This Section teaches —

1st. That man consists of two distinct elements, a soul and a body, and that death consists in their temporary separation.

2d. That while the body is resolved into its constituent chemical elements, the soul of the believer is (a) immediately made perfect in holiness, (6) during all the intermediate state from death until the resurrection, continuas conscious, active and happy, and (c) is in the

presence of Christ, who, after his ascension, has sat down at the right hand of God.

, 3d. That the souls of the wicked also continue, during this intermediate state, conscious and active, but in a state of penal torment, reserved to the judgment of the great day.

4th. These conditions, though not final, are irreversible— i. e.y none of those with Christ will be ever lost, and none of those in torment will be ever saved.

5th. The Scriptures afford no ground whatever for the Romish doctrine that there are other places or conditions occupied by deceased men than the two above mentioned.

1st. The duality of human nature, as consisting of two separable elements — a soul and a body — having distinct and independent attributes and subsistence, is taken for granted and constantly implied in the language of Scripture. Thus God made the body out of the dust of the earth and breathed into it the breath of life, and so man became a living soul. Gen. ii. 7. Christ bids us not to " fear them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul/' Matt. x. 28. And death is defined in Eccles. xii. 7, a dissolution of the personal union of these two elements ; for '^ then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." In like manner Paul (2 Cor. V. 8 ; Phil. i. 22-24) defines it as a departing, a being with Christ, a ceasing to abide in the flesh, a being absent from the body on the part of the conscious personal soul.

2d. We know that when the soul leaves it the body is resolved into its original chemical elements, which

«TATE OF MEN AFTER DEATH — RESURRECTION. 517

are gradually incorporated with the shifting currents of matter on the surface of the earth. The Scriptures teach us, however, that, in spite of this flux of their material constituents, the real identity of our bodies is preserved, and that, as members of Christ, all that is essential to them will be ultimately preserved and brought to a glorious resurrection.

As to the condition and location of the souls of men during the interval which elapses between the death of each individual and the general and simultaneous resurrection of the bodies of all, what the Scriptures teach us may be summed up under the following heads :

(1.) The souls of both believers and the reprobate

continue after death conscious and active, although they

remain until the resurrection separate from their bodies.

(2.) The souls of believers are at their death made

perfect in holiness.

(3.) The souls of believers, thus perfected, are immediately introduced into the presence of Christ and continue to enjoy bright revelations of God and the society of the holy angels.

(4.) The souls of the reprobate are at once introduced into the place provided for the devil and his angels, and continue in unutterable misery.

(5.) This state of both classes admits of no exchange or transfer, but their present condition is the commencement of an inevitable progression in opposite directions. Nevertheless, it is intermediate in the sense (a) that th^ persons of men continue incomplete while their souls and bodies are separate. (6.) That neither the redemption of the saved nor the perdition of the lost has yet reached its final stage, (c.) That possibly, in the case

of the last, and very probably in the ca&e of the re deemed, the localities in which they are at present are not the same as those in which they are to dwell permanently after the final award.

(6.) As to the location of the place in which the souls of the reprobate suffer, the Scriptures give us no clue. In Jude, verse 7, it is said, " The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.'^ In Matt. xxv. 41, the Judge at the last day says to those ^' on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." The rich man (Luke xvi. 23) lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torment, while his brethren were still alive on earth. But where these places are situated, and whether the locality of torment now is identical with the locality of torment after the judgment, no man can tell, because God has not revealed it. Of course, the terms ^'up'' or 'Mown,'' ^' under" or "above," applied to such a subject, must be simply metaphorical, and cannot indicate absolute direction when addressed promiscuously to the inhabitants of a revolving and rotating sphere.

(7.) As to the location of the place where the redeemed are now gathered, absolutely nothing is revealed, except that it is wherever the glorified humanity of Christ is. They are with Mm^ and behold his glory. 2 Cor. v. 1-8. See, also, all the scenes opened in the Apocalypse. And Christ at his ascension, sat down at " the right hand of God," " the right hand of the Majesty on high." Mark xvi. 19 ; Rom. viii. 34 ; Heb. i. 3; X. 12, etc. This must be a locality, because, the humanSTATE OF MEN AFTER DEAl'H — RESURRECTION. 519

ity of Christ being finite, his presence marks a definikplace; yet the phrase "right hand of God" evidently marks rather the condition of honour and power to which Christ is raised as mediatorial King. As to the location of the place in which Christ and his glorified spouse will hold their central home throughout eternity, a strong probability is raised that it will be our present earth, first burned with fire and then gloriously replenished. See Rom. viii. 19-23; 2 Pet. iii. 5-13; Rev. xxi. 1.

