SECT. 117.3 IPRO$F OF A SEPARATE STATx. 317 not to " mourn for the dead, as those that sorrow with- out hope, and gives this reason ; for those, who sleep in Jésus, God will bring with him, when he comes to raise the dead, and then they shall be for ever with"the Lord ; and he bids them comfort one another with these words:" Whereas their comforts had been much nearer at hand, if he could have told them of the separate state of happiness, which the departed souls of their friendsat present enjoyed ; and,' if there had been any such state, he had the fairest'opportunity here to introduce it. Answer. This very text I have mentioned before as a proof of the separate state, and, it is plain, the apostle seems to hint it, though he does not insist upon it, when he supposes the soul ofthe deceased to be with Christ al- ready; for he saith, God will bring them with him ;" that is, from heaven, when he comes. to raise their bo- dies. But, to give a more general answer to the objection, as drawn from the silence of scripture in manyplaces about this doctrine of the separate state. There are good reasons, why the NewTestament more sparingly mentions the separate state of sotds, and cloth most frequently, but not constantly, refer both rewards and punishments to the resurrection. 1. Because the heathens themselves, at least the wisest and the best of them, did believe some sort of fu- ture state of happiness or misery, into which the souls of men should be disposed when they departed from these bodies, according to the vices Or virtues they,had prac- tised in this life and they derived this doctrine from their reasonings upon the foot of the light of nature. The writings of Plato, and his followers, and the Senti- ments ofSocrates, conveyed to us in Plato's writings, are full of this opinion, viz. of the existence of the souls of good men in a happy state, when they depart from the body. Cicerò sometimes speaks of it as his opinion, his desire, and his hope, nor were other heathen writers ig- norant of this doctrine but the NewTestament speaks less of this point, because it is the evident design of Christ, and his apostles, to lead their disciples to the more peculiar doctrines of revelation, rather than to treat them with sentiments derived from the light of na- ture : And this doctrine of the resurrection from the 4
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