John Flavel · 9 of 34

Sermon 2. Rev. 6:9,10,11 · Part 1

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

Having from the former text, spoken of the nature of the soul, and the tie betwixt it and the body, I shall, from this scripture, evince the immortality of the soul, which is a chief part of its excellency and glory; and in this scripture it has a firm foundation.

This book of the Revelation completes and seals up the whole sacred canon, Rev. 22:18. It also comprehends all the great and signal events of providence, relating either to the Christian church, or to its antichristian enemies in the several periods of time, to the end of the world; chap. 1:19. All which the Spirit of God discovers to us in the opening of the seven seals, the sounding of the seven trumpets, and the pouring out of the seven vials.

The first five seals express the state of the church under the bloody, persecuting, Heathen emperors.

SEAL 1

The first seal opened, ver. 2. gives the church a very encouraging and comfortable prospect of the victories, successes, and triumphs of Christ, notwithstanding the rage, subtlety, and power of all its enemies. He shall ride on conquering, and to conquer, and his arrows shall be sharp in the hearts of his enemies, whereby the people shall fall under him. And this cheering prospect was no more than was needful: For,

SEAL 2

The second seal opened, ver. 3, 4. represents the first bloody persecution of the church under Nero, whom Tertullian calls Dedicator damnationis nostrae: he that first condemned Christians to the slaughter. And the persecution under him is set forth by the type of a red horse, and a great sword in the hand of him that rode thereon. His cruelty is by Paul compared to the mouth of a lion, 2 Tim. 4:17. Paul, Peter, Bartholomeus, Barnabas, Mark, are all said to die by his cruel hand; and so fierce was his rage against the Christians, that at that time, as Eusebius says, "a man might see cities lie full of dead bodies, the old and young, men and women, cast out naked, without any reverence of persons or sex, in the open street." And when the day failed. Christians (says Tacitus) were burnt in the night, instead of torches, to give them light in the streets.

SEAL 3

The third seal opened, ver. 5, 6. sets forth the calamities which should befal the church by famine; yet not so much a literal as a figurative famine, as a grave and learned commentator expounds it, like that mentioned, Amos 8:11, 12. which fell out under Maximinus and Trajan; the former directing the persecution, especially against ministers, in which many bright lamps were extinguished; the latter expressly condemning all Christian meetings and assemblies by a law. The type by which this persecution was set forth, is a black horse. A gloomy and dismal day it was indeed to the poor saints, when they eat the bread of their souls, as it were, by weight; for he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. Then did John hear this sad voice, "A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny." The quantity was but the ordinary allowance to keep a man alive for a day, and a Roman penny was the ordinary wages given for a day’s work to a labourer. The meaning is, that in those days, all the spiritual food men should get to keep their souls alive from day to day, with all their travail and labour, should be but sufficient for that end.

SEAL 4

The fourth seal opened, ver. 7, 8. represents a much more sad and doleful state of the church; for under it are found all the former sufferings, with some new kinds of trouble super-added. Under this seal, Death rides upon the pale horse, and Hell, or the Grave, follows him. It is conceived to point at the persecution under Dioclesian, when the church was mowed down as a meadow.

SEAL 5

The fifth seal is opened in my text, under which the Lord Jesus represents to his servant John, the state and condition of those precious souls which had been torn and separated from their bodies, by the bloody hands of tyrants, for his name’s sake, under all the former persecutions. The design whereof is, to support and encourage all that are to come in the same bloody path. I saw under the altar, &c. In which we have an account,

Of what John saw.

Of what he heard.

1. We have an account of what he saw; "I saw the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held."

Souls, in this place, are not put for blood, or the dead carcasses of the saints who were slain, as some have groundlessly imagined; but are to be understood properly and strictly, for those spiritual and immortal substances, which once had a vital union with their bodies, but were now separated from them by a violent death; yet still retained a love and inclination to them, even in a state of separation; and therefore here brought in complaining of the shedding of their blood, and destruction of their bodies.