The proof of the main propositions above stated — viz. : that the intermediate state of souls is one of conscious activity, the redeemed being perfectly holy and happy with Christ, and the reprobate being with the devil and his angels in torment, and that these conditions are for ever irreversible — can be better presented collectively than distributively. It is as follows : The reappearance of Samuel in a conscious state, in the use of all his faculties, at the call of Saul and the witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii. 7-20) ; the appearance of Moses and Elias at the transfiguration of Christ on the mount (Matt. xvii. 3); Christ's address to the thief on the cross — " To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise" (Luke xxiii. 43) ; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke xvi. 23, 24) : Lazarus is conscious and active in Abraham's bosom; the rich man is in conscious torment in hell (Hades), while his brethren are still living in the flesh. Of dying Stephen it is declared (Acts vii. 55-59) that, being full of the Holy Ghost, he saw the heavens opened, and Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God, and so seeing he cried, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ! and so died."

520 CONFESSIOK OF FAITH.

In 2 Cor. v. 1-8, Paul declares that to be at home ill the body is to be absent from the Lord ; and to be .ibsent from tlie body is to the believer to be present with the Lord ; and hence he says (in Phil. i. 21-24) that for him to die is gain, and that he was in "a strait betwixt two ; having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." In 1 Thess. v. 10, Paul declares that the sleep of death is "a living together with Christ." In Eph. iii. 15, the Church is declared to be one whole family, of which at present part is in heaven and part on earth. In Heb. vi. 12-20, it is declared that after Abraham (and other ancient saints) had patiently endured, "Ae obtained the promises;" which promises, we know, were in their true meaning spiritual and heavenly. In Acts i. 25, Judas is said to have gone to his own place. In Jude 6, 7, the lost angels are said to be reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the last day, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. In Heb. vii. 23, the spirits of the just are represented as made perfect and happy with the angels in heaven. In Rev. vi. 9-11, the souls of the martyrs are represented as under the altar in heaven, praying for the punishment of their f )rmer persecutors on earth, which of course must be before the resurrection. In Rev. v. 9; vii. 9; xiv. 1,3, the souls of believers are represented as being now with Christ and the holy angels.

3d. Our Standards declare that there is no foundation whatever, in Scripture, for the Romish doctrine as to the intermediate state of deceased men. The Papists aold that hades or the under world embraces several

STATE OF MEN AFTER DEATH — RESURRECTION. 521

distinct regions, to which different classes of human souls are destined : (1.) The souls of unbaptized infants go to the " Limbus Infantum,^^ where they remain without suffering, and yet without the vision of God. (2.) Old Testament believers were gathered in the ** Limbus Patrum/' where, without suffering and yet without the vision of God, they remained the "spirits in prison'' until Christ, during the three days he continued under the power of death, came and released them. 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. (3.) All unbaptized adults, and those who have subsequently lost the grace of baptism, and die unreconciled to the Church, go immediately to the permanent hell. (4.) All Christians who have attained a state of Christian perfection go immediately to heaven. (5.) The great mass of partially-sanctified Christians, dying in communion with the Church, still cumbered with imperfections, go to purgatory.*

Concerning purgatory, the Council of Trent teaches — (a.) That there is a purifying fire through which imperfect Christians must pass. (6.) That souls in purgatory may be benefited by the prayers and masses offered in their behalf on earth. f

This doctrine is false, because (1) it is nowhere taught in Scripture. (2.) It is opposed to the teaching of Scripture as to the intermediate state, as above shown. (3.) It rests upon Antichristian principles as to the efficacy of the atonement of Christ, as to the sin-expiating and soul-purifying efficacy of temporary suffering, as to the sacrifice of the mass, and as to prayers for the dead, etc.

* Cat. Kom., Pt. I., ch. vi. t Council of Tr^nt, sess. xxv. 44 •» ^

I. It is here supposed that death is an event common to all men. " It is appointed unto men once to die." — Heb. ix. 27. This is the immutable appointment of Heaven, which cannot be reversed, and which none can frustrate. When meditating upon this subject, the royal Psalmist exclaimed : ".What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death ? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the gi-ave ?" — Ps. Ixxxix, * Second Book of Discipline, chap. i. and vii.

