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ORIENTAL BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY.

between the Egyptian and the Babylonian servitudes, the hopes as well as the fears of the Jews appear to have been confined within the narrow compass of the present life.

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veloped by the succession of sacred writers. This may be seen in Isaiah, David, and Solomon, who says (Eccles. xii. 9), "Then shall the dust return to the earth "as it was, and the spirit unto God who gave it." I will add here the ingenious conjecture of a philosophical theologian, on the causes which induced Moses to withhold from his people any special announcement of the immortality of the soul. He thinks, that this legislator beheld around him a state of civilization, in which any popular knowledge of this doctrine would have misled the Jews into many idolatrous superstitions, against which it was his object to guard them. He contemplated mainly the establishment of a firm theocracy, and to preserve among his nation the idea of the unity of God, as the future basis of Christianity. carefully kept at a distance all that might weaken or obscure this idea. In other countries the people had strangely abused the notions which they entertained, respecting the immortality of the soul. This he wished to prevent, and therefore made it a part of his code (Deut. xviii. 11), that the Jews should not, like the Egyptians, have communion with a "a charmer, or a consulter with familiar "spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer." Those who will take into consideration the condition of the Gentiles and the Jews, and the facility with which idolatry at that period everywhere insinuated itself, will not be surprised that Moses suppressed a tenet, the influence of which would have been more fatal than useful to the Israelites. Orat. Fest. de Vita Immort. Spe, &c., auct. Ph. Alb. Stapfer, pp. 12, 13, 20. Berne, 1787.-Guizot.

The omission which M. Guizot says "is not clearly demonstrated," Dean Milman candidly admits to be "unquestionable." The well-known use of it by Warburton, is also confessed to have "made few disciples; and it is difficult to suppose that it would be intended by the author himself, for more than a display of intellectual strength" The world had no distinct idea of a future state. Greek philosophy had speculated on it, and excited hopes which became more lively as education expanded. The two leading popular wants of the age were then, the worship of a supreme spiritual Godhead, and a settled conviction of the immortality of the soul. These Christianity supplied so authoritatively, that it could not fail to make a rapid progress. - ENGLISH CHURCHMAN.

Here was a glorious opportunity for Messrs. Wenck, Guizot, and Milman to earn the commendation of the "distinguished churchman," (to quote his own language,) for the care bestowed by them "on those portions of Gibbon's History where religion demanded their services." But, although these learned and reverend advocates made strenuous efforts to explain the unpardonable omission of Moses to proclaim to Jehovah's "peculiar people" the doctrine of immortality, yet candor compels the sad admission that they arrived at a "most lame and impotent conclusion. After skillfully using a multitude of words on the subject, Milman cautiously states that M. Guizot adds the ingenious conjecture of a philosophic "theologian,' which approximates to an opinion long entertained by himself." And this long entertained" conjecture, so discreetly and pompously formulated, simply amounts to this, that had the doctrine of immortality then become popular "it would necessarily have given birth to a multitude of idolatrous superstitions." Without that doctrine, the Jews worshiped the golden calf and repeatedly sacrificed to Pagan idols, and with it, they surely could have done no worse; and it does not explain why Moses maintained silence on this point" to tell us that the immortality of the soul was inseperably blended with foreign religions. If the doctrine be true, how could it have proved injurious to the Jews; and if it be of Pagan origin, why not honestly admit the fact? Why claim originality for a borrowed dogma? Why not "render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's," and unto the Pagans the doctrines which are their own?

Centuries before the birth of Moses the Egyptians had taught this dogma, and it is to the Mythology of the Orientals that we must look for the origin of the belief in a future life; and while this doctrine of immortality was gradually adopted in later years by a portion of the Jews, it never was received with universal credence by the children of Abraham. Even as late as the time of the apostles, St. Paul, when brought before Ananias, the high priest, (Acts xxiii. 7, 8,) was enabled to divide his accusers and secure assistance from the Pharisees, by claiming to be a Pharisee, "the son of a Pharisee." "For the Sadducees say that there is no "resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both."

"The Jews," says Voltaire, "in the later period of their sojourn at Jerusalem, were scrupulously attached to nothing but the ceremonials of their law. The

BELIEF OF THE PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES.

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After Cyrus had permitted the exiled nation to return into the promised land, and after Ezra had restored the ancient records of their religion, two celebrated sects, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, insensibly arose at Jerusalem." The former, selected from the more opulent and distinguished. ranks of society, were strictly attached to the literal sense of the Mosaic law, and they piously rejected the immortality of the soul, as an opinion that received no countenance from the divine book, which they revered as the only rule of their faith. To the authority of Scripture the Pharisees added that of tradition, and they accepted, under the name of traditions, several speculative tenets from the philosophy or religion of the eastern nations. The doctrines of fate or predestination, of angels and spirits, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, were in the number of these new articles of belief; and as the Pharisees, by the austerity of their manners, had drawn into their party the body of the Jewish people, the immortality of the soul became the pre

58 See Le Clerc (Prolegomena ad Hist Ecclesiast. sect. 1, c. 8.) His authority seems to carry the greater weight, as he has written a learned and judicious commentary on the books of the Old Testament.

