takes place between death and the resurrection. 1st. He says that it takes place when knowledge shall vanish away. This excludes the period from being understood of any term of time upon earth. 2dly. It is when faith hope and love, and none but these, remain, which necessarily prevent it from being understood as the state which succeeds to the resurrection, as faith and hope can then have no existence.

It may now be inquired how these graces are exerted in that future world, and why love is termed the greatest of the three.

It is given as the highest commendation of the antient worthies, that they all died in the faith; i. e. still cherishing in the heart those expectations which they had entertained through life, and which not having received their accomplishment on earth, still lived in the soul, and with it went into the invisible state. St. Paul says, that this hope, as the sure and stedfast anchor of the soul, enters within the vail. This expectation being common to all the true seed of Abraham, is on that account termed the hope of Israel. They who have departed in Jesus, are said to be now "inheriting the promises," as being fully assured that what is contained in these, must fall to be possessed by, them at the last day.

Hope does not materially differ from its associate, faith. What difference there is, appears to

He in this, that the latter eyes the foundation of its trust, whereas the former principally directs the view to the object promised. The latter in thinking of a resurrection, attends to his truth and faithfulness, and rests there. The former expresses no anxiety on that head, but seeks to find its present happiness in fixing the view on the things promised, although they are yet at a distance. This hope goes along with the soul in death, and with it lands on the happy shore. This is strengthened by a passage in the 91st psalm, where Jehovah promises, that "with length of days* he will satisfy

* (Orech Jamim.) This phrase occurs in the sacred volume nine times, and in all these instances refers to the extent of the intermediate state, and to no portion of time upon earth. In "He some passages this is exceeding clear. Psal. xxi. 4. (Messiah) asked life of thee (the life of the future age, Chald.) and thou gavest it him, even length of days through the hidden period." So in Prov. iii. 2. Wisdom thus speaks; "Let not mercy aud truth forsake thee-write them upon the table of thine heart, for length of days, and years of life, and peace, shall they add to thee." It is almost superfluous to add, that this can by no means refer to earth, because such a state is here set forth by wisdom, as is the result of the moral character. Surely if it is divine wisdom which speaks, what she offers must be divine, and not that in which we see the wicked share as well as the righteous, namely, long life and and prosperity. We are also told, as the cumulo of her excellencies, "that all things we can desire are not to be compared unto her:" and it is added, "length of days is in her right hand." Surely if this referred to earth, what is alledged would

not

satisfy him, and cause him to look on his salvation ;" i. e. I will place him in Paradise, and I will give him a distant view of that salvation, which is ready to be revealed in the last time.

Love rises superior to the two former, faith and hope, because its exercise is in its nature ultimate, and never to undergo any change. At the last day, faith and hope shall cease (every thing

not be true, that all things we can desire could not be compared to her, for length of days, is what every one naturally desires, whatever be his character, whether righteous or wicked. But the sentiment rises when we take it in its genuine import, as denoting that her first gift, as being in the right hand, is Paradise, or that intermediate state which, under the term length of days, it is intimated, is at some time to terminate, and in her left hand, the second (as an object of more remote bestowal) glory, honour, and immortality.

There is, which may be termed a tenth instance, a passage in Isaiah, liii. 10, which in our version runs thus; "he shall prolong his days," which sounds very awkward when applied to Messiah. It is evidently of affinity with those instances which have been already adduced of the Orech-Jamin. His is a supplement. The Chaldee, better, refers it to the redeemed, “their days shall be prolonged." Now we may consider Jaarich Jamim to signify he shall give length of days; i. e. bestow Paradise; the verb containing its own accusative, a thing frequent in the Hebrew, such as "and his arm (vatosha) brought salvation to him." When it is said of Messiah that at the very time when his soul was made an offering for sin, Jaarich Jamim, "he shall confer Paradise," we see it beautifully exemplified in what he said to the thief, "this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise."

which was hoped for and trusted in, having now taken place) but love will remain for ever the same, and know no change but that of being heightened by the re-union of soul and body; whereas its two former associates will be gone for ever, and in their room will have now succeeded their more charming offspring, sight and enjoyment.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XIV.

A Dissertation on Zion.

IN the religion of the Hebrews, things, places,

times, offices, sustain a double character, the proper and the allegorical; and these may be so handled, as that regard should be had either separately to each, or to both taken together. David, Solomon, Jerusalem, may be spoke of in such a way, as that the city itself and its kings, may be simply understood, or, exclusively, these things which in sacred allegory are denoted by the city and the kings. Lastly, the mind of the writer, or rather the spirit of God, may so combine the literal and allegorical senses, as that the adjuncts which set forth the literal image in a proper and historical view, will in a sense recondite and prophetical adumbrate the allegorical. Thus of David and Zion there is a two-fold personage, the proper and the allegorical. Of these personages the first is termed the nearer image, as being in point of time closer to the eye. The latter, the more remote, as being future, and as it were, thrown into the back ground of distant ages. "Sometimes the nearer image is so prominent and conspicuous, and reigns so much in the language ·

and