Ess. IX.]

or in Happiness.

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in which he so greatly suffered, he is represented as finding his refuge and consolation in the bosom of Abraham: Luke xvi, 22. Nor can we forget the memorable expressions employed by our Saviour, when he was conversing with the Sadducees respecting the doctrine of a future life, and respecting that first resurrection of which we are now speaking: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scripture, 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 ressurrection 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:" Matt. xxii, 29-32. When, therefore, God spake these words to Moses out of the burning bush, it is certain that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who had long since paid the debt of nature, were nevertheless living. So also in the history of our Lord's transfiguration, it is recorded that Moses and Elias appeared and talked with him: and the disciples would have erected three tabernacles-one for Jesus, and one for each of these his ancient and glorified servants: Matt. xvii, 3, 4.

When the penitent and converted thief, who was the companion of our Lord in his crucifixion, supplicated for his mercy, and cried out, "Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom," Jesus answered him (in words which may well be deemed completely decisive of the question now under discussion)"Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise: Luke xxiii, 42, 43.1

1 Αμὴν λέγω σοι, σήμερον μετ ̓ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ. “ Pes sime fecerunt qui hanc vocem aut cum Keyw dico conjunxerunt (quod aperte improbat Syrus) aut interpretati sunt onμegov hodie, post resur

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Celestial Glory of Spirits made Perfect. [Ess. IX.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christians are exhorted to be diligent in their religious course, after the example of the saints already glorified-to be "followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit (that is, as in the Greek, are inheriting) the promises," vi, 12; and, in reference to the same subject, it is declared, in a following chapter of this Epistle, that we are not 66 come unto the mount that might be touched, &c.; but unto Mount Zion.......and to an innumerable company of angels: to the general assemby and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.......and to the spirits of just men made perfect:"3 xii, 18-23. But it is in his Second Epistle to the Corinthins, that the apostle Paul has most clearly indicated the truth, that, when they are delivered from the confinement of their earthly tabernacle, the servants of Christ are alive in heaven--alive with their Lord. "For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens....Therefore, we are always confident, knowing, that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight): we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord:" 2 Cor. v, 1-8. So, again, to the Philippians, he says, "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better: nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you:" i, 23. Lastly, it was long previously

rectionem. Christus plus promittit, quam erat rogatus. Rogas, inquit, ut olim tui sim memor cum Regni possessionem accepero: ego tam diu non differam tua vota: sed partem et primitias speratæ felicitatis tibi intra hunc ipsum diem repræsentabo: morere securus; a morte statim te divina, solatia expectant:" Grotii. Com. in loc.

2 κληρονομούντων.

3 Vide Schleusner. Lex. voc. IIvεuμa.

Ess. Ix.]

Resurrection of the Dead,

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to his vision of the resurrection, and of the day of final retribution, that the apostle John, in the Revelation, was permitted to hear the elders, in a state of glory, singing their new song, in honour of him who "had redeemed them to God by his blood," v, 9; and, on a subsequent occasion, to behold "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," who "stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands"-persons, who had already passed through all their tribulations, and had entered into unspeakable joy, because they had "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb:" vii, 9—14.

SECTION III, On the Resurrection of the Dead. While the passages of Scripture, which thus unfold to us some of the hidden mysteries of the separate state of existence, afford an ample evidence that there is in us a living substance, by which our identity is preserved, and which cannot die, there is yet another point of view in which man is represented, by the inspired writers, as the heir of an endless futurity. In an awful day to come, his mortal part shall put on immortality; his corruptible shall be clothed with incorruption; the man who sleeps in the dust of the earth shall be quickened-shall be raised from a state of death-shall stand alive before the judgment-seat of the Almighty.

This doctrine, though, fully revealed in its several majestic particulars only under the dispensation of the Gospel, was by no means entirely unknown to the ancient Israelitish church. It cannot with reason be denied, the Job spake of his resurrection from the dead when, with so much emphasis, he declared his faith in that Redeemer by whom this wonderful change will be effected: "I know that my Redeemer liveth,

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a Doctrine of the Old Testament,

[Ess. IX. and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me:" Job xix, 15-27. The same subject must have been opened to the view of David, when primarily, in reference to the Messiah, and, secondarily, in relation to himself he used the following expressions: "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (or rather, my life or person in the grave); neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Thou shalt shew me the path of life; in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore:" Ps. xvi, 10, 11. And again, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likenes;" Ps. xvii, 15. Lastly, in the Book of Daniel, we have a yet clearer exhibition of the doctrine in question: "And at that time," said the angel to the prophet, "shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people...... And many of them (or the multitude of them) that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt :" xii, 1, 2.4

-The plural adjec ורבים מישני אדמת עפר יקיצו .Heb •

tive is often used to denote oi woλλoi—the many, or the multitude: vide Exod. xxiii, 2; Ps. xcvii, 1; cix, 30; Ezek. xxxi, 5; comp. Rom. v, 19. Or this word may be the plural of the substantive multitude; in which case the Hebrew ought to be rendered, "et multitudines ex iis qui dormiunt, &c."—a version which would imply the distinction, afterwards more clearly enunciated, between the multitude of the good and the multitude of the wicked; and such a sense of the passage the Jews appear to have indicated by a distinctive accent. Some critics, and amongst others that ancient enemy of Christianity, Porphyry, have explained this passage as relating to the liberation of the Jews, by the hands of Judas Maccabæus, from the yoke of Antiochus. But if the

Ess. Ix.]

of Jesus, and his Apostles.

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In the passage now cited from the prophecies of Daniel, the doctrine of resurrection is brought forward in immediate connection with that of retribution; and we are assured by him of the truth, that both the good and the wicked shall rise from the dead. That truth was afterwards declared, in terms which appear to be too clear to admit of any misconception, by Jesus Christ himself: "The hour is coming," said he to the Jews, "in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice (the voice of the Son of God), and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation:" John v, 28, 29. I cannot perceive that these pointed and plain expressions are capable of being explained in any merely metaphorical sense; and accordingly it may be observed, that the apostles of our Lord (who, either by verbal communication or by spiritual illumination, derived from him their whole doctrinal system) uphold the same expectation of the actual raising up of the dead, both of the good and of the wicked, in order to their being rewarded according to their works. When Paul was making his apology before Felix, he said, " But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God, of my fathers..... and have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust:" Acts xxiv, 14, 15. "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it," says John in the Revelation, in evident allusion to the very same doctrine....... and I saw the dead,

prophecy has any subordinate reference to that event, which seems very improbable, yet, the explicit and awfully descriptive terms in which it is couched appear to afford an almost irresistible evidence, that its principal subject is the general resurrection of the dead: vide Poli Syn. and especially Grotii Com. in loc.