readily understood the strength of his reasoning, and mightily admired it, and assented to it: for St. Matthew tells us, that "when the multitude heard it, they were "astonished at his doctrine" on that headb.

III.

Come we therefore, thirdly, to consider the force of our Lord's argument, which was then so clearly apprehended, at first hearing, by learned and unlearned, by friends and adversaries, and admired by all. We may judge from thence, that it requires no long train of thought to comprehend it, no intense application to be master of it, if we happen to take it right. But it may be reason sufficient for rejecting any interpretation, if it appears laboured and subtle, and not well accommodated to ordinary capacities. Let us see then: the words which the argument is grounded upon occur in the sixth verse of the third chapter of Exodus; "I am the God of Abraham, "and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." I am, not, I was: God was then God of those three Patriarchs, the latest of which had been dead above 170 years; still he continued to be their God. What could that mean? Is he a God of lifeless clay, of mouldered carcases, of dust and rottenness? No sure: besides, with what propriety of speech could the ashes of the ground be yet called Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob? Those names are the names of persons, not of senseless earth, and person always goes where the intelligence goes: therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still living and intelligent, somewhere or other, when God declared he was still their God; that is to say, they were alive as to their better part, their souls; "He is not a God of the dead, but of "the living" therefore the soul survives the body: therefore the Sadducees, who denied the separate subsistence of souls or spirits, were confuted at once, and that by a very clear and plain text, produced even from the books of Moses.

Matt. xxii. 33.

But it will here be asked, how does this prove the resurrection of the body, which was the point in question? I answer, that was not the only point, nor the main point, though it follows this other, as I shall show presently: but we may observe, in the mean while, that if the argument really reached no farther than what I have mentioned, yet it was a very considerable point gained, and the rest was not worth disputing; or, however, the Sadducees would not dispute it. What they were afraid of was a future account: now whether it be, that men shall give an account in the body or without the body, it would come much to the same; for still there would be an account to be given, and there would remain the like dreadful apprehension of a judgment to come. Here lay the main stress of the dispute; and therefore when our Lord had undeniably proved a future state, he had gone to the very root of the Sadducean principles; and if they once yielded thus far, they might readily grant the rest. Our blessed Lord knew.the men thoroughly, and took the shortest way of confuting them, by striking at the very heart of their heresy. If he proved no more than the soul's subsisting after death, he proved enough to make the rest needless : for as the principles of the Sadducees hung all in a chain, the breaking but one link rendered the whole unserviceable. Admit but of a future state, and then their fond hopes were defeated, and their guilty fears alarmed; and it was all to no purpose for them to contend any farther upon that head. This our Lord, being a discerner of the thoughts, perfectly knew; and so by aiming his darts aright, he at once silenced the men and quashed the dispute. Such was his constant way in all his contests with his captious adversaries: he instantly perceived where the whole stress of the cause lay, and there pointed his replies with inimitable force. But to proceed :

Though the argument made use of by our Lord proved no more, directly, than what I have said, (and even that was enough,) yet it might be easy to proceed upon it, till

it would at length conclude in the doctrine of a resurrection, to make all complete. For if it be considered, that death was the punishment of sin, and that every person, remaining under that sentence and under the dominion of death, still carries about him the badges of the first transgression, and the marks of Divine displeasure; I say, the case being so, it cannot reasonably be supposed that the souls of good men, whom God has owned for his, shall for ever remain in that inglorious state; but will some time or other be restored to their first honours, or to what they were first ordained to in Paradise before sin entered. Wherefore, since God is pleased to acknowledge himself still God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; it is highly reasonable to presume, that he will in due time restore them to their original privileges, removing from them the chains of death, by reuniting soul and body together in a happy and glorious resurrection. Thus the same thread of argument which our Lord began with, and which directly proves the immortality of the soul, does also in conclusion lead us on, by just and clear consequences, to the resurrection of the body.

It may perhaps be objected, that the argument thus explained proves only that good souls shall survive and receive their bodies new raised; not that the wicked shall; and therefore the Sadducees were not entirely confuted. But since the main principle of the Sadducees was, that none at all do so survive; they are abundantly confuted by proving that some, at least, do; and every man's common sense will easily supply the rest: for if good men subsist after death, and are to be amply rewarded for their obedience; who can make any question, but that the wicked also shall subsist, to receive the reward of their disobedience? Those two points have so natural a relation and congruity together, that they imply or infer each other; and the proving either is in effect proving both. That the Sadducees well knew; and therefore, in order to avoid one, they saw no other way but to reject both:

therefore, when our blessed Lord had so plainly established one, he might be understood, by certain inference and implication, to have established the other also.

I have but one thing more to observe upon the text; namely, that some persons have presumed to argue from the words," for all live to him," that souls do not actually live in a separate state, but only that dead men shall be recalled to life, and that for the present they live only in God's decree, and in a metaphorical sense: but this is a forced construction of very plain words, without reason or foundation for it. To live to God is a phrase which is to be understood in opposition to living in the flesh, or living unto this world: and it is of the same import with what we meet with in Ecclesiastes, where it is said, "The 66 spirit shall return unto God who gave it a;" or with that of the book of Wisdom, "The souls of the right"eous are in the hand of Godb." This is what is meant by living to God: they are under his eye, and within his protection, in the invisible world, after having taken their farewell of this: in short, when they have done with the life that now is, they yet remain, and are alive unto God, enjoying his presence, and rejoicing in his favour and protection.

The sum then of what has been said is, that the soul of man is of a substance distinct from the body; that it subsists in a separate stale, after the animal dissolution, and never dies; and lastly, that all men shall one day rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works. The practical use of these principles is obvious; that since a future judgment is certain and inevitable, and that disbelieving it (with the Sadducees of old, or with others since) can do a man no service, except it be to swell the sad account; and since there is no possible way of fencing against it, but by taking all due care to be provided for it; since these things are so, the best, and indeed the only expedient we have to trust to, is to lead

a good life, to endeavour after universal righteousness, both of faith and manners: so may we be able (in and through the all-prevailing merits of Christ) to abide the tremendous judgment, and be received with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, into those blessed mansions which God has prepared for as many as sincerely love him and keep his commandments.