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the foul cannot exist without it. Tho' we really ap prove not their way of fpeaking, who affirm, that the foul is thought; yet it is evident, that thought is fo effential to a rational foul, that a foul which cannot think, is not, indeed, to be deemed a foul. And if the foul has lived in the body, without deriving its life from the body; why fhould it not live, when it is freed from the prifon of the body? Will it, when it comes to God, the fountain of life, lofe its own life? Nay on the contrary, the nearer it comes to God, it is agreeable to think, that it will live in a more excellent manner. Some of the heathen philofophers have fpoken much more justly of the foul, than thofe who are the reproach and difgrace of the chriftian name. Plato faid the foul was auronimos, felf-moving, or endowed with fpontaneity; Alicinous de doctrina Platonis, has beft explained the meaning of that word, τ. 25, αυτοκίνητον δὲ φησὶ τὴν ψυχὴν; ὅτι σύμφυτον ἔχει τὴν ζωὴν, ἀεὶ 09253 inpystar al vrrs be affirms the foul to be felf-moving, because it has a connate life, ever attive in itself. Ariftobas a con tle, in like manner, lib. 3, de anima textu feptimo τὸ μὲν ἀιθηλικὸν ἐν ἄνευ σώματος, ὁ δὲ νας χωριςός: The art of fenfe is not performed without a body, but the mind is fepan berb rable therefrom, alfo, textu decimo novo & vicefimo;d of hist χωρίς φεὶς δὲ ἐσν μόνον τοθ ̓ ὅπερ ἔσι, καὶ τέτο μόνον ἀθάνατον και αίδιους the foul alone, whatever that be, is feparated, and that alone is immortal and eternal. See Voffius de Idololat. libbad cb10. Thus the philofophers afcribe life to the foul, even in the ftate of feparation, and a faculty of acting independent of the body. But no thing, from a mere Heathen, can exceed in grandeur, those words of maximus Tyrius: how then shalt thou be able to emerge out of this fea, and obtain a view of God? Then only, and that perfectly, when thou shalt be called by him which will foon be the cafe, only tarry thou, and wait, till he call. Old age will prefently come, which shall conduct thee thither death, which cowards, or the faint-hearted deplore, and tremble at its approach. will soon be here. Whoever, on the contrary, longs

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τῆς δὲ ψυχῆς

be joined to God, expects it with joy, receives it with undaunted refolution. And again, Differt. 2. 25:őr vág Καλέσιν δι πολλοὶ θάνατον, αυτὸ τέτο ἦν ἀθανασίας αρχή, και γένεσις pinoulos Bie: what the generality call death, is the very beginning of immortality, and a birth to a future life: while the body, indeed, perifbes, by the very law of its nature, and drops in its appointed time; the de Joyns int τὸν αὐτῆς τόπον καὶ βίον ανακαλεμένης, but fouls are recalled to their proper element and life. See alfo Differt. 28. For, it would be too tedious to transcribe all. And Scrip XIX. But let us take a view of the Scriptureteftimonies: the Lord Jefus exprefsly declares, that Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, after death, do all live unto God. Luke 20. 38. Which is not only to be underftood of that happy life of the entire compound, which they are to obtain by the refurrection from the dead; but of the bleffed life of the foul in a ftate na of feparation, which our Lord afcribes to them in the prefent time. In order to prove the refurrection he proceeds in this manner, as firit, he concludes, that the foul furvives and lives,and then, from that infers the refurrection of the body: becaufeGod's covenant was not made with fouls, but with entire perfons. And what is clearer than that teftimony of Paul? Ram. 8. 10, and if Chrift be in you, the body is dead, becaufe of fin, but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness. He oppofes the fpirit to the body: to this laft he attri butes death, as the effect of fin: to the former, life, flowing from the life of Chrift, even while the body Bormas is dead. Add, that not only Elias, who, without death, was taken up to heaven; but also, Mofes, who it is evident, died, appeared to the Difciples in difcourfe with Chrift, Mat. 17. 3rd plewhat pollibly be without the life of the foul. But, what kind of body Mofes appeared in, is not for us to determine, as the Holy Ghoft is filent about it.

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XX. And why had Paul a defire to depart and to be with Chrift, and thought it far better for him? Phil. ! 1. 23: why did he judge it gain to die? verfe 21; and why are behevers actuated by the fame fpirit,

willing

willing rather to be abfent from the body, and to be
"prejent with the Lord? 2 Cor. 5. 8; if, after death,
they are to be altogether deprived of that moft holy
and fweet communion with God in Chrift, which
they enjoy in this life? Can it be imagined, that be-
hievers expected no happiness, but what they were
only to obtain at the last day? As Smalcius imperti-
nently talks. But what fhould oblige them to with
therefore for death, which was to bring them no
nearer to that day? Paul longed for death, and
reckoned it gain; believers were willing rather to
be abfent from the body. Say, Smalcius, tell us,
why Paul defired it, why believers rather chofe it,
if they had nothing to
Pect before the last day?
Certainly, death in that cafe is not any gain, but an
inestimable loss, as it deprives them of fo many and
great bleffings, we fo lately defcribed, and brings
them no manner of advantage.

