And their journey was an emblem of that which all believers must make through this world to the prepared city, the place which Chrift went to PREPARE for his difciples, when he left this world. The importance of this promise is evident from the ftyle of wonder in which God himself fpeaks of it: BEHOLD! I fend mine angel, &c. How great!-How Godlike the condefcenfion the Father manifefts in fending his Son to dwell in a tabernacle made with hands, as a prelude of his dwelling in a tabernacle made without hands in the fulness of time! Should any enquire, If the Ifraelites understood this angel to be the Son of God? It may be answered, They did; as appears from their forrow, when God, provoked by their idolatry, would only grant them a created angel. Said God, "I will fend an angel before thee."" And when the people heard these evil tidings they mourned *." The presence of a created angel was confiftent enough with his confuming them; but the angel of his prefence was fufficient for their preservation.

II. I SHALL enquire what renovation of for mer grants obtained at this time.

1. GOD renewed the promife of being a God to Ifrael, which he had made unto Abra ham, Ifaac, and Jacob: "God fpake all these

*Exod. xxxiii. 2. 4.

words,

words, faying, I am the Lord thy God." And when he covenanted with Abraham, he engaged to be a God unto him, and unto his feed after him, in their generations. The full import of this promife is infinitely above the conception and defcription of creatures. Something has been already offered concerning it; but eternity itself cannot exhauft the happiness. contained in it. I fhall now enquire, Whether in this covenant, it implies a promife of eternal life? The refolution of this point is fufficient to determine the nature of this tranfaction. The fhorteft way to fatisfaction is an immediate fubmiffion of the mind and confcience to the authority of our Lord Jefus Chrift. In his difpute with the Sadducees he afcertains the import of God's being a God unto a perfon, affuring us, that the relation which commenceth in the accomplishment of this promife is by no means diffolved by death: "But

The Right Reverend Dr Warburton, late Bishop of Gloucester, ereûs a demonftration of the divine legation of Mofes upon this principle (with two others) viz. "THAT THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE STATE OF RE

WARDS AND PUNISHMENTS IS NOT TO BE FOUND IN, NOR DID MAKE A PART OF THE MOSAIC DISPENSATION." "The demonftration is fo ftrong and beautiful (fays. his Lordship), at the fame time appears to me fo easy and fimple, that one cannot tell whether the pleasure of the difcovery, greater." Divine Leg. Vol. I. p. 557, edit. 4. Mr Warburton!

or the wonder that it is now to make be

Good

as touching the refurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which is spoken unto you by God, faying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." It is obferveable, that the declaration which God made unto Mofes, from the bufh, is confidered by Chrift as fpoken to the Sadducees of that generation in which he lived, as well as unto every generation fince. This teftimony is that which was fpoken UNTO YOU, faid Christ. Moreover, the life intended was not merely the duration of existence; but also implied happiness, or well-being. When God affures a foul of this relation, then, he makes it certain of happiness after death, even all that felicity which can accrue from the enjoy ment of himself,-all that he hath to bestow: For the life intended is fuch as Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob enjoyed when the Son of God appeared to Mofes in the bufh. Now, What is eternal life? Wherein does the eternal inheritance confift? Does it not confift in the knowledge and enjoyment of the only true God? This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jefus Chrift whom thou haft fent. He that HATH the Son HATH LIFE. This promife, then, warranted the church, at that time, to fay, this God is our God for ever,

* Matth. xxii. 31, 32.

and

and he will be our God even unto death. The Lord is my portion, faith my foul *.

2. GOD renewed the promife of his bleffing on the church, and his curfe on her enemies : "In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will blefs thee."-" I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adverfary

* The methods taken to elude this argument are no contemptible evidence of its force. Some grant that eternal life is contained in this promife; but it is fo deeply hid that it could never have been found in it, or dedu ced from it, but by fuch a teacher as Jefus Chrift. But if it had been impoffible to find this bleffing in this promife, Chrift would never have taxed the Sadducees for not finding it in it. When Jefus faid unto them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures," he did not tax them for not performing impoffibilities; but for ignorance of what they might and ought to have known. This pretence has been expofed both by Clopenburg and Witfius. The former, in his Exercit. Theol. Loc. ix. Difp. i. 6-11. The latter, De Oeconom. Fad. Lib. III. cap. ii. § 4-15. Bishop Warburton gives another fenfe of the matter, but, if poffible, ftill more abfurd. He reckons the fenfe I have given founded on mistake: "A fecond miftake (fays his Lordship) is, that Jefus, by thefe words, infinuates, that Mofes CULTIVATED the doctrine of a refurrection, or a future ftate. But here again the objectors feem to forget against whom the argument is addreffed, the Sadducees. Now, thefe did not hold, that Mofes did not TEACH; but that he DID NOT BELIEVE that doctrine. This was the error Jefus aimed to confute, and only this; because the opinion that Mofes did not TEACH, or CULTIVATE it, was no error at all; as appears, among other reafons, even from hence, That the Jews might reafonably under

This pro

verfary unto thine adverfaries *." mife feems to me to be a renovation of one of the promifes made to Abraham : "And I will blefs them that blefs thee, and curfe him that curfeth thee t." True it is, indeed, one fpecial bleffing is intended; namely, God's gracious prefence in his ordinances; but as divine ordinances are the channels through which God imparts all his bleffings

* Exod. xx. 24. compared with xxiii. 22. + This promife is explained, Diflertation II. p. 116-119.

ftand the title of the God of Abraham, &c. to mean the peculiar tutelar God of Abraham's family; for the terms Jacob and Ifrael are frequently used in the Scriptures for the whole nation of the Jews, Aaron for the whole order of the priesthood, &c. And as, in reafon, they might, fo, by the hiftory of the early Jews, in fact, we find they did underfland it in this fenfe." Vol. V. p. 161–165. edit. ut fupra. But how does it appear, that ever it was either reasonable or religious to understand God's being a God unto a perfon, merely of his being the tutelary Deity of the nation in which he lives? The doctrine of rutelar Deities originated in the darknefs of paganifin; and was part of the depths of Satan, by which he tyrannized over the confciences of men. The Church of Rome took the hint from the heathen philofophers, and introduced the doctrine of tutelar angels in its ftead. But the Churches of the Reformation juftly reprobated these fond imaginations; and the reafons on which they proceeded are more than fufficient to prove the unreafonablenefs of the doctrine specified, Vide Turret. Loc. vii.

8. Moreover, I might obferve, that the difference. between Bishop Warburton and the Sadducees, on this head, is, the Bishop maintains, Mofes did not TEACH; the Sadducces, Mofes did not BELIEVE the doctrine of a future ftate. Accordingly, the Bishop gives out, that it was no error at all to maintain, that Mofes did not teach,

or