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pleasures of sense; 'Let us eat and drink' while we live, for there is an utter end of us in death. But (saith he, ver. 33.) such evil traditions corrupt all good manners,' and therefore they are not, they cannot be true: There must be a resurrection of the body to encourage sufferings in the body for the sake of virtue and religion.*

Object. VI. Doth not the New Testament constantly refer the rewards and punishments of good and bad men to the time of the resurrection of the dead, or the second coming of Christ? Is it not with this prospect it terrifies the sinner? Is it not with this it comforts the good man, and supports him under his present sufferings? It would be endless to cite all the particular texts on this occasion. That one text 1 Thess. iv. 14. speaks the sense of many others, and is sufficient to be cited here. The Apostle persuades Christians not to "mourn for the dead

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There are several pages of just and pertinent answers to this objection by my learned and ingenious friend Mr. Henry Grove, in his Thoughts concerning the Proof of a Future State from Reason,' which confirm the replies I have here made. Then they,' saith he, who are fallen asleep in Christ (by whom the martyrs seem to be more especially intended) are perished, for any thing that Christ can do for them, who will never reward them for their sufferings, never restore that life which they lost for his sake.' And particularly his exposition on those words, we are most miserable of all men,' is very agreeable to the place. The Greek wore po signifies that we are 'more to be pitied' than any men, as wanting the common understanding of men to suffer death for Christ's sake, who would never be able to recompence us for it, if he be not risen from the dead. And it is (saith he a little afterward) for want of observing the intermediate links of the Apostle's argument (which he there represents), that some have been at a loss for his meaning, while others have quite mistaken it.' See p. 124, &c.

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as those that sorrow without hope," and gives this reason, "for those who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him," when he comes to raise the dead, and then they shall be for ever with the Lord;' and he bids them comfort one another with these words:" Whereas their comforts had been much nearer at hand if he could have told them of the Separate State of happiness which the departed souls of their friends at present enjoyed; and if there had been any such state he had the fairest opportunity here to introduce it.

Answ. This very text I have mentioned before as a proof of the Separate State, and it is plain the Apostle seems to hint it, though he doth not insist upon it, when he supposes the soul of the deceased to be with Christ already; for he saith, "God will bring them with him," i. e. from heaven when he comes to raise their bodies.

But to give a more general answer to the objection, as drawn from the silence of Scripture, in many places, about this doctrine of the Separate State.

There are good reasons why the New Testament more sparingly mentions the Separate State of souls, and doth most frequently (but not constantly) refer both rewards and punishments to the resurrection.

(1.) Because the Heathens themselves (at least the wisest and best of them) did believe some sort of future state of happiness or misery, into which the souls of men should be disposed when they departed from these bodies, according to the vices or virtues they had practised in this life; and they derived this doc

trine from their reasonings upon the foot of the light of nature. The writings of Plato and his followers, and the sentiments of Socrates conveyed to us in Plato's writings, are full of this opinion, viz. of the existence of the souls of good men in a happy state, when they depart from the body. Cicero sometimes speaks of it as his opinion, his desire and his hope, nor were other heathen writers ignorant of this doctrine; but the New Testament speaks less of this point, because it is the evident design of Christ and his Apostles to lead their disciples to the more peculiar doctrines of revelation,' rather than to treat them with sentiments derived from the light of nature: And this doctrine of the resurrection from the dead, and the eternal rewards and eternal punishments that attend it, are more abundantly mentioned in the New Testament, because they stand so much more connected with the gospel of Christ, and with his own resurrection from the dead, which is the chief evidence of its divine authority. It is Christ who rose from the dead, who is appointed to raise and to judge all mankind; and therefore it is natural for the Apos tles in their writings, who desire to keep the death and resurrection of Christ always in the view of their converts, to point to the awful events of that day, when their Saviour, risen from the dead, shall appear in the execution of his glorious commission and judge the world. Thus St. Paul preaches to the Athenians, Acts xvii. 30. "God now commands all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righte

ousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." And in many other places he connects our resurrection and future recompences with the resurrection of Christ.

And in this respect, as well as in some others, the doctrine of rewards and punishments after the resurrection, seems to carry such superior force in it, especially upon those who believe the gospel, that it is no wonder the New Testament more frequently refers to this great day of resurrection, and the Apostle derives the chief part of his consolations or terrors from it.

(2.) Then will be the public and universal retributions' of vice and virtue in a more solemn manner exhibited before all the world, whereas the entrance of mankind into the recompences of the Separate State is more private and personal.

(5.) Then will be the day of complete rewards and punishments' of man in both parts of his nature, soul and body: All the Separate State belongs only to the soul, and even those recompences are but imperfect before in comparison of what they will be when body and soul are united.

(4.) Then will be the most glorious visible and sensible distinction made between the good and bad; and since this belongs to the body as well as the soul, it is very properly set before the eyes of men in the holy writings as done at the resurrection; because corporeal and sensible things work more powerfully on their imagination, and more sensibly and

effectually strike the consciences of men, than the notion of mere spiritual rewards and punishments in the Separate State.

(5.) The state of rewards and punishments after the resurrection, will be far the longest and most durable recompence of the good and the bad: And therefore it is called eternal so often in Scripture ; everlasting life, and everlasting fire, Matth. xxv. 41. Whereas the retributions of the Separate State are comparatively but of short duration; and this is another thing that makes a sensible impression on the hearts of men, viz. the eternal continuance' of the joys and sorrows that follow the last judgment.

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Perhaps it will be replied here, that in the beginning of this essay I represented the Separate State as à more effectual motive' to the hopes and fears of men, because the joys and sorrows of it were so much nearer at hand' than those of the resurrection: And why do I now represent the recompences of the resurrection under such characters as are fit to have the strongest influence, and become the most effectual motive?

Answ. It is granted, that the recompences after the resurrection have several circumstances that carry with them some peculiar and most powerful motives to religion and virtue; but that awful day may still seem to want this one motive, viz. the nearness of it,' which belongs eminently to the recompences of the Separate State. Now, if the Scripture does really reveal the doctrine of rewards and punishments of souls immediately after death, and of soul and

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