(3.) At death believers immediately enter upon, and are admitted into the possession of this glory. At the same time that the soul is enlarged and fitted for the work and enjoyment of heaven, it is received into it; where it shall have an uninterrupted communion with Christ in glory; which is the subject insisted on in the following answer. QUEST. LXXXVI. What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death? ANSW. The communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death, is, in that their souls are then made perfect in holiness, and received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies, which, even in death, continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves as in their beds, till at the last day they be again united to their souls: Whereas the souls of the wicked are at death cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, and their bodies kept in their graves, as in their prisons, till the resurrection and judgment of the great day. HAVING considered the soul as separated from the body by death; the next thing that will be enquired into, is what becomes of it, and how it is disposed of in its separate state? and here we find that there is a vast difference between the righteous and the wicked in this respect: the former have communion with Christ in glory, the latter are in a state of banishment and separation from him; being cast into hell, and there remaining in torments and utter darkness. Both these are particularly insisted on in this answer. In speaking to which, we must consider, as every thing is known and supported by him, he is said to be in all places. But the idea of place is not necessary to our conceptions of Spirit. To speak of the planets as the residence of spirits, and to talk of souls flying hrough the visible Heavens in quest of paradise is idle. If all souls must ascend to Heaven, from India they go in a direction opposite to our course thither. There is no sun nor moon enjoyed by saints in glory; the Lord is their light. And spiritual bodies are not flesh and blood, nor belly, nor meats; nor corruptible nor mortal; but fit for the society of spirits. The soul at death is discharg ed from the prison of these bodies, and not confined to place. It receives new faculties, which entertain it with more than substitutes for the sensations it had in the body; it obtains a perception of light more vivid than in dreams, and permanent. It enjoys the discernment, society, and communion of other Spirits; the presence of God and the Redeemer; and progresses in the knowledge and love of God, and so in holiness and happiness forever. I. That there is something supposed; namely, that the soul of man is immortal; otherwise it could not be capable of happiness or misery. II. We shall consider the happiness which the members of the invisible church enjoy; which is called communion with Christ in glory. III. The misery which the souls of the wicked endure at death; which is contained in the latter part of the answer. I. To speak concerning the thing supposed in this answer; namely, that the soul of man is immortal. This is a subject of that importance, that we must be first convinced of the truth of it before we can conclude that there is a state of happiness or misery in another world. But before we proceed to the proof of it, it is necessary for us to explain what we are to understand thereby; accordingly let it be premised, 1. That we read, in scripture, of the death of the soul, in a -spiritual sense, as separated by sin, from God, the fountain of life and blessedness, and as being destitute of a principle of grace; whereby it is utterly indisposed to perform any actions that are spiritually good, as much as a dead man is unable to perform the functions of life. In this sense we are to understand the apostle's words, She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth, 1 Tim. v. 6. And in this respect unregenerate persons are said to be dead in trespasses and sins, Eph. ii. 1. and a condemned state, which is the consequence hereof, is a state of death. Now that which is opposed hereunto, is called, in scripture, a spiritual life, or immortality; but this is not the sense in which we are to consider it in our present argu ment. 2. Immortality may be considered as an attribute peculiar to God, as the apostle says, he only hath immortality, 1 Tim. vi. 16. the meaning of which is, that his life, which includes his Being, and all his perfections, is necessary and independent; but in this respect no creature is immortal; but their life is maintained by the will and providence of God, which gave being to it at first. 