A Discourse on an Entrance into the Invisible State, and the same opened and explained, so far as the written Word of God gives its warrant for.

Junior. Mr. Senior, since it hath pleased the Lord to admit us to see each other once more in the flesh, I cannot but express my joy, whilst I also add, that your last conversation has been of real advantage to me. I think conceive more properly concerning death, than, ever I did before. I consider now with you, that it is altogether a subject, which may well be entitled a natural one, seeing it is the sentence of the Lord over all flesh. I also, from attending closely to what I consider the progress of death on the human frame, find myself very greatly relieved from the natural fears concerning dissolution. I now speak after you; for, though I could not at first understand your meaning, when you said death was not a spiritual subject, I now do: so, when I say, I am relieved by your discourse from the natural fears of dissolution, I am not speaking spiritually: I now speak as a man. Will you be so good, in as brief it manner as possible, to repeat the substance of what you have delivered concerning the progress of death.

Senior. I suppose you mean the explanation of these words, Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Junior. Yes, Sir, I do. I must acknowledge you have done it in the last conversation, but I wish you just to recapitulate the same.

Senior. The silver cord is the pith or marrow of the back-bone, which is round as a cord, and white as silver. The head is the golden bowl; it is the vessel in which the brain and animal spirits are contained. The, fountain is the heart. The aorata is a pitcher to catch the running stream in. The lungs are the wheels. Now, before the union of body and soul is untied, the pith of the back and nerves give way; the vessel in which the animal spirits are contained, is rendered unfit for use; the nerves and arteries which conveyed the blood from the right to the left ventricle of the heart, can perform this office no more; the pulse ceases; all the animality of the body is entirely exterminated therewith: it becomes a breathless corpse this is death, and its process on the body, ere it hath completed its office, which, when fully done, the soul, departs, and no longer remains in it.

Junior. Can it be ascertained the moment when the soul leaves the body?

Senior. I think not. All that can be ascertained concerning death, only concerns the body, which, as it is kept alive wholly by respiration, so it entirely sinks when the act of respiration ceases, The Silver cord being loosed, the golden bowl being broken, the pitcher being broken at the fountain, the wheel being broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return into God who gave it. Thus the body is deprived of all its senses, life, and motion, and fit only for the grave, where it is to be consigned, and remain under the power and dominion of death until the second coming of the Great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Philip.3:21. This is all I can say of the subject: I hope it may give you satisfaction. I would refer you to our last conversation: it may be, by putting both together, you will reap all the satisfaction on this point you at present wish for.

Junior. I conceive, from the whole you have said, that death, in its own nature is, to saint and sinner, one and the same. I know, to die in Christ, is life everlasting; to die out of Christ, must be eternal damnation. Can you kindly now enter on this, as the subject of our present conversation; what may be conceived concerning the soul's entrance into the invisible state?

Senior. You would not have me to be wise above that which is written, surely?

Junior. No, I would not; as this would answer no good end. I know you think on some subjects very deeply and peculiarly; I should therefore like you to express yourself concerning the soul: its departure from the body; its entrance into the invisible state; so far as the written word of God gives light into it and warrant for.

Senior. We cannot expressly conceive of the soul. We say it is the mind, which conceives thought. I suppose we may understand soul, mind, and thought are all one. It is an incorporeal existence in our bodies. Its seat is considered to be the brain and heart. All our conceptions are formed in the brain, and our life seems to reside in the heart, which is the last part in the body that dies, I apprehend the brain to be the seat of residence in which the soul or mind is seated: that it is diffused throughout every part of the body, and animates it. I conceive we are to distinguish between the soul and its faculties and affections. The essence of the soul is spirit. It is wholly void of matter; yet it is implunged in a body of matter. Its faculties are, understanding and will. Its affections are love, delight, and memory. The soul is one and the same in all. It cannot die. By death it is driven out of the body, so that it can no longer reside in it; yet the death of the body can by no means make any alteration in the soul. That it is distinct from the body is evident, by what is recorded concerning our Lord Jesus Christ at his death. It is said, Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. Matt. 27: 50. Also, from what our Lord said to the thief, Verity, I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Luke, 23: 43. From what the Apostle says concerning his rapture into heaven, that he knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body, is a full proof that he needed not his body then and there. He also Says he had a desire to depart (that is, to leave his body by death) and to be with Christ.

