Sermons Preached at Brighton: Third SeriesRobertson, Frederick William
Religion
Sermons Preached at Brighton: Third Series
Robertson, Frederick William
Church of England -- Sermons; Sermons, English -- 19th century
But, once more, the apostle speaks of what he calls the "soul." What
the apostle meant by what is translated "soul," is the immortal part
of man--the immaterial as distinguished from the material: those
powers, in fact, which man has by nature--powers natural, which are
yet to survive the grave. There is a distinction made in scripture by
our Lord between these two things. "Fear not," says He, "them who can
kill the body; but rather fear Him who can destroy both body and
soul in hell."
We have again, to observe respecting this, that what the apostle
called the "soul," is not simply distinguishable from the body, but
also from the spirit; and on that distinction I have already touched.
By the soul the apostle means our powers natural--the powers which we
have by nature. Herein is the soul distinguishable from the spirit. In
the Epistle to the Corinthians we read--"But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto
him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things." Observe, there is a
distinction drawn between the natural man and the spiritual. What is
there translated "natural" is derived from precisely the same word as
that which is here translated "soul." So that we may read just as
correctly: "The man under the dominion of the soul receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him;
neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. But
he that is spiritual judgeth all things." And again, the apostle, in
the same Epistle to the Corinthians, writes: "That is not first which
is spiritual, but that which is natural:" that is, the endowments of
the soul precede the endowments of the spirit. You have the same truth
in other places. The powers that belong to the Spirit were not the
first developed; but the powers which belong to the soul, that is the
powers of nature. Again in the same chapter, reference is made to the
natural and spiritual body. "There is a natural body and there is a
spiritual body." Literally, there is a body governed by the soul--that
is, powers natural: and there is a body governed by the Spirit--that
is, higher nature.
Let then this be borne in mind, that what the apostle calls "soul" is
the same as that which he calls, in another place, the "natural man."
These powers are divisible into two branches--the intellectual powers
and the moral sense. The intellectual powers man has by nature. Man
need not be regenerated in order to possess the power of reasoning, or
in order to invent. The intellectual powers belong to what the apostle
calls the "soul." The moral sense distinguishes between right and
wrong. The apostle tells us, in the Epistle to the Romans, that the
heathen--manifestly natural men--had the "work of the law written in
their hearts; their conscience also bearing witness."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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