was the palpable MANIFESTATION of the Promise; LIFE ETERNAL, in VERY PERSON.-Narrow and confined views never do justice to the WORD of GOD, and greatly endanger our dishonoring the Cross of Christ.

III.

In Hell, he lifted up his eyes, &c. p. 22.

Hades, is the word, which the Evangelist puts in the mouth of our Saviour, in this parable, for Hell.-Again, in that Almighty Promise which gives us never-failing confidence, in the Eternal Indestructibility of the Church of Christ, and where Heaven and Hell are contrasted, Hades is the word given to our Saviour by St. Matthew1. -Nothing can be more convincing, as to the real force and meaning of the term Hades, in the Age of our Redeemer; when, it unquestionably signified a Future State, and that of punishment. It is worthy of remark also, that Josephus, in his Antiquities, mentions the expression Abraham's bosom, as a well-known mode of speech amongst the Jews, signifying, Paradise.

1 Matthew xvi. 18. 19.

IV.

The Sadducees, &c. p. 28.

The Talmudists assert, that Sadoc, the first propagator of these impious doctrines, caused such excitement by their publication in Jerusalem, that he was forced to fly from the vengeance of his countrymen, and took refuge in Samaria. Sadoc is believed to have lived A.M. 3740; or, about 264 years before the birth of Christ. The Jews consider the Sadducees, or persons who now hold these doctrines, as decided heretics.

V.

Were it not well-known to ALL by our actions, &c. p. 28.

"Animasque prælio, aut suppliciis peremptorum, æternas putant: hinc generandi amor, et moriendi contemptus."-Tacit. Hist. 1. v. s. 5.

"The Jews look also, on the souls of those that die in battle, or are put to death for their

crimes, as eternal: hence, arises their love of posterity, and their contempt of death."

The learned and philosophic Tacitus thus fully bears out the assertions of Josephus; and both these celebrated Historians are in exact accordance, not only as to their testimony of the National faith of the Jews in Eternal Life; but also, of the universally known proof which they displayed of that faith, in all their disasters; this trait in their character, being, again, singularly marked throughout the whole of the Old Testament.

Nor, should another remarkable fact, in this evidence, be passed over unnoticed. Both these Historians assert, that criminals were to be included in this Eternal Life: thus, precisely coinciding with St. Paul's public testimony before Felix at Cæsarea; where in the face of his accusing Nation, he avers, uncontradicted by any, "they themselves also allow, that there shall "be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just "and of the unjust." Can any candid or upright mind, seeking sincerely the truth, imagine proof more satisfactory, than the concurrent testimony of these three learned, and celebrated men, amongst whom too, collusion was impossible, as to the faith of the Jewish Nation, in their Age, in Life Eternal? Such evidence as this, is altogether conclusive and irrefragable.

SERMON II.

LUKE XVI. 29.

Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them.

IN quitting the Gospel of the Saviour, and the Age in which it was promulgated; the first difficulty that presents itself, is the period, of about four centuries, which intervenes between the ministry of Jesus, and that of the last of the Prophets. In an inquiry like the present, this period should not be passed by, in silence; and we must therefore consult, for information on the subject, the writings generally attributed to those times, which are to be found, in the books of the Apocrypha. We confess also, that in entering on the Sacred Scriptures of the Prophets and Moses, we quit the full radiance of the Sun of Righteousness; and enter upon

regions, illuminated indeed, but yet, less strongly, by the lights and glories of Revelation. These lights, however, may be distinctly traced, by those, who with a becoming disposition, receive the Old Testament in humble reverence, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. Infidels even, must allow, that the same great plan is apparent throughout; and the same great principles of human conduct are insisted on through the whole tenor of both these dispensations. The Moral Law remains unchanged; while the same splendid hopes, or awful fears, to incite men to obey their Creator; or, on the other hand, to deter them from sin and pollution, every where arrest the attention of the anxious, and considering, because believing, mind. A superficial search of the writings of the Pentateuch alone, might, perhaps, lead some readers to suppose, that the Mosaic Law promised only temporal, to the exclusion of eternal benefits; but if, guided by the Prophetic Scriptures, and the other less conclusive, but yet most useful, evidence, that may be elsewhere collected, they con