considered, prove that the righteous dead enjoy a decided increase of positive blessedness.

They will evidently be delivered from all bodily pain and disease, and from all the various corporal evils attendant on poverty, viz. hunger, thirst, heat, cold and the like. The peasant, the mechanic, the bondman, will likewise have done. with all their toil and fatigue: not indeed that the spirit will be without active employment; for I consider a state of inertness to be incompatible with its happiness.

And in respect to weariness of the flesh-aye and weariness of the spirit--even christian labours of love are not without their drawback: the very phrase "labour of love" implies an imperfection. They may be cheerfully entered upon, and they are not unfrequently attended by real gratification; but yet, alas! through the present infirmity of man, they are a weariness. To visit the abodes of wretchedness, filth, and conta

g 1 Cor. vi. 19.

gion, to endeavour to bring the spiritually dead to a sense of their danger;-to instruct the dull, the prejudiced, the unbelieving; and frequently from all these classes to meet with ingratitude in return for our exertions: these things are for the present not joyous but grievous. But the dead REST from all this.

In the next place it is a rest from sin-which rest must be one of the most blessed sources of enjoyment to a renewed spirit. He rests from sin outwardly, since he no longer is doomed to dwell with those who vex his righteous soul from day to day by their ungodliness: "there the wicked cease from troubling: there "the Lord hides him in His tabernacle from the strife of tongues." And he rests from the conflict with sin inwardly. For though whilst in the flesh he is able through grace, to enjoy a dominion over sin, so that he does not obey it in the lusts thereof; yet he is continually galled and annoyed by its inward emotions. Sometimes when he would enjoy spiritual things, his soul cleaveth to the dust;-when he would do good, he finds evil present with him, (in his motives and tempers perhaps,) and he groans in this body of death being burdened. But, when he dies, he rests from all his warfare, and from his fears, and doubts, and prejudices, and jealousies, and is borne by the angels to the general assembly of the spirits of the just.

ESSAY IX.

The Resurrection State.

In my last Essay I adverted to the circumstance, that some Christians discourage inquiry concerning the glorified condition of the saints, as if nothing were specifically revealed concerning it: and I may add, that there are two passages of Scripture frequently brought forward, as proof that we cannot arrive at any satisfactory knowledge on these points. These passages I shall first notice.

The one is 1st Cor. ii. 9-"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." This text

is quoted by the Apostle from Isaiah lxiv. 4, to shew how it had come to pass, that the wise and mighty of this world had crucified the Lord of glory, because they did not understand

the mysteries of redemption. I need not stay to inquire, whether the things, here said to have been withheld from the perception of man, were the gracious truths and mysteries connected with the present state of salvation, or if they related only to a glorified condition in heaven or on earth: it is sufficient to observe, that the next verse clearly proves these things, whatsoever they may be, TO BE REVEALED under the Gospel to the spiritual man, and only veiled from the eye and the ear and the heart of the natural man.-"But God HATH revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (v. 10.)

The other place is 1 John iii. 2-"It doth not yet appear what we shall be." There is in the context of this passage sufficient to lead one to the conclusion, that we do not apprehend it rightly, if we would so interpret it as to say, we know nothing about our future state. For is it not therein declared, that we are sons of God, and that we shall be like Christ at his appearing? A careful consideration of the Greek text will I think satisfy the reader, that the Apostle means not to say, that it has never been declared what we shall be; seeing that he himself also does declare it in this very place: but that what we shall be hath not yet appeared; (that is, the glorified God-man, our great exemplar hath not yet appeared;) but that when HE shall appear we shall be like him.* Thus in Col. iii. 4, we read -"When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Whatsoever therefore is declared of the glorified manhood of the Lord Jesus at the time of his appearing, of that we may conclude the saints will be partakers; and thus the text, instead of being opposed to the inquiry, would really form an ample foundation on which to raise it.

I proceed now to the more immediate consideration of the resurrection state itself.

I. It is pretty generally acknowledged among Christians, that the grand purpose of God in redemption is to make such an exhibition of certain of his attributes, as could not otherwise be properly conceived of. It is not sufficient, either for men or angels, that Jehovah should be proclaimed as "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness, &c.;" he will be known as such by his actings, so that the universe may have experimental evidence of this blessed and glorious truth. I pass however from the general

* Ούπω εφανερώθη τι εσομεθα· οιδαμεν δε ότι εαν φανερωθη όμοιοι αυτω εσόμεθα. There is an evident connexion and identity here between that which is the nominative to spaveρwon (whatever it may be) and the nominative to pavspan and the antecedent of αυτω.