( 30 ) 30 ). our Refurrection-bodies be, but Subftitutes in the room of those we fhould have Derived from Adam in cafe he had never finned, only much more Glorious, and then naturally immortal? 3. Enoch fignifies Teaching, dedicating. He walked with God as many years as we have days in a year: And having lived not above half as long as his contemporaries, took his flight bodily into the invifible world, as a kind of firft-fruits of human nature, being the firft of the kind thus highly honoured. See Gen. iv. 24. comp. Heb. xi. 5. Thus the great Teacher or Prophet of the church, whofe both life and death were Dedicated folemnly to God's fervice, and man's falvation, having not lived above half the common term of the life of his Contemporaries; and having called at the Gates of Death, and like Sampfon, in a fenfe carried them away, fo as not to hinder the egrefs of all mankind in his own proper Seafons; at length took his flight upon the wings of the wind, and entered bodily into heaven itfelf, being the firftfruits from the Dead of human nature; in which he is invefted with all authority in heaven and earth, at the Right Hand of the Majefty on high, Glorious Emanuel! Now, my dear Phil. Can we reafonably fuppofe, That the Antediluvians could be ignorant of the Tranflation of Enoch? Phil. By no means; nor yet of his exemplary and uncommon piety and converfe with God before his tranflation." Didas. Suppofe you, my dear Phil. had been a witness of his walking with God upon Earth, and of his bodily Tranflat on into heaven, what conclufions would your reafon have drawn from fuch an extraordinary Phenomenon P Phil. I fhould certainly have concluded, That there were other beings, to us invifible, inhabitants of other worlds; by whofe agency, above any known known law of nature, he afcended above the clouds, probably into a happier world than that he left behind. That therefore his foul must be immortal, or capable of intercourfe with thofe fpiritual beings. among whom he was going to refide." And that as his body did not die upon earth, that this muft pafs into a flate of immortality, by fome change, to me unknown, after he left this world. Didas. A very rational conclufion indeed! more efpecially as Mofes introduces the Maker of Man breathing into his noftrils Nishmath chajim, the breath of LIVES, as principals of vitality, fufficient to denominate him the Image and Offspring of God. So that the natural mortality of the body admitted, as its natural component parts originate from the Duft, and therefore its very flamina mortal; yet who can believe that the whole of what Jehovah Elohim breathed in o him is mortal alfo ? The fruit of the Tree of life was intended to immortalize the body; but could it therefore immortalize the foul? If not, if the foul was not naturally immortal, by what means muft, it become fo, in order to be a companion, and a living actuating principle to the body? 4. Noah, fignifying Reft and Comfort. Both him and his family lived in two Worlds. Is it poffible to find any faft, either ancient or modern, that can afford a clearer figure of a world dying and rifing again? At the death of the old world, the Ark, like the Grave, preferved the remains of human Nature: But behold! the following year, this remnant appears again upon the ftage of time, and a new world of mankind fprings out of the Ark out of those who had been buried in it fo long, as if lodged in their graves, yet alive all the time they feemed to be loft. Phil, Inftructive figure indeed! They furvived the wreck of nature, and ftand the Types of the dead, dead, who fhall rife at the Refurrection of the juft, as the deftruction of the old world was a figure of the deftruction of the prefent. The above curfory obfervations appear fufficient grounds for the Patriarchs to found their faith and hope of a happy immortality upon, and that the foul lives when the body is dead. This will appear plainer fill, by adding two or three inftances, by which it will appear, that they did actually poffefs fuch a faith and hope. The firft inftance fhall be Abraham, the father of the Faithful. But as his faith in this very fubje&t is confidered in the following Effay, fhall only at prefent obferve, That it is not reasonable to fuppofe, that Abraham ever imagined that the fhedding the blood and burning the body of Ifaac would put an end to the exiflence of his foul; which certainly muft have been the cafe, if it expired with the body. But being perfectly refigned to this fingular requifition of his Covenant-God, he haftened to tranfact the bloody Tragedy; until He, who could read the heart, obferved the voluntary facrifice virtually offered; which being in his eye tantamount to an actual offering, accepted the will for the deed. The victim was releafed, and the Father received him. as alive from the Dead. Heb. xi. 19. Did not Jacob receive his Jofeph in Egypt much the fame way? Suppofing him to be actually dead, the hoary afflicted Patriarch cried, "I will go down into Sheol unto my fon." Gen. xxxvii. 