Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_432.TXT

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4.¢;9,                              OF THE SEPARATE STATE OF THE SOUL.                                                     BoOK VIi.
tion; see Job iv. l2--t7. and xxxiii. 15, 16. it un- nally, and returns to the dust at death, and is buried

derstands and perceives, devises and contrives, reasons
and discourses, chooses and refuses, grieves and re-
joices, hopes and fears, loves and hates, and the like;
it can take in hints, admonitions, advice, and directions
from God, or angels sent by him; as in some not
good men, as Abimelech, Laban, Balaam, &c. and
others truly good men, as Jacob, Daniel, Joseph, &c.
whose souls, when their bodies were asleep, were ca-
pable of attending to them, and receiving them, and
 acted according to them.
    2. The advocates for the insensibility and inactivity
of the soul after death, urge such scriptures which re-
present the happiness of the saints, and the mise
the wicked, as not taking place until the last da
end of the world, the resurrection of the dead, and
the day of judgment, when the wicked shall go into
everlastiug punishment, and the righteous into life
eternal, Luke xiv. 14. I Thess. iv. 16, 1S. 2 Tim. iv.
8. Col. iii. 3, 4. Matt. xi. 22, 24. and xiii. 40, 41,47,
50. and xxv. 46. Rev. xx. 12, 15. to which may be
replied, that though they are represented as then
happy or miserable, it is no where said that they are
not happy nor miserable before that time; nor that
they .are insensible of any happiness or misery, but
the contrary. Besides there is a twofold state of the
righteous and the wicked after death, respecting their
happiness and their misery; the one is inchoate or
but begun at death; the other is full, consummate,
and perfect, at the resurrection and judgment; now it
is of the latter these scriptures speak, and not of the
former; and it is allowed, the righteous will not be in
the full possession of happiness until the last day,
when their bodies will be raised and united to their
souls, and both together enter into the full joy of their
Lord; nor will the wicked receive the full measure of
their punishment until the resurrection and the judg-
ment are over, when both soul and body shall be cast
into hell; just as it is with the devils, they are not yet
in full torment, though cast down to hell, and are re-
served to the judgment of the great day; but then
they are not iu a state of insensibility, they feel dis-
tress and anguish now, and tremble at their future
doom; so the wicked, they are not insensible of their
misery now, and of what they are to endure: and both
.righteous and wicked upon death enter immediately
into a state of happiness or misery; the righteous are
happy from the time of their death, and as soon as
absent from the body are present with the Lord; and
the wicked are no sooner .dead, but in hell they lift up
th. eir eyes; though neither the one is iu complete hal>
pmess, nor the other in full misery, yet both sensible
of their present case, and what they shall be iu hereafter.
3. They improve all such places to their advantage,
which speak of those in the grave, and in the state of
the dead, as incapable of praisingGod, Psalm xxx. 9.
and Ixxxviii. 10, 11. and cxv. 17, 18. lsa. xxxviii. 18.
to which it may be answered, (1.) Not to observe that
Calvin {} interprets the passages of the damned in hell
under the wrath of God, and a sense of it. These
scriptures speak only of the body, which is dusc origi-

 iu the dust, and whilst in such a state cannot praise
 God; Shall the dust praise thee ? it is the body which
 only dies, and goes down to the pit, and is laid in the
 grave, and which, whilst there, cannot be employed
 iu praising God, Shah the dead arise and False thee ?
 &c. but then this hinders not but that their souls may
 and do praise God, in the manner as angels do, with
 whom they are sometimes joined in the Book of the
 Revelation; and are represented as with them, glori-
 fying God, praising his name, singing hallelujahs,
 ascribing salvation to him that sits upon the throne, and
 to the Lamb for ever and ever, Rev. vii. 9---12.             (s.)
      se passages only respect praising God before men,
      the church militant, as is done by saints now
in the land of the living; but then notwithstanding,
the souls of departed saints may and do praise the
Lord in the church triumphant, and with the hundred
and forty four thousand in mount Zion, and before an
innumerable company of angels and spirits of .just
men made perfect, to whom they are come; and there-
fore such passages are no proof of the insensibility
and inactivity of separate souls.
4. They argue from souls being deprived of thought
and memory at death, that therefore they must be in
a state of insensibility. As for thought, that passage
is urged in Psalm cxlvi. 4. In that very day, that is, in
which man returns to his earth, or dies, his thoughts
perish; but these, as has been observed, do not design
thoughts in general, but purposes, schemes, and plans,
the effect of thought, which come to nothing at death,
and are never carried into execution; and though the
houghts, particularly of good men, are not employed
      the same things as when on earth, about worldly
things, yet they are employed about spiritual and
heavenly ones; and can, with pleasure and gratitude,
remember the great and good things God did for them
in life; yea, even the memories of wicked men are
rubbed up after death; Sdn, remember that thou in thy
1.iretime receivedst thy good things, &c. Luke xvi. 25.
And that worm that dies not, is no other than consci-
ousness of guilt contracted, and the memory of past
sins committed in life, which torture the separate soul
after death, Mark ix. 44. Should it be urged, that a
person, when asleep, is destitute of thought, espe-
cially when in a deep sleep; who, upon awaking,
cannot remember any thing he has thought of: this
doth not carry in. it sufficient conviction, that the mind
is then destitute of thought; for ho` often is it that a
man, when awake, cannot remember what he thought
of the last minute? it is owned, that in dreams the
soul thinks, but then the man is asleep, and shews that
sleep and thought are not incompatible: besides, when
deep sleep falls upon man, the soul is capable of at-
tending to what is suggested to it, and receiving in-
truction thereby; as some passages in Job, before
mentioned, shew. And after all, it should be proved,
that the soul is asleep when the body is; and particu-
arly, when separate from it, ere any argument from
      can be brought to prove the soul is deprived
of thought by it; and is in a state of insensibility.

s Assertio, &c. ut supra, fol. 44, &c.