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    fessed to find €€ eternal life ; " and he does not deny the inference : on the contrary , concerning a resurrection , he observes to the Sadducees , that Moses himself ** shewed it at the bush , in calling the Lord < tbe Ood of

    Abraham , o £ Isaae and ofe Jacob *; for he is not the God of the ( finally ) dead , but of the living ,.-for all liver xto him . " These passages need no •> com meat : and in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews , the writer , enumerating the triumphs of faith in

    the ancient world , represents th . e Old-Testament saints as looking through the present transitory scene , " for a better country , that is , a heavenly ;" and he emphatically declares , that the only faith which can please God is that which leads not only to a belief

    in his existence , but also in his character and government , as " a rewarder of those that diligently seek him ; and he insists that the primitive believers possessed this divine principle ; that they " all died in faith ; " not ,

    indeed , having received the promises , but seeing them afar off , and were persuaded of them , and embraced them , confessing themselves to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth . " The notion which we have here

    endeavoured to disprove , hath called forth the animadversions of many eminent divines . Mr . Robinson , in his Notes on Claude , ( ed . 1779 , p . 132 , ) says , " The present times have scarcely produced a more absurd and dangerous error than that of Bishop Warburton ; who affirms , that ' the doctrine of a

    future state of rewards and punishments is not to be found in , nor did make a part of , the Mosaic dispensation . '" After citing some of the texts above-named , and making a few

    remarks , not very creditable to the sincerity of the learned prelate , he gives some extracts froin eminent foreign writers , in favour of the contrary opinion ; namely , " That the patriarnhal religion included the doctrine of a

    future state : thaffc the Mosaic oeconomy included the patriarchal religion : that the apostles preached ' what was written in the law and the prophets / and was believed by the bulk of the

    Jewish people ( Acts xxiv . 14 , 15 ) f hat the promise of the Messiah alone "K'huled all spiritual blessings , and that the Israelites understood it so :

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    that God made the Old-Testament saints fellow-heirs with the New-Testament believers , and that it is senseless and wicked to set the tw ^ 'dispensations at variance . Jesuv Christ , far superior to all human giotf , was known and celebrated long befWe he

    came into the world . His magnificence is of all ages . The foundations of his religion were laid . Wkh those of the world ; and though not born till four thousand ? years from the creation , yet his history begins with that of the world . He was first preached in Paradise , the subject Was continued down to Moses , and revealed still more

    frequently and more clearly during the reign of . the law and the prophets . Behold > before his birth , the titles of his grandeur 1 Jesus , above all Jesus crucified , throws the brightest light upon the Old Testament- Without him the law would be a sealed book :

    and Judaism a confused heap of precepts and ceremonies , piled up without meaning . On the contrary , how beautiful is the history of the people of

    God , and all their worship , when the cross is the key ! It is one whole , the different parts of which relate to the same end . It is a long allegory of Divine wisdom . It is an edifice which

    God himself hath founded and insensibly raised , with a design of placing upon the top the cross ot his Son 1 " Let us not , therefore , represent the God of grace , " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , " as in opposition to the God of nature , or to * ' the God of Abraham , of Isaac and

    of Jacob ; " for these " are not three Gods , hut one God /'—one in name , one in nature ^ ^ wie in person , one in power and glory ! Who , though lit * varies his dispensations to his rational offspring , accbudikig to their different situations and ch'cuinstances , talents and eapaoitskfl * which are ordered " after the umuifeel of his own will ; " is

    himself ?* - without vurlabloness or shadow of . turning *! " * Who " hateth nothing * / fvhicJi lie halh Hlade ; " nor expects *' to reap whereahe hath not sown , of to gpatker where ho hath not strewed ? ' with whoin is ' * nto respect

    of persons , " but who " judgeth according to every man ' s work ; " ami who , with regard to the leading and essential principles of all true religion , * ' hath never left himself without wit-

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    Belief of the Patriarchs and Israelites in a Future State . 277

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1822, page 277, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2512/page/21/