Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_429.TXT

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CHAP. III.                         OF THE SEPARATE STATE OF THE SOUL.                                                              429

beggar, the good man, upon his death, is represented
as under the care anti convoy of angels, and by them
seated in Abraham's bosom, a phrase used by the Jews,
expressive of the heavenly happiness; in allusion to a
feast, at which, according to the custom of the Jews,
the guests lay upon beds, or couches, about the table;
so that he who lay below another, and next to him,
leaned, as it were, on his breast, and lay in his bosom;
and this denotes the intimate communion of the saints
with each other, in the enjoyment of God..               2. The
rich and wicked man, he is said, upou his death, to be
in hell, where he lift up his eyes, and saw the poor
good man in great felicity and comfort, whom he had
treated with neglect and contempt; which served to
aggravate Iris misery; and where he found himself
surrounded with the flames of hell, and filled with in-
ward torments and horrors of mind.--3. The state
of both these is summed up in a few words, v 25. But
now he is comforted, and thou art tormented; even now,
immediately after the death of both. And,.    4. That
this respects the intermediate state between the death
of the body, and the resurrection of it, is clear, from
what the wicked man petitioned, on the behalf of his
brethren in his father's house, in the state of the living,
and having the means, the law and the prophets; only
he thought, if one sent from the dead to them, it would
strike them with greater conviction; when he was told,
they would not be persuaded, though one rose from the
dead; which shews the parable respects the state of
men before the resurrection, and as taking place imme-
diately upon death.
   4thly,. From Luke xxiii. 43. And Jesus said unto him,
the perutent thief, then suffering death; verily I say
unto thee, which being thus solemnly affirmed might be
depended on, to-day thou shall be with me in paradise,
 in heaven ! for,         1. By paradise is meant the third
 heaven, into which the apostle Paul was caught, 2 Cor.
 xii...%4. the seat of the divine Majest. y, and the dwell-
 ing-place of angels and glorified samts; so called in
 allusion to the garden of Eden, that earthly paradise,
 for the delight, pleasure, and happiness of it.. -
 2. Hither Christ himself, as soon as he expired on the
 cross, went; not into limbus patrum, to deliver the old
 testament-saints from thence; nor into the prison of
 hell, to preach to, and convert the spirits there, as say
 the papists, upon the mistaken sense of 1 Pet. iii. 19.
 but into heaven itself, having commended his spirit, or
 soul, into the hands of his divine Father, by whom it
 was received. And,             3. The happiness promised
the thief, upon his request to him, to remember him in
his kingdom, is, that he should be with him in paradise;
should enjoy all the happiness of that place, and his
presence in it, in which the happiness of it lay. And,
----4. He assures him, that this happiness he should
enjoy immediately, that very day; This day thou shall
be with me, &c. to put the stop after to-day, and read it
as connected with what goes before, .I say unto thee to-
day, is a mere shift, and gives a most trifling and jejune
sense of the words.
5thly, From 2 Cor. v. 1--8. For we know that if our
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have
a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. In which may bc observed,----1. That
.

death is signified by a dissolution of the earthly body;
that is called a tabernacle, or tent, set up for a while,
and then taken down; and an earthly house, an house
of clay, formed out of the earth, which has its founda-
tion in the dust; and death is an analysis, or resolution
of it, into earth and dust again...    2. Heaven is re-
presented as another house of a different nature, not
made with the hands of men; but what God is the
maker and builder of; and it is not on earth, but in
heaven; is eternal, will continue for ever; it consists
of many mansions and apartments, prepared by Christ
for his people.----3. Into which they are at once re-
moved, when dislodged from their earthly house, the
body; We know, that/f, or when our earthly house, 8(c.
when we are warned out of that, we-have another house
immediately to be admitted into; saints are not, at
death, turned adrift, as Adam, when drove out of Eden;
nor are they without any certain dwelling-place, as
sometimes the apostles were; they have an house ready
for them to go into; as soon as they are ordered out of
one, there is another prepared to receive them.---
4. TIffs is no conjecture, but a certain thing; We know,
from the provision God has made of it, from the pre-
parations of Christ for it, from the right and title
Christ's righteousness gives unto it, fi'om the security
of it in him, and from the testimony of the Spirit.---
5. After which there are strong desires in the saints;
they groan in the present tabernacle, beiug burdened,
longing for a deliverance from it, and an admittance
into their other house in heaven; being willing to quit
the body, that they might enjoy the presence of God;
which they would not be so pressingly desirous of, i.f
they knew they should not be introduced into it imme-
diately.       6. But of this they have an earnest, even
the Spirit of God; and therefore are quite confident,
being wrought up by him for this self-same thing, by
his power and grace, that when they are removed from
hence they shall be with the Lord.------7. And this. will
be as soon as they are absent from the body, as they
are at death, they shall be present with the Lord, and
enjoy communion with him.
   6thly, From Phil. i. 21, 23. For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain--for I am in a strait betwixt two,
having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is
far better ! From whence it appears,----1. That the
apostle believed, that upon Iris departure out of.this
world, by death, he should be immediately with Christ,
and enjoy communion with him; which would be a
real gain unto him, and be preferable to his conti-
nuance in this life, there being nothing here that could
be a counterbalance to it. Or otherwise, .. 2. If he
had not believed this, his immediate admission into the
presence of Christ, and enjoyment of eternal happi-
ness., he could never have considered death as gain unto
him; for he must have been a loser by it; since in his
present state, notwithstanding all his fatigue and labour,
his sorrows and his sufferings, yet he had communion
with God, the preseuce of Christ, the teachings and
leadlugs of the divine Spirit, much pleasure and suc-
cess in his work, being the happy instrument of con-
verting sinners, and comforting saints; all which he
would be deprived of, if at death he entered into a state
of insensibility and inactivity. Nor,--3. Would he