59 Joseph. Antiquitat. I. xiii. c. 10. De Bell. Jud. ii. 8. According to the most natural interpretation of his words, the Sadducees admitted only the Pentateuch; but it has pleased some modern critics to add the Prophets to their creed, and to suppose that they contented themselves with rejecting the traditions of the Pharisees Dr. Jortin has argued that point in his Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 103.

man who should have eaten pudding or rabbit, would have been stoned; while "he who denied the immortality of the soul might be high-priest."

"We hope for a blessed immortality beyond the grave," is the language of our most reasonable Christian sects. This hope, (which is not an affirmation,) reason and philosophy do not antagonize, if they do not support; but those sectarians who have least studied the question, and are the most ignorant in regard to the subject, are the most positive in their belief and the most secure in their faith. In I. Kings iv. 29-31, it is stated that "God gave Solomon wisdom and under"standing exceeding much. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men.' This so-called wise man discusses the subject of immortality very fully in Eccles. iii. 19, 20, as follows: "That which befalleth the sons of men "befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them, as the one dieth, so dieth the "other; yea, they have all one breath: so that a man hath no pre-eminence above "a beast. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." In contrast with this materialistic teaching of the annointed king of Israel, let us quote a single paragraph from the writings of a modern philosopher, who cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be called a believer either in Judaism or Christianity, and yet whose words of burning eloquence, of beauty, and of pathos, have not been excelled since mortals first learned to crystallize their noblest thoughts in written symbols. And, while these words carefully embody the results of modern scientific research, and are based on experience and demonstrated facts, they do not, like the Hebrew voluptuary, deny to the mourner at the death-bed the consolation which hope and love demand.

Life," says Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, "is a narrow vale between the cold and "barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. "We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the "voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but, in the night of "death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing."- E.

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BELIEF OF THE CHRISTIANS.

vailing sentiment of the synagogue under the reign of the Asmonæan princes and pontiffs. The temper of the Jews was incapable of contenting itself with such a cold and languid assent as might satisfy the mind of a Polytheist; and, as soon as they admitted the idea of a future state, they embraced it with the zeal which has always formed the characteristic of the nation. Their zeal, however, added nothing to its evidence, or even probability: and it was still necessary that the doctrine of life and immortality, which had been dictated by nature, approved by reason, and received by superstition, should obtain the sanction of divine truth from the authority and example of Christ.

end of the world.

When the promise of eternal happiness was Among the Christians. proposed to mankind on condition of adopting the faith, and of observing the precepts, of the gospel, it is no wonder that so advantageous an offer should have been accepted by great numbers of every religion, of every rank, and of every province in the Roman empire. The ancient Christians were animated by a contempt for their present existence, and by a just confidence of immortality, of which the doubtful and imperfect faith of modern ages cannot give us any adequate notion. In the Approaching primitive church the influence of truth was very powerfully strengthened by an opinion which, however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, has not been found agreeable to experience. It was universally believed that the end of the world, and the kingdom of heaven, were at hand.* The near approach of this wonderful event had been predicted by the apostles; the tradition of it was preserved by their earliest disciples, and those who understood in their literal sense the discourses of Christ himself, were obliged to expect the second and glorious coming of the Son of Man in the clouds, before that generation was totally extinguished, which had beheld his humble condition upon earth, and which might still be witness of the calamities of the Jews under Vespasian or Hadrian. The revolution of seventeen centuries has instructed us not to press too closely the mysterious language of prophecy and revelation; but as long as, for wise purposes, this error was permitted to subsist in the church, it was productive of the most salutary

This was, in fact, an integral part of the Jewish notion of the Messiah, from which the minds of the apostles themselves were but gradually detached. See Bertholdt, Christologia Judæorum, concluding chapters.-MILMAN.

effects on the faith and practice of Christians, who lived in the awful expectation of that moment when the globe itself, and all the various race of mankind, should tremble at the appearance of their divine Judge.60

the

The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second Doctrine of coming of Christ. As the works of the creation Millennium. had been finished in six days, their duration in

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their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred, that this long period of labor and contention, which was now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till

60 This expectation was countenanced by the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew, and by the first epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians. Erasmus removes the difficalty by the help of allegory and metaphor; and the learned Grotius ventures to insinuate, that, for wise purposes, the pious deception was permitted to take place.*

61 See Burnet's Sacred Theory, part iii. c. 5. This tradition may be traced as high as the author of the Epistle of Barnabas, who wrote in the first century, and who seems to have been half a Jew.†

