e proper punishment of sin, but the
termination of all sin and sorrow, and an entrance into life
eternal. To them death is divested of its sting, and rendered
powerless to do them any real injury. Not only is it disarmed of its
power to hurt them—it is compelled to perform a friendly part to
them. It is their release from warfare—their deliverance from
woe—their departure to be with Christ. But although death is no real
loss, but rather great gain to the righteous; yet, as it consists in
the dissolution of the union between the soul and the body, it is an
event from which they are not exempted.

God could, no doubt, if he pleased, easily save his saints from
natural death. Of this he gave a proof in the case of Enoch and of
Elijah. For good reasons, however, he has determined otherwise. 1.
That the righteous, as well as others, should be subjected to
temporal death, is best adapted to the present plan of the divine
government, and seems necessary, if not to the preservation, at
least to the comfort of human society. According to the plan of the
divine government, rewards and punishments are principally reserved
for a future world. But if the righteous were exempted from death,
while the wicked fell under its stroke, this would be a
manifestation of the final destiny of every man that is removed out
of this world. Death, therefore, happens to the righteous in the
same outward form, and attended with the same external
circumstances, as it happens to the wicked, that there may be no
visible distinction between them. 2. Were the righteous to be
distinguished from the wicked by being translated to Heaven without
tasting of death, this would introduce great confusion into society.
Without producing any beneficial effect upon the wicked, it would
render them more regardless of character, and remove one powerful
stimulus—the prospect of future fame—which animates them to noble
exertions for the benefit of society. It would also greatly affect
the character and the happiness of the living. Were the parent
singled out as the object of the divine displeasure, by being
subjected to death, this would fix a brand of infamy upon his
children; or if the child were taken away in a manner so expressive
of its future destiny, this would pierce the heart of the parent,
especially if serious, with inexpressible anguish. No class, indeed,
would be more affected by such a state of things than the righteous
themselves. Hence death is the common lot of the godly and of the
wicked. 3. This arrangement affords occasion for a richer display of
the power and grace of God. As the hour of death is the most trying
to men, so the power and grace of God are most gloriously displayed,
in supporting his people in that solemn hour; in enabling them, in
the exercise of faith and hope, to rise superior to the fear of
death, and to triumph over this last enemy as conquerors. And how
illustriously will his power be displayed in raising up their bodies
at the last day! 4. Another reason, we conceive, why the righteous
are subjected to temporal death, is, that they may be conformed to
Christ, their glorious head. He tasted of death before he was
crowned with glory and honor; and they also must enter into glory
through "the valley of the shadow of death."

II. The bodies of men after death return to the dust, and see
corruption. So humiliating and deeply affecting is the change which
death produces on the human body, that it becomes obnoxious to the
view, and necessity compels the living to remove it from their
sight. It is committed to the grave, in which it putrefies; and
after a certain time is reduced to dust, so that it cannot be
distinguished from the vegetable mold with which it is mingled.
These things, however, are offensive only to the living; they
occasion no uneasiness to the dead. To the wicked, indeed, the grave
is a prison, where they are kept in close confinement until the
resurrection; but to believers it is a place of rest, where,
exempted from all pain and weariness, they shall enjoy profound
repose until the resurrection morn, when, awakened as from a long
refreshing sleep, they shall rise, with renovated life and vigor, to
enjoy everlasting felicity.

III. The souls of men survive the dissolution of their bodies, and
have an immortal subsistence. Some have held that death is the utter
extinction of man's being, others, that the soul shall sleep between
death and the resurrection, alike inactive and unconscious as the
body that is then dissolved into dust. In opposition to these
notions, equally absurd and uncomfortable, our Confession affirms,
and the Scripture clearly teaches, that the souls of men exist in a
disembodied state, after such a manner as to be capable of
exercising those powers and faculties which are essential to them.
"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul." Matthew 10:28. These are the words of Him who made man, and
who perfectly knows the constituent parts of his nature; and he
affirms, not only that the soul is distinct from the body—not only
that it does not, in fact, die with the body, but that it is
impossible to kill the soul by any created power. Our Savior taught
the same doctrine in parabolic language: "It came to pass that the
beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The
rich man also died, and was buried; and in Hell he lift up his eyes,
being in torments." Luke 16:22, 23. Both the beggar and the man of
wealth died; both left their bodies in the dust; but the souls of
both retained their existence and their consciousness after their
separation from their bodies. No doubt the death of the righteous is
frequently described in Scripture as a sleep; but such language is
obviously figurative, and gives no countenance to the notion that
the soul falls asleep when disunited from the body. When the dead
are said to be asleep, a metaphor is used, founded upon the striking
resemblance between death and sleep; and, at the same time, by
another figure of speech, a part is spoken of as the whole. They are
said to sleep, and to be unconscious and inactive, because these
things are true of their bodies.

IV. The souls of the righteous, immediately after death, are
admitted into the happiness of the heavenly state. Some, who allow
that the souls of believers possess consciousness, and experience
happiness in their disembodied state, conceive that at death their
souls pass into an intermediate state, and that they will enter into
Heaven only when the final judgment takes place. The Church of Rome
maintains that the souls of the saints, on leaving their bodies,
must pass for a time into a place called purgatory, that they may be
purified by fire from the stains of sin, which had not been washed
out during the present life. That Church further teaches, that the
pains and sufferings of purgatory may be alleviated and shortened by
the prayers of men here on earth; by the intercession of the saints
in Heaven; and, above all, by the sacrifice of the mass, offered by
the priests in the name of sinners; and that, as soon as souls are
released from purgatory, they are immediately admitted to eternal
happiness. Of this doctrine there is no trace in the Bible; it is a
cunningly devised fable, invented by designing men to impose upon
the credulous, and to fill their own treasures. The Scripture speaks
only of a Heaven and a Hell, into one of which all departed souls
have entered; and, accordingly, our Confession affirms: "Besides
these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the
Scripture acknowledges none."

