The righteous will also be blessed with the company of angels and saints. Although the nature, order, and rank of the angels is superior to that of men, yet they will not disdain our company. Those that now account themselves our fellow-servants will not refuse to make us their happy associates in heaven. Those that now rejoice in our conversion will then triumph in our final salvation. There also we shall be admitted to the society of the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, and all those eminent servants of God who, in every successive age, have shone as lights in this dark world, and are now translated to a higher orb. There we shall also regain the society of our Christian relations and friends that have been our fellow-soldiers here in the same spiritual warfare, but are now possessed of the immortal crown, and have before us entered into everlasting rest. O the joyful meeting, when all the children of God that were dispersed abroad shall be gathered into one general assembly and church! when the vast convention of all whose names are listed in the heavenly rolls shall be completed, not one member being wanting in the mystical body of Christ! If now it be so "pleasant to behold brethren dwell together in unity" on earth, how much more to behold the perfect unity of the concordant, heavenly society, when the prayer of Christ for them shall be fully answered, "that they may be all one in God and him." John, 17: 21.

§ 12. Another part of the future blessedness of the righteous will result from the noble employment and work of the heavenly society. Angels and saints are frequently represented in the Scriptures as joining in joyfully celebrating the divine praises. See Rev. 5: 8-14. 7:9, 10. 19:19. "Methinks," says the pious Mr. Baxter, "when we are singing or speaking God's praise in the great assemblies with joyful and fervent souls, I have the liveliest foretaste of heaven upon earth; and I almost wish that our

voices could reach through all the world, and to heaven itself. Nor is there any exercise in which I would rather end my life." And if it be so sweet to join in the imperfect praises of the church here below, how ravishing will it be to bear our part in the triumphant hallelujahs of the heavenly community. How justly may we say with the Psalmist, "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still praising thee."

And no doubt there are various works besides, in which the heavenly King will employ all that are the happy attendants at his throne above. It is expressly mentioned as one part of the felicity of heaven, that "there the servants of God shall serve him." Rev. 22: 3. And these services will be as much more honorable and delightful than those on earth, as their capacity and zeal to perform them shall be greater. But I proceed to name,

§ 13. Another part of the future happiness of the righteous, as resulting from the beauty and glory of the place where they shall enjoy it. The future habitation of the righteous is called by different names, such as the paradise of God, the third heaven, the heaven of heavens, a building not made with hands, into which our blessed Savior has entered to prepare mansions for his faithful followers; the Jerusalem above, a city whose builder and maker is God. "And if there be such a ravishing beauty," says Dr. Boyee, "in the accurate frame of this lower world; if this earth, which is but comparatively as the sink of this inferior creation, be full of the glory of God; what must we conceive that highest heaven to be, which is as it were the court of the eternal King, the place of his peculiar abode, and the seat of his glorious empire!" Well may it be called, "the heaven of heavens." To represent its amazing amplitude and splendor, he employs the lively emblem of his immensity and glory who dwells there, (i. e. there peculiarly manifests himself.) "and who would not long to see the

beauty and glory of God shining with the brightest rays in that eternal sanctuary! Who would not account it the highest honor to be admitted into the presence-chamber, and to stand before the "blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords!"

14. To what has been said, my dear Benjamin, I will add but one thought more, viz. that the future happiness of the righteous arises from its duration. It is " Eternal Life," both without interruption and without end. It is an immortal crown, whose glory never fades; an "inheritance incorruptible," that suffers no diminution by the longest possession of it. There are none of those alloying ingredients in the heavenly felicity that abate and extinguish the pleasure of our sensual enjoyments. Glorified saints have no temptation to be weary of their heavenly work and joys, either from any defects in the objects they enjoy, or any weakness in their own perfected faculties. Their felicity is, in a lower degree, like that of its blessed author, fixed and invariable.

Thus, my dear Benjamin, I have endeavored to give you a description of the future happiness of the righteous, but let us be more anxious to realize it than simply to know it; may it be our felicity to know and serve God here below, and afterwards to be permitted to sit down with our venerable fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God; and join with all the redeemed in singing "the song of Moses and the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen."

Farewell.

Letter V.

CONCLUSION.

Dear Benjamin,

§ 1. By the good hand of Providence I have been upheld and enabled to complete the series of letters on the controversy between our dear people and Christians. I have endeavored to lay before you the evidences which convinced me that the Bible, i. e. the Old and New Testaments, is a book of divine revelation, worthy of God to reveal, and absolutely necessary and perfectly sufficient to make us wise unto salvation, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have given you an account of the necessity, appointment and revelation of a Messiah, or Mediator. I have endeavored to illustrate and confirm, both from the sacred volume and from the writings of our Rabbins, of blessed memory, all the prophecies contained in the law, in the prophets, and in the book of Psalms concerning the Messiah, and shown their literal accomplishment in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, both in his state of humiliation and exaltation. I have further detained you with several letters on the all-important subject of the divinity of the Messiah, and I hope that, instead of being "a stone of stumbling and rock of offence," it will be "for a sanctuary" to your precious soul. In conformity with your repeated solicitations and my frequent promises, I have endeavored to give you a brief statement of the different sentiments and opinions on the interesting but most difficult subject, the second advent of the Messiah, or the millennium, and have concluded the series by a few letters on the subjects generally called the four last things," i. e. the resurrection of

the dead, the general judgment, the misery of the wicked, and the happiness of the righteous. I have also endeavored to answer the few objections which you have been kind enough to suggest, and hope that, instead of making an apology for troubling me with them, you will read over carefully the whole series in its connection, and let me know all your doubts and objections on the different subjects; and if life and health be spared, I will with pleasure endeavor to remove them out of the way of your embracing Jesus Christ as your Lord and your God. At the close of the first series I mentioned that it was my intention to add a few select sermons to this work; but as the matter necessarily connected with the one great object, the Messiah, has already exceeded the proposed limits, I must defer them until a more convenient opportunity.

§ 2. I cannot lay down my pen without addressing a few words to you,

My beloved brethren and kinsmen after the flesh. Although these letters are addressed to Benjamin, my natural brother, yet at no time during the composition of them did I lose sight of you and your precious souls; "for my heart's desire and prayer to God for you is, that you might be saved." And now, brethren, permit me to propose them to your careful perusal and attention; and after you have read them dispassionately and attentively, and properly reflected on the many and important truths which they present to your view, tell me candidly whether they do not clearly prove that Jesus Christ is the Messiah; not indeed such an one as you have figured to yourselves, but such an one as the prophets describe; who was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea, in an humble condition, "like a root out of a dry ground," to become " a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," who was to suffer and to die, being "smitten and stricken of God, wounded and bruised for our transgressions, that by his stripes we might be healed."