happiness, which he obtains by experience. We send our children to school for the purpose of learning that of which they are ignorant; and it is by degrees that those sciences are obtained. Men begin their moral existence in the same way-but as fast as they become taught, they conform to the divine rules of their Master."* Here again you admit that men are saved by knowledge which is gradually acquired, being obtained by experience, in the same way in which children obtain a knowledge of science, and that men conform to their divine Master no faster than their knowledge increases. According to your own acknowledgment, therefore, men cannot be completely happy, till they arrive at consummate knowledge; and this must require a considerable period of time, for you assert that this knowledge is acquired by degrees. Now, Sir, to affirm that those who die in confirmed ignorance and wickedness, will be consummately wise and perfectly pure the instant after death, is to speak without scripture authority, and to contradict every just principle of philosophy, and your own express declaration. That men will be thus instantly changed at death in a moral point of view, the scriptures give us not the least intimation. Beside, this view of salvation is the reverse of that taught in the scriptures. The sacred writers assure us that without faith it is impossible to please God, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.† But if the vilest sinners are brought in an instant into the presence of God, where they must possess divine knowledge, it entirely excludes the exercise of faith. "Faith," says an Apostle, "is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen." Since faith is the substance of things hoped for, it supposes that those things are not already in our possession. In this manner the Apostle reasoned upon this subject. * Aton. pp. 190, 191, Heb. xi. 1. † Rom. xiv. 23. Heb. xi. 6. "For," says he, "we are saved by hope; but hope that i seen, is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth h yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, the do we with patience wait for it."* Again, as faith is th evidence of things not seen, it would be absurd to tell men's exercising faith in an object already in their pos session. Thus would your views exclude the means o the gospel, and introduce men into heaven in a way o which the scriptures are totally ignorant. But probably you are ready to say that men are save by the resurrection, and consequently by Christ. Bei 80. This, however, is giving up both the other positions on which I have been remarking. For if men are save by the resurrection, they are not saved by death's stop ing their career of wickedness; not by being instructed and I may add, not by faith and repentance. That this is a position which you sometimes take, may be seen by the following quotations. "The Apostle did not believe in a state of sin and misery after the resurrection, but a glorious state of life and immortality." "It seems more proper to say that the resurrection into immortal life effected the preparation for eternal felicity."‡ In fact, it is a common saying with you that there can be no suffering after the resurrection. But let us attend closely to this subject for a moment. I wish to inquire when this resurrection takes place. The principal scripture you cite in proof of a resurrection, is first Corinthians, fifteenth chapter. The resurrection, according to this passage, is to take place or commence at Christ's coming. Now I will submit it. to you to say when this coming of Christ did, or will take place. If you say it alludes to his first coming, or to his coming at the destruction of Jerusalem, then it will follow that all men in all ages were raised to immortality at that period, + Lect. p. 94. Rom. viii. 24, 25. though it were hundreds of years before those now living, had a being! But with all the absurdity attendant upon this view of the subject, future punishment is by no means avoided. If men were not raised to immortality until Christ's coming, then the old world, and Sodom, Korah and his company, Pharaoh and his host, and multitudes of others may have remained in suffering for a long series of years, between death and the resurrection. Again, if the resurrection is future, thousands may now be unhappy, being as yet destitute of salvation. Should you, to avoid this difficulty, contend that they may be made happy before the resurrection, I reply, then they are not saved by the resurrection, and the position now before us falls to the ground. The position that men are saved by the resurrection, must apply to all men, or else it is nothing to your purpose; for if all are not saved by it, then some may remain in misery after the resurrection, and so your notion of no future punishment must be given up. To answer your purpose, then, it must apply to all men. And this resurrection by which all are to be saved, must be either past or future. If it be past, then it involves the absurdity that many thousands of human beings were raised to a state of immortality, hundreds of years before they had any existence! And if it be future, then many may be in misery at the present moment, though they have been dead for thousands of years. So in either case, it is far from yielding you that assistance you want. I know not how you can extricate yourself from these absurdities, unless you unite with the visionary Swedenborg, and maintain that each man is raised at the moment of death. This I think is the only course you can adopt. For the views you have advanced, relative to the soul of man, forbid your saying with the materialist, that there is no existence between death and the resurrection. I do not remember having seen any instance in which you have directly advocated the notion of an immediate resurrection, though in some cases you seem to suggest such an idea.* But in opposition to an immediate resurrection, we will urge the 15th chapter of first Corinthians. St. Paul through the whole chapter speaks of the resurrection as a future event. But if each man is raised at death, the resurrection was past as well as future. The Apostle also represents Christ as the first fruits, or as he expresses it elsewhere, "the first born. from the dead."+ But if every person is raised at death, Christ is far from being the first who arose from the dead; for thousands have arisen before him. St. Paul assures us that the resurrection is to take place at Christ's coming. Now let this coming be when it may, it evidently alludes to some particular period, and consequently the resurrection cannot take place with every man at his death. And further; the Apostle assures us that when the dead are raised, those who are alive on the earth, shall be changed to immortal beings. Hence it is demonstrably evident that the resurrection is yet future. Again: on the day of Pentecost St. Peter cites from the Psalms a passage expressive of the resurrection, which he applies to Jesus Christ. To show that David could not apply this passage to himself, the Apostle informs us that David had not yet ascended, i. e. had not arisen from the dead. Thus it may be seen that the resurrection does not follow immediately upon death St. Paul to Timothy speaks of certain impostors who are filled with profane and vain babblings, and who have erred from the truth, saying, "the resurrection is past already."§ It is not at all probable that these impostors. pretended that men then living were raised from the dead; their only meaning, we may presume was, that those who U. Mag. Vol. 1. Dialogue between a Lim. and a Univ. + Col. i. 18. Acts ii. 26-34. 2 Tim. ii. 18. had departed this life were raised. So that their heresy amounts simply to the doctrine, that men are raised at death. But if each person is raised at death, the resurrection is past as much as future, and these apostates were not far from the truth. From these considerations it appears that the resurrection is a future event. Jesus Christ himself, though he did not see corruption, did not arise on the day of his death. We challenge the exhibition of a single passage which says that each man is raised at the moment of death. And if this should be granted, it would profit you nothing; for Jesus declares that some shall come forth to the resurrection of damnation. Therefore, if you say with the apostates of old, that the resurrection is already past, or if you say it is present or future, I think you will do well to get rid of all the difficulties I have mentioned. I have now examined the three positions on which you ground your doctrine of immediate happiness for all men; viz. 1. that men are saved by throwing off the body. 2. that they are saved by being instructed after death, and 3. that they are saved by the resurrection. But on either ground, we have seen that faith and repentance, those indispensable prerequisites for heaven, are entirely excluded. Besides: these positions are at variance, one with the other. The moment you advance either of these positions, you renounce both the others. Thus if you say that death frees the soul from all pollution, you in reality say that men are not saved by being instructed, nor by the resurrection. If you say that men are saved by being instructed after death, you confess that they are not freed from sin and qualified for heaven by throwing off the body, nor by being raised from the dead. And if you say that men are saved by the resurrection, you admit that neither the dissolution of the body, nor divine instruction, fits the soul for the enjoyment of bliss. And yet you urge each of these positions, |