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"Sometimes, on errands of love,
Revisit their brethren below ?"

It is a pleasing thought, that some of these human spirits, attending us with, or in the room of, angels, are of the number of those that were dear to us, while they were in the body. So that there is no absurdity in the question;

"Have ye your own flesh forgot?
By a common ransom bought?
Can death's interposing tide,
Spirits one in Christ divide?"

But be this as it may, it is certain, human spirits swiftly increase in knowledge, in holiness, and in happiness: conversing with all the wise and holy souls that lived in all ages and nations from the beginning of the world: with angels and archangels, to whom the children of men are no more than infants: and, above all, with the eternal Son of God, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And let it be especially considered, whatever they learn, they will retain for ever. For they forget nothing. To forget is only incidental to spirits that are clothed with flesh and blood.

7. But how will this material universe appear to a disembodied spirit? Who can tell whether any of these objects that surround us will appear the same as they do now? And if we know so little of these, what can we now know concerning objects of a quite different nature? Concerning the spiritual world? It seems, it will not be possible for us to discern them at all, till we are furnished with senses of a different nature, which are not yet opened in our souls. These may enable us both to penetrate the inmost substance of things, whereof we now discern only the surface, and to discern innumerable things, of the very existence whereof we have not now the least perception. What astonishing scenes will then discover themselves to our newly-opening senses! Probably fields of Ether, not only ten fold, but ten thousand fold, "the length of this Terrene." And with what variety of furniture, animate, and inanimate! How many orders of beings, not discovered by organs of flesh and blood? Perhaps, thrones, dominions, princedoms, virtues, powers! -Whether of those that have retained their first habitations and primeval strength, or of those that, rebelling against their Creator, have been cast out of heaven? And shall we not then, as far as angels ken, survey the bounds of creation, and see every place where the Almighty,

"Stopp'd his rapid wheels, and said,—

This be thy just circumference, O World?"

Yea, shall we not be able to move, quick as thought, through the wide realms of uncreated night? Above all, the moment we step into eternity, shall we not feel ourselves swallowed up of Him, who is in this and every place; who filleth heaven and earth? It is only the

veil of flesh and blood which now hinders us from perceiving, that the great Creator cannot but fill the whole immensity of space. He is every moment above us, beneath us, and on every side. Indeed, in this dark abode, this land of shadows, this region of sin and death, the thick cloud, which is interposed between, conceals him from our sight. But the veil will disappear, and he will appear in unclouded majesty, God over all, blessed for ever!

8. How variously are the children of men employed in this world! In treading o'er "the paths they trod six thousand years before!" But who knows how we shall be employed, after we enter that invisible world! A little of it we may conceive, and that without any doubt, provided we keep to what God himself has revealed in his word, and what he works in the hearts of his children. Let us consider first, What may be the employment of unholy spirits from death to the resurrection. We cannot doubt but the moment they leave the body, they find themselves surrounded by spirits of their own kind, probably human as well as diabolical. What power God may permit these to exercise over them, we do not distinctly know. But it is not improbable, he may suffer Satan to employ them, as he does his own angels, in inflicting death, or evils of various kinds on the men that know not God for this end they may raise storms by sea or by land, they may shoot meteors through the air. They may occasion earthquakes, and, in numberless ways, afflict those whom they are not suffered to destroy. Where they are not permitted to take away life, they may inflict various diseases: and many of these which we judge to be natural, are undoubtedly diabolical. I believe this is frequently the ease with Lunatics. It is observable, that many of those mentioned in Scripture, who are called Lunatics by one of the Evangelists, are termed Demoniacs by another. One of the most eminent physicians I ever knew, particularly in cases of insanity, the late Dr. Deacon, was clearly of opinion, that was the case with many, if not with most Lunatics. And it is no valid objection to this, that these diseases are so often cured by natural means. For a wound inflicted by an evil spirit might be cured as any other; unless that spirit were permitted to repeat the blow.

9. May not some of these evil spirits be likewise employed in conjunction with evil angels, in tempting wicked men to sin, and in procuring occasions for them? Yea, and in tempting good men to sin, even after they have escaped the corruption that is in the world? Herein doubtless they put forth all their strength, and greatly glory if they conquer. A passage in an ancient author, may greatly illustrate this: (although I apprehend, he did not intend that we should take it literally.) "Satan summoned his powers, and examined what mischief each of them had done. One said, I have set a house on fire, and destroyed all its inhabitants. Another said, I have raised a storm at sea, and sunk a ship, and all on board perished in the waters. Satan answered, Perhaps those that were burned or drowned were saved. A third said, I have been forty years tempting a holy man to commit adultery; and I have left him asleep

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in his sin. Hearing this, Satan rose to do him honour, and all Hell resounded with his praise." Hear this, all ye that imagine you cannot fall from grace !

10. Ought not we then to be perpetually on our guard against those subtle enemies? Though we see them not,

"A constant watch they keep:
They eye us night and day;
And never slumber, never sleep,
Lest they should lose their prey."

Herein they join with "the rulers of the darkness (the intellectual darkness) of this world; the ignorance, wickedness, and misery, dilused through it, to hinder all good, and promote all evil! To this end they are continually working with energy, in the children of disobedience. Yea, sometimes they work by them those lying wonders that might almost deceive even the children of God.

