Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_422.TXT

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422                             OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUI,.                                     Book VII.

upholds their souls in lift; as they have their being
and their life from him, it is maintained by him; the
souls of men are not dependent on their bodies, and
therefore die not when they do: as they are indepen-
dent of them in their operations, can think, reason,
discourse, will, and hill without them; so they are in
their being, and can exist and subsist without them.
The most malicious and cruel persecutors can only
kill thebody; and after that they have no more that
they can do; they cannot kill die soul, Luke xii. 4.
they cannot pursue that any further; that returns to
God that gave it; he could, indeed, annihilate it, if he
would; but that he does not do, neither the souls of
good men, who, after death, are under the altar, call-
ing for vengeance on their persecutors; nor the souls
of bad men, who are in perpetual torment; their worm
of conscience never dies, but is always torturing them;
and the fire of divine wrath in them is never quench-
ed, of which they are always sensible, and therefore
must be immortal, and never die; or else that fire,
and its burnings, would not be everlasting, as they are
said to be.
sdly, The immortality of the soul may be proved
fi'om the nature of the soul; which is, -1. Spiri-
tual, of the same nature with angels, who are made
spirits, spiritual substances, and so die not; and such
are the souls of men, Heb. xii. 9, 23. Now as the
souls of men are of the same nature with angels, and
they die not, it may be concluded that the souls of
men are immortal, and die not, Psalm civ. 4. Luke xx.
36. ICor. ii. 11..    2. The soul of man is simple,
unmixed, and uncompounded {1}; it is not composed of
flesh, and blood, and bones, arteries, veins, &c. as the
body; a spirit has none of these; not flesh, which
may be torn to pieces; nor blood, which may be let
out and shed, and life expire; nor bones, which may
be broken, and be the occasion of death; nor arteries
and veins, which may be cut through, and life cease:
nor is it, as the body, made up of the four elements,
fire, water, earth, and air, and capable of being re-
solved into the same again...    3. It is immaterial, it
is not composed of matter and form; nor is it a mate-
rial form, educed out of the power of matter, as the
souls of brutes, which die, go downward, and return
to the earth; matter is destitute of motion, and can-
not move itself; whereas the soul of man, being
moved, can move itself; as it appears by its thoughts,
reasonings, and discourses; this was Plato's argu-
ment {2} for the immortality of the souls that it can
move the body at pleasure, or influence to any action,
as to walk, sit, &c. Matter is incapable of thought,
reasoning, and discoursing, willing and nilling, as the
soul is. Matter is divisible, discerpible, may be cut
to pieces: not so the soul; it is out of the reach of
every slaughtering weapon; the sharp arrow cannot
penetrate into it, nor the glittering spear pierce it,

~ Vid. Aristot. de Anima, 1. 1. c. 5. et I. ~. c. 1. Cicero. Tuscul.
Quaest. !. 1. Non aliquid mixrum, non conereturn ex elomon~is. Sed
purum, ~ternum, q~odque omne est tabe solutum, &c. Ao~fiu~ Palea~
rius de l~nmortal. Anim. I. 2. 1.89. Ed. Amster. 1690.
~ Vid. Phsedro, p. 1'221.
~ _lnimutn antera homh~is per se semper moverl, quia sit ad cogiean-
alum mobill% &c. I,actant. Divin. Irstitu,'. Ei3itome~ c. 10.

nor the two-edged sword divide it; none of these, nor
any other of the same nature can touch it.      4. The
soul has no contrary qualities, which, when one is pre-
dominant, threatens with destruction; it is neither
hot nor cold; neither moist nor dry; neither hard nor
tender: it has no heat in it, which may, as in the body,
be increased to such a degree, as in burning fevers,
to d. ry it up like a potsherd, and consume it: nor such
moisture, which may rise, abound, and overflow it, as
in a dropsy, and drown the fabric: nor has it any such
.tender part which will not bear a blow, but be fatal to
it: nor so hard as not to bend, and become pliable to
proper uses, and endanger the machine...    5. The
soul of man is made after the image, and in the like-
nessof God, which chiefly consists in that; it bears a
resemblance to the divine nature, being the breath of
God; it has a likeness to him, and particularly in its
immortality; and this is given by Alemaeon {4} as an ar-
gument of it; and so Platos, the soul is most like to
that which is divine, immortal, intelligible, uniform,
indissoluble, and always the same.
3dly, The immortality of the soul may be proved
from the powers and faeulties of it, its understanding
and will.- 4. Its understanding. There is a spirit,
or soul, in man, as Elihu says, Job xxxii. 8. And the
inspiration of the A1mighty giveth. them understanding;
an intellective power and faculty of understanding
things, which distinguishes men from the brutes that
perish, the horse, the mule, &e. which have no under-
standing; it is by this God teaches men more than
the beasts of the earth, and makes them wiser than the
fowls of heaven, Psalm xxxii. 9. Job xxxv. 11..
(1.) The understanding of man can take in, and has
knowledge of things spiritual, and incorporeal, imma-
terial, incorruptible, and eternal; which it would not
be capable of, if it was not of the same nature itself;
the images of these things would not be impressed on
it, nor would it be susceptible of them: it can reflect
on its own thoughts and reasonings, and knows the
things within itself, which none but God and that
know; it has knowledge of angels, their nature, offi-
ces, and services; it has knowliidge of God himself6,
of his nature, perfections, ways, and works: nor is it
any objection to it, that it has knowledge of corporeal
things, and therefore must be corporeal too, since
these are things below it, and therefore within its
reach; whereas spiritual, incorporeal, and immaterial
substances, would be above it, and not within its com-
pass, unless it was a spiritual, immortal, and immate-
rial substance also; thus God and angels know cor-
poreal and material things, though they- are incorporeal
and immaterial..    (2.) The soul of man has know-
ledge of eternity itself; though it may be observed,
there is great difference in its apprehension of an
eternity past, and of that which is to come: when it
considers the former, it is soon at a loss, and at a full

4 A'pud A.ristot. de Anima, 1. 1. c. S. vid. Laert. !. 8. in vita ejus.
s In Ph~edone, p. 6tl, 61.
6 This is used as an arg:~ment of the soul's immortality bv Sa!lustius,
de Diis, c. 8. and so by Lactantlus, Divin. Institut. F4~itome, c. 10.
illud autem maximum argumenturn immortalitat;s, q~od Deum solus
ha:no agnoscit.