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ence after death in a state of personal identity. In that important question, whether the abstract principles of reason or the common opinions of mankind are the best evidence of truth, he uniformly gives the preference to the latter*. And if this be adopted as the test of his own notions in the present case, he believed in the separate existence of the soul, for he represents it as affected after death by the fortunes of its living friends': but at other times his language appears to be of a different tendency; and in his metaphysical works, if amid many perplexed and obscure statements his meaning be rightly understood,

× Hence his continual appeal in his Ethics to the language of men as an evidence of truth: and in the 10th book, chap. 8, he observes, that the arguments of philosophers have weight when they agree with experience, but when they disagree they must be rejected.

y Aristot. Ethics, lib. i. cap. 11.

z Vid. Aristot. de Anima, book ii; also more particularly book iii. chap. 5, 6. Tennemann's Geschichte der Philosophie, art. Aristotle, p. 109. Cudworth's Intellect. Syst. book i. §. 45. Warburton's Divine Legation, book 3. sect. 4. vol. iv. p. 112. No writer but Warburton professes to think Aristot. de Anima, book iii. chap. 5, 6. clear and intelligible. His theory of the TO 'EN intro

he denies to that part, or rather power of the soul which he invests with immortality, the possession of memory, and consequently, by a possible though not necessary inference, of individual consciousness". The failure of the two most distinguished among the philosophers of antiquity may teach us how little the force of natural reason could effect in clearing up the most important of all subjects. Whatever they believed themselves, or their followers believed, respecting a future state, could not have been altogether in consequence of their arguments. As moralists they speak with the tongue of men and of angels, and prescribe a code of moral discipline beyond the capacity of man to practise, but their reasonings for the soul's immortality, with some few exceptions, began and ended in speculations alike inconceivable and unprofitable, and left the common expectations of mankind, loaded as they were with absurdity, a better guide even to themselves

duced to explain the difficulty is an assumption, not an argument.

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than all the abstractions of philosophy How often must Plato have felt, when baffled and perplexed by the subtlety of his own reasonings, the wish which he once so strongly expressed", that the Deity would

b The words ἀναγκαῖον οὖν ἐστὶ περιμένειν ἕως ἄν τις μάθῃ ὡς δεῖ πρὸς θεοὺς καὶ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους διακεῖσθαι. Alcib. Πότε οὖν παρέσται ὁ χρόνος οὗτος, ὦ Σώκρατες; καὶ τίς ὁ παιδεύσων; ἥδι στα γὰρ ἄν μοι δοκῶ ἰδεῖν τοῦτον τὸν ἄνθρωπον τίς ἐστιν, have been frequently cited by theologians as a proof that Socrates expected some divine Teacher to appear upon earth; and it was with this impression that the remarks were make in the text. If however the passage be fully examined in connection with the dialogue that follows to the end of the treatise, it will appear very dubious whether they have any such meaning. The more probable import seems to be, that Socrates is speaking of himself, as the teacher who watched over the interests of Alcibiades, but he was aware that his disciple would not receive his instructions till his mind at some future period should be less clouded by passion, and become better prepared to distinguish between good and evil. Alcibiades II. Bekker, pars i. vol. ii. pp. 296–298. Nor will the passage in the Republic, (οὕτω διακείμενος ὁ δίκαιος . . . . ávaσxivduλeuðýσetaι, Bekker, p. 66.) which is referred to by Blackwall and many other learned men, as a prophetic description of our Saviour's crucifixion, appear to admit any application of the kind, if the whole discussion concerning justice and injustice be calmly considered from the commencement of the book to the words alluded to. Repub. lib. ii. Bekker, pp. 57–66.

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appoint some one to reveal his will to man, and enlighten his mind upon subjects too excellent for human intellect to attain to!

pa

Let us turn from the speculations of gan philosophy, to consider the belief of the Jewish people respecting a future state of retribution, possessing as they did the benefits of a divine revelation.

C

The opinion has been maintained and supported with great learning and ability, that throughout the Old Testament, from Moses to the captivity, the Israelites had not the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments; and that so much as an intelligible hint of it is not found in the Mosaic law.

That being omitted in the sanctions of the law, it was clearly never intended to be revealed to them.

That in quality of historian as well as of legislator Moses is silent on the subject, and seems designedly to conceal the future immortality.

c Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses, book v. sect. 5. vol. iii. pp. 131-134. edit. 1788.

"That the extraordinary providence, which under the Jewish dispensation extended both to the state and the particular members of the state, would prevent any of that feeling arising from the unequal distribution of things, which, under the ordinary course of God's providence, so naturally directs the hopes of men to the recompense of another life.

1

These propositions are certainly at variance with the general sentiments on the subject; and it may not be unprofitable briefly to examine as well into their truth or falsehood, as also into the nature of that foundation on which they are supposed to

rest.

e

Now it will readily be allowed by every

d Book v. sect. 4. vol. iii. pp. 112-131.

e Davison on Prophecy, p. 166. Maimonides and the most eminent Jewish doctors maintain that eternal life is to be found in the law, and that it is to be believed, not from other considerations, but because it is in the law. For the mode in which they support their interpretations vide Pearson on the Creed, edit. Oxford, 1797. 2d vol. p. 464. Warburton, Dedicat. to the Jews, 2d vol. p. 282.

Warburton, book vi. sect. 3. vol. iii. p. 343. has cited the texts adduced by Manasseh Ben-Israel from the Pentateuch, in his tract de Resurrectione Mortuorum. For

D

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