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So that if we believe Moses, we have a very plain and express Proof of the spiritual and immortal Nature of human Souls, without concerning our selves with the uncertain Reasonings and Conjectures of Philosophy, which are great Secrets to us. For he tells us, that the Soul was not made of Matter, but was immediately created by God, and breath'd into the Body, which was form'd of Dust: That it is this Breath of Life, which gives Life, and Sense, and Motion to the Body and therefore as it receives not Life from the Body, but gives Life to it, fo it does not depend on the Body for Life, but can live without it; nay, that it has a Principle of a true Divine Life, being made after the Image and Likeness of God; and therefore is capable of fuch divine Enjoyments and Pleasures, as have no Dependance on the Body: That Man was made to be immortal; and, had he preferv'd his Innocence, would never have fuffer'd fuch a Separation of Soul and Body as we call Death. But however, that the Sentence of Death related to the mortal Part of Man, to his Body which was form'd of the Duft, and must now return to Duft again; But the Soul is immortal still, and lives in a feparate State; where good Men when they dye meet each other again; as the Scripture assures us, That they are gather'd to their Fathers.

This is the Mosaical Philofophy concerning the Nature and Origin of human Soul, which agrees with the wisest and best Philofophers in their Doetrine of the Soul's Immortality. And this is the beft Confirmation of the Reasonings of Philosophy; that, as to their main Conclusion, they are confirmed by the most authentick Hiftory of the Creation. And I hope it may reconcile fome wanton Philofophical Wits to Moses; that in the moft concerning Point of all, the Immortality

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of the Soul, his Account is fo strictly Philofophical. And when we have the agreeing Testimony both of Reason and Revelation, I hope this will confirm us in the Belief of this most important Article, the Immortality of the Soul.

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Concerning the Universal Confent in the Belief of a Future State, and the Natural Defires of Immortality.

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HE second natural and moral Argument for future State, I told you, was the univerfal Confent of Mankind in this Belief. And if this be a good Argument, the Jews had the best Evidence of it, from the constant Faith and Tradition of their Fathers. They knew all their Progenitors from Adam to Abraham, and through all fucceffive Generations: and there was not an Infidel in their whole Line. They were Men of great Piety and Virtue, who worshipp'd the one Supreme God; and God frequently vouchsafed them his Prefence, and convers'd familiarly with them; as the Hiftories of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, abundantly witness. So that they could refolve their Faith into a Tradition as old as Adam. And if Adam believ'd another Life after this, he must learn it either immediately from God, or from the Dictates of Natures and could not be mistaken in either. For though Adam was fall'n, we must not think that he immediately lost all that natural Knowledge, wherewith he was created: For the Fall has not that Effect upon us even at this Day; and there is no Reason to doubt, but that Adam understood the Philofophy of Nature better than all the Experi

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ments and Observations since can teach us.
Trial God made of his Knowledge of Creatures,
when he brought them to him to see by what Names
he would call them, is a good Evidence of this;
and makes it very probable, that Adam understood
the Immortality of his own Nature from the Prin-
ciples of Nature and Philofophy, with which he was
so intimately acquainted.

But befides this, though we cannot certainly tell how much Adam understood of that Promise which God made him after his Fall, That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's Head; yet we may reasonably think, that a Man of fo great Understanding and Sagacity must apply this to the Redemption of Mankind from Death. The Serpent by his Subtilty had deceiv'd our first Parents into the Tranfgreffion of the Divine Law, which brought Death upon them and their Posterity; and therefore to break the Serpent's Head, is to deliver Mankind from Death, that Curse of the Law, which his Malice and Subtilty had betray'd them to. And I cannot fee how Adam at that time could understand any thing less by it, if he thought it a Promise of Grace and Favour: For nothing but a Promife of a new Life could support and comfort him under the Sentence of Death. And then this Promise did not only affure Adam of the Immortality of his Soul after Death, but gave him reasonable Hopes of the Refurrection of his Body too: For the Death of the Body is that Curie which the Serpent had brought upon him; and therefore the Refurrection of the Body effectually disappoints his Malice, and breaks his Head. And thus St. Paul expounds it in the second of the Hebrews, 14 and 15 v. For as much then as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood, he also himSelf likewise took part of the fame, that through Death be might destroy him, who hath the power of Death,

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that is, the Dovil; and deliver them, who through fear of Death were all their Life-time fubject to Bondage. Which plainly relates to this Promise of breaking the Serpent's Head. And it seems very probable to me, that good Men, even in those Days, were not wholly ignorant of the Doctrine of the Refurrection. I can give no other tolerable Account of what Job tells us, Job 19. v. 25, 26, 27. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that be shall stand at the latter Day upon the Earth, and though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body, yet in my Flesh shall I fee God; whom I shall fee for my self, and mine Eyes shall behold, and not another, though my Rein's be confumed within me. That our Church understands this in a literal Sense of the RefurreCtion of the Body, appears from that place she has given it in the Office of Burial. And whereas others expound this as a Prediction and Prophecy of that happy and flourishing State, which he should be restored to in this World; I have two Objections againft it, which I cannot answer. I That had he known how happy and profperous God intended to make him in this World, as a Reward of his present Sufferings, this must have filenc'd all his Complaints, even with respect to his present hard Ufage, which yet in this very Chapter he is full of; which makes it most likely, that he knew nothing how near the End of his Troubles, and his future Felicity was. Nor is it likely that God should discover this to him; because these Aflictions were intended as a Trial of his Faith and Patience, and to make him a greater Example of both to the World. But had he certainly known what a happy End his Sufferings should have, even in this Life, his Patience and Submiffion to the Will of God had not been so exemplary and wonderful. For, I believe, there are but few Men, did they know it beforehand, but would be contented to endure all that Job did, for so short a time as he did, to enjoy fo great and fo long a Profperity in this World in Recompence of it. My second Objection is, That, in the plain and literal Senfe, these Words signify a Refurrection of the Body, after it is destroy'd by Worms, and dissolv'd into Dust; and therefore cannot be mere Metaphors to represent temporal Happiness and Profperity by. For this is contrary to the Ufe of Scripture, that mere Metaphors should have more Truth and Reality in them, than the Things they are intended to represent. Temporal Deliverances, and Temporal Profperities, are many times made use of in Scripture as Types and Metaphors, to represent the spiritual Blessings of the Meffias; for these spiritual Blessings are much greater than all the prefent external Pomp, and Glory, and Riches of a temporal Kingdom. But to rise again from the Dead, after the Worms have destroy'd this Body, is infinitely a greater thing, than to be very profperous in this World after some fevere Trials and Afflictions. And there is no other Example in Scripture, wherein the Type and Figure has more Truth and Reality than its Antitype has. These, I think, are very reasonable Objections against this metaphorical Interpretation: And the only Objection I know against the expounding these Words of Job, of the true and proper Refurrection of the Body after its Death and 1 Diffolution, is the general Perfuafion, That the Doctrine of the Refurrection was not then known to the World. And it is most probable that this was not then generally known: But yet, as I have shewn you, this might have been known from that Promise God made to Adam, That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's Head : And from these Words of Job, which will not reafonably admit of any other Sense, it seems most probable that fuch wife and good Men as Job was,

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