Here, our only authority is the Pentateuch. To this, indeed, we might add the inspired books of later date, did they, in any way, advert to the state of the subject at the time now under review. No profane writings whatsoever, (perhaps we must except some of the Egyptian hieroglyphics,) at any rate, no other possible sources of information, are found within many centuries of this remote antiquity.

That neither Moses nor the Jews of his time had any idea of such a future state as is taught in the gospel, is evident: it was not then revealed: it was reserved for Jesus Christ to bring to light, in after ages. We need not rest, however, on this consideration; for of their ignorance, the Pentateuch itself is sufficient proof, though of the negative kind. It developes, in minute detail, the entire system of their religion, and presents all the objects of their faith; yet makes no mention, gives not an intimation, either of a positively miserable, or of a positively happy existence beyond the grave. This, of course, could have had no part in their religious faith. We say, it gives no intimation of such an existence; for even the solitary text which our Saviour quotes in confutation of the Sadducees, and which we shall have occasion to consider, can hardly be deemed sufficient of itself to have suggested that idea to the people of Moses' day. There is something remarkable in the silence that is uniformly maintained on this point throughout the Pentateuch, when we consider the subjects on which it treats. It declares to the Israelites the character of God so far as it was then made known, carefully defines their relation to him, unfolds the principles

of his government, vindicates his ways, announces his promises and his threatenings, looks forward into coming ages, lays before the people their prospects for the future, directs them to the sources of their consolation, holds up the objects of their fear; but on no occasion recognizes an active state of being after death. In a word, it dwells on almost every topic that is naturally associated with that of immortality; and the perpetual, not merely casual, omission of this paramount truth, under such circumstances, is proof that it was unknown, and therefore unthought of. It gives a long detailed narrative of the fortune and conduct of the Israelites, for forty years of the most trying reverses that can agitate the human spirit; but amid all their murmuring, rejoicing, hope, despair, famine and death, they cast no look towards a better world. Canaan is before them, Egypt behind, the wilderness around, and God with his angels alone in the heavens above. It also recounts the former history of their people, and the biography of their patriarchs and most distinguished individuals. These it often presents in circumstances that must have drawn from them, religious as they were, some allusion 'to the life everlasting,' had it occupied a place in their views. They hold communion with God, receive from him promises of temporal good, rejoice in his gifts, address to him their sorrows in adversity, but never lift their eye to a state of glory or of blessedness hereafter. They bury their dearest relatives, but follow them, in thought, no farther than to the place of the dead. They see their own death approaching, call together their families and friends, invoke upon them the blessing

of heaven, predict the fortune of their posterity, take their leave, and give up the ghost, without a word respecting the higher concerns of eternity. Jacob, in his last moments, was so careful with regard even to the place of his burial, that he took an oath of Joseph to lay him, not in Egypt, where he was about to die, but in the tomb of his fathers in the land of Canaan. How emarkable his silence here, respecting the future state! Joseph, likewise, in view of the eventual return of the children of Israel, exacted of them an oath to carry his bones with them, when God should lead them into the promised land. Both Jacob and Moses close their lives with affecting addresses, and with the most sublime predictions of after ages. The latter especially appears to urge on the people every consideration that he can draw from the past and the future, to attach them to God; but these considerations are drawn exclusively from the present life. Singing the praises of Jehovah, he finally ascends Mount Nebo to die; and there the scene closes.

3

So evident is it, that neither he nor the people had any idea of what we now call the future state. Still, it seems that they recognized a sort of existence after death, or rather an existence under the dominion of death; though it was one of so imperfect and inert a character, that it engaged little attention, and excited no peculiar inPerhaps no people in the world have been without some, at least indistinct, views on

terest.

the subject; often, indeed, so different from ours, or so vague and shadowy, that it becomes difficult for us to form a clear idea of them. In the Pentateuch we find traces, though partially obliterated through the oversight of our translators, of a place of the dead,' deep under the earth, where they still had a being, separate from their bodies, which were deposited in sepulchres, near the surface. This place they called Sheol; a word which, in our common version is improperly rendered sometimes grave, sometimes pit, and sometimes hell but which evidently denoted the region of death, though we have no term in our language which perfectly corresponds. At a later period, as we shall clearly discover, the Jews supposed it to be situated in the depths of the earth; and that this was their opinion also in Moses' time, appears from a casual allusion: He introduces the Almighty as saying, A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, [Sheol,] and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."4 The very tenor of this figurative representation implies that Sheol was supposed to be at a great depth; it is introduced, moreover, in connection with the roots or foundations of the mountains. With this idea, agrees the description which Moses gives of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram sinking alive into Sheol, through the opening earth Having arraigned them, for punishment, before the congregation, he says, ' If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men,

4 Deut. xxxii. 22.

then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick [that is alive] into the pit, [Sheol ;] then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, [Sheol,] and the earth closed upon them.'5

Into this subterranean world, mankind were supposed to descend immediately at death, leaving their bodies behind to be buried or otherwise disposed of. Thus, Jacob on being told that Joseph was devoured by wild beasts, exclaimed in the vehemence of his grief, I will go down into the grave [Sheol,] unto my son, mourning.'6 There he expected to meet Joseph; not in the grave; for he thought his body had been devoured, instead of being buried. There, too, it was imagined, were the former generations, all the multitudes of the deceased. Accordingly, when one died, he was said to be gathered unto his people,' whether he was buried with them, or in a distant land: Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years; and was gathered unto his people;"

5 Numb. xvi. 29-33.

6 Gen. xxxvii. 35.

7 Gen. xxv. 8. See also, Numb. xx. 24-26.