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 http://www.archive.org/details/beliefofjewishpeOOmlllrich 
 
THE 
 
 BELIEF OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE 
 
 AND OF THE MOST EMINENT 
 
 GENTILE PHILOSOPHERS, 
 
 MORE ESPECIALLY OF 
 
 PLATO AND ARISTOTLE, 
 
 IN 
 
 A FUTURE STATE, 
 
 BRIEFLY CONSIDERED. 
 
THE 
 
 BELIEF OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE 
 
 AND OF THE MOST EMINENT 
 
 GENTILE PHILOSOPHERS, 
 
 MORE ESPECIALLY OF 
 
 PLATO AND ARISTOTLE, 
 
 IN 
 
 A FUTURE STATE, 
 
 BRIEFLY CONSIDERED ; 
 
 INCLUDING AN EXAMINATION INTO SOME OP THE LEADING PRINCIPLES 
 CONTAINED IN BISHOP WARBURTON's DIVINE LEGATION OF MOSES ; 
 
 IN 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD AT ST. MARY'S, 
 March 30, 1828. 
 
 WITH NOTES AND AN APPENDIX. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. MILLS, B. D. 
 
 FELLOW OP MAGDALEN COLLEGE. 
 
 rvftvei(ftev rtis 4"'X^i '^ AN0PXiniNH SOOIA riXos Se 'H 0EIA. 
 
 Origenes. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR, 
 
 AND SOLD BY J. PARKER ; AND BY C AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXVIII. 
 
 X^^ OF THE ^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 

 4^ 4^ J'^ y 
 
TO 
 
 JOHN THOMAS HOPE, ESQ. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 IS INSCRIBED 
 
 WITH THE SINCEREST FRIENDSHIP AND REGARD. 
 
 I'V 
 
# 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XHE following Discourse, delivered up- 
 wards of six months since, was not origi- 
 nally intended for publication. It is com- 
 mitted to the press with the sanction of a 
 learned friend, whose opinion the author 
 considers of great value. It was thought 
 that a brief statement of an important 
 question might not be without advantage 
 to others engaged in the same inquiries. 
 The controversies that arose when the 
 Divine Legation of Warbu7'ton was first 
 published have long since died away, nor 
 is it necessary to awaken them again, ex- 
 cept as far as the chief subject of dispute 
 is connected with the acquisition of reli- 
 gious truth itself An examination into 
 the belief of Jew or Gentile in the soul's 
 immortality before the coming of our Sa- 
 viour, can never cease to be an interesting 
 question to the Christian philosopher. Nor 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 will the investigation be without profit to 
 him who pursues it candidly, as a source of 
 moral improvement. He may learn to be 
 thankful on the ground of revelation for 
 the advantages which he enjoys over the 
 most favoured Israelite in the superior 
 blessings and prospects of the new, com- 
 pared with the old dispensation ; and on 
 the ground of his natural faculties, he will 
 be sensible of the benefits which reason 
 itself has derived from the word of Scrip- 
 ture, as well in directing as in limiting its 
 exercise. He has seen the day clearly 
 which the inspired patriarchs of old, with 
 the prophetic eye of faith, at a distance, 
 rejoiced to see; and he has received that 
 light of imparted knowledge from Heaven, 
 which the wisest of the heathens felt neces- 
 sary to clear up the doubts of the specu- 
 lative mind, and would have hailed with 
 gratitude and reverence. 
 
IJKIVBBSITY 
 2 TIMOTHY 1. 10. 
 
 — who hath abolished death, and brought life 
 and immortality to light through the gospel, 
 
 xHESE words form part of an Epistle 
 written by the great apostle of the Gentiles, 
 at a time when he stood in need of all the 
 consolations to be derived from the doc- 
 trine which they convey ; when he was 
 suffering from imprisonment and persecu- 
 tion, and he perceived that the hour of his 
 martyrdom was approaching. Rejoicing in 
 the hopes which they inspired, he declared 
 that he was afflicted, and yet was not 
 ashamed ; and looking forward to his re- 
 ward, he exclaims in a subsequent part of 
 the Epistle, / have fought a good fight, I 
 have finished my course, I have kept the 
 faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a 
 crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
 inghteous judge, shall give me. Language 
 so full of confidence in his reward and in 
 the grounds of it, so full of trust in the 
 righteous Judge who was to confer it, as 
 plainly to prove that the power of death 
 
 B 
 
9 
 
 was indeed abolished, and that life and im- 
 mortality were brought to light. 
 
 Yet these expressions of my text, ^coTia-ctv- 
 Tff ^i*)y}v Ku) (A(j)6ccp(rioLv, however strong they 
 may appear, are not to be considered as 
 implying that the expectation of a future 
 life had never been heard of till the coming 
 of the Messiah. In its literal acceptation 
 the word (pmZei signifies rather to make 
 clear what is obscure, than to bring to light 
 what is entirely unknown : thus ^oorZetv 
 A^t]6siciv, to make the truth manifest, and 
 not to shew forth a truth of which no glim- 
 mering had previously been perceived. The 
 heathen looked forward to a future state, 
 though he had no certain evidence for his 
 belief, neither comprehending clearly the 
 immortality of the soul, nor having any 
 notion of the resurrection of the body*. 
 And the Jew was instructed by revelation, 
 that the life forfeited by the transgression 
 of Adam w^as to be restored through the 
 mediation of some future deliverer, though 
 all the circumstances connected with the 
 
 a The word a^Qup(rlav, incorruption^ probably conveys 
 this meaning. Macknight and Benson. 
 
8 
 
 mystery of redemption were not to be fully 
 revealed, till our Saviour's appearance and 
 ministry upon earth dispelled every doubt 
 and difficulty in which the doctrine was in- 
 volved, enlightening what was before ob- 
 scure, and completing what was before 
 imperfect. 
 
 It will be my object in the present dis- 
 course, to compare the knowledge both of 
 the Gentiles and the Jewish people, re- 
 specting a future life, with the clearer reve- 
 lations which Christians enjoy on this mo- 
 mentous subject. 
 
 That the idea of another state of exist- 
 ence after the termination of the present 
 universally prevailed among mankind, the 
 records of history unequivocally prove : 
 there is no nation, whether savage or civil- 
 ized, amongst whom some traces of it may 
 not be found. It made a part of the po- 
 pular belief in the early stages of society, 
 before mythology was formed into a sys- 
 tem ; it was strongly impressed upon the 
 mind before political codes gave a particu- 
 lar direction to it by ceremonies and modes 
 of worship, and before philosophy exhibited 
 
 B 2 
 
alike the power and the weakness of hu- 
 man reason, by the subtlety of its specu- 
 lations on a subject of such overpowering 
 interest. This conviction cannot be ascribed 
 to the policy of the legislator, which was 
 itself the foundation on which his religious 
 enactments were erected, nor yet to the 
 wisdom of the philosopher, which prevailed 
 for ages before philosophy took its rise 
 among mankind. It was probably a rem- 
 nant of that early revelation given to our 
 first parents, and which, amid all the 
 changes and distractions of civil society, 
 and all the emigrations of tribes and na- 
 tions, had never been utterly obscured^. 
 But in process of time, when civilization 
 had advanced, men's ideas respecting both 
 the nature of the Deity and the doctrine of 
 a future state had been corrupted; gods 
 were multiplied without number "^j the li- 
 
 b The notion of a future existence must be either a 
 deduction of reason, or be derived from revelation, or an 
 impression of instinctive consciousness. 
 
 c The treatise, Tlepj xoV/xou, ascribed to Aristotle, speaks 
 of the Deity as one, and derives the different names of 
 God from the different parts of nature which he regu- 
 lates. Aristot. lUp\ }i6a-(XQv, cap. 7. 
 
centious passions of the most licentious 
 men'were ascribed to them, and the belief 
 of a future existence was intermingled with 
 the wildest creations of the fancy. All 
 these notions were at length combined into 
 order by the poet, and sanctioned by the 
 legislator"^; vices of the most atrocious kind 
 were countenanced by the example of the 
 divinities, and the authority of the laws, 
 and the obligations of mistaken piety and 
 public duty, lent in some cases additional 
 stimulus to the depraved appetites of our 
 nature ^ Yet notwithstanding this perni- 
 
 Hesiod and Homer reduced to system the mythology 
 of the Grecian gods. Vid. Herod, lib. ii. c. 53. Brucker, 
 Hist. Crit. Phil, pars ii. lib. i. cap. 1. sect. 26. 31. pp. 
 407. 423. 
 
 In process of time, not only all the operations of exter- 
 nal nature were explored for deities, but the most trifling 
 acts of man himself were each under the superintendance 
 of a particular god. Vide a singular chapter, Augustin. 
 Civ. Dei, lib. iv. c. 11. 
 
 d It is because the weakness and licentiousness of Jove 
 and the other deities, as described by Homer, furnished 
 a bad example to mankind, that Plato wished to banish 
 poets from his republic. Plato de Repub. lib. iii. Bekker, 
 pars iii. vol. i. p. 107 — 117. 
 
 ^ The worship of Mylitta, the Babylonian* goddess, is 
 frequently cited as a preeminent instance of pagan im- 
 
 B 3 
 
6 
 
 cious influence, derived from the corrup- 
 tions of the doctrine, society must have 
 been on the whole improved by it; for un- 
 less the belief had acted powerfully as a 
 check upon the unruly desires, we cannot 
 conceive why legislators should have taken 
 so much pains to preserve it^. When 
 philosophy, at a comparatively late period, 
 arose, it made no claim to the invention of 
 the notion, or to have derived it from the 
 deductions of natural reason. Not only 
 Plato makes continual and direct allusions 
 
 purity ; yet the ordinary homage paid to the divinities in 
 Greece and Rome at the sacred festivals, was far more 
 pernicious in its effect upon public morals than the singu- 
 lar institution above alluded to. Vid. Augustin. Civ. Dei, 
 lib. ii. cap. 4, 5. Herodot. lib. i. cap. 200. 
 
 ^ Thales, the founder of the Ionic school, flourished 
 about six hundred years before Christ, and no regular 
 course of reasoning was brought forward for the soul's 
 immortality, till the time of Plato, two centuries after : 
 Thales taught that water was the first principle, which 
 Aristotle seems to consider as the most ancient philoso- 
 phical notion, Metaph. lib. i. c. 3. and that God, or Mind, 
 made all things out of water. As he was a native of 
 Phoenicia, Cud worth supposes that he received his two 
 principles from thence, " water, and the Divine Spirit 
 " moving on the face of it."" Cudworth, Intellect, Syst, 
 book i. cap. i. sect. 22. 
 
to tradition as the origin of his knowledge^, 
 but earlier writers were avowedly indebted 
 to the same source; all that philosophy 
 did pretend to was, to demonstrate that 
 belief by arguments which was before 
 grounded, we know not how, in the com- 
 mon fears and hopes of mankind. And let 
 those who form an exalted estimate of the 
 intellectual powers, in deciding upon such 
 mysterious subjects, judge with what suc- 
 cess the attempt was made, by the jarring 
 and contradictory opinions of the different 
 schools of antiquity. Let those who imagine 
 that the immortality of the soul (I speak 
 not of the resurrection of the body) is dis- 
 coverable by human sagacity ^ examine the 
 strong reasons of that unrivalled genius, 
 who has the merit of having taught suc- 
 ceeding disputers to set their arguments in 
 order on the subject. Almost all the dis- 
 quisitions of Plato are grounded upon the 
 hypothesis of the soul's preexistence K Be- 
 
 s Vide Appendix, note A. 
 h Phaedo passim. 
 
 i The two principal arguments in the Phaedo, the one 
 derived from the notions of the ancients respecting yevsa-tg, 
 
 B 4 
 
8 
 
 sides confusing himself and his readers with 
 the mazes of verbal sophistry, in which, 
 notwithstanding all its excellencies, Greek 
 philosophy so much abounds, he derives his 
 fancied demonstrations from abstruse theo- 
 ries on the properties of generation and cor- 
 ruption, and the essential and eternal ar- 
 chetypes of things ; and even the most 
 plausible and specious are so obscured by 
 
 r 
 
 the other from his own philosophical belief concerning the 
 archetypes of things, rest entirely upon such a supposi- 
 tion. As the term generation was relative, and implied 
 its contrary corruption^ he infers that the act of being 
 born involves the destruction of a previous existence, from 
 which this present coming to life is a transition. '0^q\o- 
 ysiTui apex, r){uv tea) tuvty} Tovg ^oovras sk rcav tsQvscotwv ysyo- 
 vivai. Phaedo, Bekker, p. 30 — 34. 2dly. His theory of 
 eternal essences, or ideas, suggests the argument that the 
 notions which the soul has of perfect equality, perfect 
 good, &c. which are never found in sensible objects, prove 
 that it must have existed in a previous state, its present 
 knowledge being nothing more than remlmscence. The 
 discussion derives an incidental value, from shewing that 
 Plato had a considerable acquaintance with the law of as- 
 sociation. Plato, Bekker, pars ii. vol. iii. pp. 35 — 44. 
 
 Not one of the ancient philosophers before Christianity 
 held the soul's immortality, without holding the preexist- 
 ence of souls. They believed also the immortahty and 
 preexistence of brutes. Cudworth, Intellect. Syst. book i. 
 cap. 1. sect. 31, 32. 
 
9 
 
 the subtlety of his language \ as to be ab- 
 solutely unintelligible, except to a mind long 
 versed in the refinements of metaphysics. 
 Such theories as those in the Phaedo could 
 never have convinced any one of the soul's 
 immortality, unless he had been previously 
 prepared to believe it ; nor coming, as they 
 are supposed to have done, from the lips of 
 Socrates in his dying hour, could they have 
 
 k As a specimen of unmeaning subtlety, it may be suj^ 
 ficient to point out that exquisite verbal trifling towards 
 the end of the -treatise, respecting the archetype of even 
 and odd, and its application to tne question of the soul's 
 immortality, a-xoitsi l\ irsg) rr^^ Tf^nxdoc, p. 99. The reader is 
 absolutely bewildered for some time, till at length he is 
 conducted to the conclusion — that as the essence of even 
 does not partake of the contrary essence odd, so the soul 
 which brings life cannot partake of the contrary essence 
 death, and must consequently be immortal. If we had 
 not known the treatise to be a serious inquiry upon a se- 
 rious occasion, we might have been tempted to think, from 
 the winding up of the dialogue, that the writer intended 
 to ridicule such absurdities ; T/ ouv ; to ja^ h^of^^vov ty}v tou 
 'apTiQV iSeav t/ vvv drj oovo(/,ott^O[ji,sv ; 'Avapriov, e(pr). To 8g S/- 
 xotiov fjL^ Se^OjOtevov xa» av [LOUdDtov fjt,vj U^rjTcn ; "Afx.ovaoVy 
 g(p>), TO §£ aSjxov. Elev* o 8' av Qolvchtov (/,r) Ssp^ijra/, t/ xaXoO- 
 ■ju^sv; 'AQuvuTOv, eipri. Oukoov y} ^v^yj ov he^sToti SotvctTOv ; Ou. 
 'Afiavarov apot ^ ^tJX^' *AdavaTOv. Klsv, e(p>)* touto [xh dt] 
 AnOAEAEIX0AI <pciJ/Asv ; p. 103. Vide the whole argu- 
 ment, from p. 90 — 105. 
 
10 
 
 been his only consolation. If the argu- 
 ment, grounded upon the compound nature 
 of man ^, and the immateriality of the soul, be 
 brought forward in opposition to such a view 
 of the subject, it may be asked, was the phi- 
 losopher so well acquainted, or are we our- 
 selves, with all our additional knowledge, so 
 well acquainted with the laws and properties 
 of matter, as to be able to pronounce that 
 the Being who ("' even according to Plato's 
 creed) made the universe out of nothing, is 
 limited in power, and that he could not, if 
 he would, impart thought and intelligence 
 to a material substance? Or have we so 
 clear a notion of spirit^ or so perfect an in- 
 sight into the essential qualities of spirit^ as 
 to be satisfied, that leaving the revealed will 
 of the Deity out of the consideration, it is 
 in itself incapable of annihilation ? 
 
 Yet, however unsatisfactory such argu- 
 ments may be, (as arguments of natural rea- 
 
 ^ The soul is divine, immortal, intelligent, uncom- 
 pounded, indissoluble : the body human, mortal, without 
 intelligence, concrete, dissoluble. Plato, Phaedo, p. 50. 
 
 ^ Appendix, note B. 
 
11 
 
 son on the subject ever must be ",) shall we 
 assent at once to the opinion of bishop War- 
 burton, that neither Plato nor any one of the 
 philosophers (Socrates alone excepted) who 
 inculcated the notion of a future state them- 
 selves believed in it? By what process are we 
 to separate his real belief from his constant 
 and positive assertions? Those declarations 
 of his on which so much stress has been 
 laid, that it was lawful to deceive for the 
 public good, were evidently intended to be 
 
 ^ Warburton's Divine Legation, book iii. sect. 2. vol. 
 ii. edit. 1788. p. 11, 26. The observations of Warburton 
 respecting the doctrines of the ancient philosophers, vary- 
 ing with the subject matter which they embraced, whether 
 legislation or philosophy, are refined and ingenious ; but 
 they are neither universally true, nor are the conclusions 
 he would deduce from them to be trusted. " I have ob- 
 " served," says he, " that those sects which joined legis- 
 " lation to philosophy, as the Pythagoreans, Platonists, 
 "Peripatetics, and Stoics, always professed the belief of 
 " a future state of rewards and punishments ; while those 
 " who simply philosophized, as the Cyrenaic, the Cynic, 
 " &c, publicly professed the contrary." Aristotle was 
 full as much a legislative philosopher as Plato, and far 
 more practical ; and yet there is no one passage in the 
 whole of his works in which he directly proposes the re- 
 compense of a future state as the motive of morality; on 
 the contrary, among the voluminous writings of Plato, 
 there is scarcely a single treatise in which it is omitted. 
 
12 
 
 understood in a limited sense only**, and 
 not as the basis of a philosophy, which 
 above all others professed to have truth for 
 its one and only object. It is not merely 
 in his more plain and practical works that 
 we find his recorded opinions respecting 
 the existence of a future state ; they are to 
 be found in all his writings, whether moral, 
 political, or physical p : they intermingle 
 with the most subtle discussions in works 
 which never could have been intended for 
 popular instruction : and it is difficult to 
 understand by what application of the well- 
 known division of ancient philosophy into 
 exoteric and esoteric % or by what theory of 
 
 ^ Appendix, note C. 
 
 P Vide Plato, edit. Bekker. 
 
 Phaedo, pars ii. vol. iii. p. 106. 
 
 Apologia, pars i. vol. ii. p. 138. 
 
 Crito, pars i. vol. ii. p. 167. 
 
 Epist. 7. pars iii. vol. iii. p. 448. 
 
 Epist. 2. pars iii. vol. iii. p. 400. 
 
 Timaeus, pars iii. vol. ii. p. 45. 
 
 Republic, pars iii. vol. i. pp. 502 — 516. 
 
 Gorgias, pars ii. vol. i. pp. 163. 164. 165. 
 
 De Legibus, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 219. 
 
 Epinomis, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 374. 
 ^ Appendix, note D. 
 
IS 
 
 a double sense, devised after Plato's own 
 time, the same treatise, and the same por- 
 tion of a treatise, could be adapted at once 
 to instruct the philosopher and to delude 
 the vulgar. "^ If there were certain unwrit- 
 ten doctrines, which were a key to his real 
 sentiments, they have not come down to 
 us, and we have no means of estimating 
 their value ; and it is evident that we can- 
 not decide against the actual import of 
 what we know, on the supposed testimony 
 of what is altogether unknown. But it 
 will be said, the notion of a future state ' is 
 
 r Vid Brucker, vol.i. p. 660. Tennemann'*s Geschichte 
 der Philosophie von Wendt. art. Plato, p. 98. 
 
