image of God, viz. saving knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; and the whole nature was corruptod, Eph. ii. 1; and so left destitute of a principle of vital spiritual actions, that it can no more think, will, or do anything truly good, than a dead man can perform the functions of life, Rom. iii. 10, 11, 12, where a dreadful picture of the corruption of human nature is given; "As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one; There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doth good, no not one." The soul of man was a curious piece of workmanship, made by the finger of God; it was set up, and set a-going for its Master's use, like a watch; but sin broke the chain and spring; so that all the wheels of a sudden stood moveless and could go no more. (2.) A relative death of the soul, by which the blessed relation man stood in to God was extinguished. He was no more the friend of God, and the favourite of his maker. This was death indeed, Psalm xxx. 5. He enjoyed the friendship, favour, and fellowship of God, upon his good behaviour; he sinned, and so he behoved to lose them. Thus God became his enemy as Rector and judge of the world, and he was set up as a mark for the arrows of wrath. 2dly, As preying upon the soul of man, through the course of his natural life in the world. Sin laid the soul as it were in the grave, the house of death; and there being dead while the man liveth, devouring death works and preys in, and upon it, two ways: (1.) In the progress of sin and corruption in the soul, as the body in the grave rots more and more, Psalm xiv. 3. The soul being spiritually dead, the longer it lies in that case, the more loathsome and abominable it becomes. Swarms of reigning lusts breed in it, and are active therein; the remains of the image of God are defaced more and more in it, and the soul still set farther off from God. All actual sins are the workings of this death, the motions of the verminating life of the soul in the grave of sin, Eph. ii. 1, 2. So that they are not only sins in themselves, but punishments of the first sin, which cannot cease to follow on God's departing from the soul; which may persuade us of the absurdity of that principle, That there is no sin in hell. (2.) In strokes of wrath on the soul. Where the carcase is, there these, like so many eagles, gather together. The sinning soul becomes the centre, wherein all manner of spiritual plagues meet together, as worms do in bodies interred, to feed thereon, Job xx. 26. These are manifold; some of them felt, as sorrows, terrors, anxieties, losses, and troubles, crossing the man's will, and so vexing, fretting, and disquieting him. Those are indeed a death to the soul, having a curse in them, like so many envenomed arrows shot into man ; some of them not felt, so as to make the man groan under them, as blindness of mind, hardness of heart, strong delusions, but they are the more dangerous, as wounds that bleed inwardly. Natural Death. 2. Natural death, which is the death of the body. This results from the separation of the soul from the body. It is twofold; stinged and unstinged death. Unstinged death parts the soul and body indeed, but not by virtue of the curse for sin. This is the lot of the people of God, 1 Cor. xv. 55, and is not the penalty of the covenant of works; for that is death with the sting of the curse, Gal. iii. 10, which death Christ died, which penalty he paid, and so freed believers from it, Gal. iii. 13. So that there is a specifical difference betwixt the death of believers and that death threatened in the covenant of works; they are not of the same kind, no more than they die the death that Christ died. The natural death, the penalty of the covenant of works, then, is not simply the death of the body, but the stinged death of the body, the separation of soul and body by virtue of the curse; that as they joined in sin against God, they might be separated for the punishment of it for a time; though afterwards to be reunited at the resurrection, with a change of their constitution. For that there will be a change on the bodies of the wicked, as well as on those of the godly, is evident in that they shall continue united to their souls in hell, without food, and under torments; either of which, according to their present constitution, would dissolve their frame, and issue in death. Now, this natural death may be considered two ways, as the penalty of the covenant of works, inwardly and outwardly. 1st, Inwardly, in the body of man. There death got its seat in the day that he sinned; there it spread itself from the soul, where it began that fatal moment of yielding to the tempter. And thus it may be considered three ways; in its beginning, progress, and consummation. (1.) In the beginning of it. That day that man sinned he became mortal, Gen. iii. 19. The crown of immortality, which he held of his Creator, by virtue of the covenant of works, fell from off his head, and he became a subject of the king of terrors. That day he got his death's wounds, of which he died afterwards. The mutiny then began among the constituent parts of the body, (witness the terror, anxiety, and shame, causing a motion of the blood and spirits, which before their sinning they were unacquainted with); and the end of that was the destruction and dissolution of the whole frame. (2.) In the progress of it, in maladies and diseases, whereby death carries on its subjects towards the house appointed for all living, Eccl. iii. 20. Every pain, gripe, or stitch, is death's working like a canker in the body of man. Every sickness and disease is a forerunner of death, coming before to give warning of the approach. The sweat, toil, and weariness that man is liable to, are fore-tokens of the body's falling down at length into the dust, Gen. iii. 19. Man has now his morning, mid-day, and afternoon; and then comes the night. He has his spring, summer, and autumn, and then winter. Like a flower he has his bud, blossom, fading, and then his falling off. But innocent man would have had a lasting mid-day, summer, and blossom. What follows these respectively, is owing to the breach of the covenant. (3.) In the consummation of it, by the separation of the soul from the body, Heb. ix. 27. The pins of the tabernacle being loosed, it lies along upon the earth at length. The body of man like an old house, falls all down together, while the soul, the inhabitant, makes its escape, and leaves it. They joined in breaking of the covenant, and are punished with separation; the body going to the dust, and the soul to God who gave it, to receive its sentence. 