hold the promised land: The land1 shall not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine; and ye are strangers, and sojourners, before me. Their possession was to be of the same unsettled nature, as that, of mere tillers of the soil. Could the Israelites have, indeed, been ignorant of the meaning couched in these words; or, was not their perfect submission to their law, and to these terms, a proof that they knew, as well as the Psalmist did in after ages, that they were strangers upon the earth2 ? Or, was that meaning, indeed, entirely hid from the descendants of that Jacob, who is recorded in these very writings to have said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in their pilgrimage?

It cannot be doubted that Moses alluded to the destruction of the promised land, with the earth itself, (the annihilation of which all the Prophets likewise insist on)

in those remarkable works of the song, A fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest HELL, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. At

all events there exists here a direct allusion to Sheôl', or Hades; which proves that the Israelites knew the existence of a state beyond the grave. Their very

Law publicly affirmed this fact to every individual in the Nation. The prohibitory statutes, which we find in Deuteronomy, against necromancers, whose real, or pretended art, was exercised in raising, and consulting, the spirits of the dead, clearly show how well known the doctrine of life Eternal then was, not only in Israel, but amongst the surrounding Nations'. Turning to the recorded fate of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, we again find Sheôl or (XIX.) Hades twice mentioned; the word, translated, pit in our Bible, bearing this force in the original: If the Lord (saith Moses) make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth and swallow them up, and all that

3

1 LXX. Hades.

3 Num. xvi,

2 Deut. xviii. 10.

appertain unto them, and they go down alive into the pit, then shall ye know that these men have provoked the Lord.

The words of the call of Moses, when the Lord spake unto him from the midst of the bush, plainly, as our Saviour pointed out to the Sadducees, asserted that the departed Patriarchs were still in being; and these assurances were solemnly repeated, in the very same expressions, in the commencement of all the Prophet's public missions unto Israel. The ladder in the vision of Jacob (shadowing forth the communications between earth and Heaven 1), repeats the same facts; The Lord stood above it, and said, I AM the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac. No less, than four times, is the word Sheôl, or Hades, placed in the mouth of Israel himself, by Moses; and, the Patriarch, is made to assume almost the very language of David, while he expresses the very same idea, in mourning over, the supposed death, of his son

1 Gen. xxviii. 17. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place, this is none other but the House of God, and this is the Gate of Heaven.

Joseph; I will go down to Sheôl, to my son. Seven times, is Sheôl, or Hades, mentioned by Moses; and, it is a singular fact, that, in the Gospel of St. Matthew alone, is the direct word, as often registered. Observe next, the triumphant exclamation of Jacob, when he blessed his sons, even upon his death-bed, I have waited for THY Salvation, O Lord! Was there salvation in the very hour of death, then? Yes, strong in Faith, the Patriarch, gave this memorial to his children, that The Angel which redeemed him from all evil, would redeem him, and all those who were faithful to their God, from the power of that Sheôl, of which he had previously spoken to them all. What too was the sin of Esau, which caused his rejection, but that, in despising his birthright, he derided the promised Eternity? That promise of the Lord unto Abraham, In thy Seed shall all the families of the earth

1 Gen. xxxvii. 35; xlii. 38; xliv. 29. 31. Num. xvi. 30. 33. Deut. xxxii. 22. In all these instances the Hebrew word is Sheol, which the LXX. translate Hades; and the Chaldaic Paraphrase, the Samaritan Text, and Version, and the Syriac Version, all agree, in this interpretation.

be blessed, extended as it is, to every soul of mankind, can only be construed as disclosing life Eternal. Death, and the curse, had fallen upon man; he was to accomplish as an hireling his day of labour, and of sorrow: nor, has this curse ever been revoked, but in two signal instances: whence, or how then, were not only the Israelites, but ALL the families of the earth to be blessed, unless life eternal, through the means which God had devised, was here, always understood? Fear not (said the Lord, again unto Abraham,) I AM thy (XX.) shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Mark well these words. Moses herein describes the Eternal and Almighty Creator as affirming this of HIMSELF. this shield then, less than ALMIGHTY? this exceeding great reward, LESS than ETERNAL? The same strong expression is used, as I have shown, generally, and individually, in the Law, to all the Patriarch's descendants, and it never required more than common faith, and trust in God, to believe, from these extraordinary terms, in life Eternal. The offering of Isaac, by his father, also, was a circum

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