believers are with Clirist atter deatli, Pliil. i. 23. Qi^colampadias said to his friend, who came to visit liim on his death bed, Good news, I shall be shortly with Christ my Lord. And the devout soul shall be ever with the Lord, 1 Thess. iv. ult. The heathens had some glimmerings of the sovd's immortality. Cicero saith that the swan was dedicated to Apollo, because she sings sweetly before her death ; by which hieroglyphic they intimated the joyfulness of virtuous men be- fore their death, as supposing the Elysian delights, which they should always enjoy . after this life. And we read it was a cus- tom among the Romans, that when their great men died, they caused an eagle to fly aloft in the air, signifying hereby that the soul was immortal, and did not die as the body.
The soid's immortality may be proved by this arginnent, That which is not capable of •killing, is not capable of dying ; but the soul is not capable of killing ; our Saviour Christ proA'es the minor proposition, that it is not capable of killing. Luke xii. 4. " Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do." Therefore the soul not being capable of killing, is not in a possibility of dying ; the essence of the soul is metaphysical, it hath a beginning, but no end ; it is eternal, a parly post. The soul doth not wax old, it lives for ever, which can be said of no sublunary created glory. Worldly things are as full of mutation as mo- tion, and like Jonah's gourd, have a worm eating at the root.
II. The soul hath an estimative worth.
1. Jesus Christ hath set a high value and estimate upon the soul ; he made it, and he bought it, therefore he best knows the price of it. He did sell himself to buy the soul. Zech. xi. 12. " They weighed for my price tliirty pieces of silver." Nay, he was content not only to be sold, but to die ; this enhanc- eth the price of the soul, it cost the blood of God. Acts XX. 28. 1 Pet. i. 19. "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as sil- ver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." God must die, tliat the soul may live ; the heir of heaven was mortgaged, and laid to pawn for the soul of man. What could Christ give more than himself? what
in himself dearer than his blood ? O precious soul, that hast the image of God to beautify thee, and the blood of God to redeem thee ! Christ was the priest, his divine nature the altar, his blood the sacrifice which he did of- fer up as an atonement for our souls. Now reckon what a drop of Christ's blood is worth, and then tell me what a soul is worth.
2. Satan doth value souls, he knows their worth ; he saith as the king of Sodom did to Abraham, < Give me the persons, and take , the goods to thyself.' So saith Satan, ' Give I me the persons.' He cares not how rich you are, he doth not strive to take away your j estates, but your souls. Give me the per- sons, saith he, take you the goods ; whence are all his noemata^ his warlike stratagems, his subtle snares, but to catch souls ? Wliy doth this lion so roar but for his prey ? he envies the soul its happiness, he lays the whole train of tentation to blow up the whole fort-royal of the soul. Why doth he lay such suitable baits ? he allures the ambitious man with a crown, the covetous man with a golden apple ; the sanguine man with beau- ty ; why doth he tempt to Delilah's lap, but to keep you from Abraham's bosom ? the devil is angling for the precious soul ; to undo souls is his pride ; he glories in the damnation of souls ; it is next to victory to die revenged. If Samson must die, it is some comfort that he shall make more die with him ; if Satan, that lion, must be kept in his hellish den, it is all the heaven he ex- pects, to reach forth his paw, and pull others into the den with him.
2. Having showed you the soul's precious- ness ; the next thing to be demonstrated, is, that the soul is more precious than a world ; the world is made of a more impure lump ; the world is of a coarser make, of an earthly extract ; the soul is heaven-born, of a finer spinning, of a more noble descent ; the world is a great book or volume, wherein we read the majesty and wisdom of him that made it ; but the soul is the image of God, Gen. i. The soul is a studied piece ; when God made the world, it was but jiat^ let it be, and it was done ; but when he made the soul, all the persons in the Trinity sat together at the council table, Gen. i. 26. " Come, let us make man in our own likeness." The soul
TRECIOUSNESS OF THE SOUL.
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