 Warburton, acute as he is acknowledged to be, seems 
 to write at times as if he confounded the three distinct 
 ideas of esoteric treatises, unwritten doctrines, and a 
 double sense to what is written. 
 
 s Warburton, book iii. sect. 3. Whately's Essays on 
 the Peculiarities of Christianity, p. 30. Lancaster's Har- 
 mony of the Law and Gospel, p. 126. 141. 
 
 The doctrine of the absorption of the human soul is 
 frequently imputed to Plato ; but it does not appear from 
 his own writings that he entertained the notion, nor in- 
 deed that of the Anima Mundi in the sense generally un- 
 derstood. He never confounds the soul of the universe 
 with the one first Cause, Creator, and Father of all things, 
 Plato's names for the supreme Deity are, 6 Arif^iovpyos, 6 
 
14 
 
 inconsistent with his philosophical theory 
 of the reunion of the soul after death, to 
 the one divine and universal Mind, from 
 whence it originally emanated*. Now al- 
 lowing, for the sake of argument, this to be 
 Plato's opinion, which is found in the sys- 
 tems of other philosophers rather than in 
 his own, is it so very easy for the under- 
 standing to realize to itself this notion of 
 absorption into the universal spirit, in which 
 all idea of personal consciousness is to be 
 excluded, that we are at once to discard 
 
 0SO5, 6 IIoiviT^g, xu) TIuTvjp Tou 6\ou, 6 us) Osog. AYifj^iovgyov- 
 ffoL Air /a, ysviasoog xa) ova lug uhiu, ^povou [x^ fisTB^oua-u, ou8* 
 Iv %f'ova> TO 'KapUTtoLV ov(roi, 0gof uWiMTUTOg, 6 TrgooTog Qsog, 6 
 f/iiyio-Tog Qsog. The soul of the world, and other second 
 causes, are, OsoO ysw^f^uTu xai spyu, Avifji,ioupyov wryipsroit, 
 Seoi dscwv, who derive all their power from the first Creator. 
 
 Vid. Timasus, and his other philosophical works, pas- 
 sim. Plotinus, Numenius, and the Platonists of the Alex- 
 andrian school, give a very different account : with them 
 the supreme Deity is the father of the A>;jxioupyoj, the se- 
 cond Deity, and the Anima Mundi is the third. Eusebius, 
 Praep. Evang. lib. xi. c. 17, 18. edit. Vigeri, Paris, 1628. 
 
 In the wild and blasphemous speculations of Cerintlius 
 and other early heretics, the supreme Deity is also dis- 
 tinguished from the A>jju,ioy^yo^, or Creator. Irena?us adv. 
 Haereses, hb. i. cap. 1. 13. 16. 19. 25. 33. lib. v. cap. 4. 
 
 ^ Vid. Appendix, note E. 
 
15 
 
 every declaration of belief as insincere, 
 which is at variance with the inference de- 
 ducible from such a theory? Are all those 
 expressions, in which the feelings of the 
 man triumph over the abstractions of the 
 philosopher, to be set aside in favour of a 
 principle which none of those who held it 
 either comprehended or consistently ex- 
 plained ? The best evidences of a man's 
 real conviction are not his speculative views, 
 but those natural sentiments to which he 
 gives utterance more in unison with the or- 
 dinary tendencies of the human mind. On 
 the lofty heights of metaphysical specula- 
 tion ", clouds and darkness hover, which it 
 
 ^ The speculatist may declare, if he will, that the law 
 of causation cannot be proved^ and that the free-agency 
 of man is disproved ; yet from the very next moment to 
 the last hour of his life, the natural course of his thoughts, 
 words, and actions, will be in direct contradiction to his 
 theories. If he argue that the immortality of the soul 
 cannot be demonstrated on the principles of pure reason, 
 the desire of the heart, the " longing after immortality," 
 will still remain ; and this (omitting revelation) is of itself 
 the best evidence of its truth, 
 
 AI yap /SeATio-rat ^rjx^i MANTETONTAI rawra ootcoj 
 iX^iv. Plato, 2 Epist. ad Dionys. Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. 
 p. 400. 
 
 Warburton 
 
16 
 
 is not permitted to the limited powers of 
 the most exalted intellect to disperse. ""The 
 difficulties multiply in proportion as we 
 ascend, and if we imagine that we have ar- 
 rived at certainty, and venture to give defi- 
 nite form and shape to our abstractions, we 
 shall soon learn the mortifying lesson, how 
 little our system will influence the prac- 
 tical belief of others, or even our own, when 
 opposed to the more common motives and 
 instinctive impressions of our nature. Those 
 who have reflected most on such subjects 
 will perhaps assent to the opinion, that if 
 we would discover truth, we must pursue 
 it in some lower region, in which the light 
 of our moral feelings and faculties may be 
 allowed to cheer and direct our path. 
 These reflections, while they teach humi- 
 lity to ourselves, may assist us to form a 
 
 Warburton speaks with contempt of such inferences, 
 as proper only to poetical metaphysicians and metaphysi- 
 cal poets; yet Aristotle, at least as sober a reasoner as 
 himself, attributes to no argument more weight than to 
 one grounded on our natural desires. Divine Legation, 
 vol. iii. p. 6S2. Aristot. Ethic, book i. chap. 2. Rhet. 
 book ii. chap. 19. 
 
 X Appendix, note F. 
 
17 
 
 right estimate as to the actual belief of the 
 ancient philosophers on the subject of a 
 future existence. - It is not because they 
 give way to doubts and misgivings; (on 
 such a subject how could it be otherwise ?) 
 it is not because we meet with unintelligible 
 theories ; this has been the history of meta- 
 physics in all ages and under all religions : 
 it is not because these theories might lead 
 to consequences inconsistent with their po- 
 sitive declarations, that we are to come at 
 once to the conclusion that they had no 
 belief in what they asserted, and that So- 
 crates and Plato ^ (for we have no certain 
 
 y If the misgivings of Socrates at one time are brought 
 forward, let us remember the strength and confidence of 
 his assertions at others. Vid. Phaedo, p. 120. 
 
 Sequitur ex liis nobile Socraticae scholse dogma ; ani- 
 mum esse immortalem et habere post mortem pryemia 
 virtutis: quod morte sua obsignavit et confirmavit So- 
 crates. Videtur non tam de animorum post banc vitam 
 felicitate dubitasse quam de ejus conditione et loco, quo 
 referenda sunt, si vere sunt Socratis quae apud Antonium 
 et Maximum ei tribuuntur, interrogatum quaenam in al- 
 tero mundo sint obvia, respondisse, se neque ipsum ibi 
 unquam fuisse neque cum ullo eorum qui inde rediissent 
 colloquutum esse. Hist. Crit. Phil. Brucker, vol. i. 
 pp. 563, 564i, 
 
 2 W^arburton and others attempt to separate the opin- 
 C 
 
18 
 
 criterion by which we can separate the 
 opinions of the one from those of the other,) 
 made it the sole business of their lives to 
 deceive those whom they pretended to 
 teach. The general tone and temper per- 
 vading their discussions is at variance with 
 such an opinion. ""It is a striking feature 
 in the character of Socrates, and which 
 well entitles him to the admiration even of 
 Christians, that, surrounded with mysteries 
 which he could not explain, and in the 
 midst of darkness which he could not pene- 
 
 ions of Socrates from those of Plato- Whether the fact 
 be so or not, we have no means of distinguishing between 
 them. As far as Plato's own evidence is available, the 
 
 contrary is the case. Ata tuutu ov^h TTMnoT eyu) Trepi tou- 
 
 %(TTai, Tu di vvv Xcyo>5va l^UKPATOTS sari. Plat. 2 Epist. 
 ad Dionys. p. 406. 
 
 I do not wish to insist on the positive testimony of this 
 passage, on account of the obvious advantage it must 
 have been to the philosopher to convey his instructions 
 freely to his friend, through the medium of another's 
 name; I am speaking of course of their opinions on 
 moral subjects. It is well known that Plato discussed 
 physical questions, which Socrates did not ; Scoxparouj Ss 
 Treg) fLsv ru rjQixoi Trpayfi^uTsvoiJLSvou TTsp) Se t^j oXjjj <pua"£coj ovlsv. 
 Aristot. Metaphys. lib. i. cap. 6. 
 
 a Appendix, note G. 
 
19 
 
 trate, he seems to have reposed implicit 
 confidence in the benevolence of the Deity 
 even unto death ^ and to have believed in 
 
 b Socrates is full of expressions indicating that implicit 
 confidence in the justice and benevolence of the Deity, 
 which is the root and foundation of all religious faith. 
 
 In the Theaetetus, 0eos ou8a/A>) ouSaftoJj oBixoc, oiW* cog 
 olov TS SixaioVarof, jca) oux. scttiv avTcu ofioioTspov ov^sv r} og ocv 
 Y}fjt,u)V ecu yevY^ron oti ^maiOTUTog. Kekker, pars ii. "vol. i. 
 p. 247. In the Gorgias, M^ yup tovto [j^h, to ^f,v 6^J^oa■ov^ 
 Xpovov, Tov ys cog a\Y}^cog avlpct euxreov h(TTi kolI ov ^<Ao\J/y^»3- 
 T£ov, aXX' BTtiTpe^oivra irsp) toutoov too Qsco. Bekker, pars ii. 
 vol. i. p. 142. Again, in the same treatise, speaking of 
 the unjust and intemperate man, Our= yup oiv aWco uvQpaiTrco 
 'Kqo(T(^iKYig oiv siri 6 ToiouTog outs Seco. Bekker, pars ii. vol. i. 
 p. 133. In the Theages, a treatise ascribed to Plato, 'E«v 
 
 fJLSV too QsCti CplXOV ]5, TTOtVU TtOKu STTldaXTSig XU) TU^Vj el 8g jM,^, ou. 
 
 Bekker, pars ii. vol. iii. p. 280. In the Apologia, Ou8e 
 a[j(,£\slTcn VTTO 0ea)v tol toutov Trpayjxara. Bekker, pars i. 
 vol. ii. p. 139. Vide also Alcibiades I. if this dialogue 
 was really written by Plato, which admits of some doubt. 
 
 SOC. Ou xoiXcag Xeysig, '12 'AXxi|3<aS)j. 
 
 ALC. *AAAa TTcug ^pv) Ksysiv ; 
 
 SOC/'Ori Euv Qaog s^sXyi, p. 373. 
 
 SOC. 'O eTriTgoTTog 6 k[Aog ^sXrioov etTT* xu) (ro(pcjtiTspog jj 
 Tlepixkrig 6 crog, 
 
 ALC. Tig ouTog, CO "^wxpxTsg; 
 
 SOC. 0£ogy M 'AXx</3»aS)j, X. t. X. Bekker, pars ii. vol. iii. 
 p. 345. 
 
 It may be worth mentioning also, that SocrateS con- 
 sidered suicide a criminal act of disobedience to the Deity : 
 because we are here at our post assigned us by the gods, 
 
 C 2 
 
20 
 
 him as a rewarder of them that diligently 
 seek him, in spite of all the doubts that 
 confounded his understanding, and the 
 wrongs and oppressions which he endured. 
 Whatever were his views on the abstract 
 question of the universal soul, he is uni- 
 form in teaching that no happiness in this 
 life was perfect, and that our happiness in 
 another would depend upon our conduct 
 during our present existence. He reasoned 
 as Hooker reasoned, that no sensible, no 
 moral and civil perfection, was sufficient to 
 satisfy the desires which nature had im- 
 planted "". ^ He exhorted men to aspire (to 
 
 and may not leave without their permission. ToSe ye [jt,oi 
 ^OKsl, CO Ks(2ifjc, sv XsyecrQai, to 0sovg shon r}[ji,(ov Tovg sTrifjt^zXQ' 
 lji,evoug. Phaedo, p. 13. 
 
 c In the Convivium of Plato, Socrates is represented 
 as making celestial love the source of every duty towards 
 gods and men ; and admonishing his hearers, that all the 
 labours and desires of the soul ought to aim at that 
 supreme archetype of beauty and truth, which is perfect 
 in itself, uniform and unchangeable, and in the possession 
 of which alone complete happiness can be found. Convi- 
 vium, pars ii. vol. ii. Plato, Bekker, p. 444, &c. 
 
 Sentences like these remind us of bishop Butler's ser- 
 mon on the Love of God ; and some of the most beauti- 
 ful passages in the earlier parts of Hooker's Ecclesiastical 
 
21 
 
 use the words of Hooker) to "something 
 " spiritual and divine ; that which exceed- 
 " eth the reach of sense, yea somewhat 
 " above the capacity of reason, which with 
 " hidden exaltation it rather surmiseth than 
 " conceiveth^" This divine felicity in a 
 future state was to consist in the contem- 
 plation of truth in its substantial beauty 
 and perfection, of which we only see the 
 shadow here below, through the dark me- 
 dium of the senses and imagination^ Hence 
 
 Polity, vid. p. 260. vol. i. 8vo. edit. Leigh ton's 4th and 
 5th Lectures are also written very much in the spirit of 
 Plato's exhortations ; Leighton's Works, vol. iv. 
 
 d Appendix, notes H and I. 
 
 e Cedant igitur hi oranes (says Augustin, speaking of 
 other sects) illis philosophis qui non dixerunt boatum esse 
 hominem, fruentem corpore, vel fruentem animo, sed 
 fruentem Deo. August. Civ. Dei, lib. viii. c. 8. 
 
 It is very true, that some of St. Augustin's observations 
 respecting the similarity of Plato's sentiments to the pre- 
 cepts of Christianity, are applicable only to the refine- 
 ments introduced by the later Platonists : yet Plato him- 
 self certainly inculcated the notion to which the words 
 above cited allude. 
 
 f Vide that beautiful passage in the Phaedo, unequalled 
 perhaps for the flowing harmony of its language in the 
 whole compass of Greek literature; in which he de- 
 scribes the effect of the passions in darkening the under- 
 
 c3 
 
S2 
 
 his continual exhortations to die daily, (they 
 are almost the words of Plato ^ ;) to subdue, 
 even to their utter extinction, those cor- 
 rupt affections which alike darken the un- 
 derstanding, and are the cause of all moral 
 evil. He asserts, in the language of holy 
 writ, that the wars and fightings which 
 exist among mankind, proceed from the 
 unruly passions that tear in their members^y 
 and that it was only by overcoming these, 
 and practising virtue, which was an imita- 
 tion of the Deity, that we could hope to 
 enjoy the happiness of the Deity hereafter L 
 
 standing, and the power of philosophy in emancipating 
 the soul from their tyranny. Plato, Bekker, pars ii. vol. 
 iii. pp. K>^ — 58. 
 
 S True philosophers, ouSsv aXka atJroi 67r<T>j8suoy(riv \ olt^o- 
 ^vy](Tx.siv Ts xai rs^vava/. Phasdo, Bekker, p. 16. 
 
 h Kal yoip TTOksixoug xa) aroKTsig xa) (J^oi.^ct§ ouSev a.X>^o 'TTotg- 
 ^X^i Yi TO a-cofjia xci) al toutou sttiQuixIoii. Phaedo, page 21. 
 compare St. James iv. 1. 
 
 * Aio xu) TTBipoLd^cti ^pr) IvdevBg exsl<rs <ps6yuv on Tu^liTToc. 
 (Pvyrj ds 'OMOmSl^ 0E12I xcctu to dvvctTov. 'OMOmSlS 
 ts tixaiov xa.) ocriov (j^sto. (ppovYiasoog ysveVQa*. Theastetus, Bek- 
 ker, pars ii. vol. i. p. 347. It was the saying of the Py- 
 thagorean philosophers, from whom Plato probahly bor- 
 rowed the sentiment: tsKos avQpMTrov oiioicocris Qeoo, Eusebius 
 asserts that this idea, of its being the perfection of man to 
 imitate the Deity, was taken from the Hebrew scriptures. 
 
2S 
 
 In the spirit of the precept, which teaches 
 that obedience is better than sacrifice, he 
 declares that God is not propitiated by of- 
 ferings and victims, but by the virtues of 
 the soul, by piety, justice, and truth ^. He 
 cautions his hearers against pride and high- 
 mindedness, by admonishing them that the 
 man who adhered to what was just, with a 
 humble and well-regulated temper, would 
 enjoy happiness and the favour of the Deity, 
 while he who indulged an insolent spirit, 
 swelling with pride and ambition, would be 
 left deserted by God. In listening to such 
 sentiments, who does not recollect the lan- 
 guage of inspiration, which declares that 
 God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to 
 the humble^? He teaches, that not only evil 
 
 ev Tco *AXx<|8<a5>j (fr)o-/v. x.. t. \. Eusebius, Prasp. Evangel, 
 lib. xi. cap. 27. Vigeri edit. Paris. 1628. Plato, Alcibiad. 
 Bekker, pars ii. vol. iii. p. S68. 
 
 ^ Kot) yocp OLV tmov sir], s] nzpog roi ^topot xoci roi$ Qucrloii a-no^ 
 /3Xs7rou<nv ^jxcov o\ figol, aWa fxv) Trpog tvjv ^v^yjv, ccv Tig o<rioc 
 noii S/xaiOf Mv Tuy^uvYi. Alcibiades II. Bekker, pars i. vol. 
 ii. p. 295. 
 
 ^ Vid. Plato de Legibus, lib. iv. Bekker, pars iii. vol. 
 ii. p. 355. Eusebius, Praep. Evangel, lib. xi. cap. 13. St. 
 James, iv^^G. 
 
 c 4 
 
24 
 
 actions are to be avoided, but that light and 
 idle words are to be shunned : for an aveng- 
 ing Nemesis was appointed to take account 
 of, and severely to punish, even these'". 
 That this vengeance of the gods, the wicked 
 man could by no efforts either elude or 
 escape ; if he could take wings and fly up 
 to heaven, or could penetrate into the very 
 depths of the earth, it would still pursue 
 and search him out, either here or here- 
 after ". Such maxims are certainly admir- 
 able, and inferior only to that perfect wisdom 
 which came from the lips of Him who spake 
 as never man spake ^ and who proposed to 
 the imitation of his followers no imaginary 
 pattern, removed alike from their sight and 
 their comprehension, but descended upon 
 
 m AioTi KOT<l>12N xai nTHNX2N AOFON /3a/5ur«T)j 
 ^>3ju-/a* TraiXi yotp STrKrxowos rolg Trsp) tu toiuvto, eroLp^Qri Alxris 
 Ngjxecris ocyysXog, De Legibus, lib. iv. p. 357. 
 
 " Oux ovTM a-[Jiixpos MV dvasi xaru to t% y^j /3a5oj, ou8* 
 
 V^l/YlXO$ ySVOfJ^SVOS s\$ rOV OVpotVOV (XVUTTTYjO'Si, t'kTSIS 8g aVTMVf T^V 
 
 rfrpocTYiKOva-av TifJicopluv s'It IvOaSs ju-evcov she xoi) Iv "Aidov ^iutto- 
 psMg. De Legibus, lib. x. p. 219. 
 
 o Mirantur quidam nobis in gratia Christi sociati cum 
 audiunt vel legunt Platonem de Deo ista sensisse quae 
 multum congruere veritati religionis nostras agnoscunt. 
 Augustin, Civ. Dei, lib. viii, c. 11. 
 
25 
 
 earth, and went about doing good, the visi- 
 ble and embodied model and archetype of 
 truth. Whether these precepts are called 
 morality or philosophical purification, which 
 necessarily included within it the idea of 
 morality, their natural tendency, unless 
 counteracted by other causes, must have 
 been beneficial p; for those only who trained 
 themselves by them were to be admitted to 
 the future happiness -^ those who did not, 
 were to be excluded from it ; whether the 
 participation or exclusion were derived from 
 some law of physical necessity inherent in 
 the soul, or depended on the decision of a 
 supreme Judge \ For allusions to a future 
 judgment, including as it does the idea of 
 retribution in its more strict and proper 
 sense, are by no means wanting. In the 
 same treatise, in which we find him declar- 
 ing before the tribunal of his country, that 
 there was a divine voice within him which 
 
 P Apologia Socratis, Plato, Bekker, pars i. vol. ii. p. 118. 
 Hist. Crit. Phil. Brucker, vol. i. p. 564. 
 
 q Phaedo, Bekker, pars ii. vol, iii. p. 107. Epist. 7. 
 Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 448. Gorgias, Bekker, pars ii. 
 vol. i. p. 167. 
 
