ESSAY VII. 415 That expression of ascendingfor above all heavens, which is applied to Christ ; Eph. iv. 10. is easily reconcilable to this scheme, though his body rose no higher than to some planet in our solar world ; since his descending into the lower parts of the earth, in the same text, signifies no more than his going into a sepulchre, perhaps a foot or two beneath the ground. So that the exposition of those texts is not to be measured by yards or miles ; but as the one expresses great abasement, so the other great exaltation, in such language as is suited to the apprehen- sions of the vulgar part of mankind, which all learned men ac- knowledge to be the common language of scripture. Now concerning departed souls, if we allow them to be im- mediately furnished with new vehicles, so as never to havé any' single and separate existence in their own pure spiritual nature, thenwe may talk of their rising,and moving; and residing, inall the local language that belongs to bodies : we may then trace their ascent through the aerial regions and follow their flight through the planetary worlds, if we know where to stop and set- tle them in a proper place. Nor am I so averse to this opinion as to renounce or dis- claim it utterly. It is possible it may be so appointed by the bles. sed God, the Lord and Ruler of all the worlds of minds and bodies. I know not of any person living who is so sagacious as to have pryed into all the secrets of the invisible world, and to be able to tell us certainly how spirits live, and act, and converse there : Nor have we had any of the departed souls among men who have come back to give us an account of these affairs. There is a mysterious darkness spread over the face of the unseen re- gions to hide them from mortal view : And it is wisely ordained by our Creator that we should live in thisworld by faith, and not by sight. We are sure we must shortlyput ofthese tabernacles ; and though the spirits of good men shall be immediately invested with a holy and happy immortality, yet whether they shall be clothed or furnished with material vehicles of any kind is not so evident, and consequently what they shall have to do with place and motion is not so easy to determine. But when we speak of the places and motions of depart- ed souls, . and yet conceive them as perfectly separate from all matter, we talk perhaps but in a mere vulgar, figurative or improper way, and in such language as our infancy and prejudice borrow from sensible objects round us ; and not agreeable to the philosophical nature and reason of things ; in which respect pure spirits do not seem to be capable ofconfinement to a place, or any proper local motion to or from it, because they have no figure, shape nor dimensions. All the foregoing problems and hard questions about the holy soul's passing through the airy regions, and getting up
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