John Flavel · 10 of 34

Sermon 2. Rev. 6:9,10,11 · Part 2

I know it is a great question among divines, An gratia in renatis sit natura et essentia sua interminabilis? Whether these principles of grace in the regenerate be everlasting and interminable in their own nature and essence? For my own part, I think that God only is naturally, essentially, and absolutely interminable and immortal. But these gracious habits, planted by him in the soul, are so by virtue of God’s appointment, promise, and covenant. And sure it is, that by reason hereof they are interminate, which is enough for my purpose, if they be not essentially interminable. Though grace be but a creature, and therefore has a posse mori, yet it is a creature begotten by the Word and Spirit of God, which live and abide for ever, and a creature within the promise and covenant of God, by reason whereof it can never actually die.

And then as for the inseparableness of these graces from the souls in whom they are planted, how clear is this from John 2:27. where sanctifying grace is compared to an unction, and this unction is said to abide in them? And 1 John 3:9. it is called the seed of God, which remaineth in the soul. All our natural and moral excellencies and endowments go away when we die; Job 4:21. "Does not their excellency that is in them go away?" Men may outlive their acquired gifts, but not their supernatural graces. These stick by the soul, as Ruth to Naomi, and where it goes they go too: so that when the soul is dislodged by death, all its graces ascend 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 so far from divesting the soul of its graces, that it perfects in a moment all that was defective in them; 1 Cor. 13:10. "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 sun is up, and at its zenith. So then, grace never dieth, and this never-dying grace is inseparable from its subject; by which it is plain to him that considers, that as graces, so souls, abide for ever.

Object. But this only proves the immortality of regenerate souls.

Sol. It does so. But then consider, as there be gracious habits in the regenerate that never die, so there are vicious habits in the unregenerate that can never be separated from them in the world to come. Hence, John 8:24. they are said to "die in their sins," and Job 20:11. "Their iniquities lie down with them in the dust," and Ezek. 24:13 "They shall never be purged." Remarkable is that place, Rev. 22:11. "Let him that is filthy be filthy still." And if guilt sticks so fast, and sin be so deeply engraven in impenitent souls, they also must remain for ever, to bear the punishment of them.

Argument 5

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

In this, the scriptures are clear, that man is the master-piece of all God’s other works; Psal. 8:5, 6. "For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou hast made him to have dominion over the works of thy hand, thou hast put all things under his feet." Other creatures were made for his service, 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 respect of the capacity and immortality of his soul? Sure it can be found nowhere else; for as to the body, many of the creatures excel man in the perfections of sense, greatness of strength, agility of members, &c.

Nos aper auditu praecellit, aranea tactu,

Vultur odorat, lynx visu, simia gustu.

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

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

It is true, this is his glory: but if you deprive the reasonable soul of immortality, you despoil it of all, both of its glory and comfort, and put the reasonable into a worse condition than the unreasonable and brutish creatures. For if the soul 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 reason serves to little other purpose but to be an engine of torture, a mere rack to our souls.

Certainly, the privilege of man doth not consist in reason, as abstracted from immortality. But in this, it properly consists, that he enjoys not only a reasonable, but also rejoiceth in an immortal soul, which shall over-live the world, and subsist separate from the body, and abide for ever, when all other souls, 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 reason, is but to leave him a more miserable and wretched creature than any that God has put under his feet. For man is a prospecting creature, and raiseth up to himself vast hopes and fears from the world to come: by these he is restrained from the sensual pleasures, which other creatures freely enjoy, and exercised 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 so much lower as his expectations and hopes had lifted him higher.

Argument 6.

The souls of men must be immortal, or else the desires of immortality are planted in their souls in vain.

That there are desires of immortality found in the hearts of all men, is a truth too evident to be denied or doubted. Man cannot bound and terminate his desires within the narrow limits of this world and the time that measures it. Nothing that can be measured by time is commensurate to the desires of man’s soul. No motto better suits it than this, Non est mortale quod opto; I seek for that which will not die, Rom. 2:7. And his great relief against death lies in this, Non omnis mortar: That he shall not totally perish. Yea, we find in all men, even in those that seem to be most drowned and lost in the love and delights of this present world, a natural desire to continue their names and memories to posterity after death. Hence it is said, Psal. 49:11. "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 desire of children, which is, as one says, nodosa aeternitas, a knotty eternity; when our thread is spun out and cut off, their thread is knit to it; and so we dream of a continued succession in our name and family.

