standing the modern fashing of lowering the morality of the Mosaic œconomy, he meant no more than what our religion enjoins, that we should hate sin but not the sinner. However, as in the Christian heaven there will be " no more pain, nor sorrow, nor sighing," it is plain there can be no abhorrence, strictly so called: on the other hand, to suppose the celestial inhabitants may possibly have no knowledge of the punishments of the wicked, is to start a conjecture without any foundation, or to cut the knot instead of loosing it. They must possess this knowledge if they are to be the same beings, endowed with similar mental faculties, though abundantly enlarged and improved. How then are we to solve this difficulty? The answer is not far to seek: adequate punishments on earth are regarded by good inen not only without abhor rence, but with complacency and approbation, not from a vindictive spirit, but with a view to the prevention of evil, and to the general interests of society: now, by analogy, we may conclude that, in a future state, supposing similar circumstances, they will be attended with similar effects. No. 7. This passage exceeds my comprehension. But it is probable that some farther thoughts on this subject will be submitted to you under another signature, in completion of a few papers which have appeared in some former numbers of the Repository. The subject can never be exhausted; and as an old author well observes, " Diversity of gifts, though they be not alike eminent and useful, and variety in handling the same truths, contribute much to the edification of the church. One book comes into the hands of some, and another into the hands of others, whereby truth and piety are abundantly promoted.” TH R. (1.) Bible Contest in Ireland. HE contest between the advocates of the Bible Society and the Catholics, and especially Catholic priests, in Ireland, continues with unabated warmth. As far as we have seen, the Catholics have the advantage. The Protestant orators are not of the first class, and they are hampered by the creed of Calvin or the Articles of the Church of England. Discussion is commonly useful, but we fear in this instance that it will only serve to exasperate still more fiercely the minds of two hostile parties. On one side certainly, political feeling is at the bottom of the controversy, and the opposition to the Bible Society is only a means of venting discontent under oppression. 66 The Irish newspapers are full of the great debate at Carlow, which lasted three days. It ended with a Catholic priest's personating a Socinian," which threw the meeting (owing, we suppose, to the surprise of the Protestant part of the company) into confusion. A Cork paper, The Southern Reporter; thus relates the matter:(Mr. M'Sweeny, a Catholic, was speaking, and had been interrupted by Mr. Pope, a Protestant :)— Here again Mr. Pope called to the Chair, and urged that Mr. M'Sweeny should not be heard. Mr. M'Sweeny, addressing himself to Mr. Pope, said, I was obliged to listen to you for three hours and a half to-day, and did not interrupt you. But be assured of it, if the rules of this meeting, and a sense of decorum, did not prevent me from doing so, you would not have spoken one-third of the time. Mr. Chairman, I acknowledge that I have no right to be heard at any length-allow me, as a favour, to continue a moment longer. The gentlemen at the opposite side challenged us to a contest with them in Dublin, or somewhere else. Here I am, and I will decide the business with the whole of them, or any one of them, on this spot.-I promise you I will not take ten minutes to put an end to the controversy.—( Much noise; some calling order; others vociferating "hear him, hear him.")-After some remarks, which we could not catch from the growing confusion in the place, Mr. M'Sweeny directed the attention of the meeting to the text, "Pater major me est,"-"the Father is greater than I am,"-and he challenged all or any of the gentlemen opposed to him, to prove against him the divinity of Jesus Christ, in case he should personate a Socinian. Mr. Pope rose-accepted Mr. M‘ Sweeny's challenge, and proceeded to Dr. Jones's concise View of the Evi- Rev. Mr. Pope. Did I not prove it already? Rev. Mr. M'Sweeny.-No, Sir, I need only appeal to the intelligence of the Chair to pronounce that you did not. The Chairman would not interfere, on the ground that he was not there to decide between the parties. (You have not answered Mr. M'Sweeny resounded through the meeting ) Mr. Pope.-I will answer him in writing to-morrow or some other time, [Now, now, from the meeting.] Rev. Mr. Daly, As the gentleman proposed us a question, is it not fair that we should propose him another? Rev. Mr. M'Sweeny.