John Flavel · 11 of 34

Sermon 2. Rev. 6:9,10,11 · Part 3

(2.) We believe that God has appointed a day in which all men shall appear before his judgement-seat, to give an account of all they have done in the body, whether it be good or evil, 2 Cor. 5:10.

(3.) And that in order hereunto, the very same Persons shall be restored by the resurrection, and appear before God, the very same bodies and souls, which did good or evil in this world: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Justice requires that the rewards and punishments be then distributed to the same persons that did good or evil in this world: which strongly infers the immortality of the soul, and that it certainly overlives the body, and must come back from the respective places of their abode, to be again united to them, in order to their great account.

By all which you see the clearest proof of the soul’s immortality, and how the contrary supposition overthrows our faith, duties, and comforts. Yet notwithstanding all this, how apt are we to suspect this doctrine, and remain still dissatisfied and doubting about it, when all is said? Which comes to pass partly from the subtlety of Satan, who knows he can never persuade men to live the life of beasts, till he first persuade them to think they shall die as the beasts do. (2.) And partly from the influence of sense and reason upon us, whereby we do too much suffer ourselves to be swayed and imposed upon in matters of the greatest moment in religion. For these being proper arbiters and judges in other matters within their sphere, they are arrogant, and we easy enough to admit them to be arbiters also in things that are quite above them. Hence come such plausible objections as these:

Object. 1. The soul seems to vanish and die, when it leaves the body: for when it has struggled as long as it can to keep its possession in the body, and, at last, is forced to depart, we can perceive nothing but a puff of breath, which immediately vanishes into air, and is lost.

Solut. We cannot perceive, therefore it is nothing but what we do and can perceive, viz. a puff of vanishing breath. By this argument the being of the soul in the body is as questionable as after its departure out of the body; for we cannot discern it by sight in the body: yea, by this argument we may as well deny the existence of God and angels as of the soul; for it is a spiritual and invisible being as they are; our gross senses are incapable of discerning spirits, which are immaterial and invisible substances.

Object. 2. But you allow the soul to have a rise and beginning, it is not eternal a parte ante; and it is certain, whatever had a beginning, must have an end.

Solut. Every thing which had a beginning may have an end, and what once was nothing, may by the power that created it, be reduced to nothing again. But though we allow it may be so, by the absolute power of God, we deny the consequence, that therefore it shall, and must be so. Angels had a beginning, but shall never have an end. And indeed, their immortality, as well as ours, flows not so much from the nature of either as from the will and pleasure of God, who has appointed them to be so. He can, but never will, annihilate them.

Object. 3. But the soul depends upon matter in all its operations, nothing is in the understanding which was not first in the senses; it useth the natural spirits, as its servants and tools in all its operations, and therefore how can it either subsist or act in a state of separation?

Sol. 1. The hypothesis is not only uncertain, but certainly false. There are acts performed by the soul, even while it is in the body, wherein it makes no use at all of the body. Such are the acts of self-intuition and self-reflection: and what will you say of its acts, in raptures and extasies, such as that of Paul, 2 Cor. 12:2. and John, Rev. 21:10. what use did their souls make of the bodily senses or natural spirits then?

Solut. 2. And though in its ordinary actions in this life, it does use the body as its tool or instrument in working, does it thence follow that it can neither subsist or act separate from them in the other world? While a man is on horseback in his journey, he useth the help and service of his horse, and is moved according to the motion of his horse; but does it thence follow, he cannot stand nor walk alone, when dismounted at his journey’s end? We know angels both live and act, without the ministry of bodies, and our souls are spiritual substances as well as they.

Object. 4. But many scriptures seem to favour the total cessation of the soul’s actions, if not of its being also, after separation, as that in 2 Sam. 14:14. We must needs die, and are as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up, and Psal. 88:10, 11, 12. with Isa. 38:18, 19. The dead cannot praise thee.

Solut. These words of the woman of Tekoah, are not to be understood absolutely, but respectively: and the meaning is, that the soul is in the body as some precious liquor in a brittle glass, which being broken by death, the soul is irrecoverably gone as the water spilt on the ground, which by no human power or art of man can be recovered again. All the means in the world cannot fetch it back into the body again. She speaks not of the resurrection, or what shall be done in the world to come, by the Almighty power of God, but of what is impossible to be done in this world by all the skill and power of man.

