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the soul is immortal, and continues forever. When set free from the bonds of the flesh, it rejoices, as being released from long bondage, and mounts aloft. Like the Greeks, the Essenes believed that good souls have their abode beyond the ocean, in a place oppressed neither with storms nor with heat, but refresh

sees, took the occasion of Herod's sickness to destroy an image, which that tyrant had placed over the gate of the temple; and Josephus says that they excited the people to aid the work, telling them that if any danger should arise, it was glorious to die for their country's law; because the souls of such as came to this end, were immortal, and the ever-ed by gentle zephyrs that breathe continually lasting [aionios] enjoyment of happiness await- from the sea; while the souls of the bad are ed them; while the ignoble, who were ig- sent to a dark and tempestuous cavern, full of norant of wisdom, and had not learned to incessant punishments, [adialeiptos timoria.]* regard their souls, preferred a death by sick- A. D. 32.-A. D. 63.-To this time belong the ness, to one endured for the sake of virtue.' few statements and references which we find When they were afterwards arraigned, and in the New Testament: "The Sadducees.... asked how they could be so joyful under their say that there is no resurrection;' or, as Dr. sentence, they are said to have replied, that Campbell chooses to render it, 'no future life.' it was 'because they should enjoy greater | The Scribes or Pharisees, on the other hand, happiness after death.'* Such are the motives approved our Saviour's vindication of that docwhich Josephus attributes to them. It is true, trine.t The Sadducees say that there is no that in another work which he wrote at a later period, with better information, and with greater accuracy, he relates these circumstances at large, repeats the language of the two patriots, but omits the particular sentiments we have here quoted. Whether this omission was accidental or designed, it would be in vain to inquire, as it would be impossible to determine.

A. D. 11.-A. D. 70.-It is when treating of the Jewish affairs at the former of these dates, that Josephus introduces his full and laboured account of the religious sects in Palestine. But as it is evident that he describes them partly from his own personal acquaintance with them in the latter years of their nation, we may refer his statement to the whole of the period now designated. He says that the Pharisees (of whom he was one,) held that souls possess an immortal vigour,-that all souls are incorruptible; and that, under the earth, there are rewards and punishments for them, according as they have been virtuous or vicious in the present life; that only the good have the privilege of passing into other bodies, and living again; but that the souls of the bad are allotted to an eternal prison, [aidios eirgmos,] and punished with eternal retribution, [aidios timoria.] Such was the doctrine of the Pharisees, who were by far the most numerous sect, and who alone had much influence with the populace. The Sadducees, on the other hand, who were few in number, belonging to the first families, and destitute of zeal, as well as unpopular, believed that the soul perished with the body, denying that it survived, and rejecting the doctrine of punishments and rewards in Hades. The Essenes, amounting only to four thousand, lived in deserts, shut out from the intercourse of the world. They taught that souls came forth out of the rarest and most subtile air, and are drawn, by a certain natural attraction, into our [earthly] bodies, where they are shut up as in a prison. Though the body perishes,

*Josephus, Jewish War, B. i. chap. xxiii. 2, 3. In quoting Josephus, I shall follow, as closely as I can, the original text. The reader may compare Whiston's translation, which is not exact, nor always true to the meaning, by consulting the places referred to.

+Joseph. Antiq. B. xvii. ch. vi. 2, 3.

resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.' St. Paul, in his defence before Felix, says, with reference to his Jewish persecutors, who, no doubt, were Pharisees, I have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust '§ meaning, perhaps, that the Jews allowed a resurrection, and that he extended it both to the just and unjust. It would seem, too, from the facts already presented, that in these passages, resurrection [anastasis] is to be taken, not exclusively, in the peculiar Christian sense of that term, but as embracing, within the range of its signification, what Josephus calls 'a passing into other bodies, and living again.' Such are the notices which the New Testament affords of the opinions both of the Pharisees and Sadducees concerning the future state. The Essenes, shut out from the rest of the world, can have had but little influence on the community at large; and they are neither mentioned, nor, so far as we can discover, alluded to, by our Saviour and his apostles.

A. D. 67. To return to Josephus: When he and his associates lay concealed in the cavern at Jotapata, it was proposed to kill themselves, that they might not fall into the hands of the Romans. To dissuade them from such an act, he addressed them; and, among other considerations, introduced that of future rewards and punishments. In this part of his speech, we may see how a moderate and wellinformed Pharisee of that time would urge the subject on his hearers: "The bodies of all men,' says he, 'are mortal and created of corruptible matter; but the soul is immortal, endures forever, and is a portion of the divinity, inhabiting our bodies.... Do you not know, that those who go out of life according to the law of nature, and who return the faculty received from God, when he who lent it is pleased to require it again, enjoy everlasting [aionios] renown? that their houses and their posterity are sure? that pure and obedient souls survive, inheriting a most holy place in heaven; from which, in the revolution of ages,

Antiq. B. xviii. chap. i. 2-6, and Jewish War, B. ii. ch. viii. 2-14. Matt. xxii. 23-34, comp. Mark xii. 18-28. Luke xx. 27-39. Acts xxiii. 8. Acts xxiv. 15.

they are again sent into pure bodies? but that the souls of those who have raised their hands against themselves, are received into the darkest part of Hades; and that God, their father, punishes, in their posterity, the crime of those who injure either [body or soul,] ?* Here we find a mixture of the ancient doctrine of a just providence in this world, with the later notion of a future retribution.

