daring infidelity, to make the words of the Spirit of God speak any other meaning, than that which general acceptation or honest criticism would assign to the language of any uninspired author. Had men been content to say simply and humbly, "It is written," how many abundant sources of schism, of error, and of blasphemy, would have remained undiscovered, nor thus have defiled with their pestilential streams, the waters of everlasting life.

The words of the text were used by our Saviour, to express to the Sadducees the source of their error, upon those important doctrines, which the rest of the Jews universally acknowledged. The resurrection of the body, the immortality of the soul, the existence of angels and spirits, are specially mentioned as the points of Jewish faith, which these freethinkers denied. In order to defend themselves in their unbelief, they boldly rejected nearly the whole of the sacred Scriptures, except the books of Moses, in which they asserted that they could find no allusion to these doctrines. Christ, however, answered their cavils, in such a manner as to put them to silence and to shame. They endeavoured to show the absurdity of the received doctrines, by stating such a case, as they imagined would involve their supporters in inextricable difficulties. They requested the Saviour to determine,

to which of seven brothers should a woman be considered to belong in the resurrection, who, having been married successively to each of the seven, had died the last of all without issue. This argument, by insinuation, as it has been termed, has been, and is, a favourite argument with infidels-a successful method, generally, of perplexing superficial inquirers; who, either in doubt or in admiration, fall at once into the snare, and prefer the specious falsehood to the truth. The Saviour immediately detected and exposed their double error; and declaring the nature of the resurrection, or rather, of that state to which it would introduce man, he proved the certainty of the resurrection by the words of those very books of Moses, whose authority they acknowledged, but of whose meaning they were ignorant: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God; for in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, 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."

Let us endeavour to ascertain the argument which is here given for the certainty of a resur

rection; and then we may draw from the consideration of the doctrine some practical instructions, and some powerful consolation.

The words here employed by our Saviour, as tending to convince the Sadducees of their error, are the words spoken by Jehovah to Moses, when he appeared to the future lawgiver of the Jewish people in the burning bush. In arguing with these opponents of the truth, our Saviour so far accommodated himself to their prejudices, that he omitted to notice the many passages of the prophetic writings, in which the anticipations of future blessedness are most ardently indulged. These might have been met by the denial of their authenticity. But the Sadducees could not deny the authority of Moses, and therefore the language used on the very earliest occasion of this patriarch's intercourse with God is adopted, as conveying the intimation of a future state.

Jehovah manifested himself to Moses, by the title of the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob : alluding evidently to that particular covenant, which he made with Abraham and with his seed. It might have been sufficient to arrest the attention of Moses, or of any other human being, that Jehovah should declare himself as the God of the whole earth, to which title he had an undoubted right, as the Creator of the material uniBut as the God of Abraham, he had respect unto a relation, involving a greater privi

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lege than the mere communication of natural life. "I will be to him a God, and to his seed after him," was the promise secured by that everlasting covenant, which God established with Abraham. This title then, this promise, must necessarily include some extraordinary happiness, resulting from this relation. The privilege of protection and of spiritual blessing; the support of an almighty benefactor; the defence of his grace, and the exceeding great reward of his love and favour; all this is but the faint idea of that which is included in this expression. To imagine that no reference was intended, except to the temporal advantages actually enjoyed by themselves, or to the temporal splendour afterwards acquired by the posterity of these patriarchs, would be to limit the favour of Jehovah, in such a manner as to make it appear only of trifling importance, if not to invalidate its benefits. For, what extraordinary happiness did either of these patriarchs enjoy, at all commen surate with the expectations that might be formed from the favour of a divine benefactor? They were strangers in the land of promise; they suf fered the extremities of famine; they had no possession in that land except a sepulchre; they acknowledged that they had no continuing city, but confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims on the earth. "Few and evil have the days of life been," was the melancholy

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confession of one of them, who yet trusted in the Lord and rejoiced in his promises. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews gives us a satisfactory view of the faith and obedience of the patriarchs, in the land of their pilgrimage; shewing that their faith had respect unto a future life: They that say such things," namely, they who being persuaded of these promises, embraced them, and acknowledged the short and uncertain tenure of their pilgrimage; they who say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country; they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath provided for them a city." God has performed, and will perform his covenant: he has fully vindicated to himself the title of their God; he has done for them all things, which, by that expression of his relation to them as their God, he had pledged himself to do. It cannot then be doubted, that there is a future state, in which, as God will live for ever, to reward these patriarchs, they also shall live for ever, in virtue of their relation to him. Does not this imply that the spiritual soul still lives, after the material body is committed to the tomb? Does not this imply, that when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died, they did not come altogether to an end? They had not perished out of all existence for then their relation to Jehovah as their God, must have perished likewise. The very