go away?" Men may outlive their acquired gifts, but hor their fupernatural graces. These stick by the foul, as Ruth to Naomi, and where it goes they go too: fo that when the foul is diflodged by death, all its graces afcend up with it into glory; it carries away all its faith, love, delight in God, all its comfortable experiences, and fruits of communion with God, along with it to heaven. For death is fo far from divefting the foul of its graces, that it perfects in a moment all that was defective in them; 1 Cor. xiii. 10. "When that which is perfect shall come, then that which is in part shall be done away," as the twilight is done away when the fun is up, and at its zenith. So then, grace never dieth, and this never-dying grace is infeparable from its fubject; by which it is plain to him that confiders, that as graces, fo fouls abide for ever.

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Object. But this only proves the immortality of regenerate souls. Sol. It doth fo. But then confider, as there be gracious habits in the regenerate that never die, fo there are vicious habits in the unregenerate that can never be feparated from them in the world to come. Hence John viii. 24. they are faid to "die "in their fins ;" and Job xx. 11. "Their iniquities lie down "with them in the duft;" and Ezek. xxiv. 13. "They fhall "never be purged." Remarkable is that place, Rev. xxii. 11, "Let him that is filthy, be filthy ftill." And if guilt fticks fo faft, and fin be fo deeply engraven in impenitent fouls, they alfo must remain for ever, to bear the punishment of them.

The immortality of the foul of man may be evinced from the dignity of man above all other creatures, (angels only excepted) and his dominion over them all.

In this, the fcriptures are clear, that man is the master-piece of all God's other works; Pfal. viii. 5, 6. “For thou haft made "him a little lower than the angels, and haft crowned him with glory and honour. Thou haft made him to have dominion over the works of thy hand, thou haft put all things under "his feet." Other creatures were made for his fervice, and he is crowned king over them all. One man is of more worth than all the inferior creatures.

But wherein is his dignity and excellency above all other creatures, if not in refpect of the capacity and immortality of his foul? Sure it can be found no where elfe; for as to the body, many of the creatures excel man in the perfections of sense, greatnefs of strength, agility of members, &c.

Nos aper auditu praecellit, aranea tactu,
Vultur odoratu, lynx vifu, fimia guftu..

And for beauty, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of the lilies of the field. The beafts and fowls enjoy more pleasure, and live divested of all thofe cares and cumbers which perplex and wear out the lives of men. It cannot be, in refpect of bodily perfections or pleasures, that man excels other

creatures.

If you fay, He excels them all in respect of that noble endowment of reason, which is peculiar to man, and his fingular excellency above them all.

It is true, this is his glory: but if you deprive the reasonable foul of immortality, you defpoil it of all, both of its glory and comfort, and put the reafonable into a worfe condition than the unreasonable and brutish creatures. For if the foul may die with the body, and man perish as the beast, happier is the life of the beast, which is perplexed with no cares nor fears about futurities; our reafon ferves to little other purpose but to be an engine of torture, a mere rack to our fouls.

Certainly, the privilege of man doth not consist in reason, as abftracted from immortality. But in this it properly confifts, that he enjoys not only a reasonable, but allo rejoiceth in an immortal foul, which fhall overlive the world, and fubsist separate from the body, and abide for ever, when all other fouls, being but a material form, perish with that matter on which they depend. This is the proper dignity of man, above the beast that perisheth; and to deprive him of immortality, and leave him his reafon, is but to leave him a more miserable and wretched creature than any that God hath put under his feet. For man is a profpecting creature, and raiseth up to himself vaft hopes and fears from the world to come: by these he is reftrained from the fenfual pleafures, which other creatures freely enjoy, and exercifed with ten thousand cares, which they are unacquainted with; and to fail at last of all his hopes and expectations of happiness, in the world to come, is to fall many degrees lower than the lowest creature shall fall; even fo much lower as his expectations and hopes had lifted him higher.

ARGUMENT VI.

The fouls of men must be immortal, or elfe the defires of immortality are planted in their fouls in vain.

That there are defires of immortality found in the hearts of all men, is a truth too evident to be denied or doubted *. Man

I befeech men, for God's fake, that if at any time there arise in them a defire, or a wish that others should speak well of them rather VOL. III.

C c

than

And his

cannot bound and terminate his defires within the narrow limits of this world, and the time that meafures it. Nothing that can be measured by time is commenfurate to the defires of man's foul. No motto better fuits it than this, Non eft mortale quod opto; I feek for that which will not die, Rom. ii. 7. great relief against death lies in this, Non omnis moriar; That he fhall not totally perish. Yea, we find in all men, even in thofe that feem to be most drowned, and loft in the love and delights of this prefent world, a natural defire to continue their names and memories to posterity after death. Hence it is faid, Pfal. xlix. 11. "Their inward thought is, that their houses shall "continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; "they call their lands after their own names.

And hence is the defire of children, which is, as one faith, nedofa aeternitas, a knotty eternity; when our threed is fpua out and cut off, their threed is knit to it; and fo we dream of a continued fucceffion in our name and family.

