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a state of future rewards and punishments, that is, unto Moses and the Prophets.

It has been already pointed out that the Jewish historian Josephus clearly refers this doctrine, to no less ancient authority, than that of Moses. But besides this history, and before we enter upon the sacred Scriptures, the writings which are attributed to the four centuries which elapsed between the prophecy of Malachi and the appearance of our Saviour, demand, and deserve, our examination. Although we can only allow the Books of the Apocrypha the value of, generally speaking, an Hebrew or Chaldaic commentary, upon the Hebrew Scriptures, yet, as such, they bear a reference to an inquiry like the present, too strong, and too plain, either to be overlooked, or despised. Beginning then with the latest of these, we find in the most authentic history of the Maccabæan princes one direct proof in the story of the Seven Brethren. The last of these sufferers is represented as defying Antiochus Epiphanes on this very ground, that the MOSAIC LAW held forth the promise of life æternal. Our brethren, (said he) which have now suffered a short pain, are dead under God's covenant of EVERLASTING LIFE; but, thou through the just judgment of God, shall receive just punishment for thy pride! Death, is here contemned, as a short pain, from the perfect faith the believing had in a future state. In fact, to what other cause can the contempt of death, which the faithful al

ways exhibited, be possibly traced, but to that to which both Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus refer it, even their belief in immortality. In the prayer of Manasses again, we find him, after expressing a deep sense of all his sins, praying, be not angry with me for ever, by reserving evil for me, neither condemn me into the lower parts of the earth. Comparing this, with the same expression, which occurs frequently in the prophetic Scriptures, there is no doubt that it alludes to punishment after death. The Song of the Three Children also, holds forth the reality of life æternal: O ye spirits AND SOULS of the righteous, bless ye the Lord, praise and exalt Him for ever! The Book of Wisdom is literally full of the most direct and striking evidences, from which we need only select some of the passages appointed to be read by our Church on All Saints day. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of the Lord, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die; and their departure is taken for misery; and their going from us to be utter destruction, but they are in PEACE. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of IMMORTALITY; and having been a little chastised they shall be greatly rewarded, for GoD proved them and found them worthy for Farther on the writer proceeds; but the ungodly shall be punished, as we gather from the previous context, by torment, for horrible is the end of the unrighteous generation. The

HIMSELF.

vengeance (saith Ecclesiasticus) of the ungodly is fire and worms*. The Lord God will take vengeance of them (it is written in the Book of Judith) in the day of judgment, in putting fire and worms in their flesh, and they shall weep for ever t. In chap. xiv. of the second Book of Esdras, where he is represented as sent unto the people, Hear these words, O Israel; Our fathers at the beginning were strangers in Egypt, from whence they were delivered; and received the law of life, which they kept not, and which ye also have transgressed after them. Therefore, (he adds, after pointing out this as the cause of all their past and present misfortunes,) if so be that ye will subdue your own understanding, and reform your hearts, ye shall be kept alive, and AFTER death shall obtain mercy; for AFTER death shall the judgment come, when we shall LIVE AGAIN. Still stronger in ch. vii. where Esdras is represented as supposing that man had better not have been, he is made to urge, for what profit is it unto us if there be promised an IMMORTAL time, whereas we have done the works that bring death? For while we lived and committed iniquity we considered not that we should BEGIN to suffer for it AFTER death. Then answered he me, and said, this is the condition of the battle which man that is born on earth shall fight; that if he be overcome he shall suffer as thou hast said; but if he get the victory he shall receive the thing that I say. For this is the LIFE whereof MOSES spake unto the + Ch. xvi. 17.

* Ch. vii. 17.

people while he lived, saying, "thou mayest live."

"choose thee life that

The whole of these quotations breathe evidently the same doctrine, nor are they by any means contrary to the spirit of the New Testament: By deeds of the law no flesh was, or is, to be justified; but that law contained the promise of life æternal by faith; nor is it credible, such being the case, that the Jewish Lawgiver was silent on this subject while he lived. When, the whole of these books were written, it is perhaps impossible to ascertain, but it is sufficient for our purpose to be assured that many of them were extant long before the birth of our Saviour*.

We now turn to the sacred Scriptures; Search ye out of the book of the Lord and read! Throughout the gospel age, and during the centuries which occupied the intermediate time unto the ministry of Malachi, the doctrine of a future state was held as no new communication; and it appears from the very numerous allusions which will be brought forward, that these views of the life spoken of by Moses were always the same amongst the believing in the Jewish nation, even from that first written revelation. We shall then rather find these

Ecclesiasticus, supposed to be written in the high priesthood of Onias II. or about 250 years before Christ.- Prid. Con. part ii. p. 360.

doctrines alluded to, and insisted on in general partially, (as would be the case if no doubt had existed that Moses ought always to be understood as revealing them) than held forth, or introduced with all the solemnity, that usually distinguished every new communication from the Deity, by the mouths of his prophets. Nor should it be overlooked that those holy men invariably assert their own title to credit only and solely on the grounds that they are sent by the same God who through Moses promulgated his law; and that the chief view and object of all their missions was to turn the people back again unto that very law which they had transgressed and forsaken. The last words of Malachi prove this-Remember ye the LAW of MOSES my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. It should be also stated, that the peculiar objects and application of the prophecies is not now our inquiry, further than as they affect the doctrines of life æternal. Wherever the promised seed is referred to, that promise, of necessity, implies a future state; nor were all the people of God ignorant that they must look for far more than any temporal Redeemer. Simeon and Anna, when past all hope, believed in hope even of æternal life, praying to depart in peace, since they had seen the salvation of God, through whom his people should be redeemed, with themselves, even from the power of death. Nor were they alone in this faith, for they spake of Jesus to all them that looked

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