1. That which he gives them in hand; "White robes were " given to every one of them."" It is generally agreed, that these white robes given them, denote heavenly glory, the same which is promised to all sincere and faithful ones, who preserve themselves pure from the corruptions and defilements of the world, Rev. iii. 4. And it is as much as if God should have said to them, Although the time be not come to satisfy your desires, in the final ruin and overthrow of Satan's tyrannical kingdom in the world, and Christ's consummate conquest of all his enemies, yet it shall be well with you in the mean time : you shall walk with me in white, and enjoy your glory in heaven.
2. And this is not all ; but the very things they cry for shall be given them also after a little season ; q. d. wait but a little while, till the rest that are to follow, in the same suffering path, be got
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 5o$
through the red-sea of martyrdom, as you are, and then you shall see the foot of Christ upon the necks of all his enemies, and justice shall fully avenge the precious, innocent blood of all the saints which in all ages hath been shed for my sake ; from the blood of Abel, to the last that shall ever suffer for righteousness sake in the world. From all which, this conclusion is most fair and obvious.
Doct. That the sends of men perish not with their bodies, but do certainly over-live them, and subsist in a state of separation from them. Mat. x. 28. " Fear not them that kill the body. " but are not able to kill the soul.11
The bodies of these Martyrs of Jesus were destroyed by divers sorts of torments, but their souls were out of the reach of all these cruel engines ; they were in safety under the altar, and in glory clothed with their white robes, when their bodies they lately inhabited on earth, were turned to ashes, or torn to pieces by wild beasts.
The point I am to discourse from this scripture, is the immor- tality of the soul. For the better understanding whereof, let it be noted that there is a twofold immortality.
I. Simple, and absolute in its own nature.
II. Derived, dependent, and from the pleasure of God.
In the former sense, God only hath immortality, as the apostle speaks, 1 Tim. vi. 16. Our souls have it as a gift from him. He that created our souls out of nothing, can, if he please, reduce them to nothing again ; but he hath bestowed immortality upon them, and produced them in a nature suitable to that his appointment, fitted for an everlasting life. So that though God by his absolute power can, yet he never will annihilate them, but they shall, and must live for ever in endless blessedness or misery ; death may destroy these mortal bodies, but it cannot destroy our souls. And the certainty of this assertion is grounded upon these reasons, and will be cleared by these following arguments.
The first argument for proof of the souPs immortality, may be taken from the simplicity, spirituality, and uncompoundednessofits nature ; it is a pure, simple, unmixed being. * Death is the dissolu- tion of things compounded; where therefore no composition or mixture is found, no death or dissolution can follow.
Death is the great divider, but it is of things that are divisible. The more simple, pure, and refined any material thing is, by so
* Death is a separation, dissolving, or tearing asunder of parts that had been joined by some union. Tullius.
oGO A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN'.
much the more permanent and durable it is found to be. The nearer it approaches to the nature of spirits, the farther it is removed from the power of death : but that which is not material, or mixed at all, is wholly exempt from the stroke and power of death. It is from the contrarient qualities, and jarring humours, in mixed bodies, that they come under the law and power of dissolution. Matter and mixture, are the doors at which death enters naturally upon the creatures.
But the soul of man is a simple, spiritual, immaterial, and un- mixed being, not compounded of matter and form, as other creatures are, but void of matter, and altogether spiritual, as may appear in the vast capacity of its understanding faculty, which cannot be straitened by receiving multitudes of truths into it. It need not empty itself of what it had received before, to make way for more truth ; nor doth it find itself clogged or burdened by the greatest multitudes or varieties of truths ; but the more it knows, the more it still desires to know. Its capacity and appetite are found to en- large themselves according to the increase of knowledge. So that to speak, as the matter is, If the knowledge of all arts, sciences, and mysteries of nature, could be gathered into the mind of one man, yet that mind would thirst, and even burn with desire after more knowledge, and find more room for it than it did when it first sipt, and relished the sweetness of truth. Knowledge, as know- ledge, never burdens or cloys the mind ; but like fire increases and enlarges, as it finds more matter to work upon. Now this could never be, if the soul were a material being. Take the largest vessel, and you shall find the more you pour into it, the less room is still left for more ; and when it is full, you cannot pour in one drop more, except you let out what was in it before*. But the soul is no such vessel, it can retain all it had, and be still receptive of more; so that nothing can fill it, and satisfy it, but that which is infinite and perfect.
The natural appetite after food is sometimes sharp and eager, but then there is a stint and measure beyond which it craves not ; but the appetite of the mind is more eager and unlimited ; it never saith till it come to rest in God, it is enough •(-, because the faculty which produceth it, is more active, spiritual, and imma- terial. All matter has its limits, bounds, and just measures, beyond which it cannot be extended. But the soul is boundless, and its appetition infinite; it rests not, but in the spiritual and infinite
* Intus existent prohibet alienum. i. e. What is already within, refuses access to what ■ without.
f dppetitus finis est ivfinitv.s. There is no end of desiring, till we come at the desired end, which i- C.»J.
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Being, God alone being its adequated object, and able to satisfy its desires ; which plainly proves it to be a spiritual, immaterial, and simple being. And being so, two things necessarily follow there- from.
1. That it is void of any principle of corruption in itself.
%. That it is not liable to any stroke of death, by any adverse power without itself.
1. It cannot be liable to death, from any seeds or principles of corruption within itself; for where there is no composition, there is no dissolution : the spirituality and simplicity of the soul admit of no corruption.