or not; though, upon the fuppofition of our furviving the grave, we were able, from the confideration of the equity of God's moral government, to infer, that the event would be very defirable to good men, and much to be dreaded by the wicked; the former having fufficient reason, from present appearances, to conclude, that the divine being is a friend to virtue, and, therefore, difpofed to reward them for their adherence to it; and the latter having equal reason to dread his difpleasure.

Since, however, no reasons of juftice or equity, could lead men to expect more than an adequate punishment, proportioned to their crimes, there was far from being any reason to imagine that future punishments would be eternal, efpccially if they were exquifite; becaufe no crimes of a finite nature, committed by frail and finite creatures, could deferve it. An alternative, therefore, remained, either to fuppofe an extinction of the wicked, with or without any other punishment; or that future fufferings would

operate

operate like the fufferings of this present life, tending to correct and amend those who are fubject to them.

There was fome hope, therefore, that, after an adequate punishment, those who were not reclaimed in this world, might be effectually cured of their vicious propenfities, by the more fevere and durable punishments of another, fo as to enter upon a new ftate of trial with more advantage, though they might ftill be far behind those who had made the most of their prefent advantages. In this cafe, the punishments of the wicked may properly enough be faid to be eternal, because they would never arrive at that flate of perfection and happiness which was attained to by those who entered earlier on a course of virtue.

Such is the fubftance of what we were able to collect from nature concerning a future ftate, provided there were any fuch thing. From revelation we learn the actual certainty of a future ftate, and have an abfolute affurance of its being a state of exact retribution,

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retribution, in which every man fhall receive according to his works. But this being all that is neceffary to influence our prefent conduct, we are ftill at a lofs, and left in a great measure to our conjectures, with refpect to the precise nature, and final issue, of the future ftate.

This important revelation of a future life feems to have been made to mankind in a gradual manner. At leaft but little stress feems to have been laid upon it, in the early ages of the world, fo that it was not fully brought to light, fo as to become the great governing principle of men's conduct, till the difpenfation of the gofpel of Chrift.

Enoch being faid to have been a preacher of righteoufefs, and having been taken from the world without dying, perhaps in the view of multitudes, it is not very improbable, but that he might have been commiffioned to announce this great doctrine to mankind. His miraculous affumption might be intended to intimate that God, being the friend of the virtuous, would pro

vide for the continuance of their being; and they might conclude, that he who could continue life without dying, could even raife men from the dead.

With the old patriarchs, and mankind in general, in the early ages of the world, the profpect of being the founders of nations, which every perfon had then the chance of being, was fo great an idea, and ftruck them fo forcibly, that it, in a manner, fuperfeded all other motives to virtue. It is on this argument, therefore, and other temporal confiderations, that peculiar ftress is laid in the exhortations to obedience addreffed to them.

As the inftitutions of Mofes refpected the Jews as a nation, and the immediate object of it was temporal profperity, there is the lefs reason to expect a particular mention of it in his laws; though it cannot but be owned to be a little furprising, that there fhould be no incidental mention of it in any of his writings.

We

We find fome allufions, though not very plain ones, to the ftate of mankind after death, in several parts of the Old Testament, efpecially in the book of Pfalms, as, Pf. xvi. 8. &c. " I have fet the Lord always "before me: because he is at my right ❝ hand, I fhall not be moved. Therefore

my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth:

my flesh also shall reft in hope. For "thou wilt not leave my foul in hell: nei"ther wilt thou fuffer thine holy One to "fee corruption. Thou wilt fhew me the "path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures "for evermore." Pf. xvii. 15. "As for

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me, I will behold thy face in righteouf"nefs: I fhall be fatisfied, when I awake, "with thy likeness."

But there seems to be very express mention of a future ftate in the following paffage of the book of Job, ch. xix. 25. "For "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

"fhall