CHAPTER II.

THE INTERMEDIATE STATE.

1. Paradise (πapádeloos, D???).
2. With Christ (σùv Xpiotų).

3. Hades ("Aïons, bing).

THUS, a man determines that he will look at such an object through a microscope; or, being lame, suppose, that he will walk to such a place with a staff, a week hence. His eyes and his feet no more determine in these cases than the microscope and the staff. Nor is there any ground to think they any more put the determination in practice, or that his eyes are the seers, or his feet the movers, in any other sense than as the microscope and the staff are. Upon the whole, then, our organs of sense and our limbs are certainly instruments, which the living persons, ourselves, make use of to perceive and move with: there is not any probability that they are any more; nor, consequently, that we have any other kind of relation to them, than what we may have to any other foreign matter formed into instruments of perception and motion, suppose into a microscope or a staff, (I say, any other kind of relation, for I am not speaking of the degree of it); nor, consequently, is there any probability, that the aliena tion or dissolution of these instruments is the destruction of the perceiving and moving agent. That as it is evident our present powers and capacities, of reason, memory, and affection, do not depend upon our gross body, in the manner in which perception

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by our organs of sense does: so they do not appear to depend upon it at all in any such manner as to give ground to think, that the dissolution of this body will be the destruction of these our present powers of reflection, as it will of our powers of sensation; or to give ground to conclude even, that it will be so much as a suspension of the former.-BP. BUTLER, pt. i. c. i.

On the other hand, recognition, memory, love, fear, anxiety about kindred, cogitations concerning the home of other days, a fallacious estimate of human nature; all these unmistakably cleave to them after death. We are reminded that death is but an incident in life; that our lives, in time and in eternity, are one, are woven of one and the same piece. What if, not only the conformity of being shall be complete (which of course it is), but the conscious continuity of being shall be so vivid in the case of the departed that the event which we call 'death' shall be recognisable by those whom we call the dead' only by the possession of enlarged powers, and familiarity with an entirely new sphere of ' comfort,' passing thought: or, (O God preserve us from it!) 'torment which shall never end?'-DEAN BURGON, Sermon on 'the State of the Departed.

PARADISE.

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.-Luke, xxiii. 43.

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell : God knoweth :) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell : God knoweth ;) how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful (or possible) for a man to utter.

Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities..—2 Cor. xii. 1–5.

He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.—Rev. ii. 7.

Thou art gone to the grave! but we will not deplore thee,
Though sorrows and darkness encompass thy tomb ;
Thy Saviour has passed through its portals before thee,
And the lamp of His love is thy guide through the gloom!

Thou art gone to the grave! we no longer behold thee,
Nor tread the rough paths of the world by thy side;
But the wide arms of mercy are spread to enfold thee,
And sinners may die, for the SINLESS has died.

Thou art gone to the grave! and, its mansion forsaking,
Perchance thy weak spirit in fear linger'd long;

But the mild rays of Paradise beam'd on thy waking,

And the sound which thou heard'st was the seraphim's song.

Thou art gone to the grave! but we will not deplore thee,
Whose God was thy ransom, thy Guardian, thy Guide;
He gave thee, He took thee, and He will restore thee,
And death has no sting, for thy Saviour has died.

BP. HEBER.

WITH CHRIST.

For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in

the flesh, that is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ: which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. -Phil. i. 19-26.

HADES.

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell.—Matt. xi. 23.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.—Matt. xvi. 18.

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.-Luke, x. 15.

And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.—Luke, xvi. 23.

Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.—Acts, ii. 27, 31.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? -1 Cor. xv. 55.

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.—Rev. i. 18.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David (of Hades), he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth.-Rev. iii. 7.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.-Rev. vi. 8.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they