as are born during the reign of righteousness, who do not sleep
or die, and those who must die by reason of sin. The former know
not the dominion or sting of sin, but are as trees of the Lord's
planting--righteous. The latter must needs die and be resurrected.
Jesus was the first fruits of them that slept. In the case of all
others, corruption followed death; and a longer period must elapse
before their bodies could be resurrected by reason of corruption. But
Jesus was first and foremost to ripen into immortality. Corruptibility
did not pertain to him, of course it was not necessarily pre-requisite
to his resurrection and immortality; but with all others, down to the
period when it is said that they should not sleep, corruption must
precede the resurrection.--If the body of Jesus did not corrupt and
moulder back to dust, then it is evident that he had substantially the
same sort of corporal frame after his resurrection that he had before.
The spirit resting upon him without measure, animated and resuscitated
his body with no other material change than that of loss of blood. He
shewed his disciples his body, and told them to handle him and see of
what material it was: "a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me
have." He shewed them, demonstratively, in his own person, a proper
specimen of a living resurrected body. He shewed them that a spirit did
not possess flesh and bones as a resurrected body did. He also proved
another thing, viz.: that a resurrected body retains probably all the
five senses common to a mortal body. He eat and drank with them, and
shewed them that his person was identically the same as before his
death.--Here there is a specimen of corporal immortality. In this
person we may see what all resurrected bodies will be, for we shall be
like him. Life and immortality are brought to light in the example of
Christ's resurrected body. Such is the organization of a resurrected
body, in consequence of the expulsion of the seeds of death, the last
enemy, that decay and disease have no further power or influence.
The immediate resurrection of Jesus, after the lapse of only three
days, was one of the greatest blessings and honours that could be
conferred. In addition to all the faculties and powers which he
possessed previous to his death, he also had those of an immortal
being; instead of lingering a long time, with barely the circumscribed
and limited powers and privileges of a disembodied spirit, he was
blessed in _body_, _soul_, and _spirit_ united. The key to innumerable
lives and boundless dominions was given him on the third day after his
death. It was his sole prerogative to say how long the dead should
sleep before they should be resurrected. All the innumerable privileges
of a resurrected body--privileges unspeakable and even unlawful to
be uttered by reason of the hardness of men's hearts--were conferred
upon him! He held the key of death and hell. No one could come forth
from the tomb without his orders--none could felicitate his spirit by
possessing his own body till Jesus should grant permission. His friends
could all be called forth at his pleasure, and be reinstated on the
earth as he had been, with all their friends and posterity after them,
but no enemy could resuscitate the slumbering ashes of his tomb, till
Jesus should speak the word and grant permission.
His attention would be especially directed to the speedy and early
restitution of such as had been beheaded for his sake and the
gospel's. They should be the very first to be raised, and others in
their time and order; but the wicked enemies! alas, how long they
must lie unnoticed! A _thousand_ years, at least, must roll slowly
away before their mouldering bodies could be allowed to have a living
re-organization! Long and doleful banishment from the joys of life and
immortality! In the meantime the righteous are restored to their own
bodies, now immortalized for ever; they are reinstated on the earth in
the company of kindred spirits, while their enemies are trodden down as
so much dust under the soles of their feet.
How remarkable a contrast between the righteous and the wicked! They
that sowed to the Spirit are reaping the fruits of the Spirit, which
are life everlasting. They inherit the earth and multiply upon it, and
build cities and temples, and their posterity are as numerous as the
sands upon the sea shore. How glorious the rich reward of keeping the
commands of God! but, alas! where are the wicked all this time? Where
are those who have sown to the flesh during this long and glorious
reign of the righteous on the earth? Poor wretched creatures! they
are reaping corruption, just according to what they sowed. Once they
scorned the righteous, and oppressed the hireling, and sneered at
prophets, and said they needed no revelations in their day and age. But
where are they now? Their bodies mingle with the dust of the streets
and of the field, that men tread upon daily. Their memories are nearly
faded from remembrance. Their posterity can no where be found on the
earth. When the wicked return from their banishment (so many as do
return, for they shall be visited after many days) they have become
an inferior race of beings: the righteous have outstripped them in
knowledge, and happiness, and power, and dominion, and glory, and
honour.
