promised.—How else is it said, _We are come to the spirits of just men made perfect_?[237] Sure, at the resurrection, the body will be made perfect as well as the spirit.—Does not Scripture tell us, that Enoch and Elias are taken up already? And shall we think they possess that glory alone?—Did not Peter, James, and John, see Moses also with Christ on the mount? Yet the Scripture saith, Moses died. And is it likely that Christ deluded their senses in shewing them Moses, if he should not partake of that glory till the resurrection?—And is not that of Stephen as plain as we can desire? _Lord Jesus receive my spirit._[238] Surely, if the Lord receive it, it is neither asleep, nor dead, nor annihilated; but it is where he is, and beholds his glory.—That of the wise man is of the same import: _The spirit shall return unto God who gave it_.[239] Why are we said _to have eternal life_, and that to _know God is life eternal_; and that a believer _on the Son hath everlasting life_? Or how is _the kingdom of God within us_? If there be as great an interruption of our life, as till the resurrection, this is no eternal life, nor everlasting kingdom. _The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah_ are spoken of as _suffering the vengeance of eternal fire_.[240] And if the wicked already suffer eternal fire, then no doubt, but the godly enjoy eternal blessedness.—When John saw his glorious revelations, he is said to be _in the Spirit_, and to be _carried away in the Spirit_. And when Paul was _caught up to the third heaven_, he knew not, _whether in the body, or out of the body_.[241] This implies, that spirits are capable of these glorious things, without the help of their bodies.—Is not so much implied when John says, _I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God_![242]—When Christ says, _Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul_,[243] does it not plainly imply, that when wicked men have killed our bodies, that is, have separated the souls from them, yet the souls are still alive?—The soul of Christ was alive when his body was dead, and therefore so shall ours too. This appears by his words to the thief, _To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise_; and also by his voice on the cross, _Father into thy hands I commend my spirit_.[244] If _the spirits_ of those _that were disobedient in the days of Noah_, were _in prison_,[245] that is, in a living and suffering state; then certainly the separate spirits of the just are in an opposite condition of happiness.—Therefore, faithful souls shall no sooner leave their prisons of flesh, but angels will be their convoy; Christ, with all the perfected spirits of the just, will be their companions; heaven will be their residence, and God their happiness. When such die, they may boldly and believingly say, as Stephen, _Lord Jesus, receive my spirit_; and _commend_ it, as Christ did, _into a Father's hands_. [Footnote 231] 2 Corinthians v, 6-8.