2. Nor is it liable to death by any adverse power without itself; no sword can touch it, no instrument of death can reach it : it is above the reach of all adversaries, Mat. x. 28. " Fear not them ** that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." The bounds and limits of creature-power are here fixed by Jesus Christ, beyond which they cannot go. They can wound, torment, and destroy the body, when God permits them : but the soul is out of their reach. A sword can no more hurt or wound it, than it can wound or hurt the light ; and consequently it is, and must needs be of an immortal nature.
Object. But there seems to be a decay upon our souls in our old age, and decays argue and imply corruption, and are so many steps and tendencies towards the death and dissolution thereof. The ex- perience of the whole world shews us how the apprehensions, judg- ments, wit, and memory of old men fail, even to that degree that they become children again in respect of the abilities of their minds : their souls only serving, as it were, to salt their bodies, and keep them from putrefaction for a few days longer.
Sol. It is a great mistake ; there is not the least decay upon the soul ; no time makes any change upon the essence of the soul : all the alteration that is made, is upon the organs and instruments of the body, which decay in time, and become unapt and unserviceable to the soul.
The soul, like an expert, skilful musician, is as able as ever it was, but the body, its instrument, is out of tune : and the ablest artist can make no pleasing melody upon an instrument whose strings are broken, or so relaxed that they cannot be screwed up to their due height.
Let Hippocrates, the prince of physicians, decide this matter for us. " The soul (saith he) cannot be changed or altered as to its " essence, by the access of meat or drink, or any other thing what- " soever ; but all the alterations that are made, must be referred " either to the spirits with which it mixeth itself, or to the vessels
56% A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
" and organs through which it streameth V So that this prove.? not its corruptibility : and being neither corruptible in itself, nor vulnerable by any creature without itself; seeing man cannot, and God will not destroy it, the conclusion is strongly inferred, That titer efore it is immortal.
The immortality of the souls of men may be concluded from the promises of everlasting blessedness, and the threatenings of everlast- ing miseries, respectively made in the scriptures of truth, to the godly and ungodly after this life ; which promises and threatenings had been altogether vain and delusory, if our souls perish with our bodies.
1. God has made many everlasting promises of blessedness, yea, he hath established an everlasting covenant betwixt himself and the souls of the righteous, promising to be their God for ever, and to bestow endless blessedness upon them in the world to come. Such a promise is that, John viii. 28. " I give unto them eternal life, and " they shall never perish." And John iv. 14. " Whosoever " drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst ; " but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of * water springing up into everlasting life." And again, John xi. 26. " Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.,> And once more, Rom. ii. 7. " To them who by patient continti- " ance in well-doing, seek for glory and honour, and immortality, " eternal life ;" with multitudes more of like nature.
Now if these be no vain and delusory promises, (as to be sure they are not, being the words of a true and faithful God) then those souls to whom they are made, must live for ever ; for if the subject of the promises fail, consequently the performance of the promises must fail too. For how shall they be made good, when those to whom they are made, are perished ?
Let it not be objected here, That the bodies of believers are con- cerned in the promises as well as their souls, and yet their bodies perish notwithstanding.
For we say, though their bodies die, yet they shall live again, and enjoy the fruit of the promises in eternal glory ; and whilst their bodies he in the grave, their souls are with God, enjoying the covenanted blessedness in heaven, Rom. viii. 10, 11. and so the covenant-bond is not loosed betwixt them and God by death, which it must needs be, in case the soul perish when the body doth. And upon this hypothesis, that argument of Christ is built, Mat. xxii.
* Anima nostra quoad essentiam mutari non potest, aut alterari, sive cibi, sive potus, cajuscunque rex alterius aecessu : referenda est enim omnium alterationum causa, aut ad S/iiritus, quibus «ee immiscet, aut ad vasa, sive organa quae permeat. Hippocrat. lib. de diaeta.
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32. proving the resurrection from the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; " I am the God of Abrahnm, and the " God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob : God is not the God of " the dead, but of the living,'1 q. d. If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be perished in soul as well as in body, how then is God theft God; what is become of the promise and covenant-relation ? for if one correlate fail, the relation necessarily fails with it. If God be their God, then certainly they are in being; " for God is not the God " of the dead,'1 i. e. of those that are utterly perished. Therefore it must needs be, that though their bodies be naturally dead, yet their souls still live ; and their bodies must live again at the resurrection by virtue of the same promise.
On the contrary, many threatenings of eternal misery, after this life, are found in the scriptures of truth, against ungodly and wick- ed persons. Such is that in 2 Thess. i. 7, 8, 9. " The Lord Jesus " shall be revealed from heaven in naming fire, to render vengeance " on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our " Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting de- M struction, from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his *' power." And speaking of the torments of the damned, Christ thus expresseth the misery of such wretched souls in hell, Mark ix. 44. " Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." But how shall the wicked be punished with everlasting destruction, if their souls have not an everlasting duration ? or how can it be said, Their worm (viz. the remorse and anguish of their conscience) dieth rnot, if their souls die ? Punishment can endure no longer than its subject endureth. If the being of the soul cease, its pains and punishments must have an end.