The resurrection will bring about a great restitution both to the
righteous and to the wicked. The righteous will receive the reward of
righteousness, and the wicked will receive the wages of sin. When the
wicked are swept off the earth, the books will be opened and examined
in order to know whose names are recorded; and those "that are found
written in the book shall be delivered;" and such shall be resurrected
immediately, and shine as the brightness of the firmament on account
of the illustrious part they had taken in Christ's service. But the
wages of the wicked shall be paid off in a long night of death before
they rise; and when they rise, it shall be to shame and everlasting
contempt. If their long banishment and death is followed by a subdued
and humbled spirit of loyalty to truth, still their late resurrection,
with all its doleful accompaniments, will be an eternal stigma on
their name. It will always be known that they were once banished
and trod under foot a thousand years at least, in consequence of
their disgraceful rebellion against the laws and ordinances of God's
government. Neither they nor their posterity can ever wipe off the
disgrace; they may repent and reform, and become truly loyal to God,
still their former rebellion against immediate revelation and prophets,
will stand on record eternally, and crimson their face with shame, and
furnish occasion for contempt to their name at the retrospect. Many
ancient Saints endured "tortures, not accepting deliverance, in order
that they might obtain a better resurrection."
The domestic tie is the strongest bond of union, and the most prolific
source of virtue and happiness that appertains to mankind on earth
or in heaven. Hence the promise made to Abraham of an innumerable
domestic confederation, and to all others also, who should be heirs of
the same faith with faithful Abraham. But the wicked are disembodied
spirits, without flesh and bones, and cannot partake of the blessings
of domestic union, and that friendship and fellowship that the whole
_family_ of God in heaven and upon earth enjoy. Poor desolate spirits,
that once despised prophecyings and forbid to speak in tongues, ye are
now left without the sweet ties of parentage, and the endearing bonds
of filial and conjugal affection! The social circle in which you move,
and the government under which you are organized, have lost their most
lovely and essential ligaments of union and strength. How gladly would
wicked spirits accept the bodies of the inferior animals as their
tabernacle, might they be permitted to do so; even the swine would be a
desirable habitation rather than none at all.
The angels that kept not their first estate are reserved in chains
(have not the liberty of embodied spirits) to the far distant period of
final judgment, when death and hell shall be judged after the lapse of
a thousand years and "little season;" even then death and hell, with
all others whose reprieve is not found written in the book, must fall
victims to the second death. Oh! dreadful consequence of sin! How oft
would I have _gathered_ you, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wing, but ye would not; but now, your house is left unto you desolate!
But, alas! sir, how many attach no more importance to the resurrection,
than merely the fact of its being an evidence that we shall survive the
dissolution of death? but blessed are those who understand and have
part in the _first_ resurrection, for on such the second death hath no
power. Sir, my heart swells with deep concern that all men might obey
the only true gospel, that entitles to a part in the first resurrection!
The limits of my letter forbid me to exhort; but suffer me to say,
unless you have the same faith with Daniel and Elijah, and the same
spirit of revelation with Peter, Abraham, and Moses, you can never
associate with resurrected bodies, neither with holy angels, nor with
God. In your _flesh_ you never can see God. All former Saints were
united with the spirits of the just, and angels, and Christ, and God
the judge of all: and if you are not united to the same by supernatural
faith, and the spirit of vision and revelation, you may bid farewell
to every endearing social tie, and launch forth among the disembodied
powers of the air; and there with bitter regret and wailing, lament
over that fallen and lost bodily image of your Maker, laid low in
corruptible ruins through your transgression and hatred of the ministry
of the prophet of the last days. There, this spectacle of your
rebellion against prophets (monument of your shame) must lie till your
self-righteous spirit is subdued, or be raised only to encounter the
mortal grasp of a second death.
