SECT. T.) PROOF OF A SEPARATE STATE. 9g1 sinful life, is. sufficient to begin a heaven, or a hell, im- mediately after death. Amongst those, who delay the season of recompence till the resurrection, there are some, who suppose the soul to exist still, as a distinct being from the body, but to pass the whole interval of time, in a state of stupor, or sleep, being altogether unconscious and inactive. Others again imagine, that the soul itself has not a sufli- dent distinction from the body, to give it any proper existence when the body dies; but that its existence shall be renewed at the resurrection of the body, and then be made the subject of joy or pain, according to its be haviour in this mortal state. I think there might be an effectual argument against each of these opinions, raised from the principles of philosophy: I shall just give a hint of them, and then proceed to search what scripture has revealed in this matter, which is of muchgreater importance to us, and will have a more powerful influence on the minds of christians. I. Some imagine the soul of man to be his blood; or his breath, or a sort of vital flame, or refined air or va- pour, or the composition and motion of the fluids and' solids in the animal body. This they suppose to be the spring and principle of his intellectual life, and of all his thoughts and consciousness, as well as of his animal life. And though this soul of man dies together with the body, andhas no manner of separate existence, or conscious- ness, yet, when his body is raised from the grave, they suppose this principle of consciousness is renewed again, and intellectual life is given him at the resurrection, as well as a new corporeal life. But it should be considered, that this conscious or thinking principle having lost its existence for a season, it will be quite a new thing, or another creature at the resurrection ; and the man will be properly another per- .son, another "self," another I or "he.:" And such a new conscious principle, or person, cannot properly be rewarded, or punished, for personal virtues or vices, of which itself cannot be conscious by any power of me- mory or reflection, and which were transacted in this mortal state by another distinct principle of conscious- ness. For if the conscious principlé itself, or the think-
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