26 
 
 commanded him to obey God rather than 
 man \ he is represented as deriving consola- 
 tion from the reflection that there would be 
 a more just judgment hereafter. And after 
 his condemnation, when his friends had 
 made all things ready for his escape from 
 prison, and urged him to fly from his im- 
 pending fate, he refuses at once, alleging as 
 the grounds of his refusal the duty of sub- 
 mission to the laws : when they persist in 
 their solicitations, urging that the injustice 
 of the law, in condemning him though inno- 
 cent, would warrant his disobedience ; he 
 answers them with the Christian maxim, 
 that it is our duty to return good for evil^; 
 
 ^ nElSOMAI AE MA AAON Till 0EX2T H 'TMIN. Apo- 
 logia, Bekker, pars i. vol. ii. p. 115. eOprjcrsi Toug cog 'AAH- 
 0f2^ AIKA^TA^, o'{ TTsg xa) XsyovroLi kxel Zixa^siv. Apo- 
 logia, p. 138. The practical effects of his belief in a fu- 
 ture judgment are stated also in the Gorgias : 'Ttto tovtoov 
 TMV \6yoov fri'7rsi<rfx,ui, xa) (rxoitw 07ru)g uTro<pavoo[ji,oti too xpirfi cog 
 vyisaTixTrjV tvjv ^v^^v, ^aigsiv ovv euaag rag Tiixoig rug tcjov ttoAAcuv 
 oivSgMTtoov, Ttjv uKrjQsiuv axOTtcav, irsipccdOi^oLi tm ovri cog av Suvco- 
 fjiui (^iXTKTTog coy xui ^^v x«i hzei^uv aTrofivijo-xco a7ro9vi^crxEiV, 
 riapotxoiXco ds xu) Tovg aWovg Travrag uv&pooTroug. Gorgias, Plato, 
 Bekker, pars ii. vol. i. p. 170. 
 
 s The passage is very strong in the original : Socrates 
 denies that we have the right, under any circumstances, 
 
9.7 
 
 assigning at the same time as the motive of 
 his conduct, that he may be able to give a 
 good account to the gods who reign in 
 Hades*. Thus the very same man whose 
 arguments for the soul's immortality are 
 unsatisfactory or unintelligible, teaches in 
 plain and simple language the right source 
 of moral obligation ", the most perfect 
 moral precept, and the strongest motive 
 and encouragement for the practice of it 
 
 of returning evil for evil : Outs apx 'ANTAAIKEIN hi outs 
 KAK12S nOIEIN ovUvu avQ^coTrcov, OTA' *AN 'OTIOTN 
 nA:SXHI 'rn* ATTI2N. Crito, Uekker, pars i. vol. ii. p. 
 157. 
 
 In the Gorgias also he declares that it is better to suffer 
 injustice than to commit it : Su upu ^ov\oio av oSixsla-Qon 
 fj,uK\ov r} a^ixfiv ; (Soc.) BouAo<jU.>3V jxsv av syaoys oodiTsgct' el 
 8' ocvayxoiiov enj u^ixslv 15 a5ixs7o"5a<, kXolfXYjv av {xoiXXov u^ixsi- 
 a-QonYj oidiKslv. Gorgias, Bekker, pars ii. vol. i. p. 49. 
 
 ^ M.YJTS 7ra7§aj TTSp) trKslovog ttoiov fj^rjTS to K,f,v ju-^ts «X>.o jOtyjSsv 
 •ffpo Tov diKCilov, 'iva s\g"hi^ov sXflcov eyr^g twjto. "KcaTo. ccKOXoyy]- 
 aotcrQcn To1g Ixsi oip^ouG-iv, Crit. p. 167. 
 
 u The statement here given by no means coincides with 
 the following assertions of Warburton : " The ancients 
 " neither knew the origin of obligation nor the conse- 
 " quence of obedience. Revelation hath discovered these 
 " principles; and we now wonder that such prodigies of 
 " parts and knowledge could commit the gross absurdities 
 " which are to be found in their best discourses on mo- 
 " rality.'"* Divine Legation, lib. iii. s. 5. vol. iii. p. 144. 
 
28 
 
 in the expectation of future retribution. 
 It is not my intention to pursue the sub- 
 ject at length through the different schools 
 of antiquity; through the scepticism of 
 some, the atheism of others, or the sys- 
 tems of those who allowed the existence, 
 yet denied the providence of God; nor 
 to examine how far their principles are 
 consistent with their ordinary precepts, and 
 the comparative credit due to either in de- 
 ciding upon their own belief But it may 
 be a matter of interesting inquiry to in- 
 vestigate the opinions of one distinguished 
 teacher respecting a future state, who more 
 than divided with Plato the empire of phi- 
 losophy. It is however by no means easy 
 to ascertain the sentiments of Aristotle on 
 the subject : as he taught that happiness 
 would be the reward of virtue in this life, 
 he makes few allusions in his practical 
 works to the destinies of the soul in an- 
 other state of being. He never directly 
 proposes the doctrine of a future retribution 
 as the motive of our morality : and though 
 he certainly held the soul's immortality, it 
 is doubted by some if he believed its exist- 
 
29 
 
 ence after death in a state of personal iden- 
 tity. In that important question, whether 
 the abstract principles of reason or the com- 
 mon opinions of mankind are the best evi- 
 dence of truth, he uniformly gives the pre- 
 ference to the latter''. And if this be adopt- 
 ed 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 ^i but at other times his 
 language appears to be of a different ten- 
 dency ; and in his metaphysical works, if 
 amid many perplexed and obscure state- 
 ments his meaning be rightly understood ^ 
 
 X Hence his continual appeal in his Ethics to the lan- 
 guage of men as an evidence of truth : and in the 10th 
 book, chap. 8, he observes, that the arguments of philo- 
 sophers 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 particu- 
 larly book iii. chap. 5, 6. Tennemann's Geschichte der 
 Philosophie, art. Aristotle, p. 109. Cudworth**s Intellect. 
 Syst. booki. §. 45. Warburton's Divine Legation, book 3. 
 sect. 4. vol. iv. p. 112. No writer but Warburton pro- 
 fesses to think Aristot. de Anima, book iii. chap. 5,Q, 
 clear and intelligible. His theory of the TO 'EN intro- 
 
30 
 
 he denies to that part, or rather power of 
 the soul which he invests with immortahty, 
 the possession of memory, and consequently, 
 by a possible though not necessary infer- 
 ence, 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 be- 
 lieved, 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 unpro- 
 fitable, and left the common expectations 
 of mankind, loaded as they were with ab- 
 surdity, a better guide even to themselves 
 
 duced to explain the difficulty is an assumption, not an 
 argument. 
 
 a Appendix, note K. 
 
31 
 
 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 
 
 ^ The words «vayxa7ov ovv e^t) Trspifj^emv soog olv rig [i.ol^ 
 cug hi Trgog Ssouj xai Trpoj uvQ^ctinovc ZiuxsiaSui. Alcib. Xlore ovv 
 TTupscrcii 6 •^povog ovTO(;y oo l^ooKpotrsg; xu) rig 6 TruiBsvo'ctiv ', ij^i- 
 ara yup av jxoi Soxw *8e7v rovrov rov uvSpooTTOv rig s<mvj have 
 been frequently cited by theologians as a proof that So- 
 crates 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 whe- 
 ther 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 Alci- 
 biades, but he was aware that his disciple would not re- 
 ceive 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. Alci- 
 biades II. Bekker, pars i. vol. ii. pp. 296 — 298. Nor will 
 the passage in the Republic, (ourco ^lUKslpLsvog 6 hUceiog .... 
 oiVix(r)(^iv^u\suQYj(rerui, Bekker, p. 66.) which is referred to 
 by Black wall 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 con- 
 cerning justice and injustice be calmly considered from 
 the commencement of the book to the words alluded to. 
 Repub. lib. ii. Bekker, pp. 57 — 66. 
 
32 
 
 appoint some one to reveal his will to 
 man, and enlighten his mind upon sub- 
 jects too excellent for human intellect to 
 attain to ! 
 
 Let us turn from the speculations of pa- 
 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. 
 
 *" 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 re- 
 wards 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. 
 
33 
 
 "^That the extraordinary providence, which 
 under the Jewish dispensation extended 
 both to the state and the particular mem- 
 bers of the state, would prevent any of that 
 feeling arising from the unequal distribu- 
 tion of things, which, under the ordinary 
 course of God's providence, so naturally di- 
 rects the hopes of men to the recompense 
 of another life. 
 
 These propositions are certainly at vari- 
 ance 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. 
 
 "" 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 Pen- 
 tateuch, in his tract de Resurrectione Mortuorum. For 
 
34 
 
 candid inquirer, that, using the term Mo- 
 saic law in its strict and limited sense, as 
 the code delivered on mount Sinai, the 
 doctrine of future retribution is not to be 
 found in it. For the cabalistic interpre- 
 tations and distortions of words and phrases, 
 by which many of the Jewish rabbin at- 
 tempt to establish a different opinion, are 
 too absurd to require refutation ; and those 
 solemn expressions of Moses, / call heaven 
 and earth to record this day against you^ 
 that I have set before you life and deaths 
 blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, 
 which some theologians understand of a 
 future and eternal life, appear, when taken 
 in connection with their context, to refer, 
 in their simple and primary sense at least, 
 
 the immortality, Exod. xix. 6. xxxiii. 20. Levit. vii. 25. 
 Deut. xiv. 1, 2. xxii. 7. xxxii. 47. For the resurrection, 
 Gen. iii. 19. xxxvii. 10. Exod. xv. 6. Levit. xxv. Numb. 
 XV. 30. xviii. 28. Deut. iv. 4. xxxii. 39. xxxiii. 6. He 
 has also given at length Rabbi Tanchum''s ridiculous 
 Comment on 1 Sam. xxv. 29. Vide also Michaelis Argu- 
 menta Immortalitatis, sect. 9. p. 96. Syntagma Comment. 
 Goettingae 1759. who enumerates several texts from the 
 Diatribe of Theodorus Dassovius, some of which are the 
 same with those mentioned above, others different. 
 
35 
 
 to the benefits of this life only^. And most 
 certainly this promise of temporal good and 
 evil on the part of the legislator, as the 
 recompense of obedience or disobedience, 
 when combined with the historical fact, 
 that the fortunes of the Jewish people for 
 ages are in exact accordance with it^, an 
 agreement which no human wisdom could 
 have foreseen, and no human power could 
 have fulfilled, does prove that the legis- 
 lator himself was an ambassador from hea- 
 ven, and that he must have been appointed 
 by that omniscient and omnipotent Being, 
 who alone could make the contingent de- 
 signs and contingent operations of free 
 agents, whether acting individually or as 
 nations, contribute to the accomplishment 
 of his own certain and unchangeable pur- 
 
 ^ Deut. XXX. 19. Mr. Peters contends that the Abra- 
 hamic covenant was renewed in this chapter, and bishop 
 Bull understood it in the same way. Vid. Critical Disser- 
 tation on Book of Job, by Mr. Peters, part iii. sect. S. 
 also bishop BulPs Harmon. Apostol. Dissert. Poster, 
 cap. 11. This able divine argues very strongly through- 
 out the chapter in favour of the hypothesis alluded to. 
 
 g Vid. Joshua xxiii. 14. All are come to pass unto you, 
 and not one thing hath Jailed thereof. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 poses. But to argue that, in consequence 
 of this omission, it was intended by Moses, 
 or rather by the Almighty, whose servant 
 he was, that the Jews should be shut out 
 from the knowledge of a future state, would** 
 imply a far greater acquaintance with the 
 counsels of divine wisdom than we may 
 presume to lay claim to. The question, 
 whether the Jews believed on such a doc- 
 trine or not, would depend upon the means 
 they might have of acquiring information 
 from other sources besides their legp-l code; 
 and whether the necessary effect of the 
 Mosaic code would be to check or anni- 
 hilate every other source of instruction. 
 In order to understand the subject rightly 
 it is necessary to keep in mind the object 
 of that law, which was\ to preserve the 
 
 h The law in its sanctions is only po,ntive, that God 
 will do so much, not exclusive, that he will do nothing 
 more. Davison on Prophecy, p. 175. 
 
 Warburton's work was translated into German in 1751. 
 J. D. Michaelis published a short Dissertation (if not 
 written, corrected by him) against it, Argumenta Im- 
 mortalitatis Animorum humanorum ex Mose collecta. 
 Goettingae 1752. Vide Schrockh. viii. Theil. vol. xliii. 
 p. 753. 
 
 i Warburton, book v. sect. 2. vol. iii. p. QQ, 
 
37 
 
 memory of the one God in an idolatrous 
 world, till the coming of Christ. And it is 
 difficult to conceive how this object could 
 be effected by any other than temporal re- 
 wards ; by any other than some signal and 
 visible manifestations of the divine power, 
 which might convince the heathen nations 
 that the God of the Hebrews was indeed a 
 God that doeth wonders, and might recall 
 to the carnal-minded Jew himself, when 
 tempted to forget his Benefactor, by the 
 immediate vengeance attendant upon trans- 
 gression, a sense at once of his obligations 
 and his privileges:^ / will send my fear 
 before thee, and will destroy all the people to 
 whom thou shalt come, and I will make all 
 thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. 
 
 ^And five of you shall chase an hundred, 
 and an hundred of you shall put ten thou- 
 sand to flight, and your enemies shall fall 
 before you by the sword. 
 
 Such was the promised recompense of 
 obedience ; but in case of disobedience the 
 threat is denounced : 
 
 ^ Exod. xxiii. 27. * lievit. xxvi. 8. 
 
 d3 
 
38 
 
 '" / will set my face against you, and ye 
 shall be slain before you?* enemies. 
 
 ""And I will scatter* you among the hea- 
 then, and will draw out a sword after youy 
 and your land shall be desolate and your 
 cities waste. 
 
 Nor does it appear that this promise of 
 temporal good, as many of the opponents 
 of Warburton° contended, was confined to 
 the nation only: health and wealth, ferti- 
 lity to the field and fruitfulness to the 
 cattle, the blessing of the olive and the 
 vine, the basket and the store, every kind 
 of prosperity, was promised to the indivi- 
 dual also ; yet as well to the individual as 
 to the state, in reference to the main ob- 
 ject, the preservation of both from idolatry, 
 which would generally be best effected by 
 the more striking example of national bless- 
 ings and national punishments. Yet it is 
 difficult to understand how such a condi- 
 tion of things should destroy in the minds 
 of the people either those natural expecta- 
 
 "» Levit. xxvi. 17. " Levit. xxvi. 33. 
 
 o Mr. Peters and other opponents of Warburton. 
 
39 
 
 tions which the rest of mankind cherished 
 in regard to a future state, or the authority 
 of revelation, supposing the doctrine were 
 contained in other inspired writings, which 
 they acknowledged, besides the ordinances 
 of their legal code. The extraordinary 
 providence under which they lived could 
 not justify the ways of God to man upon 
 the ground of reason, as a rewarder of them 
 that diligently seek him, for (it has been well 
 remarked) though an extraordinary provi- 
 denceP, it was not an equal providence, and 
 under such a dispensation as the Mosaic 
 (with reverence be it spoken) Omnipotence 
 itself could not make it so. If the land 
 suffered for its transgressions and became 
 captive to its enemies, it is hardly possible 
 to imagine that some innocent individuals 
 should not have suffered with it. We read 
 in the books of Moses, that when one par- 
 ticular person had committed the offence, 
 
 P Mr. Peters (p. 263.) observes, that an extraordinary 
 providence does by no means include or infer an equal 
 providence. Mr. Lancaster has very properly remarked 
 on the egregious fallacy of Warburton in confounding 
 the two ideas. Vide Mr. Lancaster's Harmony of the 
 Law and the Gospel, p. 157. 
 
 D 4 
 
40 
 
 the whole army and nation was punished 
 for his sin, though ignorant of it. In like 
 manner, subjects were punished for the dis- 
 obedience of the king. Again, when the 
 father offended, his innocent children and 
 family were cut off with him ; and, suppos- 
 ing they escaped the legal penalty, the loss 
 of the father would itself be an infliction 
 of evil on his kindred. The author of the 
 Divine Legation has called circumstances 
 like these, inequalities of events, and neces- 
 sarily arising from an equal providence % 
 as if by a change of phrase he could get rid 
 of the fact, that under such a dispensation 
 the innocent suffered with the guilty ; and 
 that it was even a necessary and appoint- 
 ed part of it for the crimes of the fathers 
 to be visited upon the children. Yet, amid 
 such inequalities, have we any reason to 
 
 ^ Warburton's Divine Legation, book v. sect. 4. vol. iii. 
 p. 121. 
 
 He attempts also most paradoxically to shew that the 
 sacred writers, when they speak (more particularly in the 
 Book of Psalms and Ecclesiastes) of the inequalities of 
 Providence and the unfit distribution of things^ allude to 
 a dispensation existing among their pagan neighbours, 
 and not in Judaea. Book v. sect. 4. vol. iii. p. 120. 
 
41 
 
 suppose that the peculiar people of God, 
 favoured as they were acknowledged to be, 
 should have been deprived of those hopes 
 of future recompense, in which every other 
 nation under heaven, when oppressed with 
 calamity, could find consolation? And 
 strong as the sanctions of their temporal 
 code might be as a motive of moral con- 
 duct, have we any probable grounds for 
 supposing that the Almighty excluded from 
 the breast of the Jew the fear of future re- 
 tribution, which, in many secret offences 
 to which the law cannot reach, provides a 
 surer check than temporal evils or tempo- 
 ral death, and which, even under such a reli- 
 gion as paganism, had a powerful operation 
 in deterring men from transgression : for 
 we have the testimony of one of their own 
 writers that it was the inordinate lusts and 
 passions of men that made them atheists "" ? 
 Nor is it necessary for us to explain why, 
 if it were intended that the Jewish people 
 should look forward to the good or evil of 
 the future life, it was not made a part of 
 
 ^ "Axgursla r|8ov«)v xai sTnQvixim. Plato de Legibus, lib. x. 
 Bentley's First Sermon on the Folly of Atheism. 
 
4£ 
 
 the sanctions of their law. We cannot rea- 
 son clearly on the purposes of the Almighty, 
 who knows better than we do the compre- 
 hensiveness of his own designs, and the 
 best method and the best time of accom- • 
 plishing them : The secret things belong 
 unto the Lord, but those things which are 
 revealed belong unto us and to our children 
 for ever \ Yet if we reflect upon the me- 
 thod which God had appointed, by which 
 man was to be made partaker of eternal 
 life, the propitiation of Christ and not his 
 own merit or obedience, we may be led to 
 understand why the promise of eternal life 
 was not given in the law ^ Those who lived 
 under such a system might in that case 
 have supposed that the gift of eternal life 
 was annexed as the deserved reward of obe- 
 
 s Deut. xxix. 29. 
 
 ' The apostle'*s answer will serve me ; For if there had 
 been a law which could have given life, verily righteous- 
 7iess should have been by the law. Gal. iii. 21 . that is, if 
 the genius of the law had produced such a dispensation 
 as was proper to convey to mankind the free gift of life 
 and immortality, this gift would have been conveyed by 
 it. Warburton, vol. iii. book v. sect. 6. p. 163; vid. also 
 p. 162. Mr. Lancaster's Harmony, preface, and p. 11. 
 and 12. 
 
