*

not merely for the idiom of the language; because, whatever be the idiom of other languages it is the undoubted idiom of the sacred language to represent things as they are, which it cannot do, if it were to express an attribute of unity by a word carrying in it the idea of plurality; and not used for want of a singular noun, because it frequently occurs in the singular number: but it is here used to express an attribute which distinguished the soul from the body; for the text says, that the body had but life, or was living, in distinction to the soul which had lives. Now the soul which hath lives, must of necessity have more than one-the present life can be but one-therefore the soul hath another life-and another life being not the present, must of necessity be a future-and a future life, or the soul's continuing to exist after the dissolution of the body, being what is meant by the immortality of the soul; in this text, therefore it is, as expressly as words can speak, revealed, that the soul of man is immortal. And how could the holy Spirit have laid this doctrine open to the Jews in a plainer manner than by revealing, that the soul which the Lord God breathed or infused into the body of Adam, was not made frail materials, and liable to be dissolved; but did continue to exist after its separation? And whilst the Jews understood their own language, how could they be ignorant of a doctrine laid open to them in so plain a manner? And

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III. Besides this reasoning drawn from the meaning of the words; there is an infallible authority which hath fixed their meaning, and thereby unanswerably proved, that the reasoning drawn from them is just. "Est igitur [Nistmath Hajim]. Flautus seu spiritus divinus, cælestis, "immortalis, ac æternum durans; quibus vocibus pulchre discernit "inter animam hominis immortalem, & animam brutorum animan"tium, &c."—§ H. Maius. de Economiâ Temporum Vet. Test. 1706, p. 152. Spiraculum vitarum dicitur quia omnem vitam conferebat, non tantùm temporalem & corporalem, qualem etiam bestiæ habent, sed etiam æternam; ut pridem multi vocis plurativæ vim exprimere sunt conati.

* Gen. i. 20. 30. § xlii. 15, 16. § Lev. xiii. 10. &c.

St. Peter speaking by the same Spirit of God which spake in Moses hath proved, that David foretold the resurrection of Christ, when he said, "Thou shalt not "leave my soul in hell, neither shalt thou suffer thy "holy one to see corruption." And then it immediately follows, *"Thou shalt shew me the path of "lives." Now, in consequence of Christ's not seeing corruption, he was to be shewn the path of lives; and therefore the word lives here manifestly includes that life which Christ entered upon when he rose from the dead-and this was certainly an immortal life: “For they who are accounted worthy to obtain a future "world and the resurrection of the dead, cannot die "any more." And consequently this is an infallible proof, that the word Kiim, is expressive of immortality.

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IV. But further, the expression doth not only declare that there is another state besides this in which the soul will exist; but it also justifies the latter part of the definition, that the soul will be as susceptible of pleasure and pain in a future state as it was in the pre"sent:" For certainly to have life in the proper sense of the word, is to have what always attends life, sensation-Life and sensation are ideas inseparably united; so that whatever being the one is predicated of the other is of necessity implied-and whatever hath sensation, must also have either pleasure or pain; for pleasure and pain are only words which stand for our ideas of certain sensations. The holy Spirit then asserts, that the soul lives when separated from the body. Now it is absurd to suppose the soul living, and yet neither sensible of pleasure nor pain; and therefore, he hath by this assertion expressly revealed, that the soul exists

Lorinus in Act. Apost. p. 96. Act iv. v. 28. "Notas mibi fecisti "semitas vitæ, &c." De resurrectione loquitur, & glorificatione, corporis & vitâ immortali, ad quam ante Christum nemo resurrexerat, nemo noverat, hoc est, expertus fuerat. Id in Psal. 1 vol. p. 207. Christus autem multo magis sub personâ David significat demonstratas uni sibi vias a patre, rationesque quibus & ipse & sui obtinere inmortalitatem beatam valerent tum corporis tum animæ, &c.

in a future state of pleasure and pain, i. e. of rewards and punishments.