Yes, sir, while the restitution will elevate the righteous to their
proper level in the scale of being, where the wicked cannot molest,
it will also depress the wicked to their humiliating level. It will
separate them to their own place, and the want of bodies will prove
an impassable gulf between them and happiness. In this state they
may, indeed, contemplate what they have lost, without the power of
recovering it. Oh, tantalizing state of keen despair! Dreadful chains!
Cruel death holds that once noble image of thy Maker fast in mouldering
ruins, as a monument of thy contempt of prophets! Now, thou needest
supernatural power to restore to thee that lost image of thy Maker!
Now, thou needest a new name and key to resurrecting power! but thou
hast despised these things, and saidst thou hadst no need, therefore
thy light is put out and clean gone! Now, angels offer to minister to
thee, and prophets to become thy teachers, but thou wouldst have none
of these; therefore they will withdraw from thee for a long and dreary
night, in which thou wilt often cry out with bitter wailing, "Would God
it were morning!"
Now, sir, may a consideration of these truths lead you to choose the
good and refuse the evil, and stand on the immutable basis of every one
that is taught of God, is the unceasing desire of
Your humble servant,
ORSON SPENCER.
LETTER XIII.
MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS ON RESTITUTION.
_Liverpool, November_ 30, 1847.
Reverend and Dear Sir,--A question has sometimes been asked concerning
infants--with what bodies will they come forth? Will they be raised in
the stature of manhood or adult size? We believe not; but as they fall,
so will they rise again--the size of their stature when they rise, will
be the same as when they fell asleep in death. Little children are the
subjects and residents of the kingdom of heaven. Their angels do always
behold the presence of our Father in heaven.
It is not the size of a person's stature that constitutes any certain
mark of the measure of one's capacity, either to exercise power or
enjoy felicity. Jesus possessed all power in a mere stature of human
size. Still, nothing is fully perfect till it has attained the measure
of the grand Designer, and accomplished the end of its creation. Hence
it may, with some probability, be inferred, that children will mature
and come to their full stature after the resurrection; this, however,
is more a matter of opinion than of any direct revelation that has come
to my knowledge.
It will, of course, from what has been said, be discovered that the
righteous will enjoy a happy recognition of each other in every
endearing relation that is common to mankind in their present mortal
state. Their familiarity will be that of perfect innocence and
felicity. Children, in the millennium, or after the first resurrection,
will need the same paternal care, tutorage, and guidance, which is
required by them now. In the absence of their proper parents they will,
doubtless, receive adopted parents, or an equivalent guardianship
of the angels of God. Such is the established order of progressive
intelligence, through the medium of living teachers, that all the
redeemed of heaven and earth, are under the special guardianship of the
ministering authorities of God.
Oh, how happy and blessed are those parents and children--husbands and
wives--who shall meet in the palaces of the just, and recognize each
other after so long an absence! Unspeakably joyful that day and hour
when friends, that have been long separated, shall again strike hands
together, and celebrate their re-union in the courts above. To die
is gain, because the righteous are exalted and introduced to higher
orders of intelligence. New fields of discovery and enjoyment are
constantly opening, to intensify their interest and swell their bosoms
with the liveliest emotions. They may and do remember their righteous
friends that are left behind, for a little season, with kind desires,
and cannot advance in knowledge and glory very advantageously without
them; still it is the knowledge which they possess of superlative
glories ahead, that principally occupy their minds. Truths and keys,
explanatory of the boundless and skilful works of God, and facilitating
their progress towards dominion and power, and blessing, and salvation,
are continually warming up their hearts and inciting them to onward
deeds. The valiant and faithful that have fought a good fight and kept
the faith, are hailed with delight and thanksgivings on their reception
to the heavenly courts, and most cordially welcomed to the embrace of
the great and venerable progenitor of our race.
