at my Tribulation Philem. v. 9. This Apostle was then Paul the Aged and a Prisoner of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. 4.6 Paul says I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Ver. 16. At my first Answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me but God stood with me and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion Philip. 4.14 The Philippians had sent a Present to supply St. Paul's Wants and in return he says Ye have well done that ye did communicate with my Affliction and supply my Wants and prays God to bless them for their so doing The several Texts thus collected seem to declare to us the State of St. Paul's Person at that time He was Paul the Aged a Prisoner under a necessitous and wanting Condition ready to be offered up by a dolorous Death having but lately escaped out of the Mouth of the Lion and that he lay continually under great Afflictions for the Church's sake and had the Care of all the Churches lying upon him All which Particulars considered our Apostle had great Reason to chuse Death rather than Life in all such Respects as did only concern himself for that by Death he should be delivered from the manifold Afflictions and Tribulations before-named and thereby attain a state of Rest and Blessedness in the Lord. Rev. 14.13 John heard a Voice from Heaven commanding him to write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord 's Chap. 8.35 Who shall seperate us from the Love of Christ Ver. 38. I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor any other Creature shall be able to seperate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus ' our Lord. Here we may observe Life and Death are made indifferent things to Believers such as seem neither to hinder nor further the State or Condition of them or to be either of them greatly desired by Christians in this World but rather ought to be referr'd to the Will and Appointment of God Luk. 20.38 God calls Himself The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and yet the Text says He is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him Which to my Apprehension proves what before is said That whether we live or die we are the Lord's during Life we live and move in Him and when we die we rest and sleep in Him in expectation to be raised by Him at his Second Coming And from the Premises I Argue That all Mr. W's Suppositions and Surmises concerning the Soul and the Seperate State of it are ill grounded and unsound We read of many Persons whose Conditions were so much distress'd that with Job they have heartily desir'd Death and would be ready with him to dig for it as other Men would do for hidden Treasure the very Aged and Sickly one of which I am will easily be perswaded to think Death a Gain to them and to desire it accordingly The present Time affords a rare Example of a young rich and otherwise happy Lord who by a Pistol Bullet took away his own Life at the Bath meerly to rid and free himself from such sharp Pains of the Gout and Stone as then oppress'd him And daily Experience assures us that the Consideration and Hope of Death is one of the greatest Supports under Mens present Sufferings and is by such Persons accordingly desired and thus they are at apparent Agreement with St. Paul's Opinion That for them to die is Gain although their Expectations of future Happiness may be nothing so well grounded as his was It may be also observed I have a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better Not saying He desir'd to depart that he might be with Christ but that though he did depart he knew he should still be with Christ so as his Departure and being with Christ do both stand well together he had a Being with Christ whil'st he was alive and he doubted not of having a like Being with Christ when he was dead and that a more peaceable and quiet Being than he had whil'st he was here and therefore that Estate was the more desirable and the more gainful If a Person go to his Friends or his Father's House he may truly he said to be with such a Friend or Father either sleeping or waking and we know Death is compared to a Sleep the Scripture usually calls it so and really and truly it is no other but a sound and lasting Sleep to continue unto the Sound of the last Trumpet at whose Summons the Dead shall be raised and those who are alive upon Earth shall have their Persons changed St. Paul does not say that he or any other Person is more present with the Lord when dead than alive but that in both Estates Men are alike present with the Lord For If we live we live unto the Lord and if we die we die unto the Lord so as whether we live or die we are the Lord 's Neither Death nor Life can seperate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus So it seems whether we live or die we are alike with Christ and have no more Being with him dead than when alive but that in both these States we have alike Being with him This Exposition of St. Paul's present Text I conceive to be sound and true and that Mr. W's is Erroneous For that this my Construction applies St. Paul's Terms of I and Me to denote and intend his whole Person as in their proper Signification they do whereas Mr. W. applies them to signifie only one Part of his Person viz. our Author's sort of Soul concerning which our Dispute is Whether there is any such thing in the World or not Next Mr. W. takes up the Bulk of his Argument in a Discourse concerning the Soul its Seperate Subsistence after Death and its enjoying Happiness in that Estate whereas in St. Paul's whole Text there are no words which mention any of these things or give us any Information concerning them or any of them I leave therefore his Construction as a Mistake of the Apostle's Meaning and think I have Reason to conclude That Mr. W's Argument drawn from this Text is not a sufficient nor a good Argument to prove the Subsistence of the Soul in a State of Seperation from the Body The Thirteenth Argument PAge 100. Colos 1.19 20. It pleased the Father that in him should all Fulness dwell and having made Peace through the Blood of the Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven P. 101. Mr. W. says There were Souls of Men in Heaven when St. Paul
