ticipate of the Glory and the Reward, as it was formerly a Partaker of the Calamities which the Soul endured in this Life, or of the good Works which it wrought. You trifle with me: The Soul of every Man is the Man; Νᾶς ἐφορᾶ, καὶ νῆς ἐπακέει. 'Tis the Soul that fees, and the Soul that hears. The Body perceives nothing either of Good or Evil: Matter neither enjoys Pleasure, nor is affected with Grief; turn it which Way you will, and join it to what you will, you will in vain endeavour to crown with Glory a Lump of fenfeless Clay, or make that the Author of Good or Evil, which is equally void of Understanding and Will. Befides, of fo many Bodies which, in the Course of this Life, we wear out, at least every feven Years one, which will you beftow on the Soul, to be the Partner and the Partaker of its Glory, and its Reward? Of what Age fhall this Body be? a young or an ancient one, a blooming or a decrepit one? The Body that the Soul fhook off the last, or that in which it exceedingly rejoiced and was pleased? and for what Reafon will you choofe rather the one than the other? The rest will put in their Claims, that they may come in for their Share of the Happiness. If any Perfon should all his Life-time, lead the Life of a true Chriftian, now fuffering Death for the fake of Christ, and now bestowing his Goods in Charity; and this Man at laft fhould go out of the World an old Martyr of eighty

Years,

Years, which of this Man's Bodies will you receive into Glory? Muft we not answer as Chrift did formerly, when he was ask'd, which of all her feven Hufbands a certain Woman should enjoy in the Resurrection? viz. Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures; nor the Power of God. 'Tis not for the fake of the Body, but of the Soul, that the Refurrection is appointed; and God gives to every Soul, as he gives to every Seed, a proper and apt Body, the former being putrify'd in the Earth. This Tabernacle being dif folved, we shall have a Building from God: But deferring the reft of this Matter till anon, let us proceed in what we propofed.

1 Cor. xv.

37,38.

2 Cor. v. 1.

WE have faid that the Force of the Refurrection is weaken'd by the Suppofition, that Souls may enjoy fupreme Felicity before the Arrival of that Day. For St. Au- Gen ad.lit. guftin makes a very juft enquiry, What 1.12. c. 35. Occafion there is that the Souls of Men fhould receive their Bodies upon the Refur rection, if they are capable of fupreme Felicity without any Bodies at all? And, therefore, among the Ancients, and in the first Ages of the Church, thofe Hereticks who deny'd the Refurrection of the Body, were either the only Perfons who maintain'd the Enjoyment of fupreme Felicity by the Souls of Men, immediately after they had left their Bodies, or the Perfons who maintain'd it with the greatest Earneftness, as we shall shew F beneath.

De Beat. fan&t.Ord.

difput.

beneath. But who is not fenfible, that in these latter Ages, this new Article of Faith was introduc'd into the Romish Church, by the politick Designs of their crafty Priests, that a more commodious Handle might be given to the Invocation of Saints, and other Inftitutions of that kind, and a powerful Protection to the rest of those gainful Doctrines that attend upon this new Article? Bellarmine has very juftly obferv'd, that this new Doctrine is the Foundation of all the Doctrines that relate to the Saints, viz. that relate to the Worship of Saints, to the Canonization of Saints, to the Images and the Reliques of Saints; and, laftly, to the Pilgrimages, and the folemn Vows that are made to them. You fee how weighty a Chain of Silver and Gold this Doctrine draws along with it: To which, if you add Purgatory, or the Condition in which the Souls of Men are, that afcend not directly to Heaven, but that are fooner or later carried thither by the Affiftance and Prayers of the living Saints, you have a Mine of Gold more rich and inexhaustable than any in either 2 Cor. ii. Indies: But Woe be to all thofe Wretches, who thus adulterate the Word of God.

17.

YET thofe Men deferve to be exempted from this Cenfure, who, without any venal Profpect, comfort the Dying, as if they were immediately to afcend to Heaven; and to the Enjoyment of fupreme Felicity. They go from a Prison to tafte of grateful Liber

ty;

ty; and the Things that are faid to them through a pious Compaffion, in order to leffen the Terrors of Death, are not, like fo many Articles of Faith, to be explained with Rigour. The Souls of the Righteous, as foon as they depart this Life, are in a Place of Safety, fecure from Smart, secure from Pain, and from the Danger of Sinning: And though as yet they enjoy not the external Heavens, and the Kingdom prepared for them from the Foundation of the World; yet have they an hereditary and indefeasible Right to it; and, therefore, they may be faid, by an eafy Anticipation, to poffefs it already. We are all of us in hafte to take Poffeffion of our Inheritance, and we are carried by a natural Impetuofity to the Enjoyment of that Glory and that Felicity which we fo impatiently defire. Many of the first Christians believ'd that the Coming of Chrift was even then approaching, as 'tis most evident to me from the Apoftolical Epiftles, and from the ancient Fathers; and those first Chriftians, ftrengthen'd and animated by that Belief, bore Perfecution and painful Deaths, with the more undaunted Spirit. But the Course of Years having naturally detected this Error, let us not, I beseech you, fall into another; nor appear endeavouring to pull down the unwilling Heavens to us, and ftepping over the Order of the Promotion of the Juft, as Irenæus expreffes it, feem rather to invade thofe F 2

Heavens,

Lib. v. ci

3 F.

Heavens, than to receive them as our Inbes ritance. At length the Evening of the World is come, Chrift is at hand, and even at our Doors; we, therefore, want no Confolation but this: Behold I come quickly, and bring my Reward along with me, that I may render to every one according to his Works. Amen, even fo, Lord Jefus, come. O Death, where is thy Sting? O Grave, where is thy Victory?

THUS far we are inftructed by the facred Writings concerning the State of the Dead. Befides, in Matters of Controversy, to enquire into the Belief of primæval and uncorrupted Antiquity, us'd to be of no inconfi-derable Weight with most People: For, though we attribute Infallibility to no Mortals in any Age whatever, the Apostles alone excepted, neither to the firft Ages of Chriftianity, nor to the Middle, nor to the Modern; yet, when as yet the Chriftian Religion was neither degenerated into Artifice, nor grown up to Empire, Christians with more Simplicity and Sincerity follow'd the naked Truth. It will, therefore, be worth our while, briefly to enquire what was the Opinion of the ancient Chriftians concerning the immediate Beatitude of the Saints; or concerning the State in which they who depart this Life are, before the Time of the Refurrection.

THE nearer that Rivers are to their Foun→ tains, the more pure and unfoil'd are they

wont