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translation of Enoch would have awakened no reflections, intended as we may sup

"he lived, the doctrine of a future judgment; his extra"ordinary death would be a confirmation of its truth." Jude 14, 15. Davison on Prophecy, p. 122.

Quoniam quidem Enoch placens Deo, in quo placuit corpore translatus est, translationem justorum præmonstrans, &c. Irenæus adversus Hæreses, lib. v. cap. 5. p. 439. edit. Paris. 1675.

The ancient fathers do not enter into the question, except incidentally, as to the belief of the Jews in the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments; for it does not appear in the early history of the church to have been much controverted, and the Christian apologists in general allude to it as if it were an acknowledged doctrine of the old dispensation, whether they are writing against Jews or against Gentile philosophers. Thus Eusebius, (Præpar. Evangel. lib. x. xi.) in arguing (with what justice it matters not to the present question) that the Gentile sages borrowed all that is valuable in their writings from the Hebrews, speaking of Plato, observes, "That he derived his notions of the "soul's immortality from Moses, and that there was no dif"ference in their opinions on the subject;” xal év ToÏS TEPÌ ψυχὴς ἀθανασίας, οὐδὲν Μώσεως ὁ Πλάτων διέστηκε τῇ δόξῃ, X. T. λ. lib. xi. c. 27. Vigeri edit. Paris. 1628. It is scarcely necessary to remark that the assertion is beyond the truth, but it will at least serve to prove, with many other passages that might be adduced, that Eusebius did not agree with Warburton as to the doctrine either of Plato or the ancient Jews. The argument indeed throughout as the Demonstratio Evangelica

this treatise, as well

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pose it to have been, since so many patriarchs and righteous men were suffered to die the common death of all men, not so much as a privilege to himself, as a lesson to his own age and succeeding generations. And are all those expressions in the Old Testament, more especially in the Prophets and the Psalms, which appear to us clearly to point to a future life, satisfactorily explained by Warburton, who uniformly interprets the plain as relating to this life only, and the figurative as illustrative of some other truth, to be conveyed through the medium of a figure, which in itself was not intended to be considered as having any foundation in truth? Thus such expres

clearly evinces, that he did not suppose either the patriarchs or the people of Israel to have looked only to transitory promises.

c Divine Legation, book vi. sect. 2. vol. iii. p. 312. Warburton, in combating Dr. Felton's plain and simple principle, that all words used in a figurative sense must first be understood in a literal, adopts the same argument which the opponents of Tertullian made use of when they attempted to refute the doctrine of the resurrection. They asserted that the language of the prophets was to be understood figuratively, to which Tertullian replies, "Si omnia figuræ, quid erit illud cujus figuræ ?" In con

sions as these, Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise, might be used by the prophet without his conveying, or intending to convey, the notion that his dead body would arise. And that bold and sublime description of the prophet, in which the souls in Hades are represented as rising to meet the king of Babylon at his coming, according to this mode of interpretation, would be considered as intelligible, without the supposition that

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firmation, he appeals to the well-known passage in Ezekiel, chap. xxxvii. which they declared to be figurative, and to convey no promise of a resurrection to the house of Israel, but the assurance of temporal prosperity, and the reunion of their scattered tribes; his answer is, "Non posset de ossibus figura componi si non id ipsum ossi"bus eventurum esset, nam etsi figmentum veritatis in imagine est, imago ipsa in veritate est sui." Tertull. de Resurrect. Carnis cap. 29, 30, 31. Sculteti Syntagma, cap. 4. sect. 3. Vide Warburton's remarks on the chapter of Ezekiel alluded to, vol. iii. p. 314. book vi. sect. 2. Bishop of Bristol's Eccles. Hist. p. 282.

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d Isaiah xxvi. 19. Few will agree with the observation of Warburton, that "there was no occasion for the doc"trine of the resurrection to make the language intelli"gible." Warburton, vol. iii. p. 313; still less, "that an "image is of more force for its being unknown." p. 314.

Hades existed as a receptacle for souls. Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like one of us?

Not to mention many other passages, especially in the Prophets and the Psalms, which are sufficient to shew that the idea was prevalent among the Jews, of Hades

e Warburton, book vi. sect. 3. p. 337. Isaiah xiv. 9, 10. Warburton always translates Sheol the grave: but there are above sixty places in the Old Testament where the word occurs, and it is constantly rendered Hades by the Seventy, except in one or two places at most. Peters on the Book of Job, p. 322.

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"Amongst all the ancients, whether heathens, Jews, or “Christians, the usual acceptation of hell was, that it was "the common lodge or habitation of separated souls both good and bad, wherein each of them, according to their "deserts in this life, and their expectations of the future "judgment, remained either in joy or misery." Vide Critical History of the Apostles' Creed; a most able and learned work by an ancestor of the present lord King; art. Descent into Hell.

f Psalm lxxxvi. 13. Prov. xv. 24. Psalm xvi. 10. Prov. ix. 18. Job xxvi. 6.

being the region of the departed, and that they divided this region, and assigned a different habitation in it for the reception of the righteous and the wicked. Again, the more plain and direct expressions, which are generally understood as referring to a future state, are forced from their natural and obvious sense by the author of the Divine Legation, and restricted in their import to this life only: Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption", might have signified to the Jews of old, Thou wilt not suffer me to fall immaturely; The righteous hath hope in his death, The righteous hath hope that he shall be delivered from the most imminent dangers. Nor does the expression, which have their portion in

8 Luke xvi. parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Mr. Peters on the Book of Job, sect. 8.

h Psalm xvi. 10. An acquaintance with the opinions of Epiphanius, Athanasius, Origen, and other ancient fathers respecting this text, might have rendered Warburton more cautious in hazarding an interpretation which has no merit but that of novelty to recommend it.

i Proverbs xiv. 32.

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