Thrice happy are those who keep their present estate, and secure
an imperishable inheritance on this planetary portion of their
interminable existence; and equally deplorable, on the other hand,
the condition of those who, filled with the delusive spirit of
anti-revelation, keep not their present estate, and prefer the
darkness of _no revelation_, in their day; because they have changed
the ordinances, and transgressed the laws, and broken the everlasting
covenant.
Again, it may be asked, will not those who have died without the
knowledge of the gospel, during many centuries past, perish for want of
the gospel? And where is the justice of leaving persons to perish, for
want of that which it is not in their power to obtain?
Were not many of our ancestors, that have died in past generations,
good people, yet as the gospel was not revealed in their day, and they
could not enter the kingdom by being born of the water and of the
Spirit, have they perished? These, indeed, are interesting inquiries.
To the first inquiry I respond--they have not perished, in the sense
or manner in which those have perished who have rejected the offers
of the gospel; not having known the gospel, they have never rejected
it. They have not disobeyed laws and ordinances of which they have not
heard, or which were never imposed upon them. They are neither rewarded
or punished according to gospel laws; but such as have lived without
law will be judged without law. Where there is no law there is no
transgression--where there is nothing given, there is nothing required;
but it is required according to what a man hath. Whatever light they
have had, by _that light_ will they be judged; and whatever privileges
and blessings the _law_, under which they have lived, can confer, such
will be awarded to them. Still our fathers, who have died without the
gospel, are in a condition far inferior to those who have received and
obeyed the gospel.
This condition of theirs is consequent upon the early transgression of
their progenitors. The condition itself may not be blameworthy. Their
conduct, in a pre-existent state, may have deserved for their bodies in
this world to be without the privilege of the gospel; or withholding
gospel privileges from them in this world, may be followed with future
blessings compensatory for their loss, when they shall prove themselves
worthy of a better condition. The gospel martyr sustains a great loss,
but the magnitude of his reward is designed to overbalance his loss.
Our devout and worthy fathers that have died without the gospel,
cannot, indeed, enter the celestial kingdom of Jesus Christ without
conformity to the identical laws and ordinances of his kingdom.
But provision is made for them, whereby they can conform to the
requirements of the gospel, not altogether in their own persons
alone, but through proxy, or the obedience of others, provided they
voluntarily accept of that obedience rendered by others for their
benefit.
Startle not, my dear sir, at this idea that is so repugnant to the
prejudice of protestants. The principle of substitution is at the
foundation of the great work of redemption, and forms a chain of
gratitude and obligation of the purest and noblest metal. Jesus died
for others, because they could not have saved themselves without his
obedience for them. The preachers of righteousness pass through many
tribulations, and sacrifice houses, lands, and country, in order that
others may become rich both temporally and spiritually; without this
order of suffering, the just for the unjust, no man could be saved.
Paul says, I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which
is _behind_ of the afflictions of Christ, in my flesh, for his body's
sake, which is the Church. Every man that has the priesthood of
Christ may suffer in his measure and degree a propitiatory sacrifice,
according to the degree of priesthood with which he is clothed. He may
become a subordinate saviour to his fellow-men, Christ being, however,
the CAPTAIN of all men's salvation. Hence, the prophets plumply call
men SAVIOURS who shall be raised to officiate in Mount Zion.
Paul also instructs Timothy how he can _save_ men and himself. This
distribution of _saving_ gifts, instead of eclipsing Jesus of the
glory of salvation, magnifies his glory, because He is the spring and
source of all salvation. God the Father reigns over all, and Jesus
under him, and men reign under Jesus as kings and priests. Kingdoms
rise up within kingdoms, but Christ is the _King_ of kings. Peter tells
how the devout and honourable dead may be saved, who never heard the
gospel on earth. He says, the living may be baptized for them, and
then they can be judged according to men in the flesh. Says he, "else
why are ye baptized for the dead?" Baptism for the dead was better
understood in Peter's days than the doctrine of the resurrection.
