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pense as the sanction of his laws, is it not extremely probable that he communicated this joyful hope to those select and pious men who shared his burdens and assisted his councils? Or, when they compared his character with his fate, and observed that God sustained his bodily and mental powers with supernatural vigour, to the last moment of his life, so that at the age of "one hundred and twenty years," immediately before his death, "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated;"* when they observed all this, could they suppose that on a sudden his existence was closed for ever, and the favour of his God withdrawn? Surely this could never be the conclusion of any pious or reflecting mind. How much more just and rational is the reasoning of the Apostle to the Hebrews on this subject, even if we were to pay no regard to his inspired authority. "By "faith," says he, "Moses, when he was come to years, refused "to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter-choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ 'greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect "unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, "not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing "him who is invisible."

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Finally, if on considering the entire history of the Patriarchs, and comparing the decided declarations of the divine favour towards them, with the very inadequate effects of that favour in this life, the certainty of a future recompense was not a natural as well as a just conclusion, obvious to every pious, reflecting, and unprejudiced mind; could our blessed Lord, when he urged

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* Deut. xxxiv, 7.

On this subject the learned and judicious Edwards makes an important observation. Vol. I. p. 168, he is employed in proving, "that the benefit of the legal sacri"fices expiated the offences of all true penitents, though they were never so great." And he confirms it thus: "Is it not acknowledged, and that because it is manifest "from several instances, that the crimes of persons have been forgiven and pardoned, though they themselves were not exempted from the penalty? Moses' death was the recompense of his unbelief, though none doubted of his expiring in the divine "favour. David was punished with the death of his child, though we read that his "sin was pardoned.* Josiah was justly snatched away in battle, because he engaged "in it against the divine will and cemmand; but yet he died in peace,' i. e. "in the favour of God, and was translated to the place of everlasting peace and happiness."+

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*Samuel, xii. 13, 14. Heb. xi. 24-27.

VOL. II.

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+ Compare 2 Chron. xxxv. 22, with 25. and Jer. xxii. 10.

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this conclusion against the Sadducees, have charged them with error, because they "knew not the Scriptures, nor the power "of God;"* that is, because they did not consider the Scripture history as they ought, or argue fairly from the divine attributes? In answer to their difficulty against the belief of a resurrection, deducible, as they conceived, from the Mosaic Law respecting marriage, our Saviour replies, "Do ye not therefore err, because "ye know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in "heaven. And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye "not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake “unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of "Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the “dead, but of the living; ye therefore do greatly err."+ This is not the language of one announcing a new argument, which, before his application of it, had been utterly undiscoverable by human sagacity; but rather of one drawing an obvious conclusion from plain facts, which nothing but wilful blindness or culpable prejudice had prevented from being previously seen.

I therefore contend it is reasonable to suppose, that minds neither inattentive nor prejudiced, but on the contrary candid, pious and reflecting, may have argued in a somewhat similar manner, and from the Scripture history of the Patriarchs, concluded the divine favour towards them was not confined to the present life; though no one, before our blessed Lord, had established this conclusion with such clear reasoning and such irresistible force.

We may further observe, that though the Jewish Lawgiver did not directly promulgate the doctrine of a future state, as the sanction of his Laws; yet there is no reason why he should suppress any declaration of that doctrine made by others; or why we should distort any expression which naturally conveys that doctrine, when recorded by Moses as used by others, on a supposition that it was not intended to convey it. I therefore see no reason to doubt that the remarkable expression ascribed by Moses to Balaam, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end‡ be like his," really means what it obviously

*Matt. xxii. 29. Mark, xii. 24-27. Taylor affirms, and it seems on good grounds, that the word translated "last end," means strictly an after or future state, not only here but in many

imports a wish to die the death of the righteous, in order to enjoy the happiness of another life, which the righteous only can share.

Balaam was certainly gifted at this time with a portion of the prophetic spirit, though he abused this favour of his God. And the interpretation now assigned, is surely more natural than that of Warburton; which explains these words as merely expressing his wish, “Let me die in a mature old age, after a life of health “and peace, with all my posterity flourishing about me; as was "the lot of the righteous observers of the law ;"* an interpretation which appears most forced and unnatural.

It is an obvious remark connected with this subject, that the clauses of the Mosaic Law directed against those who had familiar spirits, and against wizards and necromancers, which are repeated at least four different times in the Pentateuch,† and also the continuance of this superstition, notwithstanding that all these prohibitions were frequently enforced with the greatest rigour;--a continuance so clearly instanced by the history of Saul, and particularly by his own recourse to the witch of Endor;‡ -all these circumstances prove, that the existence of the soul in a separate state was deeply fixed in the popular belief among the Jews, and that the abuse of this tenet formed a leading feature of the popular superstition. This circumstance, the learned Prelate so frequently alluded to, appears to have forgotten, when he asserted in such an unqualified manner, that the Jews under "the Mosaic Law never expressed the least hopes or fears of a «future state, or so much as any common curiosity concerning “ it."§

other places cited in this argument; of which as they occur, vide Taylor's scheme of Divinity, ch. xxiv. 103.