Junior. What you say is full proof indeed that the soul exists when the body drops: that its faculties and affections exist in it in the- separate state. I think, from what you have expressed, the soul is the mind, and the mind is the soul; that it wholly and altogether consists in thought; that its will, understanding, memory,, and affections, are but so many exercises of the conceptions of one and the same mind, which, as they will exist in it for ever, so all these must, and cannot but be exercised, according to the state and place it will be in to its everlasting continuance in being and existence.

Senior. You express this very clearly, as it respects my own views and apprehensions. Death can make no alteration in the soul, either in its essence or faculties or affections. Its understanding, will, and memory, will not be impaired by its removal from the body, though they will not be exercised by the body. At death the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Junior. I want you to convey to my mind, what you conceive concerning the departure of the soul from the body at the article of dissolution.

Senior. Truly I can only speak by way of conception. I would make the written word of God my rule in all things, especially on such a subject as this before us. But why are you so very inquisitive?

Junior. Not for fear of what I shall feel in the article of death, but because I might so apprehend it, as to be filled with holy joy. I very clearly perceive we shall be altogether passive in the article of death I am certain there must be a suspension of the exercise of the faculties, or death could not do its office, and dislodge or disembody the mind. I want you to say what you conceive concerning the actual departure of the soul from the body. We read of Rachael, and it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died,) that she, &c. Gen. 35: I8. Now, my good Sir, I want you to give me some general account of this, if you please.

Senior. I have informed you what death is. It consists in the separation of the soul from the body. I have as well as I could, spoken bf the process of death; in which the solids and fluids being wasted and dried up, the pulse ceases; at which the soul being disunited from the body, departs from it. This is all I conceive of it: this is all I can say concerning it. The soul is what it was, yet not in the body. Its state before God is the same that it was but it hath now objects and subjects to think on and be exercised with, which it had not before. What the medium in which it will exist, and by means of which it will converse with other disembodied spirits, cannot be said. It may be, there will be a clothing for it, so as that it shall have a vehicle to be in, and by which it shall conceive of the objects and subjects in the unseen and invisible state. Some have so conceived, as thinking none but God himself, who is invisible, can be without some kind of vehicle for the mind to act in. Angels are not without forms, though without bodies. Saints in heaven are not without a distinction in their forms, so as to be distinguished one from the other, and to know themselves and each other, though they are without their bodies; but we can never rightly conceive, so as to apprehend the subject, until we are admitted into the world of spirits.

Junior. Doubtless, we cannot; yet I must confess, what you have dropped concerning this subject, gives me real pleasure and satisfaction.

Senior. I am very ready to impart my mind freely on it. I consider myself as one who is shortly to, enter on this world of spirits, to be gathered with them into the garner of everlasting rest. Whilst I go no further than I have already done, and keep myself to the written word, I consider I am safe, and cannot do you or myself any injury. I conceive the mind of the believer in Christ when disembodied, raised up to such apprehension of Christ, and God in him, as is suited to the state entered on.

Junior. What is the state of a saint after entrance into the invisible state, think you?

Senior. A state of glory. Stephen, when he was dying, cried out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit: a full proof he was going to be received by Christ, and admitted to glory. Paul says, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with, hands, eternal in the heavens. We are confident, and willing I say, rather to he absent from the body, and to be present with. the Lord. 2 Cor. 5: 1; 8.

Junior. I should like you to express your thoughts concerning a saint's entrance into the invisible state of glory.

Senior. I look on death as the passage into it, as we cannot enter it in our bodies, until they are prepared and fitted for it by the resurrection of them from If the grave and power of death by our Lord Jesus, and his making them like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.

Junior. Will there any further change pass on the soul in the article of death, to fit it for glory? I know some conceive the soul will at the article of death, or as soon as it hath done its office, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, be delivered from the whole body of sin, yea, from the very inbeing of it. What think you of this?

Senior. You know, Sir, the souls of the elect will be found in Christ. Such of them as are born again, have their whole meetness for heaven and glory in their regeneration; whilst their union of soul and body will be dissolved by death, yet it cannot in the least touch nor affect what the Holy Ghost hath wrought in them. This being the case, the Holy Ghost who dwells in them will, by his mighty power, as soon as their spirits are disengaged from their bodies, deliver them from all the inherency of sin. We say sin and grace in the same mind are so distinct, that they can never coalesce. Now, when the souls of the saints are unclothed of their bodies, they will be immediately without all sin.

