Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_428.TXT

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428

returns as soon as it leaves the body, as to the original
proprietor of it; and to whom it is accountable for all
actions done in the body; being summoned and gathe[-
ed by him, or carried by angels to him; when a parti-
cular, personal judgment passes upon it; for after this,
that is, death, comes judgment; that at once takes
place; though the general judgment will not be until
the resurrection of the dead; and according to the
sentence passed on the soul, at its particular judgment,
is it disposed of. The souls of the wicked are sent
down to hell, and east into it; to this prison they are
committed, there to remain to the judgment of the
great day: this has been the case from the beginning
of the world, witness the spirits in prison, who were
disobedient in the times of Noah; the wicked of all
nations in the world, iu all ages, as asserted by David;
and that without respect to persons, rich or poor ;. the
rich wicked man died, and in hell lift up his eyes, ac-
cording to the parable of our Lord, 1 Pet. iii. 19. Psalm
ix. 17. Luke xvi. 22. And the souls of good men re-
turn to Go{t at death, are retained by him, into whose
hands, at death, they commit them; and are imme-
diately admitted into his presence, and fulness of joy
there; and so remain until the second coming of Christ,
when he will bring them with him, raise their bodies,
and re-unite souls and bodies; and when in both, they
shall be for ever with him: and whereas the immediate
state of the wicked after death, is but sparingly spoken
of in scripture; but that of good men more plentifidly,
the proof of the latter will be chiefly attended to, and
which may be taken,
1st, From Eccles. iv. 2. where the saints dead are
preferred to living ones.-----1. By the dead are meant
the righteous dead; for though the righteousness of
Christ, from which they are denominated righteous,
delivers them from eternal death, yet not from a cor-
poral one; The righteous man perishes, or dies, as
others do; though his death is different from the death
of others, and is attended with happy circumstances;
hence Balaam desired to die the death of the righteous,
Numb. xxiii. l0.------2. By the living, are meant saints
in the present state, who are distressed with a body of
sin and death, and groan, being burdened with it; are
harassed by the temptations of Satan, with which they
are sorely grieved; are exercised with a variety of
afflictions, fi'om different quarters, and on different ac-
counts; meet with various tribulations in the world,
and are greatly oppressed with the persecutions of
men, as in v 1. which makes their present state uncom-
fortable at times. Now,-----3. The righteous dead
are delivered from all these; they are freed from sin,
and are out of the reach of Satan's temptations, and of
the persecutions and oppressions of men. And, -
4. Are in a state of fellowship with God, and Christ,
and with angels and glorified saints, in heaven, and so
happy, and in a state preferable to living saints. But,
. . 5. If this was not the case, if they were in a state
of insensibility, and without the enjoyment of the
divine presence; they would not be happier than, nor
so happy, as living saints, with all their sorrows, arising
from within and from without; for they have their in-
tervals of joy, peace, and comfort; have the love of
God shed abroad in their hearts, by the Spirit, at

OF THE SEPARATE STATE OF THE SOUL.                                                    Book VII.

.
.times; and are indulged with fellowship with the

Father, and his Son Jesus Christ: and besides, they
have comfortable fellowship with the saints, in the
word and ordinances; with whom they go to the house
of God in company, and are there greatly delighted
and refreshed: the tabernacles of the Lord are amiable
and lovely; a day in his courts is better than a thousand
elsewhere. Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness,
and her paths, paths of peace; and therefore they are
happier than the righteous dead, if they are not in the
divine Presence, and sensibly enjoying that, until the
resurrection.
2dly, From Isa. lvii. 1, 2. The righteous perisheth,
&c.       1. By the righteous and merciful, are meant
such as are truly made so by the righteousness of Christ,
and live righteously under a sense of such grace, and
who have obtained pardoning mercy of God, and shew
mercy to others; the same with the good man, the
godly, and the faithful, elsewhere, Mic. vii. 2. Psalm
xii. I.-----2. The death of such is meant by their perish-
ing, and being taken away; for persons so described
can never perish eternally, only as to the outward man,
and the transitory things of this world; out of which
they are taken by death, and to God himself. And
-    .3. As soon as they are taken from hence, they are
at once in a state of happiness; being not only taken
from evil to come, from public judgments and calami-
ties coming upon anation; or from the evil of sin, and
of error, by which they might have been ensnared and
distressed; all which is a kind of negative happiness;
but they have, besides this, at death, a real and positive
happiness, which they are at once possessed of; signi-
fied by the following things,--(1.) They enter znto
peace: are not only freed fi'om sorrow, disturbance, and
distress, on any account whatever; but they are put
into the possession of a peace which pusseth all under-
.stand. lug, and can never be interrupted; they enter
into it as into an house, where they are to dwell; and
upon a land where there is no pricking brier nor griev-
ing thorn.        (-2.) They rest in their beds; not only
their bodies rest in their graves, where their rest toge-
ther is in the dust; but their souls in the bosom of
Abraham, in the arms of Jesus; where they rest from
all their toil and labour; and have continual and never-
ceasing communion with all the heavenly inhabitants.
--(3.) They. walk in their uprightness; they walk,
and so are not m a state of insensibility and inactivity;
they have places given them to walk among those that
stand by, to take their turns, and converse with angels
and glorified saints; and with them they walk clothed
iu white, because worthy, through the worthiness of
Christ; in the righteousness of Christ, the fine linen,
clean and white; and in spotless purity and holiness;
and in the shining robes of bliss and glory.
3dly, From Luke xvi. 22, 23. And it came to pass
that the beggar died, &c. The scope of this parable,
as observed in the preceding chapter, is to be attended
to; wltich is to set forth the immediate state of men
after death, whether good men or bad men; for though
it may have a principal respect to Christ, and to the
Pharisees of his times, yet holds true of all good men,
the members of Christ; arid of all wicked mete: whether
under a guise of religion, or openly profane..- -. ;-t. The
!'