CHAPTER IX.

JORTIN.

POSSESSED as he was of an acute and inquisitive mind, the opinion of Jortin on any subject would have a just claim to attention. On the subject of the immortality and separate existence of the soul, we find him thus expressing his sentiments in his Doctrine of a Future State.

The Author of this Epistle to the Hebrews, that is, to the believing Jews of Judea, shews them the great danger of apostasy from the Gospel, exhorts them to endure sufferings for the sake of righteousness with patience and resolution and perseverance, as knowing that they should be gloriously rewarded in the world to come, and encourages them to sustain themselves with these hopes through faith, or a full persuasion that God would fulfil his promises to them. He proceeds to show the excellence of faith, of a trust in God, and the happy effects which it had upon their forefathers, and upon all good men from the beginning of the world. He in

stanceth in Abel, Enoch, Noah, and afterwards in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who, like other holy men recorded in Scripture, through faith obtained a good report, and pleased God, and were supported under all difficulties, troubles, and trials which they experienced; who firmly relied upon the goodness and veracity of God, and having received promises from him of blessings relating both to themselves and to their posterity, lived and died in a firm belief that God would make good all those promises, though they did not see the accomplishment of them in this world.

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

Which words present two things to our consideration :

I. That the good men recorded in the Old Testament, who lived before and under the Law, expected a future state of happiness:

II. That all men ought, in imitation of those holy persons, to look upon themselves as upon strangers and sojourners on earth, and to entertain dispositions suitable to such a persuasion.

I. The good men who lived before and under the Law expected a future state of happiness.

It was an objection formerly made by the Manichæans, and since by others, to the Jewish system, and to the Old Testament, that it taught nothing concerning another and a better life, and confined the views, expectations, hopes and fears of men to the present state of things †. The objection, from what quarter soever it came, was plausible, and if the fact could not be denied, lay heavy upon the Jewish religion. Let us see whether we can remove it.

The doctrine of a future state seemeth not to be so clearly and expressly delivered in the Old Testament as one could expect. There are many places where the subject itself invited the Sacred Writers to speak of another world, as where they propose exhortations to obedience, and dissuasives from vice; where they treat of God's goodness, and mercy, and wisdom, and justice; of the unequal dispensations of Providence, of the prosperity of the ungodly, of the vanity of earthly things, and the shortness and troubles of human life; and yet in all these places either no mention is made of a future state, or something is said which is, or

* Amongst whom is Lord Bolingbroke.

+ Uriel Acosta, after having embraced Judaism, became a Sadducee, being persuaded that the rewards and punishments of the Mosaic Law related only to the present life.-BAYLE, Acosta.

which at least seems liable to controversy, capable of different interpretations, and not altogether free from ambiguity and obscurity. The antiquity of the sacred Books, the dead language in which they are written, the present poverty and scantiness of that language, which seems never to have been copious, perspicuous, and polished, though not so defective neither as some have represented it, the want of authors either cotemporary, or approaching nearly to those remote times, may perhaps contribute in a great measure to these doubts and difficulties.

Thus much, however, we may collect and conclude, that our Saviour was the first sacred teacher who in a full and clear manner delivered to men, and particularly to the Gentiles, the important truths of the remission of sins, a resurrection, a future judgment, and an impartial distribution of recompenses and punishments in that everlasting state which should take place at the end of the world.

As eternal happiness is a very different thing from a state of retribution, so may the kingdom which he hath promised to his own followers be different from a state of peace and serenity in some of the various mansions in our Father's house.

Our Lord, indeed, found the doctrine of a future state established amongst the Jews, and not quite obliterated amongst the Gentiles; yet he might

truly be said to bring immortality to light, or to throw a new light upon the doctrine of immortality, as this doctrine was better proved and confirmed by him than it was before, and as the Gospel speaks of an eternal and unchangeable happiness, which may be obtained by serving God, and which neither human reason can discover, nor any former revelation had expressly declared.

The doctrine of a future state of retribution, at large and in general, is consistent enough with an uncertainty whether the state of the good may not be blended with some inconveniences, although their happiness shall preponderate upon the whole, or whether there may not be other states of trial, and an ascent and descent of human souls, according to their merits and defects, through all eternity.

But though the Gospel in this respect surpasseth all previous declarations of the Divine Will, yet it would be an error to suppose that nothing concerning another life was believed by good men before the coming of Christ. There are so many things related in the Old Testament, from each of which the probability of a future state may not unreasonably be inferred, and when they are collected and compared together, they give so much light and strength to each other, that the whole must lead us to think that the good men who lived before Christ expected a state of peace and happi