for redemption in Jerusalem*. After the crucifixion of the Lord, also, when all hope seemed to many to have perished, Joseph of Arimathea displayed a courage and a faith in demanding before all his enemies the body of Jesus, which could alone have risen from his firm belief in the spirituality of his kingdom. But beyond all this, they, were clearly inexcusable, who could not gather, from the naked words of the prophets, unconnected with their hidden meaning, the certainty of a future state, and that, moreover, of rewards and punishments.

Following the same argument, and answering the objections in precisely the same manner as had been done by other prophetic writers, we find Malachi thus stating the fact of a future life, in a clear and decisive manner. Ye say it is in vain to serve the Lord; and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; Yea, they that tempt God are even delivered; Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared, and thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and

*Luke ii.

+ Daniel, vii. 10; Isaiah, lxv. 6; Psalm, lxix. 28; Exodus, xxxii. 32.

I will spare them, as a man spareth his own SON that serveth him. Then shall YE (said the Lord by the prophet to these righteous mourners of that day) return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall grow up like calves of the stall. And YE shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts.

The prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, whose missions related chiefly to the rebuilding of the Temple, are yet full of dark allusions to the day of judgment, and the New Jerusalem;-which, to those who had the light of the former prophets were yet plain; and the earthly, and heavenly kingdom, of Christ the Lord, are undeniably held forth. They also, warn the Israelites not to rest only on their law, or rather on their own imperfect obedience, but to look unto the blood of the covenant; comparing even their high priest Joshua to a brand plucked out of the fire, from whom, the Lord alone, could make his iniquity to pass. The next six prophets may almost be considered as contemporaries,

F

as a period of scarcely more than forty years is supposed to embrace the commencement of all their ministries*. Nor had the life of Daniel closed above a few years when the missions of Haggai and Zechariah commenced. A doctrine which was known to, and preached by, any one of these, must have been familiar unto all, even although different parts of the East were their spheres of action, as they were always chiefly employed amongst God's peculiar people; and † one of them, at least, was as a city built upon a hill, as a light placed upon a candlestick, which could not be hid. Gifted too as they all were with the Spirit of the Most High, whose people they laboured to save, they must always have laid before their nation all His counsel. Their writings, accordingly, yield most triumphant proof, when contrasted together, of the mercy of the Deity in always warning man to consider his latter end. The book of Obadiah consists only of one single chapter, which is confined almost to foretelling the destruction of the Edomites, but which glances also darkly, in its close, at the day when the kingdom shall be the

* Malachi commenced bef. Christ 400.

Lord's. The next is that of Ezekiel. One of the most remarkable and striking proofs is that which is contained in the 37th chap. in that powerful allegory of the resurrection in the valley of dry bones. Applied, as this may be, partly to temporal meanings, it shows how well known this doctrine was at that period, and most clearly and decisively assures the Israelites of a future state. Thus saith the Lord, behold, O my people, I will open YOUR graves, and cause you to come up out of YOUR graves* ! Contrast this, however, with other previous passages, and this interpretation, clear as it is, will be still more readily allowed. In the 32d chap. Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his multitude, are clearly threatened with far more than temporal punishments: The king of Babylon shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. Is the threat confined to this destruction? No. They, continues the prophet, shall be cast down unto THE NETHER PARTS OF THE EARTH, with them that go down into the pit. There, it is added, the strong among the mighty shall speak to him (observe the LIVING attribute of speech here given to the DEAD) out of the midst of hell, whose iniquities shall be upon their bones, although they were the terror of the mighty, in the land of the living. In no less than seven distinct instances, the pit, is mentioned, as the appointed place of punishment, of all those, who shall bear their shame. This marked

The Syriac version intitles all that part of the chapter which comprehends this allegory, De reviviscentia mortuorum.

description of the prophets, however, is no new revelation it is but the application of a wellknown doctrine to these particular cases. Immediately subsequent, in the next chapter, after this decisive assertion of a future state, awful in its very darkness, are those beautiful justifications of the mercy and justice of the Creator towards man. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and LIVE: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for WHY will ye DIE, O house of Israel? What death could the prophet here mean? Temporal death, only, to the exclusion of that, which he had previously so powerfully described?—it is impossible. Both the wicked and the righteous must bow down into the grave; mere temporal death then, both the prophets, could not mean, when Ezekiel saith, the Lord hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked; and when the Psalmist declareth, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints*. What less do these passages prove, to the considering mind, than, that the prophets preached the covenant and the law promulgated by Moses, as promising or threatening in general, life or death æternal?-and if they, thus preached the law of God, none but the stiff-necked, who would not bow the ear to hear in Israel, could ever have been taken unawares. The warning is again rung in the 31st ch. the warning which all the prophets of God had previously sounded. Behold, saith the Lord of *Ps. 116, v. 15.