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. 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 inculcasea in the Pentateuch—or under the Judges. Gradual improvement of the Jews. Future state graaually promulgated suitably to this improvement—By David in Ps. xvi. xvii. Xxxvi. xx. 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 Fook I. from p. 7 to 17. authors, and from the very form of their compositions, must have been extremely popular. The pious hymns of the inspired Psalmist, praising the wonderful works of God for his chosen people, and adorning the sentiments of piety with all the charms of poetry and music, must have been read with avidity, and remembered with delight; and the sententious maxims of the royal preacher, the pride of his nation, for wisdom, power, and majesty, could scarcely fail of exciting attention to religious truth and moral duty. After these we behold a series of prophets, delivering their admonitions and predictions, with the most intrepid resolution and the most awful menaces, to the kings and the assembled multitudes of Judah and Israel. We see some of their predictions immediately accomplished in the most important public events; and therefore their remaining prophecies must have excited general attention and anxious expectation. In truth, the schools of the prophets, established first by Samuel, supplied for ages the civil historians as well as the religious instructors of Judea; and the most distinguished prophets were so deeply engaged in public events, that their lives and writings were blended with every thing interesting in history, and preserved as parts of the national records. The important doctrine of a future state of retribution was by these various inspired teachers gradually developed with perpetually increasing clearness and force, as the circumstances of the Jewish people required its promulgation; as well from the extension of their views by the improvement of their intellectual character, as from the gradual cessation of that extraordinary providential superintendence which became unnecessary for the support of religious and moral principle in proportion as the people became more sensible of the perpetual providence and moral attributes of the Divinity, and therefore more capable of being duly impressed with the divine promises of a future retribution. And here, though the learned prelate so often alluded to, hurried away, it should seem, by a zeal for establishing his system on the broadest possible basis, seems originally to have maintained that no ideas of a future state were to be found amongst the Jews, previous to the captivity: yet he afterwards found it necessary to admit they were gradually inculcated by the Prophets subsequent to David.* But assuredly he ought to * Vide Warburton, Vol. v. p. 9. and the first Section of this Lecture. have included this inspired Psalmist in the number of those who promulgated this great truth, not indeed with the same clearness as the last prophets, but yet sufficiently to prove his own firm belief of it, and to suggest it to the consideration of every pious and reflecting mind. In Psalm xvi. after solemnly attesting his warm attachment to the pious, that "his delight was upon the saints that were upon the earth, and upon such as excel in virtue;" he declares his firm confidence in the mercy and protection of his God, and his full assurance of a future state: "I have set God "always before me; for he is on my right hand, therefore I "shall not fall. Wherefore my heart was glad, and my glory "rejoiced: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For why? Thou "shalt not leave my soul in hell; neither shalt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou shalt show me the path of "life; in thy presence is the fulness of joy and at thy right hand "there is pleasure for evermore."* It is true, the entire passage is prophetic of our Lord's resurrection, to whom alone the words, "thou shalt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption," are applicable, as the Apostle Peter † argues with the Jews. But assuredly the Prophet had a clear idea of future eternal happiness, and a firm confidence that he would himself enjoy it. The next Psalm is not less express. sensual enjoyments on which the wicked pure celestial happiness of another life. "from the ungodly, which is a sword of thine; from the men of "thy hand, O Lord, from the men, I say, and from the evil "world, which have their portion in this life," &c. "But as "for me, I will behold thy presence in righteousness: and when "I awake up after thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it." He here opposes the fix their desires, to the "Deliver me, O Lord, • In this passage I use the translation of our Prayer Book; it seems clearer than that in our Bible, and fully as accurate. In the meaning of the three last verses, all the interpretations agree; except that the Syriac translates the last clause, “I shall be "satisfied with the pleasures of victory at thy right hand. Vide Biblia Waltoni. Yet even this does not exclude the idea of eternity. ya æternitatem significat, sic dictam "quasi victoriam temporis," says Rivetus, and adds, "Nomen hic in adverbii naturam "transit; est hoc adjunctum perpetuum beatitudinis, qua 'ioqui beatitudo non esset, is "perpetua non foret." Vide Poli Synopsin. + Vide Acts, ii. 29, &c. ‡ The word translated “awake,” seems by an apt metaphor to mean, awakening from death to life, xp. It is used in this sense in Isaiah, xxvi. 19, and Dan. xii. 2, where it can bear no other sense. Vide infra. |