The soul immortal.
6. The soul is
immortal, it will have a sensible being forever, and none can kill the soul (Luke
12:4; Matt 10:28). If all the angels in heaven, and all the men on earth,
should lay all their strength together, they cannot kill or annihilate one
soul. No, I will speak without fear, if it may be said, God cannot do what He
will not do; then He cannot annihilate the soul: but, notwithstanding all His
wrath, and the vengeance that He will inflict on sinful souls, they yet shall
abide with sensible beings, yet to endure, yet to bear the punishment. If anything
could kill the soul, it would be death; but death cannot do it, neither first
nor second; the first cannot, for when Dives was slain, as to his body by
death, his soul was found alive in hell—'He lift up his eyes in hell, being in
torment' (Luke 16:23). The second death cannot do it, because it is said their
worm never dies, but is always torturing them with his gnawing (Mark 9:44). But
that could not be, if time, or lying in hell fire forever, could annihilate
the soul. Now, this also shows the greatness of the soul, that it is that which
has an endless life, and that will, therefore, have a being endlessly. O what a
thing is the soul!
The soul, then, is
immortal, though not eternal. That is eternal that has neither beginning nor
end, and, therefore, eternal is properly applicable to none but God; hence He
is called the 'eternal God' (Deu 33:27). Immortal is that which, though it hath
a beginning, yet hath no end, it cannot die, nor cease to be; and this is the
state of the soul. It cannot cease to have a being when it is once created; I
mean, a living, sensible being. For I mean by living, only such a being as
distinguishes it from annihilation or incapableness of sense and feeling.
Hence, as the rich man is after death said to 'lift up his eyes in hell,' so
the beggar is said, when he died, to be 'carried by the angels, into Abraham's
bosom' (Luke 16:22,23). And both these sayings must have respect to the souls
of these men; for, as for their bodies, we know at present it is otherwise with
them. The grave is their house, and so must be till the trumpet shall sound,
and the heavens pass away like a scroll. Now, I say, the immortality of the
soul shows the greatness of it, as the eternity of God shows the greatness of
God. It cannot be said of any angel but that he is immortal, and so it is, and
ought to be said of the soul. This, therefore, shows the greatness of the soul,
in that it is as to abiding so like unto him.
'Tis the soul that
acts the body.
7. But a word or two
more, and so to conclude this head. The soul!—why, it is the soul that acteth
the body in all these things, good or bad, that seems good and reasonable, or
amazingly wicked. True, the acts and motions of the soul are only seen and
heard in, and by the members and motions of the body, but the body is but a
poor instrument, the soul is the great agitator and actor. 'The body without the
spirit is dead' (James 2:26). All those famous arts, and works, and inventions
of works, that are done by men under heaven, they are all the intentions of the
soul, and the body, as acting and labouring therein, doth it but as a tool that
the soul maketh use of to bring his invention into maturity (Eccl 7:29). How
many things have men found out to the amazing of one another, to the wonderment
of one another, to the begetting of endless commendations of one another in the
world, while, in the meantime, the soul, which indeed is the true inventor of
all, is overlooked, not regarded, but dragged up and down by every lust, and
prostrate, and made a slave to every silly and beastly thing. O the amazing
darkness that hath covered the face of the hearts of the children of men, that
they cannot deliver their soul, nor say, 'Is there not a lie in my right hand?'
(Isa 44:20), though they are so cunning in all other matters. Take a man in
matters that are abroad, and far from home, and he is the mirror of all the
world, but take him at home, and put him upon things that are near him, I mean,
that have respect to the things that concern his soul, and then you will find
him the greatest fool that ever God made. But this must not be applied to the
soul simply as it is God's creature, but to the soul sinful, as it has
willingly apostatized from God, and so suffered itself to be darkened, and that
with such thick and stupifying darkness, that it is bound up and cannot—it hath
a napkin of sin bound so close before its eyes that it is not able—of itself—to
look to, and after those things which should be its chiefest concern, and
without which it will be most miserable forever.
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