fined, seems at least exceedingly doubtful. Their views, in fine, of future misery, were extremely incorrect. Even those who assigned a future state of rewards to the virtuous, appear to have considered the doctrine of future punishment as little better than a fable, engendered by superstitious fears, embellished by the luxuriant fancies of the poets, and supported for political purposes by legisla tors and judges. It is by the Scriptures alone that the whole doctrine of a coming and eternal world, in which the righteous are for ever happy, and the wicked for ever miserable, is justly stated, incontestably confirmed, and rendered truly efficacious for impressing the mind and influencing the conduct. The death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God in human nature, have dispelled the darkness which covered the tomb; and exhibited the realities of a future state of existence, both as to soul and body, in a light equally satisfactory to the judgment and consoling to the heart. On this subject, see the copious and forcible statements of the laborious and intelligent Leland.* NOTE LXXXIX. Page 478. Our Lord's solemn declaration in MAT. v. 20. respecting a better righteousness than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, has been understood by some interpreters as referring to the necessity of an interest in that justifying righteousness, which Christ, as the Surety of his people, wrought out by his obedience unto death. Dr Guyse, for instance, suggests this interpretation in his Paraphrase on the place, and subjoins the following Note: "As it was prophesied that the Messiah should make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in ever➡ lasting righteousness, (Dan. ix. 24.); and our Saviour, in the two next foregoing verses but one, had spoken of his coming to fulfil the law and the prophets; I do not see why what he here says about the righteousness which exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, may not refer back to all those verses, and so take in the righteousness of justification as well as of sanctification, to give a hint of what was afterwards to be more fully explained of his being the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth; and the righteousness of God being by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, Rom. iii. 22. x. 4. There is some force in these remarks of the evangelical Guyse. But probably, according to our venerable Author's interpretation, The Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Revelation, Part iii. Ch. 1–9. VOL. II. 4 F 41. the verse more immediately relates to that personal righteousness, which is the undoubted characteristic of all those, who by faith are "admitted to the blessings of the kingdom of grace here, or of the kingdom of glory hereafter." Witsius indeed does not represent our own righteousness, however superior it may be to that partial and external righteousness which was taught and practised by the Scribes and Pharisees, as in any degree the ground of acceptance, or the proper condition of eternal life. In the 89th Section, he states expressly that the heavenly inheritance is the subject of a free promise, and the gift of God, and that our title to eternal life is founded not upon our own works, but upon the satisfaction of Christ. Yet he justly considered it proper earnestly to inculcate the cultivation of true and distinguished holiness, as a necessary preparation for the everlasting kingdom. NOTE XC. Page 483. In the common English version of PSALM Xvii. 14. we read;— They are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes." According to our Author, the sense is,—“ Whose children are filled, and leave the rest of their substance (their excellency) to their babes." The original expression is susceptible of either interpretation; and which of the two is the more correct, it may be difficult, and it is not of great importance, to determine. Witsius has here copied the Latin of Tremellius and Junius.* Our translators have followed the Septuagint. Yet they have mentioned the other sense, in the margin, in these words; their children are full: on which Pool has the following comment; “Their children are filled or satisfied, as well as their parents. There is abundantly enough both for them and for their children, and to spare for their children's children."+ "Quorum filii satiantur, et excellentiam suam relinquunt nepotibus." Pogninus in like manner says; “Saturantur filii, et demittent residuum suam parvulis suis." + Εχορτάσθησαν ύίων. Annot. in loc. INDEX OF PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE, More or less amply Illustrated in the DISSERTATIONS on the Apostles' Creed.* The Numeral Letters refer to the Dissertations; the Figures to the Sections. For this Index of Texts, and the two following Indexes of Hebrew and Greek |