* Div. Leg. Vol. v. p. 143, and Deut. xviii. 11.

Lev. xix. 31. xx. 6. xx. 27.

Vide 1 Sam. xxviii.

§ Div. Leg. Book VI. sect. vi. Vol. v. p. 395.-It is unnecessary to enter into a minute comparison of the grounds on which Warburton maintains his assertion, aud those on which I oppose it. Such a comparison can be satisfactorily made only by an impartial examination of both our arguments. I would here merely observe, that of the circumstances I have noticed in this section, some, and those not the least important, are either not at all or very slightly adverted to by the learned Prelate, where he professes to consider the texts adduced by his adversaries. For example, in the consideration of the texts from Genesis, &c. he takes no notice of the mention made of the tree of life, of the death of Abel, or the history of Moses. Vide Div, Leg. Book VI. sect. ii. iii. and iv.

SECT. II.-Doctrine of a future state, why not more clearly and frequently inculcated in the Pentateuch—or under the Judges. Gradual improvement of the Jews. Future state gradually promulgated suitably to this improvement—By David in Ps. xvi. xvii. xxxvi. xlix. ciii. cxv. cxxxix.-By Solomon'in Proverbs, passim, particularly in ch. iv. viii. xiv. xxiv.; still more fully in Ecclesiastes, of which work this doctrine is the basis, particularly in ch. iii. viii. xi. and at the conclusion of the book. How further impressed on the Jews by miraculous facts-By three resurrections from the dead-By the translation of Elijah-This doctrine frequently intimated and gradually taught with the greatest clearness by the Prophets-Isaiah Jeremiah—Ezekiel Hosea Joel -Amos-Nahum—And above all, Daniel—And also in the book of Job.

DANIEL, Xii. 2.

"Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

THE passages we have hitherto adduced from the history recorded by the Jewish Lawgiver, and which show that he himself believed a future state of retribution, and contain such proofs of it as would naturally impress that belief on every pious and reflecting mind, have been chiefly taken from the Book of Genesis. In the remaining part of the Pentateuch we are not to wonder that the rewards and punishments of a future life are not expressly introduced. It has been shown that God exercised over the Jews an extraordinary providence, rewarding obedience, and punishing transgression, whether national or personal, by immediate and temporal blessings and calamities; and that this system was rendered necessary by the intellectual character and peculiar situation of the Jewish people, as the only mode of counteracting their carnal dispositions and idolatrous propensities; the only mode adapted to their short-sighted views, their inadequate ideas of the divine perfections, and their unsteady faith in the divine promises.

This system was pursued, first during that most evident display of divine and miraculous power, at the promulgation of the law, and the settlement of the chosen people in the promised land; and afterwards under their judges, when for above four hundred years the Jewish nation continued, if I may so express it, under the immediate tutelage and direct control of Jehovah. During this rude and yet unsettled period, the nation seems (naturally speaking) unfit to receive or improve any further

religious instructions. Hence, during this period we find no inspired teacher, whose admonitions or prophecies have been handed down as a part of the sacred volume, except some prophecies briefly and incidentally mentioned in the history of the Judges and the book of Samuel, relating merely to immediate and temporal occurrences. No addition was now made to the instructions delivered by Moses, no further development of the divine plans vouchsafed. But after a sufficiently long trial of the immediate power of God to guide and protect the chosen people, they were permitted to establish a regal government, and rise into notice among the surrounding nations:—their foes were subdued by Saul and David; a magnificent temple was erected by Solomon, where the public worship prescribed by the Mosaic ritual was conducted with the strictest regularity, and accompanied with all the attractions of pomp, and harmony, and splendour, which could rouse the attention and command the reverence, not only of the Jews themselves, but of the surrounding nations. A lucrative trade was opened with the East :* which continued in a great measure to be conducted by the Jews, from David to Ahaz, above two hundred and fifty years. A great part of this time the Jews were powerful and wealthy; their minds were gradually enlightened by commerce and softened by peace, and the conviction of Jehovah's overruling providence gradually established by a still increasing length of experience; and thus a foundation laid for a more firm reliance on the divine promises respecting a future life.

And while the temporal discipline and fortune of the Jews thus prepared the way for the reception of religious instructions, we observe that Samuel founded the schools of the prophets, where numbers of the Levites, and probably other pious Jews, were trained from their youth to study and expound the word and the will of God, to warn the people against idolatry, impiety, and vice, and become instruments of extending the knowledge of the Jewish religion, and the worship of the great Jehovah. We now perceive Providence raising up for them instructors, first in the persons of their two most distinguished kings David and Solomon, the former as a prophet, the latter chiefly as a moral sage. Their works, from the dignity of their

* Compare 1 Kings, ix. 26, with 2 Kings, xvi. 6; and vide Prideaux's Connections, Book I. from p. 7 to 17.

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