We had marked several striking passages for quotation; but, on reconsidering the matter, deem it best to recommend the whole to all those of our readers who have not already seen it.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] Afterwards an Independent Minister, at Bradford.
Scripture Views of the Heavenly World. By J. Edmondson, A.M. pp. 260.—Mason.
This work is written in a very serious, unpretending manner; and if it do not greatly augment our knowledge of heaven, either as a place or a state, yet it supplies such varied and valuable elements of thought, and exhibits so much to enkindle ardent desire, that, as a volume of piety, it deserves to rank high. We think, indeed, it is scarcely possible that any one, whose affections are in any degree set upon the things which are above, should read it without deriving considerable advantage. On the sublime subject of heaven, the venerable author (for so we understand we may denominate him) mentions twenty views:—"There is a Heavenly World—Scripture Names of Heaven—God is present in Heaven—The Presence of Jesus in Heaven—No Sufferings in Heaven—No Death in Heaven—No Night in Heaven—No War in Heaven—Heaven is a holy Place—Heaven is a happy Place—Heaven is a glorious Place—Happy Employment in Heaven—Extensive Knowledge in Heaven—We shall know each other there—Many Ranks and Orders in Glory—The Religion of Heaven is Love—The Resurrection Body in Heaven—The Pleasures of Heaven are pure—The Wicked are shut out of Heaven—Heaven is eternal."
The preface contains some succinct and sensible observations on the immortality of the soul. Among others, the following occurs:—
"Ideas of good and evil, right and wrong, are planted in the human heart. And there is in good men, what might be in all, a continual cleaving and approximation to the Deity. When sin is committed, it is followed by a sense of guilt and a fear of punishment, except in those hardened sinners who have debased themselves by a long course of disobedience. All these principles, when carefully cultivated, are accompanied with ardent longings after immortality; and they prove that man is connected with a higher order of beings than those who are around him here, and that he is designed for a higher state than that in which he now stands. For we perceive nothing of this kind among the inferior creatures of our world. They are not, nor ever will be, capable of knowing moral good and evil, much less of knowing the God who made them. And will man, with his superior powers, die for ever?"
Without pledging ourselves for the correctness of every sentiment or sentence in the pages of this useful work, we would earnestly recommend it to the attention of our readers generally.