*Some modern theologians explain it without discovering either allegory or deception. They say, that Jesus Christ, after having proclaimed the ruin of Jerusalem and of the Temple, speaks of his second coming, and the signs which were to precede it; but those who believed that the moment was near, deceived themselves as to the sense of two words, an error which still subsists in our versions of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, xxiv. 29, 34. In verse 29, we read, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, &c. The Greek word déw signifies all at once, suddenly, not immediately; so that it signifies only the sudden appearance of the signs which Jesus Christ announces, not the shortness of the interval which was to separate them from the "days of tribulation," of which he was speaking. The verse 34 is this: Verily "I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things shall be ful"filled." Jesus, speaking to his disciples, uses these words, aur yɛved, which the translators have rendered by this generation, but which means the race, the filiation of my disciples; that is, he speaks of a class of men, not of a generation. The true sense then, according to these learned men, is, In truth I tell you that this race of men, of which you are the commencement, shall not pass away till this shall take place; that is to say, the succession of Christians shall not cease till his coming. See Commentary of M. Paulus on the New Test., edit. 1802, tom. 11. pp. 445, 446.-GUIZOT.

Others, as Rosenmuller and Kuinoel, in loc., confine this passage to a highly figurative description of the ruins of the Jewish city and polity. - -MILMAN.

When such nicely-varied interpretations support opposite opinions, on passages in Matthew's Gospel, we feel the loss of his Hebrew original. Scripture critics appeal to Greek expressions, as if they were the very words used by the speaker, when, as is well known, they were uttered to Jews, recorded in their language, and put into Greek by some unknown translator. (Hieron de Vir. Illust. iii.) The difficulty of accurately representing the true sense of Hebrew in another language is admitted and notorious- ENGLISH CHURCHMAN.

+In fact it is purely Jewish. See Mosheim, De Reb. Christ. ii. 8. Lightfoot's Works, 8vo. edit. vol. iii. p. 37. Bertholdt, Christologia Judæorum, ch. 38. — M.

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THE NEW JERUSALEM.

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the time appointed for the last and general resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the mind of believers, that the New Jerusalem, the seat of this blissful kingdom, was quickly adorned with all the gayest colors of the imagination. Á felicity consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would have appeared too refined for its inhabitants, who were still supposed to possess their human nature and senses. A garden of Eden, with the amusements of the pastoral life, was no longer suited to the advanced state of society which prevailed under the Roman empire. A city was therefore erected of gold and precious stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed on the adjacent territory; in the free enjoyment of whose spontaneous productions the happy and benevolent people was never to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive property. The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a succession of fathers from Justin Martyr" and Irenæus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine. Though it might not be universally received, it appears to have been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it seems so well adapted to the desires and

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62 The primitive church of Antioch computed almost 6000 years from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. Africanus, Lactantius, and the Greek church, have reduced that number to 5,500, and Eusebius has contended himself with 5,200 years. These calculations were formed on the Septuagint, which was universally received during the six first centuries. The authority of the Vulgate and of the Hebrew text has determined the moderns, Protestants as well as Catholics, to prefer a period of about 4,000 years; though, in the study of profane antiquity, they often find themselves straitened by those narrow limits.*

63 Most of these pictures were borrowed from a mi interpretation of Isaiah, Daniel and the Apocalypse. One of the grossest images may be found in Irenæus (1. v. p. 455), the disciple of Papias, who had seen the apostle St. John.

64 See the second dialogue of Justin with Tryphon, and the seventh book of Lactantius. It is unnecessary to allege all the intermediate fathers, as the fact is not disputed. Yet the curious reader may consult Daille de Usu Patrum, 1. ii. c. 4. 65 The testimony of Justin of his own faith and that of his orthodox brethren, in the doctrine of a Millennium, is delivered in the clearest and most solemn manner (Dialog. cum Tryphonte Jud. pp. 177, 178, edit. Benedictin). If in the beginning of this important passage there is any thing like an inconsistency, we may impute it, as we think proper, either to the author or to his transcribers.f

Most of the more learned modern English Protestants, Dr. Hales, Mr. Faber, Dr. Russel, as well as the Continental writers, adopt the larger chronology. There is little doubt that the narrower system was framed by the Jews of Tiberias; it was clearly neither that of St. Paul, nor of Josephus, nor of the Samaritan Text. It is greatly to be regretted that the chronology of the earlier Scriptures should ever have been made a religious question. - MILMAN.

The Millennium is described in what once stood as the XLIst Article of the English Church (see Collier, Eccles. Hist., for Articles of Edw. VI.) as "a fable of Jewish dotage." The whole of these gross and earthly images may be traced in the works which treat on the Jewish traditions, in Lightfoot, Schoetgen, and Eiser menger; "Das entdeckte Judenthum," t. ii. 809, and briefly in Bertholdt, i. c. 38 39.MILMAN.