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( the once popular notion of a miliemum out of the question ) God has appointed the time when the world shall have become most worthy to exist , as that of its impending- dissolution .
Hence , may we not conclude , or , to speak more modestly , have we not premises that seem to bear us out in the inference , that , in calculating- the life of the world , with every allowance for the acceleration of its progress by the march of the human intellect , it should be considered as scarcely yet of age ? £ £ T "I ¦* " . ______ A _ _ 1 1 ______ 1 - _ _ . , _ U _ -v __ : ,-V 4- I - » * " * must ueioie uij
<_ we an appear judgment-seat of Christ ;"—of a fellowcreature upon his throne of exaltation . Glorious privilege ! But why all at once ? Space , indeed , is unlimited , and ample enough for such an assemblage ; but can human ingenuity devise a reason , can any scriptural one be adduced for postponing the judgment upon one generation , till all successive generations to the end of time have been spent ?
Paul himself , whatever interpretation be forced upon his occasional language , seems to have had no idea of death proving a state of long insensibility . " I am in a strait , " he says to the Philippians , " betwixt two , having a desire to depart and to be with Christ , which is far better : nevertheless , to abide in the flesh is more needful for
you . " * This is too plain to be misunderstood . Had he supposed that , die when Ik ; would , lie must await the universal summons , so intense was his anxiety for the diffusion of the gospel , that such a longing to depart could never have mixed itself with his apostolic zeal in the mission he was fulfilling .
It there be any passages in Scripture relied upon as indicating a simultaneous resurrection of the whole race ol mankind , I would ( waving the Transfiguration ) contrast with them our Saviour ' s well-known allusion to his Father ' s being designated the God of Abraham , of fsaac and of Jacob , and his deduction from it , that "God is not the God of the dead , but of the living / ' as intimating pretty significantly not only the foregone
rcsurrec-* IMiilipn . i . 2 \\ y 21 .
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tion of those patriarchs from their graves , but successive resurrections of departed mortals , in some order for which due provision had been made Familiar as the passages containing that allusion ( in three of the
Evanirelists ) are to the generality of Christians , any particular stress is seldom laid upon them in adverting to the doctrine of a resurrection , with regard to the period of its occurrence ; which I cannot help considering as a little
singular . I am aware that Christ is called " the first-fruits of them that slept /' but could Paul mean other than the first visible fruits ? Was it his purpose to unfold by retrospection the state of the dead from the demise ut
Adam to that of our Saviour ? Had he—was it requisite—the key to such a mystery ? As in Adam , ( I would paraphrase him , ) by his transgression , all are subject to death , you must prepare for the common lot of mortality ; but , be comforted , in Christ shall all be made alive . He came with a
commission to announce ? u terms the doctrine of a resurrection , to be our first exemplar of it in his person , and so decisively , as ought to quiet the disputations which have agitated Jews and Gentiles upon this most important of all subjects .
Our Lord ' s ( and other ) splendid anticipations of \\ wjindl judgment , whether literal or figurative , might he sufficiently answered by the multitude of quick and dead then remaining to !»' summoned to their account , although
there should have been in the long interval periodical resurrections and decisions upon human conduct . The notion of a long duration ^ the sleep of death is contradicted l » Y ; i universal / '< rlni '<>\ When a dear and
valued friend has departed , how - rent is the language , He i * released from a world of trouble , and ihappy ! Whatever theory of a funeral resurrection may 1 >< - 11 U < U eated , and coldly assented to ^ j ' ^ ht'art of man is far from nrognizi" - itand never ceases to eoiitein | d : ' ¦ \ | M \ \ 1 kJ I . \ -
, » v , « - • » \ VI * . ^) V . ' _ ---- a . the . felicity hi possession of deeeaM * relatives nml friends , whose ln < nrn not of a tenor to check such conn ' ling inferences . And what are * to call an universal feeling but tll (" whispered dictate of Nature ; wlia ,
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330 Brief Notes on the Bible . No . XIX .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 330, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/10/
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