not effected and completed in this world, of necessity there must be another world, in which their bodies will be raised to life and immortality.*

And besides, even when these patriarchs were dead, God still stood in that beneficent relation to them which the word Elohim expresses-Now that beneficent relation doth not respect mankind as dead, but as livingGod is not the God of the dead-He is not the Elohim of those who are to lie for ever under the power of death-He cannot be said to stand in any beneficent relation to them; for a beneficent relation regards them who are sensible of God; but they cannot be sensible of it over whom death reigneth for ever. The living, the living only are sensible of good, and God is the God of the living; and yet, if the patriarchs be dead for ever, he cannot be the God of the living. Whilst their bodies continue in the grave-they are dead: but he hath covenanted not to be the God of the dead; their bodies therefore must rise from the dead before he can fulfil the gospel covenant-He must raise them up unto a future life, before he can be what his name Elohim imports: for he cannot act up to, and complete that beneficent relation which he stands in to them, until their bodies be raised from the dead. Then shall they be of the number of those happy living, who will praise him indeed, when feeling the blessed effects of that beneficent relation, they shall have a conviction from sense, which we now can have only from faithThat God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Christ then, who is an infallible interpreter of Moses, asserts, that Moses hath treated of the resurrection of the dead-He brings an argument from Moses to prove

*Th. Cartwright, Harmonia Evang. Ludg. 1647, p. 799. Ego sum Deus Abrahæ, Deus Isaaci, & Deus Jacobi. Non potest autum fæderatus Deus esse eorum qui mortui non existunt amplius; est igitur vivorum, idque, non animabus modo, sed, quia Deo omnia præsentia sunt corporibus suo tempore excitandis. F. Illyrici Gloss. in 4 Evang. Basil, 1570, p. 97. Esse Deum alicujus, tum salvificam opem Dei erga illum, &c.

it-The argument is God says unto Moses, that he was nevertheless the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, though they were dead-being their Elohim even then, Christ declares, is a proof that he still stood in some beneficent relation to them-But he could not stand in any beneficent relation to those who were dead for ever, because he is not the God of the dead; therefore that beneficent relation regards them as living, and they cannot be living till raised from the dead. Now all the laws of Moses are enforced upon this sanction, Ye shall obey me, because I Jehovah am your Elohim ; and Christ hath purposely demonstrated, that the resurrection of the dead is a part of this sanction, consequently I infer from the infallible interpretation of Jesus Christ-That the obligation to observe every law, rite, and ceremony is enforced under the Mosaic dispensation, upon the sanctions of future rewards and punishments.

And though this conclusion be drawn from the express meaning of Moses' words, and that meaning be confirmed by the unanswerable authority of Christ, either of which would be abundantly sufficient to evince what were the Mosaic sanctions; yet I shall add to them another passage, wherein it is expressly and lite rally asserted, not only that future rewards and punishments were the sanctions of the whole law; but also that God had taught the Jews, and they knew—that his laws were established upon these sanctions. And the passage is this

"For this commandment, which I command thee "this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far "off" Deut. xxx. 11. So that whatever be the meaning of this commandment, the Jews did understand itif it was not hidden from, of necessity it must be known unto them-For not to hide is to discover, and to discover is to know. Now St. Paul, speaking by the same Spirit which spake in Moses, says, that this commandment, the meaning of which the Jews knew, treats of Justification by faith in Christ. The words themselves

indeed do clearly and fully describe that justification; but since an infallible interpreter hath explained them, and Moses hath declared that the Jews understood them in the sense thus explained, the argument therefore will be equally conclusive, without particularly proving what is the sense of the words from the text itself; for the Jews did certainly understand them in the true sense, and St. Paul could not explain them in any other. And his interpretation is this; "When Moses speaketh on "this wise, concerning the justification which is of "faith, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into "heaven?" Deut. xxx. 12. "St. Paul says, the Jews "knew that this meant to bring Christ from above," Rom. x. 16. And when Moses says, "Who shall de"scend into the deep, and bring the word unto us, that 66 we may hear it and do it?" The apostle declares the Jews knew that this meant to bring up Christ again from the dead. And when Moses tells the Jews, "the "word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy "heart" the apostle asserts they hereby understood, that same word of faith which he preached. St. Paul then hath informed us what the Jews understood-they knew that Christ was to come down from heaven-was to die and rise again from the dead-and they also knew that word of faith which the apostle preached, viz. "That if they should confess with their mouth "the Lord Jesus, and believe that God would raise "him from the dead, they should be saved."

