BUT all this, you will fay, is to be understood of a general Judgment: But there is befides a private and particular Judgment, which is appointed to be immediately after every Man's Death? and which is paffed upon every Soul as foon as it leaves its Body. Pray, if you please, let me know the Places of Scripture that testify this; let me see the Validity of them; and whether, or not, they clearly prove a private and particular Judgment before the last folemn one? The Paffages that we have quoted are plain, and clearer than the Light itself; nor do they give us the leaft Hint of a previous Judgment, but rather exclude it. Now in Things that depend upon the Will of God, and upon divine Revelation, we ought not at Pleafure to invent a new Order, and a new Dispenfation of Things, only to ferve an Hypothefis. This, indeed, we may juftly fay, that every Soul, when it leaves the Body, undergoes a private and a filent Judgment, as far as 'tis confcious to itself of a Life ill fpent, or spent in Virtue; and carries in itfelf its own Witness, and its own Sentence; and, according as 'tis by this disposed and affected, feels the Deity angry with it, or propitious to it; and has, as it were, a near and a clear View of its impending Fate. But all this paffes in the Soul itself, and from no external Influence: The Soul in the mean Time remains in the fame Place,

and

and the fame State and Habitude even till the Refurrection.*

WE obferved before that the Romish Church by thus anticipating the Glory of the Saints, makes the Refurrection to be of no Validity or Utility; nor does it lefs, by the fame Anticipation, make the general Judgment fuperfluous. For if every Individual has been already judged according to his Works; if the Juft are already feparated from the Unjuft; and the Juft are already bleft in the Enjoyment of Heaven, and of the ravishing Sight of God, while the others groan under infupportable Torments, both from without and within, what Room is there for a future Judgment? why the fame Thing over again? why is a Cause, that has been already determined, brought a fecond Time to a Hearing? What, is it brought to a Rehearing, leaft there fhould have been an Error in the firft Determination? or are the Damn'd to appeal to fome fuperior Judge? Not fo; you'll fay, but that the Justice and Equity of a Sentence privately given, may G 3

be

*Nor yet can any one believe that Souls come to Judgment immediately after Death. For they are all of them in one common Cuftody, detain'd till the Time fhall come, in which the Sovereign Judge fhall inquire into their Merits. Lib. vii. Cap. xxi. p. 653. Lactantii.

Genebrardus too is quoted enumerating many of the Fathers, who did not believe that Souls would enjoy the beatifick Vifion before the Refurrection; who at the fame Time excufes Pope John XXII. Gaffend. de Animorum Immort. Tom. ii. M. p. 654. col. ii. ult.

be apparent to all the World. Right, if the Party aggrieved brought any Complaint: But you fuppofe that all the Damn'd are felf-convicted, and suffer by their own Sentence; and it seems something of the latest to enquire into the Justice of their Punishments, after they have groan'd under them for several Ages. Nor is it lefs abfurd, on the other Side, to enquire into their Right, who can plead Prefcription for the Enjoyment of Heaven, by the Poffeffion not only of one Age, but, perhaps, of a thousand Years.

BUT that from the last Judgment we may return to the Refurrection; it will be worth our while to enquire of what Advantage the Refurrection can be to us, according to the Bellarm,de Popish Theology. They affirm that the beat. fanct. Beatitude of Souls will not be more intense c. ii, & v.

after the Resurrection, than it is before it; and take it for a Thing determined, that the Glory of the Bleft will receive no Augmentation from the Refurrection, unless extensively, as they exprefs themselves, but not intenfively; or accidentally, but not in itself. For, fay they, the Soul continues to enjoy the fame beatifick Vifion, the fame Light, the fame Glory, the fame Perfection of its own Operations, in fine, the fame Happiness within itself, with which it was bleft before the Refurrection. How inconfiderable an Acceffion of Happiness, according to these Divines, accrues to us from the RefurrecCor, x, tion? How ill do they agree with St. Paul?

in loc.

2 Tim. iv.

Is that fo fmall an Addition of Happiness, which the Resurrection brings with it, that without it the bleffed Apoftle would pro- Vid Chryf nounce us to be of all Men the most miferable? that without it, he would value the Immortality of the Soul as nothing? that without it, he fhould believe that we have no Hope but in this Life alone? laftly, that without it, he fhould believe all previous Beatitude, be it what it will, even the Sight of God himself, not fo much as worth the naming? From this Ver. 30, alone the Apostle expects his Reward, from 31 32 this his Crown of Glory. "Tis from this that 8. he principally comforts others against the Power of Death, or any other formidable Evils. Laftly, what the Apostle calls an eter- 1Thess.iv. nal Weight of Glory, that they fpeak of on- 13, 14. ly as an inconfiderable Over-weight, and 18, 23. what St. Peter calls a Crown of Glory, that 2 Cor. iv. will never wither, never decay, of that they are pleas'd to make not the greatest or the 1 Pet. v. 4. principal Part, but a little Addition of Glory. Laftly, Chrift himself teaches us, that the Redemption of the Saints will not draw near, and is not to be expected before the End of the World: Nor does he promise any Re- Luke xvi. tribution before the Refurrection of the Juft. 28. So great is the Distance in this Matter, between the Doctrine of the Gospel, and the Decrees of the Romish Church. Thus, what the Apostles, what the bleffed Martyrs, what the antient Fathers of the Church, all of them

G4

Rom. viii.

17, &c.

ver. I.

Ι

xiv. 14.

14, 15.

2 Tim. i.

10.

& 21.

Joh. vi. 39, &c.

them accounted the greatest Promise of the Gofpel, the very Foundation of the Chrif tian Faith, and the chief Anchor of our Hope, that, by their Decrees, becomes only a Thing not utterly vain, unuseful, and superfluous.

WHAT Occafion is there for more? Chrift purchased this Return of Life for us, this Heb. ii. Renovation of Hope, at no less a Price than that of his own inestimable Blood, and confirm'd it by his own Refurrection. And 1 Pet. i. 3. whatever does not rife again, he accounts as loft in that facred Difcourfe, as afterwards St. Paul did in his Difcourfe to the Corinthians, upon the fame Argument. This is the Mystery full of Wonder, the Work of divine Virtue, our Victory and our Triumph by his Death derived to us: This is the NePhil. iii. plus-ultra of our Perfection, towards which we all ftrenuously tend, to which we all afpire. Nor can the most ambitious of our Defires foar to a greater Height, nor wish for a farther Progrefs. Then we shall be like to the bleffed Angels, cloathed with that glorious Light with which they are cloathed, and perpetually beholding the fame God, which they perpetually behold.

10.

FROM what we have hitherto faid, it appears to me to be manifeft, as well from the facred Writings, as from the Teftimonies of the most ancient Fathers, that the Beatitude of the Saints depends folely or chiefly upon the Refurrection; and that that Height of

Per