to believe, or a person that represented him, as is the opinion of others, the whole history of the transaction makes it perfectly clear, what the popular belief of the Israelites was upon the separate existence and personality of the soul.

2 Kings ii. This chapter records the translation of the prophet Elijah.

Why, it might be asked, were this holy prophet, and Enoch, mentioned already, taken up to heaven without dying to dwell with God, if it was not intended that others of their species should exist in another world? They were, indeed, holy and excellent men, but not the most eminent servants of God. Why, therefore, should they be so eminently distinguished from all other men, if there be not a state of conscious existence, when the soul is separate from the body?.

1 Kings xvii. 22. "And the soul of the child came into him again.".

This was in answer to the prophet's prayer. Suddenly this beloved child sickened and died, his soul left its earthly tenement; but God, with whom all things are possible, heard the cry of his servant, and life was restored to the child. It was not a case of suspended animation, for the child was actually dead; and only by a miracle was he restored to his afflicted parents. Now nothing is clearer, than that the man of God believed the soul to be something distinct from the body, and that it was, when absent from the body for a time, in a state of conscious existence. It is evident, then, that the soul can and does exist in a state separate from the body. See also 2 Kings xiii. 21..

The age of the book of Job is uncertain, but it is unquestionably of very high antiquity. Yet even here do we find very intelligible intimations of a future state of retribution. The following are some of the testimonies supplied by him.

Chap. xiv. 12.

"So man lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep."

(Sleep here refers to the body, deposited in the grave, and not to the soul, in a state of absence from it.)

Chap. xiv. 13. “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me."

Ver. 14. "If a man die shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come."

Ver. 15. "Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee, thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hand."

Chap. xix. 25-27. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand, in the latter day, upon the earth and though after my skin, worms shall destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another," &c.

David bears repeated testimony to the same truth, as the following selection of passages from the book of Psalms will abundantly show.

Psalm xvi. 10, 11. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, (or the grave;) thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore."

Ps. xvii. 13, 14. "From men of the world, which have their portion in this life.”

Ps. xvii. 15." As for me, I shall behold thy face m righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness."

Ps. xxiii. 4. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

Ps. xlix. 14, 15. "Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God shall redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me."

Ps. lxxi. 20. "Thou which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shall quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again, from the depths of the earth."

Ps. xc. 3." Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye children of men."

Ps. lxxiii. 24. "Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory." Ver. 26. “ My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

What exalted piety and confident hopes of future glory and immortality, does this language breathe! The man after God's own heart, could, therefore, exclaim, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." Ps. lxxiii. 25.

Solomon, the reputed author of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, not only alludes to this doctrine, but asserts it in the most explicit language. The following passages demand the reader's attention.

Prov. xiv. 32. "The wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death."

Eccl. iii. 21." Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upwards, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downwards to the earth?"

Eccl. xi. 9. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, but know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment."

Eccl. xii. 7. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

Eccl. iii. 17. "I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every purpose, and for every work."

Eccl. viii. 11. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

Eccl. xii. 14. "God shall bring every work into judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."

The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is distinctly alluded to by Isaiah and Ezekiel, in the following expressions.

Isa. xxvi. 19. "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."

Ezek. xxxvii. 12. "Prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up

out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel."

The words in the above expressions are figurative, and were intended to give the Israelites consolation in very disastrous times. The purport of the prophet was to assure them, that though their community should in Babylon be as completely dissolved, as a dead body reduced to dust, yet God would restore them to their own land, and raise that community again to life. This was indeed only a prophecy of a temporal deliverance, but as it is expressed in terms relating to the death and resurrection of man, the doctrine of such a resurrection must then have been well known, and generally received, or such language would have been altogether unintelligible.

The unseen world of departed spirits, is personified by Isaiah, Hosea, and Habakkuk, in the following passages.

Isa. v. 14. "Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure, and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.”

Isa. xiv. 9. "Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth.”

Hos. xiii. 14. "I will ransom them from the power of Hell, or the grave, I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction."

Hab. ii. 5. "Who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied," &c.