bring them back from a state of happiness into such a miserable world as this?

Answer 1. Since these souls were designed to be soon restored to their bodies, and the persons were to be raised to a mortal life again in a few days, it is probable they were kept just in the same state of immemorial consciousness, as the soul is in while the body is in the deepest sleep; and so were not immediately sent to heaven or hell, or determined to a state of sensible happiness or misery. Then when the person was raised to life again, there was no remembrance of the intermediate state, but all the consciousness of that day or two vanished, and were forgotten for ever, as it is with us when we sleep soundly without dreaming.

Answer 2. If those, who were raised by Christ, or the prophets, or the apostles were pious persons, they submitted by the will of God, to a longer continuance in this world, amidst some difficulties and sorrows, which submission would be abundantly recompensed hereafter. If they were not good persons, their renewed life on earth was a reprieve from punishment. So there was no injury done to any of them. As for those, who were raised at the resurrection of Christ, and were seen by many persons in the holy city, there is no doubt but they were raised to immortality, and ascended to heaven when Christ did, as part of his triumphant attendants, and went to dwell with him in the heavenly state.

Objection X. If the martyrs and confessors were to be partakers of the first resurrection, in Rev. xx. 4, 5. would not this be a punishment, instead of a blessing, to be called from the immediate presence of God, and Christ, and angels, to be re-united to bodies on earth, and dwell here again with men ?— Therefore, it seems more probable, that the souls of these holy martyrs, had no such separate existence or enjoyment of happiness.

Answer. Perhaps neither that text, nor any others in the bible, foretel the resurrection of any number of persons to ag animal earthly life again in this world; perhaps that prophecy means no more, than that the cause of Christ and religion, for which men were martyred and beheaded heretofore, shall rise again in the world, and the professors of it, in that day, shall be in flourishing circumstances, for a thousand years, or a very long season: So that, in prophetic language, these words do not signify the same individual martyrs or confessors, but their successors in the same faith and practice. Or, if there should be any resurrection of good men to an animal life in this world, foretold by the prophets, and intended by the great and blessed God, I doubt not but they would be here so far separated from the wicked world, where sins and sorrows reign, that it would

be a gradual advance of their happiness beyond what they enjoyed before in the separate state.

Objection XI. Though man is often said to be a compound creature of soul and body, yet in scripture he is represented as one being it is the man that is born, that lives, that dies, that sleeps or wakes, and that rises from the dead. This is evident in many places of scripture, where these things are spoken of; and it seems to be the law of our nature or being, that we should always act and live in such a state, as souls united to bodies, and never in a state of separation.

Answer. Though there are several scriptures which represent man as one being, viz. soul and body united, yet there are many other scriptures, which have been cited in the former parts of this essay, wherein the souls and the bodies of men are represented as two very distinct things: The one goes to the grave at death, and the other, either into Abraham's bosom, or to a place of torment; either to dwell with God, to be present with Christ the Lord, and to become one of the spirits of the just made perfeet, or to go to their own place as Judas did. Now, those texts, where man is represented as one being, may be explained with very great ease, considering man as made up of two distinct substances, viz. body and spirit, united into one personal agent, as we have shewn before: But the several texts, where the soul and body are so strongly and plainly distinguished, as has been before represented, there is no possible way of representing these scriptures, but by supposing a separate state of existence for souls after the body is dead, which makes it necessary that this expe sition should take place.

Objection XII. How comes death to be called so often in scripture, a sleep, if the soul wakes all the while?

Answer. Why is the repose of the man every night called sleep since the soul wakes, as appears by a thousand dreams? But as a sleeping man ceases to act in the businesses or affairs of this world, though the soul be not dead or unthinking; so death is called sleep, because during that state, men are cut off from the businesses of this world, though the soul may think and act in another.

Objection XIII. The scripture speaks often of the general judgment of mankind at the last great day of the resurrection, but it does not teach us the doctrine of a particular judgment which the soul is supposed to pass under when every single man dies; why then should we invent such a supposition, or believe such a doctrine, of a particular judgment in a separate state?

Answer. It is evident in many scriptures, as we have shewn before, that the souls of men after death, are represented as enjoying pleasure or punishment in the separate state. The soul of Lazarus in heaven, the soul of Dives in hell, the soul

of Paul as being "present with the Lord which is far better," than dwelling in this flesh, or being present with this body, &c. Therefore there must be a sort of judgment, or sentence of determination passed upon every such soul by the great God, whether it shall be happy or miserable: For it can never be supposed that happiness or misery should be given to such souls without the determination of God, the judge of all: And perhaps that text; Heb. ix. 27. refers to it "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment;" that is, immediately after it.

Or suppose that in the separate state, the pleasures or sorrows which attended souls departing from the body, should be only such as are the necessary consequents of a life spent in the practice of vice or virtue, of religion or ungodliness, without any formalities of standing before a judgment-seat or a solemn sentence of absolution or condemnation; yet the very entrance upon this state, whether it be of peace or of torment must be supposed to signify that the state of that soul is adjudged or determined by the great Governor of the world: And this is all that is necessarily meant by a particular judgment of each soul at death, whether it pass under the solemn formalities of a judgmeat and a tribunal, or no.

