The Soul of Man, Part 8 · Doctrine
DOCT. That righteous and holy Souls once separated from then Bodies by death, are immediately perfected in themselves, and associated with others alike perfect in the Kingdom of God.
THAT the Spirits of just Men at the time of their separation from their Bodies do not utterly fall in their beings, nor that they are so prejudiced and wounded by death that they cannot exert their own proper Acts in the absence of the Body, hath been already cleared in the foregoing parts of this Treatise, and will be more fully cleared from this Text.
But the true level and aim of this discourse is at an higher mark, viz the far more excellent, free and noble life the Souls of the just begin to live immediately after their Bodies are dropt off from them by death, at which time they begin to live like themselves, a pleasant free and divine life. So much at least is included in the Apostle Epithete in my Text, Spirits of the just made perfect, and suitable thereto are his words in 1 Cor. 13.10.12. When that which is p…rfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as I am known.
These two Adverbs, Now, and Then, distinguish the twofold state of gracious Souls, and shew what it is whilst they are confined in the Body, and what it shall be from the time of their emancipation and freedom from that clogg of mortality. Now we are imperfect, but then that which is perfect takes place, and that which is imperfect is done away; as the imperfect twilight is done away, by the opening of the perfect day.
And it deserves a serious animadversion, that this perfect State doth not succeed the imperfect one, after a long interval (as long as betwixt the dissolution, and Resurrection of the Body) but the imperfect state of the Soul, is immediately done away by the coming of the perfect one. The glass is laid by as useless, when we come to see face to face, and eye to eye.
The Waters will prove very deep here, too deep for any line of mine to fathom, there is a cloud always overshadowing the world to come, a gloom and haziness upon that state; fain we would with our weak and feeble beam of imperfect knowledge penetrate this cloud, and dispel this gloom and haziness, but cannot: we think seriously and close to this great and awful subject, but our thoughts cannot pierce through it; we re-inforce those thoughts by a salley or thick succession of fresh thoughts, and yet all will not do, our thoughts return to us either in confusion, or without the expected success. For alas, how little is it that we know or can know of our own Souls now, whilst they are embodied! much less of their unbodied state. The Apostle tells us, 1 Cor, 2.9. That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither duplicate page duplicate page have entred into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And another Apostle adds, it doth not yet appear what we shall be, 1 John 3.1.
Yet all this is no discouragement to the search and regular enquiry into the future state; for though reason cannot penetrate these mysteries, yet God hath revealed them to us (though not perfectly) by his Spirit. And though we know not (particularly and circumstantially) what we shall be, yet this we know that we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And it is our priviledge and happiness that we are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect, (i.e.) to a clearer knowledge of that state than was ordinarily attainable by Believers under former dispensations.
These things premised, I will proceed to open my apprehensions of the separate state of the Spirits of just men made perfect, in twelve Propositions, whereby, as by so many steps we may orderly advance as far as safely and warrantably we may into the knowledge of this great Mystery, clearing what afterwards shall remain obscure, in the solution of several Questions, relating to this Subject; and then apply the whole in several Uses of this great point: and the first Proposition is this,