Page images
PDF
EPUB

expression, this void in religion. By a supernatural dispensation of grace, he passes into the other world before death, and he returns thence before the general resurrection. The whole church, awakened to eager attention, calls upon him for a detail of the wonders of the world unknown. And as the Israelites, after having dispatched spies into the land of promise, burnt with ardent desire to see and hear them, in order that they might obtain information respecting the country, whether it merited the exertions necessary to acquire possession, in like manner, the Christian world seems to flock round our apostle, in earnest expectation of being informed what that felicity is, into which they are invited to enter by a gate so strait. They seem with one accord to ask him: What did you hear? What did you see? in the view of determining, upon his report, this all-important question, whether they should still persevere in their exertions to surmount the obstacles which they have to encounter in the way of salvation, or whether they should relinquish the pursuit.

But St. Paul fulfils not this expectation: he maintains a profound silence respecting the objects which had been presented to his mind: he speaks of his rapture only in the view of confounding those false teachers who took upon them to set at nought his ministry: and all the description he gives of Paradise, amounts to no more than a declaration of his own utter inability to describe what he had seen and heard. ・ I knew a man in Christ: a man in Christ, that is to say, a Christian, and by this denomination the apostle is characterizing himself, I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot Bell; God knoweth ;) such an one caught up to

the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell : God knoweth ;) how that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

We propose in the following discourse, my brethren, to attempt a solution of the difficulty which arises from this silence of the apostle. We propose to discuss this singular, but interesting question : Wherefore is the celestial felicity unspeakable? Wherefore should it be unlawful for a man to utter it? We shall begin with some elucidation of the expressions of our text, inquiring, 1. Into the era to which reference is here made; I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago. 2. By considering what is said respecting the manner of this rapture; Whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth. 3. What we are to understand by Paradise, and the third heaven. 4. Finally, What

ideas we are to affix to those unspeakable words to which our apostle alludes in the text: and these will constitute the first general division of our subject.

But in the second, which we have principally in view, we shall examine the point already indicated, by inquiring, Whether the silence of scripture, respecting a state of future happiness, suggests any thing tending to cool our ardor in the pursuit of it: we shall endeavor to make you sensible, that nothing is so much calculated to convey lofty ideas of the Paradise of God, as that very veil which conceals it from our eyes. If you fully enter into the great aim and end of this discourse, it will produce on your minds those effects to which all our exhortations, all our importunities, are adapted, namely, to kindle in your hearts an ardent desire

to go to God; to put into your mouths that exclamation of the Psalmist: How great is thy goodness, O God, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee! Psa. xxxi. 19: to place you in the very situation of our apostle, who, after having been caught up to the third heaven, could no longer endure to live upon the earth, had his eyes opened to every path that led to death, could talk no more of any thing but of dying, but of finishing his course, 2 Tim. iv. 7. but of being absent from the body, 2 Cor. v. 8. but of departing, but of being with Christ, which was to him far better, Phil. i. 23.

I. We begin with some elucidation of the expressions of the text, and of these,

1. The first refers to the era of St. Paul's rapture: I knew a man in Christ, above tourteen years ago. But were we to enter upon a complete discussion of this question, it would occupy much more time than is allotted for the whole of our present exercise. Never had a preacher a fairer opportunity of wasting an hour to his hearers, in useless investigation, and impertinent quotations. We could easily supply you with an ample list of the opinious of interpreters, and of the reasons adduced by each in support of his own. We could tell you, first, how it is alleged by some, that these fourteen years denote the time elapsed from the conversion of St. Paul; and that his rapture took place during those three days in which he was without sight, and did neither eat nor drink, Acts ix. 9. And to this purpose we could quote Capel, Lira, Cave, Tostat, and many other authors, unknown to the greater part of my audience.

We might add, that some other commentators refer this epoch to the eighth year after St. Paul's

conversion to Christianity, the forty-fourth of Jesus Christ, and the twelfth after his death.

We could shew you how others insist, with a greater air of probability, that the apostle enjoyed this heavenly vision, when, after his contention with Barnabas, humiliating instance of the infirmity of the greatest saints, he prosecuted his ministry in a different track. Those who adopt this opinion, allege, in support of it, the words of St. Paul in chap. xxii. of the Acts, ver. 17. It comes to pass, that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance. But disquisitions of this sort are unworthy of the place which I now have the honor to fill. I have matters of much higher importance to propose to you.

2. The manner of St. Paul's rapture stands in need, perhaps, of some elucidation. He has expressed it in terms very much calculated to check curiosity. Whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell. We, accordingly, presume, not to pursue researches on points respecting which the apostle himself professes ignorance.

Let it only be remarked, that God was pleased, in former times, to manifest himself in many dif ferent manners. Sometimes it was by a voice: witness that which issued out of the cloud, Exod. xvi. 10: witness that which addressed Moses from the burning bush, Exod. iii. 4: witness that which thundered from Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, Exod. xix. 16: witness that which answered Job out of the whirlwind, chap. xxxviii. 1: witness that from above the mercy-seat, Exod. xxv. 22.

He was pleased, at other times, to reveal himself in dreams and visions of the night; as to Jacob

at Bethel, Gen. xxviii. 12. to Abimelech, Gen. xx. 3. and to Pharaoh's butler, Gen. xl. 9.

He sometimes manifested himself in visions to persons awake. Thus he presented to Moses in Horeb a bush burning with fire yet unconsumed, Exod. iii. 4. to Balaam, an angel with his sword drawn in his hand, Numb. xxii. 31. to Joshua, the captain of the Lord's Host, Jos. v. 15.

He sometimes communicated himself to men through the medium of inspiration, accompanied with emotions which constrained them to speak out. This was the case with Jeremiah, as we read chap. xx. 8, 9. The word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart, as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing.

But of all those miraculous dispensations, the most noble and exalted was that of rapture or extasy. By the term extasy, we mean that powerful conflict, that concentration of thought, that profound intenseness of mental application, under the influence of which the enraptured person is emancipated from the communications of the senses, forgets his body, and is completely absorbed of the object of his meditations.

Rapture is perhaps a degree superior to extasy. Sometimes it affects the mind. This is the case when God, in virtue of that sovereign power which he possesses over the soul of man, excites in it the same ideas, causes it to perceive the same objects, with which it would be struck, were the body, to which it is united, really in a place from whence it is extremely remote. It is thus that we must explain the rapture of the prophet Ezekiel, chap. viii. 3.

« PreviousContinue »