43 
 
 dience to the law ; that the law was in it- 
 self perfect, and sufficient for man's justifi- 
 cation, and not the shadow of good things 
 to come, and the preparation of a system 
 founded upon better pi^omises. It is evi- 
 dent from the Epistles of St. Paul, that it 
 was their confidence in the allsufficiency of 
 legal ordinances which wrought so strongly 
 on the ancient Jews in their obstinate re- 
 jection of the gospel; they believed that 
 their scriptures held out the blessing of im- 
 mortality as the destined portion of Israel ; 
 and they were persuaded, that, if not di- 
 rectly taught in the law, it was implied in 
 it, and would be given to the faithful Is- 
 raelite through the instrumentality of its 
 sanctions alone. Supposing then eternal 
 life had been the explicit promise of the 
 Mosaic code, all these errors would have ac- 
 quired tenfold strength ; their bitter aver- 
 sion to the gospel would in some degree 
 have been built upon reason, rather than 
 upon blind prejudice; and some of the most 
 powerful arguments, urged by the apostle 
 to overcome the obstinacy of his country- 
 men, would have lost much of their force 
 
44 
 
 and propriety. And this reliance of their 
 forefathers on the privileges of their law 
 has been more than continued and con- 
 firmed in the breasts of the modern Jews. 
 The perverted " ingenuity of rabbinical in- 
 terpreters since the dispersion of Israel, su- 
 peradded to the ancient traditions, has in- 
 spired them with the full conviction that 
 eternal life is eoopressly revealed in the law; 
 and to this, among other causes, may be 
 ascribed the tenacious adherence with which 
 the scattered remnant of the Jewish people 
 still cling to the ancient dispensation "". If 
 these reflections be well-founded, the no- 
 tion of a double covenant and a twofold 
 law proposed by Moses, as of positive enact- 
 ment, the one his own national covenant 
 with temporal promises, the other the Abra- 
 hamic covenant with eternal life, a theory 
 which some eminent divines have adopted 
 with a view of reconciling difficulties, would 
 be in itself an improbable hypothesis ; nor 
 
 ^ More especially of Maimonides, who lived in the 
 12th century, 
 
 X Vid. Mr. Lancaster's Supplementary Remarks, p. 
 873. 
 
45 -^^^^ 
 
 are the words upon which this idea is 
 grounded sufficient to support the super- 
 structure raised upon them. 
 
 From this general view of the question, it 
 is time to appeal to the word of God, and to 
 examine how far the promises and prophe- 
 cies relative to the future redemption con- 
 tained in the inspired writings, previous to 
 the captivity, together with those sentiments 
 and turns of expression which meet our eyes 
 almost in every page, are consistent with the 
 opinion that the peculiar people of God 
 were shut out from the knowledge of a fu- 
 ture state. In making this examination, 
 we should be cautious of attributing too 
 much weight to the inferences we are now 
 enabled to draw, by means of the full reve- 
 lation we enjoy, from passages whether in 
 the law of Moses or in other parts of the 
 Old Testament ^. The words that convey to 
 our minds clear notions of a future state 
 might not have appeared in the same light 
 to the understanding of the ancient Jews. 
 
 y Vide some very just remarks in Dr. Whately's Essays 
 on the peculiarities of Christianity, p. 49. on the passage 
 cited by our Lord himself against the Sadducees. 
 
46 
 
 But not to insist upon inferences more or 
 less doubtful from particular texts, it would 
 seem extraordinary, if, intrusted as they 
 were with the oracles of God, in which the 
 scheme of mercy and deliverance from the 
 death denounced upon Adam and his pos- 
 terity is the one great object, proceeding 
 gradually to its accomplishment, from the 
 fall to the birth of our Saviour, they could 
 passively and without reflection have yielded 
 themselves to the punishment of Adam, the 
 bitter sting of death, without meditating 
 upon the promises and blessings scattered 
 through the same early records which re- 
 lated the original transgression. In a nar- 
 rative so concise as the history of the fall 
 is, we cannot determine with what degree 
 of clearness the revelation of redemption, 
 and of future triumph over the tempter, was 
 conveyed to the minds of our first parents 
 in the curse pronounced upon the serpent, 
 that his head should be bruised by the seed 
 of the woman : but it is impossible (as War- 
 burton himself allows) that the words could 
 have been understood in the bare literal 
 sense ; and without attempting to give any 
 
47 
 
 undue extent to their signification, through 
 the reflected light thrown upon them sub- 
 sequently by the progressive developement 
 of the Almighty's purposes, it is surely most 
 probable, (because most consistent with that 
 union of justice and mercy which pervade 
 all the divine dispensations,) that at a time 
 when the Father of mankind was bowed 
 down under the weight of a penalty which 
 condemned him to eat bread with the sweat 
 of his brow, till he returned to the dust 
 from whence he came, they were intended 
 to convey to him the only hope of which he 
 could be susceptible, the anticipation of 
 final deliverance from his misery. What 
 reflections would naturally suggest them- 
 selves to the ancient Israelite, when, bearing 
 this promise in mind, he was taught, as he 
 proceeded in the sacred volume, that God 
 looked with an eye of regard on the sacri- 
 fice of Abel, and rejected the offering of 
 Cain, and yet suffered the same righteous 
 Abel to be murdered through envy excited 
 by his righteousness ! He might read that 
 the patriarchs of his race were the friends 
 and favourites of God, and yet were Strang- 
 
48 
 
 ers and pilgrims upon earth ; and while 
 they rejoiced that their pilgrimage was 
 drawing to a close, and they were about to 
 be gathered to their fathers, would he be- 
 lieve that this joy was excited by the termi- 
 nation of their earthly labours in the in- 
 sensibility of the grave ; and that being "^ga- 
 thered to their fathers meant no more than 
 that the same sepulchre which had covered 
 the bones of their fathers should soon be 
 the receptacle of their own ? We learn that 
 Abraham looked for a city which hath 
 foundations, and that he was commanded 
 to train up his children and household 
 in the way of the Lord""; and would the 
 memory of these instructions be eradicated 
 entirely from the breasts of the children 
 of Abraham? ^Can we imagine that the 
 
 z Warburton allows that the origin of this phrase must 
 have been derived from the notion of a common recepta- 
 cle for souls, vol. iii. book vi. sect. 3. p. 320. Michaelis 
 observes, that the Hebrew word signifies non congregari^ 
 solum sed et hospitio excipi, Argumenta immortalitatis 
 sect. 17. TrpoasTs^Yf Ttpos tov Kuov uutqu. Sept. Interp. Genesis 
 XXV. 8. 17. XXXV. 29. xlix. 33. Numbers xx. 24. 26. xxvii. 
 13. xxxi. 2. 
 
 a Vid. Genesis xviii. 19. Hebrews xi. 10. 17, 18, 19. 
 
 b « It appears that Enoch preached to the age in which 
 
49 
 
 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 prcemon- 
 strans, &c. Irengeus adversus Haereses, lib. v. cap. 5. 
 p. 439. edit. Paris. 1675. 
 
 The ancient fathers do not enter into the question, ex- 
 cept incidentally, as to the belief of the Jews in the im- 
 mortality 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 philoso- 
 phers. Thus Eusebius, (Prsepar. Evangel, lib. x. xi.) in 
 arguing (with what justice it matters not to the present 
 question) that the Gentile sages borrowed all that is valu- 
 able 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 ;""' xct) h rolg Tvsp) 
 ^^X^^ aflavao-i'a^, ovUv Mooasoos 6 UkuTCtiv SieVryjxs Tr, So^r;, 
 X. T. X. lib. xi. c. 27. Vigeri edit. Paris, 1628. It is scarce- 
 ly 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 
 this treatise, as well as the Demonstratio Evangelica 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 pose it to have been, since so many pa- 
 triarchs and righteous men were suffered 
 to die the common death of all men, not 
 so much as a privilege to himself, as a les- 
 son to his own age and succeeding genera- 
 tions. And are all those expressions in the 
 Old Testament, more especially in the Pro- 
 phets and the Psalms, which appear to us 
 clearly to point to a future life, satisfacto- 
 rily 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 patri- 
 archs or the people of Israel to have looked only to trans- 
 itory 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 TertuUian made use of when 
 they attempted to refute the doctrine of the resurrection. 
 They asserted that the language of tlie prophets was to 
 be understood figuratively, to which TertuUian replies, 
 " Si omnia figurae, quid erit illud cujus figurae?"" In con- 
 
51 
 
 sions as these, Thy dead men shall live, to- 
 gether with my dead body shall they arise ^, 
 might be used by the prophet without his 
 conveying, or intending to convey, the no- 
 tion that his dead body v^^ould 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 
 
 firmation, he appeals to the well-known passage in Eze- 
 kiel, 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 BristoPs Eccles. Hist. p. 282. 
 
 *l 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 ^inknownr p. 314. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 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^ Aj^t 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. 
 
 ^^ 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 Cri- 
 tical 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 Ixxxvi. 13. Prov. xv. 24. Psalm xvi. 10. Prov. 
 ix. 18. Job xxvi. 6. 
 
53 
 
 being the region of the departed, and that 
 they divided this region, and assigned a dif- 
 ferent 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 Di- 
 vine Legation, and restricted in their im- 
 port 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 right- 
 eous hath hope that he shall be delivered 
 from the most imminent dangers. Nor does 
 the expression, which have their portion in 
 
 g Luke xvi. parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Mr. 
 Peters on the Book of Job, sect. 8. 
 
 ^ Psalm xvi. 10. An acquaintance with the opinions of 
 Epiphanius, Athanasius, Origen, and other ancient fa- 
 thers respecting this text, might have rendered Warbur- 
 ton more cautious in hazarding an interpretation which 
 has no merit but that of novelty to recommend it. 
 
 ' Proverbs xiv. 3^. 
 
 E 3 
 
54 
 
 this life S mark, according to such principles 
 of interpretation, any opposition between 
 this life and another. It is needless to mul- 
 tiply other passages of the same kind, which 
 will readily suggest themselves to all who 
 are conversant with the Old Testament, 
 and which no acuteness and ingenuity can 
 explain away. But that celebrated passage 
 in the Book of Job \ which would seem de- 
 cisive of the question, I have purposely 
 omitted ; because, as many commentators of 
 great knowledge and candour have doubted 
 whether it referred to a future state or not, 
 it would certainly be inadmissible as a proof 
 in a controverted question, till, after a cri- 
 tical examination of the original in con- 
 nection with the context, its validity as a 
 testimony were fully established* And theo- 
 logians should ever bear in mind, that no 
 greater injury can be done to the cause of 
 
 k Psalm xvii. 14. 
 
 ^ Job xix. 25. Amid the conflicting opinions of com- 
 mentators, it is difficult for me to come to any conclusion 
 on the subject. None indeed but a good Hebrew scholar 
 is competent to the investigation : but while any doubt 
 remains, it should not be received as a testimony in a 
 matter of such importance. 
 
55 
 
 truth, especially to that of religious truths 
 than bringing forward with indiscreet zeal 
 any questionable or doubtful evidence in 
 support of a doctrine. The adversary might 
 adduce it as a confession of weakness in a 
 cause which had recourse to such assist- 
 ance ; a presumption which can never be 
 excited against an argument founded upon 
 a comprehensive view of the general tenor 
 and language of revelation. Nor has any 
 appeal been made to the prophecy of Daniel, 
 because it is allowed by all, that at the time 
 when Daniel wrote the belief of a future 
 state, from whatever cause, was generally 
 prevalent among the Jewish people. Suffi- 
 cient indications remain, without calling in 
 the aid either of such specific declarations 
 or more doubtful inferences, to convince 
 every diligent and candid inquirer that 
 the ancient fathers of the Jewish church 
 did not look merely to transitory promises ; 
 unless we are to believe, that, because they 
 had a legal code with temporal advantages 
 annexed for a particular purpose, they were 
 to close their hearts against the natural re- 
 flections which suggested themselves to all 
 
 E 4 
 
56 
 
 other men, and close their eyes against all 
 the instruction to be derived from the reve- 
 lation they possessed. Nor does the opinion, 
 that both Jew and Gentile believed in a 
 future state detract from the claims of the 
 gospel as having brought life and immor- 
 tality to light. The Gentiles assented to 
 the truth, they knew not why, from the 
 common apprehensions of nature ; but their 
 expectations, though connected with the 
 idea of responsibility and future judgment, 
 were vague and uncertain ; and we have 
 seen from the example of the philosophers, 
 who went on for ever learning, yet never 
 coming to a knowledge of the truth, how 
 little they could give a reason of the hope 
 that was in them. And the Jew, though 
 taught by many a prophetic vision, or in- 
 structive narrative, or consoling promise, or 
 significant type, to cherish the hope of the 
 immortal life, which the sin of Adam had 
 forfeited, through the medium of a Deli- 
 verer who was to be one of his descendants, 
 had not, and could not have, that distinct 
 and definite knowledge of the nature and 
 method and benefits of redemption which 
 
57 
 
 was reserved till the coming of Him in 
 whom every type and prophecy and pro- 
 mise were to receive their full accomplish- 
 ment. The Israelite of old, in his journey 
 through the wilderness of life, was strength- 
 ened and cheered as he drank of the brook 
 by the way, or of the fountain here and 
 there gushing forth from the rock ; but the 
 living well was wanting, whose constant 
 and abundant waters are ever present to 
 us, for the comfort and refreshing of our 
 souls. He was conducted to his eternal 
 inheritance by a light shinmg in a dark 
 place, that pointed out dimly the glories 
 of the future Redeemer, like that pillar of 
 a cloud through which the glory of the 
 Lord appeared, and which guided his foot- 
 steps through the desert to the possession 
 of his temporal Canaan. In the fulness of 
 time the Sun of i'ighteousness arose with 
 healing in his ivings, and all those clouds 
 through which the light had shone dimly 
 on the eye of the faithful were dispersed 
 before him. God sent forth his Son pro- 
 claiming peace on earth, and good-ivill to- 
 wards men, revealed clearly in his offices of 
 
58 
 
 Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Mediator, so ne- 
 cessary to the wants, so encouraging to the 
 hopes, so soothing to the apprehensions of 
 man. We need no longer perplex our- 
 selves with difficult questions respecting 
 the soul's immortality : having died to re- 
 deem us from iniquity, our Lord rose again 
 from the dead, in order to assure us of 
 eternal life, by teaching us the resurrection 
 of the bodv ; a truth which alone could 
 convey in a satisfactory manner to the 
 understanding of man the doctrine of a 
 future retribution. And if from a sense of 
 our imperfection, we tremble at the ex- 
 pectation of judgnnent to come, we may 
 derive encouragement from the assurance 
 that God hath committed all judgment to 
 the Son, who himself partook of man's na- 
 ture, and is touched with a feeling of hu- 
 man infirmity. The speculative disputer 
 may still object that there are many diffi- 
 culties that perplex, and mysteries not 
 fully explained, and to the finite under- 
 standing of man they must ever remain so. 
 There is a progressive order in the dispen- 
 sations of Almighty Wisdom, which it is 
 
59 
 
 possible may not yet be terminated. As 
 the light which appeared to them of old 
 time was only the dawning of that compa- 
 rative fulness of light which we now enjoy, 
 Christianity itself may be only the dawning 
 of that perfect light which shall shine upon 
 us in our glorified state ; when, in the lan- 
 guage of St. Augustin, " the disposition of 
 " them that thirst shall be changed into the 
 " affection of them that taste and are re- 
 " plenished ""." Instead of indulging in 
 unprofitable speculations, we should place 
 implicit confidence in the benevolence and 
 wisdom of the Deity, and rest persuaded 
 that he has fed us with spiritual food con- 
 venient for us, and revealed all that was 
 suitable to the capacities of our moral and 
 intellectual improvement. And instead of 
 giving way to distrust, because every diffi- 
 culty is not cleared up, and which perhaps 
 to beings constituted as we are, never could 
 be, we should walk forward as men assured 
 of our final inheritance, having our hope in 
 heaven, our labour on earth, our reward in 
 
 rn Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, vol. i. p. 259. 8vo. edit. 
 
60 
 
 both : on earth, the inestimable peace of a 
 conscience void of offence ; and in heaven, 
 that peace with God, the author and finisher 
 of our faith, which indeed passeth all un- 
 derstanding ". 
 
 ^ Dr. Whately, in his ingenious Essay on a Future State, 
 has placed too much reliance on the bold assertions of 
 Warburton ; who, with all his learning and dexterity in 
 applying it, is by no means a safe guide. His learning is 
 often superficial, and his reasoning sophistical. Had the 
 author of the Essays on the Peculiarities of Christianity 
 pursued the inquiry independently for himself, with no 
 other aid than the resources of his own candid, vigorous, 
 and argumentative mind, I am satisfied that his discussion 
 on the subject would have been less liable to be mistaken. 
 The words of Aristotle, when criticising the political 
 dreams of his rival in philosophy, may justly be applied 
 to characterize the Divine Legation of Warburton. 
 
 To |u.£v DEPITTON e^oucri ttoivtss ol Koyoi, xai to KAINO- 
 TOMON, xal to ZHTHTIKON* xaXwj Ss Travra hw^ xa^sTrov. 
 Pol. Aristot. lib. ii. cap. 4. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Orpheus, Pythagoras, ThaleSj Anaxagoras, 
 all travelled into other countries, and from thence 
 derived the greater part of their philosophical 
 tenets. The ^Egyptian priest observes to Solon 
 in the Timaeus % 'H SoXwv, SoAwv, ''EAA>yvef ael Trai^e^ 
 €a-T€, yepoov ^V^EXXyjv ovk laztv, explaining his mean- 
 ing at the same time by declaring that the Greeks 
 had no ancient doctrine amongst them, no tradi- 
 tion rendered venerable by age. The passages 
 are innumerable in which Plato alludes to this 
 kind of evidence ; and he always makes the appeal 
 in the tone of a man who thought that it was en- 
 titled to considerable weight. The only exception 
 I recollect (and in this case the common remark 
 is most true, that exceptio prohat regulam) is the 
 passage in the Timaeus, in which, after mention- 
 ing the traditions respecting Jupiter, Oceanus, Te- 
 thys, &c. he observes, that we ought to assent to 
 them, because they have been handed down from 
 the heroic age ; and we must believe the sons of 
 
 ^ Plato, Timjfius, pars iii. vol. ii. p. 12. Bekker. Eusebius, 
 Prsep. Evangel, lib. x. cap. 4. 
 
64 
 
 the gods^ though there are no probable or neces- 
 sary proofs of their assertions. Warned by the 
 fate of Socrates, he thought it prudent to enume- 
 rate among his gods the deities of the popular 
 mythology ; but at the same time, from his mode 
 of expressing himself, we have no difficulty in col- 
 lecting his real sentiments. The author however 
 of the short compressed treatise in the ^ Doric 
 dialect, of which Plato's work above cited is a 
 kind of commentary, speaks of traditions respect- 
 ing the punishments of a future life as false yet 
 expedient. This must be considered as the sen- 
 timent of the Locrian ; for it may be proved from 
 his seventh Epistle that Plato's own opinion was 
 very different. '^ In the treatise Ilefi Koa-fjiov, attri- 
 buted to Aristotle, there is the same appeal made 
 to the oL^xcdog Koyog ; nor is it important, in regard 
 to the present subject, whether the work be ge- 
 nuine or not. If not written by the Stagyrite, it 
 is evidently a composition of great antiquity ^ : 
 
 ^ 'Ahvvarov otv BeSv Tsaicriv airia-reiv Kal irep avev re elKorav ko,) 
 avajKaiuv aitohl^eccv Xeyovariv. Plato, Timseus, Bekker, pars iii. 
 vol. ii. p. 42. 
 
 <= Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 391. 
 
 *^ *Ap%aro5 jtA€V Qvv Tiq Xoyoq Koi waTpto? icrri iraa-iv avQpantOii; a<; Ik 
 Biov roc iravra Ka) S»a deov viy.7> o-vvcVrvj/cev. Aristot. Hep) KoafMv^ 
 cap. 6. 
 
 ^ In his Metaphysics he speaks of the importance deservedly 
 attributed to this kind of evidence : Ti/xtwraxoy yap to Ttpio-^vrot- 
 Tov, lib. i. cap. 3. 
 
65 
 
 and we have similar testimony in works undoubt- 
 edly his own. 
 
 The early fathers of the church, in their con- 
 troversies with the Greek philosophers, always 
 accuse themi of having borrowed their knowledge 
 from foreign countries, principally from Egypt, 
 and refer through this channel the wisdom of the 
 ancients to divine revelation as its source ^. 
 
