ESSAY XI.

VARIETIES OF CONDITION IN THE FUTURE STATE.

THAT death can work no change upon the soul, but that the immortal principle in man will carry into its future state the moral character which was impressed upon it here, is a truth, I believe, which no enlightened Christian will deny. Our extrication from this tabernacle of corruption, and our translation from a world of sin and sorrow into realms of purity and joy, will, doubtless, free us from those moral trials and natural evils, under which we groaned and travailed in this vale of tears. But still the mind, though changed in circumstances, will continue itself the same, and derive its happiness from its own inherent tendency to prize the blessings which will then surround it.

If this be true, it seems to follow, as a natural consequence, that the degrees of happiness or misery, which we shall enjoy or suffer, will be abundantly diversified in the life to come. Nay, if our future state be essentially the full expansion and developement of what we are in mind and

temper, when we die, it is self-evident that we shall differ as widely from one another in our several conditions hereafter, as we do in the constitutions of our minds and in our characters here. Hence, as some philosophers hold that there is no vacuum in the material system, we may, perhaps, be warranted in supposing that, from the lowest misery to the highest happiness, there will be no one point of moral space unoccupied or unfilled.

are here.

However this may be, it appears, not only from reason, but from Scripture, that the diversities of mind, and consequently of happiness, will be as multiplied as the diversities of men For if the Word of God declares that every human soul will outlive. the shock of death, and if it has not declared that death will change their several characters, but that as the tree falls so it will lie; it follows, unavoidably, that they will pass into eternity with every peculiarity of temperament which constituted their distinctness from one another in this present world. This doctrine seems to be substantially implied in the declaration, Gal. vi. 7; "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Also in Matt. xvi. 27; "Then he shall reward every man according to his works." The same great truth likewise appears in that remarkable passage in Rev. xxii. 11; "He that is

unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

That the punishment of the wicked will be inflicted in degrees proportioned to their individual guilt, is evident from the following texts: Matt. xi. 24; "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." Matt. xxiii. 14; "Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation." Luke xii. 48; "He that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." On the other hand, that the righteous shall enjoy degrees of blessedness, differing according to their several attainments in this state of trial, is set forth with equal plainness in Scripture. Take, for instance, Dan. xii. 3; " And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Matt. xx. 23; "To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father." 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42; "One star differeth from another star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead." 2 Cor. ix. 6; "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall

reap also bountifully." Add to these the declaration in the 19th chapter of St. Luke, that some will be placed in authority over ten, and others over five cities.

In spite of all that can be argued from such passages, it may still be urged, that though, in the different allotments of the righteous and the wicked, there will be various degrees of happiness to the one, and misery to the other; yet, between these two, there is a broad line of separation drawn by Scripture, which forbids the possibility of their mutual approximation. For what can more boldly mark out opposite and irreconcilable extremes, than the terms which the Spirit of God has chosen to designate that wide interval which will divide the heirs of glory from the children of wrath throughout eternity? Between light and darkness-life and death-a blooming paradise and fire unquenchable; nay, between states of which these are but the faintest images or shadows, what concord can there be, and how can the boundaries of these hostile regions meet?

To this I answer, by proposing the following supposition. Suppose that the Scripture had described the righteous and the wicked as inhabiting, in the future world, two separate hemispheres, in the one of which perpetual day and ceaseless summer, and in the other of which eternal

night and endless winter reigned; could the wide circle of creation supply a contrast more entire than scenes like these exhibit? Or could the whole compass of nature furnish images more fitted to fill the breast with hope, or to overwhelm it with despair? Could imagination conceive more violent extremes than these two states, when taken in the abstract, offer to its view? And yet, certain it is, that from winter to summer the transition is so gradual, that the one runs into the other, and meets no barrier to oppose it. In like manner, between day and night the boundaries are so evanescent, that we know not of which of the two the intervening twilight is most a part, or whether the star which is "last in the train of night belong not better to the dawn." Thus may the separation of the two great classes of mankind, into regions as widely differing as those allotted to them by Scripture, be, nevertheless, compatible with the near approach of those whose stations lie upon their respective confines.

If, however, it be objected to such a speculation, that it is of dangerous tendency, as calculated to unsettle the commonly received opinion on this subject, I answer, that, in my estimation, the danger lies on the other side. There is, I grant, a kind of general admission that, according to the Christian scheme, every individual soul