3. When we speak of creatures being immortal, we must consider them either as not having any thing in the constitution of their nature, that tends to a dissolution, which cannot be effected by any second cause; or their eternal existence, pursuant to the will of God, who could, had he pleased, have annihilated them. It is in both these senses that we are to consider the immortality of the soul. That it is in its own nature immortal, has been allowed by many of the Heathens, who have had just conceptions of the spirituality of its nature, possessed due regards to the providence of God, and those marks of distinction that he puts be tween good and bad men, as the consequence of their behaviour in this life. That the soul survives the body, has been reckoned, by some of the Heathens, as an opinion that has almost universally obtained in the world *. Thus Plato introduces Socrates as discoursing largely on this subject, immediately before his death: and, in some other of his writings, not only asserts, but gives as good proofs of this doctrine as any one, destitute of scripture-light, could do. One of his followers, in the account he gives of his doctrine, recommends and insists on an argument which he brings to prove it, which is not without its weight, namely, that the soul acts from a principle seated in its own nature, and not by the influence of some external cause, as things material do ‡. And Strabo speaks of the ancient Brachmans, among the Indians, as entertaining some notions of the immortality of the soul, and the judgment passed upon it in its separate state; agreeable to what Plato advances on that subject §. Some, indeed, have thought that this notion took its rise from Thales, the Milesian, who lived between two and three hundred years before Plato, and about six hundred years before the Christian Era, from an occasional passage mentioned by Diogenes Laertius, in his life, which is hardly sufficient to justify this supposition; which he brings in only as matter of report *: And Cicero supposes it was first propagated by Pherecydes, who was cotemporary with him; though Diogenes Laertius makes no mention of it. But it may be inferred from many things in Homer, the oldest writer in the Greek tongue, who lived above three hundred years before Thales, that the world had entertained some confused ideas of it in his time: As we often find him bringing in the souls of the deceased heroes appearing in a form, and speaking with a voice like that which they had when living, to their surviving friends. And he not only supposes, but plainly intimates that their souls existed in a separate state ‡. And in other places he represents some suf Vid. Senec. Epist. 117. Cum de animarum immortalitate loquimur, non leve momentum apud nos habet consensus hominum, aut timentium inferos, aut colentium. Ulor hac persuasione publica. Et. Cic. Tusc. Quest. Lib. 1. permanere animos artitramur consensu nationum omnium; qua in sede maneant, qualesque sint ratione diecendum est. In Phad. Vid. Alcin. de doct. Plat. Cap. xxv. Autcumnliy de puqi tar duxnu; criouuqıku έχει την ζωήν, αει ενέργησαν καθ' αυτήν. S. Vid. Sirab. Geog. Lib. xv. Παραπλέκεσι δε και μύθους, ώσπερ και πλατων περί το αφθαρσίας ψυχής, και των καθ' αδε κρισεων, και αλλά τοιαύτα, περί μεν των Βραχμαίαν ταυτά * Vid. Diog. Laert. in Vit. Thai. Vid. Cic. Tusc. Quæst. Lib. 1. Vid Hem. Hud, 23. n. 65. & seq. fering punishment for their crimes committed here on earth * ; which plainly argues, whatever fabulous account we have of the nature of punishment, or the person suffering it, that it was an opinion, generally received at that time, that the soul existed in a separate state. And, indeed, this may be inferred from the doctrine of Demons, or the superstitious worship of the heathens, which they paid to the souls of those heroes who formerly lived on earth, and had done some things which they thought rendered them the peculiar favourites of God, and the objects of worship by men; and that their souls existed with God in great honour and favour in a separate state t. But passing this by, it may be farther observed, that whatever notions some of the heathens had of the immortality of the soul in general; they were very much at a loss, many of them, in determining the place, or many things relating to the state in which they were; and therefore many of them, with Pythagoras, asserted the doctrine of transmigration of souls, or their passing from one body to another; and being condemned to reside in vile and dishonourable bodies; which, though it perverts, yet doth not overthrow the doctrine of the soul's immortality; and others seemed to doubt whether, after four or five courses of transmigration of souls from one body to another, they might not at last shrivel into nothing. It must also be acknowledged, that there was a considerable Ήλθε δ' επί ψυχη Πατρόκλιος δειλοίο, Παντ' αυτω μέγεθος τε και ομματα καλ' εικυία, Στη δ' αρ' υπερ' κεφαλής, και μου προς μύθον έειπεν, In which, after he had killed Hector, he addresses himself to his friend Patroclus, signifying that