-I am not here on the defensive, as I came to this meeting to oppose the principles of the Bible Society. I am not obliged to answer you, but you are obliged to answer me. However, I pledge myself, that when you will have answered my one question, I will answer every possible one of yours.-(Frightful uprour.) Mr. M'Sweeny then thanked the Chairman for his indulgence, and left the meeting. HERE are now twelve since published my Eccles Vestical Ree searches, in which I shewed that Philo and Josephus were not only believers in Christ, but that they are historians and apologists of the gospel. The book, however, made little impression: nor did any of the monthly journals, as far as I remember, notice it, excepting the Critical Review, (edited by Mr. Fellows,) who thus speaks of it: "If this was Josephus's object, it is strange it should never have been known, nor never surmised till our author came into the world. Till Mr. Jones wrote his Ecclesiastical. Researches, the writings of Josephus must have been a sealed book. Mr, Jones is the Edipus, who was destined to unravel the riddle of the Sphinx." I had proof before me that the Reviewer, while he thus derided me, had read nothing of the book except the title-page and the table of contents. I have often since endea This who deem themselves competent to Philo and Josephus will, under Divine Providence, prove leading instruments in restoring Christianity to its original purity, and thus recommending it to the reception of all mankind, and especially to the Jews dispersed over the world. Josephus, in his noble work against Apion, is a historian and apologist of the gospel.. The proof of this is brief, but conclusive. and a pledge of the resurrection of all inankind. Now, Josephus, in § 30 of the same book, expressly asserts that the Judaism which he describes and defends, does contain a firm assurance, pav 5, a mighty proof, a powerful evidence that God himself has given to mankind of a future state." 3. The sanctions of Judaism are known to be temporal, its rewards and 1. If we look into the New Testa- punishments being altogether limited ment we shall find that Christ did not to the present state: and if we take profess to teach a new religion, but the language of Moses and the proto improve and fulfil the religion of phets in a literal sense, not a single Moses and the prophets. He did this intimation of another life can be found by separating the spirit of it from the in their writings. The Sadducees rerites and ceremonies of the law, and jected the notion of a future state, making it consist in piety, benevo- because it was not predicted by Moses ; lence, and the moral duties of life. nor were the Pharisees able to proHis adversaries, on the contrary, placed duce a single passage predictive of that it in external ordinances, to the ne- event; and the appeal which was glect of all virtue, divine and human. made to Jesus himself, with his mode The Jewish religion, thus taught by of answering it, is decisive on the Jesus Christ, may be called spiritual question. However, the Jewish ScripJudaism, while we may give to that tures, illustrated by his instruction of the Scribes and Pharisees the name and death, appeared in a new light : of ritual Judaism; nor did any Jew the veil of metaphor which covered ever admit this distinction, however them was withdrawn: and Moses and wise and virtuous, except the follow- the prophets stand forth, the preachers ers of Jesus, who offered their religion of immortality to man. I will illusto the nations on the simple terms of trate this by an example or two. The repentance and reformation, without restoration of the Messiah to life, rethe painful necessity of submitting to vealed the import of the Psalmist, where the heavy yoke of the Levitical code. he says, "My body shall rest in hope, Paley, in his Evidences, has made this in the hope of being again awakened assertion; and the truth of it is most to a new life; because thou wilt not apparent from the book of the Acts. leave my life in the grave; him who Now Josephus, in the second book is my life, him through whom I and against Apion, describes Judaism pre- and all mankind are to look for a new cisely as it has been defined by our life-nor suffer thy holy one to see Saviour, holding it forth as consisting corruption." Before the death of the altogether in true piety and morality, Messiah, which was not expected, this and passing over the ordinances of passage could be understood to have Moses, as forming no part of it. By no reference beyond the Psalmist himthis single act he unequivocally classed self; but when the resurrection of himself with the disciples of Jesus. Jesus took place, its application to Whiston observed this, and he was him