A. D. 73.-After the destruction of Jerusalem, Eleazer, who belonged to a branch of the Pharisees, maintained the fortress of Massada against the Romans, till he and his little band were reduced to the last extremity. Resolving, at length, upon a desperate act, he sought to encourage his men, when all other motives had failed, by addressing them 'on the immortality of the soul.' Death, says he, 'gives our souls their liberty, and removes them into their own place of purity, where they are insensible of all pain. While souls are tied down to a mortal body, they are partakers of its miseries, and indeed are themselves dead; for the union of what is divine to what is mortal,'is repugnant... But when they are freed from that weight which is connected with them, and which draws them down to earth, they obtain their own proper place, and partake of that blessed power and those abilities which are then incapable of being hindered in their operations.'t

We may here subjoin the statement which, at a later period, Josephus gave of the Jewish doctrine of rewards, while defending the character and sentiments of his nation, against Apion, the Greek: 'Now, the reward of those who adhere to the law in all things, is not silver, or gold, or a crown of olives, &c.; but such are conscious of a testimony within themselves. They believe, what our lawgiver, [Moses, ] has predicted, and what God himself has abundantly confirmed, that as for those who constantly observe the law, and, if need be, cheerfully die for it, God has granted them to come into being again, and in the revolution of things, to receive a better life.'

All the notices which Josephus has left us on our subject, and indeed all the testimonies of competent witnesses of this age, have now been produced. It is unnecessary to sum up the account of the sects in Palestine, since their respective opinions have been so carefully exhibited. A distinction will be readily perceived between them and the Jews of Egypt: among the former, the doctrine of

Josephus, Jewish War, B. iii. ch. viii. 5. + Jewish War, B. vii. chap. viii. 7. Josephus against Apion, B. ii. 31.

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future rewards and punishments, seems to have been of very recent introduction; among the latter, of longer standing. It is important to observe, however, that in neither country do we find it connected with the peculiar representations, or expressed in the peculiar phraseology, which distinguishes the contro verted texts in the New Testament. With many of these passages, it has no coincidence; so that it would not be suggested by their language. On the contrary, we have seen, in a former period, that the larger part of the expressions in question, were then habitually applied, by the Jews, to the judgments and afflictions of this world. What we have said of Philo, may be repeated of Josephus: we discover in him no traces of a belief in a general judgment-day, hereafter, nor in a fu ture hell of fire. He does not use the word Gehenna. The fire which burned on the altar of the temple at Jerusalem, he calls unquench able, [asbestos.]* He frequently speaks of the appearing and presence [epiphaneia and pa rousia,] of God, on remarkable manifestations of the divine agency.† Aidios is the word which he commmonly uses for eternal. Aionios frequently occurs, and he generally ap plies it to the affairs of the present life. Thus, he speaks of the everlasting [aionios] name which the patriarchs left behind them; of the everlasting [aionios] glory of the Jewish nation and heroes; of the everlasting [aionios] reputation of Herod; of the everlasting [aionios] memorial which he erected; of the everlasting [aionios] worship in the temple of Jerusalem; of the everlasting [aionios] imprisonment to which John, the tyrant, was condemned by the Romans, &c.

We intended to advert to the progress of the doctrine among the Jews, during the two next centuries; but we have already protract ed this article to an extraordinary length, and overpassed the bounds allotted to the present volume of our work. Suffice it to say, that after the ruin of their city and nation, their views and their usages seem to have undergone an immediate and rapid innovation; and that as early, at least, as the beginning of the third century, their doctrine of future retribution had become developed in a different form than we have hitherto discovered.

i.

B.

*Jewish War, B. ii. ch. xvii. 6. +Antiq. B. ch. xvi. 3, B. ii. ch. xvi. 2, B. viii. ch. iv. 4. xviii. ch. viii. 6.

Antiq. B. i. ch. xiii. 4, B. iv. ch. vi. 5, B. xii. ch. vii. 3, B. xv. ch. x. 5, and ch. xi. 1. Jewish War, B. vi. ch. ii. 1, B. vi. ch. ix. 4.

[ Universalist Expositor.]

THE END.

BRIEF STATEMENT

OF THE

ARGUMENT FOR THE ABOLITION

OF

THE DEATH PUNISHMENT.

IN TWELVE ESSAYS.

PUBLISHED ORIGINALLY IN THE NAZARENE, OVER THE SIGNATURE of

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