V111 PRE they can look for nothing else. And whatever be the state of this invisible world, the soul can undertake nothing of its own.conduct after its departure from the body. It knows that it must be absolutely at the dis- posal of another. Wherefore no man can comfortably venture on and into this condition; but in the exercise of that faith, which enables him to resign and give up his departing soul into the hand of God, who alone is able to receive it, and dispose it into a condition of rest and blessed- ness. So speaks the apostle, I am not ashamed, fbr I know whore I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day. Herein, as in all other graces, is our Lord Jesus Christ our great example. He resigned his departing spirit into the hands of his Father, to be owned and preserved- by him, in its state of separation. Father in- to thy hands I commit my spirit, Luke xxiii. 46.; as did the psalmist his type, in a like condition, Psal. xxxi. 5. But the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ here in, the object and exercise of it, what he believed and. trusted unto, in this resignation of his spirit into the hand of God, is at large expressed in. the 16th Psalm, ver. 8-11. 1 have ( saith he) set the Lord always be- fore me: because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory re- joiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;. neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness ofjoy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. He left his soul in the band of God, in full assurance that it should suffer no evil in its state of separation, but should be brought again, with his body, into a. blessed resurrec- tion, and eternal glory. So Stephen resigned his soul, departing under violence, into the bands of Christ himself. When he died, he said, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. This is the last victorious act of faith, wherein its conquest over its last enemy death itself doth consist. Herein the soul says, in and unto itself, Thou art now taking leave of time unto eternity; all things about thee are departing as shades, and will immediately disap- pear. The things which thou art entering into are yet invisible; such as eye bath not seen, nor ear beard, FACE. nor will they enter into the heart of man fully to con- ceive. Now therefore with quietness and confidence give up thyselfunto the sovereign power, grace, truth, and faithfulness of God, and thou shalt find assured rest and peace. But Jesus Christ it is, who doth immediately receive the souls of themwho believe in him. So we see in the instance of Stephen. Andwhat can bea greater encou- ragement to resign them into his hands, than a daily con- templation, of his glory in his person, his power, his exaltation his office, and grace? Who that believes in him, that belongs unto him, can fear to commit his departing spirit unto his love, power, and care? Even we also shall hereby in our dying moments see, by faith, heaven opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, ready to receive us. This, added unto the love which all believers have unto the Lord Jesus, which is enflamed by contemplation of his glory, and their desires to be with him where he is, will strengthen and confirm our mind in the resignation of our departing souls into his hand. Secondly, It is required in us unto the same end, that we be ready and willing to part with the flesh wherewith we are clothed, with all things that are use- ful and desirable thereunto. The alliance, the relation, the friendship, the union, that are between the soul and the body, are the greatest, the nearest, thefirmest, that are or can be among mere created beings. There is nothing like it, nothing qqual unto it. The union of three persons in the one single divine nature, and the union of two natures in one person of Christ, are in- finite, ineffi,ble, and exempted from all comparison. But among created beings, the union of these two es- sential parts of the same nature in one person is most excellent. Nor is soy thing equal to it, or like it, found in any other creatures. 'Those who among them have most of life, háve either no bodies, as angels; or no souls but what perish with them, as all brute crea- tures below. Angels being pure immaterial spirits, have nothing in them, nothing belonging unto their essence that can die. Beasts have nothing in them that can live when their bodies die. The soul of a beast cannot be preser- ved in a separate condition, no not by an act of al- mighty power;. for it is not; and that which is not, cannot live. It is nothing but the body itself in an act of its material powers..
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