begin:" Thus the force of divine terrors are greatly enervated by this delay of punishment.

I will not undertake to determine, when the soul is dismissed from the body, whether there be any explicit divine sentence passed, concerning its eternal state of happiness or misery, according to its works in this life; or whether the pain or pleasure, that belongs to the separate state, be not chiefly such as arises, by natural consequence, from a life of sin, or a life of holiness, and as being under the power of an approving, or a condemning conscience: But it seems to me more probable, that, since the spirit returns to God that gave it; Eccles. xii. 7. to God, the judge of all; with whom the spirits of the just made perfect dwell; Heb. xii. 24. and since the spirit of a christian when absent from the body, is present with the Lord, that is, Christ ;" 2 Cor. v. 8. I am more inclined to think, that there is some sort of judicial determination of this important point, either by God himself, or by Jesus Christ, into whose hands he has committed all judgment; John v. 22. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; Heb. ix. 27. whether immediate or more distant, is not here expressly declared, though the immediate connexion of the words, hardly gives room for seventeen hundred years to intervene. But if the solemn formalities of a judgment be delayed, yet the conscience of a separate spirit, reflecting on a holy, or a sinful life, is sufficient to begin a heaven or a hell, immediately after death.

Amongst those who delay the season of recompence till the resurrection, there are some, who suppose the soul to exist still, as a distinct being from the body, but to pass the whole interval of time, in a state of stupor, or sleep, being altogether uncon→ scious and inactive. Others again imagine, that the soul itself has not a sufficient distinction from the body, to give it any proper existence when the body dies; but that its existence shall be renewed at the resurrection of the body, and then be made the subject of joy or pain, according to its behaviour in this mortal state. I think there might be an effectual argument against each of these opinions, raised from the principles of philosophy: I shall just give a hint of them, and then proceed to search what scripture has revealed in this matter, which is of much greater importance to us, and will have a more powerful influence on the minds of christians.

I. Some imagine the soul of man to be his blood, or his breath, or a sort of vital flame, or refined air or vapour,, or the composition and motion of the fluids and solids in the animal body. This they suppose to be the spring and principle of his intellectual life, and of all his thoughts and consciousness, as well as of his animal life. And though this soul of man dies together with the body, and has no manner of separate existence

or consciousness, yet, when his body is raised from the grave, they suppose this principle of consciousness is renewed again, and intellectual life is given him at the resurrection, as well as a new corporeal life.

But it should be considered, that this conscious or thinking principle having lost its existence for a season, it will be quite a new thing, or another creature at the resurrection; and the man will be properly another person, another "self," another I or "he;" And such a new conscious principle, or person, cannot properly be rewarded, or punished, for personal virtues or vices, of which itself cannot be conscious by any power of memory or reflection, and which were transacted in this mortal state by another distinct principle of consciousness. For if the conscious principle itself, or the thinking being, has ceased to exist, it is impossible that it should retain any memory of former actions, since itself began to be but in the moment of the resurrection. The doctrine of rewarding or punishing the same soul or intelligent nature, which did good or evil in this life, necessarily requires that the same soul, or intelligent nature, should have a continued and uninterrupted existence, that so the same conscious being, which did good or evil, may be rewarded or punished.

II. Those who suppose the soul of man to have a real distinct existence when the body dies, but only to fall into a state of slumber, without consciousness or activity, must, I think, suppose this soul to be material; that is, an extended and solid substance.

If they suppose it to be inextended, or to have no parts or quantity, I confess I have no manner of idea of the existence, or possibility of such an inextended being, without consciousness or active power, nor do they pretend to have any such idea, as I ever heard, and therefore they generally grant it to be extended. But if they imagine the soul to be extended, it must either have something more of solidity or density than mere empty space, or it must be quite as unsolid and thin as space itself: Let us consider both these. If it be as thin and subtle as mere empty space, yet while it is active and conscious, I own it must have a proper existence; but if it once begin to sleep, and drop all consciousness and activity, I have no other idea of it, but the same which I have of empty space; and that I conceive to be mere nothing, though it impose upon us with the appearance of some sort of properties.

If they allow the soul to have any, the least, degree of density above what belongs to empty space, this is solidity in the philosophic sense of the word, and then it is solid extension, which I call matter; and a material being may indeed be laid asleep; that is, it may cease to have any motion in its parts; but

motion is not consciousness: And how either solid or unsolid extension, either space or matter, can have any consciousness or thought belonging to any part of it, or spread through the whole of it, I know not; or what any sort of extension can do toward thought or consciousness, I confess I understand not; nor can I frame any more an idea of it, than I can of a blue motion, or a sweet-smelling sound, or of fire, air, or water reasoning or rejoicing; and I do not affect to speak of things, or words, when I can form no correspondent ideas of what is spoken.

So far as I can judge, the soul of man, in its own nature, is nothing else but a conscious and active principle, subsisting by itself, made after the image of God, who is all conscious activity; and it is still the same being, whether it be united to an animal body, or separated from it. If the body die, the soul still exists. an active and conscious power or principle, or being; and if it ceases to be conscious and active, I think it ceases to be; for I have no conception of what remains. Now if the conscious principle continue conscious after death, it will not be in a mere conscious indolence: The good man, and the wicked, will not have the same indolent existence. Virtue or vice, in the very temper of this being, when absent from matter or body, will become a pleasure or a pain to the conscience of a separate spirit.

