'(@ THE PROOF OF A SEPARATE STATE. on primitive christians, as that they imagined the day of recur, reetion and judgment was very near: and since the propheti- cal words of Christ and bis apostles, seemed to carry this appearance in them, and to keep the church under some uncer- tainty, it is no wonder that the apostles chiefly referred the disciples of that age, to the day of resurrection, for comfort under their sufferings and sorrows : And though they never asserted, that Christ would come to raise the dead and judge the world in that age, yet when they knew themselves that lie would not come Bo soon, they might not think it neces- sary to give every clrristian, or every church, an immediate account of the more distant time of this great event, that the uncertainty of it might keep them ever watchful : And, 'even when St. Paul informs the Thessalonians, that the day of the Lord was not so very near, as they imagined it ; 2 Thess, ii. 2. yet he does not ptit it off beyond that century by any es- press language. Thus we see there is very good reason why the New Teo-, tament should derive its motives of terror and comfort chiefly from the resurrection and the day of judgment ; though it is not altogether silent of the separate state of souls, and their happi- ness or misery, commencing in some measure immediately after death, which has been before proved by many scriptures cited for that purpose. Here, let it be observed, that I am not concerned in that question, whether human souls, separated from their bodies, have any other corporeal vehicle to which they are united, or by which they act during the intermediate state between death and the resurrection ? All that I propose to maintain here is, that that period or interval is not a state of sleep, that is, utter uncon- sciousness and inactivity : And whether they be united to a vehi- cle or no, I call it still the separate state, because it is a state of the soul's separation from this body, which is united to it in the present life. SECT. V. More Objections answered. Since this book was written, I have met with several other objections against the doctrine here maintained; and as 1 think, they may all have a sufficient answer given to them, and the truth be defended against the force of them, I thought it very, proper to lead the reader into a plain and easy solution of them. Objection VII. Is not long life represented often in scrip- ture, and especially in the Old 'festament, as a blessing to man ? And is net death set before us as a curse, or punishment ? But can either of these representations be just or true, if souls exist in a separate state ? Are they not then brought into a state of liberty by death, and freed from all the inconveniences of this
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