fouls of the martyrs at the foot or basis of this altar; thereby ta inform us, (1.) That however men look upon the death of those perfons, and though they kill their names by flanders, as well as their perfons by the fword; yet, in God's account, they die as facrifices, and their blood is no other than a drink-offering poured out to God, which he highly prizeth, and graciously accepteth. Suitable whereunto Paul's expreffion is, Phil. ii. 17. (2.) That the value and acceptation their death and bloodfhed hath with God, is through Chrift, and upon his account; for it is the altar which fanctifieth the gift, Mat. xxiii. 19 And, (3.) It informs us, that thefe holy fouls, now in a state of feparation from their bodies, were very near to Jefus Chrift in heaven. They lay, as it were, at his foot. Once more, they are here defcribed to us by the cause of their fufferings and death in this world; and that was, "for the word "of God, and for the teftimony which they held;" i. e. They died in defence of the truths, or will of God revealed in his word, against the corruptions, oppofitions, and innovations of men. As one of the martyrs, that held up the Bible at the stake, faid, This is it that hath brought me hither. They died not as malefactors, but as witneffes. They gave a threefold teftimony to the truth; a lip-teftimony, a life-teftimony, and a blood-testimony; whilft the hypocrite gives but one, and many Christians but two. Thus we have an account of what John saw. 2. Next he tells us what he heard; and that was, (1.) The cry which they uttered with a loud voice was this, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, doft thou not avenge our "blood on them that dwell on the earth?" A cry like that from the blood of Abel. Yet let it be remembred, 1. This cry doth not imply thefe holy fouls to be in a reflefs ftate, or to want true fatisfaction and repofe out of the body; nor yet, 2. That they carried with them to heaven any malevolent or 'revengeful difpofition: that whichis principally fignified by this cry, is their vehement defire after the abolition of the kingdom of Satan, and the completion and confummation of Chriff's kingdom in this world; that thofe his enemies, which oppofe his kingdom, by flaying his faints, may be made his footstool: which is the fame thing Chrift waits for in glory, Heb. x. 13. (2.) Here we find God's gracious anfwer to the cry of these fouls, in which he fpeaks fatisfaction to them two ways 1. By fomewhat given them for prefent. 2. By fomewhat promised them hereafter. 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 fame which is promised to all fincere and faithful ones, who preferve themfelves pure from the corruptions, and defilements of the world, Rev iii. 4. And it is as much as if God fhould have faid to them, Although the time be not come to fatisfy your defires, in the final ruin and overthrow of Satan's tyrannical kingdom in the world, and Chrift's confurnmate conqueft of all his enemies, yet it fhall 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 fhall be given them alfo after a little feafon; q. d. wait but a little while, till the reft that are to follow, in the fame fuffering path, be got through the red fea of martyrdom, as you are, and then you fhall fee the foot of Chrift upon the necks of all his enemies, and juftice fhall fully avenge the precious, innocent blood of all the faints, which in all ages hath been fhed for my fake; from the blood of Abel, to the last that fhall ever fuffer for righteousness fake in the world. From all which, this conclufion is most fair and obvious; Do&t. That the fouls of men perish not with their bodies, but do certainly over-live them, and fubfift in a state of feparation from them. Mat. x. 28. "Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the foul." The bodies of these martyrs of Jefus were deftroyed by divers forts of torments, but their fouls were out of the reach of all those cruel engines; they were in fafety under the altar, and in glory, cloathed with their white robes, when their bodies, they lately inhabited on earth, were turned to afhes, and torn to pieces by wild beasts. The point I am to discourse from this fcripture, is the immortality of the foul. For the better understanding whereof, let it be noted that there is a twofold immortality. I. Simple, and abfolute in its own nature. II. Derived, dependent, and from the pleasure of God. In the former fenfe, God only hath immortality, as the apostle speaks, 1 Tim. vi. 16. Our fouls have it as a gift from him. He that created our fouls out of nothing, can, if he pleafe, reduce them to nothing again; but he hath bestowed immortality upon them, and produced them in a nature fuitable to that his appointment, fitted for an everlasting life. So that though 啡 God by his abfolute power can, yet he never will annihilate them, but they fhall, and muft live for ever in endlefs bleffednefs or misery; death must destroy thefe mortal bodies, but it cannot destroy our fouls. And the certainty of this affertion is grounded upon these reasons, and will be cleared by these following arguments. Arg. 1. The firft argument for proof of the foul's immortality, may be taken from the fimplicity, fpirituality, and uncompoundedness of its nature; it is a pure, fimple, unmixed being. * Death is the diffolution of things compounded; where therefore no compofition or mixture is found, no death or diffolution can follow. Death is the great divider, but it is of things that are divifible. The more fimple, pure, and refined any material thing is, by fo much the more permanent and durable it is found to be. The nearer it approacheth to the nature of fpirits, 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 contrariant qualities, and jarring humours, in mixed bodies, that they come under