testimony of the prophet and the apostle, as well as of Christ : 66 them, if they who were asleep had long since been received into heaven; in which case the latter would not come to meet the Lord, but would return with him. We however which are alive shall be caught up together with them, not after them, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, namely, after, not before the resurrection. And then at length "the wicked shall be severed from among the just," Matt. xiii. 49. Dan. xii. 2. Imany of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." In such a sleep I should suppose Lazarus to have been lying, if it were asked whither his soul betook itself during those four days of death. For I cannot believe that it would have been called back from heaven to suffer again the inconveniences of the body, but rather that it was summoned from the grave, and roused from the sleep of death. The words of Christ themselves lead to this conclusion: John xi. 11, 13. “our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep: howbeit Jesus spake of his death:" which death, if the miracle were true, must have been real. This is confirmed by the circumstances of Christ's raising him; v. 43. "he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." If the soul of Lazarus, that is, if Lazarus himself was not within the grave, why did Christ call on the lifeless body which could not hear? If it were the soul which he addressed, why did he call it from a place where it was not? Had he intended to intimate that the soul was separated from the body, he would have directed his eyes to the quarter whence the soul of Lazarus might be expected to return, namely, from heaven: for to call from the grave what is not there, is like seeking the living among the dead, which the angel reprehended as ignorance in the disciples, Luke xxiv. 5. The same is apparent in the raising of the widow's 's son: Luke vii. 14. On the other hand, those who assert that the soul is exempt from death, and that when divested of the body, it wings its way, or is conducted by angels, directly to its appointed place of reward or punishment, where it remains in a separate state of existence to the end of the world, found their belief principally on the following passages of Scripture. Psal. xlix. 15. "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave." But this proves rather that the soul enters the grave with the body, as was shown above, from whence it needs to be redeemed, namely, at the resurrection, when God shall receive it, as follows in the same verse. As for the remainder, "their redemption ceaseth for ever," v. 8. and they are "like the beasts that perish," v. 12, 14. The second text is Eccles. xii. 7. "the spirit shall return unto God that gave it." But neither does this prove what is required; for the phrase, the spirit returning to God, must be understood with considerable latitude; since the wicked do not return to God at death, but depart far from him. The preacher had moreover said before, iii. 20. "all go unto one place;" and God is said both to have given, and to gather unto himself the spirit of every living thing, whilst the body returns to dust, Job. xxxiv. 14, 15. "if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." See also Psal. civ. 29, 30. Euripides in the Suppliants has, without being aware of it, given a far better interpretation of this passage than the commentators in question.1 ἔθεν δ ̓ ἕκαστον εἰς τὸ φῶς ἀφίκετο, ἐνταῦθ ̓ ἀπελθεῖν, πνεῦμα μὲν πρὸς αιθερα, Each various part That constitutes the frame of man, returns Line 519. Potter's Transl. How much more rationally spake the heathen king Demophoön in a tragedy of Euripides, than these interpreters would put upon king David.' Tenure of Kings and Magistrates. Prose Works, II. 14. It is related on the authority of one of Milton's daughters, that, after the Holy Scriptures, his favourite volumes were Homer, Euripides, and Ovid. The present Treatise contains nine quotations from the classics, seven of which are from the authors mentioned. Aristotle, whom he calls one of the best interpreters of nature and morality,' (Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, II. 13) is likewise often expressly quoted, or alluded to; but not a single direct reference is made to Plato, who, as Mr. Todd justly remarks on the authority of the poet himself, was one of the principal objects of his regard. Some Account of the Life and Writings of Milton, p. 152. Of the Fathers, nine are either cited or referred to; of modern divines, seventeen. 2 The old reading was rò owμ'. Porson proposed rò pws, Adversaria, 66 That is, every constituent part returns at dissolution to its elementary principle. This is confirmed by Ezek. xxxvii. 