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XXI. But by what cavil will they clude what is Rev. 14, afferted, Rev. 14. 15, blessed are the dead, who die in 13. the Lord, from hence forth; yea, faith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. This teftimony contains many things. Ift, That the dead in the Lord are bloed. ut, to fuppofe any bleffednefs without knowledge or feeling, is only for those to affirm, who are deftitute of all fpiritual knowledge and feeling. 2dly, That the dead are happy and, from henceforth which is to be understood either of that time, when John heard that, voice from heaven, and was ordered to write these things; or, of that time, when believers die in the Lord. But pray, what new change was introduced in the dead, from that time, in which the Revelation was made to John, that the dying fhould then be happier than thofe, who, a little before had, died in the Lord? Unlefs perhaps it be intended to fhew, that at what time the everlasting Gofpel fhall be again preached, v. 6, after convicting Antichrist and purging the church, there will, from that time,/ be preached and written in the church, what we

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contend for, concerning the happiness of believers after death; the fiction of a purgatory being quite. exploded. But it feems more natural to think, that ape from thenceforth denotes the moment of their death; because, from that time the more perfect happiness of their fouls fhall commence. 3dly, That they then rest from their la'ours, which reft consists not in a fleep, that deprives them of all fenfe; but in a freedom from all vexations, and in the most calm, and never to be interrupted participation of the divine glory; and in a word, in a continued ferenity of confcience. 4thly, That their works follow them : that is, that they enjoy the free reward of their good actions, which can then, as little as afterwards, be unattended with any fenfible feeling of the intelligent foul.

XXII. Nothing more plaufible is advanced by our adverfaries against this truth, than that reafoning of Paul, by which he proves the refurrection of the dead from this confideration; because otherwife, they, who believe in Chrift, would to no purpose ftand in jeopardy every hour, in vain undergo fo many calamities for Chrift; and because Chriftians would of all men be the most miferable, 1 Cor. 15 19, 30, 31, 32. Certainly, fay they, this would be falfe, fhould the fouls of the righteous, immediately upon death, enjoy the happiness of heaven, and of the wicked feel the torments of hell: for the for-" mer would not bear their calamity in vain; nor the latter purfue the pleafures of the flesh with impunity. And the plous would be much more happy than the wicked, though their bodies fhould never rife. Bot Refuted. it is to be obferved; 1ft, That they, whom Paul re

futes, did not only deny the refurrection of the body, but also the immortality of the foul; juft as the Saducees did, against whom Chrift difputed concerning the refurrection. And this is the reafon, why both our Lord, and his faithful fervant, reafon in fuch a manner, as to draw both conclufions at once. This

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appears from the points which the Apostle undertook to refute, v. 18, 19, they which are fallen afleep in Chrift, are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, and u. 32, let us eat and drink for to morrow we die. All which tended to perfuade, men, that there was nothing after death, either to be feared, or hoped for. If that be true, fays the Apoftle, that all, who die, perifh, if our hope be confined to this life, if the foul neither furvives, nor the body is to be raised, in vain are fo many calamities undergone for Chrift, and Christians of all, men are the most miserable which is not a falfe or deceitful, but a folid way of reasoning, and worthy of an Apoftle. 2dly, As the dangers, and calamities, the Apostle here speaks of, principally concern the body, he justly argues, that the body feems to have been in vain employed for the Lord, if it alfo was not to be raised, in its appointed time, to a participation of the reward: fo that no inference can be deduced from this against the immortality of the foul.

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XXIII. Let us now, in the last place fhew, that Pious when the fouls of the godly are feparated from the fouls rebody, they are received not only into heavenly joys, ceived in. but alfo into heavenly manfions. The Apostle affures us of this, 2 Cor. 5.1, for we know, that if our earthly boufe of this tabernacle were diffolved, we have a building of God, an boufe not made with bands, eternal in the beavens. He affigns a twofold receptacle for the foul; one earthly, that is, the body, in which it refides during this animal life, and from which it departs at death the other heavenly, which it poffeffes immediately on quitting the former. For here he speaks of that eternal receptacle for man, which death makes way for, and which is faid to be eternal in the heavens. In the fame beavenly Jerufalem he places the fpirits of just men made perfect, where are myriads of Angels, and Jefus the mediator of the new covenant, Heb. 12. 22, 24. In like manner alfo, John law a throne fet in heaven, and round about the throne four and twenty eldens, who are 16 VOL. II.

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