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But what shall that society become, as the immeasurable periods of future duration advance in their interminable course! How vast in intellectual acquirement and power, how glorious in moral excellence and worth, how exalted in purest felicity, how dear to one another, how like to the Deity himself, shall the inhabitants of heaven become!

Ye who, on scriptural grounds, look for such things, what a debt of gratitude, of praise, and of obedience do you owe to that Infinite Benefactor, to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, of his own unmerited favour, has prepared this inheritance for you, and is preparing you for this inheritance! You merited a far other destiny. Appropriate, then, the language which your God dictates to you: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again, unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." Shew the influence of that "blessed hope," with which he hath inspired you, on your present comfort, and on the holiness of your character. Should Providence keep you in circumstances in which you feel yourselves neglected or depressed, neither fret, nor weary; the hour of your exaltation is at hand. When some beloved christian friend, or relation, is removed from you by death, console yourselves with the thought that he has not been driven into solitude, because he is removed from you and from the society to which he was accustomed; but has been elevated to a state of perfect social existence, and which nothing would now induce him to quit. When you yourselves must die, and must leave behind you pious friends to whom your heart is bound, rejoice that your spirit, washed in the blood of the Lamb, shall, for his sake, be admitted into that exalted society over which He presides in glory, and that soon they shall rejoin you. And, in the mean time, cultivate and manifest that love of intellectual improvement, of advancing christian knowledge and wisdom-those holy affections, first towards Christ, and then towards his followers-and that preference of intercourse with the wise and the good, which may be expected of those who are training on earth for the society

of heaven.

But, in the present world, it is not with unmixed pleasure that we can contemplate even the society of heaven. It is an awful reflection-that many, invited to that glory, shall never reach it. It is more awful still to reflect, that if we are not ultimately associated

with the saved, we must mingle with the lost; that if we are excluded from heaven, we shall be shut up in hell! The same sentence of the Eternal Judge which announces to the ungodly that they must depart from Him, and from that felicity to which he adjudges his redeemed, decrees that they must dwell for ever with the worst, the most wicked, and the most miserable society in the universe! May God deliver us from the infatuation of those who consent to live perpetually exposed to so much misery! May God raise our desires to heaven, and prepare us for the enjoyment of it! May He write upon our hearts these gracious counsels of his own Son, which mark the path to glory!" Strive to enter in at the strait gate. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.-Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me."

SERMON XV.

THE SEPARATE STATE.

BY JOSEPH KINGHORN.

2 COR. v. 8.—We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

THIS Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians was written soon after the apostle had been exposed to imminent danger, and had enjoyed peculiar comfort and protection. To this he refers distinctly, and with strong feeling, in the first chapter. Again he brings it forward in the fourth chapter, and continues it in the fifth. As a reason why he looked forward with animated hope to "things which are not seen," but "which are eternal," he says, "for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked." There is something in the sound of these words which calls forth a train of mournful feelings. The apostle was like a man standing on the frontier of one kingdom, expecting every moment to be called to cross the boundary, and pass into another. He was not insensible of the great mercy he enjoyed here on earth; he felt the infinite consequences which in all cases attend the entrance into an eternal world, but, supported by his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he beheld the prospect with a steady eye, and said, "We are confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

God grant that we may have similar grounds of hope in all our labours and difficulties! Then we should be less fearful and anxious than we sometimes are; we should feel more at ease in trying situations, and be better able to exert the little energy we may possess, in the service of our God.

In our text the apostle expresses his willingness "to be absent from the body," and "to be present with the Lord." When the days of his appointed time were ended, he would die, but what would be his situation then? He would not be in a state of insensibility; he would not be annihilated. No it is true, he would be "absent from the body," but he possessed an immortal principle that would still live, and "be present with the Lord;" a clear declaration that he expected to be in a state of conscious existence and enjoyment.

In requesting your attention to this statement, we will endeavour to shew its REASONABLENESS-its EVIDENCE, and close with a few observations suggested by the subject at large.

I. Its REASONABLENESS.

We do not mean by this term that we are able to prove, by mere reasoning, that the spirit of man does exist in conscious existence separate from the body, though we grant that such powerful arguments have been brought in favour of this sentiment, even from reason alone, that we see not how they are to be disproved; but the object we have in view is, to shew that there is nothing in it so contrary to acknowledged fact, as to compel us to reject it as unreasonable, and therefore inadmissible. It is well known that many persons maintain that man is nothing more than a material being; curiously formed, it is true, yet altogether material, so that, thought, intelligence, reasoning, and accountability, are nothing more than the operations and qualities of animated organized matter; and hence it follows that when man dies, his being is extinct. This is the favourite idea of those who oppose divine revelation, in the great majority of instances; and some also, who admit that the Bible comes to us with the authority of God, as a display of his holy will, maintain the same sentiments; only, they suppose that the resurrection will restore the existence which was lost by death. These two parties differ widely in many things, we grant, yet on this subject they both unite in contending against what we consider to be the plain meaning of the words of our text, and in throwing difficulties in the way of those who receive it. Here, however, let it be observed, that God is a spiritual, and not a material Being. The Source of all life, of all wisdom and power, of holiness, and of happiness, is a spiritual Being. He does not think through the medium of finely arranged matter; and matter itself owes its existence to Him who is a Spirit; and all the beauty and variety that is seen in the material world, is owing to the operation of spirit. Again, our Bibles give us ample testimony of the existence

of an angelic world. Angels that excel in strength are there described as God's ministers, that do his pleasure, and in numerous places are represented as agents employed to execute the commissions of their Lord. But we are no where led to believe that they are material beings, dependent for their ideas and the exercise of their intelligent nature, on any arrangement or organization of matter.

We see, then, that Spirit has existed and shewn its operations in the most splendid manner, without assistance from any material mediums; and that matter itself owes its existence to Spirit. It cannot, therefore, be an unreasonable sentiment, that all the higher operations of intellect are not the effect of the arrangements of matter, but that "there is a spirit in man, and that the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." And, that man should bear this resemblance to his Maker, is surely an honour which no one should despise. Should it be said that this is only arguing from possibilities, or probabilities, we reply, be it so; it proves all that at the present we want to prove; that the existence of a spiritual nature in man, which is not subject to mortality, is neither unreasonable nor improbable. And if it be objected, that we know not what spirit is, we answer, our ignorance is not confined to this point: "As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not the works of God, who maketh all." Our opponents cannot explain a single step of the process by which material beings are brought into life; how much less can they shew in what way inert matter can ever become possessed of intelligence and accountability? Nor can it be proved that beings composed of nothing more than mere matter, ever did, or ever will, possess these faculties.

II. But we do not rest here: that when the body dies, the spirit lives in a separate state of existence, is stated in various parts of the word of God; and we shall now, in the second place, bring forward the EVIDENCE of it.

We acknowledge that there is not, in the Sacred Scriptures, a book or chapter, expressly written for the purpose of describing the nature of the spirit of man, as distinct from his body, or of asserting the existence and employment of the spirit in a state of separation from the body. This is not the manner of the inspired writers. But there are so many indications that this sentiment existed in the minds of inspired men,-not as a point to be proved, but a truth generally admitted, which was displayed in the imagery they used, and which, in so many direct statements, they brought forward to

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