Moreover, there can be no question that man consists of a body and a
soul; meaning by soul, an immortal though created essence, which is his
nobler part. Sometimes he is called a spirit. But though the two terms,
while they are used together differ in their meaning, still, when spirit is
used by itself it is equivalent to soul, as when Solomon speaking of death
says, that the spirit returns to God who gave it, (Ecclesiastes 12:7.) And
Christ, in commending his spirit to the Father, and Stephen his to Christ,
simply mean, that when the soul is freed from the prison-house of the
body, God becomes its perpetual keeper. Those who imagine that the soul
is called a spirit because it is a breath or energy divinely infused into
bodies, but devoid of essence, err too grossly, as is shown both by the
nature of the thing, and the whole tenor of Scripture. It is true, indeed, that
men cleaving too much to the earth are dull of apprehension, nay, being
alienated from the Father of Lights, are so immersed in darkness as to
imagine that they will not survive the grave; still the light is not so
completely quenched in darkness that all sense of immortality is lost.
Conscience, which, distinguishing, between good and evil, responds to the
judgment of God, is an undoubted sign of an immortal spirit. How could
motion devoid of essence penetrate to the judgment-seat of God, and under
a sense of guilt strike itself with terror? The body cannot be affected by
any fear of spiritual punishment. This is competent only to the soul,
which must therefore be endued with essence. Then the mere knowledge of
a God sufficiently proves that souls which rise higher than the world must
be immortal, it being impossible that any evanescent vigor could reach the
very fountain of life. In fine, while the many noble faculties with which the
human mind is endued proclaim that something divine is engraven on it,
they are so many evidences of an immortal essence. For such sense as the
lower animals possess goes not beyond the body, or at least not beyond
the objects actually presented to it. But the swiftness with which the
human mind glances from heaven to earth, scans the secrets of nature, and,
after it has embraced all ages, with intellect and memory digests each in its
proper order, and reads the future in the past, clearly demonstrates that
there lurks in man a something separated from the body. We have intellect
by which we are able to conceive of the invisible God and angels — a thing
of which body is altogether incapable. We have ideas of rectitude, justice,
and honesty — ideas which the bodily senses cannot reach. The seat of
these ideas must therefore be a spirit. Nay, sleep itself, which stupefying
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the man, seems even to deprive him of life, is no obscure evidence of
immortality; not only suggesting thoughts of things which never existed,
but foreboding future events. I briefly touch on topics which even profane
writers describe with a more splendid eloquence. For pious readers, a
simple reference is sufficient. Were not the soul some kind of essence
separated from the body, Scripture would not teach 121 that we dwell in
houses of clay, and at death remove from a tabernacle of flesh; that we put
off that which is corruptible, in order that, at the last day, we may finally
receive according to the deeds done in the body. These, and similar
passages which everywhere occur, not only clearly distinguish the soul
from the body, but by giving it the name of man, intimate that it is his
principal part. Again, when Paul exhorts believers to cleanse themselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, he shows that there are two
parts in which the taint of sin resides. Peter, also, in calling Christ the
Shepherd and Bishop of souls, would have spoken absurdly if there were
no souls towards which he might discharge such an office. Nor would there
be any ground for what he says concerning the eternal salvation of souls,
or for his injunction to purify our souls, or for his assertion that fleshly
lusts war against the soul; neither could the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews say, that pastors watch as those who must give an account for
our souls, if souls were devoid of essence. To the same effect Paul calls
God to witness upon his soul, which could not be brought to trial before
God if incapable of suffering punishment. This is still more clearly
expressed by our Savior, when he bids us fear him who, after he has killed
the body, is able also to cast into hell fire. Again when the author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews distinguishes the fathers of our flesh from God,
who alone is the Father of our spirits, he could not have asserted the
essence of the soul in clearer terms. Moreover, did not the soul, when freed
from the fetters of the body, continue to exist, our Savior would not have
represented the soul of Lazarus as enjoying blessedness in Abraham s
bosom, while, on the contrary, that of Dives was suffering dreadful
torments. Paul assures us of the same thing when he says, that so long as
we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Not to dwell on a
matter as to which there is little obscurity, I will only add, that Luke
mentions among the errors of the Sadducees that they believed neither
angel nor spirit.