O. 13. Doth repentance then go before the pardon of fin? A. Although repentance doth not go before, but follows after the pardon of fin in juftification; yet not only faith, but repentance alfo, goes before the pardons given to thefe who are already justified, 1 John i. 9. "If we confefs our fins, he is faithful and juft to forgive us our fins."

Q14. How doth the perfeverance of the faints flow from their juftification?

A. In as much as they who are once jufted, and accepted in the Beloved, are always fo: "for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," Rom. xi. 29.

Q. 15. How doth their perfeverance flow from adoption? A. In as much as he who hath adopted them as his children, is their everlasting Father, Ifa. ix, 6.: and therefore they fhall abide in his houfe for ever, John viii. 35.

Q. 16. How doth it flow from their fandification?

A. In as much as the fanctifying Spirit is given them to abide with them for ever, John xiv. 16.; and to be in them a well of water fpringing up into everlasting life, chap. iv. 14

Q. 17. What improvement fhould be made of this connec tion of the benefits and bleffings that accompany and flow from juflification, adoption, and fandification?

A. It fhould excite us to have a defire after the faving knowledge of the truth, as it is in Jefus, in whom all the lines of divine truth do meet, as in their centre, Eph. iv. 21.; and to admire the infinite goodnefs and wifdom of God, who has fo linked all the bleffings of the covenant into one another, that they who are poffeffed of one, are poffeffed of all, Cor. iii. 22, 23.

QUEST. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Chrift at death?

ANSW. The fouls of believers are, at their death, made perfect-in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies being ftill united to Chrift, do reft in their graves till the refurrection.

Q. Why are the perfons fpoken of in the answer, called [believers]?

A. Because they have been enabled, by grace, to credit the truth of God in his promife, and to embrace the good that is therein, Heb. xi. 13.

Q. 2. What is the difference betwixt believers, and others in their death?

A. Believers, die in virtue of the promise of the covenant of grace, wherein death is made over to them unftinged, as a part of Chrift's legacy, 1 Cor. iii. 22.; whereas all others die, in virtue of the threatening of the covenant of works, Gen. ii. 17. having the fting of death fticking faft both in their fouls and bodies.

Q3. What is the fting of death?

A. The ing of death is fin, Cor. xv. 56.; and the curfe, is the infeparable companion of fin, Gal. iii. 1c.

Q. 4. What fecurity in law have believers against the fting of death?

A. Chrift's receiving it into his own foul and, body, as their Surely, that they might be delivered from it. wherefore the promife of victory over death made to him, Isaiah xxv. 8. fecures the difarming of it to them, 1 Cor. xv. 57. Q5. How manifold are thefe benefits which believers receive from Chrift at their death ?>

A. They are twofold: fuch as refpect their souls, and fuch as refpect their BODIES.

Q. 6. How doth it appear that [the Souls of believers] xift in a fate of feparation from their bodies?

A. From the Lord's calling himself the "God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob," long after. their death, as an evidence that their fouls were living; for "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," Mat. xxii. 32.; and from the death of believers being called a departure, 2 Tim. iv. 6.;. intimating, that the foul, upon its feparation, départs only from the earthly houfe of this tabernacle, unto an houfe not made with hands, eternal in the hea vens, 2 Cor. v. 1.

Q7. Are the fouls of men abfolutely and independently immortal?

A. No: God only is fo, 1 Tim. vi. 16. Who only hath immortality..

Q8. In what fenfe then are fouls immortal?

A. In that as to their natural conftitution, they are incorruptible, having no idward principle of corruption, but re

maining in a ftate of adivity after the death of the body, Heb. xii. 23. "The fpirits of juft men made perfect." Q.9. How do you prove the immortality of the foul from the nature of it?

A. In its nature, it is a fpiritual, immaterial, or incorporeal fubftance and therefore, where there is no compofition of parts, there can be no diffolution of them, Luke xxiv. 39. A fpirit hath not flesh and bones."

Q. 10. How are we fure that the foul fhall never be annihilated?

A. From the promife of everlafling happiness to the righteous and the threatening of everlasting mifery to the wicked, Matth. xxv. 46. "Thefe fhall go away into everlafting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal."

Q. What are the benefits which are conferred upon the souls of believers, upon their feparation from their bodies?

A. They are [made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pafs into glory], Heb. xii. 23. Phil. i. 23.

Q12. How doth it appear, that the fouls of believers are not made perfect in holiness, while united to their bodies in this life?

A. From the remains of corruption and indwelling fin which cleave to the beft of the faints of God, while in an imbodied ftate, Rom. vii. 23, 24.