And for the expressions of Heman and Hezekiah, they only respect and relate unto those services their souls were now employed about for the praise of God, with respect to the conversion or edification of others, as Psal. 30:8, 9. or at most, to that mediate service and worship which they give God, in and by their attendance upon his ordinances in this world, and not of that immediate service and praise that is performed and given him in heaven by the spirits of just men made perfect; such was the sweetness they had found in these ordinances and duties, that they express themselves as loth to leave them.

The same answer solves also the objections grounded upon other mistaken scriptures, as that of Psal. 78:39. where man is called a wind that passeth away and cometh not again. It is only expressive of the frailty and vanity of the present animal life we live in this world, to which we shall return no more after death; it denies not life to departed souls, but affirms the end of this animal life at death: the life we live in the other world is of a different nature.

Inf. 1. Is the soul immortal? Then it is impossible for souls to find full rest and contentment in any enjoyments on this side heaven. All temporary things are inadequate, and therefore unsatisfying to our souls. What gives the soul rest and satisfaction, must be as durable as the soul is; for if we could possibly find in this world a condition and state of things most agreeable in all other respects to our desires and wishes, yet if the soul be conscious to itself, that it shall, and must overlive and leave them all behind it, it can never reach true contentment in the greatest affluence and confluence of them. Man being an immortal, is therefore a prospecting creature, and can never be satisfied with this, that it is well with him at present, except he can be satisfied that it shall be so for ever. The thoughts of leaving our delightful and pleasant enjoyments embitters them all to us while we have them. All outward things are fluxu continuo, passing away as the waters, 1 Cor. 7:31. Riches are uncertain, 1 Tim. 6:17. "They fly away as an eagle towards heaven, and with wings of their own making," Prov. 23:5. i.e. As the feathers that enable a bird to fly from us, grow out of its own substance, so does that vanity that carries away an earthly enjoyments. This alone will spoil all contentment.

Inf. 2. Then see the ground and reason of Satan’s envy and enmity against the soul, and his restless designs and, endeavours to destroy it. It grates that spirit of envy, to find himself, who is by nature immortal, sunk everlastingly and irrecoverably into misery, and the souls of men appointed to fill up those vacant places in heaven from which the angels fell. No creature but man is envieth by Satan, and the soul of man much more than his body: it is true, he afflicts the bodies of men when God permits him, but he ever aims at the soul when he wounds the body, Heb. 10:37. This roaring lion is continually going about, "seeking whom he may devour," Pet. 5:8. It is the precious soul he hunts after; that is the Morsus diaboli, the bit he gapes for, as the wolf tears the fleece to come at the flesh. All the pleasure those miserable creatures find, is from the success of their temptations upon the souls of men. It is a kind of delight to them to plunge souls into the same condemnation and misery with themselves. This is the trade they have been driving ever since their fall. By destroying souls he at once exercises his revenge against God, and his envy against man, which is all the relief his miserable condition allows him.

Inf. 3. Do the souls of men out-live their bodies? Then it is the height of madness and spiritual infatuation, to destroy the soul for the body’s sake; to cast away an immortal soul for the gratification of perishing flesh; to ruin the precious soul for ever, for the pleasures of sin which are but for a moment; yet this is the madness of millions of men. They will drown their own souls in everlasting perdition, to procure necessary things for the body, 1 Tim. 6:9. "They that will be rich," &c. Every cheat and circumvention in dealing, every lie, every act of oppression, is a wound given the immortal soul, for the procuring some accommodations to the body.

O what soul-undoing bargains do some make with the devil! Some sell their souls out-right for the gratification of their lusts, 1 Kings 21:20. Many pawn their souls to Satan in a conditional bargain; so do all that venture upon sin, upon a presumption of pardon and repentance. The devil is a great trader for souls, he has all sorts of commodities to suit all men’s humours that will deal with him. He has profits for the covetous, honours for the ambitious, pleasures for the voluptuous: but a soul is the price at which he sells them; only he will be content to sell at a day, and not require present pay: so that it be paid on a death bed, in a dying hour, he is satisfied. But oh! what an undoing bargain do sinners make, to part with a treasure for a trifle! Matt. 16:26. the precious soul for ever, "for the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season! Heb. 11:25. We are charmed with the present pleasure and sweetness there is in sin; but how bitter will the after-fruits thereof be! — See the texts in the margin. (Prov 20:17; Prov 23:31,32; Job 20:12,13; James 1:15). You will say hereafter as Jonathan did, 1 Sam. 14:31. "I tasted but a little honey, and I must die."

