The sleep of the soul after death, in that sense which supposes it to be unconscious, is a modern invention, unknown to the ancient popular creed of both Jews and Heathens, repugnant to reason, and contradicted by Scripture *.

With these principles in view, that the soul exists after death in some place; and that she exists in a state of consciousness; the following are submitted, as conclusive arguments, from Scripture, of the doctrine of the existence of departed spirits in a separate place, denominated Hades or Hell, between death and the resurrection.

I. The Scriptures uniformly represent that there is but one judgment at the last day, and that the souls of men are not allotted to Heaven or Hell until this final judgment. Previously to that event then the soul must be in some other place. See Matt. xxv. 31, 32. John v. 28, 29. and xii. 48. Acts xvii. 31. Rom. ii. 16. 2 Tim. iv. 1. II. The happiness of Heaven and the misery of Hell are represented in Scripture as complete-the happiness or misery both of soul and body. Matt. xxv. 34, 41. 1 Cor. xv. 52, 53, 54. Phil. iii. 20, 21. 1 Thess. iv. 14, &c. 2 Thess. i. 7, 8, 9. But until the resurrection at the last day, the body is subject to the embrace of corruption. Previously to the resurrection then, the righteous and the wicked cannot be in Heaven or Hell. must be in some other place. Their state of happiness or misery must be different from its character in the final Heaven of happiness and Hell of torment.

They

III. The Apostle asserts, that the saints of the Patriarchal and Jewish dispensations have not yet arrived to

* In the volumes of the Orthodox Churchman's Magazine, published in England, there are several pieces relative to the intermediate state, and the condition of the soul after death.

the full glory of which they, with the saints of the New Testament dispensation, will finally partake. Consequently, they cannot be in Heaven, the place of the final and perfect felicity of the saints. They must be in some separate place, waiting for the perfection of their bliss. "These," says he (the saints of old)" all having obtained a good report by faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect*."

DODDRIDGE refers this perfection, which the saints of old do not yet enjoy, but which they will inherit with us, to the glory of the heavenly state; interpreting the words they without us, might not be made perfect, of God's

purpose of bringing all his children together to the full consummation of their hopes in Christ Jesus his Son, at the time of his final and triumphant appearing +."

WHITBY, in coincidence with the primitive Fathers, also maintains from this text that the souls of the Old Testament saints, as well of those who have died under the Christian dispensation, are "not exalted to the highest heavens;" that they "had not received their full reward, yea, that they were not to expect it till the day of judgment."

MACKNIGHT, in his Commentary on the Epistles, advances the same sentiment, and refers to the arguments of Whitby as sustaining it §.

WESLEY, in his notes on this passage observes, "though they (the Old Testament Saints) obtained a good testimony yet did not receive the great promise, the heavenly inheritance-God having provided some better thing for

*Heb. xi. 39, 40.

Whitby on Heb. xi. 40.

+ Doddridge on Heb. xi. 40.

§ Macknight on Heb. xi. 40.

us, namely, everlasting glory that they without us should not be made perfect,' that is, that we might all be perfected together in Heaven *."

As therefore, these saints of old who are departed all live to God, for God is "their God," and "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living;" and as they do not live in that state of final glory in heaven, on which they will not enter until the saints under the Gospel are admitted to it, at the judgment of the great day; it follows, that all departed saints, must live to God in some place separate from heaven, anticipating with joyful hope their final glorification †.

* Wesley on Heb. xi. 40.

The passage 1 Peter iii. 18, 19, 20. relative to Christ's preaching to the spirits in prison, which was introduced in the preceding address and more particularly explained in a note, is not here adduced in evidence of the existence of a place of departed spirits, because the interpretation given of this passage rests principally on the authority of a single individual. It seems however to the writer that a serious and deliberate perusal of Bishop Horsley's Sermon on this text will lead, in every case, if not to full conviction, to at least very considerable confidence in the correctness of the interpretation of it, which, with great originality, ingenuity, force, and eloquence, he offers and vindicates.

The learned Author of "the Doctrine of the Greek Article," Dr. Middleton (p. 334 of that work) coincides, if not in all the criticisms of Bishop Horsley on this text, at least in some of the most important. Dr. Middleton in terms equally just and eloquent characterises Bishop Horsley. "To various and recondite learning, to nervous and manly eloquence, and to powers of reasoning, which have been rarely equalled, he added a zeal and intrepidity of spirit, which enabled him to prosecute a glorious though an unpopular career in an heretical and apostate age." Middleton on the Greek Art. p. 334.

IV. Another argument for the existence of the departed saints in a separate place is founded on the sentiment avowed in Scripture, that these departed saints have not yet ascended to Heaven. "No man," says our blessed Lord, "hath ascended up to Heaven, but he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven *." Enoch and Elijah were translated, according to the foregoing declaration of our Lord, not to that Heaven to which Christ hath ascended, and to which he will finally exalt his saints; but to some separate abode of blessedness and peace. It is indeed said "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven +." But this mode of expression is agreeable to the popular belief that the state of the blessed is in the material heavens. Heaven cannot signify that region, wherever it may be in the immeasurable creation of God, which is the scene of the more particular display of the Divine glory, to which Christ hath ascended, and to which all his saints are, at the resurrection, to be advanced. This construction of the word would make the passage of the inspired historian directly contradict the assertion of our Lord.

Thus also it is said, "David is not yet ascended into the Heavens." His soul, therefore, must abide in some separate region of hope and enjoyment.

The soul then is not in Heaven or in Hell (the final place of torment) until after the day of judgment. The happiness or the misery of Heaven and Hell is the happiness or misery of the whole man both body and soul, which are not united until the last day. The saints of old are in joy and felicity, and yet not in complete happiness, which they will not receive but in company with all

* John iii. 13.

+ 2 Kings ii. 11.

† Acts ii. 34.

the saints of the Christian dispensation. And these departed saints of old have not yet ascended to Heaven; all these considerations prove that there must be an intermediate state between death and the resurrection, some place distinct from Heaven and Hell (the place of torment) where the souls of the departed abide.

V. This place of the departed is particularly designated in Scripture.

It is the ans, Hades or Hell, into which, agreeably to an article of the Apostles' Creed, our Lord descended in the interval between his death and his resurrection.

The existence of a place called Hell, into which Christ descended, is not only asserted in the Apostles' Creed, but in the 3d Article of our Church-" As Christ died and was buried, so also it is to be believed that he went down into hell." Bishop Horsley observes *, " the terms in which the Reformers in this Article state the proposition, imply that Christ's going down into Hell is a matter of no less importance to be believed than that he died upon the cross for men ; is no less a plain matter of fact in the history of our Lord's life and death, than the burial of his dead body."

The doctrine advanced in this Article of the Creed is, that after death, our Lord descended into Hell. This must refer to his soul, for his body reposed in the tomb.

As existence in some place is essential to every created spirit, the soul of Christ, after death, must have had a particular habitation. This could not be Heaven. There is not the least intimation in Scripture that our Lord ascended there, in the interval between his death and his resurrection. On the contrary, his ascension is always considered as taking place after his resurrection, in his

* Ser. vol. ii. 87.