IXXX. PROLEGOMENA. 



main, during the whole of its growth and deve- 

 lopment, even unto death, locked up in the 

 perilous bondage of the flesh, till, released by 

 its dissolution, you return to God, deprived of 

 all your earthly possessions^ except your works, 

 or those exercises of your will either in obedience 

 to the law of Christ, or in rebellion to it, whereby 

 you have fitted yourself either for reigning with 

 him and the saints in eternal glory, or of being 

 dismissed from his presence for ever and sent to 

 hell, among the damned souls, victims of an eternal 

 principle of justice. But the majority of souls 

 may have neither rebelled so as to be deserving 

 of hell nor yet be fit for the perfections of heaven ; 

 such are then remanded into a state of interven- 

 tional punishment and purgation, of longer or 

 shorter duration, according to their sins, or to 

 the will and mercy of God. This then is what is 

 meant by Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, conferred 

 at theparticular Judgment which every one under- 

 goes on dying; before all are again called up on 

 the last day, to the general Judgment, in which 

 the crimes of the wicked, to their utter confusion, 

 will be made manifest, as well as the merits of the 

 sanctified, and then they will severally be settled 

 down either in hell, or in heaven, for ever. Now 

 the question respecting the utility of perfection as 

 exemplified in the lives of the saints is this : 

 since this world is transitory and the next ine- 