Absalom had no children to continue his memory; to supply which defect, he reared up a pillar, 2 Sam. 18:18. Now it cannot be imagined that God should plant the desire of immortality in those souls, that are incapable of it; nor yet can we give a rational account how these apprehensions of immortality should come into the souls of men, except they themselves be of an immortal nature. For, either these notions and apprehensions of immortality are impressed upon our souls by God, or do naturally spring out of the souls of men. If God impress them, those impressions are made in vain, if there be no such thing as immortality to be enjoyed; and if they spring and rise naturally out of our souls, that is a sufficient evidence of their immortality. For we can no more conceive, and form to ourselves, ideas and notions of immortality, if our souls be mortal, than the brutes which are void of reason, can form to themselves notions and conceptions of rationality. So then the very apprehensions and desires that are found in men’s hearts of immortality, do plainly speak them to be of an immortal nature.

Argument 7.

Moreover, the account given us in the scripture of the return of several souls into their own bodies again after death, and real separation from them, shews us that the soul subsists and lives in a separate state after death, and perisheth not by the stroke of death: For if it were annihilated or destroyed by death, the same soul could never be restored again to the same body. A dead body may indeed be acted by an assisting form, which may move and carry it from place to place; so the devil has acted the dead bodies of many; but they cannot be said to live again by their own souls, after a real separation by death, unless those souls over-lived the bodies they forsook at death, and had their abode in another place and state. You have divers unquestionable examples of the soul’s return into the body recorded in scripture: As that of the Shunamite’s son, 2 Kings 4:18,19, 20, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37. That of the ruler’s daughter, Mat. 9:18, 23, 24, 25. That of the widow’s son, Luke 7:12, 13, 14, 15. And that of Lazarus, John 11:39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45. "These are no other but the very same souls, their own souls which returned to them again; which, as Chrysostom well observes, 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 scripture gives us no account of any sense or apprehension they retained after their re-union of the place or state they were in during their separation. There seemed to be a perfect amnesia, forgetfulness of all that they saw or felt in the state of separation. And indeed it was necessary it should be so, that our faith might be built rather upon the sure promises of God, than such reports and narratives of them that come to us from the dead, Luke 16:81. And if we believe not the word, neither would we believe if one came from the dead.

Argument 8

Moreover, Eighthly, The supposition of the soul’s perishing with the body, is subversive of the Christian religion in the principal doctrines and duties thereof: take away the immortality of the soul, and all religion falls to the ground. I will instance in

1. The doctrines of religion.

2. The duties of religion.

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

1. It nullifies and makes void the great design and end of God’s eternal election. The scriptures tells us, That from all eternity God has chosen a certain number in Christ Jesus, to eternal life, and to the means by which they shall attain it, out of his mere good pleasure, and for the praise of his grace. This was (1.) An eternal act of God, Eph. 1:4. Long before we had our being, Rom. 9:11. (2.) This choice of God, or his purpose to save some, is immutable, 2 Tim. 2:19. James 1:17. (3.) This choice he made in Christ, Eph. 1:4. Not that Christ is the cause of God’s choosing us: For we were not elected because we were, but that we might be in Christ. Christ was ordained to be the Medium of the execution of this decree. And all the mercies which were purposed and ordained for us, were to be purchased by the blood of Christ. He was not the cause of the decree, but the purchaser of the mercies decreed for us. (4.) This choice was of a certain number of persons who are all known to God, 2 Tim. 2:19. and all given to Christ in the covenant of redemption, John 17:2, 6. So that no elect person can be a reprobate, no reprobate an elect person. (5.) This number was chosen to salvation, 1 Thess. 5:9. No less did God design for them that glory and happiness, and that for ever. (6.) The same persons that are appointed to salvation as the end, are also appointed to sanctification as the way and means by which they shall attain that end, 1 Pet. 1:1, 2. 2 Thess. 2:13,14. (7.) The impulsive cause of this choice was the mere good pleasure of his will, 2 Tim. 1:9. Rom. 9:15, 16. Eph. 1:9. (8.) The end of all this is the praise of his glorious grace, Eph. 1:5, 6. to make a glorious manifestation of the riches of his grace for ever. This is the account the scripture gives us of God’s eternal choice.

