III. I shall attempt to show that the doctrine illustrated by this comparison is true.

I. I shall consider the evidence of divine truth, presented by a person risen from the dead, and its probable effects upon mankind.

Here it will be necessary to confine the case to such as actually saw and conversed with the person who had risen. This plainly is the very case supposed in the text. The rich man wishes that Lazarus may be sent in person to his brethren. It is to this request that the answer of Abraham is directed; and this is the case included in the declaration which is now the subject of inquiry. A person whom we saw rising from the dead would affect us deeply. A person of whose resurrection we had only heard would comparatively affect us very little. Our inquiries, therefore, ought to be confined to the former of these cases, if we would even appear to do justice to the subject. With this scheme of investigation before me, I proceed

to observe

First, That the impressions made by one who was seen to rise from the grave, and gave to the spectators his testimony concerning a future state, would undoubtedly be great and solemn.

This truth is enforced upon the conviction of every man by the mere impulse of his own feelings. We see all men listen, nay, we ourselves have often listened, to stories concerning the appearance of the inhabitants of the invisible world with an attention singular, and with emotions appalling the imagination, and engrossing the heart. A person known to have come from that world, a person seen to ascend from the grave, would therefore exceedingly engross and alarm the minds of men. The apprehension that he had come from the unknown, unvisited region to which the soul is summoned when it bids adieu to the body, that he dwelt there, and knew whatever existed or was transacted there, would be among the most solemn of all apprehensions. Whatever he said he would be justly considered as speaking from his own experience. He would be regarded as uttering, not doctrines, but facts. His discourses would not

be cold dissertations concerning abstract subjects, apt in their nature to be uninteresting, and addressed only to the intellect, but histories of events which had actually taken place, and brought directly home to the soul. The miseries which he had suffered, or the happiness which he had enjoyed, would flow from his tongue in the living language of the heart. His views would be the sun-light views of experience. His emotions would be awakened by intense woe, or kindled by the flame of immortal life." His thoughts would breathe, his words would "burn." He who was not moved by them would be justly pronounced to have a heart formed of the nether mill-stone.

Secondly, The evidence which would attend every thing said by such a person would be irresistible.

The miracle of his resurrection would furnish unanswerable proof that he was sent by God; evidence which every man could understand, and which no man without absolute sottishness would fail to feel. But he who is sent by God will, of course, speak that which was true. Even Balaam, hardened as he was in sin, has taught this truth in the most forcible manner. "Lo," said he unto Balak, "I am now come unto "thee. Have I any power at all to say any thing? The "word that God putteth into my mouth, that shall I speak. "How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed, or how shall "I defy whom Jehovah hath not defied? Behold I have re"ceived commandment to bless, and he hath blessed, and I "cannot reverse it." As therefore the mission of this person would be certainly known to be from God, whatever he said would be attended with invincible evidence of its certainty. At the same time, both from the nature of the subjects concerning which his testimony was given, and the high authority of his mission, from the fact that he was an inhabitant of the eternal world, and from the miracle of his resurrection, it would be equally evident that whatever he said was of the highest importance to mankind. To those who were witnesses of his resurrection, therefore, his whole message would come, fraught with all the proof which could be desired.

Still I am apprehensive that his power to persuade men to repentance and reformation would be much less than at first

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thought would be naturally imagined, and that those who resist the various appeals of the Scriptures to the conscience and the heart would find means also of resisting him. To satisfy ourselves, let us now,

II. Examine the evidence of divine truth furnished by the Scriptures, and the advantage which they possess for convincing and persuading the mind.

In this examination the

First thing that meets us is, that the Scriptures were written by God, and were therefore written in the best manner that was possible to accomplish their end.

It will, I suppose, be admitted without a question that the end for which the Scriptures were written is to persuade mankind to repentance and reformation. Much less can it be questioned that the wisdom of God enabled him to discern the best manner of promoting this end, or that his goodness induced him to adopt it. The Scriptures, therefore, are actually written in this manner, and are in the highest, degree fitted to effectuate this persuasion.