These souls (even of all that died for Christ, from Abel to that time, John saw, that is, in spirit; for these immaterial substances are not perceptible by the gross external senses. He had the privilege and favour of a spiritual representation of them, being therein extraordinarily assisted, as Paul was when his soul was wrapt into the third heaven, and heard things unutterable, 2 Cor. 12:2. God gave him a transient visible representation of those holy souls, and that under the altar: he means not any material altar, as that at Jerusalem was; but as the holy place figured heaven, so the altar figured Jesus Christ, Heb. 13:10. And most aptly Christ is represented to John in this figure, and souls of the martyrs at the foot or basis of this altar; thereby to inform us,

(1.) That however men look upon the death of those persons, and though they kill their names by slanders, as well as their persons by the sword, yet, in God’s account, they die as sacrifices, 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 expression is, Phil. 2:17.

(2.) That the value and acceptation their death and blood-shed have with God, are through Christ, and upon his account; for it is the altar which sanctifieth the gift, Mat. 13:19. And,

(3.) It informs us, that these holy souls, now in a state of separation from their bodies, were very near to Jesus Christ in heaven. They lay, as it were, at his foot.

Once more, they are here described to us by the cause of their sufferings and death in this world; and that was, "for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held;" i.e. They died in defence of the truths, or will of God revealed in his word, against the corruptions, oppositions, and innovations of men. As one of the Martyrs, that held up the Bible at the stake, said, This is it that brought me hither. They died not as malefactors, but as witnesses. They gave a threefold testimony to the truth; a lip testimony, a life testimony, and a blood testimony; while the hypocrite gives but one, and many Christians but two. Thus we have an account what John saw.

2. Next he tells us what he heard: and that was, (1.) A vehement cry from those souls to God. (2.) A gracious answer from God to them.

(1.) The cry which they uttered with a loud voice was this, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost 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 remembered,

1. This cry does not imply these holy souls to be in a restless state, or to want true satisfaction and repose out of the body; nor yet,

2. That they carried with them to heaven any malevolent or revengeful disposition: that which is principally signified by this cry, is their vehement desire after the abolition of the kingdom of Satan, and the completion and consummation of Christ’s kingdom in this world; that those his enemies, which oppose his kingdom, by slaying his saints, may be made his footstool: which is the same thing Christ waits for in glory, Heb. 10:13.

(2.) Here we find God’s gracious answer to the cry of these souls, in which he speaks satisfaction to them two ways:

1. By somewhat given them for present.

2. By somewhat 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 same which is promised to all sincere and faithful ones, who preserve themselves pure from the corruptions and defilements of the world, Lev. 3:4. And it is as much as if God should have said to them, Although the time be not come to satisfy your desires, in the final ruin and overthrow of Satan’s tyrannical kingdom in the world, and Christ’s consummate conquest of all his enemies, yet it shall 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 shall be given them also after a little season; q. d. wait but a little while, till the rest that are to follow, in the same suffering path, be got through the red sea of martyrdom, as you are, and then you shall see the foot of Christ upon the necks of all his enemies, and justice shall fully avenge the precious, innocent blood of all the saints which in all ages has been shed for my sake; from the blood of Abel, to the last that shall ever suffer for righteousness sake in the world. From all which, this conclusion is most fair and obvious.

Doct. That the souls of men perish not with their bodies, but do certainly over-live them, and subsist in a state of separation from them. Mat. 10:28. "Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul."

The bodies of these Martyrs of Jesus were destroyed by divers sorts of torments, but their souls were out of the reach of all these cruel engines; they were in safety under the altar, and in glory clothed with their white robes, when their bodies they lately inhabited on earth, were turned to ashes, or torn to pieces by wild beasts.

The point I am to discourse from this scripture, is the immortality of the soul. For the better understanding whereof, let it be noted that there is a twofold immortality.

I. Simple, and absolute in its own nature.

II. Derived, dependent, and from the pleasure of God.

In the former sense, God only has immortality, as the apostle speaks, 1 Tim. 6:16. Our souls have it as a gift from him. He that created our souls out of nothing, can, if he please, reduce them to nothing again; but he has bestowed immortality upon them, and produced them in a nature suitable to that his appointment, fitted for an everlasting life. So that though God by his absolute power can, yet he never will annihilate them, but they shall, and must live for ever in endless blessedness or misery; death may destroy these mortal bodies, but it cannot destroy our souls. And the certainty of this assertion is grounded upon these reasons, and will be cleared by these following arguments.

