is the source of dignity, and happiness, and improvement, will be retained. Our social natures are the medium of innocent and exalted pleasure. The social principle, therefore, will be retained in heaven, as one of the instruments of our joy. We can hardly conceive that it could be laid aside. We should scarcely be the persons that we are, without it. It has contributed more than any other principle to the formation of our characters. It is associated with memory, judgment and affection. It modifies our decisions, awakens our love, cherishes or chills our zeal, and stands among the most fruitful occasions of our sin or holiness. It is, therefore, intimately connected with our accountability. As long as we are capable of gratitude to the instruments of our everlasting life, or to him who purchased us with his precious blood, so long must the gratification of the social principle be among the means of our enjoyment. It cannot be denied that the Christian in heaven will be conscious of his relation to Christ, and of the relation of Christ to him. As often as the thought occurs to him, "I am saved through him," he will recal the scenes of Calvary, and the continual intercessions of the great High Priest, by whose merit he has entered into that glorious world. And what can be more natural to the pious spirit, on such a recollection, than the sentiment,-"Where is my adorable deliverer? Let me go and prostrate myself before him. Let me cast my crown at his feet. Let me offer before him ascriptions of praise. Let me join the glorious company of the redeemed, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, and cry with them, Worthy the Lamb! Worthy the Lamb!" But, if the Christian finds pleasure in renewing in heaven that communion with Christ which he held upon earth, he will find pleasure also in renewing his intercourse with Christian friends, with whom he took sweet counsel, and went to the house of God in company. As he looks back upon this world, and remembers its scenes, its persons, the circles of his influence, the means of his conversion, the friends that brought him to the house of prayer, the pastor who broke to him the bread of life, the review of his pilgrimage will awaken emotions of grateful affection towards those who were connected with the events in his spiritual history. Some of them he will wish to see, and to thank, as the instruments of his deliverance from death, and of his exaltation to the heavenly mansions. And who can

imagine that he will be surrounded with them on every side, in a more pure and perfect state than ever they knew on earth, yet without mutual recognition, without the possibility of intercommunication, without concert, without the expression of mutual love, without the knowledge of each other's presence? The very supposition is chilling. It is an idea too absurd to be true. We are sure, that this is not heaven. All our conceptions of that glorious world forbid it. Indeed, in Matt. 25: 40, the Judge is represented as recalling to the memory of the righteous their acts of kindness on earth to their fellowdisciples: "Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." And the laws of suggestion could not fail to awaken the inquiry, "Where are those disciples, in feeding and clothing whom, I fed and clothed my Lord ?" We cannot think, that, when every faculty of the soul is filled and every aspiration gratified, this great component element of our inward nature will be repressed or annihilated. On the contrary, we believe that in heaven we shall enjoy communion with God; the society of angels; the delightful intercourse of friends; the fellowship of just men made perfect. And such a heaven must of necessity involve mutual recognition. We expect that the believing Jews will meet the fathers of their nation, and recognize them as such. They will not mistake Abraham for Isaac, nor Isaac for Jacob; nor either of them for later Jews, or for Gentile saints. But each will have distinctive marks, by which he will be known, as clearly as men in the body. As God distinguishes them, in their spiritual form of being, so their fellow-spirits will distinguish them. Our Lord affirms (Matt. 8: 11), "That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." But if these holy men are not known among the throng, what Jewish saint would feel that the promise of society and recognition here implied is truly fulfilled? Without meaning to be fanciful on this point, we have a confident expectation that by virtue of the demands of his social nature, the father will be permitted to know his offspring; the convert, his spiritual parent; and the minister, the flock which he has fed, and the babes in Christ whom he has nurtured. Noah and all his family, who were together in the ark, will be together before the throne. Paul, and all his converts, gathered around their spiritual teacher, will exult together in the

revelation of the mystery of godliness. The severed branches of families will embrace each other, in the sweet overflowing of the social affections, in that world of love. We shall come, in that exalted state, to the perfection of our social natures, and to the most sublime and perfect gratification of them.

