fleshly body; but your soul or spirit is life, or, as some copies read instead of en, your spirit lives when the body is dead, and enjoys a life of happiness, because of the righteousness imputed to you; that is, your justification unto life; Rom. v. 17, 18, 21. I know there are several other ways of construing the words of this verse by metaphors; but the plain and most natural antithesis, which appears here between the death of the body of a saint, because of sin or guilt, and the continuance of the spirit, or soul, in a life of peace, because of justification, or righteousness, and that even when the body is dead, gives a pretty clear proof, that this is the sense of the apostle. This is also further confirmed by the next verse, which promises the resurrection of the dead body in due time. If the Spirit of him, that raised up Christ from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead, that is, God the Father, shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit, that dwelleth in you. The spirit, or soul of the saint, lives without dying, because of its pardon of sin, and justification, and sanctification, in the tenth verse; and the body, not the spirit or soul, shall be quickened, or raised to life again, by the blessed Spirit of God, which dwells in the saints, verse 11.

2 Cor. v. 1, 2. "For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. Verse 4. We, in this tabernacle, groan being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." It is evident, that this house from heaven, this building of God, is something, which is like the clothing of a soul divested of this earthly tabernacle, verses 1, 2. or it is the clothing of the whole person, body and soul, which would abrogate the state of mortality, and swallow it up in life, verse 4. For though in verse 4. the apostle supposes, that the soul doth not desire the death of the body, or that itself should be unclothed, and, therefore, he would rather chuse to have this state of blessed immortality superinduced on his body and soul, at once, without dying; yet, in the first verse, he plainly means such a house in, or from heaven, or such a clothing, which may come upon the soul immediately, as soon as the earthly house, or tabernacle of his body is dissolved. And how dubious soever this may appear to those, who read the chapter only thus far, yet the 8th verse, which supposes good men to be present with Christ, when absent from the body, determines the sense of it, as I have explained it; of which hereafter.

Perhaps, it is hard to determine, whether this superinduced clothing be like the shekinah, or visible glory, in which Christ,

Moses, and Elias appeared at the transfiguration, and which some suppose to have belonged to Adam in innocency; or whether it signify only a state of happy immortality, superinduced, or brought in upon the departing soul at death, or upon the soul and body united, as in this life, and with which those saints shall be clothed, who are found alive at the coming of Christ, according to 1 Cor. xv. 52-54. which will not kill the body, but swallow up its mortal state in immortal life.

Let this matter, I say, be determined either way, yet the great point seems to be evident, even beyond probability, that there is a conscious being spoken of, which is very distinct from its tabernacle, or house, or clothing, and which exists still, whatever its clothing, or its dwelling be, or whether it be put off, or put on; and that when the earthly house, or vesture, is dissolved, or put off, the heavenly house, or clothing, is ready at hand to be put on immediately, to render the soul of the christian fit to be present with the Lord.

2 Cor. xii. 2, 3. "I knew a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth: how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words." I grant, this ecstasy of the apostle, does not actually shew the existence of a separate state, after death, till the resurrection; yet it plainly manifests St. Paul's belief, that there might be such a state, and that the soul might be separated from the body, and might exist, and think, and know, and act in paradise, in a state of separation, and hear, and perhaps, converse in the unspeakable language of that world, while it was absent from the body..

And, as I acknowledge, I am one of those persons, who do not believe, that the intellectual spirit, or mind of man, is the proper principle of animal life to the body, but that it is another distinct conscious being, that generally uses the body as a habitation, engine, or instrument, while its animal life remains; so I am of opinion it is a possible thing, for the intellectual spirit, in a miraculous manner, by the special order of God, to act, in a state of separation, without the death of the animal body, since the life of the body depends upon breath, and air, and the regular temper and motion of the solids and fluids of which it is composed. And St. Paul seems here to be of the same mind,

It would be thought, perhaps, a little foreign to my present purpose, if I should stay here to prove, that it is not the conscious principle in man that gives or maintains the animal life of his body. It is granted, that, according to the course of nature, and the general appointment of God therein, this conscious principle, or spirit, continues its communications with the body, while the body has animal life, or is capable of its natural motions, and able to obey the volitions of the spirit; and on this account, the union of a rational spirit to the body, and the animal life of the body, are often represented as one and the same thing.

But if we enter into a philosophical consideration of things, we should re

by his doubting, whether his spirit was in the body, or out of the body, while it was rapt into the third heaven, and enjoyed this vision, his body being yet alive.

Phil. i. 21. "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." The apostle, whilst he was here upon earth, spent his life in the service of Christ, and enjoyed many glorious communications from him. "For him to live was Christ." And, on this account, be was contented to continue here in life longer: yet he is well satisfied, that death would be an advantage or gain to him. Now we can hardly suppose, what gain it would be for St. Paul to die, if his soul immediately went to sleep, and became unactive and unconscious, while his body lay in the grave, and neither soul nor body could do any service for Christ, or receive any communications from him till the great risingday. This text seems to carry the argument above a mere probability.

1 Thess. iv. 14. "For if we believe, that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also, which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him." The most natural and evident sense of these words, is this, that when the man Jesus Christ, in whom dwells the fulness of the godhead, shall descend from heaven, in order to raise the dead bodies of those that died, or went to sleep in the faith of Christ, God dwelling in him will bring with him the souls of his saints, who were in paradise, down to earth, to be re-united to their bodies, when Jesus raises them from the dead, of which the apostle speaks in the 6th verse: This, I say, is the most natural and obvious sense; other paraphrases of the words seem strained and unnatural.

