III.

THE most cursory observation of the various religions systems which have existed in the world affords a proof that the belief in a future life forms a stage in the spiritual progress of every nation. It has been and is perpetually disputed, whether the conception originated in a revelation made to the fathers of the race, or whether it has been obtained by the exercise of unassisted reason. Whatever may be the fact with respect to the Gentiles, there is little difficulty in ascertaining the state of the case as it regards the chosen people.

It is clear, not only that the doctrine of a future state formed no part of the Mosaic system, but that, at an early period of their history, the people had no idea of such a doctrine. In every instance in the history of other nations where the belief of a future state is received, we find traces of the doctrine in all institutions, and references to it in all circumstances; it influences the will, modifies the moral code, and is a prominent object in the delineation of the national mind. The few fragments which remain of the songs of the ancient northern nations bear a constant reference to this great article of belief. It is interwoven with the religious and political constitutions of all the civilized nations of Europe, and forms the principal bond of moral union among the savage tribes of Asia and Africa, the source of religious hope and fear among the Aborigines of America. In every nation where the belief has been known to exist, its influence has been incalculable. It has stimulated to war, characterized the laws, modified the customs, pervaded the literature of the whole people so remarkably as to afford a strong general presumption that where the national records bear no trace of the doctrine, the doctrine is not

known. The early Jewish records bear no such traces. We have a very circumstantial history of the Jews from their separation as a people; and during its earlier periods there is an absence of all reference to a future state. We have, says Warburton, "not only a history of public occurrences, but of private adventures, in the lives of particular persons of both sexes, and of all ages, stations, characters, and complexions; virgins, matrons, kings, soldiers, scholars, merchants, husbandmen. They are given too in every circumstance of life, victorious, captive, sick, and in health; plunged in civil business, or retired and sequestered in the service of religion; in full security, and in the most imminent and impending dangers. Together with their story, we have likewise their compositions. Here we find them singing their triumphs, there their Palinodia; here enforcing their moral precepts, and there the promises and denunciations of heaven. Yet in none of these different circumstances of life, in none of these various casts of composition, do we ever find any of them acting on the motives, or influenced by the prospect, of a future state; or indeed expressing the least hopes and fears, or even common curiosity concerning it. Every thing they say or do respects the present life only, the good and ill of which are the sole objects of all their pursuits and aversions. And yet the Sacred Writings, as we say, are of all kinds. An account of the creation and original of the human race; the history of a private family, of a chosen people, and of exemplary men and women; hymns and petitions to the Deity, precepts of civil life, and religious prophecies and predictions. — Now, is it possible to conceive that in works so various both in their subject, style, and composition, the doctrine of a future state of reward and punishment should never once appear to have had any share in the people's thoughts, if indeed it made part of their religious opinions?"

The means by which the mind of the nation was prepared for the reception of this doctrine are obvious to all who read the history of its discipline. The obscurity of the fate of Enoch must have awakened curiosity; for whether he was translated, or whether an immature death be all that is implied in the phrase "he was not, for God took him," the obscurity must have been as great to the earliest readers of the Mosaic records as to ourselves. The disappearance of Moses seems also to have been enveloped in mystery; and by these circumstances, by the ambiguity before mentioned of the phrases relating to death and the dead, and by the threat of punishment extending to many generations, the people were prepared for speculation on the fate of Elijah, and for the conception that a reward might await him after his translation. They also enjoyed the light of natural reason as abundantly as other nations; for though temporal rewards and punishments were the sanctions of their law, those rewards and punishments were not individual but national; and the strong argument for a renewal of life from the inequalities in the distribution of happiness, affected them equally with the rest of mankind. Possessing the same natural advantages as other people, and being besides subjected to an additional preparation, it seems as if the Jews ought to have arrived first at the most important conviction which the mind can entertain. They were not, however, the first to attain it; but when the conception was once formed, it was purer and more correct than any which prevailed elsewhere. Their faith consisted of more than an obscure notion of the immortality of the soul, attended with fancies as various as the imaginations from which they sprang. As far as the Jews believed in a future state at all, they believed in it as a state of proper retribution; and their faith became an actuating motive in the conduct of life and the submission to death. How early the concep

tion attained this degree of purity, and to what extent it prevailed in the nation, we cannot ascertain. It is probable that faith in a future life was entertained by a few only of the most enlightened of the Jews, previous to the Captivity, and that it was by intercourse with their Persian conquerors, with the Chaldæans, and the disciples of the Greek philosophy in Egypt, that the rest of the nation were familiarized with the idea of the immortality of the soul, and that they were thus induced to inquire into the ambiguities of their own records, to compare the events of their own history with this new philosophy, and thence to draw inferences distinct enough to become actuating motives. The history of the martyrdom of the woman and her seven sons in the second book of Maccabees (whatever may be its authority in other respects) is invaluable as proving the strength of conviction of a future state of reward which prevailed among the Jewish people; a conviction powerful enough to inspire a contempt of torture and a fearlessness of death. By comparing this narrative with the desponding expressions of Job, and the mournful questionings of the writer of Ecclesiastes, remarkable evidence may be obtained of the progress of the national mind on this important subject.

The conception, whenever formed, and however strengthened, still remained indistinct, partial, and variable. The doctrine was a matter of inference, and the facts from which the inference was drawn were few and insufficient. It was as yet unsusceptible of proof, and destitute of authority, and must therefore have been held on a different tenure from other doctrines of religion, and have been inferior to them all in sanctity. The time at length arrived when it was to be established in its due supremacy in the human reason, by the highest authority and the most unquestionable testimony.

It should be ever borne in mind that the administration of a moral government is the ultimate object of all the discipline to which mankind has been subjected, of the development

of reason by natural means, of the Old and New dispensations. It is usually declared that the grand purpose of the Christian revelation is to teach the doctrine of a future life. It is true that this is the essential doctrine of the system; but we must again observe, as we did before respecting the doctrine of the Divine Unity, that the knowledge of this important truth is only valuable in its relation to an ulterior object, the recognition of a moral government. The popular conceptions of such a government, though now distinct, were narrow and mean in comparison with what they might become under a fuller revelation: and it was in order to enlarge and elevate these conceptions that a spiritual was now to be substituted for a ritual law, and that a higher sanction was to supersede those which had hitherto been admitted. The revelation of a future life was important, not as an isolated truth, but as the highest sanction of the Divine law.

A remarkable provision had been early made for the changes and substitutions which were now to take place, and which were little accordant with the inclinations of the Jewish people. By the terms of their covenant with God, they were bound to receive every message which he should send, and to honor every messenger whom he should appoint, though the one should command the overthrow of their peculiar institutions, and the other be made the agent of the revolution. In answer to the petition of the people, proffered amidst the terrors of Horeb, that they might no more hear the voice of Jehovah, or behold his lightnings, a promise was given that prophets should henceforth be the exponents of the Divine will; this promise being coupled with the necessary condition that the voice of the prophet should be listened to and his