01.04. Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV. Of what may be conceived concerning the Invisible State; with suitable supports for the Mind, derived from the Gospel, all sustaining and refreshing to Believers. THE state we enter upon at death is invisible: we see nothing of it; we can form no ideas of it but from the word of inspiration. In this present embodied state we receive all our ideas through the medium of our nerves and bodily senses. We are beset with surrounding objects suited to our present senses. How it will be with us when unclothed of our material part, we cannot say; and I conceive this makes the thoughts of death so distressing to the minds of some of the faithful in Christ Jesus. Some of them say, We are not afraid so much of death, as what may befall us in the article of death; that is, of the pain and agony which may attend dissolution. What this may be, and whether we may feel and experience it or not, need give us no concern, for the Lord will be with us. He says, I will never, never, never leave thee; I will never, never forsake thee; which ought to be enough for us. The pains of death can be but bodily: they must be short they will soon be over; for death, when it comes, will, soon do its office, which having done, it will never more return. In some instances it performs its work so gently, that the person seems to have felt little of it: the soul being fled, and the body dropt, almost in a moment. Some say, what they fear is, what they conceive must be felt at the separation of soul and body. Why, if death be but sleep, as the scriptures both of the Old and New Testament call it, then it is very evident nothing is felt at the instant when the soul departs from the body. This, I think, may receive some confirmation from what frequently occurs. The dying person is talking one moment, and unexpectedly, to those who are present, gone ere they were aware.
I do conceive, whether it be confessed or not, that we are more afraid of death, because we are to be unclothed by it, and enter into an unseen state, than we apprehend. We commonly say, None who are gone before us ever returned to inform others what they felt when death did its office on them what they saw, when they were out of their bodies; and that we may well therefore shrink at the thought. Is is true, we have had saints who were actually dead in their bodies, and their souls, in the invisible state, restored to their bodies, and conversed in them with their former friends in this our world: As the son of the widow woman of Zerephath, who was restored from death to life by Elijah; and the son of the Shunamite, who was raised to life at the prayer of Elisha; the widow’s son of Nain; the daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus; all of whom had died, and their souls had been in the invisible state, yet Christ brought them out of it; so that they lived in their bodies as before, and conversed with their friends. They, however, made no communication of what they saw and conversed with in the invisible state. We must say they could not; we can say they did not. Many of the saints, whose bodies had slept the sleep of death, came out of their graves after Christ’s resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many, Matthew 27:53. Yet we do not find it recorded that they gave any account of the state which separates between saints on earth and saints in heaven: and were they asked, why? wherefore did they not ? The answer would be, it was impossible they should. Paul says, He was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it was not possible for a man to utter 2 Corinthians 12:4. He could not imprint them upon any man’s understanding. We are in this present world confined wholly to the medium of our senses, acted on by the objects surrounding us and by what we hear from others, for all our present knowledge of the present world and of ourselves. Yet there are subjects and things we converse with which are invisible; so our souls are invisible; we see them not; what our intellectual minds, thoughts, words, and spirits are, never came under our view. The air which we breathe, and without which we cannot live one single moment, is invisible to us; so is light: we see all objects by it, yet we see it not. So fire: we see its flame; we perceive how it wastes and consumes what is cast into it; yet we see not the fire, which thus operates and produces such and such effects. What we call fire is melted air; we see this, but we see not the agent which produces this; yet we are not concerned, because we see not the agents in nature. It does not distress us, because we know not all things in the world. We shall all of us die as unacquainted with some things in our present world, as though we had never been on it, or lived in it.
It is from the word of inspiration that we receive into our renewed minds ideas of spiritual and eternal things, in that the invisible state is set before us, so far as it concerns us in our present and embodied state to know. What is apprehended of the same in the minds of saints, through the light of the word and spirit, led the apostle and others to long to be clothed with immortality and eternal glory. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for, that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God, who also hath given to us the earnest of the spirit, 2 Corinthians 5:4-5. When I was of the age of twenty-two, being impressed with fears concerning an invisible state, I said to my parent, "Mother, I wish there was any other way of going to God than by death; I am afraid of what we shall see and converse with after we are out of the body." She replied, “I wonder you are so fearful; I should not be afraid to be in hell, if Christ were with me."
