acceptable sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock, and all the patriarchal sacrifices of living animals, is of faith in the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world.

Now it is obvious to expect, as God vouchsafes clearer views of His intentions with regard to mankind, the further development also of particular truths known but in their germs in earlier Dispensations. Hence we should be prepared beforehand to find under the later ages of the Jewish polity, and much more in the Christian Church, a progressive knowledge of the state of the departed, and their relations to us who are yet in the flesh, if, as I think indisputable, there was a revelation respecting them, however scanty, in patriarchal times, and during the first era of the Mosaic Covenant.

Solemn burial, then, which was common throughout the world, being some evidence of faith in the resurrection of the body, Job's words may be taken to denote the superiority of the degree of light on the subject which the Patriarchs had over the Heathen world at large. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms 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; though my reins be consumed within me:"1 where, on this hypothesis, the special excellence in Job's knowledge is his faith in a Redeemer, and his connecting that with the resurrection of the flesh-for the last truth he held only in common with others.

But what has been said, it will be thought, perhaps, goes only to establish the fact that the Patriarchs and others believed a resurrection of the body would one day take place, without at all shew

1 Job, xix. 25.

ing them to have had any belief in a separate and continuous existence of the soul, to let alone its state in that existence. However, so great a step being gained as an expectation of the re-quickening of the body, which so evidently appears to die, and, as far as the nature of things admits, to be annihilated after death; the far easier belief in the intermediate state of the soul, which never seems to come to an end, may without difficulty be traced-though, at the same time, it may not be possible to prove it incontrovertibly to the satisfaction of all minds. Just as the belief in any future state of existence may be, and has been denied of the Patriarchs, so their belief in the intermediate existence of the soul may be controverted even by those who admit that they expected the resurrection of the flesh. In either case there are traces of their belief-phenomena, so to speak, which cannot be so easily explained on any other hypothesis than it; and yet in both one case and the other absolute demonstration there is not.

The Sadducees saw no reason for believing in angel or spirit," nor yet" in the resurrection," though they professed to receive the five books of Moses as inspired.

As, then, against those who say the old Fathers looked only for temporary promises, we are accustomed to urge the general belief of all nations in a future state; so against those who say they did not believe in the separate existence of the soul, the universal prevalence of a belief in ghostly appearances may be pressed. The very general (if not quite universal reception) of both these articles of faith is sufficient reason to account for their not being mentioned more expressly than they are in the Sacred History; and when we find them indirectly alluded to, it is as much as we ought to expect. They were already received articles of the creed of

Nature, and did not require therefore to be enforced by fresh revelations. On the contrary, had the prevailing belief been false, we might surely have anticipated its refutation. The whole Pentateuch is a denial and reproof of the growing tendency to Polytheism and idolatrous worship.1

"What reconciliation," it is asked, “could men have found of the fact of righteous Abel's premature death with the justice of Almighty God, if they expected no future state of being in which men were to be rewarded according to their deeds?" And what ground, we may ask, had they for doubting that that retribution began immediately after death, which was the common opinion of the Gentiles?

Again" Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him."2 On which words, St. Paul thus comments :- "Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."3 Is it conceivable, that with this example before their eyes, the Patriarchs doubted either a future existence, or a continuance of the soul's existence after death? Enoch's exemption from the common death of mankind, was indeed the special reward of his faith; but his living after death is mentioned as nothing peculiar. It was the general confession of the Patriarchs, we are told by the Apostle, that "they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth ;" and that in such words they plainly declared that they were seeking not an earthly but a heavenly country-for which

Just as we argue that the Jews could not have corrupted the canon of the Old Testament, because, had they done so, Christ would surely have reproved them for it ;-so may we feel certain that the belief concerning the departed prevailing in his times was true, because Moses, so far from confuting, has taken it for granted. 2 2 Gen. v. 24. 3 Heb. xi. 5.

reason God is not ashamed to be called their God, that is, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, which are the very words our blessed Lord uses to shew "that the dead," not will be, but " are raised," and to refute the unbelieving Sadducees, who denied, as all spiritual existence, so of course, any separate existence of the soul. Not to insist further on the care which all the Patriarchs from Abraham downwards evinced concerning their burial, which may be said to prove only their faith in the future resurrection of the body, what meaning could they attach to such an expression as that which describes Jacob's death, unless the belief in the intermediate state were habitual and unquestioned? We read, "And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost," that is, his spirit; yielded it up to whom? can we hesitate to answer, "to the God of the spirits of all flesh," as He is twice called in the book of Numbers ?? Can there be any doubt that the faith was then, as in Solomon's days afterwards, that at death "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it?"3 and that there was this great difference between the death of the sons of men and the death of beasts-that though as to their bodies, "all go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again," on the contrary, the spirit of man goeth upward, the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth?"

Enough has been said to prove a belief which, in any days less sceptical than the present, might have been fairly assumed, and the onus of disproving left to those who, to shelter the scepticism of their own religious views, would persuade us the Patriarchs were disposed to doubt the common articles of faith

1 Gen. xlix. 33. 2 xvi. 22, xxvii. 16.

3 Eccles. xii. 7.

of all mankind equally with themselves. But there is an event recorded in the history of the children of Israel, connected with this subject, so remarkable, that it would be improper to pass over it. I mean the raising of Samuel, after his death, by the woman who had dealings with a familiar spirit, at the command of Saul. Let us only consider this history as we read it in 1 Sam. xxviii. without the gloss or commentary of those who are engaged to support an opposing theory, and we shall surely feel no doubt that: in its literal sense at least it fully authorises the belief in an intermediate state, and the possibility" of the re-appearance of those who are no longer in the flesh.

Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented and buried him. Saul, who had now well nigh run out his rebellious career, when the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with Israel, inquired of the Lord, but "the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by pro-. phets; that is, he could learn nothing concerning his approaching fate by any of those lawful means by which God was wont to intimate future events to His chosen people. There remained no oracle to resort to, except he trod the unhallowed and forbidden paths of witchcraft and necromancy: what should he do? He had himself forbidden witchcraft; nay, in his former happier days, while he was living in obedience to the voice of God and the law of Moses, he had himself, with holy zeal for God's glory, forcibly "put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land." But now, in his necessity, he resolves to transgress those laws, of which he was the appointed guardian, and sets out in disguise to the dwelling of the sorceress at Endor, where being arrived "by night," he said to her: "I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up,