foul, or of divinity whofe meaning it is hard to come at, these the whole worst of hypocrites are to involved and dark. I fhall

man.

The So

cinian opinion.

give their own words, from the compendiolum they themselves drew up, and which the venerable Clapis. penburg undertook to refute

1

XII. Their fentiments about the State of Souls after death are thefe that man by death undergoes fucb a ToG TAL DISSOLUTION, as to be altogether NOTHING:runless that his fpirit (even as the SPIRIT of the BEASTS) like a kind of wind or breath, returns to God, who gave it Eccl. 12 because that breath or Spirit is a kind of VIRTUE or efficacy of him, to whom it returns moreover, they infer from this, that fouls after deaths have NO SENSATION; nay, do not, indeed, attually SUBSIST in themselves, as perfons do. The whole comes to this, ft. Since they contend, that the foul is not a fubftance, but a kind of virtue and efficacy, asi ftrength, health, wit, fkill, and the like; they deny ha that it any ways fubfifts of itself. 2dly. As theyot fay, it returns to God, they afcribe nothing to it, bubb what it has in common with the spirit of beasts dreaming, namely, of a kind of divine air or breath,ds a particle of which every man, and every beast, enjoys, by which God inspires, vegetates and moveso their bodies, and which, when it is breathed out atfli death, he receives, as a kind of virtue or efficacy ofod his own. 3dly. However that return to God hintos ders not man, after death, from becomeing altogetherst nothing, as beafts are nothing after death only withs this difference, that the foul of man is rational,sandad has the hope of eternal life; fuch as the fouls of the I righteous who will actually live for ever. But thened they mean that eternal life, which begins at the refur. d rection, by which the foul as well as the body, will bars again brought into being, while the fouls of the wicked will remain in the fame condition, with those of thes beafts, which are not to be reproduced by any refur rection. 4thly. Since they deny the fouls, furviving death, to be substances, it is much more evident, that.

ཞ

2

that they deny them to be capable of rewards for t punishments: which is down right epicurifm.

〃

thodox o

pinion.

C

70.7

XIII. We are therefore to prove these three things The orin their order: ft. That human fouls truely furvive after death. 2dly. That they live and think, for that life, which is effential to the foul confifts in these, and confequently they either enjoy the beatific communion of God, with the highest delight, or are tormented with the gnawing worm of confcience, and the horrible expectation of a future judgment, with the utmost pain, 3dly. That the fouls of the righteous (for we snow treat of their glory) emmediately, upon their quitting the body, received not only into beavenly joys, but also into heavenly manfions.co glodw

XIV. As to the first, that the foul, on being fet free from the body, fubfifts, and that man, after death, is not reduced into nothing, the facred writings fo evidently declare, that fcarce any thing can be clearer. The Lord Jefus invincibly proves, that Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob exifted, when, long after their death, God declared, that he was their God. Mats 22. 32, compared with Luke 20. 38. For, how could he be their God, when themfelves had no exiftence? And if the foul, when feparated from the body, could not at all fubfift, Paul would have ridiculously doubted, whether he was caught up into the third heaven in the body, or out of the body, 2 Cor. 12, 2, 3. His words alfo had been vain, Phil. 1, 23, I bave a defire to be diffolved, or depart, and to be with Chrift. Indeed, he fays, to be diffolved, or depart, and not to be extinguished: nor can we refufe, that he has a being, who is faid to be with Chrift. And how, pray, are we come not only to an myriads of Angels, but alfo to the fpirits of just men made perfect, who are in the beavenly Ferufalem, if none fuch exifted? Heb. 12. 23. To what purpose alfo is that well known parable of the rich man and Lazarus, but to acquaint us with

the

The foul

furvives

death.

f

Eccl. 17. 7, explainer','

the existence of feparate fouls, and their different conditions? Luke 16. To what end, thofe prayers of believers and of Chrift himfelf, by which they commended their departing fpirit to God? P.