Q 13. Wherein confifts that [ perfect holiness] which is conferred upon the fouls of believers at their feparation? A. Not only in a perfect freedom from all fin, as to the very being of it, Rev. xxi. 4. but in a perfect likeness and conformity to God, 1 John iii. 2.

Q14. What comfort may a believer have, in the prospec of the feparation of his foul from his body?

A. That as fin made its firft entrance into him, at the union of his foul and body, fo it fhall be for ever caft out at in which refpect, among many others, death is great gain, Phil. i. 21.

their feparation an

Q15. Why muft the fouls of believers be perfectly holy at their feparation?

A. Because nothing that defileth can enter within the gates of the heavenly Ferufalem, Rev. xxi. 27.

Q. 16. What is the necessary concomitant of the foul's perfect holinefs?

A. Perfect and uninterrupted communion with God, I John iii. 2.

Q. 17. Where is this perfect and uninterrupted communion to be enjoyed?

A. In glory, Cor. xiii. 12.

Q. 18. When do the fouls of the faints [pafs into glory]! A. As they are made perfect in holiness immediately upon their feparation, so they do likewife [immediately] país into glory.

Q. 19. Why is it faid in the answer that they pass [immediately into glory?

A. To fhew that the fiction of a middle ftate, betwixt heaven and hell, invented by the Papifts, hath no manner of warrant or foundation in fcripture.

Q. 20. How do you prove from fcripture, that the fauls of believers pafs immediately into glory, upon their feparation from their bodies?

A. The foul of that certain beggar, named Lazarus, was immediately, upon its feparation, "carried by the angels into Abraham's bofom," Luke xvi. 22.: in like manner the foul of the thief upon the crofs, was immediately glorified: for, fays Christ to him, "To-day fhalt thou be with me in Paradise,” Luke xxiii. 43. ; and Stephen, among his laft words, prays," Lord Jefus, receive my fpirit," Acts vii. 59; plainly intimating, that he firmly believed his foul would be" with Chrift in glory, immediately upon the back of death.

Q. 21. What is that [glory] which the fouls of believers do immediately pafs into?

A. "Eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him," 1 Cor. ii. 9. However, fince naked difcoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earthly resemblances would be too bright for our weak eyes; fuch is the condefcenfion of God, that he hath been pleafed to reprefent to us heaven's happinefs, under fimilitudes taken from earthly things, glorious in the eyes of men.

Q. 22. What are the fimilitudes whereby this glory, which the fouls of believers immediately pafs into, is held forth in fcripture ?

A. It is compared to a kingdom, Luke xii. 32.; to an houfe not made with hands, 2 Cor. v. I.; to an inheritance incorruptible, 1 Pet. i. 4-; and to a better country, Heb. xi. 16.

Q. 23. Why is the heavenly glory compared to a kingdom?

A. Because of the fulness of all spiritual and eternal good, which the faints are there poffeffed of: and the glorious dignity to which they are advanced, Rev. i. 6. " And hath made us kings and priefs unto God and his Father."

Q24. Why is it called an houfe not made with hands? A. To fignify the unfpeakable excellency of the heavenly manfions, above the moft ftately palaces built by the hande of men.

Q. 25. Why is it faid to be an incorruptible inheritance?

A. To intimate, that the happiness of the faints will be of an unfading nature for ever, 1 Pet. v. 4. "Ye fhall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Q. 26. Why is it called a better country?

A. To fhew that there e is no comparison betwixt the things which are feen, and are temporal, and the things which are not feen, and are eternal, 2 Cor. iv. 18.

Q. 27. What benefit do believers receive from Chrift, at death, with refpect to their bodies?

A. [Their bodies being fill united to Chrift, do reft in their graves till the refurrection]. Ifa. Ivii. 2. Jon xix. 20.

Q. 28 How doth it appear, that the [bodies] of belie vers in their [graves], do remain [Still united to Chrift]?

A. The union was with the perfon of believers, whereof their bodies are a part; and this union being indiffolvable, it must still fubfift with their bodies in the grave, as well as with their fouls in heaven, Ifa. xxvi. 19.

Q29. How may believers be affured of this from the union betwixt the two natures in the perfen of Christ?

A. Because, as at the death of Chrift, though his foul was feparated from his body, yet neither the one nor the other were feparated from his divine perfon, but remained as firmly united thereunto as ever; fo neither foul nor body of the believer, fhall be feparated from Chrift by their fepa ration from one another at death, but both of them remain indiffolvably united to him for ever, Rom. viii. 38, 39.

Q.30. What is the difference of the grave to the righteous and to the wicked?

A. To the one the grave is a refting-place, but to the . other it is a prifon-houfe, where they are kept in clofe cuftody for the judgement of the great day, Dan. xii. 2.