F.M. P. Greenwood.

ART. IV. The Happiness of the Blessed, considered as to the Particulars of their State; their Recognition of each other in that State; and its Difference of Degrees. To which are added, Musings on the Church and her Services. By RICHARD MANT, D. D., M. R. F. A., Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. Philadelphia. 1833. 12mo. pp. 188.

THE writings of Bishop Mant are not much known in this country, and their character and style are not such as to ensure them popularity. Their calm good sense, and steady, sober piety, will nevertheless recommend them to readers who esteem those qualities; while the lovers of religious poetry will be pleased with many of the hymns and sonnets with which the bishop is fond of interspersing his prose. An entertaining, a striking, an eloquent writer, Bishop Mant cannot pretend to be; but they who look not for excitement, will find him to be useful to the calmer wants of their souls, and will learn to respect him as a grave and judicious friend.

A considerable portion of the small volume before us, is occupied in discussing the evidence, and especially the Scriptural evidence, of the doctrine of a recognition of friends in the future state. It is on this account that we introduce the present mention of the work, in connexion with some remarks which we purpose to make ourselves on that deeply interesting subject.

When we ask for Scriptural evidence of the reunion of friends in a future state, are we not answered by every passage from Scripture which speaks of that state as a social one? - and the fact is, that it is spoken of there in no other way. Whether the mention is incidental, or direct, it constantly presents heaven to our thoughts as a place or state in which the righteous shall meet together, not exist separately. If we listen to Jesus, we hear him declare, that where he is his disciples shall be also.— If we turn to the Epistles, Paul tells us, that when Christ, our life, shall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory; and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews points with rapture to the "general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven." If we pass over to that grand vision which concludes the books of the New Testament, we hear in heaven as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, and the voice of harpers harping with their harps.' The blessed in

heaven are always represented as being in society, as being with their brethren, with angels, with their Saviour, and with their God.

Now hardly any thing can seem to be plainer, than that, as heaven is a social and not a solitary state, they who live together there must know each other, and that they who knew each other here must know each other there. And it is one of the most reasonable of all propositions, that if we carry any affections with us into the future state, they will fly first of all to salute those, who in this state were their cherished objects. When a mother joins the heavenly company of the redeemed, will she not, if she retains any thing of her former self and nature, if she has not lost her identity and the consciousness of it, will she not ask for "the babe she lost in infancy"? If she is herself, she will ask for it. If God is good, she will find it, know it, embrace it. How she will find it, by what marks know it, and with what exercises renew her love, must be left for immortality to reveal; but the rest, the simple fact of recognition is plain, so plain that we are disposed to think that the reason why so little is said in the Scriptures of future recognition, is, that it was considered as naturally implied and involved in the fact of a future social state. On such a subject, intimation is equivalent to distinct declaration, and is sometimes even more forcible. Let us see if there are not such intimations of future recognition to be found in the Scriptures, as amount to a declaration of the fact, because they cannot be fully explained except on a supposition of the fact.

Recognition is intimated by exhortations to comfort on the loss of friends. The burthen of our sorrow in the loss of those whom we love, is, that we have lost their society, which was the very dearest thing on earth to us; the most applicable consolation which can be offered to alleviate this burthen, is, that their society is not lost to us for ever, that we shall enjoy it once more, that we shall meet again. Now, what says St. Paul, in his epistle to the Thessalonians. "I would not have

you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Beautiful words of assurance and comfort! How soothingly they fall on the wounds of the heart! Well counsels the Apostle soon after, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

And what makes them so peculiarly comforting? Not simply the assurance of restoration to life, a waking up of those who have fallen asleep, but the idea of collection, association, reunion, which the language supposes, and which is so pertinent to the case of separation to which they are addressed. As Jesus rose from the dead, even so God will awaken and bring with him, those who slept in him; "and so," says the Apostle, "shall we ever be with the Lord." We, who have been parted, shall again be united, and Christ shall be our head, and we shall part no more. That is consolation; consolation which exactly meets the case of distress.