From these reasons then it is evident, that the holy Spirit hath, in this text, expressly revealed the immortality of the soul, and a future state: and this is abundantly confirmed from what is afterwards revealed concerning immortality. Among the other institutions in Eden, (Gen. ii. 9.) the Spirit of God hath mentioned the tree of lives," which was a sacrament instituted to "be the earnest and pledge of eternal life.” * It was a sacrament: because the virtue attributed to it could not be naturally inherent in it, but must have depended solely on the power of the institutor-And it was "instituted to be the earnest and pledge of eternal "life;" because the words assert that it was a tree of lives, or immortality; and also because, when man had by his sin forfeited this sacrament of immortality, and was taught to expect salvation only through faith in Christ, that salvation through faith in him is still called by the same name as the first sacrament of immortality was, viz. the tree of lives-" To him that overcometh," saith the Spirit, "will I give to eat of the tree of life "that is in the midst of the Paradise of God;" (Rev. ii. 7.) and in another place, "Blessed are they that do "the commandments of Christ, that they may have "right to the tree of life," (Rev. xxii. 14.) Here the New Testament borrows an expression from the Old, to describe the life and immortality brought to light by Christ; and therefore the expression used in the New Testament to convey ideas of an happy immortality, must certainly have intelligibly described that immortality in the Old; for the words are the same in both Testaments, and consequently the ideas which they convey in both must be the same: so that Christ is now, to fallen man, what the tree of immortality was

* Capelli Comm. p. 320. Vitæ arbor dicta videtur, non quòd extraordinariâ & supernaturali quadam virtute inhærente prædita esset perpetuandam Adami vitam, sed quód Deus voluerit eam esse Adamo signum, Arrahabonem, & veluti sacramentum, &c. § And Willet in his Hexapla on Genesis, p. 28. abundantly proves the same.

to innocent Adam-the virtue attributed to the one, being what is also attributed to the other-Christ is really to fallen man, the fountain of everlasting life; therefore such sacramentally was the tree of immortality to innocent Adam: for it would be very absurd, if Christ should be made to stand instead of the tree of immortality, and yet that tree was not instituted to effect for the innocent what he hath now effected for sinners; because then the substitution would be destroyed, and the ideas conveyed by the one or the other would be false. The tree of lives therefore was, and was known to be, because the holy Spirit expressly declares it to have been a sacrament of immortality; so that he hath not only revealed that the soul is immortal, but hath also revealed what was instituted to be the pledge and earnest of eternal life. And in both these passages he hath, as plainly as words can speak, expressly revealed a future state.

And though these texts be not contained in (what is called) the body of the law, yet are they nevertheless conclusive; because every Jew who read the one of them, must know that he had an immortal soul; and because, though he read that the first sacrament of immortality was forfeited, yet he could not avoid reading in the law itself, that there was another instituted: for the law taught him, not only by expressive actions, but also by the plainest words, though he was a sinner, yet there was a way still open for him to future happiness; particularly, in the following passage he was taught this literally, and without a figure: God prohibits the eating of blood upon the penalty of death; and he gives a reason for the prohibition" For the life of the

flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon "the altar, to make an atonement for your souls; for "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul," (Lev. xvii. 11.) Now, if we take the word here rendered soul to denote the spiritual part of man, this would be a self-evident proof, that sacrifices were known to have a spiritual effect, and as such the atonement

they made to regard a future life. But if we take the word to denote what is always used in scripture to signify the animal frame, in what sense could the blood make an atonement for it? The end of making an atonement is to protect and secure a criminal from justice; and when this atonement is accepted, justice is satisfied. Now the present life was known to have been forfeited by sin, and how then could the Jews be so slow of heart as to imagine that this blood was to atone for the temporal life of the body? Blood could not possibly have any such virtue of its own; and it was daily demonstrated, that it had no such virtue imputed to it: "For as by one man sin entered into "the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon “all men, because all have sinned." And surely two thousand years experience had sufficiently convinced the Jews of this truth, and demonstrated to them, that they were all to go down to the grave, and that the pit was to shut its mouth upon them. Against this demonstration then they could never imagine that blood was to atone for the temporal life of the body; and therefore they had a demonstration that there was some other life forfeited, besides the present, for which blood was to atone.

* Now Moses had taught them, in this text and elsewhere, to look upon sacrifice in a spirtual sense-that spirtual sense was the relation it bore to a Redeemerand the blessings derived to mankind by that Redeemer were not temporal-However, an exemption from temporal death was not one of these blessings-And yet the blood which was known to typify the blood of the Redeemer, did preserve the body from some kind of death; which being not from temporal, must of necessity be from eternal death: for, if only the present life had

* Exod. xxiv. 8. proved by St. Paul, Heb. ix. 20, 21, &c. to signify the blood of Christ. § B. Lamy de Tabernaculo Foed. Par. 1720. p. 475. "Pius Israelita, qui immolabat agnum, non in sanguine animalis spem salutis & fiduciam reponebat, sed cogitabat alium agnum, viz. "Jesum Christum, qui sanguinem suum fusurus erat pro remissione 66 peccatorum."

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