became obvious and decisive. Jed by it to consider Josephus as one Again, Moses holds forth man on beof the Ebionites. ing created virtually as an immortal 2. The Judaism of the New Tes-being, because made in the image of tament contains a well-grounded assurance of a future life. Christ professed that he was authorized by God to proclaim this animating doctrine. To prove this he did what none but the Almighty could do. To evince the sincerity of his own conviction he submitted to a public and ignominious death, and he rose again as a proof him who is himself immortal, and the parent of immortality. This was before the fall; but when man fell, the sentence is immediately reversed; and he is pronounced to be dust, and to the dust he must return. Thus man at the same breath is proclaimed mortal and immortal. This remained a mystery for ages, till the resurrection of our Saviour brought it to light. By that event, godliness, which is confessedly a great mystery, received its solution, and all good men, as well as Christ, appear in the prospect of eternal life, as Gods in the flesh,-as, though subject to death and corruption, heirs of immortality. Now Josephus, in the very place where he says that the Judaism of which he speaks, is founded on a solid proof of a future existence to mankind, asserts that it was predicted by Moses, thus making the prediction of the Jewish legislator, and the illustration of it by the divine mission of Jesus, to correspond to each other, as they are in the New Testament. 4. Farther, at the command of their Divine Master, the apostles propagated spiritual Judaism over the world, so that in half a century after the death of the founder, there was scarcely a place in the habitable globe where it was not preached and received by multitudes. Josephus ascribes the same diffusion to the Judaism of which he speaks. His words are emphatic and triumphant. § 39: "And as God pervades the whole world, so his law has at length pervaded all mankind." This was sixty or seventy years after the commission to preach it to the Gentiles was given the apostles. 5. Moreover, from the New Testament we might infer, and from ecclesiastical history we are assured, that those among the nations who received spiritual Judaism, were not inferior to the Jews who preached it, either in their attachment to it, or in the sufferings or sacrifices which they made on account of it. This circumstance is not omitted by Josephus. "And if we" (Jews) "were not sensible of the superior excellence of our laws, we should be taught to glory in them, by the multitudes that embrace them among other nations." 6. Lastly, though the doctrine of a future state, as founded on the immortality of the human soul, was of high antiquity, and general among Jews and Gentiles, the Saviour appears to have enjoined on his apostles, while preaching his gospel, not to avail themselves of this powerful prejudice in their favour, not to notice it, not to enter into dispute about it with its advocates, but to leave its truth or falsehood to the progress of reason to refute or establish; but, on the other hand, to call upon the nations to embrace the doctrine of a future life, solely by virtue of his resurrection. Accordingly, I am free to say that no convert was made to Christianity by the apostles, who did not consider himself as dead to a future state, till he was born again to that hope by the resurrection of Christ. Spiritual Judaism, then, holds forth the renewal of being, in some distant period, known only to God, and not the survival of death by the immaterial and imperishable nature of the human soul, as the only ground of future existence to the human race. Now, the Jewish historian has done to himself, and to the religion which he defends, the justice to state this peculiar and distinguishing feature of the gospel: Εδωκεν ὁ Θεός γενεσθαι τε παλιν και βιον αμείνω λαβείν εκ περιτρο s, God hath given them to come into being again, and after a period to receive a better life. If the hope of a future state, cherished by those converts, were founded on the immortality of the human soul, Josephus would have given a very different account of it. I am able to affirm this with perfect certainty; for the officers that were with him in the cave at Jotapata came to a resolution to destroy themselves rather than surrender to the Romans. These men might not be believers in the gospel. Josephus, therefore, in attempting to dissnade them from suicide, thus reasons with them on their own principles: "The bodies of men are indeed mortal, as composed of corruptible matter; but the soul, being a portion of the divinity dwelling within us, can never die. Do not you know that those who depart this life, and, in conformity