But if our souls be mortal, and perish with our bodies, all this is a mistake, and we are imposed upon, and our understandings are abused by this doctrine: For to what purpose are all these decrees and contrivances of God from everlasting, if our souls perish with our bodies? Certainly, if it be so, he loses all the thoughts and counsels of his heart about us; and that counsel of his will, which is so much celebrated in the scriptures, and admired by his people, comes to nought. For this is evident to every man’s consideration, that if the soul (which is the object about which all those counsels and thoughts of God were employed and laid out) fail in its being, all those thoughts and counsels that have been employed about it, and spent on it, must necessarily fail and come to nothing with it. The thoughts of his heart cannot stand fast, as it is said, Psal. 33:11. if the soul slide, about which they are conversant. In that day the elect soul perisheth, the eternal consultations and purposes of God’s heart perish with it. Keckerman tells us, that "Albertus Magnus, with abundance of art, and the study of thirty years, made a vocal statue in the form of a man. It was a rare contrivance, and much admired; the cunning Artist had so framed it, that by wheels and other machines placed within it, it could pronounce words articulately." Aquinas being surprised to hear the statue speak, was affrighted at it, and brake it all to pieces; upon which Albertus told him he had at one blow destroyed the work of thirty years. Such a blow would the death of the soul give to the counsels and thoughts, not of man, but of God, not of thirty years, but from everlasting.

If the souls of men perish at death, either God never did appoint any souls to salvation, as the scriptures testify he did, 1 Thess. 5:9. or else the foundation of God stands not sure, as his word tells us it doth, 2 Tim. 2:19. So then this supposition overturns the eternal decrees and counsels of God, which is the first thing.

2. It overthrows the covenant of redemption betwixt the Father and the Son before this world was made. There was a federal transaction betwixt the Father and the Son from eternity, about our salvation, 2 Tim. 1:9. Zech. 6:13. In that covenant Christ engaged to redeem the elect by his blood; and the Father promised him a reward of those his sufferings, Isa 53:12. Accordingly he has poured out his soul to death for them, finished the work, John 17:4. and is now in heaven, expecting the full reward and fruits of his sufferings, which consist not in his own personal glory, which he there enjoys, but in the completeness and fulness of his mystical body, John 17:24.

But certainly, if our souls perish with our bodies, Christ would be greatly disappointed: Nor can that promise be ever made good to him; Isa. 53:11. "He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied." He has done his work, but where is his reward? See how this supposition strikes at the justice of God, and wounds his faithfulness in his covenant with his Son. He has as much comfort and reward from the travail of his soul, as a mother that is delivered after many sharp pangs of a child that dies almost as soon as born.

5. It overthrows the doctrines of Christ’s incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession in heaven for us. And these are the main pillars both of our faith and comfort. Take away these, and take away our lives too, for these are the springs of all joy and comfort to the people of God, Rom. 8:34.

His incarnation was necessary to capacitate him for his mediatorial work: It was not only a part of it, but such a part, without which he could discharge no other part of it. This was the wonder of men and angels, 1 Tim. 3:16. A God incarnate is the world’s wonder; no condescension like this, Phil. 2:6, 7.

The death of Christ has the nature and respect of a ransom, or equivalent price laid down to the justice of God for our redemption, Matth. 20:28. Acts 20:28. It brought our souls from under the curse, and purchased for them everlasting blessedness, Gal. 4:4, 5.

The resurrection of Christ from the dead has the nature both of a testimony of his finishing the work of our redemption, and the Father’s full satisfaction therein, John 6:10. and of a principle of our resurrection to eternal life, 1 Cor. 15:20.

The ascension of Christ into heaven was in the capacity and relation of a forerunner, Heb. 6:20. it was to prepare places for the redeemed, who were to come after him to glory in their several generations, John 14:2, 3.

The intercession of Christ in heaven, is for the security of our purchased inheritance to us, and to prevent any new breaches which might be made by our sins, whereby it might be forfeited, and we divested of it again, 1 John 2:1, 2.

