to the living as
the doctrine of God of which the world had been ignorant. So what the
_judgment_ of the world by Moses taught in _figure, the judgment_ of
the world by Christ teaches in _reality_. My limits will not allow me
to argue this point at large. I have already remarked, that I believe
_"the judgment of the world"_ expresses the whole reign of Christ
including the resurrection.

We now proceed to notice the Scriptures. Matt. xxii. 31, 32.

"_But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that
which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but
of the living_."

To this Luke adds, "_for all live unto him_." In order to make these
words of Jesus refer to a general resurrection at the end of time, all
writers have availed themselves of this last clause in Luke (on which
Matthew and Mark are silent) and contend that it means--all live unto
God who in his counsels views the future resurrection as present. But
this exposition by no means satisfies my mind. If Abraham, Issac and
Jacob are not raised--if they are yet wrapped in the insensibility of
death, then God during that period is not their God.

To illustrate this, we would remark, that Jehovah could not be Creator
till something were created by him. He could not be Father till he had
an offspring. He could not be Lord till he possessed property;--
neither could he be God till there were a worshipper. _Jehovah_ is the
only abstract name he could possess, were he solitary and without a
universe. All the other names ascribed to him are relative. The name
God as much pre-supposes the actual existence of a _worshipper_ as
that of father does the actual existence of a _child_. Remove the
_child_, and the once doating parent is no longer to him a father. God
is not, therefore, the God of the dead, for as such, they could not
worship him. He is, however, Lord of both the dead and the living
claiming them as his property. Abraham, Issac and Jacob were therefore
alive, and worshipping him when those words were spoken to Moses, for
in no other sense could he have been their God any more than he was
before they were born. The phrase "_for all live unto him_," may, in
this instance, embrace only the three patriarchs, as no others are
involved in the quotation. The Sadducees believed in the writings of
Moses only, and it is not at all probable, that Jesus referred to