9. come from the four winds, O breath;" it is certain therefore that the spirit of man must have previously departed thither from whence it is now summoned to return. Hence perhaps originates the expression in Matt. xxiv. 31: "they shall gather together the elect from the four winds." For why should not the spirits of the elect be as easily gathered together as the smallest particles of their bodies, sometimes most widely dispersed throughout different countries? In the same manner is to be understood 1 Kings xvii. 21. "let this child's soul come into him again." This, however, is a form of speech applied to fainting in general: Judges xv. 19. "his spirit came again, and he revived." See also 1 Sam. xxx. 12. For there are many passages of Scripture, some of which have been already quoted, which undoubtedly represent the dead as devoid of all vital existence; but what was advanced above respecting the death of the spirit affords a sufficient answer to the objection. "fear not them the The third passage is Matt. x. 28. which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." It may be answered that, properly speaking, the body cannot be killed, as being in itself a thing inanimate; body therefore, as is common in Scripture, must be taken for the whole human compound, or for the animal and temporal life; the soul for that spiritual life with which we shall be clothed after the end of the world, as appears from the remainder of the verse, and from 1 Cor. xv. 44. The fourth text is Philipp. i. 23. "having a desire to depart" (cupiens dissolvi, having a desire for dissolution) "and to be with Christ." But, to say nothing of the uncertain and disputed sense of the word avaλuoa, which signifies anything rather than dissolution, it may be answered, that although Paul desired to 3 p. 235. Toup (in Suid. II. 6.) suggested rò Lyv, but the offence against metre was pointed out by Porson, Notæ Breves ad Toupii Emendationes, ad p. 234. In the next line the old reading was άπñɛ. Gataker proposed άπελ0εiv, which emendation was adopted by Musgrave, and approved by Porson. 3Qui urgent propriam solvendi et dissolvendi notionem, hi adeant Duker. ad Florum IV. 11. extr. qui docuit, solvi etiam metaphorice apud Latinos pro mori poni.' Schleusner in voce ȧvaλów. obtain immediate possession of heavenly perfection and glory, in like manner as every one is desirous of attaining as soon as possible to that, whatever it may be, which he regards as the ultimate object of his being, it by no means follows that, when the soul of each individual leaves the body, it is received immediately either into heaven or hell. For he had a desire to be with Christ; that is, at his appearing, which all the believers hoped and expected was then at hand. In the same manner one who is going on a voyage desires to set sail and to arrive at the destined port, (such is the order in which his wishes arrange themselves) omitting all notice of the intermediate passage. If, however, it be true that there is no time without motion, which Aristotle illustrates by the example of those who were fabled to have slept in the temple of the heroes, and who, on awaking, imagined that the moment in which they awoke had succeeded without an interval to that in which they fell asleep ;* how much more must intervening time be annihilated to the departed, so that to them to die and to be with Christ will seem to take place at the same moment? Christ himself, however, expressly indicates the time at which we shall be with him; John xiv 3. "if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." The fifth text evidently favours my view of the subject: 1 Pet. iii. 19. "by which also he went and preached to the 4'Αλλὰ μὴν οὐδ ̓ ἄνευ γε μεταβολῆς· ὅταν γὰρ αὐτοὶ μηθὲν μεταβάλλωμεν τὴν διάνοιαν ἢ λάθωμεν μεταβάλλοντες, οὐ δοκεῖ ἡμῖν γεγονέναι ὁ χρόνος· καθάπερ οὐδὲ τοῖς ἐν τῇ Σαρδοῖ μυθολογουμένοις καθεύδειν παρὰ τοῖς ἥρωσιν, ὅταν ἐγερθῶσι, συνάπτουσι γὰρ τὸ πρότερον νῦν τῷ ὕστερον νῦν' καὶ ἓν ποιοῦσιν, ἐξαιροῦντες διὰ τὴν ἀναισθησίαν Tò μɛraží. Nat. Auscult. IV. 16 Edit. Duvall. Simplicius in his scholium ' on this passage explains the allusion at some length, but the most material part of his information is contained in the following note of Kuhnius: 'Paulo modestius agunt Græci cum loquuntur de heroibus in Sardinia dormientibus, quorum mentionem facit Aristoteles libro IV. &c. Ubi Simplicius-ex Herculis filiis, quos ex Thestii natis susceperat, nonnullos in Sardinia mortuos dici, illorumque corpora usque ad Aristotelis, forte et usque ad Alexandri Aphrodisiensis tempora mansisse integra et äσηTrα, et speciem dormientium præbuisse. Apud hos captabant dormientes somnia, et ovμßoλikovç somnos protrahebant, qui ab his heroibus corporis valetudinem commodam, vel alia quædam petitum venerant. Vide Schol. Græc. in Luciani Tom. I. pag. 3.' Kuhnii Observationes in Diogenis Laertii, Lib. I. Segm. 109. 1 |