AN ESSAY TOWARD A PROOF OF A SEPARATE STATE OF SOULS BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION, AND THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REWARDS OF VIRTUE AND VICE IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH. SECTION I. The Introduction, or Proposal of the Question, with a Distinction of the Persons who oppose it. IT is confessed, that the doctrine of the resurrection Of the dead, at the last day, and the everlasting joys, and the eternal sorrows, that shall succeed it, as they are described in the New Testament, are a very awful sanc- tion to the gospel of Christ, and carry in them such principles of hope ánd terror, as should effectually dis- courage vice and irreligion, and become a powerful at- tractive to the practice of faith, and love, and universal holiness. But so corrupt and perverse are the inclinations of men, in this fallen and degenerate world, and their pas- sions are so much impressed and moved, by things that áre present, or just at hand, that the joys of heaven, and the sorrows of hell, _when set far beyond death and the grave, at some vast and unknown distance of time, would have but too little influence on their hearts and lives. And though these solemn and important events are never so certain in themselves, , yet being looked upon as things a great Way off, make too feeble an im- pression on the conscience, and their distance is much abúsed to give an indulgence to present sensualities. For this. we have the testimony of our blessed Saviour himself, Mat. xxiv. 48, 49. " The evil servant says, my Lord delays his coming ; then he begins to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken ;"
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