Besides, the bulk of the Jews believed, and were taught in the sacred writings to believe, the being of angels and of evil demons, that is, of spiritual agents, not united to gross bodies, nor subject to the law of mortality. From this we may suppose that they believed the separate and the future existence of the soul; for these two opinions so constantly go together, that no nation, and perhaps no man, ever believed the one who did not believe the other. The Sadducees rejected both, as thinking that they must stand or fall together.

"Afterwards, in the Apocryphal writers, several passages occur which most clearly and confessedly denote their belief of a life to come; and examples are there recorded of martyrs who were tortured, and laid down their lives, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. It hath been also observed that the word sometimes used by those writers for death is a word which meaneth departure, or going out, and

* "Ecodos. Usitatum fuisse hoc genus loquendi Hellenistis, ab aliis abunde ostensum est. Sed et apud Latinos exitus et excessus pro morte passim occurrunt. Potest hæc locutio iis annumerari, quæ vetustissimam de animarum immortalitate traditionem consignant, cujus generis aliquot observatæ sunt a Tertulliano.-GROTIUS ad Luc. ix. 31.

Many examples are collected by Wetstein, in his notes on this verse, and by Whitby.

Matt. ix. 24.-ἀλλὰ καθεύδει, dormit. Κατέδαρθεν εὐδαίμων,

L

that it was one of those expressions by which the old tradition of the soul's immortality was preserved. The same hath been observed of the phrases used in the Old Testament, of men being gathered to their fathers; and it hath also been remarked that this expression is not used* in Scripture of wicked men, but of those who lived and died in the favour of God.

"These expressions, whatsoever sense might be affixed to them in after times, seem to have arisen at first from an opinion that the souls of the deceased repaired to certain mansions, that every nation and every family had their separate districts

inquit Menander de mortuo. Hæ autem locutiones, ut et quod mortuos μákapaç aut μakapiraç vocabant, et quod Tertullianus apud Romanos antiquitus usurpatum scribit, Abiit, et reverti debet, vestigia esse videntur antiquissimæ traditionis opposita Sadducæis, quorum sententiæ favisse videtur Jairi domus.-GROTIUS.

Tertullian (cited here by Grotius) who catches at any thing that seems to make for his purpose, urges this argument in his book De Testimon. Animæ, p. 83. Si de aliquo jampridem defuncto, tanquam de vivo, quis requirat, præ manu occurrit dicere, Abiit jam et reverti debet, &c.

The common saying, I suppose, amongst the Romans, on this occasion, was only Abiit; and what follows, et reverti debet, is Tertullian's own inference.

Jos. Scaliger says, Abiit dicebant antiqui, pro mortuus est, non quod sperarent immortalitatem, sed ob euphoniam, Scaligerana. But why might it not be for both these reasons?

* Peters' Dissert. on Job, p. 326.

in that great world of the dead, and that they who departed hence went to dwell with their own ancestors. Lucian, in the Necyomantia, feigning that he entered into the Acherusian plain, says, 'There we found the demi-gods, and the heroines, and multitudes of the dead, divided according to their nations and tribes.' And, indeed, they who believe that their better part is immortal, have a strong desire impressed upon their minds to visit their friends and relations, and those illustrious persons whose memory is held in veneration. If Socrates might have had his choice, he would have joined himself to the shades of the ancient Greeks; he who rejoiced to think that he should perhaps converse with the souls of Orpheus, Hesiod, Musæus, and Homer, and of those heroes who had been men of probity and virtue. Ezekiel seems to allude to this opinion, when he says, 'Ashur is there, and all her company,' &c.-LE CLERC †.

*

"The word Scheol signifies properly and usually, the lowest and innermost parts of the earth ‡; and this figurative description in Isaiah §, dressed in poetic ornaments, is built upon an hypothesis received in those days, that the souls of men separated from the body went to a vast subterraneous region, the common receptacle of the deceased,

*Chap. xxxiii. 22.

* Τὰ κατώτερα μέρη τῆς γῆς.

On Genes. xv. 15. § Chap. xiv. 9.

divided into various mansions, according to the dispositions and qualities of the persons who were to inhabit them; that these ghosts still retained the shadow and appearance of themselves and of the character and station in which they had acted upon earth. This region of the dead was called by the Hebrews Scheol, by the Greeks "Adns, by the Latins Inferi (by us, in old English, Hell); and at the entrance of this region or city there were gates, whence Isaiah mentions the gates of hell. This system was received amongst the vulgar Jews, as it appears from the story of Samuel's ghost raised by the sorceress from below, and appearing in his usual form and habit. Judicious readers will discern, that either Saul was deluded by the woman, or the woman by Satan; but hence we may collect what was the common opinion concerning the state of the dead.

"From this system, which in part must have been very ancient, were taken some expressions of holy men concerning the condition of the deceased; as when Jacob, thinking that Joseph was slain *, said, I will go down to the grave to my son.' And the Psalmist †, Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave.' And, 'Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.' And, The dead praise not the

*

Gen. xxxvii. 35.

Psa. xxx. 3. xvi. 10. cxv. 17. xciv. 17.

Lord, neither any that go down into silence.' And, 'My soul had almost dwelt in silence.' These holy men, by Scheol, understood the receptacle of souls separated from the body, whom they accounted immortal, and not deprived of sense.

"The same system was embraced by all civilized nations, but at last was mixed with fables, principally by the poets, who with their fictions corrupted the remains of the ancient theology. I am persuaded that the Greeks received it from the Egyptians, whose doctrine of Hades is expounded by Herodotus, in his account of King Rhampsinitus, whom the Egyptians reported to have visited the regions of the dead, and to have returned back alive; as the Greeks also have feigned concerning their heroes. Homer, adopting this hypothesis, introduced it often in his poems, and was followed by others, but took it himself from Orpheus, as Diodorus Siculus observes. Plato, having in some measure purged it from poetical figments, inserted it in his philosophical system; and hence not only the poets, but other learned and wise writers, both Greek and Latin, borrowed their sentiments and expressions, when they had occasion to speak of the dead, &c.

66

Although the New Covenant contains a more express revelation of eternal life than the Ancient Dispensation, yet certain it is that this doctrine,