I conceived for many years that it was Paul’s desire, if it might have been granted, to be changed in his body, as the saints will at the last day, and have been thus excused dying. I now, from the scriptures of truth, clearly perceive there are but two men in the invisible state who passed into it without death, all beside died, and were buried in their bodies in the grave. Even our Lord Jesus Christ died,, and was buried. The saints, who rose to grace the triumphs of his resurrection, died in their bodies, and had been buried in them; yet now they shine in their glorified bodies, as Enoch, Elijah, and Moses also do; therefore I do not long to be excused dying; as it is the one consecrated passage for all the family and household of faith, (Enoch and Elijah only excepted) with those of the Lord’s family also, who shall remain in their bodies until the coming of the Lord.
Whilst the stake we are to enter upon at death is at present invisible, yet we shall be as suited to it as if we had been born in it. This will be as truly the case as we are born for it. In this state we shall have to converse with God, the Father of lights, who is invisible; with Christ, in whom, as in a mirror, all the glory of God’s Being, Persons, and Perfections, will be reflected and shine forth: with elect angels in their glorious forms; with elect saints in their disembodied forms; with Enoch, Elijah, Moses, and the risen saints, whom Christ raised up when he arose, the first fruits of all that sleep in him. Now all these are at present invisible unto us, yet they are not wholly unknown to us. We know God, Father, Son, and Spirit in Christ. We read, and by faith we apprehend, that Jehovah is King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality dwelling in the light, which no man hath seen or can see. To whom we cannot but ascribe honour and power everlasting. Amen.
Christ is invisible unto us, yet by faith we see him now, who is invisible, and have present communion with him. The elect angels, we do not now see them in their distinct and glorious forms, yet we do conceive of them as servants of the Lord Jesus, and as sent forth by him to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. As to the spirits of just men made perfect, some of them, we knew in the flesh; others of them, whom we knew not in our world, yet some of us have reaped much benefit by their writings left behind them; so that, in a sense, they are peculiarly dear unto us; and as it respects the state, it will most exactly suit us. We shall find every thing in it quite suited to us, so that our minds, under these considerations, may be well reconciled respecting leaving this world, and entering the invisible state: because, whilst we acknowledge it to be invisible, we dare not call it an unknown state. The word of God gives us some real conceptions of it. Saints in all ages have longed to enter on it; Christ himself, as our forerunner, is gone before us, and has taken possession of it; and when we shall be called upon to enter it, he will take us by the hand and introduce us. unto it.
Into this invisible state we enter once for all we shall never after be fit for any other. In it we shall have such conceptions and enjoyments as we cannot have in this; they will be suitable to it, and the objects and subjects of it. These will be in vast variety, all suited to the spiritual mind, to expand it, to enjoy, and be freely and fully exercised on, whilst it will be by the same spiritual faculty with which we apprehend God in all his persons and perfections, in the God-Man, Christ Jesus, as set before us in the everlasting gospel; yet, as the apostle says, now we see and apprehend all this, through a glass, darkly; but then we shall see all this so completely and clearly, that it will be like seeing face to face. He says, Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
It is a very suitable support to the mind, when about to enter the invisible state, that we shall not be surprised into company and subjects we were wholly unacquainted with. The element which saints breathe in now is grace; the element they will then breathe in will be glory. The state they are now in is grace; the state they will be then in will be glory; the ordinances they are now under are suited to their present state; the ordinances they will be under then, will suit the glory to which they will be advanced. Christ, the Lamb of God, in the glories of his mediatorial person, love, work, offices, and honours, will shine forth, in open sight and view, before all his angels and redeemed, and will be the ordinance of glory. Saints will see him; the redeemed will worship him; not to the exclusion of the Father and the Spirit, but to the glory of the Father and the Spirit, who ordained him to be salvation to the whole election of grace, as constituted of Adam’s posterity. When we enter into the invisible state, we shall not be introduced into, and swallowed up in views and apprehensions of God, as he is in his Essence. This would be confounding and tremendous: it would overwhelm and entirely absorb our very existence. No; this will not, this cannot be. We shall be admitted to a sight, and into the immediate presence of Christ. We shall be shone upon in him, with all the manifestative love of the essential Three. We shall enjoy such immediate communion with the Three in Jehovah in the Man Christ Jesus, as will fill us with all the fullness of God; but we shall never be admitted further no, not when we see Christ in his own personal glory; we shall not even then be raised up to apprehend God in his own essential glory. This may yield some suitable support to our minds. It is Christ, the Man in God; or, if you like it better, it is Christ, God-Man, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, into whose presence we shall be immediately introduced by death, and before whom we shall appear. We shall never see Father, Son, and Spirit, the Three in Jehovah, by any formal or distinct appearance, yet we shall have true and distinct apprehensions of them in their distinct persons; we shall love them, bless them, worship them, and have distinct communion with them in Christ, beyond all our present and uttermost conceptions of the subject. It is through the God-Man that all their love will flow into our souls; and it is in him everlasting praises will ascend, from all saints, to the Eternal Three, the one Incomprehensible Jehovah, who liveth for ever and ever, to whom be honour and glory everlasting. Amen. The gospel opens the invisible state to us, so far as it can be opened to our faith; for, when opened to us, we can only apprehend the same by faith. It is said of Moses, By faith when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter: Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the King; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Hebrews 11:24-27.
