that (as he expresses it a little before) they might learn to walk by faith and to look at the things which are unseen, which are eternal." And indeed if this peculiar blessing of the happiness of a Separate State belongs only to the apostles, how much are the comforts of the New Testament narrowed and diminished, and the faith and hope of common Christians discouraged and enervated, and their motives to holiness weakened, when they are told, that they have nothing to do to lay hold upon such promised favours, such revelations of grace, because they belong only to the apostles and not to them.

And indeed how shall common Christians ever know what part of the epistles they may apply to themselves for their direction and consolation, if they may not hope in such words of grace, where the holy writers use the word we, and do not plainly intimate that they belong to preachers or apostles only?

Answer 3. When our Saviour prays for himself and his apostles in the beginning of the xviith of St. John, he comes in the 20th verse to extend the blessings he had prayed for to all believers. Ver. 20. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me:" Ver. 24. "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." Here it is evident that our Saviour prays that those that shall

believe on him through the word of the Apostles may be present with him in his kingdom to behold his glory; and is not that a very considerable part of his glory, which the Father hath conferred upon him to be Lord and King and head of his church? but this peculiar glory reaches no further than the resurrection and judgment, and cannot be seen afterwards; for in 1 Cor. xv. 24. "then cometh the end, and Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to God the Father; the Son himself also shall be subject unto the Father, that God may be all in all,” ver. 28.

As for that final blaze of supreme glory wherein Christ shall appear at the day of judgment just before he resigns up his kingdom, and which perhaps is once called his kingdom, 2 Tim. iv. 1. When "he shall come in the glory of his Father and of his holy angels as well as his own," Mark viii. 38. The sight of it shall be public and common to all the world, and not any peculiar favour to the saints.

It seems therefore most probable that it is only or chiefly in the Separate State of souls departed, that the saints have a special promise of beholding this mediatorial glory of Christ in his kingdom; and this favour our Saviour entreats of his Father for others that shall believe on him, as well as for his Apostles. I might here take occasion to enquire whether every text which promises to other Christians as well as to the Apostles, a dwelling with Christ in his kingdom,' must not have a more special reference to the glory of the Separate State; upon this very account, because this kingdom of Christ ceases at the resur

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rection and judgment; and particularly that text in 2 Pet. i. 11. "so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ:" which is often in Scripture called everlasting because it continues to the end of the world; and the abundant entrance into it' very naturally refers to our departure from this life.

Answer 4. I cannot find any text of Scripture where this blessing of being 'present with the Lord' after death in the Separate State is limited only to the Apostles: I read not one word of such a peculiar favour promised them by Christ; and therefore according to the current course of several other places of Scripture which have been here produced, I am persuaded it belongs to all true Christians, unless the Apostle in some plainer manner had limited it to himself and his twelve brethren, and secluded or forbid our hopes of it.

After all, if it be allowed that the Apostles may enjoy the blessedness of a Separate State before the resurrection, then there is such a thing as a Separate State of happiness for souls:' This precludes at once all the arguments against it that arise from the nature of things, and from any supposed impropriety in such a divine constitution; And since it is granted that there are millions of angels and several human spirits in this unbodied state, enjoying happiness, I see no reason why the rest of the unbodied spirits of saints departed should not be received to their soci

ety after death, unless there were some particular Scriptures that excluded them from it.

VI. Phil. i. 23, 24. "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." When the apostle speaks here of his "abiding in the flesh," and his 'departing from the flesh," he declares the first was the more needful for the Philippians, to promote religion in their hearts and lives; but the second would be better for himself, for he should be with Christ, when he was departed from the flesh.

I would only ask any reasonable man to determine whether, when St. Paul speaks of his "being with Christ" after his departure from the flesh, he can suppose that the Apostle did not expect to see Christ till the resurrection, which he knew would be a considerable distance of time, though perhaps it has proved many hundred years longer than the Apostle himself expected it? No; it is evident he hoped to 'be present with the Lord' immediately as soon as he was absent from the body;' otherwise, as I have hinted before, death to him would have been but of little gain if he must have lain sleeping till the dead shall rise, and have been cut off from his delightful service for Christ in the gospel and all the blessed communications of his grace. The objection which may arise here also from supposing this to be a peculiar favour granted to the Apostles is answered just before.

VII. Heb. xii. 23. "Ye are come to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born which are written (or registered) in heaven, to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the New covenant," i. e. The gospel or the Christian state brings good men into a nearer union and communion with the heavenly world, and the inhabitants thereof, than the Jewish state could do: now the inhabitants of this upper world, this heavenly Jerusalem, are here reckoned up, God as the prime Lord or Head; Jesus the mediator as the King of his church; the innumerable company of angels' as ministers of his kingdom; the general assembly' of God's favourites or children who are called the first-born; perhaps this may refer in general to all the saints of all ages past and to come whose names are written in the book of life in heaven; and particularly to the separate spirits of just men' who are departed from this world, and are made perfect in the heavenly state. The criticisms that are used to put other senses upon these words seem to carry them away so far from their more plain and obvious meaning, that I can hardly think they are the meaning of the Apostle; for it would be of very little use for a common Christian to read these verses of divine consolation and grace, if he could take no comfort from them until he had learnt those critical and distant expositions of such plain language.