All these jointly make up the foundation of our faith and hope of glory: But if our souls perish, or be annihilated at death, our faith, hope, and comforts, are all delusions, vain dreams, which do but amuse our fond imaginations. For,

(1.) It was not worth so great a stoop and abasement of the blessed God, as he submitted to in his incarnation, when he appeared in flesh, yea, in the likeness of sinful flesh, Rom. 8:8. and made himself of no reputation, Phil. 2:7. An act that is, and ever will be admired by men and angels: I say, it was not worth so great a miracle as this, to procure for us the vanishing comfort of a few years, and that short lived comfort no other than a deluding dream, or mocking phantasm: For seeing it consists in hope and expectation from the world to come, as the scriptures every where speak, 1 Thess. 5:8. and 2 Cor. 3:12. Rom. 5:8, 4, 5. if there be no such enjoyments for us there (as most certainly there are not, if our souls perish) it is but a vanity, a thing of nought, that was the errand upon which the Son of God came from the Father’s bosom, to procure for us.

(2.) And for what, think you, was the blood of God upon the cross? What was so vast and inconceivable a treasure expended to purchase? What! the flattering and vain hopes of a few years, of which we may say, as it was said of the Roman consulship, unius anni volaticum gaudium; the fugitive joy of a year: Yea, not only short lived and vain hopes in themselves, but such for the sake whereof we abridge ourselves of the pleasures and desires of the flesh, 1 John 3:3. and submit ourselves to the greatest sufferings in the world, Rom. 8:18. For the hope of Israel am I bound with this chain, &c. Acts 28:20. Was this the purchase of his blood? Was this it for which he sweat, and groaned, and bled, and died? Was that precious blood no more worth than such a trifle as this?

(3.) To what purpose did Christ rise again from the dead? Was it not to be the first-fruits of them that sleep? Did he not rise as the common head of believers, to give us assurance we shall not perish, and be utterly lost in the grave? Col. 1:18. But if our souls perish at death, there can be no resurrection; and if none, then Christ died and rose in vain, we are yet in our sins, and all those absurdities are unavoidable, with which the apostle loads this supposition, 1 Cor. 15:13, &c.

(4.) And to as little purpose was his triumphant ascension into heaven, if we can have no benefit by it. The professed end of his ascension was "to prepare a place for us," John 14:2. But to what purpose are those mansions in the heavens prepared, if the inhabitants for whom they are prepared be utterly lost? And why is he called the forerunner, if there be none to follow him? as surely there are not, if our souls perish with our bodies. Those heavenly mansions, that city prepared by God, must stand void for ever if this be so.

(5.) To conclude; in vain is the intercession of Christ in heaven for us, if this be so. They that shall never come thither, have no business there to be transacted by their advocate for them. So that the whole doctrine of redemption by Christ is utterly subverted by this one supposition.

4. As it subverts the doctrine of redemption by Christ, and all the hopes and comforts we build thereon, so it utterly destroys all the works of the spirit, upon the hearts of believers, and makes them vanish into nothing.

There are divers acts and offices of the Spirit of God about, and upon our souls; I will only single out three, via. his sanctifying, sealing and comforting work: all things of great weight with believers.

(1.) His sanctifying work, whereby he alters the frames and tempers of our souls, 2 Cor. 5:17. "Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new."

The declared and direct end of this work of the Spirit upon our souls, is to attemper and dispose them for heaven, Col. 1:12. For seeing "nothing that is unclean can enter into the holy place," Rev. 21:27. "and without holiness no man shall see the Lord," Heb. 12:14. it is necessary that all those that have this hope in them, should expect to be partakers of their hopes in the way of purification, 1 John 3:3. And this is the ground upon which the people of God do mortify their lusts, and take so much pains with their own hearts, Mat. 18:8. counting it better (as their Lord tells them) "to enter into life halt and maimed, than having two eyes or hands to be cast into hell." But to what purpose is all this self-denial, all these heart searchings, heart humblings, cries, and tears, upon the account of sin, and for an heart suited to the will of God, if there be no such life to be enjoyed with God, after this animal is finished;

Object. If you say there is a present advantage resulting to us in this world, from our abstinence and self-denial; we have the truer and longer enjoyment of our comforts on earth by it; debauchery and licentiousness do not only flatten the appetite, and debase and alloy the comforts of this world, but cut short our lives by the exorbitances and abuses of them.