It may be observed, we shall leave nothing in entering the invisible state, but, for a season, we shall be better without. Our bodies would for a season be of no use to us, therefore it is best they should be put off, and put in their graves. Christ will raise them up at the last day. Our friends cannot any longer be of use to us; we are going to have new ones, some of whom we never knew in the body, and it will be a blessing for us and them to meet together in the temple above, and go no more out. Our leaving the church on earth need not to be lamented, because it is only that we may enjoy the society and worship of the church in heaven, where everlasting union and harmony prevails. We at death put off all, and leave all, that we may enjoy all; where we have all friends and no enemies; where we shall be most cordially embraced, most highly esteemed. We shall be welcomed by all, and not have any enemy. There we shall appear like ourselves; there we shall walk with Christ in white raiment; he will there shine upon us; he will open his whole heart unto us; he will there be the tree of life, the bread of life, the crown of life, the fountain of life, the water of life; he will be all in all unto us, so that we shall need nothing beyond Christ. When we enter into what bath been delivered, it appears that the invisible state is a most truly desirable one. The gospel opens this state unto us; it actually sets it before us; our Jesus is in it; he is the head of it; he is the glory of it; he receives and will admit all his members into it; nothing keeps out of it any of the heirs of glory but their old crazy lives. As soon as these drop, they enter without delay. The apostle says, If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ: All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Romans 8:17
0 my soul! thou art shortly to enter the invisible state. Art thou in any measure so acquainted with it, as not to be at a loss whither thou art going, when thy present body falls by death? I most assuredly feel that it is tottering. I am not sorry for it, but yet I would have a due and proper consideration of whither I am going. Thou knowest nothing of it but by revelation and anticipation. And what thinkest thou, O my soul! Is it suited to thee? Canst thou be happy to be, where the place and state are heavenly? where the inhabitants are all taken with pleasures wholly intellectual and spiritual? Will it be acceptable to thee to be wholly swallowed up in. eternal and intellectual delights? Thou wilt in the separate state be destitute of the medium whereby thou apprehendest subjects and things now. The intellect will he unclothed: it will be in a state it never yet was. Thou wilt see and converse with beings and things which are wholly unknown to thy present senses. What thinkest thou of this ? Hast thou surveyed what hath been declared concerning the invisible state, with the supports and consolations held forth in the everlasting gospel If thou hast, thou wilt most assuredly grant there is a sufficiency contained in the same, to carry thee beyond all care and fears concerning that invisible state which thou wilt most assuredly enter on, Let me, therefore, put the substance of my views and thoughts concerning it into prayer, and express myself on the subject thus:0 Lord Jesus Christ, thou hast given me solenmn warning that I must, very shortly, quit this my tabernacle, and put off this body by death! I say Amen to it. O Lord, I am to enter in my soul alone into the invisible world and state: I pray I may without the least reluctance. Thou wentest out of the world as I must. Blessed be thy name, thou bast consecrated the passage. O let me follow thee cheerfully, singing thy high praises, because thou hast conquered death. Save me, O Lord, from every uneasy thought! Let me expect to be fully prepared for the invisible state, and for those objects and subjects I am then to see and converse with, by that change of immortality and glory which will pass on my mind, immediately on my being disembodied. O thou blessed Christ, as every day, hour, and moment, fly fast to bring me unto, and to bring on my last change, grant, for thy great name’s sake, I may be receiving from thee fresh intuitive views of the blessed state which awaits me. All I expect is but a change from grace to glory: the one is the preparation for the other. The former was an instantaneous change it was wrought in a moment, so will be the latter. Blessed be thy name, I have some ideas of it, although faint. Lord, increase the same in my mind! Realize them more and more. Let me live in the clear apprehensions of the same; and O that when death comes, I may fall so sweetly composed into thine arms, that I may sleep in thee without the least reluctance. Amen.