Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

56

or another? there is nothing can be a greater damp to religion and morality, than the disbelief of the immortality of the soul, 4. fears of the displeasure and wrath of incensed deity, and of divine judgment; shew that there is a future state, in which souls remain immortal. And which still more appears, Not only from the stings of conscience, but from the horrors and terrors, dread, trembling, and panic fears, wicked men are sometimes seized with, as Felix was. 6. The belief of this may be farther argued, from the providence of God concerned in the unequal distribution of things in this lif. In a future state, the wicked who have in their life-time received good things, and good men evil things, the latter will have their comforts, and the former the torments. 7. The immora tality of the soul may be concluded from the justice of God; in a future state good men will be happy, and wicked men miserable. 8. It seems not agreeable to the wisdom of God, to create man in his image, and make the beasts of the field, for his sake and yet he and they should have the same exit. 9. Between the spirits of men, and those of brutes, there is a difference; the one at death go upwards the other downward to the earth, Eccles. iii. 21. 10. If the soul is not immortal, the brutes, in many things have the advantage of men; they are not so weak; nor subject to so many diseases: the brutes have no fearful apprehensions of danger they know nothing of death, are in no fear about it; therefore if the soul dies with the body, their present condition is worse than that of

brutes.

III. The immortality of the soul may be proved from the sacred scriptures; from express passages of scripture; as from Eccles. xii. 7. Matt. x. 28. Luke xii. 4. This is to be proved also from scripture doctrines, and from scripture instances. 1. From scripture doctrines; as from the doctrine of God's love to his people, which is everlasting, Jer. xxxi. 3. from the doctrine of eternal election; Acts xiii. 48. from the covenant of grace, Matt. xxii. 31. and from the doctrine of Christ respecting his work, the judgment also

whether particular or general, is a proof of the soul's immora tality; for if that dies with the body, there is nothing remains after death on which judgment can pass. 11. The immorta lity of the soul may be proved from scripture instances; as from the cases of Enoch and Elijah, who were translated, soul and body. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who died, and yet after death were living, also from the spirits in prison, in the times of the apostle Peter, who were disobedient to the warnings of Noah; and from the souls under the altar, Rev. vi. 9. Lastly, all such scriptures which speak of the felicity of heaven, and of the torments of hell, as to be enjoyed or endured by men after death, prove the immortality of the soul, But,

There are some objections made to the immortality of the soul. 1. From such scriptures which threaten the soul with death in case of sin, Ezek. xviii. 4. To which may be replied; there is a spiritual or moral death. And there is an eternal death, and there is a natural death, such as of the body, which the soul is not capable of; and if it was, it would put an end to the second death called an eternal one. 2. From what is said of man, Psal. lxxviii. 39. that he is but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again: but this is said of man with respect to his body. 3. From Psal. cxlvi. 4. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to the earth: the meaning is, that schemes projects, and purposes, concerning either civil or religious things, are then at an end, as Job says, My days are past; my purposes are broken off; even the thoughts of my heart, Job, xvii. 11. 4. From the likeness of the spirits of brutes and of men, Eccles. iii. 19. 20. But then Solomon in the next verse, clearly observes the difference. 5. The immortality of the soul is objected to, from such passages which speak of man's going, at death, whence he shall not return. But these are to be understood, of his returning to his house, and former manner of living. 6. From those places; which speak of the dead as not, Jer. xxxi. 15. But this cannot be meant of non-existence, either of soul or body.

STATE OF THE SOUL UNTIL THE RESURREC.

TION, AND ITS EMPLOYMENT.