A

5. Ats 7. 59. In a word, feeing Chrift was true man, and in all things like unto his brethren, whom thefe men reproach as a mere man, I afk, what they think was become of his foul, during the three days of his death? Did it alfo vanifh into thin air, and was Chrift really annihilated after his death, till his foul was raifed together with his body? One or other of thefe they muft fay! either that the foul of Chrift was of a quite different nature from ours, which, they affert, can no ways fubfift, viz. in a state of feparation and fo they contradict Paul, who declares, that be was in all things like unto his brethren, yet without fin Heb. 2 17; and 4. 15: or that Chrift was annihilated during the three days of his death; and so they contradict Chrift himself, who promifed the thief, that he fhould be with him in paradife, immediately upon the death of both, Luke 23. 43. *^.

XV. The Heretics, in like manner, pervert the meaning of the preacher, who fays, Eccl. 12. 7, then shall the duft return to the earth, as it was; and the Spirit fhall return unto God, who gave it as if that return was nothing but a refolution into God, of, I know not, what virtue, which they call a particle of divine breath, proceeding from God; almost in such a manner with God, as now received from the body, as it was with him before it removed into the body which are monftrous opinions! It is contrary as welk to the nature of God, as to ours, that either our foul fhould be any part of God, or God any part of our foul. The meaning of the preacher is no ways ob fcure. After the death of the man he fays that the condition of the body is quite different from that of the fpirit. The body, when deprived of the foul, he calls duft; because the union of foul with body is the

t

band,

band, and, as it were, the cement, whereby the parts of the body remain conjoined. After the departure of the foul, the lifeless body, which at firft was formed out of the earth, is nothing but a heap of earthy particles, into which also it refolves in procefs of time. But the condition of the foul is quite different. It dies not, nor is diffolved, as the body; but goes to God, as to the judge, who is to affign it its place, either of reward, or punishment. Nay, it returns to God, not as if it had actually been with God, before it was infused into the body, (for God formeth the spirit of man within him, Zechar. 12. 1) but because, in order of nature and of efficiency, it was God's before it was man's: for, God gave it to, and made it for man. What Euripides has elegantly faid, as quoted by Philo in his book, de Mundi immortalitate, wonderfully agrees with this faying of the preacher,

What Springs from earth, goes back to earth again : but what from heaven derives its high pedigree, thither again returns. Similar to this is that of Epicharmus, apud Plutarch, ad Apollon. Evvexpion xai diexpion nar ἀπῆλθεν ὅθεν ἦλθε πάλιν. τα μεν εις γαν πνευμα δ ̓ ἄνω : they are joined together, and afterwards feparated, and return again from whence they came, earth to earth, the fpirit to beaven.

XVI. None

ร

And Eccl. 3. 19.

In what

dead are

no more.

XVI. None fhould oppofe to this teftimony, the 19th verfe of the 3d. chapter; Ifaid in my heartbeart that which befalleth the jons of men, befalleth beafts, even one thing befalleth them: as the one dietb, fo dieth the other; yea, they have one breath, so that aman bath no pre-eminence above a beaft; for all is vanity. For, it is evident, that the comparison between man and beaft is only made with refpect to what is external, and ftrikes the eye; in as much as man equally with the beafts is deprived of that life, whereby he can enjoy the pleafures of this world. He does not here confider the condition of the next world, which is apprehended by faith. And it is plain, that these words cannot be understood abfolutely, but only relatively, as to the privation of animal life, because, otherwife man and beaft would have the fame kind of fpirit; and that man has no pre-heminence above the beasts, none who is not out of his fenfes, will affirm, and who, by giving up all pretence to folid reafon, has willingly turned himself to a beaft.

XVII. When the Scripture affirms, that the deadfenfe the are no more, Pf.39.13. Jer. 31.15, it does by no means faid to be fay, that nothing of them furvives more, including even the foul in the fame condition, which the adverfaries themselves will scarce venture to affirm's but that they are not to be what they were before namely, living men, confifting of foul and body united, nor, where they were before, " 80 ins the land of the living; and because all their converse with the living is cut off, fo that with respect to that intercourse it is much the fame, as if they had no ex iftence: fee Gen. 5. 24.

That the foul has

life and

XVIII. Now let us proceed to what we undertook to prove in the fecond place. That the foul not only fentiment furvives after death, but alfo lives, understands and after death feels, either the favour or vengeance of God. Not both rea only Scripture, but even reafon should perfuade us of this: for, the faculty of thinking, in which the life of the foul confifts, is fo effential thereto, that

fon

teaches,

the