A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

Secondly, All must die once. ¹There is frequent mention made in Scripture of the first and second Death. The first Death is the separation of the Soul from the Body: The second Death is the separation of the Soul from God. As the Union of the Soul and Body is the Life of Man; so the Union of God with the Soul, is the Life of the Soul. Now Believers do not die this second Death; ²for on such, as the Apostle speaks, the second Death hath no power: They are still united unto God after an unconceivable and ineffable manner. As when Christ lay in the Grave, though his Soul was truly separated from his Body, yet both Soul and Body were hypostatically united to the Godhead; so also, though the natural Union between a Believer's Soul and Body, be dissolved by Death, yet both Soul and Body continue mystically united unto Christ, even in their separation one from another. It is not therefore this second, but the first Death that ⟨p. 8⟩all are appointed unto. The Hand of Death must untie those secret and sweet Bands, those vital Knots that fasten Soul and Body together, must fall asunder one day in every Man.

1. 1All must die once; but Believers do not die the second Death.
2. 2Rev. 20.8.

¹Thirdly, It is appointed unto every Man to undergo this first Death. It is decreed and ordained by God, and that not upon the Account of any natural Necessity; but for the Punishment of Sin. The Apostle tells us plainly, That by Sin Death entered into the World. Death therefore is not so much a Debt due to Nature, as a Debt due to the avenging Justice of God; for though Man at first was created in pure Nature, yet was he also created in a deathless State; and Death seizeth upon us, not as we are Men, but as we are Sinners, liable to the Curse of the Covenant of Works, containing in it that Threatening, In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. It is true, Adam, even before he sinned, had in him the contemperation of the same contrary Qualities that we now have; and so, at least, had also the remote Principles of Death; but yet it is probable that he was created