“Now faith is the evidence of things not seen.” Heb. 11:1.
1. Many times have I thought, many times have I spoke, many times have I wrote upon these words; and yet there appears to be a depth in them which I am in no wise able to fathom. Faith is, in one sense of the word, a divine conviction of God and of the things of God; in another, (nearly related to, yet not altogether the same,) it is a divine conviction of the invisible and eternal world. In this sense I would now consider, —
2. I am now an immortal spirit, strangely connected with a little portion of earth; but this is only for a while: In a short time I am to quit this tenement of clay, and to remove into another state,
Which the living know not, And the dead cannot, or they may not tell!
What kind of existence shall I then enter upon, when my spirit has launched out of the body How shall I feel myself, — perceive my own being How shall I discern the things that are round about me, either material or spiritual objects When my eyes no longer transmit the rays of light, how will the naked spirit see When the organs of hearing are mouldered into dust, in what manner shall I hear When the brain is of no farther use, what means of thinking shall I have When my whole body is resolved into senseless earth, what means shall I have of gaining knowledge
3. How strange, how incomprehensible, are the means whereby I shall then take knowledge even of the material world! Will things appear then as they do now, — of the same size, shape, and colour Or will they be altered in any, or all these respects How will the sun, moon, and stars appear the sublunary heavens the planetary heavens the region of the fixed stars — how the fields of ether, which we may conceive to be millions of miles beyond them Of all this we know nothing yet. And, indeed, we need to know nothing.
4. What then can we know of those innumerable objects which properly belong to the invisible world; which mortal “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into our heart to conceive” What a scene will then be opened, when the regions of hades are displayed without a covering! Our English translators seem to have been much at a loss for a word to render this. Indeed, two hundred years ago, it was tolerably expressed by the word hell, which then signified much the same with the word hades, namely, the invisible world. Accordingly, by Christ descending into hell, they meant, his body remained in the grave, his soul remained in hades, (which is the receptacle of separate spirits,) from death to the resurrection. Here we cannot doubt but the spirits of the righteous are inexpressibly happy. They are, as St. Paul expresses it, “with the Lord,” favoured with so intimate a communion with him as “is far better” than whatever the chief of the Apostles experienced while in this world. On the other hand, we learn from our Lord’s own account of Dives and Lazarus, that the rich man, from the moment he left the world, entered into a state of torment. And “there is a great gulf fixed” in hades, between the place of the holy and that of unholy spirits, which it is impossible for either the one or the other to pass over. Indeed, a gentleman of great learning, the Honourable Mr. [Alexander] Campbell, in his account of the Middle State, published not many years ago, seems to suppose that wicked souls may amend in hades, and then remove to a happier mansion. He has great hopes that “the rich man,” mentioned by our Lord, in particular, might be purified by that penal fire, till, in process of time, he might be qualified for a better abode. But who can reconcile this with Abraham’s assertion that none can pass over the “great gulf”
5. I cannot therefore but think, that all those who are with the rich man in the unhappy division of hades, will remain there, howling and blaspheming, cursing God and looking upwards, till they are cast into “the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” And, on the other hand, can we reasonably doubt but that those who are now in paradise, in Abraham’s bosom, — all those holy souls who have been discharged from the body, from the beginning of the world unto this day, — will be continually ripening for heaven; will be perpetually holier and happier, till they are received into “the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world”
6. But who can inform us in what part of the universe hades is situated, — this abode of both happy and unhappy spirits, till they are re-united to their bodies It has not pleased God to reveal anything concerning it in the Holy Scripture; and, consequently, it is not possible for us to form any judgment, or even conjecture, about it. Neither are we informed, how either one or the other are employed, during the time of their abode there. Yet may we not probably suppose that the Governor of the world may sometimes permit wicked souls “to do his gloomy errands in the deep;” or, perhaps, in conjunction with evil angels, to inflict vengeance on wicked men Or will many of them be shut up in the chains of darkness, unto the great judgment of the great day In the mean time, may we not probably suppose, that the spirits of the just, though generally lodged in paradise, yet may sometimes, in conjunction with the holy angels, minister to the heirs of salvation May they not