Argument 1

The first argument for proof of the soul’s immortality, may be taken from the simplicity, spirituality, and uncompoundedness of its nature; it is a pure, simple, unmixed being. Death is the dissolution of things compounded; where therefore no composition ar mixture is found, no death or dissolution can follow.

Death is the great divider, but it is of things that are divisible. The more simple, pure, and refined any material thing is, by so much the more permanent and durable it is found to be. The nearer it approaches to the nature of spirits, 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 contrarient qualities, and jarring humours, in mixed bodies, that they come under the law and power of dissolution. Matter and mixture, are the doors at which death enters naturally upon the creatures.

But the soul of man is a simple, spiritual, immaterial, and unmixed being, not compounded of matter and form, as other creatures are, but void of matter, and altogether spiritual, as may appear in the vast capacity of its understanding faculty, which cannot be straitened 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 desires to know. Its capacity and appetite are found to enlarge themselves according to the increase of knowledge. So that to speak, as the matter is, If the knowledge of all arts, sciences, and mysteries of nature, could be gathered into the mind of one man, yet that mind could thirst, and even burn with desire 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 increases and enlarges, as it finds more matter to work upon. Now this could never be, if the soul were a material being. Take the largest vessel, and you shall find the more you pour into it, the less room is still left for more; and when it is fun, you cannot pour in one drop more, except you let out what was in it before. But the soul is no such vessel, it can retain all it had, and be still receptive of more; so that nothing can fill it, and satisfy it, but that which is infinite and perfect.

The natural appetite after food is sometimes sharp and eager, but then there is a stint and measure beyond which it craves not; but the appetite of the mind is more eager and unlimited; it never says till it come to rest in God, it is enough, because the faculty which produceth it, is more active, spiritual, and immaterial. All matter has its limits, bounds, and just measures, beyond which it cannot be extended. But the soul is boundless, and its appetition infinite; it rests not, but in the spiritual and infinite Being, God alone being its adequated object, and able to satisfy its desires; which plainly proves it to be a spiritual, immaterial, and simple being. And being so, two things necessarily follow there from.

1. That it is void of any principle of corruption in itself.

2. That it is not liable to any stroke of death, by any adverse power without itself

1. It cannot be liable to death, from any seeds or principles of corruption within itself, for where there is no composition, there is no dissolution: the spirituality and simplicity of the soul admit of no corruption.

2. Nor is it liable to death by any adverse power without itself; no sword can touch it, no instrument of death can reach it: it is above the reach of all adversaries, Mat. 10:28. "Fear not them that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." The bounds and limits of creature-power are here fixed by Jesus Christ, beyond which they cannot go. They can wound, torment, and destroy the body, when God permits them: but the soul is out of their reach; A sword 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 souls in our old age, and decays argue and imply corruption, and are so many steps and tendencies towards the death and dissolution thereof. The experience of the whole world shows us how the apprehensions, judgements, 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 souls only serving, as it were, to salt their bodies, and keep them from putrefaction for a few days longer.

Sol. It is a great mistake; there is not the least decay upon the soul; no time makes any change upon the essence of the soul: all the alteration that is made, is upon the organs and instruments of the body, which decay in time, and become unapt and unserviceable to the soul.

The soul, like an expert, skilful musician, is as able as ever it was, but the body, its instrument, is out of tune: and the ablest artist can make no pleasing melody upon an instrument whose strings are broken, or so relaxed that they cannot be screwed up to their due height.

Let Hippocrates, the prince of physicians, decide this matter for us. "The soul (says he) cannot be changed or altered as to its essence, by the access of meat or drink, or any other thing whatsoever; but all the alterations that are made, must be referred either to the spirits with which it mixeth itself, or to the vessels and organs through which it streameth." So that this roves not its corruptibility: and being neither corruptible in itself nor vulnerable by any creature without itself; seeing man cannot, and God will not destroy it, the conclusion is strongly inferred, That therefore it is immortal.