11. But, meantime, how may we conceive the inhabitants of the other part of Hades, the souls of the righteous, to be employed? It has been positively affirmed by some philosophical men, that spirits have no place! But they do not observe, that if it were so, they must be omnipresent; an attribute which cannot be allowed to any but the Almighty Spirit. The abode of these blessed spirits the ancient Jews were used to term Paradise: the same name which our

Lord gave it, telling the penitent thief, "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Yet in what part of the universe this is situated, who can tell, or even conjecture, since it has not pleased God to reveal any thing concerning it. But we have no reason to think they are confined to this place or indeed to any other. May we not rather say, that servants of his, as well as the holy angels, they do his pleasure, whether among the inhabitants of earth, or in any other part of his dominions? And as we easily believe, that they are swifter than the light, even as swift as thought, they are well able to traverse the whole universe in the twinkling of an eye, either to execute the divine commands, or to contemplate the works of God. What a field is here opened before them! And how immensely may they increase in knowledge, while they survey his Works of Creation or Providence, or his manifold Wisdom in the Church! What depth of wisdom, of power, and of goodness, do they discover in his methods of bringing many sons to glory! Especially while they converse on any of these subjects, with the illustrious dead of ancient days! With Adam, first of men; with Noah, who saw both the primeval and the ruined world; with Abraham, the friend of God; with Moses, who was favoured to speak with God, as it were, face to face; with Job, perfected by sufferings; with Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Daniel, and all the Prophets; with the Apostles, the noble army of Martyrs, and all the Saints who have lived and died to the present day; with our elder Brethren, the holy Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, and all the companies of heaven! Above all, the name of creature owns, with JESUS, the Mediator of the new

eovenant. Meantime how will they advance in holiness, in the whole image of God, wherein they were created? In the love of God and man; gratitude to their Creator, and benevolence to all their fellowcreatures. Yet it does not follow (what some earnestly maintain) that this general benevolence will at all interfere with that peculiar affection which God himself implants for our relations, friends, and benefactors. O no! Had you stood by his bedside, when that dying saint was crying out, "I have a father and a mother gone to heaven, (to Paradise, the receptacle of happy spirits.) I have ten brothers and sisters gone to heaven and now I am going to them, that am the eleventh ! Blessed be God that I was born!" Would you have replied, "What, if you are going to them? They will be no more to you than any other persons; for you will not know them." Not know them! Nay, does not all that is in you recoil at that thought? Indeed Skeptics may ask, How do disembodied spirits know each other? I answer plainly, I cannot tell. But I am cer tain that they do. This is as plainly proved from one passage of Scripture, as it could be from a thousand. Did not Dives and Lazarus know each other in Hades, even afar off? Even though they were fixed on different sides of the great gulf! Can we doubt then whether the souls that are together in Paradise shall know one another? The Scripture therefore clearly decides this question. And so does the very reason of the thing. For we know, every holy temper which we carry with us into Paradise, will remain in us for ever. But such is gratitude to our benefactors. This, therefore, will remain for ever. And this implies, that the knowledge of our benefactors will remain, without which it cannot exist.

12. And how much will that add to the happiness of those spirits, who are already discharged from the body, that they are permitted to minister to those whom they have left behind? An indisputable proof of this we have, in the twenty-second chapter of the Revelation. When the Apostle fell down to worship the glorious spirit which he seems to have mistaken for Christ, he told him plainly, "I am of thy fellow-servants, the prophets;" not God, not an angel, but a human spirit. And in how many ways may they minister to the heirs of salvation? Sometimes by counteracting wicked spirits whom we cannot resist, because we cannot see them: sometimes by preventing our being hurt by men, or beasts, or inanimate creatures: how often may it please God to answer the prayer of good Bishop Kenn :

"O may thine angels, while I sleep,
Around my bed their vigils keep!
Their love angelical instil,

Stop all the consequence of ill.

May they celestial joys rehearse,

And thought to thought with me converse;

Or in my stead, the whole night long,

Sing to my God a grateful song."

And may not the Father of spirits allot this office jointly to angels,, and human spirits waiting to be made perfect?

13. It may indeed be objected, that God has no need of any subordinate agents, of either angelical or human spirits, to guard his children, in their waking or sleeping hours; seeing He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep. And, certainly, He is able to preserve them by his own immediate power; yea, and he is able, by his own immediate power only, without any instruments at all, to supply the wants of all his creatures, both in heaven and earth. But it is, and ever was, his pleasure, not to work by his own immediate power only, but chiefly by subordinate means, from the beginning of the world. And how wonderfully is his wisdom displayed, in adjusting all these to each other! So that we may well cry out, O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all?”

14. This we know, concerning the whole frame and arrangement of the visible world. But how exceedingly little do we now know, concerning the invisible! And we should have known still less of it, had it not pleased the Author of both worlds, to give us more than natural light, to give us his Word, to be "a lantern to our feet, and a light in all our paths." And holy men of old, being åssisted by his Spirit, have discovered many particulars, of which otherwise we should have had no conception.

15. And without Revelation, how little certainty of invisible things did the wisest of men obtain. The small glimmerings of light which they had were merely conjectural. At best they were only a faint, dim twilight, delivered from uncertain tradition; and so obscured by heathen fables, that it was but one degree better than utter dark

ness.

16. How uncertain the best of these conjectures was, may easily be gathered from their own accounts. The most finished of all these accounts, is that of the great Roman Poet. Where observe how warily he begins, with that apologetic Preface?" Sit mihi fas audita loqui ?"-"May I be allowed to tell what I have heard ?"And in the conclusion, lest any one should imagine he believed any of these accounts, he sends the relater of them out of Hades, by the ivory gate, through which, he had just informed us, that only dreams and shadows pass! A very plain intimation, that all which has gone before, is to be looked upon as a dream!

17. How little regard they had for all these conjectures, with regard to the invisible world, clearly appears from the words of his brother Poet, who affirms, without any scruple,

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"That there are ghosts or realms below, not even a man of them now believes."

So little could even the most improved reason discover concerning the invisible and eternal world. The greater cause have we to praise the Father of Lights, who hath opened the eyes of our understanding, to discern those things which could not be seen by eyes of

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