THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



splendour and security in Egypt, as the son of 

 Pharaoh s daughter ; nor did it consist in the 

 possession of Canaan, for he was not permitted 

 to enter into that goodly land. It must, there 

 fore, have been the celestial inheritance to which 

 the eye of his faith looked forward, as the object 

 of his joyful anticipation. With regard to all 

 the other patriarchs whose names &tand high on 

 the records of the Old-Teslament Church, he 

 declares, that &quot; they confessed that they were 

 strangers and pilgrims on earth,&quot; that &quot; they de 

 clared plainly that they sought a better country, 

 that is, an heavenly ;&quot; and that those who &quot; were 

 tortured&quot; to induce them to renounce their re 

 ligion, endured their sufferings with invincible 

 fortitude, &quot; not accepting deliverance&quot; when it 

 was offered them, &quot; that they might obtain a bet 

 ter resurrection.&quot; 



In accordance with these declarations, the 

 prophets, in many parts of their writings, speak 

 decisively of their expectations of a future life, 

 and of the consolation the prospect of it afforded 

 them, under their sufferings. &quot; As for me,&quot; 

 says the Psalmist, &quot; I shall behold thy face in 

 righteousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake 

 with thy likeness.&quot; &quot; My flesh shall rest in 

 hope ; for thou wilt not leave my soul in the 

 grave. Thou wilt show me the path of life : in 

 thy presence is fulness of joy ; at thy right hand 

 are pleasures for evermore.&quot; &quot;Yea, though I 

 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 

 I will fear no evil ; for thou art with me. Surely 

 goodness and mercy will follow me all the days 

 of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the 

 Lord for ever.&quot; &quot; God will redeem rny soul 

 from the grave ; for he will receive me/ &quot; Whom 

 have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none 

 upon earth that I desire besides thee. Thou 

 wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward 

 receive me to glory. My flesh and my heart 

 shall fail; but God is the strength of my heart 

 and my portion for ever,&quot; Nothing can be more 

 clear and express than such declarations. If the 

 psalmist had no belief in a future state, and no 

 hop s of enjoying its felicities, after the termi 

 nation of his earthly pilgrimage, his language is 

 absolutely without meaning. What rational in 

 terpretation can be given to the expressions of 

 &quot; dwelling in the house of God for ever,&quot; after 

 his days on earth are numbered of &quot; Jehovah 

 being his everlasting portion,&quot; after his heart had 

 ceased to beat and of his being &quot; redeemed from 

 the grave,&quot; and put in possession of &quot; fulness of 

 joy,&quot; and &quot; everlasting pleasures,&quot; if his views 

 were confined to the narrow limits of time, and 

 the boundaries of the earthly Canaan ? Such 

 expressions would be a species of bombast and 

 hyperbole altogether inconsistent with the dig 

 nity and veracity of an inspired writer. 



Job, that illustrious example of patience under 

 affliction, consoled his spirit in the midst of ad 

 versity by the hopes he entertained of a blessed 



immortality. &quot; I know,&quot; says he, &quot; that my 

 Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the 

 latter day upon the earth : and, after I awake ; 

 though this body shall be destroyed, yet out of 

 my flesh shall I see God.&quot; In various other pas 

 sages of the prophets, not only a future state, 

 but a resurrection from the grave and the solem 

 nities of the day of judgment are plainly inti 

 mated. &quot; The dead men shall live, together 

 with my dead body shall they rise. Awake and 

 sing, y& that dwell in dust ; for thy dew is as the 

 dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the 

 dead.&quot; &quot; Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, 

 and walk in the ways of thy heart, arid in the 

 sight of thine eyes : but know thou, that for all 

 these things God will bring thee into judgment.&quot; 

 &quot; For God shall bring every work into judgment, 

 with every secret thing, whether it be good, or 

 whether it be evil.&quot; &quot; Many of them that, sleep 

 in the dust of the earth shall awake, some. to 

 everlasting life, and some to shame and ever 

 lasting contempt. And they that be wise shall 

 shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and 

 they that turn many to righteousness as the stars 

 for ever and ever.&quot; 



One reason, among others, why the doctrine 

 of a future state is not frequently adverted to, 

 and treated in detail, in the writings of the Old 

 Testament, undoubtedly is, that it was a truth 

 so well understood, so generally recognised, and 

 so essential to the very idea of religion, that it 

 would have been superfluous to have dwelt upon 

 it in detail, or to have brought it forward as a 

 new discovery. This doctrine is implied in the 

 phraseology of the Old Testament, in many cases 

 where there is no direct reference to a future 

 world, as in such passages as the following: &quot; I 

 am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, 

 the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob :&quot; Ex- 

 od. iii. 6. Our Saviour has taught us to consi 

 der this and similar passages as embodying the 

 doctrine of a future life. &quot; For God is not the 

 God of the dead, but of the living.&quot; If the holy 

 patriarchs whose names are here commemo 

 rated with so much honour, were reduced to the 

 condition of the clods of the valley, and if their 

 intellectual part were not in existence, Jehovah 

 would never own the high relation of a God to 

 those whom he has finally abandoned, and suf 

 fered to sink into non-existence. Consequently, 

 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were living and in 

 telligent beings, in another state, when this de 

 claration was made to Moses at the burning bush. 

 The phrase, &quot; He was gathered to his people,&quot; 

 implies a similar sentiment. In Gen. xxv. it is 

 said, &quot; Abraham gave up the ghost, and was 

 gathered to his people.&quot; This expression is not 

 to be viewed as importing that he was buried 

 with his fathers ; for the fathers of Abraham were 

 buried several hundreds of miles from the cave 

 of Machpelah, in which Abraham s mortal re 

 mains were deposited, some of them in the 