48. Job speaks of death as an event which certainly awaited him, and of the grave as the common receptacle of all mankind: " I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living." — Job xxx. 23. Our own observation abundantly confirms the declaration of Scripture. Nor are we at a loss to account for the introduction of death into our world, and its iiniversal prevalence over the human race : " As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."—Rom. V. 12.

There is, indeed, a vast difference between the death of the righteous and that of the wicked. To the latter, death is the effect of the law-curse, and the harbinger of everlasting destruction; but to the former, death is not the proper punishment of sin, but the termination of all sin and sorrow, and an entrance into life eternal. To them death is divested of its sting, and rendered powerless to do them any real injury. Not only is it disarmed of its power to hurt them — it is compelled to perform a friendly part to them. It is their release from warfare — their deliverance from woe — their departure to be Avith Christ. But although death is no real loss, but rather great gain to the righteous; yet, as it consists in the dissolution of the union between the soul and the body, it is an event from which they are not exempted.

God could, no doubt, if he pleased, easily save his saints from natural death. Of this he gave a proof in the case of Enoch and of Elijah. For good reasons, however, he has determined otherwise. 1. That the righteous, as well as others, should be subjected to temporal death, is best adapted to the present plan of the divine government, and seems necessary, if not to the preservation, at least to the comfort of human society. According to the plan of the divine government, rewards and punishments are principally reserved for a future world. But if the righteous were exempted from death, while the wicked fell under its stroke, this would be a manifestation of the final destiny of every man that is removed out of this world. Death, therefore, happens to the righteous in the same outward form, and attended with the same external circumstances, as it happens to the wicked, that there may be no visible distinction between tliem. 2. Were the righteous to be distinguished from the wicked by being translated to heaven without tasting of death, this would introduce great confusion into society. Without producing any salutary effect upon the wicked, it would render them more regardless of character, and remove one powerful stimulus — the prospect of future fame — which

314 CONFESSION OP FAITH. [[c'HAP. XXXII.

animates them to noble exertions for the benefit of society. It would also greatly affect the character and the happiness of the living. Were the parent singled out as the object of the divine displeasure, by being subjected to death, this would fix a brand of infamy upon his children; or if the child were taken away in a manner so expressive of its future destiny, this would pierce the heart of the parent, especially if serious, with inexpressible anguish. No class, indeed, would be more affected by such a state of things than the righteous themselves. Hence death is the common lot of the godly and of the wicked. 3. This arrangement affords occasion for a richer display of the power and grace of God. As the hour of death is the most trying to men, so the power and grace of God are most gloriously displayed, in supporting his people in that solemn hour; in enabling them, in the exercise of faith and hope, to rise superior to the fear of death, and to triumph over this last enemy as conquerors. And how illustriously will his power be displayed in raising up their bodies at the last day ! 4. Another reason, we conceive, why the righteous are subjected to temporal death, is, that they may be conformed to Christ, their glorious head. He tasted of death before he was crowned with glory and honour; and they also must enter into glory through " the valley of the shadow of death."

II. The bodies of men after death return to the dust, and see corruption. So humiliating and deeply affecting is the change which death produces on the human body, that it becomes obnoxious to the \'iew, and necessity compels the living to remove it from their sight. It is committed to the grave, in which it putrefies ; and after a certain time isreduced to dust, so that it cannot be distinguished from the vegetable mould with which it is mingled. These things, however, are offensive only to the living; they occasion no uneasiness to the dead. To the wicked, indeed, the grave is a prison, where they are kept in close confinement until the resurrection; but to believers it is a place of rest, where, exempted from all pain and weariness, they shall enjoy profound repose till the resun-ection morn, when, awakened as from a long refreshing sleep, they shall rise, with renovated life and vigour, to enjoy everlasting felicity.