 B. 
 
 The assertion in the text, that Plato believed 
 the Deity to have created matter out of nothing, 
 has appeared to me, upon further examination* 
 more than dubious. The younger Platonists, Cle- 
 mens Alexandrinus, Ficinus, and Cudworth, main- 
 
 Ila/jaSeSoTai vito tav 'APXAIHN Kcti TIAAAION ot< Qtol re il<r)v 
 ovroi Ktxi TtepUx^i to 64kv rrji/ oX>jy (ftva-iv. Met. lib. xiv. C. 8. 
 
 Vide also de Coelo. A^oVep, KaXSq tyjn avixTieidiTv eavrov rovq 
 'APXAI0T2 'AAH0EI2 elvai Xoyovq. Lib. ii. C. I. 
 
 Diogenes Laertiiis, at the commencement of his work, cites 
 a treatise of Aristotle in which philosophy was represented to 
 have derived its origin from the Magi of Persia, the Chal- 
 dcEans of Babylon, the Gymnosophists of India, and the Druids 
 of Gaul. Diog. Laert. prooemium, p. i. 
 
 Cicero also speaks of the same kind of testimony. Tusc. 
 Qusest. lib. i. cap. 12, 13. 17. 
 
 f Vide Mr. Lancaster's Supplementary Remarks, p. 422. and 
 a learned Charge by Waterland in the 8th vol. of his Works ; 
 Van Mildert's edit. Eusebius, Praep. Evangelica, lib. x. 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 tain this opinion ; but their view of Plato's sen- 
 timents is disproved by the statements of & Cicero 
 and Aristotle; and the Timaeus alone appears 
 sufficient to shew that he held the eternity of 
 matter ; nor has Serranus been successful in la- 
 bouring to prove that his assertions are to be con- 
 sidered as applying only to the archetype of mat- 
 ter, and not to matter visible and corporeal. It 
 is also worthy of remark, that the fathers, in their 
 refutation of the Pagans, almost uniformly object 
 to them their ignorance of the creation of matter. 
 Thus Athanasius'^ rebukes the Platonists for re- 
 presenting the world to have been created out of 
 preexisting matter. EpiphaniusS in his treatise 
 against Hsereses, accuses Plato of holding contra- 
 dictory language on the subject, sometimes speak- 
 ing of matter as created, at others, as coeternal 
 with the Deity. Eusebius'', in his Praeparatio 
 Evangel., asserts the superiority of Hebrew theo- 
 logy in its declaring that God had made^ all things, 
 
 * Cic. Acadera. Qusest. lib. iv. 37. Avo yap apx^^i <p'70'* SoKcr 
 itoieTv 6 UKctTuy, to //.ev vTroK€if/.(vov kou vAy^v Tvpoa-ocryopevuVf to Se u^ ai- 
 Twv KOU Kivovv 6 deov KoKei kou vovv. Simplicius in Aristot. Phys. 
 lib. i. p. 19. ed. Aldus, 1526. 
 
 ^ "Akkoi Se €v 0I5 ia-ri kou {/.iyci^ itap "EXXijo-i XWa/raVy Ik Tcpwrca- 
 K€i[Jt.evv}i KOU ayev^rov vX-t}^ iretroirjKiyat rov deov roc oXa hrjyovvrau. De 
 Incarnatione, p. 48. edit. Benedict. Paris. 1698. 
 
 ' Epiphanius adversus Hsereses, lib. i. cap. 6. » 
 
 ^ Praeparatio Evangelica, lib. vii. cap. 18 — 22. 
 
67 
 
 and also the matter put of which they were 
 made. 
 
 C. 
 
 Warburton boldly asserts that all the ancient 
 philosophers embraced the principle, that it was 
 lawful and expedient to deceive for the public 
 good ^ : and TuUy, on the authority of Plato, 
 thinks it so clear, that he calls the doing other- 
 wise nefas, " a horrid wickedness." As this state- 
 ment appeared contrary to the whole tenor of 
 Plato's writings, I was for some time at a loss to 
 conceive what treatise of the philosopher could be 
 alluded to. I have no doubt, however, that the 
 assertion is grounded on a doubtful translation by 
 Cicero of a passage in the Timseus™. Plato hav- 
 
 ^ Divine Legation, book iii. sect. 2. vol. ii. p. 13. Warbur- 
 ton gives no reference to the treatise in Tully where the sen- 
 tence is to be found. 
 
 "* Toy jM.ev oi/v iioiyjrvjv kou icarepa roUSe tov itavro^ evpelv re epyov Kai 
 evpovra eU izavtaq AATNATON "kiyuv, Timaeus, p. 23. Bekker. 
 
 Difficile est invenire Conditorem hujus mundi et inventum 
 evulgare nefas. Ciceronianum Lexicon GrcBcolatinum, ab Hen. 
 Stephano, 1557. Platonis Loci Interp. p. 13. 
 
 Eusebius praises Plato for this reverence in speaking of the 
 Deity, as teaching, like the Hebrew scriptures, afpt^rov etvan to 
 6€tov, Praep. Evangel, lib. xi. c. 12. 
 
 In the same book, cap. 29, Eusebius cites the above passage 
 from Plato ; and in the Latin translation by Vigerus the word 
 nefas is used. The fact is, nefas is not an improper term ; but 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 ing declared that it is very difficult to discover 
 the Deity, and, when we have discovered him, 
 that it is impossible to reveal him to all men, Ci- 
 cero has rendered the word, not by impossible, 
 but nefas. Yet upon this interpretation of Ci- 
 cero's, or rather misconception on the part of 
 Warburton of the proper meaning belonging to 
 nefas^ in the passage, aided by an unwarrantable 
 extension of a sentiment limited in its applica- 
 tion into a general principle, Warburton has at- 
 tempted to establish an hypothesis which would 
 annihilate at once all that is excellent in Plato's 
 philosophy. There is no author, ancient or mo- 
 dern, who appears to devote himself with greater 
 ardour to the pursuit of truth **. It is the conti- 
 nual object of his aspirations. And there are very 
 few occasions in which he allows of its being sa- 
 crificed to expediency, and then only for a parti- 
 cular purpose. Thus, in the third book of the 
 Republic, he proposes to banish poets from his 
 
 Warburton misunderstood its meaning. Eusebius, Vigeri edit. 
 Paris. 1628. 
 
 ° Vide the word aSuvaxov (Timaeus, p. 42.) in the passage 
 cited in the Appendix, note A. 
 
 ° OvK oktQcx,, "^v 8' iyoOi ort to ye ax; aX-^dut; i/^ci/So^, el oJov re tovtq 
 elvely, vmt€<; Beol re Koi avBpuTioi (aktovo-iv ; De Repub. Bekker, 
 p.103. 
 
 "^evloq jtx^Se*? jttvjSev jtAijTe Xoyy, /xoyze CjSygj irpd^eie, Plato, quoted 
 by Blackwall, Sacred Classics, vol. ii. p. 103. ed. 1731. 
 
69 
 
 ideal commonwealth because they teach not truth, 
 but the images of truth ; and he asserts that truth 
 is always to be upheld as an object of great conse- 
 quence : 'AAAa (JiYjv Kai oLKrfiua.v ye irepi iroKXov ttoi- 
 ^reovP. He permits however the governors of the 
 city to make use of deceit, either for the sake of 
 the citizens, or on account of the enemies ; mean- 
 ing probably for the good of the citizens,, more 
 especially against the enemies of the state ^ : Toig 
 ap'/ovdi '^vj TYjg itoKewg, ei irep tictiv akkotg, TrpoarJKei \pev- 
 ^eaOai yj iroXefJ^iccv t] tto^itcov hveKa eir o^cpeXeia TYjg ttO' 
 Xi(cg : but a private person is forbidden to practise 
 it. Let us suppose then that Plato, while writ- 
 ing his Republic, considered himself as enjoying 
 the privileges of a magistrate ^ and entitled, at 
 the very time he dismisses the poets for giving 
 false representations of gods and men, to inculcate 
 falsehoods respecting the rewards and punish- 
 ments of another life, provided the tendency of 
 his fictions was beneficial. How comes it, that 
 not in the Republic and the Laws only, but in 
 works strictly philosophical, he holds out the same 
 prospect of retribution after death ? 
 
 P De Repub. Bekker, pars iii. vol. i. p. 112. 
 
 ^ De Repub. p. 112. 
 
 ^ Yet this supposition, which is allowed for the sake of ar- 
 gument, will not be entertained by any one who recollects the 
 concluding pages in the second book of the Republic. 
 
 F 3 
 
70 
 
 Is he writing as a legislator in the Phaedo an 
 account of the death of Socrates ? 
 
 In the Crito, a narrative of his refusal to escape 
 from prison ? 
 
 In the Apologia, his defence before his judges ? 
 
 In the Timaeus, a philosophical description of 
 the creation of the world ? 
 
 It! the Phaedrus, a discussion on the difference 
 between the truly beautiful and the image of it ? 
 
 In the Gorgias, a treatise on rhetoric ? 
 
 D. 
 
 It would appear from the writings of Plato 
 himself, as well as from other testimonies, that 
 there were secret and esoteric^ doctrines reserved 
 for select disciples, which were intended to ex- 
 plain more fully the obscurer parts of his philo- 
 sophy. This seems to be the meaning of the pas- 
 sage in the seventh Epistle, in which, apparently 
 jealous that accounts of his instructions had been 
 made public without his sanction, he declares 
 (evincing at the same time, as may be perceived 
 from the tone of his feelings, a desire to magnify 
 the value of these hidden precepts) that there 
 were some things which he never had written, 
 and which he never would write ; and without 
 
 « Brucker, vol. i. p. 660. Plato, Phaedrus, Epist. 2. 7. 13. 
 De Repub. lib. iv. Bekker, p. 1 79. 
 
71 
 
 these, his common instructions could not in many 
 points be clearly understood. 
 
 It is easy to suppose him having in view those 
 passages in his writings in which he makes vague 
 and obscure allusions to some apparently sublime 
 truth, and then hastens on, without dwelling far- 
 ther on the subject, to sentences like that in the 
 Phaedrus, where, after describing in a wild and 
 mystical style the happiness belonging to different 
 orders of spiritual beings, he hints at some more 
 exalted and perfect felicity confined to the Deity 
 alone, and which no poet ^ had ever yet described 
 or could worthily describe. But there is no foun- 
 dation for believing, that though his philosophical 
 writings might sometimes admit of di fuller sense, 
 they were therefore intended to bear a double 
 «ense, and that the very same words were calcu- 
 lated to convey to different classes of readers two 
 meanings opposite to each other. Yet it is upon 
 such a theory that we are to imagine Plato (ac- 
 cording to Warburton's views) not merely keep- 
 ing back something in his obscure representations, 
 but absolutely disbelieving" his plain and positive 
 
 * Tjy §€ vTiepovpdviov tottov ov re Tiq vfAv/ja-e iru tuv t^Bc troivjTY]^ ov re 
 TToB' tiiAvriati Kocr a^iocv. Phaedrus, Bekker, pars i. vol. i. p. 42. 
 
 " Cicero thought differently of Plato's belief on the subject. 
 Ut enim rationem Plato nullam afferret (vide quid homini tri- 
 buam) ipsa auctoritate me frangeret. Tot autem rationes attu- 
 
 F 4 
 
72 
 
 statements, and having no conviction of a future 
 state of personal consciousness, though he never 
 fails in every treatise to inculcate it. A species of 
 literary Machiavellianism (as it has been called) 
 so extravagant, if not impossible, as this, and so 
 directly opposed to all the notions which a sober- 
 minded man would imbibe from a general view of 
 the tendency of Plato's writings, would require 
 the strongest evidence for its support. And the 
 supposition is at once disproved, as far as his be- 
 lief of a future state is. concerned, by a reference 
 to his Epistles ; those private Epistles, in which 
 (as Warburton properly remarks) a man speaks 
 his sentiments without disguise ; nay, to the very 
 same Epistles which are appealed to for the theory 
 of a double sense, and which, if they do contain 
 it, prevent its application to the question of a fu- 
 ture retribution, by their containing also other 
 passages in which the philosopher decidedly ex- 
 presses his conviction of individual consciousness 
 after death''. In fact, nothing can be more la- 
 lit, ut velle ceteris, sibi certe persuasisse videatur. Tusc. Quasi, 
 lib. i. c. 21. 
 
 ^ *0 ^vj Kca iyu TiKfji'/i^iov 'Koiovi/.at tri ecTTt Tt^ alo-^vjcr;^ ToTij T€$yeu<rt 
 tSv ivOcile. at yap ^iXriffrai ypv^oii MANTETONTAI rcevra, o^tw? 
 e;^€<y. at Se fAoyfifipoTai-ai ov (paa-i, Kvpiccrepa, 8e ra rwv Oeiav av^puv 
 jxavnvixara ^ ra, tSv jea^. Epist. 2. ad Dionys. Bekker, p. 400. 
 
 TlilQecrdat Se ovTuq au ^yj Tor^ ndkamq re Ka) UpoTq "klyoiq 0* 8^ 
 lAT^viiovtriv yiiuv AOANATON ^i^TXHN EINAI AIKA2TA2 TE ISXEIN 
 
73 
 
 boured and unsatisfactory than the bishop's argu- 
 ments on the subject. The Epistles which he 
 cites would by no means prove the truth of the 
 general principle itself, omitting the question of 
 its application, but only the partial adoption of 
 such an expedient for a specific object y : and most 
 of the other testimonies may be dismissed at once.- 
 Such writers as Jamblichus and Synesius are of 
 very little value in determining such a question. 
 The latter was a Christian bishop of the fifth cen- 
 tury ; and, as he refused to surrender his heretical 
 notions respecting the soul to the testimony of the 
 written word of God, it is very possible that his 
 interpretations of philosophy might be equally at 
 variance with the actual statements of Plato. And 
 JambHchus, with all the Platonists of the Alexan- 
 drian schools (though they by no means univer- 
 sally support Warburton's views,) made it their 
 object to misrepresent the doctrines of their Mas- 
 ter. By the convenient theory of a double sense, 
 of which they constituted themselves the inter- 
 
 KAI TINEIN TA2 MEri2TA2 TIMnPIA2 OTAN T12 AnAAAAX0H 
 TOT SnMATOS. Epist. 7. p. 448. 
 
 y Warburton, book iii. sect. 2. 3. 4. 
 
 ^ Plotinus, the most acute of themiill, never supposed that 
 the unity of the universal Soul excluded the idea of separate 
 consciousness after death, or of personal identity in the indivi- 
 duals who were parts of it. 4th Ennead, Plotinus, 9th book, 
 eh. I. 7th book, ch. 15. 
 
74 
 
 preters, they were enabled to make any discoveries 
 they pleased : hence it is, that while plain and in- 
 telligible accounts were rejected, as intended for 
 the vulgar only, the most obscure and indistinct 
 conceptions were spiritualized into sublime truths; 
 and the sacred mystery of the Trinity, and other 
 doctrines of Christianity, were unfolded to the pro- 
 phetic eye of Porphyry and Plotinus in the dis- 
 cussions of the Academy ; till by these and similar 
 methods the dark oracles of paganism were exalted 
 into a perfect rule of truth and wisdom, to the dis- 
 paragement of the clear revelations of Christianity. 
 If we give the author of the Divine Legation the 
 full benefit of ^Numenius's testimony, (of whose 
 writings only a few fragments remain preserved 
 in Origen and Eusebius, which do not sanction 
 his opinions,) on the supposition, gratuitouly as- 
 sumed, that the lost works of this Pythagorean 
 and Platonist would have supported his view of 
 
 * Numenius is mentioned by Origen contra Celsum, lib. v. 
 pp. 258. 269. edit. Spencer. 16775 also Opiniones de Aniina, 
 p. 629. edit. Paris. 1618. Eusebius, Prsep. Evang. lib. xi. con- 
 tains Numenius's sentiments 3 ntp) rov Zevripov ahiov (cap. 18.); 
 nep) rayadov (cap. 2 2.). This philosopher, as well as Plotinus, 
 is fond of using the expressions " the Father" and *' the Son," 
 (by the Son meaning the Avjpoypyo?,) to designate the first and 
 second Deities of their own, not Plato's theological system. 
 This was done wfth the view of making philosophy speak as 
 much as possible the language of revealed truth. 
 
75 
 
 the question ; it is impossible, in discussing a sub- 
 ject of so much interest, to pass over without no- 
 tice the observations which he makes on a passage 
 quoted from Plato's Epinomis. The whole com- 
 ment exhibits a singular instance of the blind par- 
 tiality of a writer when advocating a favourite 
 hypothesis. The elegant ambiguity of which War- 
 burton speaks has no foundation, except in his 
 own fancy : the words admit but of one meaning 
 consistent with the general tenor of Plato's writ- 
 ings and the rules of just interpretation. In pro- 
 posing to render Ik voWav €ya^\ referring to the 
 word atdSyjfjem, which occurs in the previous clause, 
 that of many sensations he has only one left, the 
 bishop has fully proved how much his acuteness 
 and ingenuity surpassed his acquaintance with the 
 
 ^ Divine Legation, book iii. sect. 3. vol. ii. p. 65. 
 
 The passage alluded to is as follows ; ^Ov koI hiaxv^ii^oiAai 
 
 itai'^av Koi <nTOvha<^uy ayLUj ore Oawdra) riq tuv Toiovrccv tv/j/ aviov uq7- 
 pav ai/aTTA^tre/, o-%eSoi/ iuv ivep er arcoOavuv ^, [X'^re [AiOi^eiv er* tcoXXuv 
 Tore KaQd trep vvv ouaB'ficreav^ [AiSi^ rt (/.olpaq fAer^iX'/icpota [/.ovov ko.) EK 
 nOAAnN 'ENA TErONOTA €iJSa*>ova tc eaea-eai kou aocpararw 
 a[f.a. Koi iJt.aKa,piov — here Warburton concludes : the sentence 
 continues thus; ci^Te TI2 EN HnEIP0I2 EIT EN NH20I2 MA- 
 KAPI02 ON ZHI, KaK€7vov [xeOe^civ r^q TOiavT-^q aei tvx*}^- Epinomis, 
 Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 374. 
 
 It is evident that the phrase eV ttoXXSv cW -ycyuvoTa alludes to 
 the doctrine of Plato, that the soul was uniform and uncom- 
 pounded, /-tovoeiS^?, as distinguished from the body which was 
 compounded. Vid. Phsedo, Bekker, pars ii. vol. iii. p. 50. 
 
76 
 
 elementary principles of grammar, a far more hum- 
 ble, yet more necessary instrument in the investi- 
 gation of ancient learning. And if he had pur- 
 sued his inquiry to the end of the sentence, he 
 would have observed that the words immediately 
 following the part quoted could hardly fail to con- 
 vey the notion of that personal consciousness for 
 the denial of which he appeals to the passage as a 
 testimony. It is perhaps unnecessary to dwell 
 longer on this sentence ; for there is some reason 
 to doubt whether the Epinomis was written by 
 Plato. The Epistles appealed to in favour of a 
 double sense are generally the 2d, the 7th, and 
 the 13th. The meaning of the seventh has been 
 before alluded to. The second contains a kind of 
 cipher, expressive of the Deity, written with the 
 view^ as Plato himself declares, that if the letter 
 miscarried either by land or sea, the reader into 
 whose hands it should chance to fall might not 
 understand the import, a precaution not altogether 
 unnecessary if we recollect the polytheism of the 
 times, and the fate of Socrates his master: the words 
 are these: ^^pacrreov ^^ aoi ^/ alviy^^av, iv av ri tj '^eXrog 
 vj TTOVTOV Pj yvjg h irTv^oug TrdOvj, o avayvovg fjurj yvco. ^d^e 
 yap ej^e/. Uepi tov wavTWv ^aaiXea iravr ecrri kou eKeivov 
 eveKa iravTa, Kai €Keho aiTiov airoivTcov tZv KaXwv. ^evrepov 
 
 ^ Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 403. 
 