judged by Solomon to be the very same with the Humane in these Words Yea they have all one breath In the flood of Noah we read That all in whose nostrils the breath of life was died in that flood And clear it is they so died because the Waters stopped the passage of that Breath by which they before lived And if it shall be demanded by what means these Creatures obtained their first Breath I conceive it was given them by the same or the like Means that Adam afterwards received it A Specimen of which we find recorded Ver. 37. where a vast number of dry Bones received a sudden and powerful Resurrection For first They came together bone to his bone Next to which loe the sinews and flesh came up upon them and then the skin covered them above but there was no breath in them Then God commanded that Prophet to prophesie unto the Winds and say come from the four winds O breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So he prophesied as he was commanded and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great Army And thus I conceive it fared with Adam at his first Creation the Bones Ligaments and principal Parts were framed and fitted one of them to another upon which were formed their Flesh and Sinews over all which the Skin was lastly super-induced And after this manner it seems Adam's Body was first created and perfected altho he lived not because there was yet no Breath in him his blood and Humours were turgid and full of Mettle fit and apt to tin'd and have the Flame of Life kindled in them with the first Blast of that Breath which God intended to breathe into him for that purpose And this Flame of Life he then appointed to be continually maintained in the Bodies of Beasts and in the Persons of Men by breathing and the constant fannings of the ambient Air so as 〈◊〉 Creatures can live but a very few Moments 〈…〉 Whilst 〈◊〉 Creatures breathe they lives 〈…〉 they cause to breathe they cense to live What 〈…〉 should prove in this Point is this That God 〈…〉 Creation and 〈…〉 did create for him and for the Information of that Body a new spiritual intelligent circumscribed Substance that should come ab extra and be injected into that new created Body by the mighty and miraculous working of God's Power 〈…〉 he be able thus to prove I confess it will follow 〈…〉 â—his Soul had a separate Subsistence before its being â—ast into the Humane Body and thence it will also be a very probable consequent that when at Death it shall be again divided from the Body it will be able to subsist in a state of Separation from the Body But till the Being of such a Soul shall be better proved I hold the Opinon of its Extinguishment at the Death of the Person to be more probable P. 14. To prove that the Soul and Body are Two seperate singular and different Beings Mr. W. quotes 1 Thess 5.23 where St. Paul says I pray God your Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless Himself confesses he knows not well how to distinguish betwixt Soul and Spirit in this Text but yet he declares himself certain that there is a Distinction asserted betwixt them and the Body And I Reply That the being of a Distinction betwixt them is no good Proof that the Soul can subsist in a State of Seperation from the Body for that the Relatives in the Holy Trinity are really distinct one of them from the other and yet no Division or Seperation can possibly be admitted amongst them And I farther conceive upon this Text that by St. Paul's Words of Soul Spirit and Body he intended no otherwise than that their whole Persons Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ And I desire my Reader to observe here that which I think to be a Failure in our learned and pious Author this Text of St. Paul truly and fully quoted runs thus The very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Mr. W. quotes it thus I pray God your Spirit and Body be preserved blameless c. By which it appears that he omits the Word wholly and suppresses the Word whole in the beginning of the Text and then cuts it short in the end before he comes to the Words Vnto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and chusing to supply them by an Et caetera It seems this fallacious way of quoting Scripture did not fall upon our Author by chance but had a set Purpose in them and that he left out the Words wholly and whole in the Text because they may seem to Confirm and Fortifie my Exposition of it which is that the Words SPIRIT SOVL and BODY do all intend no more but the whole Persons of his Correspondents And he cuts off before the Words Vnto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ that he might avoid producing a very strong evidence against the Opinion which he maintains Because St. Paul does not pray God to preserve their Souls or Spirits at the time of their Departure out of this World but to preserve their whole Persons Souls and Bodies blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ As if he knew of no time of Reward or Punishment after this Life unto the second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ A like Charitable Prayer to this is delivered by the same Apostle 2 Tim. 1.16 where he says The Lord give Mercy to the House of Onesyphorus and the Lord grant unto him that he may find Mercy in that day viz. The Day or Time of our Lords Second Coming And so Chap. 4 he says My Departure out of this World is at hand and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord Jesus the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to them also that love his Appearing These last Words fixt the Time when such Crowns shall be distributed viz. The Time of Christ's second Appearing to the World And because the Point thus fall'n under Examination seems one of the most important which is now in Question between us I will produce some further Evidence strongly tending to maintain my Part of this Question and place our Lord himself in the Front of my other Witnesses He says Luke 21.27 Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a Cloud with Power and great Glory and when those things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh Joh. 14.2 Christ says In my Fathers House are many Mansions I go to prepare a Place for you And if I go and prepare a Place for you I will come again and receive you to my self that where I am
