Johannes Maccovius, Theological Distinctions XVIII.
James Dodson
Chapter XVIII
Of the State of Souls before the Resurrection
I. There are only two places to which souls are carried after death: hell and heaven.
As Scripture testifies this everywhere, so also Matthew 7 teaches it by the broad and narrow way. John 5 teaches that he who believes has eternal life, but he who does not believe is already condemned. Therefore the limbus of the fathers, the limbus of infants, and purgatory are condemned as traditions of men speaking beside Scripture.
II. The souls which are in heaven do not yet enjoy perfect felicity; just as neither are the souls which are in hell tormented with the full torment owed to them.
Concerning the souls of the faithful this is certain. First, because they are not yet joined with their bodies, and—
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—therefore they do not yet see all enemies so bound that they can do nothing further against them. And this is what the Holy Spirit intends in 1 Corinthians 15, when He treats of perfect felicity: among other things, He says that the last enemy must be abolished. Second, because they do not yet see their brethren and all the members of the body of Christ with them.
As to the souls of the damned, they also are not yet tortured with the torments owed to them. This is clear from the devils themselves, who are not yet perfectly tormented. In Mark 5 they cry out to Christ, saying, “Why have You come to torment us before the time?” 1 Peter 3; Jude 6.
III. The souls of the godly, separated from their bodies, pray in common for the Church militant, but not particularly or singly.
First, because the angels, who are our brethren, pray for us. Second, because the degree of charity is now greater in departed believers than it was when they were living, since they are perfectly regenerated.
IV. The souls of the faithful, separated from their bodies, do not know what is done on this earth, much less do they know it perfectly.
The Papists maintain the latter, and say that—
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—in the essence of God, as in a mirror, they see all things. But this is absurd; for it belongs to God alone to know all things. If the matter were so, as Becanus the Jesuit observed, what would be the reason that they are ignorant of the day of judgment? For of this it is said that not even the Son of man knew it. And, contrariwise, we have many things in the sacred Scriptures showing that they know nothing of those things which are done on earth, as 2 Kings 22:20; Isaiah 63:16.
V. None of those who are excluded from the kingdom of heaven will feel only the punishment of loss, but also that of sense.
Against the Papists, who say that unbaptized infants do indeed feel the punishment of loss, but not that of sense. But this is false, for the Holy Ghost says that for all there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Luke 13:28.
VI. The souls of men do not perish when their bodies are corrupted.
The heathen philosophers observed this, and therefore also teach that the rational soul is ingenerable and independent of the body, both in acting and in being. Scripture testifies this most clearly, Matthew 10: “Fear not them,” etc.
VII. The rational soul is immortal.
This follows from the preceding point. How is it immortal?
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Response. First, it is immortal privatively, not negatively. Second, we say that it cannot perish so as to die, as those things die which have a soul; but it can perish so as to be annihilated. For He who made the soul out of nothing can also reduce it again to nothing.