SECT. PROOF OF A SEPARATE STATE. 327 is all that is necessarily meant,by a particular judgment of each soul at death, whether it pass under the solemn formalities of a judgment and a tribunal, or no. Objection XIV. If the saints can be happy without a body, what need of a resurrection ? Let the body be as refined, as active, as powerful and glorious as it can be, still it must certainly be a clog to the soul : And this was the objection, that the heathen philosophers made to, the doctrine of the resurrection, which the christians pro-. fess ; for the philosophers told them, this resurrectiòn, which they called their highest reward, was really a pu- nishment. Answer. The force of this objection has been quite taken away before, when it has been shewn, . that man, being a creature compounded of body and spirit, was designed for its highest happiness, and the perfection of its nature, in this state of union, and not in a state .of separation. And let it be observed, that, when the body shall be raised from the grave, it shall'not be such flesh and blood as we now wear, nor made of such materials, as shall clog or obstruct the soul in any of its most vi- gorous and divine exercises ; but it shall be a spiritual body, 1 Cor. xv.. 44. a body fitted to serve a holy and a glorified spirit in its actions and its enjoyments, and to render the spirit capable of some further excellencies, both of action and enjoyment, than it is naturally capa- ble of without a body. What sort of qualities this new - raised body shall be endued with, in order to increase the. excellency, or the happiness of pious souls, will be, in a great measure, a mystery, or a secret, till that blessed morning appears. Objection XV. Is not our immortality in scripture, described as built upon the incorruptible state of our new-raised bodies, I C,or. xv. .53. "Thiscorruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immor- tality." But the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not particularly found or taught in scripture. Answer. It is granted, that the immortality of the new=raised body is bnilt on that incorruptible sort of materials, of which it is to be formed, or which shall be mingled with it, or the incorruptible qualities, which shall be given to it by God himself: But the soul is im- mortal in itself, whether with, or without a body ; And Y4
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