l0 THE PROOF OF A SEPARATE STATE. Ps. lxxfli. 24, 26. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and t terreard receive me to gloryy: My flesh and my heart fail- eth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. In these verses, receiving to glory, seems immediately to follow a guidance through this world ; and when the flesh and heart of the Psalmist should fail him in death, God continued to be his portion for ever, God would receive him to himself as such a portion, and thereby he gave strength, or courage to his heart, even iu a dying hour. It would he a very odd.and unnatural ex- position of this text, to interpret it only of the resurrection, thus, " thou shalt guide me, by thy counsel, through this life, and, after the long interval of some thousand years, thou wilt receive me to glory." Ec. xii. 7. " Then shall the dust return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit to God that gave it." It is confessed, the word spirit, in the Hebrew, is the same with breath, and is re- presented, in some places of scripture, as the spring of animal life to the body : Yet it is evident, in many other places, the word spirit siguillles the conscious principle in man, or the intel- ligent being, which knows and reasons, perceives and acts. The scripture speaks of being grieved in spirit Is. liv. 6. of rejoic- ing is spirit;. Luke x. 21. The spirit of a man knoweth the things ,of a man; .1 Cor. ii. 11. There is a spirit in man; that is, a principle of understanding ; Job xxxii. 8. And this spirit, both of the wicked and the righteous, at death, returns to God ; Ec. xii. 7. to God, who, as I hinted before, is the judge of all the world of spirits, probably to be further determined and dis- posed of, as to its state of reward or punishment. Is. lvii. 2. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come, he shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." The soul of every one, that walked' uprightly, shall, at death, enter into a state of peace, while their body rests in the bed of dust. Luke ix. 30, 31. And behold there talked with him; that is, with Jesus, two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spoke of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. I grant it possible, that these might be but -mere 'visions, which appeared to our blessed Saviour, and his apos- tles : But it is a much more natural and obvious interpretation, -to suppose, that the spirits of these two great men, whereof one was the institutor, and the other the reformer of the Jewish church, did really appear to Christ, who was the reformer of the world, and the institutor of the Christian church, and con- verse with Brim about the important event of his death, and his return to heaven. Perhaps, the spirit of Elijah had his hea- venly body with -him there, since he never died, but was car- ried alive to heaven ; but Moses gave up his soul, at the call of
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=