Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

approach to our heavenly Father and Redeemer, our whole, nature, the soul, and all its faculties, will be employed in praising and adoring him? Doubtless however, this will be the case, and if so, will it not furnish out a glorious theme of thanksgiving, to recollect "The rock, whence we were "hewn, and the hole of the pit, whence we were dig"ged?" To recollect the time, when our faith, which, under the tuition and nurture of the Holy Spirit, has produced such a plentiful harvest of immortal bliss, was as a grain of mustard seed, small in itself, promising but little fruit, and producing less? To recollect the various attempts, that were made upon it, by the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and its various triumphs over all, by the assistance of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ! At present, whatever our convictions may be, of the sinfulness and corruption of our nature, we can make but a very imperfect estimate either of our weakness or our guilt. Then, no doubt, we shall understand the full value of the wonderful salvation wrought out for us: and it seems reasonable to suppose, that in order to form a just idea of our redemption, we shall be able to form a just one of the danger we have escaped; when we know how weak and frail we were, surely we shall

be more able to render due praise and honour to his strength, who fought for us; when we know completely the hatefulness of sin in the sight of God, and how deeply we were tainted by it, we shall know how to value the blood, by which we were cleansed, as we ought. The twenty-four elders, in the fifth of the Revelations, give glory to God for their redemption, out of every kindred and tongue, and people, and nation: This surely implies a retrospect to their respective conditions upon earth, and that each remembered out of what particular kindred and nation he had been redeemed, and if so, then surely the minutest circumstance of their redemption did not escape their memory. They, who triumph over the Beast, in the fifteenth chapter, sing the song of Moses, the servant of God; and what was that song? A sublime record of Israel's deliverance, and the destruction of her enemies in the Red sea, typical, no doubt, of the song, which the redeemed in Sion shall sing to celebrate their own salvation, and the defeat of their spiritual enemies. This again implies a recollection of the dangers, they had before encountered, and the plies of strength and ardour, they had, in every emergency, received from the great deliverer out of all. These quotations do not indeed prove that their war.

sup

fare upon earth includes a part of their converse with each other, but they prove, that it is a theme not unworthy to be heard even before the throne of God, and therefore it cannot be unfit for reciprocal communication.

But you doubt whether there is any communication between the blessed at all, neither do I recollect any Scripture that proves it, or that bears any relation to the subject. But reason seems to require it so peremptorily, that a society, without social intercourse seems to be a solecism, and a contradiction in terms, and the inhabitants of those regions are called, you know, in Scripture, an innumerable company, and an assembly, which seems to convey the idea of society, as clearly as the word itself. Human testimony weighs but little in matters of this sort, but let it have all the weight it can: I know no greater names in divinity, than Watts, and Doddridge, they were both of this opinion, and I send you the words of the latter :

[ocr errors]

"Our companions in glory may probably assist us by their wise and good observations, when we come to make the Providence of God, here upon "earth, under the guidance and direction of our

66

[blocks in formation]

"Lord Jesus Christ, the subject of our mutual con66 verse."

Thus, my dear Cousin, I have spread out my reasons before you for an opinion, which, whether admitted or denied, affects not the state, or interest, of our soul: May our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, conduct us into his own Jerusalem, where there shall be no night, neither any darkness at all, where we shall be free, even from innocent error, and perfect in the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Yours faithfully,

LETTER XX.

W. C.

To Mrs. COWPER.

MY DEAR COUSIN,

Huntingdon, Sept. 3, 1766.

It is reckoned, you know, a great achievement to silence an opponent in disputation, and your silence was of so long a continuance, that I might well begin to please myself with the apprehension of having accomplished so arduous a matter. To be serious, however, I am not sorry,

that what I have said, concerning our knowledge of each other, in a future state, has a little inclined you to the affirmative. For though the redeemed of the Lord shall be sure of being as happy, in that state, as infinite power, employed by infinite goodness, can make them, and therefore it may seem immaterial whether we shall, or shall not, recollect each other hereafter; yet our present happiness at least is a little interested in the question. A parent, a friend, a wife, must needs, I think, feel a little heart-ache at the thought of an eternal separation from the objects of her regard and not to know them, when she meets them in another life, or never to meet them at all, amounts, though not altogether, yet nearly to the same thing. Remember them, I think she needs must. To hear that they are happy, will indeed be no small addition to her own felicity; but to see them so, will surely be a greater. Thus at least it appears to our present human apprehension: consequently, therefore, to think, that when we leave them, we lose them for ever, that we must remain eternally ignorant whether they, that were flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, partake with us of celestial glory, or are disinherited of their heavenly

« ElőzőTovább »