The following paragraph from Baxter is a very persuasive and beautiful exhibition of this view. "A comfortable adjunct of this rest is, That it is the fellowship of the blessed saints and angels of God. Not so singular will the Christian be, as to be solitary. Though it be proper to the saints only, yet it is common to all the saints. For what is it, but an association of blessed spirits in God? A corporation of perfected saints, whereof Christ is the head? The communion of saints completed? For those that have prayed, and-fasted, and wept, and watched, and waited together; now to enjoy, and praise together, methinks should much advance their pleasure. He who mentioneth the qualifications of our happiness, on purpose that our joy may be full, and maketh so oft mention of our conjunction in his praises, sure doth hereby intimate to us, that this will be some advantage to our joys. Certain I am of this, fellow-Christians, that as we have been together in labor, duty, danger and distress, so shall we be in the great recompense; and as we have been scorned and despised, so shall we be crowned and honored together; and we who have gone through the day of sadness, shall enjoy together that day of gladness. those who have been with us in persecution and prison, shall be with us also in that palace of consolation. When I look in the faces of the people of God, and believingly think of this day, what a refreshing thought is it! Shall we not there remember our fellowship in duty, and in sufferings? How oft our groans made as it were one sound, our tears but one stream, and our desires but one prayer ? And now all our praises shall make up one melody; and all our churches, one church and all ourselves, but one body: for we shall be one in Christ, even as he and the Father are one. It is true, we must be very careful that we look not for that in the saints, which is alone in Christ, and that we give them not his prerogative; nor expect too great a part of our comfort in the fruition of them; we are prone enough to this kind of idolatry. But yet he who commands us so to love them now,

And

will give us leave in the same subordination to himself, to love them then, when himself hath made them much more lovely. And if we may love them, we shall surely rejoice in them; for love cannot stand without an answerable joy. If the forethought of sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, may be our lawful joy, then how much more that real sight, and actual possession? It cannot but be comfortable to me to think of that day, when I shall join with Moses in his song, with David in his psalms of praise; and with all the redeemed in the song of the Lamb for ever; when we shall see Enoch, walking with God; Noah, enjoying the end of his singularity; Joseph, of his integrity; Job, of his patience; Hezekiah, of his uprightness; and all the saints, the end of their faith. O happy day, when I shall depart out of this crowd and sink, and go to that same council of souls! I know that Christ is all in all, and that it is the presence of God that maketh heaven. to be heaven. But yet it much sweeteneth the thoughts of that place to me, to remember that there are such a multitude of my most dear and precious friends in Christ; with whom I took sweet counsel, and with whom I went up to the house of God; who walked with me in the fear of God, and integrity of their hearts; in the face of whose conversations there was written the name of Christ; whose sensible mention of his excellences hath made my heart to burn within me; to think that such a friend that died at such a time, and such a one at another time, and that all these are entered into rest; and we shall surely go to them. It is a question with some, whether we shall know each other in heaven or no? Surely, there shall no knowledge cease, which now we have; but only that which implieth our imperfection. And what imperfection can this imply? Nay, our present knowledge shall be increased beyond belief. It shall indeed be done away, but as the light of the stars is done away by the rising of the sun; which is more properly the doing away of our ignorance than of our knowledge. Indeed we shall not know each other af ter the flesh; but by the image of Christ, and spiritual relation, and former faithfulness in improving our talents. Beyond doubt, we shall know and be known. Nor is it only our old acquaintance, but all the saints of all ages, whose faces in the flesh we never saw, whom we shall there both know, and comfortably enjoy. Yea, and angels as well as saints, will

VOL. VII.-NO. XXV.

9

be our blessed acquaintance. Those who now are willingly ministering spirits for our good, will willingly then be our companions in joy for the perfecting of our good: and they who had such joy in heaven for our conversion, will gladly rejoice with us in our glorification. I think, Christian, this will be a more honorable assembly, than ever you have beheld; and a more happy society than you were ever of before. Then, we shall truly say, as David, I am a companion of all them that fear thee; when we are come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant. So then I conclude, this is one singular excellency of the rest of heaven, that we are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God."*

"If we are to associate at all with redeemed spirits," says the author of our treatise,† "as we know we shall; if there is to be in heaven the most perfect communion of saints, as we are equally well assured, then is it not reasonable to suppose that this association, this communion, will be first with those whom we knew and loved on earth; to whom our hearts were most closely linked; who, with the same opportunities and means of grace as ourselves, have been disciplined in the same school; and, if I may so express it, had their spiritual affections cast in the same mould? This community of thought and feeling, caused by a community of joys and sorrows in their previous state of probation, would naturally attract them together in heaven, and bind them together as kindred spirits. And we can easily conceive how much such a union would tend to enhance their bliss.

Is there any reason why Paul, and Barnabas, and Luke, and Timothy-fellow-laborers on earth, and companions in glory -should not now review with gratitude and praise, their common dangers, and trials, and sufferings, in their efforts for the conversion of the heathen world? If not, and assuredly there is not, then why may not all pious friends and relatives, who have journeyed together through life's pilgrimage, be permitted to meet at its close, and review the dangers, and count up the blessings of the way; and, with united hearts and voices, bless him who conducted them safely to the haven

Saints' Rest, pp. 44-46.

↑ Pages 51-54.