I shall examine; for to produce them all would be an endless task.

David says *,

In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.'

We will consider what these words can mean, if they relate not to the kingdom of heaven. They can mean no more than this; It is a great pleasure to me, and to all good men, to dwell at Jerusalem, where thy ark, O God, is placed, and where thou art daily worshipped with sacrifices, prayers, and hymns. In attending at thy house, I enjoy that unspeakable delight which thou conferrest upon those who love and honour thee.

Upon the supposition that these words were spoken by one who expected no future state, we must needs say that he hath strangely magnified a small matter, and dressed it up in most lofty terms. To dwell a few years, or days, in Mount Sion, to visit the tabernacle constantly, to be well skilled in a law calculated in some measure for a stubborn and perverse people, for children in understanding and rebels in disposition, is represented as happiness without measure and without end.

If they are the words of a pious Israelite who expected another life, these objections will indeed

* Psalm xvi.

fall to nothing; and it must be owned, that such a man might justly speak in this strong and lively manner of the pleasures of worshipping God in the tabernacle, as it was the way to happiness in this world and in the next. But then the point is gained; namely, that he entertained hopes of living hereafter with God.

Yet though these words, in the mouth of one who had views beyond the present world, may be interpreted, as we said before, of the satisfaction which he found in serving God after the manner which God required; they may perhaps relate to heaven, and perhaps better to heaven than to the tabernacle, which was only a faint representation of that throne and that kingdom of God, where the holy angels attend, and where they, with all righteous persons, shall indeed find fullness of joy, and pleasures for ever, greater and more valuable than these or any other words can express.

David says*,

As for man, his days are as grass: as the flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord

is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that

fear him.'

* Psalm ciii.

M

"Here David, first, declares the vanity and shortness of this life, and of all its enjoyments; and, secondly, the everlasting mercy of God to the faithful in the other life. For the everlasting mercy of God, here spoken of, being opposed to the short, transitory enjoyments of the present life, must necessarily signify the mercy and goodness of God to the faithful in the other life, which is indeed the only everlasting mercy. Hence Jewish doctors saw and acknowledged that this text speaks of the everlasting happiness of the righteous in the life to come. And the Chaldee paraphrast thus renders the latter part of the text; 'But the mercy of the Lord is in this world, and even in the world to come, upon them that fear him.'"BULL*.

In the Book of Job we find that good man sometimes overcome by his afflictions, and despairing to see an end of them. At other times he gets the better of his doubts, and

and confidence in God. 6

expresses a firm hope Though he slay me,'

says he, ' yet will I trust in him.' And again, 'O ' that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and re

Vol. i. Sermon viii.; where he undertakes to prove, from many passages of Scripture, that life everlasting was expected by good men under the Old Testament.

member me!' Which words seem to contain a supposition that God might show favour to the dead as well as to the living. And again; '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.'

ance.

It hath been commonly supposed that Job here declares his belief of a resurrection at the last day: some think that he speaks of a temporal deliverThe former of these opinions seems to be the more probable; but, even according to the latter, the meaning of the words will amount to thus much; I know that God lives for ever, and I firmly believe that he will deliver me out of all my calamities. Let what will befall me more, if it be possible, than what I already suffer; let me be given up into the hands of wicked men; let them strip my skin from my body, and pierce me through, yet I am confident that God will again raise me to a flourishing and happy state. Even according to this interpretation, a persuasion is contained in the words, that God could raise the dead to life, and that he would do it, rather than suffer afflicted integrity to lose its reward. And thus the faith of Job was like the faith of Abraham; and he believed that God could raise the dead, though he had never seen or heard an example of it.

It is to be particularly observed, that Job's calamities, all circumstances taken together, are represented as preternatural, and that the hand of God was manifest in them. Therefore his friends concluded that he must have been a great sinner, and an artful hypocrite, to bring down such an extraordinary judgment upon himself; and the doctrine of a future state would by no means have cleared up the difficulty, and settled the dispute between him and them. God says to Job, 'Have the gates. of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?'

That is, perhaps, Knowest thou where the soul resides after death? and what is the condition of the righteous and the wicked, when they are gone hence? Without knowing this how canst thou judge of the ways of Providence? This seems to be the most probable sense of the question.

In Deuteronomy God says, 'See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.' The same expression is found in the first book of Samuel; 'The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up.'

These words may be thus explained; God, whose justice, power, and goodness are perfect, reduceth