"and remain unto the coming of the Lord, fhall "have no advantage over them who are afleep,

for-the dead in Chrift fhall rife firft. Then "we who are alive, and remain, fhall be caught ༦༦ up together with them in the clouds, &c."

Nothing can be more evident, from the confideration of the whole of this paffage, than that both the apprehenfions of the Theffalonians, and the method which the apoftle takes to filence them, go upon the fuppofition, that neither he nor they had the least notion of any intermediate state.

I would obferve, by the way, that by the phrafe being with Christ, the antients never understood any degree of happiness that could be enjoyed by good men before the refurrection. For even those chriftians who, from their leaning to the principles of the oriental or Greek philosophy, imagined that the foul had a feparate existence, ftill fuppofed that it continued in Hades till the refurrection; and, at that time only, upon being united to the body, was taken into heaven, to be with Christ. Indeed, our Lord himself fays, John xiv. 3. that he muft come again before he can receive his disciples to himself; fo that the apostles could not poffibly have any expectation of being with Chrift before that time.

I think it must a little embarrass the advocates for an intermediate ftate, to confider how the apoftle Paul could avoid making mention of it, or

alluding

alluding to it, in his long difcourfe concerning the refurrection, 1 Cor. xv. when the fubjects must be allowed to have a very near connection; or how he could represent the confequences of difbelieving the refurrection to be fo very great as he defcribes them; if the fouls of all good men were, immediately after death, made completely happy with God and Chrift in heaven. On the other hand, it is plain, from the whole tenor of his writings, that neither he nor the Corinthians had any idea of fuch an intermediate ftate; fince the confequence of their error was nothing less than this, that if there be no refurrection, both his preaching and their faith were altogether vain, ver. 14, "Alfo "thofe who were afleep in Chrift were perifhed," ver. 18. and they," the apoftles, "having no "hope but in this life, were of all men the most ".miferable."

Laftly, our Saviour's argument with the Sadducees, in proof of a resurrection, from the words of God to Mofes, "I am the God of Abraham, "Ifaac, and Jacob." Matt. xxii. 31. Mark xii. 26. Luke xx. 37. is this, that fince God is their God, those patriarchs, even now, that they have no life, live unto him; that is, they have existence in his fight, who looks into futurity. For, had they been actually alive, and happy at that very time, it might have been replied, that the promise which is implied in God's being their God, was O 6

fuffi

fufficiently fulfilled without a refurrection. Indeed his argument might have been thought to be calculated to prove an intermediate state only, had he not expressly faid, that what he advanced was to prove a resurrection, that the dead shall arife. He does not fo much as mention any state of confcious existence before it; fo that, from the circumftances of the difcourfe, we may fafely conclude, that he had no idea of any fuch thing.

It may be faid, that our Saviour's parable of the rich man and Lazarus, goes upon the fuppofition of there being an intermediate state. But this parable is only a perfonification of what had no real fense; for he does not speak of the foul being feparate from the body, but of the whole man, as having paffed into the ftate of death, and therefore mentions the tongue of the rich man as tormented in a flame. In the fame manner, Isaiah personifies the dead king of Babylon, whom he, at the fame time, fpeaks of, as confumed by the worms. Ifa. xiv. 9. "Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet "thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for "thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it "hath raised up from their thrones all the kings "of the nations. All they fhall speak and fay "unto thee, Art thou alfo become weak as we? "Art thou become like unto us; Thy pomp is "brought down to the grave, and the noife of " thy viols: the worm is fpread under thee, and

"the

"the worms cover thee." There is also an inftance of a perfonification fimilar to this in Rev. vi. 9. where the fouls of the martyrs are reprefented as crying to God from under the altar (the place where the blood of facrificed victims was poured out) to avenge their blood. But, in other places, blood itself is reprefented as crying for vengeance.

Our Saviour faid to the thief upon the cross, "This day fhalt thou be with me in paradise." But this faying is too obfcure to found any certain opinion upon. It may only fignify, that the promife was made that day, notwithstanding his prefent ftate of humiliation; or, by paradife, our Lord might mean, the unconfcious ftate of the virtuous dead, a state of mere reft, but wherein they are fecure under the protection of divine benevolence, and referved for the accomplishment of its purposes in their favour. The Jews fuppofed their heal, or the state of the dead, to be divided into two regions, viz. paradise for the good, and gebenna for the wicked. See Windet de Vita functorum Statu, p. 109.

A paffage in the Epiftle of Paul to the Philippians is urged with the greatest appearance of ftrength in favour of an intermediate ftate; but when the whole context is rightly confidered, it will appear to imply no fuch thing, as is, I think, fufficiently proved in Alexander's Differtation, prefixed to his Commentary on 1 Cor. xv. The apostle, writing

from

from Rome, not long before his death, fays Phil. i. 21. "To me to live is Chrift." i. e. Chrift will be glorified by my labours, and, "to die is gain," as I fhall then be delivered from a state of persecution and suffering; "but if I live in the flesh, "this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I fhall "choofe, I wot not. For I am in a ftrait betwixt "two;" or, as it might have been rendered, “I << am ftraitened by two things," viz. the prospect of life, or of death. Neither of them are the objects of my choice, "having a defire to depart, and "to be with Chrift; which is far better:” wishing, if it were poffible, to be delivered at once from mortality, by the coming of Chrift, and fo be immediately with him. That this must be the fense of the paffage is evident from what I have observed before, viz. that "being with chrift," always refers to his fecond coming, at the refurrection. "Never"thelefs," the apoftle goes on to fay, "to abide "in the flesh is more needful for you;" that is, of the two things which are not the objects of my defire, viz. life or death, more good will accrue to you from the former, and therefore I prefer it.

The fame confiderations may also help us to the right understanding of the fame apoftle, in 2 Cor. v. 8. "We are willing rather to be abfent from "the body, and to be prefent with the Lord;" that is, we prefer the future life, which commences at the refurrection, and in which alone we shall be