to the law of nature, restore the deposit received from God, when it pleases him to recall it, enjoy eternal fame; that their abodes and their posterity are blessed; that their souls are pure and obedient, obtaining a most holy place in heaven, whence, after a revolution of ages, they shall again be united with bodies, while the souls of those who madly lift their hands against themselves are received in the darkest place in hades?” J. W., B. iii. C. 8, 5. This is the doctrine of a future state, as maintained by Pythagoras and the Stoics, which the Jews borrowed from the Pagans. The souls of the deceased remain for a time disembodied; they are then permitted to unite with other bodies, and they pass from one to the other periodically, through endless ages. Now, reader, see the argument drawn to a few points. The Judaism of the New Testament consists of piety and morality, in contradistinction to the rites or works of the law. The Judaism of Josephus is the same. The Judaism of the New Testament contains a powerful evidence of a future the Judaism of Josephus.comstate; prehends the same animating doctrine. The Judaism of the New Testament brings to light Moses and the prophets as preachers of a future state; the Judaism of Josephus places the Jewish legislator in the same light, while, according to ritual Judaism, he is silent on the subject. The Judaism of the New Testament was propagated over the world by the apostles; and Josephus informs us, that in his days there was not a city among the Greeks, nor a nation among the Barbarians, where the Judaism of which he speaks was not made known and received by many. The Judaism of the New Testament was embraced and clung to with eager fondness by the Gentile converts; and Josephus assures us that if the Jews were not sensible of the superior value of their religion, they would be surpassed by multitudes, who embraced it among the nations. Finally, the Judaism of the New Testament makes the renewal of being, and not the immortality of the soul, the only solid foundation of a future state; the same foundation is assigned it by the Judaism of Josephus. The conclusion then is inevitable: the Judaism of the New Testament and the Judaism of Josephus are one and the same; or, in other words, Josephus, in his books against Apion, is the historian and apologist of the gospel. In spite of Mr. Fellows, who derided me as an Edipus; in spite of the Reviewer of Ben David, who would raise against me the cry of singularity; in spite of the Cambridge correspondent, who represents me a second Will Whiston; in spite of any other who may, if he pleases, call me Will-with-the-wisp, an ignis fatuus, that bewitches and leads men into bogs and ditches; in spite of these, this glorious truth will burst forth as the sun from behind a thick cloud; and the future defenders of the gospel will have to claim the illustrious historian of the Jews as one of its first champions, combating in the same field with the apostles under the banners of Christ. In the last chapter of my Ecclesiastical Researches I gave a short view of this proud and triumphant production of learning and genius, a paragraph of which, p. 536, shall conclude this paper: "In the number of those who wrote against the Jews and the Gospel was Apion, a Scribe of Alexandria, and a man of wit and learning, yet profligate, malicious, and eager to oppose the truth by violence and falsehood. In his book he detailed the common calumnies against the Jews, and blended them with so much scurrility and fiction, that he would have been unworthy of notice, if his wit and buffoonery had not left on many an unfavourable impression. Under the auspices of Epaphroditus, the illustrious friend of the Apostle Paul, Josephus undertook the defence of the Jews and their religion against this grammarian; and he gave to the world a work which has never been equalled for the solidity of his conclusions or the profundity and extent of his researches. In his former compositions Josephus shews himself only a plain, ingenious commentator, or an artless but able historian; in his work against Apion he rises on his readers, and displays in a high degree the united powers of learning, argument and oratory. Though confined till a late period to the language and philosophy of the Hebrews, he soon acquired a wonderful acquaintance with the dialect and literature of Greece. His powerful mind, in a short period, seems to have grasped the whole extent of the Phoenician, Chaldean, Egyptian and Grecian records; and, with the authority of these records, overwhelmed all the enemies of the Jews and of the gospel; thus repelling thein on their own grounds, and sweeping away their falsehoods as with the force of a torrent." J. JONES. |