CHAPTER VIII.

THE “INTERMEDIATE STATE;" OR THE PLACE OF SOULS

BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION.

IN the last three chapters we have shown, that death is but the separation of the soul from the body; and that the soul neither sleeps nor becomes unconscious between death and the resurrection. We have also shown incidentally that the souls of the righteous will be happy, and those of the wicked miserable immediately after death, and during this intermediate period. But an interesting question arises just here: Where are the souls of men during this intermediate period from death to the resurrection? Are they in the final heaven and hell that shall be after the resurrection and general judgment, or in intermediate abodes differing from their final allotment?

That the state of souls disembodied is, in some respects, different from that of souls embodied, is obvious; so that few will deny an intermediate state, who believe in a resurrection of the body. But the question here proposed relates, not to the state merely, but to the place of souls between the death of the body and its final resurrection.

Upon this question little has been said in modern

times, even by writers upon a future life.* For this there may have been two reasons-a foregone impression that the Scriptures shed but little light upon the subject; and a vague apprehension that in some way the doctrine of an intermediate place of souls, favors the doctrine of Purgatory, and of final and universal restoration. But this by no means follows. The doctrine of an intermediate place of souls may be true, and the idea of purification there and of final restoration a fiction.

That the place of souls between death and the resurrection is different from their final abode, was generally believed by the primitive church. It is a doctrine of the Church of England, and of the Protestant Episcopal church in this country, and was certainly believed by JOHN WESLEY and DR. ADAM CLARKE, two of the great lights of Methodism. It was also advocated by SCOTT, and MAGEE, and CAMPBELL, among the Presbyterians; as well as by scores of learned and pious men who were never suspected either of Popery or Universalism. We have, therefore, no reason to reject this doctrine, or to discuss it with prejudice, or fear, from any apprehension that its tendency is to favor the errors above alluded

to.

That there is an intermediate place as well as a state of souls between death and the resurrection, seems highly probable from the following considerations:

I. There must of necessity be a great difference between the intermediate state of souls, and

The best treatise we have seen is that on "The State of the Departed," by Bishop Hobart.

their final condition after the resurrection of their bodies.

Man is a compound being consisting of body and soul. Death is a separation of these two natures. The soul of the good man goes to "Paradise," and the body goes back to corruption.

Now it must be obvious that just so far as the want of an immortal and glorified body is an imperfection in man, (not moral, perhaps, but physical,) he is in an imperfect state till his body is raised from the dead. And if no imperfection can enter the final abode of the righteous, man is not prepared to enter his final dwelling-place, till after the general resurrection. And if so there is an analogical necessity for an intermediate place of souls between death and the resurrection, answering somewhat to the peculiar state of disembodied spirits.

body is

Again: It should be remembered, not only that man's normal condition is soul and body in union, while a state of separation and dissolution is an abnormal state; a sort of parenthesis in his being;but that this abnormal condition is a result of sin; and one of the victories achieved by it, from which even the righteous are not yet delivered. No man is or can be fully "saved," therefore, while his yet in the grave, under the dominion of death. that is raised in incorruption, and power, and glory; aud re-inhabited by the soul which was dislodged from it at death, then, and not till then, will any be "saved" in the highest and fullest sense; and death be swallowed up of victory. Why, then, should souls go up beforehand to the heavenly mansions, to which they are admitted when made perfect and complete

When

by the general resurrection? Is not an intermediate place of souls more in harmony with this imperfect and abnormal state, than the highest exaltation in the heavenly world?

II. There are intimations in the Scriptures of an established order, on the part of God to introduce all his saints to their final and glorious reward at one and the same time. Mark, we say the "final" reward. Take the following passages as samples.

1. 1 Thess. iv. 15-17:-"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

In the 15th verse the word "prevent" is used in its old English sense of to go before or anticipate. The living Christian, who hears the sound of the resurrection trumpet, and is changed from mortal to immortality in a moment, shall not go before or outstrip his brother Christian, whose body has been dissolved by death, and whose inanimate dust sleeps in the grave. "The dead in Christ shall rise first." Not, as some understand it, before the wicked rise, but before the righteous who "are alive and remain," ascend. "Then,”—after the righteous dead have arisen-both shall be caught up together, to meet the Lord in the air, and to be forever with the Lord. This established order, therefore, seems to imply that

the righteous do not enter the final heaven at death, that there must be an intermediate abode, where their souls are in joy and felicity.

2. Heb. xi. 39, 40, speaking of the Old Testament saints, the apostle says:-"And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfeet.”

This last clause is generally understood to teach that the saints of former ages are not "made perfect,' that is, do not enter upon their eternal reward, till those of the later dispensation enter also upon their final glory. MR. WESLEY in his notes says, "that they might not be perfected without us. That is, that we might all be perfected together in heaven." DR. CLARKE says, "The preceding believers cannot be consummated even in glory, till the gospel church arrives in the heaven of heavens."

Upon this passage DR. MACKNIGHT observes: "Made perfect," here signifies made complete, by receiving the whole of the blessings promised to believers, the expectation of which animated the ancients, whose great actions are celebrated in the preceding part of the chapter. These blessings are the resurrection of the body, the everlasting possession of the heavenly country, and the full enjoyment of God as their exceeding great reward. The apostle's doctrine that believers are all to be rewarded together, and at the same time, is agreeable to Christ's declaration, who told his disciples that they were not to come to the place he was going away to prepare for them, till he returned from heaven to carry them to it. ** This determination, not to reward the ancients with

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