1 Thess. v. 10. "Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whe ther we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." Sleep is the death of good men, in the language of the apostle, in chapter iv. verses 13-15. and sleep, in this verse, can neither signify natural sleep, as verse 7. nor spiritual sloth, as verse 6. therefore it must signify death here. Now they, who are asleep ju Christ, in this sense, do still live together with him in their

member, that animals of every kind, in earth, air, and sea, and even the minutest insects, which swarm in millions, aud worlds of them, which are invisible to the naked eye, have all an animal life, but no such couscions or thinking principles as is in man: And why may not the body of man bare the same sort of animal life quite distinct from the conscious spirit?

Besides, if this conscious principle give life to the body, medicines and physicians, whose power reaches only to rectify the disordered solids or fluids of the body, would not be so necessary to preserve life, as an orator to persuade the spirit to continue in the body, and preserve its life. And, accordingly, we read of foreign ignorant nations, where the kindred persuade the dying person to live, and tarry with them, and not to forsake them; and, when the person is dead, they mourn and reprove him, "Why were ye so unkind to leave and forsake us ? And indeed this conduct of those poor savages is a very natural inference from their supposition of the intelligent spirit giving animal life to the body.

souls, and shall live with him in their bodies also, when raisedfrom the dead. This exposition arises near to a certainty of evidence.

1 Pet. iii. 18-20. "Christ was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." I confess this is a text that has much puzzled interpreters, in what sense Christ may be said to go and preach to those ancient rebels, who were destroyed by the flood; whether he did it by his Spirit working in Nosh, the preacher of righteousness, in those days; or whether in the three days in which the body of Christ. lay dead, his soul visited the spirits of those rebels, in their separate state of imprisonment, on which some ground the notion of his descent into hell: But, let this be determined as it will, the most clear and easy sense of the apostle, when he speaks of the spirits in prison is, that the souls of those rebels, after their bodies were destroyed by the flood, were reserved in prison for some special and future design: And this is very parallel to the present circumstances of fallen angels in Jude, verse 6. "The angels, that kept not their first estate, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day:" And why may not the spirits of men be as well kept, in such a prison, as angelic spirits?

Jude, verse 7. "Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." It is evident, that the material fire, which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, was not eternal; for a great lake of water quickly overflowed, and now covers all that plain, where the fire was kindled, which burned down those cities. It is manifest also, that the day of resurrection, and future punishment, being not yet come, they do not, at this time, suffer the vengeance of eternal fire in their bodies: Nor can this verse, I think, be well explained, to make Sodom and Gomorrah an example to deter present sinners from uncleanness, but by allowing, that the spirits of those lewd persons are now suffering a degree of vengeance, or punishment, from the justice of God, which is compared to that fire whereby their cities and their bodies were burned, and which vengeance, at the last great day, shall continue their punishment, and pronounce it eternal, or kindle material fire, which shall never be quenched.

The last text I shall mention is; Rev. vi. 9. "I saw under the altar, the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." I confess this is a book of visions, and this place, amongst others, might be explained as a mere vision of the apostle, if there were no other text, which confirmed the doctrine of a separate state: But, since I

think, there are some solid proofs of it in other parts of the New Testament, I know not why this may not be explained, at least, something nearer to the literal sense of it, than those will allow who suppose the soul to sleep from death to the resurrection. Why may not the spirits of the martyrs, which are now with God, pray him to hasten the accomplishment of his promises made to his church, and the day of vengeance upon his irreconcileable

enemies?

SECT. III.-Some firmer or more evident Proofs of a Separate State.

I come now to consider those texts, which do more expressly and certainly discover the separate state, and which, I think, cannot, with any tolerable appearance of reason, be turned aside from their plain and obvious intention, to reveal and declare, that there is a separate state of souls. And such, in my opinion, are these that follow.

1. Matt. x. 28. "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him, who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." Every common reader, as well as every man of learning, who reads this text with a sincere mind, and without prejudice, I think, will acknowledge at least, that the most obvious and easy sense of the words implies, that there is a soul in man, which men cannot kill, even though they kill the body.

It is to very little purpose of writers to say, that the Greek word ux, which we translate soul here, doth, in other places in scripture, and even in the 39th verse of this very chapter, signify life, and consequently here it may also signify the animal life, or the person of the man; for it is manifest, that in this place it must signify some immortal principle in man that cannot die ; whereas, when the body is killed, the animal life dies too, and does not exist till the body is raised again: But the soul is a principle in this place, which inen cannot kill, even though they destroy the life of the body: And whatsoever other senses the word un, may obtain in other texts, that cannot preclude such a sense of it in this text, as is most usual in itself, and which the context makes necessary in this place.

Nor will it avail the supporters of the mortality of the soul to say that this scripture means only, that men cannot kill the soul for ever so that it shall for ever perish, and have no future life hereafter by a resurrection: for, in this sense, men cannot kill the body, so that it shall never revive, or rise again: But here is a plain distinction in the text, that the body may be killed, but the soul cannot. And I think this scripture proves also, that, though the body may be laid to sleep in the grave, yet the soul cannot be laid to sleep; for the substance of the body still exists, and is not utterly destroyed by killing it, but only laid to sleep