the law and power of diffolution. Matter, and mixture, are the doors at which death enters naturally upon the creatures. But the foul of man is a fimple, fpiritual, immaterial, and unmixed being, not compounded of matter and form, as other creatures are, but void of matter, and altogether fpiritual; as may appear in the vaft capacity of its understanding faculty, which cannot be ftraitned 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 defires to know. Its capacity and appetite are found to enlarge themselves, according to the increase of knowledge. So that, to fpeak, as the matter is, If the knowledge of all arts, fciences, and mysteries of nature, could be gathered into the mind of one man, yet that mind would thirst, and even burn with defire after more knowledge, and find more room for it than it did when it first sipt, and relished the sweetness of truth. Knowledge, as knowledge, never burdens or cloys the mind; but like fire increafes and enlarges, as it finds more matter to work upon. Now this could never be, if the foul were a material being. Take the * Death is a feparation, diffolving, or tearing asunder of parts that had been joined by fome union. Tullius. largeft veffel, and you shall find that the more you pour into it, the lefs room is ftill 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 foul is no fuch veffel, it can retain all it had, and be ftill receptive of more; fo that nothing can fill it, and fatisfy it, but that which is infinite and perfect. The natural appetite after food is fometimes fharp and eager, but then there is a flint and meafure, beyond which it craves not; but the appetite of the mind is more eager and unlimited; it never faith till it come to reft in God, it is enough †, because the faculty which produceth it, is more active, fpiritual, and immaterial. All matter has its limits, bounds, and juft meafures, beyond which it cannot be extended. But the fouì is boundless, and its appetitions infinite; it refts not, but in the spiritual and infinite Being, God alone being its adequated object, and able to fatisfy its defires; which plainly proves it to be a spiritual, immaterial, and fimple being. And being fo, two things neceffarily follow therefrom. 1. That it is void of any principle of corruption in itself. 2. That it is not liable to any ftroke of death, by any adverse power without itself. 1. It cannot be liable to death, from any feeds or principles of corruption within itfelf; for where there is no compofition, there is no diffolution: the fpirituality, and fimplicity of the foul admits of no corruption. 2. Nor is it liable to death, by any adverse power without itfelf; no fword can touch it, no inftrument of death can reach it : it is above the reach of all adversaries, Matth. x. 28. "Fear not "them that kill the body, but cannot kill the foul." The bounds and limits of creature-power are here fixed by Jefus Christ, beyond which they cannot go. They can wound, torment, and detroy the body, when God permits them: but the foul is out of their reach: a fword 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 fouls in cur old age, and decays argue and imply corruption, and are fo many steps and tendencies towards the death and diffolution there *Intus exiftens prohibet alienum. i. e. What is alrea 'y within, refufes accefs to what is without. + Appetitus finis eft infinitus. There is no end of defiring, till we come at the defired end, which is God. VOL. III. B b of. The experience of the whole world fhews us how the ap prehenfions, judgments, 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 fouls only lerving, as it were, to falt their bodies, and keep them from putrefaction for a few longer. Sol, It is a great mistake, there is not the least decay upon the foul, no time makes any change upon the effence of the foul all the alteration that is made, is upon the organs and inftruments of the body, which decay in time, and become inapt and unserviceable to the foul. The foul, like an expert skilful musician, is as able as ever it was, but the body, its inftrument, is out of tune: and the ableft artift can make no pleafing melody upon an inftrument whofe ftrings are broken, or fo relaxed that they cannot be fcrewed up to their due height. Let Hippocrates, the prince of phyficians, decide this matter for us. "The foul (faith he) cannot be changed or altered as "to its effence, by the accels of meat or drink, or any other "thing whatfoever; but all the alterations that are made, must "be referred either to the fpirits with which it mixeth itself, "or to the veffels and organs through which it ftreameth ." So that this proves not its corruptibility, and being neither corruptible in itself nor vulnerable by any creature without itself; nor feeing man cannot, and God will not destroy it, the conclufion s ftrongly inferred, That therefore it is immortal. ARGUMENT II. The immortality of the fouls of men may be concluded from the promises of everlafting bleffednefs, and the threatnings of everlasting miferies, refpectively made in the fcriptures of truth, to the godly and ungodly, after this life; which promises and threatnings had been altogether vain and delufory, if our fouls perish with our bodies. 1. God has made many everlasting promifes of bleffedness, yea, he hath established an everlasting covenant betwixt himself and the fouls of the righteous, promifing to be their God for eyer, and to bestow endless bleffedness upon them in the world Such a promife is that, John viii. 28. “I give unto to come. Anima noftra quoad effentiam mutari non poteft, aut alterari, five cibi, five potus, five cujufcunque rei alterius acceffu: referenda eft enim omnium alterationum caufa, aut ad Spiritus, quibus fe immifcet, aut ad vafa, five organa quæ permeat. Hippocrat. lib. de diaeta, |