I am well aware, that this is a subject, which has employed the thoughts of many philosophers, and I do but just intimate my own sentiments, without presuming to judge for others. But the defence or refutation of arguments, on this subject, would draw me into a field of philosophical discourse, which is very foreign to my present purpose: And, whether this reasoning stand or fall, it will have but very little influence on this controversy with the generality of christians, because it is a thing rather to be determined by the revelation of the word of God. I therefore drop this argument at once, and apply myself immediately to consider the proofs, that may be drawn from scripture, for the soul's existence in a separate state after death, and before the resurrection.

SECT. II.-Probable Arguments for the Separate State.

There are several places of Scripture, in the Old Testa ment, as well as in the New, which may be most naturally and properly construed to signify the existence of the soul in a separate state, after the body is dead; but since they do not carry with them such plain evidence, or forcible proof, and may possibly be interpreted to another sense, I shall not long insist upon them; however, it may not be amiss just to mention a few of ther, and pass away.

Ps. lxxiii. 24, 26. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory: My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. In these verses, receiving to glory, seems immediately to follow a guidance through this world; and when the flesh and heart of the Psalmist should fail him in death, God continued to be his portion for ever, God would receive him to himself as such a portion, and thereby he gave strength, or courage to his heart, even in a dying hour. It would be a very odd and unnatural exposition of this text, to interpret it only of the resurrection, thus, thou shalt guide me, by thy counsel, through this life, and, after the long interval of some thousand years, thou wilt receive me to glory."

Ec. xii. 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit to God that gave it." It is confessed, the word spirit, in the Hebrew, is the same with breath, and is represented, in some places of scripture, as the spring of animal life to the body: Yet it is evident, in many other places, the word spirit signifies the conscious principle in man, or the intelligent being, which knows and reasons, perceives and acts. The scripture speaks of being grieved in spirit; Is. liv. 6. of rejoic ing in spirit; Luke x. 21. The spirit of a man knoweth the things of a man; 1 Cor. ii. 11. There is a spirit in man; that is, a principle of understanding; Job xxxii. 8. And this spirit, both of the wicked and the righteous, at death, returns to God; Ec. xii. 7. to God, who, as I hinted before, is the judge of all the world of spirits, probably to be further determined and disposed of, as to its state of reward or punishment.

Is. Ivii. 2. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come, he shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." The soul of every one, that walketh uprightly, shall, at death, enter into a state of peace, while their body rests in the bed of dust.

Luke ix. 30, 31. And behold there talked with him; that is, with Jesus, two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. I grant it possible, that these might be but inere visions, which appeared to our blessed Saviour, and his apostles: But it is a much more natural and obvious interpretation, to suppose, that the spirits of these two great men, whereof one was the institutor, and the other the reformer of the Jewish church, did really appear to Christ, who was the reformer of the world, and the institutor of the christian church, and converse with him about the important event of his death, and his return to heaven. Perhaps, the spirit of Elijah had his heavenly body with him there, since he never died, but was carried alive to heaven; but Mozes gave up his soul, at the call of

God, when no man was near him, and his body was buried by God himself. See 2 Kings ii. 11. and Deut. xxxiv. 1, 5, 6. and his spirit was probably made visible only by an assumed ebicle for that purpose.

John v. 24. "Whoso heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,-is passed from death to life :" John vi. 47, 50, 51. “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." John xi. 26. "Whoso liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die :" To which may be added the words of Christ to the woman of Samaria; John iv. 14. "The water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." 1 Jolin v. 12. "He that hath the Son, hath life, &c." The argument I draw from these scriptures, is this. It is hardly to be supposed, that our Saviour, in this gospel, and John, in his first epistle, imitating him, should speak such strong language concerning eternal life, actually given to, and possessed by the believers of that day, if there must be an interruption of it by total death, or sleep, both of soul and body, for almost two thousand years, that is, till the resurrection.

Acts vii. 9. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Those who deny a separate state, suppose that Stephen, here, commits his spirit, or principle of human life, into the hands or care of Christ, because the life of a saint is said to be hid with Christ in God; Col. iii. 3, 4. that he might restore it at the resurrection, and raise him to life again. But, I think, this is an unnatural force put upon these words, contrary to their most obvious meaning, if we consider the context: for Stephen here had a vision of the Son of man, or Christ Jesus, standing at the right hand of God, and the glory of God near him: see verses 55, 56. Whereupon Stephen, being conscious of the existence of Christ in that glorious state, desired, that he would receive his spirit, and take it to dwell with him in his Father's house not to lie and sleep in heaven, for there is no night there, but to behold the glory of Christ, according to the many promises that Christ had made to his disciples, that he would go and prepare a place for them in his Father's house, and that they should be with him there to behold his glory; John xiv. 3. and xvii. 21. which I shall have occasion to speak of afterward.

Rom. viii. 10, 11. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness; that is, if Christ dwell in you, by the sanctifying influences of bis spirit; it is true indeed, your body is mortal, and must die, because it is doomed to death, from the fall of Adam, on the account of sin, and because sinful principles still dwell in this