35. Sheol in Hebrew is Hades in Greek: Both fignify properly the place of feparate fpirits, but hid from mortals. Phil. Don't many fuppofe, that Jacob intended no more than to go to him into the grave? Didas. But let Reafon afk, is the grave the fepulchre of the foul as well as of the body? If not, was the body all that Jacob intended to vifit? Is the body the whole of man living or dead? How Arangely ftrangely disappointed would Jacob have been, if neither his own nor the foul of his darling had furvived the body! But farther, the tranfmiffion of the bones of Jofeph, and the burial of Jacob in the promifed land, fufficiently evidenced their faith and hope, not only of the Deliverance of the whole nation out of Egypt at the time appointed, but of the future Refurrection of their bodies; and that they Looked for a city that hath foundations, whofe builder and maker is God; for he hath (or will) prepare for them a City, (Heb. xi. 10, 16.) a continuing City yet to come. This City was included in the Promifes made to these Patriarchs. Their Faith gave them not only a demonftrative rational evidence of the real exiflence of the things promifed, but they anticipated the enjoyment of them, though afar off, with regard to time, and left the world with unfhaken confidence of the power, goodness, and veracity of him in whom they believed. But again; how was it poffible for thofe Patriarchs not to believe in a future ftate of immortality, who were, upon every important occafion, favoured with vifits and meflengers from the Court of heaven? Frequently Jehovah himself.condefcended to vifit them. It has often been a query with many, whether they were not better acquainted with another world then, than we are now. And the prefumption feems to lie in favour of that fide of the queftion. Did not the Philofophy of Mofes in a manner illuftrate this important Truth? Let the Deistical and Socinian Philofopher deny the fact, or else Demonflrate, How the firft and Parent Seed of every Plant contained in embrio every feed and every plant that from the creation to this day the prolific Womb of Mother Earth has ever produced? When he has refolved this difficulty, and demonstrated demonftrated how this operation of nature is per formed: A Trinity in Unity; a God in human flefl; Original fin; imputation of fin and righteoufnefs; the fatisfaction for fin that moral divine Juftice demanded and obtained by the redemption that is in Jefus; the natural immortality of the foul, &c. &c. Divines will demonftrate beyond a poffibility of contradiction. On the other hand, let the Country Ruftic, who' neither has nor pretends to poffefs erudition, confider that "All flefh is Grafs," which Autumn cuts down, Winter withers, but its Roots being buried in the Earth, it lives under ground, and rifes with the returning fpring in all its verdant or variegated blooming beauties. Here, in every field and every flower, the Peafant may fee every year his own Death, intermediate life of his foul, and future Refurrection, as certain as the fpring returns. The fetting and rifing Sun reprefents the fame every returning day. The Blind has ftill a more natural illuftration, fan&tioned by Scripture language-He fleeps, he dreams, he awakes, and rifes with the rifing morn! Thus Univerfal nature around us, unite with experience and give their fuffrage with facred Writ, and, without one diffenting voice, proclaim Man's Immortality in Reafon's Ear! But let us touch upon a few more topics in few words, and then close these curfory Obfervations. 1. The Promifed Seed flows in a current of Blood from the Mother of all living down to Judah the Son of Jacob. This divine Genealogy is full of mystical inftruation, as is elsewhere to be feen. It is not only the Chronologer's clew in the Labyrinth of ancient Time, but the Key to Prophetical numbers in both Teftaments. See the Author's S. Chronology. 2. The Geographer may trace out the origina! divifions of the earth; the fettlement of the feventy nations |