Jewish nation believed, not only in a future state, but also in the resurrection of the body. This doctrine was denied by the sect of the Sadducees, but it was strenuously maintained by the Pharisees; the creed of the Pharisees determined the popular faith, and at the coming of Jesus the multitude to whom he addressed his teaching believed in the actual restoration of the body, combining with their notions of a resurrection the belief in a judgment, and in heaven and hell. Jesus represented a future state altogether in the language of his age. He spoke of it in the Jewish manner; but he applied the Jewish notions of the Messiah's future reign, of the resurrection, and the judgment, to that kingdom of God-or kingdom of heaven-which he then preached; which he said was at hand, and which he promised speedily to establish with power and great glory among his followers. It was to the already existing hopes and fears of a future life, that he appealed, in order to obtain a recognition of himself as the Messiah; and at the same time to induce that purity of heart, holiness of life, and brotherly love, which it was his aim, by precept and example, to inculcate and promote. Those only who believed on the Son of God,that is, who acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ or Messiah, those only who professed him before men, and who proved their allegiance to him by a strict observance of his moral injunctions should "be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead."* Jesus taught his disciples to expect an actual resurrection of the body, and a visible judgment. He represented himself as the judge-the Father having committed all judgment and authority to the Son.† The gospel of the kingdom was first to be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then should the end come.‡ Jesus gave a very full description of the day of judgment. "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken."§ Then shall the "Son of Man (Jesus, the Messiah,) come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory," "in the glory of his Father," "and all the holy angels with him, and he shall sit upon the throne of his glory."** "And the king,"++ "shall send his angels with a great sound of *Matt. x. 32, 33; Mark viii. 38; Luke ix. 26; xii. 8, 9; xx. 35; John iii. 15, 18, 36. + John v. 22, 27. || Matt. xxiv. 30. ++ Matt. xxv. 34. Matt. xxiv. 13. § Mark xiii. 24. ** Matt. xxv. 31. the trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other;"* "and before him shall be gathered all nations ;"+ "and the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just;" and the king shall place the just on his right hand, and the wicked on his left; "and all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation." Then shall every man be rewarded according to his words,|| and according to his works.¶ The good" the blessed of the Father," "shall inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world;" but the wicked-" the cursed," "shall depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”** The future state is a state of rewards and punishments. Great is the reward of the righteous in heaven :†† of the little flock of the few, who are chosen.§§ They obtain everlasting life; they cannot die any more; they are equal to the angels.||||| Their blessedness consists in seeing God,¶¶ in beholdingChrist's glory,*** in being with Christ, and in sitting down with the Patriarchs in the Messiah's kingdom.+++ This The scene of punishment is Gehenna, or Hell; into which "the cursed" depart immediately after the judgment.‡‡‡ "place of torment" is a prison of "outward darkness."§§§ It is separated from the abode of the blessed by an impassable gulph;|||||| it is a fiery furnace¶¶¶ prepared for the Devil and his angels,**** where their worm dieth not, and where the fire is not quenched; there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.tttt The tormented in this flame witness the blessedness and rest of the righteous.‡‡‡‡ The same doctrines of a resurrection, judgment, and future state, were taught by the apostles, who were the companions of Jesus, during his ministry. They were themselves Jews, earnestly longing for the re-instatement of their nation in all its *Matt. xxiv. 31. † Matt. viii. 11, 12; xxv. 32; Luke xiii. 29, 30; John x. 16. Matt. xiii. 49. § John v. 28, 29. Matt. xvi. 27; xxv. 35, 36, 42, 43. ++ Matt. v. 12. Luke xx. 35, 36. || Matt. xii. 36, 37. Luke xii. 32. §§ Matt. xx. 16; xxii. 14; vii. 14. ††† Matt. v. 10; viii. 11; Luke xii. 37; John xvii. 24. ‡‡‡ Matt. xxv. 41. Luke xvi. 26. **** Matt. xxv. 41. ‡‡‡‡ Luke xvi. 23. §§§ Matt. xxii. 13. ¶¶¶ Matt. xiii. 41, 42. tttt Mark ix. 43, 44. former splendour; and the anticipation that Jesus would return, and establish his kingdom with great glory, immediately after the destruction of their city, was consequently peculiarly dear to them. They led their converts to expect Christ's speedy re-appearance; they proclaimed that "at the times of the restitution of all things, which God had spoken by the mouths of all his holy prophets since the world began,"*"Jesus, whom God had ordained to be the judge of quick and dead, would come,"+" with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all;" that "the heavens, and the earth that are now, were kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the great day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men ;" "to whom was reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."