XVII. Modification the Body has, there is no Necef- SER M. fity that it should die with the Body, or cease to live when the Body gives over or ceases to breath. God indeed can reduce it to nothing, (as he is fuppofed to have formed it from nothing) if he pleafe: But him we know too well to imagine, that he would ever exert his Power in destroying the curioufeft Piece of all his Workmanship here below. There are too many Strokes of his Likeness in it, to fuppose it made to continue only for a few Days. But we need not reft the Point upon Arguments of Reafon only, when we have fuch clear Revelations made to us of it in HolyScripture. Here we abound in Testimonies and Proofs Both Old Testament and New concurring in their Evidence. The Old Teftament indeed more faintly than the New; becaufe Life and Immortality (of which the intermediate State between Death and the Refurrection is a Part) was referved for our Lord to bring to Light through the Gospel, 2 Tim. i. 10. For this Reafon it is that when the Holy Penmen of the Old Testament speak of this State, they fpeak of it as a State of Silence and Oblivion. They call it a Land of Darkness, as Darkness itself, Job X. 21, 22. A Land of Silence, where all XVII. SERM things are forgotten, a Place where there is no Remembrance of God, where none shall give Thanks to him or declare his Praife, Pfal. cxv. 17. lxxxviii. 12. xxx. 9. vi. 5. Thefe must be owned to be frequent Expreffions for the State of departed Souls before the Coming of Christ. And from these Texts therefore we have Reason to infer, that either the Fathers of the Old Teftament had no clear Notion of the State of the Dead: Or elfe that the Dead themfelves were in a much inferior State than what they were advanced to upon the Death of Chrift. The latter of thefe is the Opinion which I fhould rather embrace: The Reasons why, I may have a better and clofer Call to fhew hereafter. Let it fuffice at present just to hint that if the Old Teftament does not contain as clear Revelations of the State of the Deceafed as we have under the New; there are Reasons to be given why it does not: However that the Soul fubfifts and lives in fome State or other when the Body is dead, my Text itself directly affirms. For this tells us, in Words as plain as Man can endite, that when the Duft returns to the Earth as it was, the Spirit fhall return to God who gave it i. e. It shall return to be preserved by him that made it, till : it fhall again be united to his Body at laft, in SERM order to receive its final Doom. And thus we fee even the Old Teftament (as dark as it is, with relation to this Land of Darkness and Death) yet affords us Light enough to difcern that our Souls fhall live and exist in their separate State. Not that this is all the Proofs we might have from thence: We fhall fee by and by that further Teftimonies are not wanting upon Occafion: But the strongest Arguments, I own, are thofe we produce from the New Teftament, which containing clearer Revelations of our future State in general, we may expect to furnish us with the cleareft Teftimonies with relation to the particular Point before us. And here I fhall begin with the Relation which three of the Evangelifts give us, concerning our Saviour's Transfiguration upon the Mount: Upon which Occafion they all of them tell us, that there appeared Mofes and Elias talking with Jefus, Mat. xvii. 3.* Mark, ix. 4. Luk. ix. 38. Now from the Appearance of Elias indeed we can draw no Argument, for he we know was translated as well in Body as Soul, and therefore his Appearance cannot be urged as a Proof that the Soul can fubfift separately from the Body: But then the XVII. SERM. the Appearance of Mofes is full to the Point : XVII. For he, we are very well affured, was dead and buried: And yet we fee he appears to Jefus as well as Elias. This therefore could not be his Body, because that was mouldered and crumbled into Duft: It neceffarily follows therefore it must be his Spirit or Soul, and confequently that his Soul fubfifted, appeared and talked with Jesus, even when feparate from the Body. Again, that the Patriarchs, especially the three chief of them, live and exist in a State of Separation, we have our Saviour's own Testimony in as clear Words as need to be. For in anfwer to the Sadducees who denied the Refurrection, our Saviour quotes the Words, which God fpake to Mofes from the Bush, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob. And God (faith he) is not the God of the Dead, but of the Living, Mat. xxii. 31. Now we must know that the Sadducees against whom our Lord makes ufe of this Argument, not only faid that there was no Refurrection as is here afferted, but they also denied the Exiftence of the Soul after the Decease of the Body, faying, that there was neither Angel nor Spirit, i. e. no Soul or immaterial Spirit whether of Angels or Men; XVII. Infomuch that could they have been con- S R R M vinced that the Souls of Men were immortal, and fubfifted when their Bodies were laid in the Graves; they would foon have acknow ledged the Reasonableness of believing that their old Companions fhould be raised for them again. This therefore our Saviour takes upon him to prove, and fhews clearly from the Teftimony of God himself, that the Souls of the Patriarchs were still alive, and confequently according to their Notions and Principles, that their Bodies fhould one Day be united to them again. Have ye not read (faith he) that which was spoken unto you by God, faying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob, now God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living. For all live unto him. Now what can be inferred from thefe Words lefs than this, viz. that Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob were living" when they were fpoke? If living then it must be in their Souls; for the laft of thefe Patriarchs, viz. Jacob himself had been dead, as to his Body, almoft two hundred Years, before God spake these Words from the Bush : A plain Demonftration that the Souls of the Patriarchs muft live and act in a feparate State. For had their Souls been extinguished together |