QUESTION IX. 325 hatred of God is not to be known by the course of hisdaily provi- deuces, as Solomon and David his father have both observed and complained; Eccles. ix. and' Psalm lxxiii. if David wrote that psalm. X. From this view of things, every considering person must infer, what some of the ancients did infer from the same 'view, viz. that the death of the body must not make an entire end of man, but that there will be a future state after death, wherein the righteous Governor of the world will call men to account for their behaviour here, and will manifest the wisdom and equity of his government, by rendering toevery one accord- ing to their works; he is a God who knows the inward real cha- racters of those whom we call indifferent, and sees all the allevi- ating or aggravating circumstances of every sin : And he will measure out the sorrows of evil and impenitent persons in a just proportion to their sins, and will make his final retributions exactly answerable to their present characters. This argument assures us that sins, especially of greater aggravation, will be punished in a world to come after the death of the body. And since the soul is in its own, nature immortal, God the great Governor of the world may punish sin by not seizing the for- feited soul into death, that is, by letting, it live in anguish of conscience, or other inflicted pains from his own hand : For where every thing is forfeited, the governor may resumeas much or as little as he pleases. XI. Whether the great God, the Governor ofthe world, will only continue the souls of men in their state of natural im- mortality after the death of the body, and judge and recompense them hereafter only in that separate state, according to their be- haviour here ; or whether he will raise their bodies up from the dead, that men maybe treated according to their moral character, and recompensed hereafter both in bòdy and soul, this enquiry cannot be resolved and determined by the light of nature. The mere reason of man cannever prove certainly the doctrine of the resurrection, though it may look something probable that those spirits who have actually obeyed ,or sinned in their union with animal bodies, may be again united to bodies, which may become instruments of their recompence, whether of pleasure or punish- ment. XII. And though, I think, it can never be fully proved by the light of nature, that an offended God will certainly forgive the sins of the best of men, so as to demand no punishment of them in the other world, and for this reason many. of the ancient heathens thought there would be-a state of penance or purgation, even for men .of moderate virtue, yet.it may be certainly con- cluded, that from the equity and holiness of God, the punish- ment of the wicked and profligate among mankind, shall be x3
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