|| But that according to God's promise, there should be new heavens, and a new earth ;¶ and that after the judgment the pious worshippers of God, and followers of Jesus, should be admitted to the glorious kingdom of the Messiah.** The Apostle Paul took a rather different, and more spiritual view of the doctrines of Christ's kingdom, and the resurrection. He was the Apostle of the Gentiles, and had to address himself to men wholly unacquainted with the prevailing Jewish prejudices, and expectations. He speaks of the then existing community of Christians of the whole body of Christian converts, as constituting the kingdom of the Messiah-the kingdom of God. He says of himself, and the other Christians, that "God had translated them into the kingdom of his Son."++ Over this spiritual kingdom Christ reigned, and would continue to reign till all enemies should be subdued‡‡-till the judgment day; that "day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who would render to every man according to his deeds, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile."§§ At the end of the world all men should stand before the judgment seat of Christ, "for the Lord himself would descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." Then should follow the general resurrection. The dead should be raised; but not with their earthly and mortal bodies: though the body had been buried a natural body, it should be raised a spiritual body; it should be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye; the corruptible should put on incor *Acts iii. 21. § 2 Peter iii. 7. ** 1 Peter i. 3-9. §§ Rom. ii. 5—10. + Acts x. 42. Jude 14, 15. 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25. "The ruption, and the mortal should put on immortality.* dead in Christ should rise first; and then should those who were alive, remaining on the earth at his appearing, be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so be ever with the Lord."+ E. R. B. According to the Paul was a Pharisee brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. system of the Pharisees (as given by Josephus), at the resurrection the human body received a purer form. See 1 Cor. xv. 49-54. † See 1 Thess. iv. 13-18. ART. VII. THE PICTORIAL SHAKSPERE. NOTES ON HAMLET.* Note 1. LAST night, just before going to bed, I opened Hamlet, and reading on for awhile, came to one of the most beautifully tender, as well as original illustrations, which can be met with in any Poet. It had never struck me in the same degree as it did this time. The genius of Shakspere seems here to have dropped a simile of the greatest beauty almost unconsciously, as the Queen of the Faries would drop a pearl of immense value, without much thinking where, when, or how. It is in the beginning of Laertes' leave-taking speech to Ophelia. "For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, The simile is so appropriate, and yet so novel, it is so full of tenderness and life, that I cannot well express all I feel in its presence. But I was offended by the word Suppliance, which the verse, as it is generally printed, requires to have the accent on the i, as coming from the verb to supply. Here a rash ingenuity, to which I confess that I am not a stranger in similar cases, fully possessed my mind, making me rejoice exceedingly in a conjectural reading, which I immediately wrote at the bottom of the page. "The pérfume and (the) súppliance of a minute." Súppliance, as derived from Suppliant, and meaning the act of Supplication, is not in the common dictionaries, but what of that? The infallible Dr. Johnson has not even Suppliance, as derived from supply; though either of the two must be recognized in the passage before us. And how irresistibly beautiful does the simile become, when Súppliance is understood as supplication, the Prayer of a lover, accompanied by the Perfume, *We owe an apology both to our readers and to the author of this article, for the imperfect form in which it appears. The author unable, from indisposition, to reduce the criticisms it contains into one composition, has kindly permitted us to continue the series upon Shakspere, by printing from his Note Book.-ED. 2 s VOL. I. No. 6.-New Series. |