The immediate admission of the souls of the righteous into Heaven is
confirmed by numerous passages of Scripture. Our Lord's promise to
the penitent thief: "Today shall you be with me in paradise" (Luke
23:43), implies that, before that day was finished, his soul should
be in the same place with the soul of Christ, and should enjoy all
the felicity which the word "paradise" suggests. When Stephen, with
his expiring breath, called upon God, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit" (Acts 7:59), he manifestly expected that his soul should
immediately pass into the presence of his Savior. The same thing is
implied in the language of Paul: "For me to live is Christ, and to
die is gain. I am in a strait between two, having a desire to
depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." Philippians
1:21, 23. Certainly if he had not expected to be admitted into the
presence of Christ until the resurrection, he would not have judged
it gain to die; and, instead of desiring, he would have been loath
to depart; for while he was in the body he was honorably engaged in
the service of Christ, and enjoyed delightful communion with him.
But the apostle tells us that the reason of his desire to depart
was, that he might be with Christ—in a state of blessedness far
superior to anything found in this present world. The same apostle
says: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from
the body, and to be present with the Lord." 2 Corinthians 5:8. No
words could express in a clearer manner the immediate transition of
the soul from its present habitation into the presence of Christ.
The believer's absence from the body and his presence with Christ
are closely connected; the latter succeeds the former without any
interval. Accordingly, the Apostle John heard a voice from Heaven,
saying to him: "Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,
from henceforth" (Rev. 14:13), that is, they are blessed from the
time of their death.

If the souls of believers are admitted into Heaven immediately after
death, it is evident that a wonderful change must then take place
upon them, in order to qualify them for the new state into which
they are introduced. Unless they were completely freed from every
stain of impurity, they would be unfit for the society of the
heavenly world, and incapable of enjoying the felicities of that
world. Our Confession accordingly asserts, that their souls are then
"made perfect in holiness," and in Scripture the souls of departed
saints are called "the spirits of just men made perfect." Hebrews
12:23.

V. The souls of the wicked are at death cast into Hell. While some
have maintained that the souls of the wicked shall never be
tormented in Hell, others have held that they shall not be adjudged
to that place of torment until after the resurrection; but,
according to the representation of our Savior, as soon as the rich
man died, "in Hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." Luke
16:23. The spirits of those who in the time of Noah were
disobedient, were, when the Apostle Peter wrote his epistle, shut up
in the prison of hell.—1 Peter 3:19.

SECTION 2. At the last day, such as are found alive shall not die,
but be changed: and all the dead shall be raised up with the
selfsame bodies, and none other, although with different qualities,
which shall be united again to their souls forever.

SECTION 3. The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ,
be raised to dishonor; the bodies of the just, by his Spirit, unto
honor, and be made conformable to his own glorious body.

Exposition of 32.2–32.3

I. Such as remain alive upon the earth at the last day shall not
die, but undergo a wonderful change. This truth was first revealed
to the Church in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (1
Corinthians 15:51): "Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed." When Christ shall descend from
Heaven to judge the world, some will be found alive upon the earth;
these shall not die, and sleep for a short time in the dust of the
earth; but they will experience a change equivalent to that which
shall pass on those who shall then be raised from the grave, and, as
we are informed, the dead saints will be raised before the living
are changed. "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." 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.

II. There shall be a general resurrection of the dead. This is a
doctrine which unassisted reason could not discover. The wisest of
the heathen philosophers derided it. When Paul preached at Athens,
which was called the Eye of Greece, the Epicurean and Stoic
philosophers mocked when he spoke of the resurrection of the dead.
But it cannot be reckoned an incredible thing that God should raise
the dead. If he be omnipotent and omniscient, as he certainly is,
otherwise he would cease to be God, this cannot be considered
impossible. He who formed the human body out of dust, and breathed
into it the breath of life, must be able to raise and animate it
again after it has been reduced to dust. To the power of God our
Savior referred, as an answer to all the cavils which might be
brought forward against the doctrine of the resurrection. To the
Sadducees, a sect of the Jews who denied this doctrine, he said:
"You do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God."
Matthew 22:29. But it is only by the revelation of the will of God
that we are infallibly assured of the certainty of the resurrection.
It was revealed in the writings of the Old Testament. Job expressed
the strongest confidence of the resurrection of his body.—Job 19:25.
The prediction of the Prophet Daniel is equally explicit.—Daniel
12:2. This doctrine held a prominent place in the discourses of our
Lord and his apostles. Nothing could be more explicit than our
Lord's declaration: "The hour is coming in the which all that are in
the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth," &c.—John
5:28, 29. After our Lord's ascension this was the grand theme of the
testimony of his apostles, as upon it the truth of the whole system
of Christianity rested. Hence Paul thus argued with the Corinthians:
"Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be
no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ
be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also
vain." 1 Corinthians 15:12–14. The resurrection of the saints is
firmly established by the resurrection of Christ himself. In the
chapter to which we have now referred, the apostle shows the
infallible evidence which he and his brethren had for the
resurrection of Christ, and then argues that the resurrection of
believers necessarily follows from the admission that Christ their
head is risen. The grave cannot always retain what is so intimately
connected with the living Redeemer. "Now is Christ risen from the
dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept." 1 Corinthians
15:20. See also 1 Thessalonians 4:14; Romans 8:11.

III. The dead shall be raised with the selfsame bodies, although
with very different qualities. The very term resurrection implies
that the same bodies shall be raised that fell by death; for if God
should form new bodies, and unite them to departed souls, it would
not be a resurrection, but a new creation. Our Savior declares: "All
that are in the graves shall come forth." This certainly implies
that the sam