xi. 26. "Whoso liveth and believeth in me, shall never die," to which may be added the words of Christ to the woman of Samaria, John iv. 14. The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." 1 John v. 12. " He that hath the Son hath life," &c. The argument I draw from these Scriptures is this: It is hardly to be supposed that our Saviour in this gospel, and John in his first epistle imitating him, should speak such strong language concerning eternal life, actually given to and possessed by the believers of that day, if there must be an interruption of it by total death or sleep both of soul and body for almost two thousand years, i. e. till the resurrection.

Acts vii. 59. "And they stoned Stephen calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit." Those who deny a Separate State, suppose that Stephen here commits his spirit, or principle of human life, into the hands or care of Christ (because the life of a saint is said to be "hid with Christ in God," Colos. iii. 3, 4.) that he might restore it at the resurrection, and raise him to life again. But I think this is an unnatural force put upon these words, contrary to their most obvious meaning, if we consider the context: for Stephen here had a vision of the "Son of man, (or Christ Jesus) standing on the right hand of God, and the glory of God near him;" see ver. 55, 56. Whereupon Stephen being conscious of the existence of Christ in that glorious state, desired that he would receive his spirit, and take it to dwell with him in his Father's house; not to

lie and sleep in heaven, for "there is no night there," but to behold the glory of Christ according to the many promises that Christ had made to his disciples, that he "would go and prepare a place for them in his Father's house," and that they should be "with him there to behold his glory," John xiv. and xvii. which I shall have occasion to speak of afterward.

Rom. viii. 10, 11. "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness," i. e. If Christ dwell in you by the sanctifying influences of his Spirit, it is true indeed, your body is mortal and must die, because it is doomed to death from the fall of Adam on the account of sin, and because sinful principles still dwell in this fleshly body; but your soul or spirit is life, or (as some copies read 3 instead of (n) your spirit lives when the body is dead, and enjoys a life of happiness, because of the righteousness imputed to you, i, e. "your justification unto life," Rom. v. 17, 18. 21. I know there are several other ways of construing the words of this verse by metaphors; but the plain and most natural antithesis which appears here between the death of the body of a saint because of sin or guilt, and the continuance of the spirit or soul in a life of peace because of justification or righteousness, and that even when the body is dead, gives a pretty clear proof that this is the sense of the apostle. This is also further confirmed by the next verse, which promises the resurrection of the dead body in due time. "If the Spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up

Christ from the dead," i. e. God the Father, "shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you." The spirit or soul of the saint lives without dying, because of its pardon of sin and justification and sanctification, in the 10th verse; and the body (not the spirit or soul) shall be quickened or raised to life again, by the blessed Spirit of God, which dwells in the saints, ver. 11.

2 Cor. v. 1, 2. "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. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." Ver. 4. "We in this tabernacle groan being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." It is evident that this house from heaven, this building of God, is something which is like the clothing of a soul divested of this earthly tabernacle, ver. 1, 2. or it is the clothing of the whole person, body and soul, which would abrogate the state of mortality, and swallow it up in life, ver. 4. For though in ver. 4. the apostle supposes that the soul doth not desire the death of the body, or that itself should be unclothed, and therefore he would rather choose to have this state of blessed immortality superinduced on his body and soul at once without dying, yet in the first verse he plainly means such a bouse in or from heaven, or such a clothing which may come upon the soul immediately as soon as the earthly house or tabernacle of his body is dissolved.

And how dubious soever this may appear to those who read the chapter only thus far, yet the 8th verse, which supposes good men to be present with Christ when absent from the body, determines the sense of it as I have explained it; of which hereafter.

Perhaps it is hard to determine, whether this superinduced clothing be like the Shechinah or visible glory in which Christ, Moses, and Elias, appeared at the transfiguration, and which some suppose to have belonged to Adam in innocency; or whether it signify only a state of happy immortality, superinduced or brought in upon the departing soul at death, or upon the soul and body united as in this life, and with which those saints shall be clothed, who are "found alive at the coming of Christ," according to 1 Cor. xv. 52, 53, 54. which will not kill the body, but swallow up its mortal state in immortal life.

Let this matter, I say, be determined either way, yet the great point seems to be evident, even beyond probability, that there is a conscious being spoken of, which is very distinct from its tabernacle, or house, or clothing, and which exists still, whatever its clothing or its dwelling be, or whether it be put off or put on; and that, when the earthly house or vessel is dissolved or put off, the heavenly house or clothing is ready at hand to be put on immediately, to render the soul of the Christian fit to be present with the Lord.

2 Cor. xii. 2, 3. "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, 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." I grant this ecstacy of the apostle does not actually shew the existence of a Separate State after death till the resurrection; yet, it plainly manifests St. Paul's belief, that there might be such a state, and that the soul might be separated from the body, and might exist, and think, and know, and act, in paradise, in a state of separation, and hear, and perhaps converse in the unspeakable language of that world, while it was absent from the body.

And, as I acknowledge I am one of those persons who do not believe that the intellectual spirit or mind of man is the proper principle of animal life to the body, but that it is another distinct conscious being, that generally uses the body as an habitation, engine, or instrument, while its animal life remains; so I am of opinion, it is a possible thing for the intellectual spirit, in a miraculous manner, by the special order of God, to act in a state of separation without the death of the animal body, since the life of the body depends upon breath and air, and the regular temper and motion of the solids and fluids, of which it is composed.* And St. Paul seems here to be of the same

*It would be thought, perhaps, a little foreign to my present purpose, if I should stay here, to prove that it is not the conscious principle in man that gives or maintains the animal life of his body. It is granted, that, according to the course of nature, and the general appointment of of God therein, this conscious principle or spirit continues its communications with the body, while the body has animal life, or is capable of its natural motions, and able to obey the volitions of the spirit; and, on this account, the union of the rational spirit to the body,' and 'the animal life of the body,' are often represented as one and the same thing.