Unseen Things To Be Preferred to Seen Things # 2

Unseen Things To Be Preferred to Seen Things # 2

This I shall illustrate in the two comprehensive instances of pleasure and pain. To shun the one, and obtain the other - is the natural effort of the human mind. This is its aim in all its endeavors and pursuits. The innate desire for happiness and aversion to misery - are the two great springs of all human activity! Were these springs relaxed or broken, all business would cease, all activity would stagnate, and universal torpor would seize the world! And these principles are coexistent with the soul itself, and will continue in full vigor in a future eternal state.

Nay, as the soul will then be matured, and all its powers arrived to their complete perfection; this eagerness after happiness, and aversion to misery - will be also more quick and vigorous! The soul in its present state of infancy, like a young child, or a man enfeebled and stupefied by sickness - is capable of very deep sensations of pleasure and pain; and hence an excess of joy, as well as sorrow, has sometimes dissolved its feeble union with the body. On this account, we are incapable of such degrees of happiness or misery from the things of this world - as beings of more lively sensations might receive from them. And much more are we incapable of the happiness or misery of the future world - until we have actually put on immortality.

We cannot see God and live. Should the glory of heaven blaze upon us in all its majestic splendor - it would overwhelm our feeble nature; we could not support such a weight of glory! And one twinge of the agonies of hell would dislodge the soul from its earthly habitation. One pang of hell would convulse and stupefy it - were it not its powers strengthened by the separation from the body.

But in the future world all the powers of the soul will be mature and strong, and the body will be clothed with immortality; the union between them after the resurrection will be inseparable, and able to support the most oppressive weight of glory - or the most intolerable load of torment.

Hence it follows that pleasure and pain include all that we can desire or fear - in the present or future world; and therefore a comparative view of present and future pleasure and pain is sufficient to enable us to form a due estimate of visible and invisible things.

By present pleasure I mean all the happiness we can receive from present things: as from riches, honors, sensual gratifications, learning, and intellectual improvements, and all the amusements and activities of this life.

And by future pleasure,  or the pleasure which results from invisible things, I mean all the fruitions and enjoyments in which heavenly happiness consists.

By present pain, I mean all the uneasiness which we can receive from the things of the present life: as poverty, losses, mental distress, disappointments, bereavements, sickness, and bodily pains.

And by future pain, I mean all the punishments of hell: as banishment from God, and a privation of all created blessings, the agonizing reflections of a guilty conscience, the horrid company and torments of infernal demons, and the torture of infernal flames.

Now let us put these in the balance - and the one will sink into nothing, and the other rise into infinite importance!

CONSIDER:

A. Temporal things are of a contracted nature, and not adequate to the capacities of the human soul; but eternal things are great, and capable of communicating all the happiness and misery which the soul can receive.

B. The soul in its present state is not capable of such degrees of happiness and misery - as it will be in the future, when it actually dwells among invisible realities.

C. All that pleasure and pain which we receive from things that are seen, are intermingled with some ingredients of a contrary nature. In this present world, our good and evil are blended. Our happiness has some bitter ingredients, and our miseries have some agreeable mitigations. But the pleasures and pain which we receive from things that are unseen, are pure and unmingled.

Let's look at these facts in detail:

A. VISIBLE things are not equal to the capacities of the human soul. This little spark of being, the soul, which lies obscured in this prison of flesh, gives frequent discoveries of surprising powers; its desires in particular, have a kind of infinity. But all temporary objects are base and contracted; they cannot afford the soul a happiness equal to its capacity - nor render it as miserable as its capacity of suffering will bear. Hence, in the greatest affluence of temporal enjoyments, in the midst of honors, pleasures, riches, friends, etc., it still feels a painful void within, and finds an unknown something lacking, to complete its happiness.

Kings have been unhappy upon their thrones - and all their grandeur has been but majestic misery! So Solomon found it, who had both curiosity and opportunity to make the experiment; and this is his verdict upon all earthly enjoyments, after the most extensive and impartial trial: "Vanity of vanities" says the Preacher, "vanity of vanities; all is vanity and vexation of spirit!" ( Ecclesiastes 1:2, 13).

On the other hand, the soul may possess some degree of happiness, under all the miseries it is now capable of suffering from external and temporal things. Guilt indeed denies it this support; but if there be no internal broils, no anguish resulting from its own reflections - then not all the visible afflictions can render it perfectly miserable; its capacity of suffering is not put to its utmost stretch. This has been attested by the experience of multitudes who have suffered for righteousness sake.

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 3)