Argument 2

The immortality of the souls of men may be concluded-from the promises of everlasting blessedness, and the threatenings of everlasting miseries, respectively made in the scriptures of truth, to the godly and ungodly after this life; which promises and threatenings had been altogether vain and delusory, if our souls perish with our bodies.

1. God has made many everlasting promises of blessedness, yea, he has established an everlasting covenant betwixt himself and the souls of the righteous, promising to be their God for ever, and to bestow endless blessedness upon them in the world to come. Such a promise is that, John 8:28. "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish." And John 4:14. "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." And again, John 11:26. "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." And once more, Rom. 2:7. "To them who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honour, and immortality, eternal life;" with multitudes more of like nature.

Now if these be no vain and delusory promises, (as to be sure they are not, being the words of a true and faithful God) then those souls to whom they are made, must live for ever; for if the subject of the promises fail, consequently the performance of the promises must fail too. For how shall they be made good, when those to whom they are made, are perished?

Let it not be objected here, That the bodies of believers are concerned in the promises as well as their souls, and yet their bodies perish notwithstanding.

For we say, though their bodies die, yet they shall live again, and enjoy the fruit of the promises in eternal glory; and while their bodies lie in the grave, their souls are with God, enjoying the covenant and blessedness in heaven, Rom. 8:10, 11. and so the covenant-bond is not loosed betwixt them and God by death, which it must needs be, in case the soul perish when the body doth. And upon this hypothesis, that argument of Christ is built, Mat. 22:32. proving the resurrection from the covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," q. d. If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be perished in soul as well as in body, how then is God their God; what is become of the promise and covenant-relation? for if one correlate fail, the relation necessarily fails with it. If God be their God, then certainly they are in being; "for God is not the God of the dead," i.e. of those that are utterly perished. Therefore it must needs be, that though their bodies be naturally dead, yet their souls still live; and their bodies must live again at the resurrection by virtue of the same promise.

On the contrary, many threatenings of eternal misery, after this life, are found in the scriptures of truth, against ungodly end wicked persons. Such is that in 2 Thess. 1:7, 8, 9. "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, to render vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power." And speaking of the torments of the damned; Christ thus expresseth the misery of such wretched souls in hell, Mark 9:44. "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." But how shall the wicked be punished with everlasting destruction, if their souls have not an everlasting duration? or how can it be said, Their worm (viz. the remorse and anguish of their conscience) dieth not, if their souls die? Punishment can endure no longer than its subject endureth. If the being of the soul cease, its pains and punishments must have an end.

You see then, there are everlasting promises and threatenings to be fulfilled, both upon the godly and ungodly, "He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him, John 3:16. The believer shall never see spiritual death, viz. the separation of his soul from God; and the unbeliever shall never see life, viz. the blessed fruition of God; but the wrath of God shall abide on him. If wrath must abide on him, he must abide also as the wretched subject thereof, which is another argument of the immortality of souls.

Argument 3

The immortality of the soul is a truth asserted and attested by the universal consent of all nations and ages of the world. "We give much (said Seneca) to the presumption of all men," and that justly; for it would be hard to think that an error should obtain the general consent of mankind, or that God would suffer all the world, in all ages of it, to bow down under an universal deception.

