Page images
PDF
EPUB

CORRESPONDENCE

RELATIVE TO THE

DIVINE LEGATION

39

CORRESPONDENCE

RELATIVE TO THE DIVINE LEGATION.

THE REV. W. WARBURTON TO

BEFORE I enter on the matters in question, I will beg leave to premise this general observation, that these objectors, by their arguments, seem to suppose my thesis to be, that Moses not only did not teach, but likewise did not believe a future state; otherwise why am I urged with the spiritual meaning of his law? This must be owing, either to great prevarication or inattention to my subject. For my professed design to prove his law divine, and to prove Christianity to be built upon it, necessarily supposes his belief of a future state.

As to the answer Abraham is made to give to the rich man in torments, Luke, xvi. 31, "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead," these objectors seem quite to mistake the whole drift and turn of the argument. Had this parable been made to the Sadducees, who denied a resurrection, and the rich man represented as a

Sadducee, who was too late informed of his error, and wanted to undeceive his father's house, which his evil doctrines had misled, there had been some ground for the inference they would draw from the text.

On the contrary, the parable is expressly directed to the Pharisees, the great maintainers and supporters of a future state, as you will see in my next volume. The common rules, then, of interpretation, show us, that what the rich man's brethren wanted to be confirmed in was, that God was, indeed, that severe punisher of luxury and uncharitableness; not that there was a future state and this the rich man thought would be best done by a miracle, "If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent," to which the reply of Abraham is admirable, and to this effect, "If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets, whose authority they acknowledge, and whose missions were confirmed by so many miracles, they will not regard this miracle of the resurrection of a dead man; [for did the Pharisees repent the more for the resurrection of that Lazarus, namesake to this in the parable?] Now Moses and the prophets have denounced the most severe threatenings, on the part of God, against vice." This is the force of the argument; and you see the question of a future state is no more concerned in it than thus far, that God will punish either here or hereafter. Moses and the Prophets threatened

the punishment here; and here it was long inflicted on the Jews, living under the dispensation of an Extraordinary Providence. When that ceased, the Jews began to entertain reasonable hopes of another life, where all inequalities should be set even, and God's threats and promises to them fulfilled. But more of this in my next volume.

John, v. 39, "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." The argument stands thus against the unbelieving Pharisees, "The Scriptures, (says Jesus,) I affirm to you, and am ready to prove, testify of me. What reason, then, have you to reject me? Surely it is not because I have brought life and immortality to light; for you yourselves interpret several passages in those Scriptures in a spiritual sense, to signify the promise of eternal life, as particularly Deuteronomy, xxxiii. 27."

But not only the force of the reasoning, but the grammatical sense of the words [you think you have] show that, concerning Moses' teaching eternal life, he argues ad hominem, and refers to their spiritual interpretation of texts which is further confirmed from hence, that when he argues with the Sadducees, who received the five books of Moses, he quotes or refers to no such passages so interpreted, but uses, as we shall see, another kind of argument.

« PreviousContinue »