Wesley Corpus

5. I cannot therefore but think, that all those who are with the rich man in the unhappy division of hades, will remain there, howling and blaspheming, cursing God and looking upwards, till they are cast into "the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And, on the other hand, can we reasonably doubt but that those who are now in paradise, in Abraham's bosom, -- all those holy souls who have been discharged from the body, from the beginning of the world unto this day, -- will be continually ripening for heaven; will be perpetually holier and happier, till they are received into "the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world" 6. But who can inform us in what part of the universe hades is situated, -- this abode of both happy and unhappy spirits, till they are re-united to their bodies It has not pleased God to reveal anything concerning it in the Holy Scripture; and, consequently, it is not possible for us to form any judgment, or even conjecture, about it. Neither are we informed, how either one or the other are employed, during the time of their abode there. Yet may we not probably suppose that the Governor of the world may sometimes permit wicked souls "to do his gloomy errands in the deep;" or, perhaps, in conjunction with evil angels, to inflict vengeance on wicked men Or will many of them be shut up in the chains of darkness, unto the great judgment of the great day In the mean time, may we not probably suppose, that the spirits of the just, though generally lodged in paradise, yet may sometimes, in conjunction with the holy angels, minister to the heirs of salvation May they not Sometimes, on errands of love, Revisit their brethren below It is a pleasing thought, that some of these human spirits, attending us with, or in the room of, angels, are of the number of those that were dear to us while they were in the body. So that there is no absurdity in the question: Have ye your own flesh forgot, By a common ransom bought Can death's interposing tide Spirits one in Christ divide