Promife of our bleffed Saviour to the penitent Thief. That Text concerning Judas, Act. i. 25. wherein he is faid to go to his own Place, a Place of Punishment and Misery due to his Apoftacy: This Place of Scripture hath been by fome modern Interpreters explained otherwife: But the learned Bishop Bull, in his Sermon on this Text, hath establish'd this Meaning from the concurrent Testimony of the Fathers, who all, with Irenæus, believ'd the Juft would go into a Place appointed for them by GOD, and there remain till the Refurrection. The Phrase of the Bundle of Life is ufed 1 Sam. xxv. 29. But the Soul of my Lord fhall be bound in the Bundle of Life. So Abigail fpeaks to David, wishing him the greatest Happiness. Thus Rambam interprets this Place. Under the Throne of Glory was too a Phrafe among the Jews, and denoted a Place of Happiness till the Refurrection. Thus the famous Jewish Poet R. Solomon Ben Gabirol, in Kether Malcuth: Thon, God, haft made under the Throne of thy Glory a Station for the Souls of thy Saints; there is the Habitation of pure Souls, who are ty'd in the Bundle of Life, after having laboured, and being tired: There they renew their Strength,

* עשא תחת כסא כבורך מעמוד לנפשות חסידיך ושם נוה הנשמות הטהרות אשר בצרור החיים צרורות ואשר ייגעו וייעפו שם יחליפו כח ושם ינוחו יגיעי כח ואלה בני נח ובו נועם בלי תכלית וקצבה והוא העולם הבא:

there they reft, who have been tired, there they enjoy Confolation; for in that Place is Pleasure without End, or Limitation. This is the World to come. And in this Place is the Soul of Mofes placed by GOD, as R. Nathan says ; * and not only his Soul is hid under the Throne of Glory, Says he) but the Souls of the Just are bid under the Throne of Glory. There are abundance of other figurative Expreffions of the fame Import, mentioned by Maimonides in his Tefhuba. Oppofed to this State of incomplete Happiness, was the middle State of Mifery, wherein the Jews believed the Wicked were till the Day of Judgment; their Gehenna, where they were tormented till the Refurrection; after which they would be put in ~ Arko, or the lowest Hell, from which there was to be no Redemption. Thus Maimonides in his Jefudi Thorah, Cap. 5. Sect. 4. fays, The Idolater and prefumptuous Sinner shall be banished from the World to come, and defcend to the lowest Pit of Gehenna.

לא נשמתו של משה בלבד גנוזה תחת כסא הכבוד אלא נשמתן של צדיקים גנון ות תחת כסא הכבור:

Quanquam enim faniores Judai Paradifi vocabulo non abftineant in defignandâ felici beatarum animarum conditione, quinimo etiam ad hortum terreftrem Edenis luculentis verbis alludant. Nihilo tamen minus certum eft figurate locutos reverâ de Cœlo, Paradifo Superiore intelligi debere. Quippe beatæ illi conditioni non tantum lucem,fudam tranquillitatem, feftivitatem, verum avi futuri nomen & regni tributum legas cum beatifica vifione Dei, &c. Windet de Vita Funct. Stat. P. 150.

THE

THE World to come, or Reign of the Meffiah is fpoken of very magnificently by all the Rabbins; but all their Profperity and Happiness was to be carnal during his Kingdom. Maimonides, in his Preface to his Commentary on the 10th Chapter of the Sanhedrin, gives this as the general Opinion and Belief of the Jews concerning his Coming, and the State of Things under him. "But in the Days of the Meffiah is the Time "when the Kingdom is to be restored to If"rael, and when the Jews are to be brought "back to Palestine: For he will be a great

King, and the Metropolis of his King"dom shall be Zion, and he will fill the re"moteft Parts of the World with the Glory "of his Name: He will be greater and richer "than Solomon; the Nations fhall make "Peace with him, and the Kingdoms pay

Homage to him, because of his Juftice, " and the Miracles which he shall perform. "Whofoever shall rise up against him, GOD "fhall deliver into his Hand to be destroyed. "All Parts of the Scriptures extol his Suc"cefs, and our Happinefs: But nothing will "then be alter'd in the Nature of Things * from the prefent State. The Rabbins in general affirm plainly, that there will be "no Difference between the present Condi"tion of Things, and those under the Mef"fiah; but that the Kingdoms will be fub"dued to him: There will be then fome "weaker, and some stronger than others. But D 2

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"in those Days all Neceffaries for Life wilf "be much more easily attained, than they are now, &c." This is the Summary of the Jews Expectations according to Maimonides, and very agreeable to what may be deduced. from Scripture to have been their Notions, as from their feeking our bleffed Saviour to make him a King, and from other Places.

But this Error of believing a Temporal Meffiah led them into abundance more, plung'd them into inextricable Difficulties, and gave Occafion to the Sadducees, or fometimes fome of the more Orthodox among them, to start such Objections as they could in no-wife answer: As how the Holy Land, or indeed the whole World, could contain all the Jews that ever lived? How the Marriages of the fame Women to feveral Men could be adjufted, fo as every Man should ftill have his own Wife? If any one will make an Obfervation, what a Shadow of an Argument will fuffice to People who are already refolved to believe, he may read with what a poor Solution to this latter Difficulty the Learned and Ingenious Menaffe Ben Ifrael contents himself.

THE future Life, (or that which is fuppos'd to fucceed the Reign of the Meffiah upon Earth) and the confummate Happinefs, was much after the fame manner conceived by the great Rabbi's Maimonides and Nachmanides; excepting only, that the latter

was

was of Opinion, that we should be tranflated with these grofs Bodies into that Life and State, tho' we should therein enjoy no fenfual Pleasures. The Promife of Elijah's Coming again upon Earth, as mifapprehended by him to be in the fame Body he had here, was urged as an Instance, that it was poffible fuch grofs Bodies as we now have might subsist in a State of Immortality, or, as the great Apoftle phrases it, Corruption might inherit Incorruption. Tho' others of the Jews interpreted this Promife right, and understood only, that a Prophet in the Spirit and Power of Elijah would come. Thus Rabbi Tancum: "There is undoubtedly a Promise of "the Appearance of a Prophet in Ifrael a

little before the Manifeftation of the "Meffiah. Some even of the Learned think "it will be Elijah the Tifhbite himself; this " is the vulgar Opinion: Others believe it "will be only a great Prophet of the fame "Rank with him, who will be endued with "the fame Knowledge of GOD, and "Power of declaring his Name; and is "therefore only called Elijah." But it was farther objected by Maimonides against this Opinion, that fuppofing it were poffible for our Elementary Bodies to fubsist thro' all Eternity, without the ordinary Means of living here by Eating and Drinking; it feem'd abfurd, that these grofs Bodies fhould be introduced into a State where there were no corporeal fenfual Pleasures, wherein they feem'd

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