Junior. But will there be nothing more wrought in their souls, to fit them for heaven and glory, think you?

Senior. I conceive not, unless it be a raising up the mind to a suitability to the state of glory. The mind will be clothed with immortality and eternal glory; as, without we were renewed in our minds, we should have no suitable faculty to converse with God, Father, Son, and Spirit, and have converse and proper and scriptural apprehensions of the grace revealed in the holy scriptures; so, except the same mind be raised up, so as to be suited to the state of glory, that state would not by any means suit us, nor we it. Here we converse with Christ by faith; there we are to converse with Christ by sense. Our minds therefore will be raised up to such a degree of immortality and glory, as will fit us for the enjoyment of the state, of glory and immortality: in all which we shall be passive. It is the Holy Ghost will perform all this; not by communicating any thing unto us which we have not already received; but by enlarging, strengthening, and immortalizing our faculties, so that they may be as truly fitted to be perpetually exercised on those wonderful subjects they are to be engaged on in the immediate presence of God and the Lamb by sense and vision, as we are now by faith fitted to Christ's church militant on earth.

Junior. Do you think we shall be immediately introduced into the presence of God and the Lamb?

Senior. I believe all saints conceive, and all divines affirm this.

Junior. But will it not be overwhelming, to be admitted into the immediate presence of the great and incomprehensible Jehovah, to see him face to face, to see him as he is? I tremble at this view of the subject.

Senior. You need not tremble at entering into heaven, if you consider who is to admit and present you there. Our Lord Jesus Christ is to admit you; he is to present you; he is to bid you welcome to all the glory and blessedness of heaven. Take into consideration the words contained in the following doxology, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Jude, 24, 25. It may be, you have conceived, as I once did, that in glory we should be implunged into absolute and incomprehensible Deity: my mind used to tremble at the thought. Blessed be the Lord, I do now. Understand from the scriptures, we shall be with Christ. It is he we shall see face to face. It is he we shall have immediate communion with. The Father, Son, and Spirit, the Three in the one Incomprehensible Jehovah, will never admit us to any other sight of their glory, than as it shines forth in the God-Man; nor shall we, ever have any abstracted communion with them in their distinct nature and persons, but in our most precious and glorious Lord.

Junior. Really, Sir, this is very relieving to my mind; yet I think an immediate introduction into our Lord's presence, will be most wonderful: to see him in his glory; to see him by open vision. You say all saints conceive we shall immediately, at death be admitted into his kingdom, and glory.

Senior. The scriptures give us so to conceive of it; yet I have sometimes thought on Moses case, when he was called to come up into the mount with God, we read, And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights. Exodus, 24: 15, 16, 17, 18. 1 have, from observing this great saint being six days in the mount before he was immediately admitted into the presence chamber of the Most High, thought within my own mind, whether it might not be so with disembodied saints, to be by degrees, and in a gradual manner, received and admitted into the state of glory, and to the open vision of Christ. But you are to remember, I speak this to you, only as a thought of my own, on which you are to lay no stress, I do not myself, we are to be confined on this subject to the written word.

Junior. My dear Sir, what you have delivered in this present discourse, hath done me good like a medicine. I think I shall never be afraid of death; neither shall I tremble on entering into the invisible state. I perceive I shall be passive, and not active. When death comes, it will soon be over. When out of the body, I shall have an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. My intellectual faculties and senses will be most exactly suited to the state the place, the sight, vision, and enjoyment of Christ, and communion of the Father in him, through the indwelling of the eternal Spirit in my son]. I bless God for the light and knowledge I have received on these subjects, through your instrumentality.

Senior. To be delivered from the whole body of sin, to be raised up intellectually, and to have every spiritual faculty and sense so perfected, as to be fitted for the state of eternal glory, and to be admitted by Christ himself into it, and p)7esented by himself before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, are all sufficient to fill our minds even now, in this present time state, with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But I must now break up our present interview. May the blessing of the Three in Jehovah rest on you? Amen.

Junior. Thank you, Sir. May all contained therein, be yours also. Amen.