Inf. 4. Then the exposing of the body to danger, yea, to certain destruction, for the preservation of the soul, is the dictate of spiritual wisdom, and that which every Christian is bound to choose and practise, when both interests come in full opposition, Heb. 11:35. Dan. 3:28. Rev. 12:11. No promises of preferment, no threats of torments, have been able to prevail with the people of God to give the least wound, or do the least wrong to their own souls. When Secundus was commanded to deliver his bible, he answered, Christian sum, non traditor: I am a Christian, I will not deliver it: then they desired him to deliver aliquam ecvolam, a chip, a straw, any thing that came to his hand in lieu of it: he refused to redeem his life by delivering the least trifle on that account to save it.

That is a great word of our Lord’s, Luke 9:24. "He that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that loseth it for my sake shall find it." Christians, this is your duty and wisdom, and must be your resolution and practice in the day of temptation, to yield your bodies to preserve your souls, as we offer our arm to defend the head. Oh! better thy body had never been given thee, than that it should be a snare to thy soul, and the instrument of casting it away for ever. Oh! how dear are some persons like to pay for their tenderness and indulgence to the flesh, when the hour of temptation shall come! mortify your irregular affections to the body, and never hazard your precious immortal souls for their sakes. It is the character of an hypocrite to choose sin rather than affliction, Job 36:21. But if ever thou hast been in the deeps of spiritual troubles for sin, if God have opened thine eyes to see the evil of sin, the immense weight and value of thy soul, and of eternity, "Thou wilt not count thy life dear to thee, to finish thy course with joy," Acts 20:24.

Inf. 5. If the soul be an immortal being, that shall have no end, Then it is the great concern of all men to strive to the utmost for the salvation of their souls, whatever become of all lesser temporary interests in this world, Luke 13:24. There is a gate, i.e. an introductive means of life and salvation; This gate is strait, i.e. there are a world of difficulties to be encountered in the way of salvation: but he that values and loves his never-dying soul, must, and will be diligent and constant in the use of all those means that have a tendency to salvation, be they never so difficult or unpleasant to flesh and blood. There be difficulties from within ourselves, such as mortification, self-denial, contempt of the world, parting with all at the call of Christ; and difficulties from without, the reproaches, persecutions, and sufferings for Christ, which would not be so great as they are, were it not for our unmortified lusts within; but be they what they will, we are bound to strive through them all, for the salvation of our precious and immortal souls.

(1.) For it is the greatest concernment of the soul, yea, of our own souls; we are bound to do much for the saving of another’s soul, 2 Tim. 4:10. much more for our own; this is our darling, Psal. 22. our only one.

(2.) Others have done and suffered much for the saving of their souls; and are not ours, or ought they not to be, as dear to us, as the souls of any others have been to them? Mat. 21:32.

(3.) The utmost diligence is little enough to save them. Do all that you can do, and suffer all that you can suffer, and deny yourselves as deeply as ever any did, yet you shall find all this little enough to secure them, 1 Pet. 4:18. The righteous themselves are scarcely saved, 1 Cor. 9:24.

(4.) The time to strive for salvation is very short and uncertain, Luke 13:25. John 12:35. It will be to no purpose, when the seasons and opportunities of salvation are once over. There is no striving in hell, a death-pang of despair has seized them, hope is extinguished, and endeavours fail.

(5.) Does not reason dictate and direct you to do now, while you are in the way, as you will wish you had done, and repent with rage, and self-indignation, because you did it not, when you come to the end, and behold the final issues of things? Suppose but thyself now either, (1.) Upon a death-bed launching into eternity; (2.) Or at the bar of Christ; (3.) Or in view of heaven; (4.) Or in the sight and hearing of the damned: what think you? will not you then wish, Oh! that I had spent every moment in the world that could possibly be redeemed from the pure necessities of life, in prayer, in hearing, in striving for salvation? >From a prospect of this it was, that one spent many hours daily on his knees to the macerating of his body; and being admonished of the danger of health, and advised to relax, he answered, I must die, I must die.

Objection 1. Do not say, you have many incumbrances, and other employments in the world: for (1.) "One thing is necessary," Luke 10:42. Those are conveniences, but this is of absolute necessity. (2.) They will strive the better for this, Mat. 6:33. "Seek this, and they shall be added." (3.) Do but redeem the time that can be redeemed to this purpose; let not so much precious time run waste as daily does.

Objection 2. Say not, no man can save his soul by his own striving, and therefore it is to little purpose; for "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy," Rom. 9:16.

True, this in itself cannot save you; but what then? must we oppose those things which God has subordinated? Bring this home to your natural or civil actions, eating, drinking, ploughing, or sowing, and see how the consequence will look.