77 
 
 ^€ v€p) TO, '^evrepa, koi rplrov vep] ra rptra. This pas- 
 sage is distinguished by a peculiarity of style 
 which awakens strong suspicions against its being 
 genuine. The founder of the Academy is mystical, 
 but he seldom gives utterance to his mysticism in 
 this kind of language. It will be observed also, 
 that there is a difference of construction between 
 the former part of the sentence irep). rov iravTm ^aai- 
 Aea, and the two concluding clauses. In the first 
 instance the Tre/?/ is made to refer to the person, in 
 the latter to the thing. But to enter into any. in- 
 vestigation as to the genuineness of the passage 
 would involve a critical discussion on the general 
 character of Plato's Epistles. And though the de- 
 cision of the question might have some weight in 
 determining the meaning we attach to the words 
 before us, the theory of a double sense would 
 not be in the least affected by such a considera- 
 tion. For whether genuine or not, they were in- 
 tended to convey obscurely one sense only; and to 
 those who did not understand them they would 
 have no signification at all. If we suppose the 
 sentence spurious, it was probably interpolated by 
 those who wished to represent Plato as teaching 
 doctrines equivalent to the Christian revelation of 
 the Trinity ; if really written by the philosopher, 
 an interpretation must be sought accordant with 
 the acknowledged principles conveyed in his works, 
 
78 
 
 in which the Trinity is certainly not to be found ^. 
 The account of creation, given in the Timseus, will 
 furnish a probable explanation. The clause wepi 
 Tov TrdvTuv (Saa-iXea may be considered as alluding to 
 the chief Deity, Creator and Sovereign of all 
 things : the second, who has secondary objects 
 committed to his charge, may be referred to the 
 universe : the third Intelligence, who has a third 
 department allotted, was perhaps intended to de- 
 signate man himself, whose formation and final 
 destiny, as of a being distinguished for piety and 
 wisdom, Plato describes with great pomp and dif- 
 fuseness, and who, in the language of ancient phi- 
 losophers, was often represented as a type of the 
 world ^. It is true that Eusebius refers the whole 
 passage to the blessed Trinity, and censures the 
 interpretation of the Platonists^, who explain it by 
 that favourite system which they invented for 
 themselves of the Jirst God, the Father of all 
 things ; the second Deity, the i^^rnxiovpyog ; and the 
 
 *^ An account of the supposed Platonic Trinity will be found 
 in Cudworth, lib. i. c. 4. p. 406. 
 
 ® [AlKpOKOa-fAOq, 
 
 f TavTot ol TOV TlKaTuiva ^tacracfyeTv ntdpuy.evot iir) tov irpuTov Seov 
 avdyova-iVy ini re to ^evTepov oitiov, kou Tphov t^v tov Koa-fAov ypvxrjVf 
 0eev TpiTOV Ko.) avTrjv opC^o^cvoi elvai. ol Se ye 0e«o« Koyoi t^v ouylav kou 
 fAdKupiav Tpidla.. k. t. X. Eusebius, Praeparat. Evangel, lib. xi. 
 cap. 20. Vide also lib. xi. cap. 17. where the passage is again 
 cited in an extract from Plotinus. 
 
79 
 
 third, the soul of the world. But it must be re- 
 membered that the bitter opposition of the one 
 party to Christianity, and the injudicious argu- 
 ments of the other in its favour, render the testi- 
 mony of both on such a subject of little value. 
 With regard to the sentence in the 13th Epistle, 
 in which the writer professes to give a key to ex- 
 pressions which he might make use of respecting 
 the name of the Deity, rvjg fxh yap a-irovlaia^ 'Etho-to- 
 \Yjg 0EOS «/?%€/, 0EOI ^6 ryjg ?Trov, it may be suffi- 
 cient to observe, that the reason before alluded to, 
 viz. the fear lest his letters should miscarry, would 
 account for the adoption of such an expedient. 
 These words, notwithstanding the testimony of 
 Eusebius§^ in their favour, can furnish no proof 
 either of a double sense in Plato's writings, or of 
 his belief in the unity of the Godhead, for it is un- 
 deniable that in his works the terms Seo^ and 0eoi 
 are used indiscriminately ^. 
 
 E. 
 
 In considering the opinions of the ancient phi- 
 losophers respecting the absorption of the soul 
 after death into the one Spirit of the universe, it 
 is important to keep in view the distinction of the 
 
 g Praeparat. Evangel, lib. xi. cap. 13. 
 
 '' Socrates uses the terms Godhead and the Gods without 
 distinction in his works generally. Aristipps Briefti, Wieland, 
 book i. p. 114. 
 
80 
 
 several schools, and not to cite passages from M. 
 Antoninus or Seneca as illustrative of the doctrines 
 of all, but as confined in their application to that 
 sect only of which the writers were members. 
 
 The truth may briefly be stated thus: Plato, 
 if the testimony of his own writings can be relied 
 on, never entertained the notion that death brought 
 with it the extinction of individual consciousness. 
 
 Of Aristotle the opinions are more dubious ; 
 yet there is nothing in his works which, if well 
 considered, ought to destroy the positive testimony 
 given in the Ethics of his belief that the dead are 
 affected by the fortunes of their living friends *. 
 
 Of Pythagoras^ there is no positive evidence 
 by which we can absolutely determine his notions 
 on the subject. 
 
 The most distinguished philosophers among the 
 Stoics differed from each other. Antoninus and 
 Epictetus avowedly maintained the absorption of 
 the human soul at its separation from the body 
 into the Soul of the world, and the extinction of 
 consciousness ; and it appears from some passages 
 in the Epistles of Seneca ^ that he was of the same 
 
 ' Ethics, lib. i. c. ii. 
 
 ^ Tennemann Geschichte der Philosophic, s. 94. Brucker, 
 Hist. Crit. Phil. p. 1039. 
 
 ^ Brucker, pp. 951, 952, 953. Senecae Consolatio ad Mar- 
 ciam, cap3i9. conf. cap. 25. Epist. 54. Mors est, non esse. 
 Id quale sit, jam scio : hoc erit post me quod ante me fuit. 
 
81 
 
 opinion; though at other times he dilates most 
 admirably on the happiness to be enjoyed after 
 death in the society of the gods. The prevailing 
 doctrine of the sect seems to have been, that the 
 souls of the virtuous and philosophical would be- 
 come inhabitants of the stars, and exist till the 
 periodical conflagration of the universe"^; but that 
 those of the wicked would endure only for a cer- 
 tain interval, and then be dispersed into the air. 
 Cleanthes, however, and some others, maintained 
 that all equally, the bad as well as the good, would 
 survive till this revolution of things. 
 
 The Epicureans disbelieved altogether that the 
 soul survived the body. 
 
 The middle and new Academy and the sceptics 
 cannot be said to have had any belief, for they 
 had no fixed opinions at all. 
 
 At the risk of appearing tedious, I shall venture 
 a few more observations on the different senses in 
 which the doctrine of the Anima Mundi was held 
 
 Quseris, quo jaceas post obitum loco 
 
 Quo non nata jacent. Seneca tragicus. 
 
 ^ T»|v Ze ■tpvx^v yeiyYjT^v re (p6aprv)v "kiyovciv' ovk evOvt; Se tov a-w- 
 jtxaro? aTTCcXXayeTa-ay cf)d€lp€(r6ai, aXX' eitifJ-iv^iv rivaq ^povovq KaB' kav- 
 
 Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. xv. cap. 20. Cicero, Tusc. Quaest. 
 lib. i. 32. 
 
 Diog. Laertius,- lib. vii. p. 291. edit. 1570. 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 by the different sects. The notion appears to 
 have prevailed at an early period in Asia and 
 Egypt, and it was from this latter country, pro- 
 bably, that it was introduced into Greece, and be- 
 came subject to various modifications as it passed 
 through the several schools. 
 
 " The opinions of Orpheus, before Greek phi- 
 losophy was yet formed into a system, according 
 to the most favourable supposition, were, that God 
 was originally connected with matter,' but that he 
 expelled it from him, and that what was before 
 one nature was divided into two ; yet at the same 
 time he does not appear to have altogether eman- 
 cipated the Deity of his belief from the mass of 
 matter which he pervaded and guided. ^ The no- 
 tions of the Ionic school afterwards were probably 
 not very different from this, till the time of Anax- 
 agoras, who entertained nobler and more elevated 
 views of the divine Mind than his predecessors p. 
 
 " The opinions attributed to Orpheus seem to have been, 
 that the world was an emanation from God ; and Brucker 
 also thinks that he held this efflux of matter to be a part of 
 God : this has however been disputed : " Deum ante mundi- 
 " tum conditum cum chao infinite copulatum fuisse et ita con- 
 *'junctum ut omnia continuerit. Expulisse vero Deum ex 
 " sinu suo materiam." Brucker^ pars ii. lib. i. cap. i. p. 390. 
 
 ° Brucker, pars ii. lib. i. pp. 470 — 490. Tennemann. Spe- 
 culation der lonier. 
 
 P Ka) TcpwTO^ iri vAji vovv iitiO'Trja'iy — itdvra %f'fiiAot.ia, rjv 6[a,qv eiTa 
 
88 
 
 He taught that the essence of God had never been 
 united with matter, and was now totally distinct 
 from it; at the same time that he pervaded all 
 things, and set them in order ; a belief not very 
 far removed from the Christian doctrine of the 
 omnipresence. 
 
 According to Cudworth, Pythagoras held nearly 
 the same sentiments as those above ascribed to 
 Orpheus : but Brucker combats this opinion, and 
 degrades his philosophy to pure atheism or Spino- 
 zism ^. The fact is, that the treatises from which 
 
 N0T2 iXOuv avra h€Ko<ry,r)(T€' irctpo koi vovq iireKX^Br}. Diog. Laert. 
 in Anaxag. p. 51. edit. 1570. Idem, proosmiuni, p. 2. 
 
 NOTN Kai 6(Qv Tiparot; e'Kay<xyo[/.€VO(; ttj KCffiioitmc/L. ThemJstiuS, 
 
 quoted by Cudworth, p. 380. 
 
 Noi/^ MEMIKTAI ovlein ^p'^ixart' aXka. (Aovoq avroq icf) iavrov eVr/v. 
 Anaxagoras in Simplicio. Comment. Aristot. Phys. lib. i. p. 33. 
 
 T7J<; 8e Kivrja-euq kou tvj? y^vea-iuq aiTiov iirea-Trja-c tov NOTN 6 'Ava- 
 ^ayopacq. Simplicius, p. 1 2. 
 
 *il^ apa N0T2 cVxiv 6 ^taK0<T[A.3]/ re koI ivdvruv aniot;. Socrates 
 speaking of Anaxagoras, Plato, Phsedo, Bekker, p. 85. 
 
 Aperta simplexque mens. Cicero de Natura Deorum lib. i. 
 c. II. Academ. Quaestionum lib. iv. c. 37. 
 
 Qua senlentia proxime ad Christlanorum dogma accesserit, 
 qui Deum docent per res omnes commeare ut cum nulla tamen 
 ullo modo misceatur. Brucker^ pars ii. lib. ii. cap. i. p. 507. 
 
 ^ Qualis ille Deus Pythagoricus, nempe ignis mundi sub- 
 tilissimus. Brucker, p. 1077. 
 
 That he held an incorporeal Deity, distinct from the world, 
 is a thing not questioned by any Cudworth, p. 21. 
 
 Vide Aristot. de Anima, e^aadv xive? avrZv y^rv^qv uvai rd iv 
 Ta depi ^vajAaTUy ol Se to ravra kivovv, lib. i. cap. 2. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 a knowledge of the Pythagorean principles is to 
 be derived differ from each other. Timaeus the 
 Locrian supports the view taken by Cudworth, 
 but Ocellus Lucanus asserts that the world was 
 neither created nor arranged ^ having had no ori- 
 gin, and destined to have no end : and in another 
 passage he seems to consider it as the Deity and 
 the Cause of all things. The Eleatic school iden- 
 tified God with the world. ^ Plato refined upon 
 the doctrines of Pythagoras, and taught the more 
 elevated philosophy of Anaxagoras, in separating 
 the supreme Deity from matter : and though he 
 makes a divinity of the law of nature, by assign- 
 ing a divine Intelligence or Soul to the world, 
 who guides and directs it to artificial ends, he 
 
 ' AoK£7 yap (aoi to irav avaXeOpdJ/ eivai kcu ayivtirov aei re yap ^v 
 Kou €<rrai. Ocellus Lucanus, Gale, Opusc. Mythol. cap. i. j). 
 506. edit. 1688. 
 
 *0 Se ye K02M02, atrio^ i<m to?(J aKKoiq rov eivcci kcu rov crw^e- 
 a-Bai, KOU Tov avroTeh^ elvoci. p. 5^0* 
 
 Conf. p. 531. Taq hpi^€iq rnO TOT 0EOT 8iSo/A6va?— /cafi' 
 eVacrToy, a.vaMki\pa<xev O 0EO2. Vide also Justin Martyr, Briicker, 
 
 * Timaeus, passim. 
 
 Alcinous, as interpreter of Plato's doctrines, gives the fol- 
 lowing description of the Deity : nax^/j 8e cVti tS alnoii elvcxt 
 itavruv KOU ko(T[a,€7v tov ovpoiviov vovv kou t^v x/'i^X^v tov Ko<Ty,ov itpoq iav- 
 Tov KOU itpoq rotq iavrov vovjo-e*^. Kara yap t^v eavrov B0TAH2IN 
 ifATt€irXiqK€ TfdvTa iavTov, rvjv ypv^^jy tou Koa-f^ov iireyeipaq Ka) elq iaviov 
 iT[i(rrp€xl/aq rov vov ainviq atrioq iitdpxav. oq Koa-f/.'/jOelq vtio rov •narpoq 
 haK0<rfx€7 avfAiraa-av ^vtriv iv r^Se r^ KOiTfjicc. Alcinous, cap. lO. 
 
85 
 
 never confounds this secondary god with the one 
 first Cause and Creator of all things. 
 
 In the works of Aristotle, few as the indications 
 are which they afford of his opinions on the sub- 
 ject, it is not impossible to discover that he does 
 not confound the Deity with the universe ^ In 
 the Politics he clearly marks the distinction be- 
 tween the two ideas, and in his metaphysical 
 works, the same distinction may be traced. 
 
 Among the followers of Plato in the Academy, 
 no important deviation from his system is to be 
 perceived^. The statements of Xenocrates and 
 Polemo are far from being irreconcileable with 
 the principles inculcated by the founder of the 
 school. 
 
 Into the doctrines of the middle and new 
 Academy it is unnecessary to enter, because, as 
 
 ' Aristot. Pol. lib. vii. cap. 3. 2%oX^ yap av O 0EO2 e%ot KaKuq 
 Koi nA2 O K02M02 0*5 ovk tltrh i^anepiKOti irpd^eK; ntapa. Tccq ol- 
 Kelaq Tccq avTuv. Vid. also Metaphys. lib. xiv. cap. 7. in which 
 the Deity is said to be aiho^y axtvijTO?, Ki-xfiDpia-fA-ivoq rZv ala-OrjrZv, 
 ufXeprjq Kou ahaipeToq, — De Coelo, lib. ii. cap. I. In which Ari- 
 stotle argues, that if the Deity were confounded with the uni- 
 verse, he would have the fate of Ixion. 
 
 " Brucker, pp. 738. 742. Cudworth, Intellect. Syst. cap. 4. 
 sect. 24. p. 418. Speusippus autem et Xenocrates qui prirai 
 Platonis rationem auctoritatemque susceperant et post hos Po- 
 lemo, et Crates unaque Grantor in Academia congregati dili- 
 genter ea quae a superioribus acceperant, tuebantur. Cicero, 
 Academ. Qucest. lib. i. cap. 9. 
 
 G 3 
 
86 
 
 was before remarked, they virtually made it their 
 principle to have no established system ^, and 
 they are therefore justly classed by Warburton 
 with professed Pyrrhonists. 
 
 The Peripatetics by no means uniformly ad- 
 hered to the tenets of their master, and one of 
 them, Strato Lampsacenus y, is distinguished for 
 having plunged into a depth of atheism beyond 
 that of any other philosophical teacher, and to 
 have inculcated more degrading notions respecting 
 the Deity than those of the Stoics ; for he main- 
 tained that there was no other God than a kind 
 of plastic life in nature,' without sense or con- 
 sciousness. The Stoics, like Strato, considered God 
 and matter to form one nature inseparably united, 
 but they maintained the existence (if such a dif- 
 ference between these two forms of atheism can 
 clearly be conceived) of a kind of divine reason, 
 
 ^ Opinabor was their professed principle: Qusero enim, 
 quid sit, quod comprehendi possit — Incognito nimirum assen- 
 tiar, id est, opinabor, Cic. Academ. Qucest. lib. iv. 35. 
 
 y A short account of Strato's life, but not of his doctrines, is 
 given in Diog. Laert. and his works also are enumerated : he 
 succeeded Theophrastus in his school, and had been preceptor 
 to Ptolemy Philadelphus, Diog. Laert. p. 186. He is described 
 by St. Augustine as something between an atheist and a theist. 
 For his opinions, vide Cudworth, lib. i. cap. 3. sect. 4. p. 107. 
 Brucker, pars ii. lib. ii. cap. 7. pp. 845 — 847. Cicero de Na- 
 tura Deorum, lib. i. cap. 13. Academ. Qusest. lib. i. cap. 9. lib. 
 iv. cap. 38. 
 
,87 
 
 divina ratio toti mundo insita ^, while their rivals 
 above alluded to allowed the divinity of plastic 
 force only. The distinction must be considered 
 more verbal than real % if we remember that the 
 god of the Stoics, notwithstanding the magnificent 
 language in which they sometimes extol him, was 
 corporeal made up of fire and liquid ether, finite, 
 inseparably united to matter, and subject to its 
 control, without free-will, and apparently without 
 personality. They taught that the soul of man 
 was a part of the divine essence, a Trvevfxa evBepixov ^, 
 that it partook of the same qualities, was an ema- 
 nation from it, and, after the destined period, would 
 be resolved into it ^, when the eternal law of fate. 
 
 ^ Zeno autem naturalem legem divinam esse censet. Aliis 
 autem libris rationem quandani, per omnem naturam rerum 
 pertinentem ut divinam esse affectam (divina vi affectam) 
 putat. Cicero, de Nafura Deorum, lib. i. cap. 14. ratione mun- 
 dus utitur. Animans est mundus composque rationis. lib. ii. 
 cap. 8. 
 
 ^ Brucker, parsii. lib. ii. cap. 9. p. 937. Tennemann, Stoiker, 
 s. 121. Diog. Laert. lib. vii. De Natura Deorum, Cicero, lib. i. 
 lib. ii. cap. 14, 15. Academ. Qusest. lib. iv. cap. 41. Cudworth, 
 lib. i. cap. 4. p. 419. Eusebius, Praeparat. Evangel, lib. xv. cap. 
 15, 16. S. Epiphanii Responsio ad Epist. Acacii etPauli, p. 7. 
 Adv. Haereses. lib. i. 5. 
 
 ^ Diog. Laert. lib. vii. p. 291. 
 
 ^ 'ApcV/cet Se ro7<; upca^vraToTq rav ocno Trjq atpea-euq rocvTi^q isaepov- 
 (xBat TcavTo. kccto. •mpiotovq tivaq raq fJt.iyKrraq ilq itvp aWepShcq avaXvo- 
 lA,ivuv •ttdvTm. Eusebius, Prsep. Evangel, lib. xv. cap. 18. Idem 
 
 rx4 
 
88 
 
 from similar principles, would again produce simi- 
 lar combinations ; a new universe would arise from 
 its efementary fire, destined to become in the de- 
 velopement of all its successive phenomena, phy- 
 sical and moral, whether trifling or important, the 
 exact counterpart of the old : from the eruption of 
 volcanoes, or the convulsion of empires, to the 
 smallest blade of grass, and the most minute acci- 
 dent in the character and fortunes of every indi- 
 vidual that before existed. 
 
