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SEcondly, When we say, God made Adam immortal, and that upon his transgression both himself and his posterity are subjected to a necessity of death, We must rightly understand in what sense he is said to be so. For
1. A thing may be said to be immortal absolutely and essentially, having no principles of death within, nor cannot be destroyed by any cause without. Thus 1 Tim. 6. 16. God is said only to have immortality. This is that comfortable attribute which the people of God make use of under all changes and vicissitudes, God is alwayes the same. Though father die, though mother die, yet God doth not; as one in the Ecclesiastical Story said, when word was brought him, that his father was dead, Desine (saith he) blasphemias loqui, pater enim meus immortalis est, Cease to speak blasphemy for my father is immortal.
2. That may be said to be immortal, which is so by some singular dispensation of God, either in respect of mercy, or of justice; and thus it is with the glori∣fied bodies of the Saints, and the damned bodies of wicked men; for the Saints their vile bodies shall be made like Christs glorious body, they are raised to in∣corruptibility and glory; and as for the bodies of damned persons, though they be raised to reproach and dishonour, yet by Gods justice they are preser∣ved immortal; so that the fire cannot consume them to ashes, neither shall length of time ever destroy them. For if God could make the Israelites cloaths and shoes to last so many years without being consumed, no wonder if he do a greater matter upon the bodies of men.
3. That may be said to be immortal, which by the will of the Creator is so con∣stituted, that being separated from all matter, it hath no principles of dissolution from within. And thus the Angels are immortal, they have no principle of corruption within, yet they are annihilable by the power of God; should God withdraw his preservation of them they would cease to be, but from within they have no cause of dissolution. The Devils also in this sense are immortal, and that is the reason, though many wicked and bloudy persecutors of Gods Church have died, yet the Devil being immortal hath stirred up new ones, which made a good man say to one who did greatly rejoyce at the death of a cruel persecutor, At diabolus non moritur, but the Devil doth not die.
Lastly, A thing may be said to be immortal, Conditionally supposing such and such conditions he performed, and in this sense only we say, God made Adam im∣mortal; for 〈◊〉〈◊〉 had a power to sinne, and so a power to die, he had a power to stand, and to a power to be freed from death. So that we do not say, Adam had such an immortality as the glorified bodies have that cannot die, but con∣ditionally onely. As he had in him power to sinne, so he had a power to de∣prive himself of all happinesse and immortality, which fell out also to our utter undoing. Autin's expression of Posse non mori, and Non posse mori, is known by all. It is not then an absolute, but a conditional immortality we speak of.