Objection XIV. If the saints can be happy without a body, what need of a resurrection? Let the body be as refined, as active, as powerful and glorious as it can be, still it must certainly be a clog to the soul: And this was the objection that the heathen philosophers made to the doctrine of the resurrection, which the christians profess; for the philosophers told them, this resurrection, which they called their highest reward, was really a punishment.

Answer. The force of this objection has been quite taken away before, when it has been shewn, that man being a creature compounded of body and spirit, was designed for its highest happiness, and the perfection of its nature in this state of union, and not in a state of separation. And let it be observed, that when the body shall be raised from the grave, it shall not be such flesh and blood as we now wear, nor made of such materials as shall clog or obstruct the soul in any of its most vigorous and divine exercises; but it shall be a spiritual body; 1 Cor. xv. 44. a body fitted to serve a holy and a glorified spirit in its actions and its enjoyments, and to render the spirit capable of some further excellencies, both of action and enjoyment, than it is natuFally capable of without a body. What sort of qualities this new-raised body shall be endued with, in order to increase the excellency, or the happiness of pious souls, will be in a great measure a mystery, or a secret, till that blessed morning appears.

Objection XV. Is not our immortality in scripture, described as built upon the incorruptible state of our new-raised bodies; 1 Cor. xv. 53. "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." But the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not particularly found, or taught in scripture.

Answer. It is granted that the immortality of the new-raised body is built on that incorruptible sort of materials, of which it is to be formed, or which shall be mingled with it, or the incorruptible qualities which shall be given to it by God himself: But the soul is immortal in itself, whether with or without a body: And he that can read all those texts of scripture which have been before made use of in this essay, wherein the existence of the spirit after the death of the body is so plainly expressed, and cannot find the "immortality of the soul" in them, or the spirit's capacity of existence in a separate state from the body,' must be left to his own sentiments to explain and verify the expressions of Christ and his apostles some other way: Or he must acknowledge that their expressions are somewhat incautious and dangerous, since it is evident, they lead thousands and ten thousands of wise and sober readers, into this sentiment of the soul's immortality.

Whether the soul in its own nature be necessarily immortal is a point of philosophy, and not to be sought for directly in scripture: But whether the great God the Governor of the world, has not appointed souls to exist in a separate state of happiness or misery after the bodies are dead, seems to me to be so plainly determined in many of the scriptures which have been cited, as leaves no sufficient reason to doubt of the truth of it.

To conclude, though I think the doctrine of the separate state of souls to be of much importance in christianity, and that the denial of it carries great inconveniences, and weakens the motives to virtue and piety, by putting off all manner of rewards and punishments at such a distance as the general resurrection, yet I dare not contend for it as a matter of such absolute necessity, that a man cannot be a christian without it. But this must be confessed, that they who deny this doctrine, seem to have need of stronger inward zeal to guard them against temptation, and to keep their hearts always alive and watchful to God and religion, since their motives to strict piety and virtue are sensibly weakened, by renouncing all belief of this nearer and more immediate commencement of heaven and hell.

DISCOURSES ON THE WORLD TO COME.

DISCOURSE I.-The End of Time.

Rev. x. 5, 6.-And the Angel, which I saw stand upon the Sea, and upon the Earth, lifted up his Hand to Heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever,-That there should be Time no longer.

THIS is the oath, and the solemn sentence of a mighty angel, who came down from heaven, and by the description of him in the first verse, he seems to be the angel of God's presence, in whom is the name of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who pronounced and sware, that time should be no longer; for all seasons and times are now put into his hand, together with the book of his Father's decrees; Rev. v. 7, 9. What special age or period of time, in this world the prophecy refers to, may not be so easy to determine; but this is certain, that it may be happily applied to the period of every man's life; for whensoever the term of our continuance in this world is finished, our time in the present circumstances and scenes that attend it shall be no more. We shall be swept off the stage of this visible state into an unseen and eternal world: Eternity comes upon us at once, and all that we enjoy, all that we do, and all that we suffer in time shall be no longer.

Let us stand still here and consider in the first place, what awful and important thoughts are contained in this sentence, what solemo ideas should arise to the view of mortal creatures, when it shall be pronounced concerning each of them, that time shall be no more.

I. "The time of the recovery of our nature from its sinful and wretched state shall be no longer." We come into this world fallen creatures, children of iniquity and heirs of death; we have lost the image of God who made us, and which our nature enjoyed in our first parents; and, instead of it, we are changed into the image of the devil in the lusts of the mind, in pride and malice, in self-sufficiency and enmity to God; and we have put on also the image of the brute in sinful appetites and sensualities, and in the lusts of the flesh; nor can we ever be made truly happy, till the image of the blessed God be restored upon us till we are made holy, as he is holy, till we have a divine change passed upon us, whereby we are created anew, and reformed in heart and practice. And this life is the only time