Secondly, The things which are communicated in the Scriptures concerning our future existence are in their nature the most solemn and impressive which can be conceived.

They are such as God thought it wisest and best to communicate, and are therefore certainly the wisest and best possible. In their own nature also, and as they appear in themselves to our eyes, they possess an immeasurable solemnity and importance. The account which is there given of the judgment, of the final sentence, and the grounds on which it is uttered, of the glories of heaven and the miseries of hell, is fraught with an awful and amazing grandeur and a superlative interest, which overwhelm the imagination and spread far beyond the utmost comprehension of the understanding. No objects can affect the mind equally with these, and no method of communicating them, equally with that contained in the Scriptures.

A person risen from the dead might, I acknowledge, disclose a variety of particulars concerning this subject, and inform us of many things which God has not thought proper to unfold in

MICHIGAN

the Scriptures. I will readily admit that in all probability they would be universally interesting. But when the Scriptures assert that they contain all things necessary for life and for godliness, I cannot admit that these communications, made by an inhabitant of the unseen world, would, upon the whole, be profitable to us. The secret things, we are told, belong to God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of his law. The secret things are those which God has hidden from us or chosen not to reveal to us, and these he has kept secret from the same benevolent purpose for which he has revealed others, to wit, that he might enable and incline us to do all the words of his law. Had more been revealed, we should be less able and less inclined to perform this duty as truly as if he had revealed fewer. In other words, revelation has stopped at the point which, if we were competent judges, we should pronounce the best.

The communications made by a person risen from the dead, those I mean of which I have been speaking, would undoubtedly gratify in a high degree our curiosity, and might in an equal degree affect our hearts. But it can scarcely be doubted that they would also awaken in us a thousand perplexities concerning a state of existence so little like our own, and the particulars of which it must be so difficult to reconcile to our apprehensions of what is wise and proper, and to explain to our entire satisfaction. That which was disclosed would demand another disclosure to unfold its nature and propriety, and that another and another, without end. The mysteries even of the present world are innumerable, and the efforts of philosophy, after all its labours, have left most of them as it found them. They are mysteries still. In almost every science we find, after advancing a little way, scarcely any thing but perplexity, doubt, and despair. If this is the case in a world in which we and those who had gone before us have lived so long, and laboured so much, what must be the case with regard to the disclosures of a single individual concerning the future world, a world so unlike our own, where all must be new, wonderful, and to such beings as we are chiefly, inexplicable? Information

like this could scarcely be favourable to the faith or reformation of mankind.

At the same time there is no small reason to believe that such amazing scenes as those of futurity, when disclosed by one of its inhabitants, would, in the proper sense, overwhelm our minds, and leave us utterly unqualified for rational thought and useful exertion. When the mind is wrought up to a very high pitch of feeling, neither its views nor its determinations are usually of much value. As the things are presented in the Scriptures they are certainly sufficiently awful. Few persons can meet them with a steady eye, or hear them without a tingling ear. Most attend to them only when they are compelled, and turn away their attention from them as soon as it is in their power. Upon the whole it may well be questioned whether any thing would be gained towards the reformation of mankind by a further disclosure of these subjects, either more extended or more minute.

Thirdly, Beside the things which a person risen from the dead could unfold, the Scriptures afford many others pre-eminently important and affecting.

In the Scriptures we are taught innumerable doctrines concerning the character, works and government of God; the character, mission, and mediation of the Redeemer; the character and offices of the Holy Spirit; the ruin and recovery of man, the renovation of his soul, the justification and adoption of his person, and the purification of his life; concerning the dangers and duties, the hopes, comforts, and joys of the Christian; his access to God by prayer for all blessings, and the communion with him, which it is so much the duty and the privilege of the Christians to maintain. All these doctrines are at once instructive, endearing, and persuasive, and have proved the means of salvation to many a sinner. To these must be added a long train of precepts and ordinances, naturally conspiring to promote, and actually promoting, the same important end. All these are advantages of pre-eminent consequence towards the accomplishment of this great purpose which are peculiar to the Scriptures, and could not be challenged by a person arisen from the dead.