he had done this to revenge his death; upon which, the poet brings in Patroclus as appearing to him. Vid. Odys. Lib. xi. lin. 575. & seq. in which he speaks of the punishment of Tityus and Tantalus. In this, as well as many other things, he is imitated by Virgi?. See Æneid. Lib. vi. lin. 595, & seq. † See this argument managed with a great deal of learning and judgment by Mede, in his apostasy of the latter times, who proves that the gods whom the heathens worshipped, were the souls of men deifyed or cannonized after death, from many of their own writers, chap. iv. and Voss. de orig. &c. idol. Lib. 1. cap. xi, xii, xiii. who refers to Lanct. Lib. 1. de fals. Relig. cap. v. his words are these; Quos imperiti, & insipientes, tanquam Deos & nuncupant, & adorant, nemo est tam inconsideratus, qui non intelligat fuisse mortales. Quomodo ergo, inquiet aliquis, Dii crediti sunt ? Nimirum quia reges maximi, ac potentissimi fuerunt, ob merita virtutum suarum, aut munerum, aut artium reperturum, cum chari fuissent iis, quibus imperitaverunt, in memoriam sunt consecrati. Quod si quis dubitet, res eorum gestas, & facta, consideret: quæ universa tum poetæ, tum historici veteres, prodiderunt. Et August, de Civ. Dei, Lib. viii. cap. v. Ipsi etiam majorum gentium Dii, quos Cicero in Tusculanis, tacitis nominibus videtur attingere, Jupiter, Juno, Saturnus, Vulcanus, Vesta, & alii plurimi, quos Varro conatur ad mundi partes, sive elementa transferre homines fuisse produntur. Et Cic. Lib. 1. de nat. Deor. Quid, qui aut fortes, aut potentes viros tradunt post mortem ad Deos pervenisse; ecsq; ipsos quos, nos colere, precari, venerariq; soleamus ? party among the heathen that adhered to the sentiments of Epicurus, who denied the immortality of the soul, as supposing it to be material. And the Sadducees are represented, in scripture, as imbibing that notion; who are said to deny both angels and spirits, Acts xxiii. 8. In this respect they gave into his philosophy, as to what concerns his denying the immortality of the soul, or its existence in a future state*: But passing this by, we may observe, that notwithstanding all that has been said concerning this doctrine, by the better and wiser part of the heathen in their writings; yet their notions seem very defective, if we trace them farther than what concerns the bare separate existence of the soul; or, if they attempt to speak any thing concerning its happiness in a future state, they then discover that they know but little of this matter; and many of them, though they cannot deny the soul's immortality, yet they seem to hesitate about it; and therefore we may say with the apostle, that life and immortality is brought to light through the gospel, 2 Tim. i. 10. that is, if we would be sure of the immor tality of the soul, and know its state and enjoyments in another world, we must look farther than the light of nature for it; and in seeking for arguments in scripture, we shall find great satisfaction concerning this matter, which we cannot do from the writers before mentioned. That some of the heathen were in doubt about this important truth, is very evident from their writings; for Plato himselft, notwithstanding the many things which he represents Socrates as saying, concerning a state of immortality after death, endeavouring to convince his friend Cebes about that matter, and apprehending that he had so far prevailed in the argument, as that his antagonist allowed that the soul survived the body, but yet held the transmigration of souls into other bodies; this he seems to allow him, and adds, that it is uncertain whether the soul, having worn out many bodies, may not at last perish with one that it is united to ‡. And he farther says to him, that * Some have wondered how the Sadducees could deny angels, and yet receive the five books of Moses, in which there is so frequent mention of the appearance of an gels; and it might as well be wondered how they could make any pretensions to region, who denyed the immortality of the soul; but as to both these, it may be said concerning them, that they were the most irreligious part of the Jewish nation. To make them consistent with themselves, is past the skill of any who treat on this subject. Some suppose that they understand all those scriptures that speak concerning the appearance of angels, as importing nothing else but a bodily shape, appearing for a time, and conversing with those to whom it was sent, moved and actuated by the divine power, and then disappearing and vanisking into nothing. † In Phed. + His words are these ; Κέβης δέ μοι έδοξε τέτο μεν έμοι ξυν χωρείν, πολυχρονιώτερον 20 είναι Ψυχήν σώματος, αλλά το δε άοπλον πανί, με πολλά δη σωματα και πολλακις κατατρίψασα η ψυχή, το τελευταίον, σωμα καταλιπεσα των αυλη απολλύηται και η αυλό του το θάνατος, ψυχής ολέθρός, επει σώμα γ εκει ἀπολλυμένον ονδεν παντίαι |