explain the mode of its future existence, and the manner of its future exercises, they met with insuperable difficulties, and divided into various sects. Some of them, failing in the endeavour to support a favourite hypothesis by solid arguments, renounced their scheme, and with it the doctrine of immortality, and stifled the natural apprehensions of the human mind as erroneous.

The people of Israel possessed better means of instruction on the sublime doctrine of immortality than the pagan nations around them. They were taught the unity, the holiness, and the universal supremacy of God. They had the fullest evidence of the superintendency of God over the affairs of men. Their history furnished them with examples of an immediate intercourse with the spiritual world; and the translation of Enoch and Elijah was fitted to raise their views to a higher state of being. I cannot therefore for a moment doubt, that individuals among this people, who were distinguished for their piety, supported themselves, under the trials of the present life, by a belief of a future state of retribu. tion, and died in the hope of a blessed immortality, Nor can I suppose, that the nation generally were destitute of the expectation of a future life. But we know that the Sadducees, not a small sect, totally rejected, even in the time of our Saviour, the doctrine of future existence; they said, "that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit." The Mosaick institution was preparatory to that of the gospel. In it the doctrine of immortality was but imperfectly revealed. Future rewards and punishments composed no part of the sanction of the law

of Moses. Indeed some learned and pious Christians are of opinion that the doctrine is not to be found in this dispensation. We cannot with cer tainty say, that the devout Jews, who believed in a future state, adopted the opinion merely on the authority of their sacred books.

The result of our review then is this. The doc. trine of the immortality of man was not established with moral certainty before the appearance of Jesus Christ in our world.

2. Attend to the information of the gospel on this important subject.

Christ has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. Jesus, the Prince of Life, has dispersed the clouds which obscured our prospects of a future state. He has solved the doubts on this subject which perplexed the wisest of men. He has broken down the wall of partition between time and eternity, and presented the heavenly world to our view in all its glories. He has established the doctrine of a future retribution on a foundation that cannot be moved, made it an adequate support of a pious and virtuous life, and the sure ground of hope and joy in death. By his own resurrection he has given an earnest of the future resurrection of his disciples. Then the prophetical declaration of our text will be fully accomplished. "I am he,” says our Saviour, "that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive forevermore, and have the keys of death." "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." "The hour is coming, in which all that are in their graves shall hear

the voice of the Son of God, and come forth." "The sea shall give up the dead that are in it; and death and the grave shall deliver up the dead that are in them." "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Such is the language of the New Testament on this subject.

Arguments in favour of immortality, drawn from the nature of the human soul, from the attributes of God, from the traces of a moral government visible in the present state, and from every view which can be taken of natural religion, all have their place in the defence of Christianity, and help to make it the more credible. But the information of the gospel on the doctrine of our future existence is most plain and direct. It is adapted to every capacity, and fitted to enlighten every mind. It is information not given as the result of abstract reasoning and logical deduction, but it is given by the Parent of Life, and the moral Governour of the Universe; and he, in his goodness and mercy, has been pleased to confirm our faith in his divine communication, by raising his Son from the grave, whom he commissioned to publish the glad tidings of salvation to a guilty world. The future existence of men is exemplified to human view in the renewed life of the Saviour; and our belief of its reality may rest on a fact capable of proof like other facts-a fact made credible to us by the testimony of plain men, who were witnesses of its reality; and whose testimony is fortified by their general character, by the cheerful sacrifice of worldly interest and of life,

in support of their veracity; and by every circumstance which has attended the establishment and preservation of Christianity.

The enlightened, the confirmed Christian, cannot doubt his own immortality: he can never entertain fears of annihilation, from the mere contemplation of which our minds recoil with horrour.

The more forcibly to show the value of the instruction of the gospel, permit me to place before you, in contrast, the views of a Heathen and of a Christian philosopher on our subject. We will select, as an example, the moral sage who was a master of all Grecian and Roman learning, who wrote on the nature of God, on moral virtue, and on the immortality of man, and who, in every accomplishment, stood pre-eminent among the great and the wise. Cicero, the ornament and the boast of Rome, observes, that at one time a future state seemed to him to be fully proved; that at another, all his arguments appeared to vanish, and he was left in doubt. He remarks, that it was in his retired moments, and whilst he devoted himself to deep meditation, that he felt satisfied with the result of his researches, and without reserve admitted the belief of immortality; and that, as soon as he entered society, other feelings arose, and amidst worldly pursuits the expectation of a future life passed from his mind. Wri ting to a friend, Cicero expresses himself in the following manner:-"I do not see, why I may not venture to declare freely to you what my thoughts are concerning death. Perhaps I may discover, better than others, what it is, because I am now, by reason of my age, not far from it. I believe that the

live the life Nor has rea

Fathers, those eminent persons, and my particular friends, are still alive, and that they which only deserves the name of life. son only and disputation brought me to this belief, but the famous judgment and authority of the chief philosophers. O glorious day! when I shall go to the council and assembly of spirits; when I shall go out of this tumult and confusion; when I shall be gathered to all those brave spirits who have left the world; and when I shall meet the greatest and best of men. But if, after all, I am mistaken herein, I am pleased with my errour, which I would not willingly part with, while I live; and if, after my death, I shall be deprived of all sense, I have no fear of being imposed upon and laughed at in the other world for this my mistake."

Here the moral philosopher of Rome mentions a future state of being as a probable truth, and as the object of his hope, but not as a doctrine founded on such clear proof as to fix his unshaken faith. Even this probability draws from him an impassioned eulogy on its felicity. But his doubts damp the ardour of his feelings, and he derives security to his hope from the consideration, that if the present life should close human existence, annihilation will free him from ridicule.

St. Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, was also a believer in the doctrine of man's immortality. He entertained the hope of being admitted, at death, not only to the spirits of just men made perfect, but also to the assembly of angels, to the company of his Divine Master, and to the presence of God. But his opinion rested not on that slight evidence which,