IV. The scheme of a middle or intermediate place, or place of rest. This is a different idea from that of an intermediate state, meaning by the latter only an infe- rior degree of happiness apart from the yet unraised body. It is affirmed that judgment is not pronounced till the last day; but this is denied, a particidar judg- ment passing on each individual, and his place being assigned him, upon liis death (Acts i, 25 ; Luke xvi, 23 ; xxiii, 43 ; 2 Cor. xii, 2, 4). It is said that no one is per- fectly holy when he dies, but only such can enter heav- en. In reply, it is contended, as in the Westminster (Jatcchism, that there is a distinction made between be- ing perfectly holy and perfectly blessed, the first taking iilacc at death, the latter only at the resurrection (Heb. xii, 23). It is alleged that the Scriptures favor the no- tion (.John iii, 13; xx, 17; Acts iii, 34; Heb. xi, 39); to which it is replied that these texts are dubious, and neutralized t)y others positive and unequivocal (Isa.lvii. 12 ; 2 Kings li, 11 ; Acts vii, 59 : Rev. xiv, 2-5; vii, 14)! We iiroceed to render this theory more definite bv pro- posing our own view <i\' i lie sulijcct.
1. In the first pl.i,, . « <■ liv ii ,|..wn as an axiom tliat a disembodied OTp/m .yih-i/ Is mrcssarily freed from all the. relations of space of which we are ter'restriallv cog- nizant. The external senses are locked up, because their physical organs are absent. Such a spirit may, lor aught Ave know— and perhaps this position is the more probable— be open to intercourse with other pure spirits; doubtless it is at least accessible to the divine Spirit, from whose influence nothing material or imma- terial can he veiled ; but we are unable to conceive of any intercourse or connection between it and the pres-
2 INTERMEDIATE STATE
enfc relations of tilings. There is absolutely no medium- of communication, as far as we are aware. Death sev- ers the link between the soul and the body, and there- fore between the soul and all bodies. What new ca- pacities may by that act be developed within the soul, what new relations created with other immaterial be- ings, or what realization of new conceptions, we of course know not; and, indeed, we have no reason to suppose any such ; but if we would not utterly confound mind and matter, or unconsciously clothe the departed spirits with some ethereal form of body, we are bound to con- clude, from the total diversity and even contrariety of their properties and attributes, that a dead man is reaUy dead to everything pertaining to time and sense.
This cuts up, root and branch, all those impressions — some have even gone so far as to claim them as scien- tific experience — of intercommunication between living persons and the spirits of their deceased friends. The common sense of enlightened Christianity has long since stamped all such stories with the just suspicion of superstitious imagination. Severe reasoning compels us to set them down as hallucination or imposture. Those who ha\-e indulged themselves in these fancies have al- ways diverged towards insanity or materialism.
A disembodied spirit, therefore, prior to the restora- tion of its physical organism, is incapable of any of the material joys which imagination is wont to associate with the full idea of the heavenly state. We must carefully exclude from its experience diuing that inter- val everything that grows out of our mundane notions and present externalities. That these, and more than these, will be restored on the consummation of its bliss in the new heavens and the new earth of its final abode, we are abundantly assured by the symbols and teach- ings of the New Testament ; but the soul must wait for these enjoyments until its bodily counterpart shall have been raised, spiritualized, perfected, and immortalized.
We may go further than this, and declare that none of the now known and verbally defined relations in point of location are predicable of the departed soul ; in other words, it is not in any particular assignable place while in that state. The instant it quits the body it possesses no local habitation. Its position cannot be determined as to space, for it has no metes or boundaries, no point of contact with visible objects. It can neither be said to be somewhere nor nowhere, nor yet everywhere. It simply exists— like God, but not infinite, 'in short, if heaven be a locality (and the existence in some part of the universe of the Redeemer's actual body, as weU as those of Enoch and Elijah, besides the concurrent fig- ures of the whole Bible, lead us to conclude that it is such as well as a state), then certainly the disembodied spirit cannot with propriety be spoken of as being there any more than elsewhere. This, we admit, is an ab- straction ; but we are speaking of a mere abstraction ; for what can be more abstract — more really inconceiva- ble according to our earthly notions — than a soul with- out a body.
But let it not be imagined that the soul has thus lost any of its essence or inherent powers. It remains in all these absolute and intact, a veritable entity, as truly such as any spiritual being, or as when united to the body, or indeed as the body itself; but it is shut within itself, and circumscribed by the limits of its own nature. All that we are now demanding is that it shall no longer lie viewed, and treated, and spoken of under the condi- tions, and associations, and terms of an absent corporei- ty. These have no meaning when applied to it, except as belonging to the past.