III. The souls of men survive the dissolution of their bodies, and have an immortal subsistence. Some have held that death is the utter extinction of man's being; others, that the soul shall sleep between death and the resurrection, alike inactive and unconscious as the body that is then dissolved into dust. In opposition to these notions, equally absurd and uncomfortable, our Confession affirms, and the Scripture

clearly teaches, that the souls of men subsist in a disembodied state, after such a manner as to be capable of exercising those powers and faculties which are essential to them . " Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." — Matt. X. 28. These are the words of Him who made man, and who perfectly knows the constituent parts of his nature ; and he affirms, not only that the soul is distinct from the body — not only that it does not, in fact, die with the body, but that it is impossible to kill the soul by any created power. Our Saviour taught the same doctrine in parabolical language : " It came to pass that the beggar died, and was earned by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried ; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments."— Luke xvi. 22, 23. Both the beggar and the man of wealth died; both left their bodies in the dust; but the souls of both retained their existence and their consciousness after their separation from their bodies. No doubt the death of the righteous is frequently described in Scripture as a sleep ; but such language is obviously figurative, and gives no countenance to the notion that the soul falls asleep when disunited from the body. When the dead are said to be asleep, a metaphor is used, founded upon the striking resemblance between death and sleep; and, at the sametime, by another figure of speech, a part is spoken of as the whole. They are said to sleep, and to be unconscious and inactive, because these things are true of their bodies.

IV. The souls of the righteous, immediately after death, are admitted into the happiness of the heavenly state. Some, who allow that the souls of believers possess consciousness, and experience happiness in their disembodied state, conceive that at death their souls pass into an intermediate state, and that they will enter into heaten only when the final judgment takes place. The Church of Rome maintains that the souls of the saints, on leaving their bodies, must pass for a time into a place called purgatory, that they may be purified by fire from the stains of sin, which had not been washed out during the present life. That Church further teaches, that the pains and sufferings of purgatory may be alleviated and shortened by the prayers of men here on earth; by the intercession of the saints in heaven; and, above all, by the sacrifice of the mass, offered by the priests in the name of sinners ; and that, as soon as souls are released from purgatory, they are immediately admitted to eternal happiness. Of this doctrine there is no trace in the Bible; it is a cunningly de\ased fable, invented by designing men to impose upon the credulous, and to fill their own treasures. The Scripture speaks

316 CONFESSION OF FAITH. [^CHAP. XXXII.

only of a heaven and a hell, into one of which all departed souls have entered; and, accordingly, our Confession affirms: "Besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none."

The immediate admission of the souls of the righteous into heaven is confirmed by numerous passages of Scripture. Our Lord's promise to the penitent thief: " To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke xxiii. 43), implies that, ere that day was finished, his soul should be in the same place with the soul of Christ, and should enjoy all the felicity which the word "pai'adise" suggests. Wlien Stephen, with his expiring breath, called upon God, saying, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit " (Acts vii. 59), he manifestly expected that his soul should immediately pass into the presence of his Saviour. The same thing is implied in the language of Paul: " For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain, I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." — Phil. i. 21, 23. Certainly if he had not expected to be admitted into the presence of Christ until the resurrection, he would not have judged it gain to die ; and, instead of desiring, he would have been loath to depart; for While he was in the body he was honourably engaged in the service of Christ, and enjoyed delightful communion with him. But the apostle tells us that the reason of his desire to depart was, that he might be w^Ui Christ — in a state of blessedness far superior to anything found in this present world. The same apostle says : " We are confident, I say, , and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be I present with the Lord.'' — 2 Cor. v. 8. No words could ex- ' press in a clearer manner the immediate transition of the soul from its present habitation into the presence of Christ. The believer's absence from the body and his presence with Christ are closely connected; the latter succeeds the former |i, without any interval. Accordingly, the Apostle John heard a voice from heaven, saying to him: " Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth " (Rev. xiv. 13) ; that is, they are blessed from the time of their death.

If the souls of believers are admitted into heaven immediately after death, it is evident that a wonderful change must then take place upon them, in order to qualify them for the new state into which they are introduced. Unless they were completely freed from every stain of impurity, they would be imfit for the society of the heavenly world, and incapable of enjoying the felicities of that world. Our Confession accordingly asserts, that their souls are then " made perfect in holiness;" and in Scripture the souls of

departed saints are called " the spirits of just men made perfect."— Heb, xii. 23.

V. The souls of the wicked are at death cast into hell. While some have maintained that the souls of the wicked shall never be tormented in hell, others have held that they shall not be adjudged to that place of torment till after the resurrection ; but, according to the representation of our Saviour, as soon as the rich man died, " in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments," — Luke xvi, 23. The spirits of those who in the time of Noah were disobedient, were, when the Apostle Peter wrote his epistle, shut up in the prison of hell.— 1 Pet. iii. 19.