Abfalom had no children to continue his memory; to fupply which defect, he reared up a pillar, 2 Sam. xviii. 18. Now it cannot be imagined that God fhould plant the defire of immortality in those fouls, that are incapable of it; not yet can we give a rational account how thefe apprehenfions of immortality fhould come into the fouls of men, except they themfelves be of an immortal nature. For, either these notions and apprehenfions of immortality are impreffed upon our fouls by God, or do naturally fpring out of the fouls of men: If God imprefs them, thofe impreffions are made in vain, if there be no fuch thing as immortality to be enjoyed; and if they spring and rife naturally out of our fouls, that is a fufficient evidence of their immortality. For we can no more conceive, and form to ourfelves, ideas and notions of immortality, if our fouls be mortal, than the brutes which are void of reafon, can form to themselves notions and conceptions of rationality. So then the very apprehenfions and defires that are found in mens hearts of immortality, do plainly speak them to be of an immortal nature

than evil after their death, then at that time they would seriously confider whether thefe motions are not from fome fpirit, to continue a fpirit after it leaves its earthly habitation, rather than from an earthly fpirit, a vapour, which cannot act, or imagine, or defire, or fear things beyond its continuance. Hale de anima, p. 72.

It forms conceptions of things fpiritual and abftract from mat ter, and difcerns objects which have no dimenfions, figure, colour, or affection of matter. If the foul itself is the fountain or idea of

of

:

ARGUMENT VII.

Moreover, the account given us in fcripture of the return of feveral fouls into their own bodies again after death, and real separation from them, fhews us that the foul fubfifts, and lives in a feparate state after death, and perisheth not by the stroke of death For if it were annihilated or deftroyed by death, the fame foul could never be reftored again to the fame body. A dead body may indeed be acted by an affifting form, which may move and carry it from place to place: So the devil hath acted the dead bodies of many; but they cannot be faid to live again by their own fouls, after a real feparation by death, unless those fouls overlived the bodies they forfook at death, and had their abode in another place and state. You have divers unquestionable examples of the fouls return into the body, recorded in fcripture: As that of the Shunamite's fon, 2 Kings iv. 18, 19, 20, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37. That of the ruler's daughter, Mat. ix. 18, 23, 24, 25. That of the widows fon, Luke vii. 12, 13, 14, 15. And that of Lazarus, John xi. 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45. "These are no other † but the

very fame fouls, their own fouls which returned to them a26 gain; which, as Chryfoftom well obferves, is a great proof "of their immortality, against them that think the soul is annihilated after the death of the body."

It is true, the fcripture gives us no account of any fense, or apprehenfion they retained after their re-union of the place or state they were in, during their feparation. There seemed to be a perfect aurora, forgetfulness of all that they faw or felt in the ftate of feparation. And indeed it was neceffary it should be to, that our faith might be built rather upon the fure promises of God, than fuch reports and narratives of them that came to us from the dead, Luke xvi. 31. And if we believe not the word, neither would we believe if one came from the dead.

ARGUMENT VIII,

Moreover, Eighthly, The fuppofition of the foul's perifhing with the body, is fubverfive of the Chriftian religion in the prin cipal doctrines and duties thereof: take away the immortality of Cc 2

immortality, it must be immortal; because what is momentary, cannot form an idea of an immortal nature, for the foul which is void of reafon cannot form a conception of rationality. Stern on death, p. 198.

Non aliam, fed ipfam priorem animam corpori mortuo reftitutam effe, contra eos qui putaverunt et bodie putant animam post amartem corporis nibil effe.

the foul, and all religion falls to the ground. I will inftance in,

First, It overthrows the main principles and doctrines of the Christian religion, upon which both our faith and comfort is founded; and confequently, it undoes, and ruins us, as to all folid hope and true joy. The doctrines or principles it overthrows, are, among many other, fuch as follow.

1. It nullifics and makes void the great defign and end of God's eternal election. The scriptures tells us, That from all eternity God hath chofen a certain number in Christ Jesus, to eternal life, and to the means by which they fhall attain it, out of his mere good pleasure, and for the praife of his grace. This was (1.) an eternal act of God, Eph. i. 4. long before we had our being, Rom. ix. 11. (2.) This choice of God, or his purpose to fave fome, is immutable, 2 Tim. ii. 19. James i. 17. (3) This choice he made in Christ, Eph. i. 4. Not that Chrift is the caufe of God's chufing us: For we were not elected because we were, but that we might be in Chrift. Chrift was ordained to be the Medium of the execution of this decree. And all the mercies which were purpofed, and ordained for us, were to be purchased by the blood of Chrift. He was not the cause of the decree, but the purchafer of the mercies decreed for us. (4.) This choice was of a certain number of persons, who are all known to God, 2 Tim. ii. 19. and all given to Christ in the covenant of redemption, John xvii. 2, 6. So that no elect perfon can be a reprobate, no reprobate an elect perfon. (5.) This number was chofen to falvation, 1 Thef. v. 9. No lefs did God defign for them than glory and happiness, and that for ever. (6.) The fame perfons that are appointed to falvation as the end, are alfo appointed to fanctification as the way and means by which they fhall attain that end, 1 Pet. i. 1, 2. 2 Thef. ii. 13, 14. (7.) The impulfive caufe of this choice was the mere good pleasure of his will, 2 Tim. i. 9. Rom. ix. 15, 16. Eph. i. 9. (8.) The end of all this is, the praife of his glorious grace, Eph. i. 5, 6. to make a glorious manifeftation of the riches of his grace for ever. This is the account the scripture gives us of God's eter nal choice.

But if our fouls be mortal, and perifh with our bodies, all this is a mistake, and we are impofed upon, and our underftandings are abused by this doctrine: For to what purpofe are all these decrees and contrivances of God from everlafting, if our fouls perish with our bodies? Certainly, if it be fo, he lofes all the