tion by death, the dust returns to the earth, as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God, who gave it, Eccles. xi. 7. Adam's soul had life in the mouth of his Maker, before his body was taken from the dust; and the immortal soul shall exist separate from it, either in heaven or hell, when the body shall turn to it's dust again.. Stephen committed his spirit into the hands of the Lord Jesus, before devout men carried his body to the burial, Acts, vii. 59.-viii. 2; and I take it for granted, that you will not attempt to assert, that the Lord Jesus was the grave or burialplace of Stephen's body. The soul of the penitent thief was to be, on the day of Christ's death, with Christ in Paradise, Luke xxiii. 43. Surely the thief's dead soul, hanging with the dead body on the cursed tree, could never be said to be with Christ in paradise. If you ask, what paradise is, into which the thief was to enter on that day with Christ? the Holy Ghost tells us, that it is the third heaven, where God resides. For confirmation of this; "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago; (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth:) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth: how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not possible to utter. to utter. Of such an one will I

Here we have a vision

glory," 2 Cor. xii. 1-5. and revelation of God, left upon record by the Holy Ghost, of a man going into the third heaven; but, whether the soul of Paul went alone to paradise, or in the body, he could not tell. Hence it is declared, that paradise is the third heaven; and Christ promised, that the thief on the cross should be, on the day of his crucifixion, with him in the third heaven. If the Saviour's divine life and human soul, and the soul of the thief, all died, and were buried in the heart of the grave; I would be glad to know what of the Saviour, and of the thief, was to be together on that day in the third heaven, which, the Holy Ghost says, is paradise. We are well assured that the third heaven and the grave are two distinct places; and that the third heaven will remain when the starry and the elementary heavens, together with the earth and all her works, shall be burnt up.

God said unto Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." The Saviour, quoting the passage, says, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." If, therefore, the souls of these three patriarchs are dead with their bodies, must he not be the God of the dead? which the Saviour says he is not. And, if he be the God of the living, and not of the dead, must not their souls be alive somewhere or other, as he is the God of these three men, and the God of the living only? Paradise is the third heaven; to which every overcoming soul shall go when it

departs from the body; and shall eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God, Rev. ii. 7. Into this paradise the soul of the Saviour in union with his deity, and the soul of the thief, went on the day of the Lord's crucifixion. In this paradise are the spirits of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whose living souls he is the living God. Into this paradise the spirit of Stephen went, and the translated bodies and souls of Enoch and Elijah; for neither their bodies nor souls died, nor was any part of them buried in the heart of the earth.

When Lazarus died, his soul was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The grave is not called the bosom of the everlasting father of the faithful, nor the arms of angels; but a place of dead men's bones, not souls, and of all uncleanness. A strange paradise, indeed!

into

The souls of all departed saints are gone the third heaven, where the soul of the thief went. Their souls were not gathered with the wicked, nor laid in the grave; they were all gathered unto their own people, and are now called the spirits of just men made perfect. But, if they are all dead, and buried with their bodies, they are far enough from perfection. At dissolution by death, the soul of Rachel departed; it did not die with her body, nor sleep in the dust with it. Simeon's soul departed in peace, according to God's word: but, if it had died in or with the body, and been buried with that, it could not have

been said to depart; for, in Muggleton's sense, there is no separation or disunion. Nor could Paul's departure bring him to be with Christ, which he so much preferred, if his soul was to die for eighteen hundred years. Elijah prayed that the soul of the child might come into him again, 1 Kings, xvii. 21. If the soul died in the body, it did not go out of it; and if the immortal soul was not departed from the body, and gone another way, it could not be expected to come back into him again. The soul is the seat of faith. The law of faith is written in the mind by the Spirit of God. To act faith is peculiar to the soul. Faith is a persuasion in the mind, wrought by the Holy Ghost; the act of it is a going out of self into Christ, and a bringing Christ into us: "Believe," saith the Lord, "that I am in you, and you in me." Such a soul passes from the deadly curse of the law to the blessing of life; he passes from death to life; he hath everlasting life; he shall live for ever, John vi. 58; he shall never die, John xi. 26; the Spirit shall spring up in him into everlasting life; the blessing of life is for evermore, Psalm cxxxiii. 3. All these texts respect the soul; for the death of the body, by a separation of the soul from it, is decreed: "It is appointed unto all men once to die." But the soul acts faith even in the very act of separation. "These all died in faith." "Through faith and patience they inherit the promises," Heb. vi. 12; but, if dead, they cannot inherit them. They re

ceive the end of their faith, which is the salvation of their souls, not the death of them: they are saved from death, not brought to it. The souls of departed saints receive an inheritance among them that are already sanctified, Acts xxvi. 18; but, if they are dead, they can receive nothing. They go to the saints now in light, Col. i. 12; not in death, nor darkness. When the heavens reveal Christ, he will bring the souls of the saints with him, 1 Thess. iii. 13; not fetch them out of the grave. The Comforter abides in the soul for ever; he never departs from Christ, nor his seed: but, if the soul dies, he cannot be an everlasting Comforter to it; nor can we receive everlasting consolation, as well as good hope, seeing death puts a stop to it. If the Spirit is never to forsake the soul, it cannot die; for the grave is not the temple of the Holy Ghost, The Spirit, that now dwells with the saints, shall, in the great day, quicken their mortal bodies; not their immortal souls, for they were quickened, and raised from a death in sin to a life of faith, at conversion; and brought from under the ministration of death, to immortality and eternal life in Christ Jesus.

The grain of wheat that fell into the ground. died: the Saviour's body, without the Spirit, was dead; and the grain that was sown in the earth could not have been quickened except it died, 1 Cor. xv. 36. Had he not died, he would have remained alone. Without redemption by his death, we could have had no part with him; but, as he