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life; and we should show our abhorrence of

cleaving to that

"The wages of And shall we

evil, by fleeing from it, and which is good. Rom. xii. 9. sin is death." Rom. vi. 23. countenance that which has made such dreadful havoc in the family of man? But we should remember that a second death is appointed for all who live and die in sin. Rev. xx. 14, 15.

Thirdly, as dying men, our hearts should be weaned from the world." "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John ii. 15. The love of the world, in this passage, implies an inordinate attachment to "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;" and this love is not only sinful, but foolish and disgraceful. We may engage in the duties of life, and set a proper value on the bounties of Providence, but the world must not be loved as our chief good.

Fourthly, dying men should not trust in uncertain riches. What can these do for them when the days of darkness come? They cannot prolong their life; they cannot purchase heaven; they cannot be taken away into another world. Men may have heaped up riches; but who will gather them? When death comes, they cannot stay his hand; for that foe will not accept a bribe, though offered by the hand of wealthy sinners. Wealth may procure a pompous funeral, and a flattering monument; but it cannot save the soul from death.

Fifthly, the poor, to whom life is as precious as the rich, should prepare for death, by seeking the true riches. They have nothing in the world on which they can depend, and life itself is often a heavy burden to them, which they find it difficult to bear; but if they are rich in faith, they are heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him. James ii. 5. And with this faith in Jesus, and in the precious promises of God, they may meet death without any painful apprehensions.

Sixthly, but all who desire to die in peace, should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. All who die in him are blessed. They rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. Rev. xiv. 13. A saving interest in Jesus is the only remedy for dying mortals. He died that we might live. He supports us in the hour of death; and he will raise us from the dead.

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CHAPTER XVII.

THE SEPARATE STATE OF MAN.

The subject stated-Proofs of a separate state-Answer to some objections-The imperfection of the separate stateMan originally designed for an embodied state.

NOTHING can be discovered on the state of man in a future life, without the aid of divine revelation; for, if we judge by appearances, he dies for ever. We may form rational conjectures; but without the Bible we have no certainty. That we may speak intelligibly on this subject, we shall give our views of a separate state; and then endeavour to prove the correctness of those views by the records of divine truth.

I. By the separate state of man, we understand that state in which he will live between death and the resurrection of the dead.

Immediately after death, the spirit of man enters on a state of existence separate from that of the body; and either enjoys, in some degree, the happiness of heaven, or suffers, in a measure, the torment of hell. Eccles. xii. 7; 2 Cor. v. 8; Luke xvi. 24. On this subject, as we have already observed, there have been various opinions. These may be reduced to three: first, the opinion that death is an eternal

sleep; secondly, that which supposes the soul to sleep in an unconscious state during its separation from the body; and, thirdly, that which supposes there is not any spirit in man, but what is formed by a certain arrangement of matter in the brain. The first is the creed of infidels; the second, that of speculative divines; and the third, that of the materialists, who imagine that man cannot have any conscious existence till the resurrection of the dead. But we pass by these several notions in our concise researches; and seek proofs for an intermediate state of existence, between death and the resurrection, in that word which is the only infallible guide of man on his way to the eternal world. Philosophy has its uses and its charms; but it does not carry us forward to a world of spirits.

II. Scripture proofs of an intermediate state between death and the resurrection.

First, Moses died, and was buried; but his spirit survived death, and he appeared with Christ on the mount of transfiguration. Matt. xvii. 3. This is a plain proof that human spirits live after their separation from the body. The case of Elijah was widely different; for he was taken up into heaven in an embodied state. 2 Kings ii. 11.

Second, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died, and were buried; but they now live, and God is their God. If they were dead, soul and body,

God could not be called their God; for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. This is the argument of our Saviour with the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, and the existence of angels and spirits. Matt. xxii. 32; Acts xxiii. 8. And it is an argument which cannot be answered, either by Sadducees, or their successors, the materialists.

Third, men may kill the body; but they cannot kill the soul. That lives, and will live, when the body is dead. Matt. x. 28. If the soul die with the body, our Lord makes a distinction without a difference; but this cannot be charged on him, who knew all things, both in the visible world and the invisible. God only can kill the soul, which, after every effort of man, survives the body; but as God has created that soul immortal, his power will never be employed in its death and destruction.

Fourth, when Jesus was on the cross, he commended his spirit into the hands of his Father; a plain proof that his spirit would survive the body, and would live with God when the body was dead. Luke xxiii. 46. But did he only commend his breath into the hands of God? The idea is extremely absurd; and cannot be entertained for a moment. He spake in the language of Scripture; and that conveys the idea that the soul still lives after the body dies.

Fifth, Stephen, the first martyr, prayed to

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