Objection 3. Say not, it is a mercenary doctrine, and disparages free grace; for, are not all the enjoyments and comforts of this life confessedly from free grace, though God has dispensed them to you in the way of your diligence and industry.

Objection 4. To conclude, Say not, the difficulties of salvation are insuperable; it is so hard to watch every motion of the heart, to deny every lust, to resist a suitable temptation, to suffer the loss of all for Christ, that there is no hope of over-coming them.

For (1.) God can, and does make difficult things easy to his people, who work in the strength of Christ, Phil. 4:13. (2.) These same difficulties are before all others that are before you, yet it discourageth not them, Phil. 3:11. Others strive to the uttermost. There are extremes found in this matter: some work for salvation, as an hireling for his wages, so the Papists; these disparage grace, and cry up works. Others cry down obedience as legal, as the Antinomians, and cry up grace to the disparagement of duties. Avoid both these, and see that you strive: But (1.) Think not heaven to be the price of your striving, Rom. 4:3. (2.) Strive, but not for a spurt; let this care and diligence run throughout your lives; while you are living, be you still striving: your souls are worth it, and infinitely more than all this amounts to.

Inf. 6. Does the soul out-live the body, and abide for ever? Then it is a great evil and folly to be excessively careful: for the mortal body, and neglective of the mortal inhabitant. In a too much indulged body, there ever dwells a too much neglected soul.

The body is but a vile thing, Phil 3:21. the soul more valuable than the whole world, Matth. 16:26. To spend time, care, and pains for a vile body, while little or no regard is had to the precious mortal soul, is an unwarrantable folly and madness. To have a clear and washed body, and a soul all filth, (as one speaks) a body neatly clothed and dressed, with a soul all naked and unready: a body fed, and a soul starved; a body full of the creature, and a soul empty of Christ, these are poor souls indeed. We smile at little children, who in a kind of laborious idleness take a great deal of pains to make and trim their babies, or build their little houses of sticks and straws: And what are they but children of a bigger size, that keep such ado about the body, a house of clay, a weak pile, that must perish in a few days. It is admirable, and very convictive of most Christians, what we read in a Heathen. "I confess (says Seneca) there is a love to the body implanted in us all; we have the tutelage and charge of it; we may be kind and indulgent to it, but must not serve it; but he that serves it, is a servant to many cares, fears, and passions. Let us have a diligent care of it, yet so as when reason requires, when our dignity or faith require it, we commit it to the fire."

It is true, the body is beloved of the soul, and God requires that it moderately care for the necessities and conveniences of it; but to be fond, indulgent, and constantly solicitous about it, is both the sin and snare of the soul. One of the fathers being invited to dine with a lady, and waiting some hours till she was dressed, and fit to come down; when he saw her, he fell a weeping; and being demanded why he wept, Oh! said he, I am troubled that you should spend so many hours this morning in pinning and trimming your body when I have not spent half the time in praying, repenting and caring for my own soul. Two things a master commits to his servant’s care, (says one) the child, and the child’s clothes: It will be but a poor excuse for the servant to say, at his master’s return, Sir, here are all the child’s clothes neat and clean, but the child is lost. Much so will be the account that many will give to God of their souls and bodies, at the great day, Lord, here is my body, I was very careful for it, I neglected nothing that belonged to its content and welfare: But for my soul, that is lost and cast away for ever, I took little care and thought about it. It is remarkable what the apostle says, Rom. 8:12. We owe nothing to the flesh, we are not in its debt, we have given it all, more than all that belongs to it: But we owe many an hour, many a care, many a deep thought to our souls, which we have defrauded it of for the vile body’s sake. You have robbed your souls to pay your flesh. This is madness.

Inf. 7. How great a blessing is the gospel which brings life and immortality to light, the most desirable mercies to immortal souls! This is the great benefit we receive by it, as the apostle speaks, 2 Tim. 1:10. "Christ has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel." Life and immortality by a "en dia duoin", is put for immortal life, the thing which all immortal souls desire and long for. These desires are found in souls that enjoy not the gospel light; for, as I said before, they naturally spring out of the very nature of all immortal souls: But how and where it is to be obtained, that is a secret for which we are entirely beholden to the gospel discovery. It lay hid in the womb of God’s purpose, till by the light of gospel-revelation it was made manifest. But now all men may see what are the gracious thoughts and purposes of God concerning men, and what that is he has designed for their immortal souls, even an immortal life; and this life is to be obtained by Christ, than which no tidings can be more welcome, sweet, or acceptable to us.

