Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/274

 the Jewish economy, a Church of another character was founded, but that also in the course of ages was perverted; men rendered the word of God of none effect, by their traditions, and then the Lord came into the world to execute a judgment upon it, after which the mercy of Christianity was vouchsafed. Jesus, however, foresaw that even Christianity would descend from the eminence on which He planted it; He, therefore, predicted that a judgment would overtake it, and that a new Church would subsequently arise: the former to be rendered evident by the existence of some unhappy circumstances in the world; the latter to be made plain by the display of some superior intelligences among mankind. Thus the Scriptures inform us that Divine judgments have always attended the end of the Churches, and that Divine mercies have always succeeded those judgments. Of these facts, so far as they related to the ancient dispensations, we have already spoken; and now we will endeavour to exhibit the rationale of that judgment which is predicted in reference to Christianity, and which we believe to have been accomplished. The general principle which will guide us in this endeavour will be the same as that which has regulated our interpretation of all the cases which have been considered.

In the first place, the fact must be remembered, that all persons when they die pass from the natural world into the world of spirits: that there is such a world, no Christian can sensibly deny. Men take with them everything that belongs to them as living, thinking beings:—all that is responsible and all that is immortal belonging to their nature. In short, every one rises immediately after death into the world of spirits, with that "spiritual body" which is proper to his existence. That there is such a body the Apostle expressly affirms.