 ^ The opinions of Epicurus are too well known 
 to require examination. The Romans were copy- 
 ists of the Greek philosophers, rather than in- 
 ventors of independent systems, and in the inter- 
 pretation of their sentiments they are frequently 
 superficial, and not always to be relied on. In the 
 time of Cicero the philosophy of Epicurus, of the 
 Stoics, and of the old and new Academy, was most 
 studied. Cicero himself, next to the works of the 
 new Academy, his own sect, was most conversant 
 in the writings of the Stoics. In speaking of 
 Aristotle he observes, that his philosophy was little 
 read even by the learned ^. It appears that those 
 
 cap. 19. Diog. Laert. lib. vii. p. 284. edit. 1570. Warburton, 
 book iii. sect. 3. vol. ii. p. 72. Vide also Origen contra Cel- 
 sum, lib. V. p. 244, 245. edit. Spencer. 1677. Even Socrates's 
 worn out clothes were to appear again in this regeneration. 
 
 ^ Cicero de Natiira Deorum lib. i. 
 
 ^ Rhetor autem ille magnus haec Aristotelica se ignorare re- 
 
89 
 
 Romans in general who believed in a supreme 
 Deity identified him with the Soul of the universe. 
 ^ Varro undoubtedly had no other notion of Ju- 
 piter, and he may be considered as representing 
 the principles prevalent in his time. The later 
 Platonists of the school of Ammonius were lost in 
 the dreams of oriental speculation. Plotinus, like 
 Spinoza, afterwards seems to have maintained that 
 God was no existence himself, but the cause of all 
 existence ^, and that matter, soul, and God were 
 inseparable, and had been so from all eternity. It 
 might be a subject of curious investigation to fol- 
 
 spondit. Quod quidem minime sum admiratus eum philoso- 
 phum rhetori non esse cognituni, qui ab ipsis philosophis, prae- 
 ler admodum paucos, ignoraretur. Topica, cap. i . 
 
 f Dicit ergo Varro adhuc de natural! theologia praeloquens, 
 Deum se arbitrari esse Animam Mundi quam Graeci vocant 
 KoV/xoi/ et hunc ipsuin mundum esse Deum. Augustin, Civ. Dei, 
 lib. vii. cap. 6. 
 
 A very interesting account of the theology of Varro is given 
 in Dr. Ireland's learned treatise on Paganism and Christianity 
 compared, chap. 5. 
 
 e Plotinus's notion in lib. ix. Ennead. 6. so far as an ordi- 
 nary mind may be permitted to approach such sublime ab- 
 stractions, appears to be, that the first original principle is No- 
 thing, yet the cause of all things ; having neither quantity nor 
 quality ; neither soul nor reason ; is neither in motion nor in 
 tranquillity ; is neither unity nor number ; neither in space nor 
 in time ; without thought or will ; yet the act of thinking, and 
 the cause of all thought ; the smallest, yet the largest j the good, 
 the perfect. 
 
90 
 
 low up the question through the philosophical 
 sects of more modern times, to examine how far 
 the system of Spinoza accords with the doctrine 
 taught in some of the ancient schools, and to pursue 
 the inquiry even to our own day, through the most 
 recent philosophical systems, and ascertain to what 
 extent the charge of pantheism is justly to be im- 
 puted to them ^. But a superficial view of such 
 subjects seldom fails to produce or strengthen er- 
 roneous opinions, and an accurate research would 
 require the labours of a life. 
 
 It appears then, that, of the different schools of 
 antiquity, some held the soul of the world to be 
 the chief God, some a secondary Deity; of the 
 former, some believed the universal Soul to pass 
 through matter unmixed, some to be united and 
 form only one nature with it ; and of these again, 
 some considered the corporeal Deity to be a kind 
 of divine reason without personality, others a spe- 
 cies of vegetative life, called the plastic force of 
 nature. Is it too much to infer, from an examina- 
 tion of such unintelligible theories ', that the in- 
 ventors and supporters had no clear conceptions of 
 their own meaning, and that principles like these 
 
 ^ Die neueste philosophie nahert sich dem system des Spi- 
 uoza von mehreren Seiten an. Tennemann, art. Spinoza. 
 
 ' Exposui fere non philosophorum judicia sed delirantium 
 sorania. Cicero de Natura Deorum lib. i. cap. i6. 
 
91 
 
 had very little influence on the practical belief of 
 mankind ? And degrading as the picture is which 
 such systems exhibit of the weakness of human 
 reason, it is at least a subject of satisfaction to per- 
 ceive, that the two great master minds of anti- 
 quity, Aristotle and Plato, never cherished those 
 low and debasing views of the Divinity which in- 
 ferior teachers ventured to inculcate. With that 
 humility which never fails to accompany talent of 
 the highest order, they both express themselves 
 unable to penetrate the darkness and difficulty 
 which involves such questions as those respecting 
 the divinre essence and the nature of the soul ; and 
 Plato more than once recommends prayer to the 
 Deity, that the understanding may be strength- 
 ened and enlightened ^, 
 
 G. 
 
 This must be the feeling of every man con- 
 versant with metaphysical systems. If we trace 
 the history of philosophical speculation from its 
 commencement to the present hour ^5 we shall 
 
 ^ Plato, Timaeus, p. 22. Aristot. de Anima, lib. i. 
 
 ' ^iXo<TO(pia ydip roi eVriv, u XuKpoirei;, xctfUv, a.v riq avrov fAerpiuq 
 oc'tpvjrcn iv T^ ^XtKt^t" idv Se Tcepanepci} tov Seovro^ ivhiccrpt-ipyj, ^laipOopa 
 ruv av6puituv. Gorgias, Bekker, pars ii. vol. i. p. 83. These words, 
 originally used by Plato with a diiferent object in view, will apply 
 to the present question. 
 
92 
 
 observe the same forms of atheism and pantheism 
 reviving in different ages, and supported and com- 
 bated by nearly the same arguments. It would 
 seem as if speculation on its wildest wing was 
 still condemned to soar within prescribed limits, 
 and to pursue the same circling flight. The most 
 subtle and profound thinkers have arrived at little 
 certainty upon subjects of abstract reasoning. 
 Nor are the wild and dangerous theories that 
 have sometimes been adopted, to be attributed to 
 pure malice and malignity, at enmity with the 
 good of mankind, but to a restless desire of know- 
 ledge upon questions in which knowledge in our 
 present state can never be attained, and to a spirit 
 of intellectual ambition which allows of no limita- 
 tion to the exercise of human thought. Hence it 
 is that ancients and moderns, deists, atheists, and 
 Christians, men of immoral and moral life, of 
 pious and impious feelings, have built up philo- 
 sophical systems equally unintelligible. And some 
 of these have been established upon principles of 
 which it would be very difficult to shew the fal- 
 lacy, yet upon which no man, not even the in- 
 ventor of the system, would or could act for a 
 single moment. In seeking to become more, we 
 pay the penalty of our folly, and become less than 
 man. Hume declared that he was afraid to think, 
 on account of the conclusions to which he might 
 
93 
 
 come, and the barriers of separation he might 
 create between himself and the rest of mankind. 
 This feeling should have taught him that the pur- 
 suit of truth, properly conducted, could never lead 
 to such a separation, and that there was other 
 and stronger evidence than abstract reasoning 
 alone "\ Reid was unable to refute Berkeley's 
 principles, till he appealed to the common belief 
 and conduct of mankind. And as a rule for our 
 own decision in judging of the conviction of a 
 writer, when his philosophy is opposed to his 
 common feelings and language ", it will be much 
 safer to depend upon the latter, than upon in- 
 ferences from his metaphysical creed ^. Anaxa- 
 goras is said to have maintained that snow was 
 black, in order to preserve his consistency as a 
 
 "^ Qui nondum ea, quae multis post annis tractari coepissent, 
 physica didicissent, tantum sibi persuaserant quantum natura 
 admonente cognoverant. Haec ita sentimus natura duce, nulla 
 ratione nullaque doctrina. Cic. Tusc. Qucest. lib. i. cap. 13. 
 
 nSv yap OTtep \ay.€v Kpemov vj kut'' airohel^iv tovto kocto, koiv^v tvvoiav 
 iV/Acv. Origen de Aniina, p. 618. ed. Paris. 161 8. 
 
 La Nature confond les Pyrrhoniens, et la raison confond 
 les dogmatistes. Pensees de Pascal, art. I. 
 
 " I do not wish by this statement to set up feeling in religion 
 above reason, but above metaphysical and abstract reasoning. 
 In an argument of reason our natural feelings and desires, to- 
 gether with conscience, should form a part of it. 
 
 " Anaxagoras nivem nigram dixit esse; ferres me si ego idem 
 dicerem ? Cicero Academ. Qucest. lib. iv. cap. 23. 
 
94 
 
 reasoner ; but who will imagine that he was sin- 
 cere ? 
 
 The following brief sketch of the moral sys- 
 tems supported by Aristotle and Plato may be 
 of service in determining the question whether 
 the ancients generally believed that truth and 
 utility did not coincide. Notwithstanding the 
 subtlety of their speculative discussions, in which 
 the distinctions and divisions are often merely 
 verbal, it was evidently the object of both phi- 
 losophers to elevate, and as far as possible perfect, 
 the mind and faculties of man. They both main- 
 tained that the happiness which nature had taught 
 the desires of the soul to aim at, as its ultimate 
 end and object^ would consist in the perception of 
 truth. Plato considered this truth to be altogether 
 intellectual and speculative. Hence it is that he 
 enjoins the purest moral precepts ; the entire sub- 
 jugation, or rather annihilation of the passions?, 
 not because moral virtue was a direct means to 
 happiness, but because the purification of the soul 
 was necessary to the perception of intellectual 
 truth, in which alone human felicity would be 
 found. For the same reason he commands the 
 extinction of imagination also ^ ; it is a faculty 
 which cheats and deludes us with the image of 
 
 P Vid. Phaedo, passim. 'i Republic, book iii. x. 
 
 1 
 
95 
 
 truth instead of the reality. Poetry and painting 
 and all the fine arts are to be banished, as obscur- 
 ing and impeding the exercise of reason in aspir- 
 ing after its substantial good. But though our 
 nature while on earthy by thus endeavouring to 
 destroy passion and imagination, might make 
 gradual progress towards the enjoyment of happi- 
 ness and the perception of truth, their full per- 
 fection could never be attained till the soul was 
 emancipated from the body, when the shadow of 
 knowledge would be changed into the substance, 
 and we should see essential truth as it really is, 
 uniform, unchangeable, and eternal. 
 
 Aristotle, on the contrary, does not consider 
 intellectual truth alone as the only knowledge to 
 which the human faculties are to be trained and 
 directed. Regarding man as a being possessed of 
 passion, imagination, and reason, he provides for 
 the due exercise and perfection of them all. 
 Truth with him is not one and indivisible, but 
 distinguished into truth in morals, truth in the 
 fine arts, and truth in questions of science and 
 wisdom, purely abstract and speculative. These 
 different kinds of knowledge are not inseparably 
 united and confounded^. He who possesses that 
 moral perfection which teaches him to think, feel, 
 and act on all occasions as becomes a virtuous 
 
 •^ Aristot. Ethics, lib. iii. iv. v. vi. 
 
96 
 
 man, a good citizen, or a friend in the ordinary 
 intercourse of society; he who habitually sees 
 with the intuitive eye of taste the beautiful and 
 the true in architecture, sculpture, and painting, 
 may yet want that intellectual excellence em- 
 ployed in perceiving abstract truth. Refined and 
 masterly as this theory unquestionably is, and 
 more just and better adapted than Plato's to the 
 wants and capacities of man, it is still inferior to 
 that of the rival system in one striking and im- 
 portant feature. Aristotle (whatever were his 
 sentiments respecting a future state) seems to 
 propose the truth, which he teaches us to pursue, 
 as belonging in its perfection to our present con- 
 dition, as if the powers of the soul could here be 
 fully developed; whereas Plato uniformly repre- 
 sents it as a foretaste of knowledge, whose fulness 
 was yet to come ; a system to be commenced on 
 earth, but to be perfected in heaven ^. 
 
 While speaking on the doctrines of these philo- 
 sophers, it may perhaps be allowable to make an 
 observation on a difficult passage in another part 
 of Aristotle's works, not entirely unconnected with 
 the subject, the meaning of which is still dis- 
 puted among critics. I allude to the definition 
 
 * Or rather in some better part of the earth, (7^.) This pre- 
 sent habitation of ours, according to Plato, being only one out 
 of many divisions of it. Vid. Phsedo, ad fin. 
 
97 
 
 of tragedy in the Poetics, in which he insists upon 
 its moral tendency. Plato had banished poets 
 from the republic, because he considered the 
 images which they presented as calculated to 
 strengthen the passions of pity and fear, and thus 
 oppose that perfect KaBapatgy or purification of the 
 soul, which he believed to constitute the excel- 
 lence of our nature. Aristotle, it is probable, had 
 this theory in his eye when he declared that the 
 pity and fear excited by the scenic representations, 
 so far from strengthening the passions, would have 
 a tendency to weaken them, and purify the soul 
 from their more powerful and pernicious effects. 
 Plato teaches that the pleasure resulting from 
 tragedy would be injurious to our moral consti- 
 tution. Aristotle therefore felt it necessary to 
 declare that this pleasure would have a directly 
 contrary effect, and become an instrument of vir- 
 tue : and thus he has gone a little out of his way 
 in adding the moral effects of tragedy to a defini- 
 tion already sufficiently complete. 
 
 Many authors have done themselves little cre- 
 dit in the attempt to degrade the character of 
 Socrates by bringing together calumnies founded 
 upon the representation of later writers, in whom 
 little confidence is to be placed. Those who have 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 examined his opinions, as recorded by his own 
 disciples, will understand the bold expressions of 
 an illustrious modern scholar, "Sancte Socrates, 
 " ora pro nobis." The vices attributed to him are 
 disproved by the testimony of Alcibiades in the 
 very treatise, the Convivium of Plato, most fre- 
 quently cited to establish the contrary opinion: 
 and it should be recollected, that the immoral 
 sentiments contained in this treatise are put into 
 the mouth of Aristophanes, and are censured by 
 Socrates himself as evidences of a debased mind. 
 In other parts of Plato's writings the same vices 
 are reprobated : thus in the first book of the Laws 
 the TO Tta^a. (pva-iv To\{xy}[j.a is an expression in which 
 Socrates strongly marks the infamy of the crime. 
 The latter part of the Convivium may be con- 
 sulted, from which the following sentences are 
 selected: Alcibiades, describing his reverence for 
 his master, observes, UeTrovSa ^e Trpo^ tovtov [/.ovov av- 
 BpooTTCCv^, ovK av Tig oioiTO ev e/xoi evehai^ to aiayyveaBai 
 
 OVTIVOVV. 
 
 Oiog yap 'A^^AXevf eyivero, anuKaaeiev av Tig Kai 
 Bpaa-i^av koi aXXovg, Ka) oiog av UepiKX^g, Kai NeaTopa 
 Ka) ^ AvTYivopa'^^ eia) &e Ka) eTepoi' oiog ^e ovToai yeyove 
 T^v aTOTTiav avSpoi)7rog, Ka) avTog Kai ot Xoryoi avTOv, ovo 
 eyyvg iv evpoi Tig JV^tcov, ovTe tSov vvv ovt€ t»v 7raXai(av, 
 
 Ov^h 'TTepiTTOTcpov KaTa^e^apdvjKCcg avea-TVjv f/,€Ta S«- 
 * Convivium, Bekker, p. 454. " Bekker, p. 465. 
 
99 
 
 Kparovg ^ vj el fxerd iraTpog Kadvjv^ov rj a^e\(f>ov Trpea-jSyri" 
 pov. 
 
 Vide also Xenophon's Memorabilia, lib. iv. 
 
 " Sunt quidem inter veteres qui ei objecerunt 
 " pulchritudine Alcibiadis inferior em et juvenum 
 " corruptorem fuisse, qua de causa Aspasia quoque 
 " eum versibus suis traduxit. Sed impudentissi- 
 *' mam banc esse calumniam non solum tota vitae 
 " Socratis ratio loquitur, sed et Aristophanis silen- 
 " tium probat." JSrucker, pars ii. lib. ii. cap. 2t. 
 p. 539. 
 
 The opinion of Wieland, a man extremely well 
 read in the philosophers of antiquity, is of some 
 value on such a subject : " Socrates was a vir- 
 " tuous man in the highest and completest sense 
 " of the word ; in every relation of life he was a 
 " model for all men." Wielancfs Aristippus, p. 
 75. vol. i. 
 
 H. 
 
 The figurative representations in the Phsedrus 
 will be read with different feelings by different 
 minds ; images that are ridiculous and absurd in 
 the eyes of some, will appear to others pregnant 
 with beauty and truth, in the same manner as 
 honey and poison may be extracted from the same 
 flowers. It should be remembered that Plato him- 
 
 " Bekker, p. 461. 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 self does not propose his allegories of the souly to 
 be understood in a literal sense, but as serving to 
 convey, through the medium of sensible images 
 dnd similitudes, some notion of that spiritual es- 
 sence whose real nature is unintelligible ; and he 
 has evidently attempted to explain the imperfec- 
 tions of the soul, in its present union with body, by 
 a narrative of its fortunes in an earlier and un- 
 compounded state. It is not easy to follow him 
 in his lofty speculations, nor to overtake " the 
 " winged chariots of the gods," which he so fan- 
 cifully describes ; but the general impression that 
 remains upon the reader's mind is nearly to the 
 following effect : 
 
 ^The soul at its first creation was perfect, and 
 winged, and sublime in its contemplations ; but, 
 unable to preserve so high a flight, it descended to 
 earth, and its wings fell off, and perished through 
 the evil with which it had become connected. The 
 desire of man upon earth should be to recover 
 these lost wings by meditations on the good^ the 
 true, and the celestial^. 
 
 y Hep* Se T^5 )^ka^ aiJiTj? wSe X^Kreov, olov [mv e<rT<, TravTij itavTccq 
 
 Plato, Phaedrus, p. 39. Bekker, pars i. vol. i. 
 
 ^ Phaedrus, Bekker, pp. 39. 43. pars i. vol. i. 
 
 ^ One of the fathers of the church has the same kind of ex- 
 pression, teaching us that it is the business of man, " to give 
 
101 
 
 The soul is like a winged chariot, borne along^ 
 by two steeds, and guided by a charioteer. The 
 steeds of the celestial intelligences, deities of a 
 higher nature than man, are both good, and di- 
 rected by the supreme Charioteer, who arranges 
 the order and beauty of all things ; the car passes 
 lightly forward in its course. Each intelligence 
 performs its appointed work, enjoys the contem- 
 plation of truth, and visits regions of happiness. 
 But the steeds in the winged chariot, destined to 
 become man's soul, are one good, the other bad ; 
 they urge it forward (like our desires now^) in 
 different directions, the one elevating it to heaven, 
 the other depressing it to earth, and often refuse 
 the guidance of the Charioteer. 
 
 I. 
 
 The poetic colouring with which Plato adorns 
 his sentiments is frequently considered a proof of 
 his insincerity. No one can deny that his mind 
 was essentially poetical, that in the highest sense 
 of the word he was a poet ; for his constant aspi- 
 ration is after some nobler and purer life than any 
 . this earth can supply. The warmth of his genius 
 pervades and elevates every subject which he 
 
 " wings to the soul," koI apiraaai Kocy^AOV ku) twvai 0€a. Vid. 
 
 Leighton's Works, vol. iv. p. 205. 
 