This doctrine sticks close to the nature of man; it springs up easily, and without force from his conscience. It has been allowed as an unquestionable thing, not only among Christians who have the oracles of God to teach and confirm this doctrine, but among Heathens also, who had no other light but that of nature to guide them into the knowledge and belief of it. Learned Zanchius cites out of Cicero an excellent passage to this purpose. "In every thing says he, the consent of all nations is to be accounted the law of nature; and therefore, with all good men, it should be instead of a thousand demonstrations; and to resist it, (as he there adds) what is it, but to resist the voice of God?" and how much more, when, with his consent, the word of God doth also consent? As for the consent of nations, in this point, the learned author last mentioned, has industriously gathered many great and famous testimonies from the ancient Chaldeans, Grecians, Pythagoreans, Stoics, Platonists, &c. which evidently shew they made no doubt of the immortality of their souls. How plain is that of Phocylides? Psuche de athanatos kai ageros zei dia pantos. Speaking of the soul, in opposition to the body, which must be resolved into dust, he says, "But for the soul, that is immortal, and never grows old, but lives for ever." And Tresmegistus, the famous and celebrated Philosopher, gives this account of man, "That he consists of two parts, being mortal in respect of his body, but immortal in respect of his soul, which is the best and principal part." Plato not only asserts the immortality of the souls of men, but disputes for it: and among other arguments, he urges this; "That if it were not so, wicked men would certainly have the advantage of righteous and good men, who, after they have committed all manner of evils, should suffer none." But what speak I of philosophers? the most barbarous nations in the world constantly believe it. The Turks acknowledge it in their Alcoran; and though they grossly mistake the nature of heaven, in fancying it to be a paradise of sensual pleasures, as well as the way thither, by their impostor Mahomet; yet it is plain they believe the soul’s immortality, and that it lives in pain or pleasure after this life.

The very savage and illiterate Indians are so fully persuaded of the souls immortality, that wives cast themselves cheerfully into the flames to attend the souls of their husbands; and subjects, to attend the souls of their kings into the other world.

Two things are objected against this argument.

1. That some particular persons have denied this doctrine, as Epicurus, &c. and by argument maintained the contrary.

To which I answer, That though they have done so, yet (1.) This no way shakes the argument from the consent of nations, be cause some few persons have denied it: we truly say, the earth is spherical, though there be many hills and risings in it. If Democritus put out his own eyes, must we therefore say all the world is blind?

(2.) It is worth thinking on, whether they that have questioned the immortality of the soul, have not rather made it the matter of their option and desire, than of their faith and persuasion. We distinguish Atheists into three classes, such as are so in practice, in desire, or in judgement; but of the former sorts there may be found multitudes, to one that is so in his settled judgement. If you think it strange that any man should wish his soul to be mortal, Hierocles gives us the reason of it: "A wicked man (says he) is afraid of his Judge; and therefore wishes his soul and body may perish together by death, rather than it should come to God’s tribunal."

Object. 2. Nor can the strength of the argument be eluded, by saying, "All this may be but an universal tradition, one nation receiving it from another.

Sol. For as this is neither true in itself, nor possible to be made good; so if it were, it would not invalidate the argument: for if it were not a truth agreeable to the sight of nature, and so easily received by all men upon the proposal of it, it were impossible that all the nations in the world should embrace it so readily, and hold it so tenaciously as they do.

Argument 4

The immortality of the soul may be evinced from the everlasting habits which are subjected, and inherent in it. If these habits abide for ever, certainly so must the souls in which they are planted.

The souls of good men are the good ground, in which the seed of grace is sown by the Spirit, Mat. 13:28. i.e. the subjects in which gracious properties and affections do inhere and dwell, (which is the formal notion of a substance) and these implanted graces are everlasting things. So John 4:14. "It shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life," i.e. the graces of the Spirit shall be in believers, permanent habits, fixed principles, which shall never decay. And therefore that seed of grace, which is cast into their souls at their regeneration, is in 1 Pet. 1:23. called "incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth for ever:" and it is incorruptible, not only considered abstractly, in its own simple nature, but concretely, as it is in the sanctified soul, its subject: for it is said, 1 John 3:9. "The seed of God remaineth in him." It abideth for ever in the soul. If then these two things be clear unto us, viz.

1. That the habits of grace be everlasting;

2. That they are inseparable from sanctified souls;

It must needs follow, That the soul, their subject, is so too, an everlasting and immortal soul. And how plainly do both these propositions lie before us in the scriptures? As {or the immortal and indeterminable nature of saving grace, it is plain to him that considers, not only what the forecited scriptures speak about it, calling it incorruptible seed, a well of water springing up into everlasting life; but add to these, what is said of these divine qualities in 2 Pet. 1:4. where they are called the divine nature; and Eph. 4:18. the life of God, noting the perpetuity of these principles in believers, as well as their resemblance of God in holiness, who are endowed with them.