Such  are  the  yiews  of  a  future  state  which  are
unfolded  to  the  disciples  of  the  New  Covenant,  for
his  comfort  and  his  edification.  When  we  consider
them  in  their  nature  and  tendency,  we  readily  admit
that  they  are  admirably  calculated  to  awaken  in  the
heart  the  deepest  and  most  salutary  motives  of  fear
and  hope,  and  to  sustain,  in  the  warfare  of  this
world,  the  triumphant  perseverance  of  piety  and  of
virtue.  When  we  compare  them  with  the  annun-
ciations of  other  religions  oh  the  same  subject,  we
may  be  permitted  to  affirm  that  life  and  immortality
have  been  indeed  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel
alone,  and  that  the  communications  which  the  holy


*  Hebr.  xii.  33;  1  Corinth,  xiii.  g,  10, 11  ;  Luke  xx.  34, 35,
36 ;  Matt.  xiii.  4,  3;  Hebr.  xii.  22,  23,  24;  1  John  iii.  2 ;  1  Cor.
xiii.  2  ;  Rom.  ik  2.
4M  THE  FUTURE  STATE.
sages  of  Greece,  of  Rome,  of  Arabia,  and  of  the
East,  were  utterly  unable  to  afford  to  their  revering
and  credulous  disciples,  have  issued,  with  as  much
grandeur  and  sublimity,  as  simplicity  and  precision,
from  the  despised,  uneducated,  and  persecuted  Christ,
and  from  bis  equally  scorned  and  illiterate  disciples.
[498]


CHAPTER  XL


EXPIATIOK —  ATOKEMENT.
SECT.   L

The  great  object  of  aU  reKgions  to  svpphftke  means  of  eipiaiion  to
^  tm — Ejipiatums  and  atonements  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  ^^
Sacrifices  and  oblationS'^Human  victims — Offerings  of  meat  and
salt — Lustrations  by  watery  by  sufyhuTy  byjire^  by  air — Desecrated
victims — Consequences  on  the  moral  and  retigious  pinciples  of
mankind.
