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therefore was to deny this truth, could not conceal his belief in the resurrection, but gave public proofs of his assent to this doctrine. In the vith of Mark this fact is twice repeated, which is again noticed in the Gospel of Matthew :-Herod hearing of the mighty works which Jesus wrought, said, it is John, whom I beheaded, he is RISEN FROM THE

DEAD.

The national faith of the Jews in a future state, together with the fact that they founded their belief on the Mosaic and Prophetic writings, is no where more distinctly marked, however, than in the Acts of the Apostles. St. Paul, we are here taught, founded his defence before the chief priests and the elders, and all their council at Jerusalem, and subsequently before Felix at Cæsarea, upon the universal reception of this point of religious faith. I confess unto thee (said he to Felix), that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing ALL things that are written IN THE LAW AND IN THE PROPHETS: and have hope toward God, which THEY THEMSELVES also allow, that there shall be A RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, both of the just and unjust. Being left bound by Felix, he is again forced to defend himself before his successor Festus, and king Agrippa, and does so upon this self-same plea. In the opening of this third defence, Paul congratulates himself that he speaks before Agrippa: and why? Because I know thee to be expert in ALL customs and QUESTIONS amongst the Jews. Agrippa was

not then, likely to be deceived, by any false representation, nor to allow any but PUBLIC and NOTORIOUS facts to be advanced uncontradicted. Paul then most skilfully proceeds, as he had done in his two former trials, precisely upon the same grounds. Now I stand and am judged for the hope of THE PROMISE made of God unto OUR FATHERS: unto which promise our TWELVE TRIBES, that is, our whole nation, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. Why (he adds, pointing out what that promise, and what that hope was), why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should RAISE THE DEAD? Turning to the 3d chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians, we find that he refers, in common with his nation, this promise again most clearly to the Pentateuch, expressly asserting that it was made unto Abraham and to his seed. His enemies then, plainly referred their hope also of life æternal to this very promise, (it being the essential foundation of the Mosaic law, being shown forth in continual sacrifice), which they yet blindly rejected in the person of the Messiah. Nothing can be more satisfactory or more conclusive than this evidence.

It will be well, however, to contrast these repeated declarations of St. Paul with an expression which occurs in the second Epistle to Timothy, where he asserts that Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. It does appear, that too particular a signification has been attached

by some writers to these words. From what has been advanced it is clear that life and immortality had been previously revealed, and that our Saviour, his Apostles, and Paul, generally asserted that it had been so, or ever the Gospel, as far as it concerned that age, had been preached. Is there no contradiction here? By no means. By the details, by the particulars, by the comparisons and illustrations which our Saviour hath given to us of the state after death, darkly shadowed as they now even are, yet far more extended than those of any previous revelation, He, may indeed be said, to have so cleared up and sanctioned the promise made unto the fathers of the Jews, as to have rendered it, as much, as is possible, comprehensible to man's finite and limited understanding. -But beyond all these lights, HE was that seed of Abraham in, and through, wнOм alone, that promise was made; and to wнOм all the ages of progressive prophecy had exclusively pointed as the one only Redeemer. He, too, had in his own person abolished death, for He was peculiarly the first fruits from the dead, IN WHOM all were to be made alive-the first and only being of mortal mould, who having been, beyond all contradiction, subjected to a public death, arose from the grave never again to submit to the power of death, but leading captivity captive. HE, afforded the first living evidence, given to the light of day, of the resurrection of the body, together with, man's subsequent ascension to life and immortality.

C

HE

first showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of his apostles and followers forty days, and giving therein, and by his subsequent ascension, to mortal senses, full perception of a future immortality. Such proof, as in fact enabled St. John to assert, in confirmation of these words of St. Paul, that which was from the beginning, which we have HEARD, which we have SEEN WITH OUR EYES, which we have LOOKED UPON, and our HANDS HAVE HANDLED of the word of life; thatwhich we have SEEN AND HEARD declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. If Christ be not risen (as St. Paul justly said to the Gentile Corinthians) then indeed is our faith vain in Him, as man's Redeemer, and as the Son of God; but before his resurrection there were proofs, less distinct, it is true, but undoubted ones, of a future state, amongst that chosen people to whom were committed the oracles of God. God hath indeed given assurance (as he also said to the Athenians) of a day of judgment, in that He hath raised him from the dead†; but it is one last sealing assurance, to a regular series of proofs, added in mercy to man's unbelief, as a consummation to many previous revelations.

St. Paul never could have intended to advance, in contradiction thus to himself-in contradiction to his Saviour-that the resurrection to judgment † Acts xvii.

* 1 John ii.

and everlasting life were only revealed at first by the Gospel of Jesus. He knew, in fact, that the gospel had been the same, and founded upon the same æternal principles, even from the fall of man, even from the foundation of the world: that, the same promise, which had been made to the first parents, and again unto Noah, and through successive ages unto THE FATHERS, was still presented, only in clearer view, by the Gospel of Jesus, unto the Jews, and not only unto these, but also unto all mankind. He, believed, moreover, with those Jews, as he publicly asserted, that the Mosaic law rightly understood held forth THAT promise, and assured THAT hope.

If there existed, as is, I think, proved, from this internal evidence, which is beyond all suspicion, revelations of a future state as depending upon the promise long previous to those made by our Saviour, and that of rewards and punishments, as necessarily consequent upon obedience or disobedience to the law of God, it is difficult to conceive how it could ever have been denied that this law was not sanctioned even by æternal consequences. In one most striking passage of the gospel it appears that our Saviour actually asserts this to be the case. Let us examine the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, spoken as it also was before the Pharisees, with whose preconceived and popular ideas of a future state it seems to have

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