Bodies wait the Coming of Christ, and the Sound of the last Trumpet.

So much for the Teftimonies of the Fathers, either taken feparately, or in a Body together. But perhaps you will fay, that all this, or at least a great Part of it, is to no Purpose; fince the Papists (whofe principal fecular Interest it concerns, that the Saints should enjoy Heaven, and Glory, and the Vision of God before the Resurrection) confefs, that the Fathers are generally of the fame Opinion with us, and that from them they expect neither Affistance nor Patronage in a Cause which, fay they, depends entirely upon the Authority and Determination of the Church.* But does not this Determination come fomething too late, fince we had it not till the Council of Florence, that is, till the fifteenth Century? in which Council it was decreed, that the Souls of the Saints, when they leave their Bodies, fhould, in a little Time, be receiv'd into Heaven, and should fee God, as he is in Trinity and in Unity. In the mean Time,

we

* Thus many, and thus celebrated are the antient Fathers, as Tertullian, Ireneus, Origen, St. Chryfoftome, Theodoret, OEcumenius, Theophylact, St. Ambrofe, Clemens Romanus, St Bernard, who do not affent to that Opinion, which at length has been determin'd by the Council of Florence, after a great Debate, viz. that the Souls of the Juft enjoy the Vifion of God before the Day of Judgment, but are of a contrary Belief, Staplet. Def. Autorit. Ecclef, 1. 1,

we can hardly bear it, when we reflect that fo many Fathers, who were fuch illustrious Rulers, and fuch fhining Lights of the Church, should be pretended to have been in an Error for fourteen Centuries together, and that Truth fhould be difcover'd fo late at laft at Florence, and, as the Hiftory of that Synod relates, extorted with fo much Violence, or fo much Fraud, from the Greeks, whom yet we behold, either ill cur'd or relaps'd. Let them confider this, that are concern'd in it: But as for those that are reform'd, this Romish Authority of Popes or Synods is of no Validity with us: We are left entirely at Liberty, fairly and impartially to examine the Thing, to confider its Force and its Weaknefs, and diligently to weigh its natural Tendency; to fee how the facred Scripture directs us how the Reason of the Thing itfelf, and how the uncorrupted Age of the Church; and not to have only before our Eyes what was done lately, or determin'd at Florence against the united Voice of them all. This Article of the State of the Dead, highly deserves to be throughly examin'd, that it may appear what it is that our Adverfaries and we contend for: For upon this Foundati on depends the whole Superstructure of Romish Religion, and Romish Pomp, with Regard to their Saints, with regard to the Canoni zation, as fome are pleas'd to express themfelves, to the Invocation and the Adoration

of

of them; nor only with regard to the Saints themselves, but to their Images and their Relicts. Upon this depend all their Pilgrimages, their meritorious Vows, the Maffes of their Saints, and that new, but most lucretive Invocation of Purgatory. Since, therefore, fo great a Provision, so great a Weight of Superftition depends entirely upon this Article, fo great a Superftructure upon this Foundation, or upon this Corner Stone, it most highly concerns us to make no rafh Conceffion in a Caufe of fo vaft Importance, and not to indulge too pious, but too ill-grounded Affec

tions.

Vid. Dall. de pœnis. 1. 2. c. 12.

p.181, &c. Gerard.de

Tom. 8.

CHAP. IV.

Of the State of Nature, in which departed Souls are in the Interval between Death and the Refurrection; whether they are naked and feparated from all corporeal Substance, or whether they are united to an aërial, or any other Body.

TH

HE first Question being dispatch'd concerning the Quality of an interLuxonav. mediate State, as to Felicity or Mifery, or P. 4. 9.& concerning the moral Condition of Souls de ftatuA- before the Refurrection, there follows anonimarum ther, and a much more difficult one, concernfeparataing their natural State. That Souls furvive,

tum, p. 403.

live,

live, and think after Death, or upon the Diffolution of the Body, has been prov'd in what went before. But what the Apostle said of his Extafy, whether it was in the Body, or cut of the Body, I know not, fays he, God knows, that I may be allow'd to repeat here; whether the Soul, haying thrown off this Body, puts on a new one, or remains naked, and without a Body, until the Time of the Resurtion of the Dead, I know not, God knows: At least I reckon this among those Obfcurities, which neither clearly appear by the Light of Nature, nor by any divine Revela

tion.

SINCE there is no Room here for Experiments, we must derive our Knowledge, either from the Nature of the Thing itself, thofe Seeds of Knowledge with which we came into the World, or from the facred Writings. The Philofophers are the principal Evidences and Interpreters of the former, and the Chriftian Fathers of the latter. But after we have confulted all these, you will hardly find any Thing upon this Subject that is evident or conclufive, where one may fix one's Foot. As for the Light of Reason, and the Nature of Things, very little Affiftance is to be expected from them in the determining this Queftion. For fince the Union of the Soul with this terrestrial Body, or any other Body whatever, does not, as far as is known to us, arife from any natural Neceffity, or any neceffary Con

nexion between these two Natures, but entirely from the Will of God, and his divine Decree; when this Body comes to be diffolv'd, it will depend upon the fame divine Will, or, which is the fame Thing, upon Laws of Nature unknown to us, whether the Soul fhall be fubjected to a new Union, or remain separated from all Matter: For fo it poffibly may remain, fince 'tis a Subftance, or a Thing capable of fubfifting by itfelf.

Ir upon this Subject you confult the Philofophers, they, for the most part, are filent. The Platonicks, indeed, or at least some of the Platonicks, affert, that the Soul, immediately after its Departure from this Life, and the Body, will be fubjected to an aërial Body; and that from thence it will proceed to an ætherial one, after it has fufficiently improv'd itfelf in Wisdom and Virtue, by a retrograde Order, from that by which it fell down by Degrees into this lowest Station.

CANNOT fee that there is any Thing of Abfurdity in this Opinion; but Évidence and Proof are wanting. For how does it ap pear that we, laft of all, at our Birth threw off this aërial Body? or that there ought to be the fame Order and the fame Degrees of the Afcent and Descent? or that, lastly, no State intervenes of Silence and Separation from all Bodies? Since there are innumerable Worlds in the immenfe Compass of the

Universe,