Time and not an Intent of our Lord to teach either Jews or Christians what the true state of Men after Death should be First It declares a great distance of space to be between Dives and Lazarus and that there was a great Gulf fixed so that none could pass from the one Place to the other and yet Abraham and Dives had a familiar Discourse between them without straining their Voices Secondly they saw and knew and spake to one another without the use of Eyes or Tongue or Ears as Mr. W. will suppose although the Text do not declare it to be so but speaks of Dives as having all these Members of a Man And therefore I Collect That if this Text prove any thing of the state of Men after Death it proves amongst the rest that the Persons suffering have Eyes and Ears and Tongue and like Bodily Members and that the Suffering there is principally if not only applied to the Body and his Tongue being eminently tormented in that Flame or Fire Thirdly this Parable imports That the Tormented and by the Rule of Contraries the Happy Souls have Remembrance and Care concerning those things they left upon Earth and concern themselves about their Friends Happiness or Misery Whereas Solomon says The Dead know not any thing and David says That in Death all Mens Thoughts perish and Job agrees That all Concerns perish with Death And Solomon names particularly Mens Love and their Hatred Isa 38 18. Hezekiah sings to God The Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope but the Living can only praise Thee as I do this day And thereupon I leave to Consideration whether our Parable in this Point do not oppose the fore-quoted and divers other Texts of Scripture and even the common Opinion of the Reformed Churches Fourthly I Recite a former Observation That if our Parable intended Dives to be in Hell in his Soul only then Abraham and Dives discoursed both unproperly and untruly in calling one another by the Names of Father and Son For that Mr. W. and his Partakers say That was a Spirit newly created by God which true Being and Subsistence before it was infused or injected into Dives his newly procreated Body without the Parents having any part in the Generation of it Thus the Soul of Dives came not from Abraham or any of his Posterity and how is he then his Son Mat. 22.42 Our Lord quotes David calling Christ his Lord and demands How is he then his Son And the Jews were not able to Answer him a word to that Question And this I apply to the Question which I last asked and from the Premises I conclude that our Lord did not by this Parable intend to teach the true State of Men after Death but to Illustrate that Assertion which he had before delivered by a Similitude drawn from that Opinion which the Jews then commonly held of the State of Men after Death The Seventh Argument PAge 74. Mr. W. quotes Luke 23. and recites the History of the Thief upon the Cross and the Promise made to him by Christ of his being with him in Paradise I say thereto Mr. W. hath urged this Proof before in this Treatise and I have given him thereto such an Answer as satisfies my own Understanding And because it is of some length I have no mind here to repeat it but rather make choice to offer an Argument raised from other Scriptures in Impeachment of the Verity and Credit of this Relation and begin with considering the Person of our Evangelist St. Luke who was it seems converted to the Faith by the Ministry of Paul whose Emanuensis he is conceived to have been in the writing of this Gospel And it seems that this Evangelist was not converted till divers years after our Lord's Crucifixion and we know that St. Paul was not only an Infidel but a Persecuter of the Church for some years after our Lord's Death We no where find that either of them was present beholding that Execution and probable it is that neither of them were so In the Proem to his Gospel Luke to Theophilus says thus It seemed good to me having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write unto ye in order even as they delivered them to us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word Thus he professes to write from the Tradition of other Men who had been Eye-witnesses of them and Ministers of the Word And of those Traditions I conceive this Relation of the Crucified Thief 's Conversion to be one If we shall consider the other Three Evangelists we must find them totally silent concerning this Fact and that they do not concur with St. Luke in their Testimonies concerning it We have good Assurance that St. John was present at our Lord 's Suffering and continued with him till the Time of his Expiration and yet he takes no Notice nor makes any Mention of this Thief 's Conversion And yet I think the Fact was so Remarkable as deserved to be Recorded if he had known it to be done St. Matthew was one of the Twelve called by Christ to be of his Apostles and continued Faithful to him to the end whence it seems likely he might be one of the Beholders of this Tragedy and yet he makes no Mention of this Thief 's Conversion Men generally suppose That Mark writ his Gospel from the Mouth of St. Peter and very probable it is that that great Apostle was present at the Suffering of his Master and yet St. Mark makes no Mention at all of this Conversion And hereupon it seems to deserve our Enquiry How Luke who was not present at that Fact should come to know the Particulars of it when the other Three Evangelists either did not know it or have utterly suppress'd their Knowledge and the Mention of it The Silence of the other Three Evangelists seems a competent Ground to question the Verity of St. Luke's Relation but that is not all for Two other of the Evangelists Matthew and Mark give an opposite and contrarient Testimony to that which St. Luke delivers concerning it Mat. 27.44 There were two Thieves crucified with our Lord and the People which passed by whil'st he was on the Cross reviled him saying Save thy self if thou be the Son of God and come down from the Cross And the Thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth Which I conceive to be a True and Proper Translation of St. Matthew's Greek Words Mark 15.27 With Christ they crucified two Thieves the one on his right hand and the other on his left and they that passed by railed on him and they that were crucified with him reviled him Both these Texts in Greek agree in their Expressions Mat. 27.44 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 15.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here our Translators in St. Matthew have render'd the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