418 THE DEPARTING - OD SEPARATE SOUL. yet he sees and knows nothing immediately, but what is done in his own prison, till in some happy minute the walls fall down ; then he finds himself at once in a large and populous town, encompassed with a thousand blessings ; with surprize hebeholds the king in all his glory, and holds converse with the sprightly inhabitants ; he cati speak their language, and finds his nature suited to such communion ; he breathes free air, stands in the open light, be shakes himself, and exults in his own liberty. Such is a soul existing in a moment in the separate world of holy and happy souls, and before a present God, when the prisonwalls of flesh fall to the ground. Perhaps it will be objectedhere, that holy souls, when they are absentfrom the body, are encouraged to expect they shall be present with the Lord Jesus, and then it seems necessary they should be in the place where his body is. They hope to be with Christ, and behold him in the glories of his exalted human na- ture, when they depart from the flesh; 2 Cor. v. 8. Phil. i. 23. Now in all this philosophical account of the separate state of the souls of good men, there is no provision made for thispart of our promised blessedness. To this I answer, That if the souls of good meu at their death be admitted to a more intimate converse with the deity itself, andwith the human soul of Christ Jesus, there is no ne- cessity of any communication with his glorified body, till their bodies also are raised at the last day. Now the human soul of Christ, especially in its exalted state, has an extensive power to converse with pure spirits, whether angels or human souls, to impress his sacred influences of authority or love upon them, by command or consolation, and enable them to exercise and maintain mutual converse with himself. Doubtless our blessed Lord lias all the freedoms, powers and prerogatives of a pure separate spirit in his state of bodily resurrection, exaltation and glory ; and he can make the spirits of his faithful followers as happy in his own presence, as is proper for their state of separa- tion from the body ; and he can also, make the souls of impenitent sinners, as well as evil angels, sensible of his resentments against their crimes. His raised and exalted body is no hindrance to his influences on unbodied spirits. If in his incarnate state and hu- miliation, when his body was mere flesh and blood, he had con- verse with good angels, and power over devils, we may well suppose, that in his exalted stateof union to a glorified body, he can converse as he pleases with the world of spirits, and enable them to hold converse with himself. After all, let it be noted, that I have only represented in this place, how far it is possible for the heaven or the hell of departed spirits to commence in this state of separation from the fleshy without a new union to any corporeal vehicle. Yet I assert
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