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Queft. 13. Doth repentance then go before the pardon of fin?

Anfw. Although repentance doth not go before, but follows after, the pardon of fin in juftification; yet not only faith, but repentance alfo, goes before the pardons given to these who are already juftified, 1 John i. 9. If we confess our fins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our fins.

Queft. 14. How doth the perseverance of the faints flow from their JUSTIFICATION?

Anfw. In as much as they who are once justified, and accepted in the beloved, are always fo; for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, Rom. xi. 29.

Queft. 15. How doth their perfeverance flow

from ADOPTION?

Anfw. In as much as he who hath adopted them as his children, is their everlasting Father, and therefore they shall abide in his house for ever, Ifa. ix, 6. John viii. 35.

Queft. 16. How doth it flow from their SANCTIFICATION?

Anfw. In as much as the fanctifying Spirit is given them to abide with them for ever; and to be in them a well of water, Springing up unto everlafling life, John xiv. 16. and iv. 14.

Queft. 17. What improvement hould be made of this CONNEXION of the benefits and bleffings that accompany and flow from justification, adoption, and fanctification?

Anfw It should excite us to have a defire after the faving knowledge of the truth, as it is in Jefus, in whom all the lines of divine truth do meet, as in their centre; and to admire the infinite goodness and wisdom of God, who has fo linked all the bleffings of the covenant into one another, that they who are poffeffed of one, are poffeffed of all, Eph. iv. 21. 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. 37. QUEST.

A a 2

37. QUEST. What benefits do believers receive from Chrift at death?

ANSW. The fouls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holinefs, and do immediately pafs into glory; and their bodies, being ftill united to Chrift, do reft in their graves till the refurrection.

Queft. 1. Why are the perfons spoken of, in the anfwer called BELIEVERS ?

Anfw. Because they have been enabled, by grace, to credit the truth of God in his promife, and to embrace the good that is therein, Heb. xi. 13.

Queft. 2. What is the difference betwixt believers and others in their death?

Anfw. Believers die in virtue of the promise of the covenant of grace, wherein death is made over to them UNSTINGED, as a part of Christ's legacy, I Cor. iii. 22.; whereas all others die, in virtue of the threatning of the covenant of works, Gen. ii. 17. having the fting of death sticking fast both in their fouls and bodies.

Queft. 3. What is the fting of death?

Anfw. The fting of death is fin; and the curse, as the infeparable companion of fin, 1 Cor. xv. 56. Gal. iii, 10.

Queft. 4. What fecurity in law have believers against the fting of death?

Anfw. Chrift's receiving it into his own foul and body, as their furety, that they might be delivered from it wherefore the promife of victory over death, made to him, (Ifa. xxv. 8.) fecures the difarming of it to them, I Cor. xv. 57.

Quest. 5.

Queft. 5. How manifold are these benefits which believers receive from Chrift at their death?

Anfw. They are twofold; fuch as respect their SOULS, and fuch as refpect their BODIES.

Queft. 6. How doth it appear, that the fouls of believers exist in a state of feparation from their bodies?

Anfw. From the Lord's calling himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, long after their death, as an evidence that their fouls were living; for, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, Matth. xxii. 32.: and from the death of believers being called a departure, 2 Tim. iv. 6.; intimating, that the foul, upon its feparation, departs only from the earthly houfe of this tabernacle, unto an house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, 2 Cor. v. I.

Queft. 7. Are the fouls of men abfolutely and independently immortal?

Anfw. No: God only is fo, 1 Tim. vi. 16. Who only hath immortality.

Queft. 8. In what sense then are fouls immortal? Anfw. In that, as to their natural conftitution, they are incorruptible, having no inward principle of corruption, but remaining in a state of activity after the death of the body, Heb. xii. 23.----The pirits of juft men made perfect.

Quelt. 9. How do you prove the immortality of the foul from the nature of it?

Anfw. In its nature, it is a fpiritual, immaterial, or incorporeal fubftance; and therefore where there is no compofition of parts, there can be no diffolution of them, Luke xxiv. 39..-----A spirit hath not flesh and bones.

Queft. 10. How are we fure that the foul shall never be annihilated?

Anf. From the promise of everlasting happiness to the righteous; and the threatning of everlafi

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ing mifery to the wicked, Matth. xxv. 46. These hall go away into everlafting punishment righteous into life eternal.

Queft. 11. What are the benefits which are conferred upon the souls of believers, upon their feparation from their bodies?

Anfw. They are made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, Heb. xii. 23. Phil. i. 23.

Queft. 12. How doth it appear that the fouls of believers are not made perfect in holiness, while united to their bodies, in this life?

Anfw. From the remains of corruption and indwelling fin, which cleave to the beft of the faints. of God, while in an imbodied state, Rom. vii. 23, 24. Queft. 13. Wherein confifts that perfect holiness, which is conferred upon the fouls of believers at their feparation?

Anfw. Not only in a perfect freedom from all fin, as to the very being of it, but in a perfect likeness and conformity to God, Rev. xxi. 4. 1 John iii. 2.

Queft. 14. What comfort may a believer have, in the profpect of the feparation of his foulfrom his body ?

Anfw. That as fin made its first entrance into him, at the union of his foul and body, fo it shall be for ever calt out at their separation; in which respect, among many others, death is great gain,

Phil. i. 21.

Queft. 15. Why must the fouls of believers be perfectly holy at their feparation?

Anju. Because nothing that defileth can enter within the gates of the heavenly Jerufalem, Rev. xxi. 27.

Queft. 16. What is the neceffary concomitant of the joul's perfect holiness?

Anfw. Perfect and uninterrupted communion with God, John iii. 2.

Queft. 17. Where is this perfect and uninterrupted communion to be enjoyed?

Anfw. In

Anfw. In glory, 1 Cor xiii. 12.

Queft. 18. When do the fouls, or spirits, of the faints pafs into glory?

Anf. As they are made perfect in holiness immediately upon their feparation, fo they do likewife immediately pafs into glory.

Queft. 19. Why is it faid in the answer, that they pas IMMEDIATELY into glory?

Anfw. To fhew that the fiction of a middle fate betwixt heaven and hell, invented by the papifts, hath no manner of warrant, or foundation, in fcripture.

Queft. 20. How do you prove, from fcripture, that the fouls of believers pafs immediately into glory, upon their feparation from their bodies?

Anfw. The foul of that certain beggar, named Lazarus, was, immediately upon its feparation, carried by the angels into Abraham's bofom, Luke xvi. 22. in like manner, the foul of the thief, upon the cross, was immediately glorified; for, fays Chrift to him, To-day fhalt thou be with me in paradife, Luke xxiii, 43. and Stephen, among his laft words, prays, Lord Jefus, receive my fpirit, Acts vii. 59; plainly intimating, that he firmly believed his foul would be with Chrift in glory, immediately upon the back of death.

Queft. 21. What is that glory which the fouls of believers do immediately pass into ?

Anfw. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. However, fince naked discoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earthly resemblances, would be too bright for our weak eyes; fuch is the condefcenfion of God, that he hath been pleased to reprefent to us heaven's happiness, under fimilitudes taken from earthly things, glorious in the eyes of men,

Queft. 22. What are the fimilitudes whereby this

glory,

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