The "immortality," for which alone we ought to contend, is such as implies neither a necessity of existence in the creature, nor its independence on the will of the Creator.

The _power_ of God to annihilate the soul is not called in question, but the _purpose_ of God to make the soul immortal is inferred from its nature and capacities, its aspirations and hopes and fears.

And all that is necessarily implied in the doctrine of what has been called "the natural immortality of the soul" is well stated by Dr.S.Clarke, when he says that, "the soul may be such a substance as is able to continue its own duration forever, by the powers given to it at its first production, and the continuance of those general influences which are requisite for the support of created beings in general." Mr.Baxter, acute and metaphysical as he was, placed the argument substantially on the same ground.

"It appears," he says, "that all substance equally, as well material as immaterial, cannot cease to exist but by an effect of infinite power....

The human soul, having no parts, must be indissoluble in its nature by anything that hath not power to destroy or annihilate it.