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Because Moses and Elijah appealed with Christ on the mount of transfigui . ration , and Elijah did not die , ( or art : least is recorded to have been carried off in a chariot of fifre , from whence it is commonly inferred * as I think somewhat hastily , that he did not die , ) it is presumed that Moses also did not die ; in apparent contradiction to the express testimony of sacred history ( see Deut . xxxiv . 5 ) . Again , because Moses and Elijah did not die ,
and the same two individuals appeared at the transfiguration , and moreover two men appeared at the ascension , when the disciples were gazing up to heaven , therefore these two men were Moses and Elijah . Further , because Enoch was not at the mount of transfiguration , he infers that he was not translated . See note on Heb . xi . 5 . But what good reason can there be for taking it for granted that on such an occasion as this all the human beings who had been translated ( or are supposed to have been translated ,
for the reality of the fact does not seem to have been clearly established with respect to any one of the three ) should be deputed to confer with our Saviour > The supposition is altogether gratuitous , and the argument founded upon it unsatisfactory . There appears to have been a good and sufficient reason why Moses and Elijah should appear on sxich an occasion ;
they were naturally sent on this errand from their personal connexion with the origin and progress of the preparatory dispensation of Judaism ; but Enoch had no concern either personal or official in the business , and therefore * admitting that he was alive , there would have beten no peculiar propriety in selecting him ; none at least that is obvious to us .
Here I am not arguing against Mr , Belsham ' s conclusion , but only objecting to the reasoning by which he arrives at it . It may be true , or it may not , for any thing that appears either in the previous history , or in the account of this transaction in the Gospels , that Enoch and Elijah did not die ; ( as for Moses , I do not see how we are to get over the precise and circumstantial narrative of his death and burial ;) but the reasoning by which it is attempted to be proved , is all founded on the gratuitous assumption that the whole race of mankind are to lie in their graves till the general
resurrection at the last day . They may have died and been buried , and yet , even on the supposition of Materialism , the transition to another state of being may have taken place many ages ago . May it not be questioned how far the commonly-received idea of the translation of these three eminent individuals is consistent with the manner
in which the sacred writers continually dwell upon the resurrection of Christ as the evidence of his superiority to all the rest of mankind ? " By natural descent ( says St . Paul , Rom . i . 4 ) he was of the lineage of David , but with respect to his inspiration , was miraculously distinguished as the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead . " The fact of his being the Messiah , superior to all former prophets and messengers , is proved and ascertained by his having been raised from the grave . But if what is commonly be- * -
heVed of Enoch , Moses , and Elijah , be well founded , they , like Christ , have been put in possession of their everlasting inheritance . In one respect , they may even be coki&idered as superior to him ; for he became an inhabitant of the tomb * and was subject to death , though but for a short interval ; but they were exempted from the common Jot of mortality , and passed at once
into an unseen state * where they are Bupposed to have existed from that time forward , invited With exalted powers in the more immediate presence of God , and employed in important and distinguished services . The argument which our Lord uses to confute the Sadducees , who objected to the doctrine of a resurrection , ( Luke xx . 37 , ) is one , the justness of
Untitled Article
242 Thoug'hts on an Intermediate State .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 242, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/26/
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