Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_421.TXT

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Cl~,tr. II.                           OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.                                                               42t

down in the grave, and rise not till the heavens be no
more; that is, until the second coming of Christ,
when the heavens shall pass away; or until the resur-
rection-morn, which willbe when Christ himself shall
descend from heaven to judge the world, from whose
face the heaven and earth shall flee away; see Job vii.
1o. and x. 21. and xiv. 10, 11, 12. There have been
some instances in which men have died, and have
been raised again to a mortal life, as it shoulcl seem,
and then have died again; otherwise it is not easy to
say, how Christ could be called the first-born from the
dead, if any were raised before him to an immortal
life, never to die more; since some were raised be-
fore; as the son of the widow of Sarepta, by Elijah;
and the son of'the Shunam|re, by Elisha; and the
man that revived upon touching the prophet's bones:
and also others by Christ himself; as Jairus's daugh-
ter, the widow of Naim's son, and Lazarus; of whom
it is particularly observed, that after his resurrection
he sat at table as a guest, at supper-time, to eat and
drink; which supposes the life he was raised to was a
mortal one, and that he was supported in the manner
mortals are, and died again, John xii. 2. But com-
monly men die but once, as Christ the Saylout did.
- 2. Death is certain; it is certain by the appoint
ment of God, which cannot be frustrated; Israel must
die, and so must every man; though the time when is
very uncertain; the Son of man comes in an hour
men know not of; therefore they should be ready,
and watching, and waiting for him. Nothing is more
certain than death, as all experience in all ages testily;
and yet nothing more uncertain than the time when a
man shall die.    .3. Death is mighty, powerful, and
irresistible; what is stronger than death ? No man has
power over his spirit, to retain the spirit one moment,
when it is called for: when God says, this night thy
soul is required of thee, it must be given up: there is
no resisting nor withstanding: when it is said, The
Master is come, and calleth for thee, thou must go;
when death comes and calls for a man, he must go
with him; strugglings and intreaties are to no pur-
pose..    4. Death is insatiable; it is one of those
things that is never satisfied; and the grave, which
follows it, is another, Hab. ii. 5. Prov. xxx. 16. though
it has been glutting itself from the beginning of the
world, it is as greedy of its prey as ever; and though
it sometimes makes such a carnage of men, as in a
battle, that thousands are slain in one day, and great
numbers in a short time, by famine and pestilence,
yet it never has enough.- -5. Death is necessary;
not only by the appointment of God, which must be
accomplished; but for the truth of God, in his threat-
ening with it, in case of sin; and for the justice of
God on sinners, which requires it: and besides, it is
also necessary to the saints, for their good; that they
may be free from indwelling sin and corruption, which
they cannot be as long as they are in this tabernacle;
this earthly house in which the spreading leprosv of
                        '
sin is, must be pulled down, ere a thorough           riddance
can be made of it; it is necessary to deliver         the saints
from all the troubles of this life, and to            introduce
them into the joy of their Lord. Wherefore,-----6.
Though death is formidable to nature, and to natural

men; yet it is desirable by good men; they seek their
dismission from hence by it; they choose rather to
depart, and to be with Christ, which is much better
"than a continuance in a life of sin and sorrow; they
are willing rather to be absent from the body, that
they might be present with the Lord.

CHAP. II.

OF Tnn IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
THOUGH the body dies, and when it dies, the soul
dies not; it survives the body, and not only lives after
it, but lives for ever, it never dies: though the body
without the soul is dead, yet the soul without the body
is not dead; when the body returns to the earth and
dust, fi'om whence it sprung, the soul returns to God,
the immediate author and giver of it: the body may
be killed by men, but not the soul; no man has any
po,ver over that, none but God that made it: the soul
is immortal, it is not capable of death, that is, in a
natural and proper sense; it is capable of dying, in a
figurative sense, a moral or spiritual death; which is
brought on by sin; but this lies not in a deprivation
of the powers and faculties of it; but of its moral rec-
titude, righteousness, and holiness; and it is capable
of an eternal death, which is the destruction of it in
hell; that is, not a destruction of its substance, but of
its peace, joy, and happiness for ever.
When it is said, the soul is immortal, it must be un-
derstood, that it is so in its nature; and is not liable
to death, either from any thing within itself or with.
out it: but not that it has such an immortality as God
himself has, who only hath immortalz?y; he has it of
himself: angels, and the souls of men, have their im-
mortality of him, who has made them immaterial and
immortal spirits; his immortality is without begin-
ning, and any prior cause of it; theirs has a beginning
from God, the first cause of them: his is independent;
theirs depends on him, in whom they live, and .move,
and have their being. That the soul of man is im-
mortal may be proved,
First, From the consideration of the soul itself, its
original, nature, powers, and faculties.
1st, From the original of it; it is not of men; it is
not ex traduce, or by generation from parents, as has
[ been proved elsewhere; What is born of the flesh, is
 flessh; and is not only carnal and sinful, but frail and
H mortal; All flesh is grass, withering, decaying, and
I corruptible, as that is: but the spirit, or soul, is of
God; it is the very breath of God; and has a simila-
rity to him, particularly in immortality; God breathed
into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul,
immortal and never dying, Gen. ii. 7. Elihu says, Job
xxxiii. 4. The breath of the Almighty hath given me
life, a life that will never end: as the first man was
made, so are his posterity; his body was formed out
of the dust; and then a living, immortal soul was
breathed into it: so the body of every man is first
formed, and then the soul is created in it; hence God
is described, as he that formeth the spirit of man
within him, Zech. xii.. 1. and as God is the former of
the souls of men, so he is the supporter of them; he