Doctrines are sooner obliterated from the mind than ordinances. But
after the destruction of the Temple, and the baptismal font, baptisms
for the dead must of course cease, because there was no longer an
acceptable place for this ordinance to be ministered. Peter explicitly
declares, that the gospel was preached to _the dead_, by which also
he went and preached to the Spirits in prison. Now if the gospel was
preached to the dead, then mercy, and deliverance, and salvation, were
preached to the dead; but these could not be preached to them without
the ordinances, because the ordinances of baptism, and gift of the Holy
Ghost, are a part of the gospel; for except a man is born of water and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. But if a righteous
man is baptized for his departed friend, the law requiring baptism is
magnified, and God can justify the departed spirit that believes, and
accepts the same.
Baptism for the dead, however, only takes away the disabilities
under which they labour; unless this is done for them they cannot be
redeemed, however penitent they may become. The blood of Christ took
away the disabilities of all the human family, so that all mankind can
now be saved through faith and obedience. But no man is saved by the
blood of Christ, without faith and obedience; and if they count His
blood an unholy thing, and sin against the Holy Ghost, there is no
more sacrifice for sin, neither is there forgiveness for such in "this
world, nor in the world to come." No person will be led by the Spirit
to be baptized for any such description of persons; no person that is
the friend of Christ will ever lend a helping hand towards redeeming
such obdurate spirits. Many worlds must pass away before they can be
fit subjects for the visitation of God's mercy. But there are those
who will prove their lineage to be descended from those who slew the
prophets, and "fill up the measure of their fathers," and some will
even shed innocent blood--for whom there is no resurrection, only
to be plunged into a lake of fire, and writhe under the gnawings of
the worm that never dies. Among those in former ages who were of the
lineage of the murderers of prophets, priests and high-minded divines
are distinctly noticed by Jesus Christ, and their pedigree flatly
exposed; and, sir, if you will allow me any credit for veracity, and
attach any weight to the most palpable and irrefutable proof, you may
assuredly know, that preachers of modern christianity have occupied a
conspicuous part in the tragic scenes of Missouri and Illinois.--I
will admit that many distinguished divines do eloquently extol the
ancient prophets--speak in glowing diction of the faith of Daniel,
Abraham, and Sampson, and of illustrious miracles, and beautifully
portray the crucifixion, agony, and triumph of Jesus. But, alas! with
the next breath, and while soaring aloft with the ardent sympathies of
their hearers, they prove their pedigree to be that of the self-same
murderers of the very prophets they affect to eulogize. Electrified
and warmed up in the pseudo atmosphere of Calvary, and the story of
redeeming love for a cloak of maliciousness, their words, though
smoother than oil, are sharper than drawn swords. The innocent Saints
feel their piercing thrusts from pulpits that bear the cognomen of St.
Peter, and St. Paul, and St. Jude.
Lewd men of the baser sort catch the Lethean fire, and throughout the
nation the righteous poor feel the Upean blast that sprung from the
sacred desk. Thousands are thrown out of employment--writs, and every
species of oppression are poured out like a storm of hail upon them.
Property is sacrificed--the Saints flee, homeless and shelterless, to
seek an asylum in the wilds of the everlasting hills.
Again, I will invite your attention to the union of the fathers and
the children, and a faint outline of the innumerable kingdoms that are
to rise up in the boundless dominions of the Supreme King. No king
on earth or in heaven is so omnipotent or omnipresent as not to need
subordinate ruling agencies, in order to control innumerable subjects.
Hence the Lord God of all the earth has a host of holy angels that
communicate his will, and minister his pleasure among the hosts of
heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. From the highest heaven, even
his own peculiar dwelling-place, to the lowest heaven, and from thence
to the earth, this order of delegated authorities is maintained. His
dominions extend through all space, and the number of his constantly
increasing subjects cannot be computed.