7. Later Vievs. — The evangelical Protestant church- es probably would all agree that eternal life com-
ETERNAL LIFE
317
ETHAN
mences m Christian experience in this world. So Wesley (Sermons, ii, ISO): "This is the testimony, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life [the eternal life here spoken of] ; and he that hath not the Son hath not life." As if he had said, This is the sum of the testimony which God hath testified of his Son, that God hath given us not onlj' a title to, but the real be- giiming of eternal life ; and this life is purchased by, and treasured up in his Son, who has all the springs and the fulness of it in himself, to communicate to his body, the Church. This eternal life, tlien, commences when it pleases the Father to reveal his Son in our hearts ; when we first know Christ, being enabled to "call him Lord b}' the Holy Ghost;" when we can testify, our conscience bearing us witness in the Holy Ghost, "The life which I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." And then it is that happiness begins — happi- ness real, solid, substantial. Then it is that heaven is opened in the soul, that the proper heavenl}' state com- mences, while the love of God, as loving us, is shed abroad in the heart, instanth' producing love to ail mankind ; general pure benevolence, together with its genuine fruits, lowliness, meekness, patience, content- edness in every state; an entire, clear, full acquiescence in the whole will of God, enabling us to "rejoice ever- more, and in ever3'thing to give thanks."
As to the nature of the blessedness of the future life, " the sum of wliat we are taught by reason and Scripture on this point may be comprehended under the three following particulars : («) We shall here- after be entirely freed from the sufferings of this life ; (b) Our future blessedness will be a continuation of the happiness of this life ; (c) But it will also be in- creased by the addition of many new joys, which stand in no natural or necessary connection with our preced- ing condition in this life. But, for want of accurate knowledge of the state of things in the future world, we can say nothing definite and certain as to the na- ■ ture of these positive rewards. In the doctrine of the New Testament, however, positive rewards are consid- ered most obviously as belonging to our future felici- ty, and as constituting a principal part of it. For it always represents the joys of heaven as resulting stricth' from the/at-or of God, and as being vndeseried by those to whom they are given. Hence there must be something more added to the natural good conse- quences of our actions, something which cannot be considered as the neeessarj^ and natural consequences of the good actions we may have before performed. Some theologians have supposed that the saints in hea\-en may be taught by immedirite divine revelations (luimn r/loriw) ; osjipciall}^ those who may enter the abodes of the blessed without knowledge, or with only a small measure of it ; e. g. children, and others who have died in ignorance for which they themselves were not to blame. On this subject nothing is defi- nitely taught in the Scriptures ; but both Scripture and reason warrant us in believing that provision will be made for all such persons in the future world. A principal part of our future happiness will consist, according to the Christian doctrine, in the enlarge- ment and correcting of our knowledge respecting God, his nature, attiiliutes, and works, and in the salutary application of this knowledge to our own moral liene- fit, to the increase of our faith, love, and obedience. There has been some controversy among theologians with regard to the vision of God (visio Dei intnitiva, or sendtiva, or bealijica, or comprehensivd) ; but Christ is alwaj'S represented as one who will \w personall;/ visi- ble by us, and whose personal, familiar intercourse and guidance we shall enjoy. And herein Clirist him- self places a chief part of the joy of the saints (Jolin xiv, xvii, etc.). And so the apostles often descril)e the blessedness of the pious ]>y tiio phrase beiiiff untk Christ. To his guidance has God intrusted the human
race in heaven and on earth. And Paul says (2 Cor. iv, 6) we see 'the brightness of the divine glorv in the face of Christ ;' he is ' the visible representative of the invisible God' (Colos. i, 15). Paul says ex- pressly (1 Tliess. iv, 17) that we shall be with Christ, in company with our friends trho died before us (Jiua ai'v avTolc); and this presupposes that we shall recog- nise them, and have intercourse with them, as with Christ himself. Paul advises that Christians should comfort themselves under the loss of their friends by considering that they are at home with the Loid, and that they shall be again united together" (Knajip, Christ. Theology, sec. clx, p. 490-494). See also Cotta, Hist. Dogm. de Vita aterna ; Cotta, Theses Thcol. de Vita mterna (Tiibing. 1758) ; Storr, Ojmsciila Academica, ii, 75 ; Wesley, Sermons, ii, 180 sq. ; Baxter, Saints' Best; Isaac Taylor, Physical Theory of another Life ; Naville, Vie Eternelle (1865) ; Herzog, Real-EncyUop. viii, 254 (from which this article is in part a translation) ; llar- tensen. Christian Dogmatics, § 283-290. See Imjior-