To illustrate this by a comparison, let us suppose it to be necessary that a whole family, united by the tenderest mutual affection, should remove from the land where they had been brought up together, to another land, which is distant indeed, but far better; and to be equally necessary that they should remove, not all together, but one by one, and that there should be an interval of a considerable space of time between each removal. When one member of this family departed for the place of his destination, what would be the most appropriate consolation which could be offered to those who remained behind? Would they be fully comforted by being told, that he who had just gone away, had gone to a country, which enjoyed a more delightful climate than that which he had left; where he would live in health and at ease, and that they themselves would in due season be called to the same country, though to be sure they would live in different parts of it, and not be allowed to see each other any more? Would they be satisfied with this account of their dispersion, though it were to take place in "a land which is the joy of all lands"? It would be imperfect consolation compared with the assurance that in that far, happy land they were to be reunited, after the term of their temporary separation, and renew the intercourse, which in a bleak clime and a barren country had constituted their joy and their wealth. That would be consolation; and such a reunion would be implied, and would naturally be considered as implied, if they were told by a sympathizing friend not to sorrow for their loss as the hopeless sorrow, but to look forward to the land where their relative had gone, and to which they were to be taken themselves.

Other passages, besides the one above adduced, might be quoted, containing intimations to the same purpose. They are

not direct declarations of the fact of recognition, but we cannot read them without supposing that the fact was in the writer's mind; and that indeed he had no other thought on the subject, but that he should certainly know, after the resurrection, those whom he had known before.

The Scriptural evidence in favor of future reunion and recognition, with which the deductions of probability, the inferences of reason, and the dictates of the affections well coincide, amounts to this. Heaven is a social state. If we and our friends are found worthy of an entrance into that state, we shall form a part of its society, and consequently remember and know each other. They who were near to us here, if they are also near unto God, will be near to us there; and, other things being equal, they will be nearer to us than others, simply because we have known them more and longer, and loved them better, than others, and have associations with them so interwoven with our earthly or former life, that they can scarcely be destroyed or disturbed except with our consciousness and memory.

Nor can we see that the restoration of friends to each other's society in a future state, is inconsistent with that universal and heavenly love which will animate the bosoms of all the blessed. Particular affection for those with whom we have been particularly connected, is not inconsistent with a kind and generous affection for many friends, for all the good from all ages and all countries of the world, to whom the better country will be the great and final meeting-place. The ground of this particular affection is, the relation which individuals have held toward each other in this life; and this life, though short in duration, and poor and unimportant when compared with the next, is yet the introduction to the next, the scene of probation for the next, the life in which our affections and virtues have been formed and educated, and have acquired their private associations; and it is therefore not to be supposed that all this is to be made a blank hereafter, as if it had never been. "And when we reflect," says Bishop Mant, "on the pleasure which is imparted to our minds by being admitted, after long separation, to the society of those whom we have known and loved from early years, but from whom we have been constrained to endure a temporary separation; and on the special delight which we experience from renewing, in communion with them, old but dormant affections, retracing in conversation the events of

scenes gone by, and dwelling upon affairs of mutual personal interest; a delight which the formation of no new acquaintance, however virtuous, however intelligent, however amiable, is for the most part found capable of conferring; it may be thought probable, that among their future associates, considered as constituents of the happiness of the blessed, those whom they have formerly known and loved and cherished, will be comprehended; and that the company of the spirits of other just men made perfect, will not preclude a readmission to the fellowship of their former connexions and friends." In short, let it only be premised that friends are worthy of each other's love in heaven, and it is no more than rational to suppose, that they will derive a peculiar satisfaction in each other's society there, from the circumstances with which Providence had bound them together during their sojourn on earth.

But here an objection has been made, founded on the question of worthiness. If some with whom the good have been connected here below, should, from their unworthiness, be excluded from the delights and the society of heaven, the good, it has been said, will, on the supposition of their knowing this, suffer pain, and pain cannot be suffered in heaven.

A few considerations may remove this objection. In the first place, though pain will not be suffered in heaven, there is no reason to believe that a certain degree of regret may not, and that this regret will be so consonant with our sense of justice, that happiness will not thereby be essentially disturbed. Heaven is represented as a place where there will be "no more pain." This is in order to give an idea of its exemption from the accidents and deaths, the sorrows and alarms, to which we are subject here. But such a representation of future bliss, by no means excludes the idea of imperfection. And if the soul is to make progress hereafter, and rise from glory to glory, and from one step of happiness to another, the idea of imperfection must be necessarily attached to such a state, because a state of improvement must needs be a state of imperfection. God himself is the only and absolutely perfect. If we are continually advancing nearer to him, we may be satisfied, grateful, and happy, whether on earth or in heaven, and infinitely more happy, doubtless, in heaven than on earth, on account of the many glorious circumstances which will attend our great change. But if we remember our former selves, we must remember our former sins of transgression and omission, and this remembrance