For as in the gospel it is never expressly asserted, and yet is fully proved, because unavoidably supposed, and necessarily implied in and by the open, and plain doctrines of the gospel: so it is with the books of _Moses_; they never expressly affirm the natural immortality of the soul, and yet give one, and the same full proof of it, as the gospel doth. Because the express doctrines of every dispensation of God, from _Adam_ to Christ, openly teach doctrines, which not by inference, but in the plain nature of the thing, unavoidably require, and necessarily imply, the immortality of the soul, and the common belief of it in all ages of the church before the coming of Christ.
The obtaining an union with Christ, is the one life and immortality brought to light by the gospel; but this immortality unavoidably requires, and necessarily implies the perpetual duration of the soul’s natural life. For nothing but an ever-enduring creature, is capable of enjoying an everlasting gift.
Therefore the gospel, tho’ never once expressly asserting, yet continually demonstrates the natural immortality of the soul.
And this is the whole truth, with regard to the _Mosaic_ history and types; they hide it, in the same manner as the gospel hides it, that is, not at all; and they fully prove it in the same manner as the gospel proves it, by doctrines which necessarily require, and absolutely imply it, in the first conception of them.
For the history of the creation and the fall of man, contains an express covenant of a redemption, promised to _Adam_ and his fallen posterity, in which a seed of the woman should do away the evil which the serpent had brought into the human nature, that is, should restore the first, lost, heavenly life to mankind.
But this covenant, and the immediate benefit of it, could neither be wanted nor received, but by immortal creatures, that believed themselves to have an immortality, which had lost that glory and perfection which belonged to it at the first. Nor could such immortal creatures have any power of entering into this covenant any other way, than by an implicit faith in God. For it was a covenant of redemption, or return of their first glory, without the least intimation of the time, or age, when, or the means, or manner how it was to be brought to pass. Therefore such a covenant, and such a faith, in the very first conception of them, without the least reasoning or deduction, absolutely imply, and necessarily require a full belief of a future state.
And how could God better keep up a full sense of it, or more fix it in the hearts of men, than by placing and fixing all their faith and comfort, in a redemption certainly to come upon all the world, which yet might not come, till half the world was dead?
Or how could mankind possibly give into this faith, had they had the least doubt of the certainty of a life to come? For their faith in such an expected redemption, could not be either more or less, than their faith in a future state.
Therefore God’s requiring this faith of them, was in the highest degree his requiring them to believe the ever-enduring life of their souls. Consequently, in the first revelation of God to man, life and immortality, as it means an ever-enduring state of the soul, was as fully, and in the same degree brought to light, as in the revelation of the gospel.
In the gospel it is proved, because an immortality of a heavenly life is made known, purchased and given by Christ, which necessarily implies an immortal nature in man, or he could not partake of it.
In the first revelation, it is equally proved, because a _redemption to come_, that was to be obtained by an implicit faith, without any knowledge of the time when it was to appear, whether before or after many generations of men were dead and gone, necessarily implies a full belief of a state belonging to man, that is beyond time, and the death of the body.
This proof of the natural immortality of the soul, thus inseparable from the first revelation of God, is so strong, that nothing need, or hardly can be added to it. For how could God more fully assert the immortality of our nature, than by requiring our faith in such a redemption? Or how could man more strongly declare his full belief of, such immortality, than by his faith in a redemption that had nothing to do with time, or the life, or death of the body in this present world?
_Again_, The murder, or martyrdom of _Abel_, and the translation of _Enoch_ into heaven, both recorded for the instruction of the people in this very point, are two examples, and first fruits of the redemption promised to _Adam_, and all mankind; two invincible proofs, that this first covenant was a covenant of life and immortality, confirmed to mankind by facts strong and convincing, like those of Christ’s resurrection and ascension.