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.