which it takes. The course through which it has passed upon earth, the situation in which it now finds itself, and its assured participating in all the glories of the resurrection, must be to it a living fountain, and perpetually sending forth its waters. As Canaan was destined to be a rest to the Israelites, after their warfare in the wilderness, so is Paradise to be to the christian when he has done with mortal things.

This sabbatism or cessation well suits that period when such active powers of man as are to be exerted only through the medium of the body, remain unemployed. The very type leads to such a conclusion, for the seven sabbaths of years were terminated by the sounding of the trumpet-the fiftieth year being the year of jubilee, when every one who was bound was to go out free. At the conclusion of the sabbatism of the invisible state, the resurrection will form the commencement of the eternal jubilee. The trump of God will proclaim liberty to millions, who are bound under the power of death. This, in the highest sense, is the year of release.

As a conclusion to this chapter, I now produce, (it is by the title the only one of its kind) a psalm expressive of the views and sentiments of the soul, during the period of its separation from the body. Its title is a measured song for the day of the rest.

Psal.

Psal. xcii. "This points," say the Rabbins, "to that sabbath where the whole is to form one period of rest." Such was the light in which the Syriac interpreter viewed it: and without losing sight of its subordinate sense, as connected with the service of the temple, he says, "it fortels that rest which is to be enjoyed in God." It was sung in the temple, as prophetic of what was actually to take place in the world to come. It is throughout retrospective, looking back with exalted eye on earth--triumphing in the plan of Jehovah-admiring the stupendousness of his works, and the depth of his counsels. It connects the present forbearance of God with his future and severe inflictions of vengeance, and that however the wicked may flourish here, yet destruction awaits them in that state which succeeds to the present. "It is," says the Psalmis" to destroy 78 them in that future world. For thou, O Jehovah, art exalted high in that world ;" i. e. thy discriminating hand is felt there, although not on carth, as the Sovereign Distributor of the lots of men, the righteous meeting his smiles, but the wicked, his frowns, and lasting indignation. The former rise to their just elevation, and the latter sink to that degradation, the natural consequence of the lives they have led. There, and not upon earth, they can say, "mine eye hath looked upon Dd 2

the

the wicked."*

So in that world Lazarus saw the rich man in torments, while the latter, beheld the other in the bosom of Abraham. Lk.16.23

By a paralellism, perishing is made the same as being separated. This is what the Jews term Kereth, or excision. In this sense it is understood by the Chaldee paraphrast. "Thine enemies shall, in the future age, be scattered: and all who work iniquity shall be separated from the congregation of the righteous." Speaking in the same idiom, St. Paul says, "who shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 2 Thes. 1.9.

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Happy souls, in a state of separation from the body, are said to be planted in the house of 23.6 God. So the Psalmist, My dwelling shall be in the house of the Lord;" not for ever, but for a length of days," which implies that there is a time coming when this rest shall terminate,

Their advancing through the different steps, is a ripening, and is represented by the verdent state of the palm-tree, figures of which, were carved all around the wall's of the temple, and which seem intended as hieroglyphics to convey this

* Verse 11. The common version gives to the Psalmist a severity of feeling which does not appear in the Hebrew, nor in any of the antient versions. The word desire being a suppliment of the translators.

sense,

sense, viz. the verdent and ever blooming state of spirits in these blest abodes. It may be in allusion to these figures, that St. Paul says, "that "we may be no more children, but may grow up unto him in all things who is the head." Ephes. iv. 16.

CHAPTER

24.14

CHAPTER XII.

The After-state of the Righteous.

Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my (Acherith) after-state be like his. Numb. xxiii. 10.

IT is true that this word oftentimes denotes a future period at a considerable distance from another, to which it bears a reference, and not any state after death: but this may be plainly discerned from the context, "Come and I will shew thee," says Balaam to Balak, king of Moab,

what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days"; i. e. at a period very remote from that in which he now spoke to him. Thus the acherith of Job clearly means a considerable number of years of the latter part of his life, which flowed on in a current of blessings, forming the very reverse of what the former part of his days had been: and, by the context, plainly limited to the present world, because it is there said that the substance which he had lost was now doubled to him.

On the other hand, the following instances evidently point to a period beyond the grave, and which, from certain concomitant circumstances, utterly forbid the after-state being understood of any part of the present life. 1st. The solemn anannunciation