I. As soon as the body is dead, the soul immediately enters into

a separate state of happiness or misery. The souls of the wicked are sent down to hell. And the souls of good men return to God, the immediate state of the wicked after death, is but sparingly spoken of in scripture; but that of good men more plentifully, the proof of the latter will be chiefly attended to, and which may be taken. 1. From Eccles. iv. 2. where the saints dead are preferred to living ones, 11. From Isai. lvii. 1, 2. The righteous perisheth, &c. They enter into peace. They rest in their beds. They walk in their uprightness. III. From Luke xvi. 22, 23. And it came to pass that the beggar died, &c. The beggar is represented as under the care and convoy of angels. The rich and wicked man, upon his death, to be in hell. That this respects the intermediate state between the death of the body, and the resurrection of it, is clear, from what the wicked man petitioned, on the behalf of his brethren in his fathers house. iv. From Luke xxiii. 43. And Jesus said unto him, the penitent thief, then suffering death; verily I say unto thee, which being thus solemnly affirmed might be depended on, to day thou shalt be with me in paradise, in heaven. v. From 2 Cor. v. 1.-8. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Death is signified by a dissolution of the earthly body; Heaven is represented as another house of a different nature, into which the saints are at once removed, when dislodged from their earthly house, the body, This is no conjecture, but a certain thing. After which there are strong desires in the saints; of this they have an earnest. And this will be as soon as they are absent from the body. VI. From Phil. 21, 23. i. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain-for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better! Would

he have been at a loss what choice to have made, whether to live or die; if he was not to enter upon a state of happiness until the resurrection, certain it is, that it would have been better for the churches of Christ, for the interest of religion, and for the glory of God, if he had remained on earth to this day. VI. From Rev. xiv. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, &c. which leads to consider the proof that may be given,

II. That the souls of men, when separated from their bodies by death, are not in a state of insensibility and inactivity. 1.I shall endeavour to prove, that the soul is operative. For, I. The soul can and does operate, without the use of bodily organs in its present state: the rational soul thinks, discourses, and reasons, without the use of them; it can consider of things past long ago, and of things very remote and at a great distance; and as it can act without the body now, it can act in that separate state of existence without it. 2. The case of persons in raptures, extacies, and trances; as John, when he heard the various things recorded in the Book of the Reve lation; and Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 2. The body in an extacy is of no more use to it, nor the organs of it, than if it were dead. 3. The soul freed from the body, must be more capable of exercising its powers. 4. The soul separate from the body is most like unto the angels, and its state, condition, and employment, greatly resemble theirs. They are continually before the throne of God, praising his name, and celebrating his perfections. 5. If the souls of believers after death, are in a state of insensibility and inactivity, their case would be much worse than that of the living, as has been observed. 6. If the souls of truly gracious persons are, upon their departure from hence, insensible and inactive, what is become of the work of grace upon their souls? How does this well of water spring up into everlasting life, when it does not spring at all, but the streans of it cease to flow? what a chasm must there be between grace and glory, 7. The proof that has been given of souls separate from the body entering immedi

[ocr errors]

ately into a state of happiness or misery, is also an abundant proof of their sensibility.

I proceed, 11. To take notice what is urged in favour of insensibility of souls upon their departure.

First, All such passages of scripture are urged which speak of persons sleeping when they die. But, 1. By sleep in all these passages, death itself is meant. 2. Death being designed by those expressions, if they prove any thing in this contro3. No mention is made of the versy, they prove too much. soul in any of these passages. 4. Sleep is only of the body. But what is all this to the soul. 5. When the body is asleep, the soul is awake and active, as appears in abundance of in. stances, in dreams and visions of the night.

Secondly, The advocates for the insensibility and inactivity of the soul after death, urge such scriptures which represent the happiness of the saints, and the misery of the wicked, as not taking place until the last day: to which may be replied, that though they are represented as then happy or miserable, it is no where said that they are not happy nor miserable before that time. It is allowed, the righteous will not be in full possession of happiness until the last day; nor will the wicked receive the full measure of their punishment, until the resurrection and judgment are over.

Thirdly, They improve all such places to their advantage, which speak of those in the grave, and in the state of the dead, as incapable of praising God, to which may be answered.1. These scriptures speak only of the body, and only respect praising God before men, and in the church militant.

Fourthly, They argue from souls being deprived of thought and memory at death, Psal. cxlvi. 4. In that very day, his thoughts perish; but these, as has been observed, design purand plans the effect of thought which come to nothing poses, at death. It should be proved, that the soul is asleep when the body is: and particularly, when separate from it, ere any argument from hence can be brought to prove, the soul is deprived of thought by it, and is in a state of insensibility.

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »