Son, and Spirit, holy angels, and perfected saints, Heb. xii. 23, " The " spirits of just men made perfect.1'' (3.) From the bondage of corrup- tion to perfect liberty and everlasting freedom ; so much is implied, Heb. xii. 23. " The spirits of just men made perfect." (4.) From all fears, doubtings, and questionings of our conditions, and anxious debates of our title to Christ, to the clearest, fullest, and most satis- fying assurance ; for what a man sees, how can he doubt of it ? (5.) From all burdens of affliction, inward and outward, under which we have groaned all our days, to everlasting rest and ease, 2 Cor. v. 1 , 2, 3. Oh what a blessed change to the righteous must this be !
(2.) A marvellous change will also be then made upon the souls of the ungodly, who shall then part from (1.) All their comforts and pleasant enjoyments in the world ; for here they had their consolation ; Luke xvi. 25. here was all their portion, Psal. xvii. 14. and, in a moment, find themselves arrested and seized by Satan, as God's gaoler, hurrying them away to the prison of hell, 1 Pet. hi. 19. " there to be reserved to the judgment of the great day," Jude 6. (2.) From under the means of grace, life, and salvation, to a state perfectly void of all means, instruments, and opportunities of salva- tion, John ix. 4. Eccl. ix. 10. never to hear the joyful sound of preach- ing or praying any more ; never to hear the wooing voice of the blessed bridegroom, saying, Come imto me, come unto me, any more. (3.) From all their vain, ungrounded, presumptuous hopes of heaven, into absolute and final desperation of mercy. The very sinews and nerves of hope are cut by death, Prov. xiv. 32. " The wicked is " driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his " death." These are the great and astonishing alterations that will be made upon our souls, after they part with the bodies which they now inhabit. Oh that we, who cannot but be conscious to ourselves that we must over-live our bodies, were more thoughtful of the condition they must enter into, after that separation which is at hand.
Inf. 10. If our souls be immortal, then death is neither to be feared by them in heaven, nor hoped for them in hell. The being of souls never fails, whether they be in a state of blessedness or of misery. " In glory they are ever with the Lord," 1 Thes. iv. 17. There shall be no death there, Rev. xxi. 4. And in hell, though they shall wish for death, yet death shall flee from them *. Though there be no fears of annihilation in heaven, yet there be many wishes for it in hell, but to no purpose ; there never will bo an end put, either to their being, or to their torments. In this res- pect no other creatures are capable of the misery that wicked men
* O death thou art sweet to those to whom tbou wast formerly bitter : They desire thee alone, who did hate thee alone. August.
588 A TAEATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAX.
are capable of: When they die, there is the end of all their misery ; but it is not so with men. Better therefore had it been for them, if God had created them in the basest and lowest order and rank of creatures ; a dog, a toad, a worm, is better than a man in end- less misery, ever dying, and never dead. And so much of the soul's immortality.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and che- risheth it, even as the Lord the church.
JHlAVING given some account of the nature and immortality of the soul, we next come, from this text, to discourse of its love and inclination to the body, with which it is united. The scope of the apostle is, to press Christians to the exact discharge of those relative duties they owe to each other; particularly, he here urgeth the mutual duties of husbands and wives, ver. 22. wives to an obedient subjection, husbands to a tender love of their wives. This exhor- tation he enforceth from the intimate union, which, by the ordinance of God, is betwixt them, they being now one flesh. And this union he illustrates by comparing it with,
1. The mystical union of Christ and the church.
2. The natural union of the soul and body.
And from both these, as excellent examples and patterns, he, with great strength of argument, urgeth the duty of love : ver. 28. " So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies ; he that " loveth his wife, loveth himself." Self-love is naturally implanted in all men, and it is the rule by which we measure out and dispense our love to others. " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
This self-love he opens in this place, by,
(1.) The universality of it.
(2.) The effects that evidence it.
1. The universality of it. No man ever yet hated his own flesh. By flesh, understand the body by an usual metonymy of a part for the whole, called flesh. By hating it, understand a simple hatred, or hatred itself. It is usual for men to hate the deformities and diseases of their own bodies, and upon that account to deal with the members of their own bodies as if they hated them ; hence it is, they willingly stretch forth a gangrened leg or arm to be cut off for the preservation of the rest : but this is not a simple hatred of a man's self, but rather an argument of the strength of the soul's love to the body, that it will be content to endure so much pain and anguish for its sake. And if the soul be at any time weary of,
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. 589
and willing to part, not with a single member only, but with the whole body, and loaths its union with it any longer, yet it hates it and loaths it not simply in, and for itself, but because it is so filled with diseases all over, and loads the soul daily with so much grief, that how well soever the soul loves it in itself, yet upon such sad terms and conditions it would not be tied to it. This was Job's case, Job x. 1. " My soul is weary of my life;" yet not simply of his life, but of such a life of pain and trouble. Except it be in such respects and cases, no man, saith he, ever yet hated his own flesh, i. e. no man in his right mind, and in the exercise of his reason and sense ; for we must expect distracted and delirious men, who know not what they do, as also men under the terrors of conscience, when God suffers it to rage in extremity, as Spira and others, who would have been glad with their own hands to have cut the thread that tied their miserable souls to their bodies, supposing that way, and by that change, to find some relief. Either of these cases forces men to act beside the stated rule of nature and reason.