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human nature required the prospect of another life to sustain piety and obedience, under the trials to which they were exposed; and this increases the probability that such a prospect was afforded, when such trials were imposed by the immediate agency of God.

The life of the Jewish Lawgiver affords a remarkable instance in confirmation of the truth of this position. In his youth, grieved and wearied at beholding the cruel oppression of his countrymen, he is led to attempt their deliverance, and sacrifice for this purpose all prospects of regal grandeur and present enjoyment. But he is totally and lamentably disappointed: rejected and depised by those who were the objects of his generous patriotism, he is compelled, in order to preserve his life, to fly into exile, where he remains for forty years; and then at the age of fourscoret is compelled to quit his retirement, place himself at the head of his nation, expose himself to the resentment of the Egyptian monarch; and after having escaped this, is constantly harassed with the murmurs, the terrors, the idolatries, the rebellions of this wayward race; even his own brother and sister join in opposing his authority. This scene of severe trials lasts for forty years, in a dreary desert, surrounded by a discontented multitude; and at the end of this long period he is not permitted to enjoy the glory of conquering the promised land, or witnessing the happiness of his nation's settlement there, but is barely allowed to see a distant prospect of this long wished-for resting place, and then hurried away by the sudden stroke of death. Yet this is the fate of a man of exemplary piety, who, though sometimes in the heaviness of his spirit he is driven to entreat of God, "If thou deal thus with me, kill "me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy "sight; and let me not see my wretchedness;" yet still preserves to God constant resignation, and to his ungrateful countrymen unabated affection.

Now we may ask, is it not natural to suppose that God, who employed this distinguished character as the chosen instrument for communicating his Law to the whole Jewish nation, should have sustained him in so severe a trial, by the clear prospect of a future recompense? And though the peculiar purposes of the divine economy would not permit him to employ a future recom+ Exod. vii. 7.

* Vide Exod. ii. 11, et seq.

Numb. xi. 15.

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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."‡

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

* 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 sacrifices 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 command; but yet he “died in peace,' i. e. in the favor of God, and was translated to the place of ever"lasting peace and happiness."†

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

+ 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.

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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 in 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; a 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. p. 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. 395.—It is unnecessary to enter into a minute comparison of the grounds on which Warburton mantains his assertion, and 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. & 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 shew 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 shewn 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 the Jewish nation continued, if I may so express years 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

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