2dly, Outwardly, upon the creatures, upon which the body of man has a dependence as to its life and welfare. What dependence we have on the creatures as to this, every one kuows by experience. Without the air we cannot breathe; and as the temperature of it is, it is well or ill with our bodies. On the product of the earth we live; the fruits thereof are the support of our natural life, with the beasts that feed on them. The earth depends on the heavens; and according to their influence upon it, so it is serviceable to us. See the chain of dependence among the creatures; Hos. ii. 21, 22, "And it shall come to pass in that day; I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel." Now man's natural life being so much bound up in these, the life promised him in the covenant could not but comprehend the continuing of these in their original constitution, Gen. i. 31, and fitness for the support of man's natural life and vigour, as means for that end. And so death, the penalty of the covenant, must needs spread itself even to them, and that upon the same score. Thus also it may be considered three ways: in its beginning, progress, and consummation. (1.) In the beginning of it. the creature for the sake of the And that was the curse laid upon is the ground for thy sake," said the Lord unto Adam. Man became vanity by his sin, and the creatures were made subject to vanity on his account; so that they could not reach the end of their primitive constitution, but fainted as it were in the way; "For," says the apostle, Rom. viii. 20, "the creature was made subject to vanity." Nay, such a burden lies on the creation, as makes the whole to " groan and travail in pain," ver. 22. Where can we turn our eyes now, but we may see death riding in triumph? The earth's barrenness often paints death on the faces of the inhabitants thereof, by scarcity and famine; the air is sometimes empoisoned with pestilential vapours, that kill and sweep away multitudes; the fire often burns and torments men; the waters swallow them up; beasts wound, bruise, and kill them; nay, we are not secure from the very stones of the field. The very sun in the heavens approaching to them scorches and causes languishing; and removing from us, causes us shiver with cold; and holding itself under clouds, damps men's spirits. For death has spread itself over all. (2.) In the progress of it, Psalm cii. 26. Man's declining in the several ages, is manifest. Men are of less stature, less bones and strength, than sometime they were. And why, but because our mother earth is past her prime, and entered into her old age, and her breasts afford not such nourishment as in her youth? Hence man's days are very few now in comparison of what they were before the flood, when the curse had not sunk so deep into the earth, as it has done from that time, when it had well nigh extinguished her vigour. And whence is this weakness in the earth, but from this, that the heavens also faint, are waxed old, and afford no such influences as before? And whence is that but from the sin of man in breaking the covenant of friendship with God, pursued by death, which extends itself to all things that have any hand in preserving that life, which it has a commission to take away? (3.) In the consummation of it, in the destruction by fire that is awaiting the world. For "in the day of the Lord the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up," 2 Pet. iii. 10. The visible heavens and the earth are now like an old worn garment; then shall the old worn garment be rent in pieces, and cast into the fire. Man's old house, the earth, that has often been made to shake with all down to ashes together; and the works and men's works in it shall be shall be silent at length, and be no more. runs his race like a strong man, shall fall as breathless. And the earthquakes, shall then fall noble furniture of it, God's burnt up. The roaring seas Yea, the sun, who now world, that beautiful fabric of heaven and earth, shall have a dying day. The death threatened in the covenant of works shall pull all down together. And then death itself, with all the appurtenances thereof, shall be pent up in hell for ever, Rev. xx. 14, by the power of the glorious Mediator, Isa. xxv. 8. Eternal Death. (3.) Eternal death, which issues from the eternal separation of both soul and body from God in hell, Matth. xxv. 41. This is the full accomplishment of the curse of the covenant of works; and presupposes the union of the soul and body, in a dreadful resurrection to damnation; the criminal soul and body being brought forth from their separate prisons and joined together again, that death may exercise its full force upon them for ever and ever. That this was the penalty of the covenant of works, is manifest from the event testified by the holy scriptures, this being the lot of all those who, not embracing the covenant of grace, live and die under the covenant of works. For, says the apostle, 2 Thess. i. 7-9, "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking 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 from the glory of his power." And this death may be considered two ways, as flowing from the sanction of the covenant of works, and from the nature of the creature fallen under that sanction. 1st, As it flows from the sanction of the covenant of works, requiring satisfaction to offended justice, and all the wronged attributes of God. And thus it is a punishment inflicted to satisfy for the offence, and repair the honour of God impaired by man's sin. And that punishment is twofold; the punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense.* (1.) The punishment of loss; Matth. xxv. 41, "Depart from me, ye cursed." Man having sinned, and this death once seizing him, he is deprived of God's favour, and all comfortable communion with him of any sort is blocked up. The sun sets upon him, and the midnight darkness of God's forsaking of his creature falls on. Justice suffers not one grain of comfort to be put into the sinner's cup. All the least chinks, by which the least beam of the Lord's countenance might shine into the soul are stopt, and the creature is left absolutely comfortless. Thus it is with the damned in hell; and • The reader, if he pleases, may peruse, for a more full account of this awful subject, what our author has said upon it in the Fourfold State. State iv., head 6. |