tuted differently from what we are, may not be cognizant of its activity. It is enough, however, that the theory in question is extra-scriptural, and therefore has no authority in matters of faith.
It is no less evident that according to the pantheistic theory, in all its phases, which regards man as only one of the transient forms of God's existence, there is no room for the doctrine of the conscious existence of the soul after death. The race is immor- tal, but the individual man is not. Trees and flowers cover the earth from generation to generation ; yet the same flower blooms but once. The mass of men whose convictions, on such subjects, are founded on their moral and religious nature, have in all ages believed in the continued existence of the soul after death. And that universality of belief is valid evidence of the truth believed. But men whose opinions are under the control of the speculative understanding, have never arrived at any settled conviction on this subject. To be, or not to be ? was a question speculation could not answer. The dying Hume said he was about to take a leap in the dark. The continued existence of the soul after death is a matter of divine revelation. It was part of the faith of the Church before the coming of Christ. The revelation of all the great doctrines which concern the destiny and salvation of men has been indeed progressive. It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise that the doctrine of the future state is much less clearly unfolded in the Old Testament than in the New. Still it is there. When the Apostle Paul (2 Tim. i. 10) speaks of " Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel," he is not to be understood as saying that the future life was unknown, as Arch- bishop Whately argues, before the coming of Christ. This would be inconsistent with the most explicit declarations else- where. It is often said that Christ came to preach the Gospel, to make propitiation for sin, and to reveal the way of reconcilia- tion with God. Paul says in Galatians iii. 23, "before faith came we were kept under the law." Yet he strenuously insists that the Gospel, or plan of salvation which he taught, was taught by the law and prophets (Rom. iii. 21) ; and that the patriarchs were saved by .faith in the same promise on which sinners are now called upon to rely. What was imperfectly revealed under the old economy, is clearly revealed under the new. This is all that those passages which speak of the Gospel bringing new truths to light, are intended to teach. Christ shed a flood of
716 PART IV. Ch. L — STATE OF SOUL AFTER DEATH.
light on the darkness beyond the grave. Objects before dimly discerned in that gloom, now stand clearly unveiled ; so that it may well be said He brought life and immortality to light. He revealed the nature of this future state, and showed how, for the people of God, that state was one of life. It may be observed in passing, that many Christian writers who speak of the doctrine of a future life being unknown, at least to the patriarchs, and to the writers of the Psalms, mean " the Christian doctrine " on that subject. They do not intend to deny that the people of God from the beginning believed in the conscious existence of the soul after death. This Hengstenberg, for example, distinctly asserts concerning himself.1
Doctrine of a Future Life revealed under the Old Testament.
1. The first argument on this subject is an d priori one. That the Hebrews, God's chosen people, the recipients and custodians of a supernatural revelation, should be the only nation on the face of the earth, in whose religion the doctrine of a future state had no place, would be a solecism. It is absolutely incredible, for it supposes human nature in the case of the Hebrews to be radically different from what it is in other men.
2. Instead of the Hebrews having lower views of man than other nations, they alone were possessed of the truth concerning his origin and nature. They had been taught from the beginning that man was created in the image of God, and, therefore, like God, of the same nature as a spirit, and capable of fellowship with his maker. They had also been taught that man was created immortal ; that the death even of the body, was a punishment ; that the sen- tence of death (in the sense of dissolution) concerned only the body. " Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.' ' The soul is not dust, and therefore, according to the earliest theology of the Hebrews, was not to return to dust ; it was to return to God who gave it.
3. We accordingly find that throughout the Old Testament Scriptures the highest views are presented of the nature and des- tiny of man. He is the child of God, destined to enjoy his fel- lowship and favour ; the possessions and enjoyments' of earth are always represented as temporary and insignificant, not adapted to meet the soul's necessities ; they were taught not to envy the
i Commentar fiber die Psalmen, von G. W. Hengstenberg. Abhandlung No. 7. Zur Glaubenslehre der Psalmen, edit. Berlin, 1847, vol. iv. part 2. On p. 321, he says, " When we deny the doctrine of immortality to the writers of the Psalms, it is in the Christian sen«» " of the word.