3. A gratuitous immortality, or by gift and courtesy ; so the body of Adam in innocency, non conditione corporis, but henejiiio condiioris ; not by the condition of his body, but the bounty of his maker : so the bodies of the faithful after the resurrection shall be immortal.
Secondly, Let us prove this, that the soul is immortal, and subsisteth after the separation. The point is necessary to be discussed ; for till we are established in the belief of this truth, we shall fear no greater judgments than what do befall us in this world, nor expect greater mercies than what we enjoy here ; and so never take care to reconcile ourselves to God, or to deny the profits of the world and the pleasures of sense, that we may attain a better estate. An holy life will never else be endeavoured or produced to any good increase ; for such as men's belief is of an immortal or never-dying condition in heaven or hell, such will the bent of their hearts and course of life be ; there- fore the salvation of our souls is said to be the end of our faith : 1 Peter i. 9, 'Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.' There the ' end ' signifieth either the scope or the event ; if you take it for the scope, the great end of faith is to lead us from all worldly happiness to an estate after this life : Heb. x. 39, * But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.' Sense saith, Spare the flesh ; but faith saith, Save the soul. This is the scope and mark to which it tendeth. If you take it for the event and issue of things, all our believing, praying, enduring suffering, rejoicing, pleasing, and glorifying of God, endeth in this, the saving of our souls. Therefore let us see how it may be proved, both by scripture and by the light of reason.
I. By scripture, which is the proper means to beget faith. Dives desired one to go from the dead to tell his brethren of an everlasting estate of torment and bliss : Luke xvi. 27, 28, ' I pray thee, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house ; for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment ; ' intimating thereby that the cause of his own sin and theirs was unbelief, or a not being persuaded of a world to come. Alas ! we have but an obscure prospect of an estate after this life, and therefore indulge sensual delights. But what cure and remedy? Dives thought a spectre or apparition would be the best cure of this atheism ; but Abraham or Christ thought otherwise : he referreth them to Moses and the prophets ; that is, the holy scriptures, for all the books then written and received in the church are comprised in that expression. Since we arc sick of the same disease, this will be our best remedy. We are told, 2 Tim. i. 10, that Christ ' hath brought life and immor- tality to light through the gospel' It is the privilege of the divine revelation to represent this truth with more clearness and certainty.
1. With more clearness. There is a mist upon eternity, which is only dispelled by the light of the gospel. Reasons from nature may in some measure acquaint us with an everlasting estate, yet what kind
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of happiness it is that attendeth the godly, and what misery shall befall the wicked, it telleth us but little ; but the scripture sets down enough to invite our hopes and awaken our fears. Heathens had some conceits of Elysian fields and places of blessedness, and some obscure caverns appointed to be places of torment, fitted to work men into a blind superstition ; but the word of God hath given us such clear discoveries of future happiness and misery as that we may know what to hope for and what to fear ; and if well improved, will breed in us a true spirit of godliness.
2. In regard of certainty. Nature may give us some dark guesses and uncertain conjectures, so as the heathens, that had no other light, were ready to say.and unsay in a breath what they had spoken con- cerning our estate to come ; but the gospel is a sure word, apt to beget faith, not a wavering opinion. Go to sense, which judgeth by the outside of things : Eccles. iii. 21, ' Who knoweth the spirit of a man that goeth upward, and the spirit of a beast that goeth downward to the earth ? ' By sense we see mankind, as the beasts, to be conceived, foriiied in the belly, brought forth, nourished, to grow in strength and stature, wax old, and die ; by the eye we can discern no external sen- sible difference ; so that if we consult with mere sense, all religion and hope is gone. Go to reason, and that will tell us indeed that there is a difference between a man and a beast; that man knoweth and desire th things which the beasts do not and cannot ; and that the reasonable soul hath operations independent of matter and of the body, and there- fore it is probable it can subsist without the body ; for the manner of working showeth the manner of being. But there is cold comfort in a bare may-be. The gospel showeth it shall be. As a glass, it doth discover this state to us ; as a rule, it guideth us to the enjoyment of it ; as a motive, it persuadeth us to seek after it ; as a charter and grant, it doth assure our title to it : it is full fraught and thick sown with this kind of seed.