mortality, and a strong aversion to the thought of annihilation.

Moreover, mankind are looking forward beyond the grave; some with awful, and others with joyful expectation. Human beings have apprehensions of future rewards and punishments so universally, that this appears to be the consent of all nations in every age of the world. The criminal condemned to death, fears the dreadful hour of his execution, not as the end of his being, but as the entrance into a world of strict retribution. The good man, with joyful anticipation, looks forward to the event of his. dissolution, not merely as an end of his trials, but as the commencement of a glorious reward. Let us go to the solemn chambers of death, and inquire of those who are about to depart. The impenitent and unreconciled in heart to God, with deep distress, are constrained to express their awful apprehensions of an existence beyond the grave. On the other hand, the man of penitence and submission, with cheering expectation and ecstasy of expression, evinces his views of death as the gate to immortal glory. And the desire of immortality, and the universal expectation of a future conscious existence, are not merely the effect of a religious education; but they are sentiments implanted in the active principles of our nature, by the Author of our being; and as it respects their propensity, are innate. They doubtless are improved by moral culture; but their original is God.

Fourth. The consideration of the present state of things, will furnish an argument of much weight, to prove the future existence of the human soul.

Divine Providence is so administered in the present world, as to furnish strong presumptive evidence, that there will be another state of human existence, as a world of righteous retribution. Do we believe that the supreme, moral governour and Disposer of all existences and events, is a being of the most per

fect righteousness and goodness? Then we must conclude that the present life is only a state of probation; for we cannot with clearness discern these important truths merely from the present dispensation. No man knoweth either love or hatred, by all that is before him. Hence, then, there is nothing in the bestowment of favours, or the sending of judgements, which can enable us with assurance to determine that God is perfectly righteous and good, should we confine our views solely to the present state of things. Were this the only state of existence for human beings, and should we judge from the allotments of Providence, we could not discern who were righteous, or who wicked; who the friends of God, or who his enemies. We should be liable to pronounce the rich man the favourite of heaven, and Lazarus a son of perdition. And consequently, we could not determine with any degree of certainty, that the Lord loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity; for many of the righteous suffer very great and grievous calamities, drinking deeply of the cup of affliction, of poverty, and persecution; while some of the wicked, even the openly profane and licentious, are crowned with wealth and worldly prosperity, raised to great worldly honours, and followed with affluence to their graves. These remarks give conclusive evidence, that this world is not designed as a state of righteous retribution; but as a state of probation, in which characters are formed, and souls prepared for future rewards and punishments. Therefore we may conclude from the present state of things, and from the most perfect righteousness and goodness of God, that the souls both of the righteous and of the wicked, will exist beyond the grave, and be rewarded according to the deeds done in the body.

Fifth. By various considerations we are taught from divine revelation, that the soul exists in a state of sensibil

ity and activity, and of happiness or misery, from deatk till the resurrection and general judgement.

In the words of the text, we are informed, That then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it. Thus we may see, the soul and body are natures so essentially different, that in a certain sense, they are two distinct beings: That the one returns to the earth, as from that it was formed; and the other returns to God, as he is the Father of all spirits. The most obvious sense of the latter part of the text is, that at death, the soul is adjudged and awarded with strict retribution, according to the moral character formed while in the body: That the souls of the righteous return to God, to be received into his peculiar favour; and the souls of the wicked, to be banished from his glorious presence. I have already noticed there is nothing absurd in such a belief; for we can as easily conceive of the souls of the righteous and of the wicked, existing without an earthly house of a tabernacle, as we can of the existence of the spirits of angels and of devils; and that the souls of the former may be as capable of enjoyment or suffering, as are the latter.

Although the souls of the righteous may not participate so great a degree of happiness, nor the souls of the wicked endure so great a degree of misery, as they will after the resurrection and general judgement, still this does not militate against the reality of their consciousness, and of their existence in a world of righteous retribution. It is probable that the holy angels will then be more exalted in glory; and the devils are bound under chains of darkness, reserved to the judgement of the great day, when they expect to suffer fiercer torments, as appears from this their interrogation of the Saviour: Art thou come to torment us before the time? Hence, fallen angels have not yet received their final judge

ment, nor of course, their final reward. A similar remark would apply to the condition of the souls of mankind in an intermediate state. Notwithstanding, virtuous men when they leave this world, go to a state of enjoyment only; and impenitent men, to a state of mere suffering. Lazarus was only comforted after he left this world, and the rich man was only tormented. When the bodies of mankind shall be changed and re-united to their spirits, there can be no doubt that the happiness of the righteous and the misery of the wicked will be rendered more complete. But, antecedently to that event, both the happiness and the misery will be entire and unmingled. The happiness will in no degree be alloyed by suffering; the misery will in no degree be lessened by enjoyment.

The soul after death returns immediately to God, to give an account of its conduct in the present life. This appears to be the plain import of the text, in which the return of the body to the dust, and of the soul to God, are exhibited as co-existing events. That the purpose of its return to God, is that it may give up its account, appears sufficiently plain from the parables of the talents and the pounds. In these, each of the servants is represented as summoned to give, and as actually rendering his account to his lord concerning his use or abuse of the privileges entrusted to him, immediately after the close of his stewardship. And in this account will be unfolded, alike the state of the thoughts and that of the external conduct. The soul will of course be furnished with a power of recollection, sufficiently capacious to comprehend all that it has done, and will be constrained to declare the whole truth without disguise or evasion. Its secret chambers and refuges of lies will be fully laid open to its own view, and appear manifest as in the sight of God. In this manner, the motives by which it has been governed, and the moral character which it has sustained

during its probation, will be so entirely developed, as to evince even to itself, that the investigation is just as well as complete. The decision and retribution of all that it has done during its probation, will be in perfect righteousness. But the sacred volume, from a variety of considerations, establishes the proposition now under consideration. There are several particular persons brought into view in the divine word, who are represented as being already in heaven, or in a state of activity and enjoyment. The Lord styles himself the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. And our Saviour observes, He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: That is, the God of the spirits of these patriarchs, living at the time when this declaration was made to Moses. Hence their souls must be alive, or in a state of active existence, though their bodies were dead and laid in sepulchres.

That saints are in heaven in the intermediate state, in such a sense as implies a world of action and enjoyment, is evident from scriptural facts. Abraham is there; for saints are represented as being carried into his bosom. Moses and Elias, doubtless are there; for they appeared on the mount of transfiguration with Christ, since their death. Enoch and Elijah are already there, for they were translated. And Christ said to the penitent thief on the cross, To-day shalt thou be with me paradise. But how could this be verified, unless the departed spirit exist in a separate state of enjoyment? Whether the term paradise, be significant of the final state of the blessed in heaven, or of the invisible intermediate state of the souls of the righteous, between death and the general judgement, it is very evident that the Saviour designed to convey to the penitent, the idea that his soul, when absent from the body, should witness his presence, in a state of consciousness and happiness. The apostle Paul exhorts his fellow Christians not to be slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience