Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/112

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108
A COMPENDIUM OF THE

1 Sam. xxviii. 11 to 19. Samuel, after he was dead, first appeared to a woman who had a familiar spirit, and afterwards to Saul, whose spiritual eyes were opened on the occasion: during which interview Samuel was neither in heaven nor in hell, but in the world of spirits between both.

2 Kings vi. 17. A mountain full of horses and chariots of fire was seen in the world of spirits, or intermediate place between heaven and hell, by Elisha's young man, when his spiritual eyes were opened for the express purpose.

Ezekiel, chap. ii. iii. viii. ix. x. xxxvii. xl. xli. xlii. xliii. xliv. xlvi. xlvii. In all these chapters the prophet speaks of what he saw in vision, or in the world of spirits: but particularly in chap. viii. he states, that, while he was in the spirit, he was lifted up between the earth and the heaven; and in chap, xxxvii. that the spirit took him, and set him down in the midst of a valley full of dry bones, which afterwards received life. Now this valley was neither in heaven, nor in hell, and yet it was in some part of the spiritual world; for the prophet expressly says, that he was taken there in the spirit. Whence it clearly follows, that there is an intermediate state and place between heaven and hell, which being inhabited by spirits of a mixed quality, not yet prepared either for the one or the other, is therefore called the world of spirits.

Daniel, chap. vii. 3 to 8, being in spiritual vision, saw four great beasts come up from the sea. He saw likewise, chap. viii. 3 to 12, a ram and a he-goat, the former of which prospered for a time, until the latter smote him, cast him to the ground, and stamped upon him. And again, chap. xii. 7, being still in the vision of his spirit, he saw a man clothed in linen, by the side of a river, who lifted up his right hand and his