"That the old fathers did" not "look only for transitory promisest," we learn from inspired testimony"; and that "both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life," so far as it is offered at all in the former, "is offered by Christ," is most true but the revelations on which the "old fathers" grounded their expectations of future bliss have not been recorded, and to suppose that an esoteric doctrine on this point was handed down by tradition involves many difficulties. These divine communications, when given, were probably, as in the case of Abraham and Enoch, the rewards of eminent piety, and confined to the individuals thus distinguished. No public declaration on the part of Him who alone could clear up the mystery appears as part of the primitive revelation. Nor, as has been previously observed, does the law of Moses make mention of any save temporal sanctions. Under these circumstances, gloomy or cheerful views of the state of the soul after death (for the future existence of the soul was never doubted) prevailed, according to the strength of the believer's faith; but on the whole, the former were most common. While occasionally, as in Psalm xvi., the inspired writer, soaring on the wings of hope, looks forward to his eventual release from the bands of death, the common language in the prospect of dissolution is that of despondency, and gloomy pictures are * Art. VII.

t Art. VII.

u

Heb. xi. 13-16.

drawn of the other world. The place of departed spirits is represented as a subterranean cavity or pit; a place of darkness and silence"; "a land of forgetfulness," where there is no remembrance of God, and no expectations from Him". It is in this life that the pious Jew of that age enjoys fellowship with God; in the temple services, and in the earthly blessings of the covenant: beyond it lies an impenetrable mist which no mortal eye can pierce. Such, I conceive, is for the most part the meaning of expressions frequently occurring in the Psalms, and from which it has been argued that the writers must have enjoyed a clear prospect of eternal life; I allude to the passages in which, under circumstances of separation from the temple or of affliction, a hope is expressed of future recompense and satisfaction from the presence of God. "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness;" "With Thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light shall we see light;" "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory;" "When shall I come and appear

before God?": it is on texts like these that the

שָׁאַל to ask, but from ,שָׁאַל not, probably, from ;שְׁאוֹל y

i. q. to be hollow. See Gesenius, s. v.

Job x. 21. Ps. lxxxviii. 12.

See Ps. vi. 5. and xxx. 9.

b Graves, on Pentateuch, Part iii. Lect. iv. c Ps. xvii. 15. xxxvi. 9. xlii. 2.

opinion alluded to has sought for a foundation. But it may be questioned whether they really express more than either a desire of restoration to the covenanted presence of God in the temple, or a firm confidence that God would in this life appear for the deliverance of His servants from temporal calamity. Let it be remembered, that the Jewish dispensation was one of sight not of faith, one of present not of future covenanted blessings to a pious Israelite therefore in the age of David, before the temporal dispensation had begun to be shaken, or any oracle of prophecy delivered bearing distinctly on a future state, fellowship with God, and the favour of God, must have been, for the most part, associated with local nearness to the place where Jehovah dwelt, and with the experience of present divine benefits. And let it be remembered, that the essential elements of religion,-faith, hope, and love,―might find room for exercise as well on the earthly objects presented to the Jew as on the heavenly ones revealed to the Christian; for the truth of religion consists, not so much in the motives by which it is sustained, as in the truth of its object and of its sentiments; the motives, in the shape of reward or punishment, may be very scanty and limited, while the duty and the sentiments remain the same. It may be a question then whether a greater measure of spiritual light in the point under consideration, has not been ascribed to the

Psalmists of Israel than they actually enjoyed; though most true it is that their language, under the guidance of inspiration, is so framed as to express the highest aspirations of Christians; more, in fact, than the writers themselves intended; and so we can now make use of their compositions in the exercises of public and private worship. If from the lyrical effusions of Hebrew sacred literature we turn to writers who formally discuss the subject, or to cases in which death was actually in prospect, we find the colours of the picture assuming their usual sombre tint. The language of the Book of Ecclesiastes is, if not hopeless, solemn and doubtful: "All go unto one place; all are of dust, and turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of a man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" "The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward;" "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest;" "The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." More than two hundred years later, even after Hosea had delivered the great prophecy to which St. Paul, speaking of the general resurrection, seems to allude, Hezekiah, in the immediate prospect of death, gives utterance to similar sentiments: "The d Eccles. iii. 21; ix. 5, 10; xii. 7. e 1 Cor. xv. 55.

grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee: they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day'." Such, according to the extant evidence, appears to be the state in which this capital article of our faith was for a long period left.

Not but that hints were given from which a reflective mind might have surmised a state of happiness hereafter in the presence of God. Of such a kind were the translations of Enoch and Elijah"; and perhaps the declaration from which our Lord refuted the Sadducees, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" though it is by no means certain that before this inspired comment was given, the truth which the passage involved could have been discovered'. If the well-known text in the book of Job is rightly interpreted of a proper resurrection from the dead, it must have given encouragement to others to entertain a like confidence of hope; though it must be allowed that there is a difference between the expressions of a strong faith, and a positive announcement on the part of God. The latter was still wanting. Nor was the want fully supplied until Christ Himself "brought life and immortality to light," by declaring, with the au

Isa. xxxviii. 18, 19. 8 Gen. v. 24. h 2 Kings ii.

i See Mr. Davison's remarks on this passage, Discourses on Prophecy, p. 126.