(2.) As to pleasure and pain, joy and comfort. When all the joys of the body are gone, the joys of the soul are enlarged ; as when the bodies of the martyrs were on the rack under torturings, their souls have been filled with inward triumphings, and their consolation, 2 Cor. i. 5, ' Also aboundeth by Christ.' When their flesh is scorched, their souls are refreshed.
[5.] They are distinct in the commands God hath given about it. Christ hath commanded us to take 'no thought for the body,' Mat. vi. 25 ; but he never commanded us to take no thought for the soul : rather the contrary : Deut. iv. 9, ' Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently.' The great miscarriage of men is because they pamper their bodies and neglect their souls, all their care is to keep their bodies in due plight, but never regard their souls, which were more immediately given them by God, and carry the most lively character of his image, and are capable of his happiness.
2. The soul is not only distinct from the body, but can live and exercise its operations apart from the body. There are many argu- ments from reason to prove it, but let us consider scripture, which should be reason enough to christians. That it can do so appeareth by that expression of Paul, 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3, ' I knew a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth, such an one carried up to the third heaven.' If Paul had been of this opinion, that the soul being separated from the body is void of all sense, he must then have known certainly that his soul remained in his body, during this rapture, because, according to
YeU. S.] SERMOMS upon 2 COEINTHIANS V. 29
this supposition, in that state alone could he see and hear those things which he saw and heard. And that argument is not contemptible to prove the possibility, where among other things it is said, death cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ. Therefore the soul liveth in a state to enjoy him, in a sense of his love to ns, and our love to him.
3. That the souls of the saints not only can live apart from the body, but actually do so, and are presently with the Lord as soon as they flit out of the body. This I shall prove from these particulars taken from scripture.
[1.] From Luke xxiii. 43, 'This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' This was said to the penitent thief, and what was said to him, will be accomplished in all the faithful ; for what Christ promiseth to him, he promiseth it to him as a penitent believer, and what belongeth to one convert belongeth to all in a like case. Therefore if his soul in the very day of his death were translated into paradise, ours will be also. Now paradise is either the earthly or the heavenly ; not the tirst, which is nowhere extant, being defaced by the flood. If it were in being, what have separate souls to do there ? That was a fit place for Adam in innocency, who had a body and a soul, and was to eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. By paradise is meant heaven, whither Paul was rapt in soul, which he called both paradise and the third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 4. And there all the faithful are when once they have passed the pikes, and have overcome the temptations of the present world : Kev. ii. 7, ' To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.' Well then, there the thief was not in regard of his body, which wa.s disposed of as men pleased, but his soul. And when should he be there ? This day. It was not a blessedness to commence some fifteen hundred or two thousand years afterwards. It is an answer to his quando. The penitent thief desired when he came into his kingdom lie would remember him ; Christ showeth he would not defer his hope for so long a time, but his desire should be accomplished that day ; it is not adjourned to many days, months, or years, but this day. Thou shalt presently enjoy thy desire.
[2.] The second place is : Phil. i. 23, ' I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is far better.' To be with Christ is to be in heaven, for there ' Christ is at the right hand of God,' Col. iii. 1. The apostle speaketh not this in regard of his body, for that could not be presently upon his dissolution, till it was raised up at the last day, but in regard of his soul. This state that his soul was admitted into, was much moi-e better if compared Avith the estate it enjoyed in this life, yea, though you take in the end and use of life ; yet his being with Christ upon his dissolution, was more eligible, and to be preferred before it. Is it not better, you will say. to remain here and serve God, than to depart hence ? It were so, if the soul were in a state wherein we neither know nor love Christ ; what profit would it be to be with the Lord, and not enjoy his company ? Present knowledge, services, tastes, experiences, are better than a stupid lethargy and sleepy estate, without all understanding and will. It is better to a gracious man to wake than to sleep, to be hard at work for God than to be idle and do