SECT. íI1.1 PROOF OF A SEPARATE STATE. 299 bath done, whether it be good or bad." Now why should we suppose, that St. Paul . excludes all other christians besides himself, and his brethren the apostles, from the blessing of the 8. verse, viz. that when they are absent from the body, they shall be present with the Lord," since the verses all round it are applicable to all christians. Answer 2. These chapters were written with a design, not only, to vindicate and encourage the apostle himself, under the sufferings and reproaches, which he met with but, doubtless, to give encouragement to the Corin- thians, and all christians under any sufferings or re- proaches, they might meet with in the world : that, as he expresses it a littlebefore, they might learn " to walk by faith, and to look at the things, which are unseen, which are eternal." And, indeed, if this peculiar blessing of the happiness of a separate state belongs only to the apostles, how much are the comforts of the NewTestament nar- rowed and diminished, and the faith and hope of com- mon christians discouraged and enervated, and their mo- tives to holiness weakened, when they are told, they have nothing td do to lay hold upon such promised favours, such revelations of grace, because they belong only to the apostles, and not to them ? And, indeed, how shall common christians ever know, what part of the epistles they may apply to themselves; for their direction and consolation, ifthey may not hope in such words of grace, where the holy writers use the word we," and do not plainly intimate, that they be- long to preachers or apostles only ? Answer 3. When our Saviour prays for himself and his apostles, in the beginning of the xvii. of St. John, he comes, in the 20. verse, to extend the blessings he had prayed for to all believers. Verse 20. " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word :" Verse 21. " That they all may he one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe, that thou hast sent me." Verse 24. Father, I will that they, also, whom' thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." Here it is evident, that our Saviour prays that, those, that shall believe on him through the
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