O therefore study the gospel. "This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," John 17:8. And see that you prize the gospel above all earthly treasure. It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. You have two inestimable benefits and blessings by it. (1.) It manifests and reveals eternal life to you, which you could never have come to the knowledge of any other way; those that are without it are groping or feeling after God in the dark, Acts 17:27. Poor souls are conscious to themselves, that there is a just and terrible God, and that their sins offend and provoke him; but how to atone the offended Deity they know not, Micah 6:6, 7. But the way of reconciliation and life is clearly discovered to us by the gospel. (2.) As it manifests and reveals eternal life to us, so it frames and moulds our hearts, as God’s sanctifying instrument for the enjoyment of it. It is not only the instrument of revelation, but of salvation; the word of life, as well as the word of light, Phil. 2:16. It can open your hearts, as well as your eyes, and is therefore to be entertained as that which is in the first rank of blessings, a peerless and inestimable blessing.

Inf. 8. If our souls be immortal, certainly our enemies are not so formidable as we are apt, by our sinful fears, to represent these. They may, when God permits them, destroy your bodies, they cannot touch or destroy your souls, Mat. 10:28. As to your bodies, no enemy can touch them till there be leave and permission given them by God, Job 1:10. The bodies of the saints, as well as their souls, are within the line or hedge of Divine Providence: They are securely fenced, sometimes mediately by the ministry of angels, Psal. 34:7. and sometimes immediately by his own hand and power, Zech. 2:5. As to their souls, whatever power enemies may have upon them, (when Divine permission opens a gap in the hedge of providence for them) yet they cannot reach their souls to hurt them, or destroy them, but by their own consent. They can destroy our perishing flesh, it is obnoxious to their malice and rage; they cannot reach home to the soul: No sword can cut asunder the band of union between them and Christ: they would be dreadful enemies indeed if they could do so. Why then do we tremble and fear at this rate, as if soul and body were at their mercy, and in their power and hand? The souls of those martyrs were in safety under the altar in heaven, they were clothed with white robes, when their bodies were given to be meat to the fowls of heaven, and the beasts of the earth. The devil drives but a poor trade by the persecution of the saints; he tears the nest, but the bird escapes; he cracks the shell, but loseth the kernal. Two things make a powerful defensative against our fears: (1.) That all our enemies are in the hand of Providence. (2.) That all providences are steered by that promise, Rom. 8:28.

Inf. 9. If souls be immortal, Then there must needs be a vast difference betwixt the aspects and influences of death upon the godly and ungodly.

Oh! if souls would but seriously consider what an alteration death will make upon their condition, for evil or for good, how useful would such meditations be to them! (1.) They must be disseized and turned out of these houses of clay, and live in a state of separation from them; of this there is an inevitable necessity, Eccl. 8:8. It is in vain to say, I am not ready; ready or unready, they must depart when their lease is out. It is as vain to say, I am not willing; for willing or unwilling, they must be gone; there is no hanging back, and begging, Lord, let death take another at this time, and spare me; for no man dies by a proxy. (2.) The time of our soul’s departure is at hand, 2 Pet. 1, 13, 14. Job 16:22. The most firm and well built body can stand but a few days; but our ruinous tabernacles give our souls warning, that the days of their departure is at hand. The lamp of life is almost burnt down, the glass of time is almost run; yet a few, a very few days and nights more, and then time, nights and days shall be no more. (3.) When that most certain and near-approaching time is come, wonderful alterations will be made on the state of all souls, godly, and ungodly.

(1.) A marvellous alteration will then be made on the souls of the godly. For, (1.) No sooner is the dividing stroke given by death, and the parting pull over, but they shall find themselves in the arms of angels, mounting them through the upper regions in a few moments, far above all the aspectable heavens, Luke 16:22. The airy region is, indeed, the place where devils inhabit, and have their hauntsand walks; but angels are the saints convoy through Satan’s territories. They pass from the arms of mourning friends, into the welcome arms of officious and benevolent angels. (2.) From the sight and converses of men, to the sight of God, Christ, and the general assembly of blessed and sinless spirits. The soul takes its leave of all men et death, Isa. 38:11. Farewell vain world, with all the mixed and imperfect comforts of it, and welcome the more sweet suitable, and satisfying company of Father, Son, and Spirit, holy angels, and perfected saints, Heb. 12:23. "The spirits of just men made perfect." (3.) From the bondage of corruption to perfect liberty and everlasting freedom; so much is implied, Heb. 12:28. "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 satisfying 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. 5:1, 2, 3. Oh what a blessed change to the righteous must this be!