Solut. Though there be a truth in this worth our acting, yet (1.) morality could have done all this without sanctification; there was no need for the pouring out of the Spirit, for so low an use and purpose as this. (2.) And therefore as the wisdom of God would be censured and impeached, in sending his Spirit for an end which could as well be attained without it; so the veracity of God must needs be affronted by it, who, as you heard before, has declared our salvation to be the end of our sanctification.

(2.) His sealing, witnessing, and assuring work. We have a full account in the scriptures, of these offices and works of the Spirit, and some spiritual sense and feeling of them upon our own hearts, which are two good assurances that there are such things as his bearing witness with our spirit, Rom. 8:16. "his sealing us to the day of redemption," Eph. 4:80. "his earnest given into our hearts," 2 Cor. 1:22. All which acts and works of the Spirit have a direct and clear aspect upon the life to come, and the happiness of our souls in the full enjoyment of God to eternity; for it is to that life we are now sealed, and of the full sum of that glory, that these are the pledges and earnests. But if our souls perish by death, these witnesses of the Spirit are delusions, and his earnests are given us but in jest.

(3.) His comforting work is a sweet fruit and effect sensibly felt and tasted by believers in this world. He is from this office stiled the Comforter, John 16:7. signanter, et eminenter. He so comforts as none other doth, or can. And what is the matter of his comforts, but the blessedness to come, the joys of the coming world? John 16:13. Eye has not seen, &c.

Upon the account of these unseen things, he enableth believers to glory in tribulation, Rom. 5:4. to despise present things, whether the smiles or the frowns of the world, Heb. 11:24. and ver. 26. But if the being of our souls fail at death, these are but the fantastic joys of men in a dream, and the experiences of all God’s people are found but so many fond conceits, and gross mistakes.

5. This supposition overthrows the doctrine of the resurrection, which is the consolation of Christians. We believe, according to the scripture, that after death has divorced our souls and bodies for a time, they shall meet again, and be re-united, and that the joy at their re-union will be to all that are in Christ, greater than the sorrows they felt at parting. This seems not incredible to us, whatever natural improbabilities and carnal reasons may be against it, Acts 26:8. and that because the Almighty Power, which is able to subdue all things to himself, undertakes this task, Phil 3:21.

We believe this very same numerical body shall rise again, Job 21:27. by the return of the same soul into it, which now dwelleth in it; and that we shall be the same persons that now we are: the remunerative justice of God requiring it to be so.

We believe the souls of the righteous shall be much better accommodated, and have a more comfortable habitation in their bodies than now they have, 1 Cor. 15:42, 43. seeing they shall be made like unto Christ’s glorious body, Phil. 3:22. And that then we shall live after the manner of angels, Luke 20:36. without the necessities of this animal life. These are the things we look for according to promise; and this expectation is our great relief against (1.) The fears of death, 1 Cor 15:55. (2.) Against the death of our friends and relations, 1 Thess. 4:14. (3.) Against all the pressures and afflictions of this life, Job 19:25, 26, 27.

But if the being of our souls fall at death, all hopes and comforts from the resurrection fail with it; for it is not imaginable that the body should rise till it be revived, nor how it should be revived, but by the re-union of the soul with it: and if it be not the same soul that now inhabits it, we cannot be the same persons in the resurrection we are now; and consequently, this supposition subverts not only the doctrine of the resurrection, but,

6. It overthrows also the faith of the judgement to come. For if the soul perish, the body cannot rise; or if it rise by a new-created soul, the person raised is another, and not the same that lived and died in this world; and consequently the rewards and punishments to be bestowed and awarded to all men in that day cannot be just and equal: for we believe, according to the scriptures, that,

(1.) The actions which men perform in this life, are not transient, but are filed to their account in the world to come: Gal. 6:7. here we sow, and there we reap. Actions done in this world are two ways considerable, viz. physically, or morally; in the first consideration they are transient, in the last permanent and everlasting. A word is spoken, or an act done in a moment, but though it be past and gone, and perhaps by us quite forgotten, God registers it in his book, in order to the day of account.