And after Moses hath thus revealed-that man is to be justified by faith in Christ-he proceeds to shew what was the consequence of his revealing this doctrine; and it followed from thence, that he had thereby offered to, and set before, the believing Jews, the means to an happy immortality; and to the unbelieving, death. "See," says he, "I have set before thee this day, lives "and good, and death and evil," Rom. v. 15. The word lives, it was before proved, was, in its literal and primary sense, expressive of a future life and immortality; and the reason of the thing here demonstrates,

that this is the sense of the word: for the life which Moses in this text set before them, could not be a temporal one-it was such a life as should flow from their being justified-but by being accounted just and righteous in the sight of God through the merits of Christ, they could not thereupon be entitled to temporal rewards. All the blessings derived to mankind from Christ, are of a spiritual nature; and justification by him being spiritual, cannot regard the present life; for the present life was forfeited by sin; and if men were to be accounted just and righteous before God through the merits of Christ, with respect to the present life, then the present life ought not to be taken away from them who are so justified. But length of days is found to be no consequence of justification. We are all in a constant succession removed from off the stage of the world; and how then can our justification in any sense respect the present life, since the virtue flowing from it cannot be received till we have passed through the grave and gate of death? It is evident then from the reason of the thing, as well as from the meaning of the words, that the lives Moses here set before the Jews, included a future and immortal life: for that is the consequence of justification. And as the sense of the text was not hidden from them, it follows, they knew they were to be justified before God through faith in Christ, in order to their obtaining an happy immortality.

And that this immortality was the sanction upon which Moses enforced obedience to all his laws, is evident from the following verse- * "See," says he, “I "have set before thee this day a future life of happi"ness and misery; in that I command thee to love the "Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his "commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments," Deut. xxx. 16. Now, under the expressions of walking in the ways of God-and keeping his command

* 2 Esd. vii. 59, asserts, that the life Moses mentions in this verse, was an immortal one.

ments, statutes, and judgments, are included all the rites and services of the law: and by commanding the Jews to keep these rites and services, Moses, says he, had set before them a future life of happiness and misery; and if he commanded them to keep the law, and to them who kept it, he offered future happiness, then this future happiness was proposed to them as a motive to obedience and whatever was proposed to them as a motive to obey the law, was of necessity a sanction to enforce that obedience; because, so far as it was a motive, it obliged-and obligation is what constitutes a sanction. And therefore, as Moses had taught the Jews (in the words before) that they were to be justified by faith in Christ-and that an happy immortality was the consequence of this justification: so he here makes obedience to the whole law, an absolutely necessary condition to attain that immortality; and thereby he makes the immortality, which was consequent on justification, the sanction upon which he enforces obedience, and of course he gives us further reason to conclude that the obligation to observe every law, rite, and ceremony, is enforced under the Mosaic dispensation, upon the sanctions of future rewards and punishments.

These indeed are but a small number of those texts from whence this conclusion might be supported; but however, these will be sufficient at present, because if a future state, and future rewards and punishments be taught in those now produced, then the two propositions at first laid down are fully justified; and nothing remains but to give a general view of the subject, and to shew how it ought to have been treated, and how it came to be misunderstood. And the texts already and hereafter to be cited upon this subject, will have their due weight when it is observed-that the law by Moses, and the gospel by Christ, are but two parts of one and the same dispensation-the gospel-covenant runs through and constitutes the essence of both for since the fall of Adam that covenant was the same to Christ,