 ^ like our desires now'] This application is not made by Plato. 
 H 3 
 
102 
 
 touches, and imparts an energy and beauty to his 
 descriptions which no poet ever surpassed. But 
 is the sentiment less true because it is strongly 
 coloured? The ornament may be fiction, but the 
 feeling itself, and the foundation of the feeling, is 
 truth ^ ; and the voice of nature speaks more com- 
 monly its real belief in metaphor and allusion, 
 than in measured and artificial language. Those 
 elevated descriptions of the future world, the ra- 
 diant visions w^hich he creates in order to embody 
 his glowing anticipations of happiness to come, 
 prove only the intenseness of the feelings with 
 which he cherished this hope of immortality. 
 Hence his imaginary paradise, with its purple and 
 golden atmosphere of inconceivable brilliancy and 
 clearness, in which all the rocks are of jasper and 
 emerald "^ ; and his assertions, that the trees and 
 flowers, which nature pours forth in such profu- 
 
 *^ Aristotle observes, in his Rhetoric, lib. iii. 7, that poetical 
 expressions are natural to men under the influence of emotion, 
 dpixoTTii Xcyovri iraOvjriKai;. If the truth of this precept had been 
 kept in mind, Shakspeare would not have been so often cen- 
 sured for putting metaphors and images into the mouths of his 
 characters when strongly excited. 
 
 ^ Vid. Phsedo, pp. 112 — 120; also Republic, book x. pp. 
 502 — 516. The prophet Isaiah predicts the future glory of 
 Jerusalem in images equally bold : Behold, I will lay thy 
 stones with fair colours^ and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 
 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of car- 
 buncles. Isaiah liv. 11, 12. 
 
108 
 
 sion for man's gratification on earth, are but faint 
 shadows of those trees and flowers and unfading 
 archetypes of beauty, which yield fruit and fra- 
 grance in some better part of the universe. If he 
 declare that in a retreat like this the souls of the 
 virtuous will enjoy in another state of being, not 
 the sensuality of Mahomet's paradise, but that per- 
 fect felicity which will result from the perception 
 of substantial truth ; is he to be considered at once 
 as a man who disbelieved entirely in personal con- 
 sciousness after death, and consequently in all re- 
 compense of the good ? If, again, he describe the 
 dark and tumultuous waves of Cocytus as destined 
 to bear the wicked in their bosom round the vast 
 circle of the universe, rolling on and tossing them 
 unceasingly, and resounding in their ears through 
 all the ages of eternity ; is he to be regarded as 
 one who in his heart believed that the retribution 
 of the wicked in every sense of the word was a 
 fable, an ingenious contrivance of the legislator to 
 curb the passions of mankind ? His conceptions of 
 paradise were probably derived from traditions re- 
 specting the garden of Eden, from which our first 
 parents were excluded, and which, in the oriental 
 imagery of the book of Job^ appears to be alluded 
 to as the place whose stones are sapphires, and 
 
 *= Job xxviii. 5. 6. Mr. Peters on the book of Job, p. 397. 
 Eusebius Praep. Evangel, lib. xi, c. 36. 37. 38. 
 
 H 4 
 
104 
 
 whose dust is gold : and his representations of 
 
 the punishment reserved for the incurably wicked 
 
 might have arisen from traditions^ respecting that 
 
 universal deluge in which the whole guilty race of 
 
 man once perished. 
 
 K. 
 
 Aristotle's treatise de Anima is extremely per- 
 plexed and obscure ^. It is not so much a meta- 
 physical, as a physical work, the discussions con- 
 cerning mind are principally confined to its opera- 
 tions while in connection with body; and those 
 who expect to find in it any opinions stated posi- 
 tively as to the destination of the human soul in 
 another life will be entirely disappointed ^\ Aware 
 himself of the nature of the subject, the philoso- 
 pher observes, at the very commencement, that it 
 is of all things most difficult to obtain clear and 
 satisfactory evidence \ 
 
 In defining soul in general to be a habit consti- 
 tuting the essential perfection of a natural body^, 
 
 f Mr. Peters, pp. 359. 360. 371. 372. 
 
 S OvT€ (f>va-iK7} aTTA&J? oIt€ f/.€Ta ra (f)V(rtKa, >j ncp) ypv^^q Oeapia. 
 Simplicii Prooemium de Anima Aristot. p. i . 
 
 ^ OCSeva (paiverat irepi t^^ rZv ovpaviav 4'^X^i iroiovfAevoq Xoyov. 
 Idem, p. I. Prooemium. 
 
 ' Hdvrv} Be Ka\ ntavru^ icrr) iwv ')(jx'kmci)ra/T(jt}v Xa^eiv T<va iclaTtv 
 itipi avT^<;.- De Anima, lib. i. cap. i. 
 
 ^ 'EyT€Xe%eta ttpur'/} o-cy/xaxo? (pvaiKOV. Lib. ii. Cap. I. The WOrd 
 
 ENTEAEXEIA is translated by Cicero, Tusc. Qusest. lib. i. c. 10. 
 
105 
 
 it would appear at first sight that he considered 
 its existence as inseparable from that of the body 
 which it animates. But in the third book, in which 
 the vovg^ or intelligence of the soul is discussed, 
 and which is divided into active and passive^ the 
 power of actively exercising its functions by think- 
 ing and reasoning, and the capacity of receiving 
 ideas, Aristotle assigns immortality to this intelli^ 
 gence, but denies it memory. It has been dis- 
 puted whether he meant the whole of intelligence 
 to be immortal, or merely the active power. The 
 latter opinion is maintained by Warburton, by 
 Tennemann in his History of Philosophy ^ and has 
 
 continuata motio : it is frequently used in the sense of actus 
 as opposed to iv hwuixei: the translation I have given will com- 
 prehend the other senses : "Ea-n Se vj [acv vKv] S^va/A^, to Se EIA02 
 €VTcAe%€ia: it is what constitutes the form or essence of a thing. 
 Vid. Origen. Celebres Opiniones de Anima, p. 628. ed. 161 8. 
 Simplicii Prooemium, p. 2. Towards the end of the first chap-: 
 ter it is observed, that some of the functions of soul may be se- 
 parated from the body because they are not operations essen- 
 tially perfecting any parts of the body : O^ [a.v}v a>X evici ye ovOh 
 KooXvei hoc TO jwyj^eve? elvai aafj^enrog evrcAc^e/a? : thus, though the 
 sight of the eye cannot be separated from the bodily eye, the 
 speculative energy of the soul may be separated from body: 
 irep) he rov vov koI t^<; BeupvjTiK^t; hwdfAeut; ovHeita ^txvepov, aXX' €0iK€ 
 ^pv^yji; yevo^ (tepcv elvoci kou tovto y.ovov ivhexerai XnPIZE20AI KaOd 
 •nep TO aihcv rov (p$aprov. Aristot. de Anima, lib. ii. cap. 2. 
 
 ^ Tennemann's Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophic, 
 art. Aristotle. Lancaster's Harmony of the Law and the Gos- 
 » pel, p. 431. ' ■ 
 
106 
 
 been recently adopted by Mr. Lancaster. It ap- 
 pears that the question, after all, depends upon the 
 signification we attach to the term passive intelli- 
 gence. If Aristotle meant the power which the 
 mind has of receiving ideas through ^avracr/a, 
 which depends upon bodily sensation, it is obvious 
 that this sensation and (pavraaia being destroyed 
 at death, there can be no longer any capacity of 
 receiving ideas through the medium of the same 
 instruments : but, if we understand by the phrase 
 the power of receiving ideas without reference 
 to the mode in which they are conveyed, there is 
 no reason why the passive intelligence should not 
 exist after death "^. Such an interpretation of the 
 fifth and sixth chapters would appear perfectly 
 consistent with the assertion that vov^, or intelli- 
 gence, is immortal, and also with the declaration 
 that the manner of its apprehending while in 
 connection with the body is not so. It may ex- 
 
 *" Aristotle does not divide the vov<;, or intelligence^ into ac- 
 tive and passive with the precision of his Latin translators, but 
 describes it as operating actively and passively, and he cer- 
 tainly appears to consider these two kinds of operation as im- 
 plied in our very notion of intelligence. The term ita9ririKoq 
 1/01)5, which we meet with in the sixth chapter, is not used in 
 the fifth, where the functions of intelligence are described, and if 
 it be synonymous with (pavrotaluy is not to be confounded with 
 passive intelligence, as will readily be seen by a comparison of 
 the preceding chapter on <payra<Tia. Aristot. de Anima, lib. iii. 
 cap. 3—6. 
 
107 
 
 ercise its active powers of thinking and reasoning, 
 though more quickly and perfectly after death, in 
 the same manner as now; but it cannot apprehend 
 ideas in the same way, viz. through the medium 
 of (pavraa-ia, which depends upon bodily sensation. 
 It does not follow then, because Aristotle denies 
 that the instruments by which the soul energizes 
 while in connection with the body will remain 
 after death, that the soul is to discontinue its 
 energies — that because it is no longer to receive 
 ideas through sensation ", it is to have no ideas at 
 all. For my own part, I do not understand what 
 is meant by the existence of active intelligence 
 after death ", without supposing that its activity is 
 to continue. Active intelligence, inert and with- 
 out consciousness, is a contradiction in terms ; and 
 so far from Aristotle denying consciousness to the 
 soul when separated from the body, as Tenne- 
 mann and others represent him to have done, he 
 speaks in the preceding chapter of its ability in 
 
 " Origen observes that even many notions which the soul 
 has in its present state, its ideas of the Deity for example, are 
 independent of body; iraivrvj Kcxc^pia-Toci a-wixarot; yj loiavr'^ ivepyeiat 
 Ku) ATTH2 AE TH2 ^^ANTASIAS. Origen, de Anima, p. 640. 
 
 Does not Aristotle mean that it may receive ideas in another 
 way, when, speaking of the intellect, he observes, AnA0E2 apa 
 Ser Jvai, AEKTIKON AE TOT EIAOTD ? De Anima, lib. iii. c. 5. 
 
 ° OuTo? vovi; %ft>|5iO-T05, Ka) u(jt.iyy}(;, ku) airaBrj^y THI OT2IAI ON 
 ENEPFEIA. Again, Ov^ ore fAiv vou ore hi ov vo€7. Aristot. dc 
 Anima, lib. iii. cap. 6. 
 
108 
 
 this state to speculate upon itself^. It is true, he 
 might mean this consciousness not to be separate 
 and individual, but a part of and absorbed in the 
 consciousness of the one universal Mind; but he 
 has never told us that this was his opinion, (ac- 
 cording to Warburton's gratuitous assumption,) nor 
 
 P Ka* avTO^ Se avroif Tore ^wdrai voeTv. Aristot. de Anima, 
 lib. iii. cap. 5. Origen. Opiniones de Anima, p. 677. As far as 
 I can understand Aristotle's notion, it appears to be this ; the 
 soul of map is like an unwritten tablet; ypafjLfAarelov a jixvjSfv lit- 
 dpx'^i, lib. iii. cap. 5. The senses exercised upon external ob- 
 jects communicate impressions to phantasia -which retains them, 
 and the intellect speculates and reasons upon the ideas so ob-^ 
 tained. De Anima, lib. iii. c. 3. et 4. At death the senses and 
 the phantasia perish, but the intellect, having no necessary 
 connection with the two former, survives and is immortal. 
 Origen confirms this view of the subject : ^ (aIv cpavraaia tZv 
 irej/re alarQ-^aeuv Several rov(; rintovq. Opiniones de Anima, p. 620. 
 ^avTCtaloc ydf icrriv tj rwv (pavBivrccv (Ttdariq. ta'TVj<n yap iy ainrj ra 
 e^a (pavivra, p. 6 1 9. Again, p. 66 1. Aristotle (he observes) 
 likens the soul to an unwritten tablet, Plato to a written tablet. 
 ^nd in other passages he mentions that Aristotle was aware of 
 the rational soul being separable from body and immortal, and 
 of its capacity in this state for receiving the images of intel- 
 lectual things. Conf pp. 660. 631. It is surely a most un- 
 warrantable inference to argue, because a metaphysical writer 
 declares that the faculties which receive and retain impressions 
 from sensible and external objects perish at death, that he be- 
 lieved the soul in a separate and disembodied state no longer to 
 possess individual consciousness, and to be incapable of having 
 any power of thought whatever apart from the universal Mind. 
 It would appear from the comparison of the unwritten tablet 
 that Locke's theory is not altogether novel. 
 
109 
 
 does such a consequence necessarily follow from 
 any assertion in any part of his works. He denies 
 indeed the continuance of memory after death, 
 which he observes is the result of cpavTaa-ia, and, if 
 memory be absent, it may be asked, how can the 
 consciousness of personal identity exist, the loss of 
 which would be fatal to the expectation of future 
 recompense ? But with regard to this conclusion 
 I would venture to remark, that, though memory 
 be excluded, it does not necessarily follow that 
 the knowledge which man obtains or preserves by 
 means of memory, while mind and body are unit- 
 ed, is to cease when they are separated. Aristotle 
 assigns to the Deity consciousness of happiness, 
 apprehension of ideas, and an interest in the con- 
 duct and fortunes of mankind ; and yet, by deny- 
 ing him *^ bodily sensation, virtually denies him me- 
 mory. He has defined memory to be a faint per- 
 ception of past reality : the perception of this re- 
 ality may be conveyed in another way, and more 
 vividly, after death ^ In the Ethics the dead are 
 said to be affected by the fortune of their living 
 friends, yet not affected so far as to have their 
 condition changed by this sympathy, whether they 
 
 ^ The Epicurean in Cicero accuses Aristotle of depriving 
 the Deity of thought, because he deprived him of body. De Na- 
 tura Deorum lib. i. cap. 13. 
 
 •■ Aristotle's Ethics, book i. chap. 1 1. 
 
110 
 
 are happy or otherwise. It is clear from this pas- 
 sage that the dead are supposed to be conscious 
 of personal identity, and to be sensible of pleasure 
 and pain, and that they are divided into classes, 
 some being happy and others not so ^ But if the 
 happiness of man in this life is not in Aristotle's 
 opinion a capricious gift of the gods, but the re- 
 ward of virtuous actions \ it is not easy to imagine 
 any other circumstances or conditions on which 
 the fortunes of the soul after death could be made 
 to depend. And this consideration would lead us 
 back to the necessity of some sort of future re- 
 tribution which the metaphysical theory we have 
 just examined apparently tended to annihilate. 
 It is surprising, that while almost every other 
 branch of human knowledge has been investigated 
 by Aristotle, how little consideration he has be- 
 stowed upon the question of the soul's immor- 
 tality. It is impossible to speak positively as to 
 his opinions on the subject ; for throughout his vo- 
 luminous works, metaphysical, physical, and moral, 
 we find no sufficient data from which to deduce 
 
 * This positive opinion can hardly be overthrown by the as- 
 sertion in the third book, that death is most terrible because it 
 is an end, and there appears to be neither good nor evil be- 
 yond. Aristotle's Ethics, book iii. chap. 6. He might speak 
 thus of death, and the fear of death, in the mind of man with- 
 out intending thereby to deny a future state. 
 
 * Aristotle's Ethics, book i. chap. 9. book x. chap. 8. 
 
Ill 
 
 any certain conclusion. It is probable, from the 
 practical character of his mind, that he was un- 
 willing to indulge in speculations on a question 
 from the discussion of which he could arrive at no 
 clear and accurate knowledge. It is not often 
 that we meet with a more complete example of 
 what the logicians call the petitio principii than 
 the assertions of Warburton respecting the chap- 
 ter we have attempted to discuss. Cudworth had 
 declared it to be obscure, but, says the author of 
 the Legation, " " had that excellent person re- 
 ^' fleeted on the general doctrine of the TO 'EN he 
 " would have found the passage plain and easy." 
 And he sums up his observations in that conve- 
 nient form of words recommended by the ancient 
 sophists and rhetoricians, to silence opposition by 
 alarming the adversary into an idea that his dis- 
 sent will be interpreted as a proof of ignorance : 
 " The learned well know that the Intellectus 
 «^ Agens of Aristotle was the very same with the 
 " Anima Mundi of Plato and Pythagoras." Now, 
 omitting all further inquiry into the correctness 
 of Warburton's representations respecting Plato's 
 creed, it may be sufficient to observe at present, 
 that if the learned have acquired such satisfactory 
 knowledge of the opinions entertained by the Sta- 
 
 " Divine Legation, lib. iii. sect. 4. vol. ii. p. 112. 
 
112 
 
 gyrite on the same subject, it must have been 
 from other sources than his own writings. 
 
 That Aristotle believed in a ^ Supreme Beings 
 the original Mover of all things, enjoying perfect 
 felicity, and the source of all good, may be abun- 
 dantly proved ; that, besides the Supreme Being, 
 he maintained the existence also of y 07ie intelli- 
 gent Principle (notwithstanding his notion that 
 all the spheres were animated essences) pervading 
 the universe, may be inferred from some expres- 
 sions in his metaphysical works, and from a direct 
 assertion in his Politics. In addition to these, he 
 appears to have considered ^Nature as a third 
 and distinct cause, performing its functions sub- 
 ordinate to and dependent on the two former ; 
 
 ^ ^a/>tev §e rov Beov elvcci ^£ov ai^iov apia-rov, ua-re ^covj koc) alwv (Tvv- 
 €Xr!? /ca* athot; viidpx^i rS Be^. Metaph. lib. xiv. cap. 7. 
 
 *H ocpx/j Kot TO TipaTov Tuv ovTcov aKiv^iov K(Xi KO.G' aino. Ibid, 
 cap. 8. 
 
 Ei [Ml €<rrai izapa. to, al<rdr)Ta aXka, ovk earrcci ap'^fj, ko,) rd^iq, kou 
 y€vi(rtq. Ibid. cap. 10. 
 
 *0 6eo<f ^0K€7 ro a'lriov Tracrij/ elvai kou dp^"^ riq. Ibid. lib. i. C. 2. 
 
 TluvTcc l^et rdyaOd Oecx; Kai i<TTiv avTdpKVji;. Magna Moralia, 
 lib. ii. cap. 15. 
 
 y 2%0A^ yap av o Oeo^ e^Oi KoXaq kou TIAS O K02M02, of? ovk etViv 
 i^uTepiKou Trpale*^ Trapa Tocq o</ce/a^ rdq avTuv. Aristot. Politic, lib. 
 vii. cap. 3. Vide also Metaph. lib. xiv. cap. 8. de Ccelo, lib. ii. 
 cap. 3. Idem, lib. i. cap. 9. 
 
 ^ *Y.K roioivrv}(; dpoc, dpx^i ijpTvjTa* ovpavot; kou tj ^T2I2. Metaph. 
 lib. xiv. cap. 7. Vide also Phys, lib. ii. cap. i. 
 
113 
 
 but he has by no means clearly or consistently 
 explained the peculiar province of each, nor the 
 relation which they bear to the human soul. Ah 
 though therefore it may be allowed that he held 
 the doctrine of the Anima Mundi, he does not 
 seem to have taught it in the fulness of Plato's 
 sense, who confounds it with the law of Nature, 
 and gives a diffuse account of its creation, attri- 
 butes, and operations. This view of his opinions 
 is supported by the authority of ^Eusebius and 
 other fathers of the church, who triumphantly 
 mention the discordance of these great teachers 
 on the subject, as contrasted with the harmony of 
 the inspired writers. It is well known also that 
 the two philosophers were opposed to each other 
 respecting the origin of the world itself: Plato 
 believed that matter in disorder^ was eternal, 
 Aristotle, that matter arranged, or the world, was 
 eternal ; a doctrine which he probably borrowed 
 
 ^ In Eusebius, Praeparat. Evangel, lib. xv. cap. 12. where an 
 ^extract is given from Porphyry containing an account of Plato's 
 Anima Mundi, the following words occur : Il/jo^ uvhh rovruv 
 ^fMV * Apia-roTikviq ofMXoyitf od yap eivai rrjv <pv<riv i^y^V 'fcei ra irept 
 y^v in:o [Aia(; (pva-ea^ hoiKeia-Oaif &C. 
 
 ^ De Coelo, lib. i. cap. 10. Idem, lib. ii. cap. i. Cicero, Tusc. 
 Quaest. lib. i. cap. 29. Eusebius, Praeparat. Evangel, lib. xv. 
 cap. 6, &c. It should be observed, in consulting Aristotle 
 de Ccelo, that ovpavot; is frequently used by him to signify the 
 world : it has the same sense also in Plato's Timaeus. 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 from Ocellus Lucanus ^ who in this instance de- 
 serted the principles of his master Pythagoras, 
 and almost all the more ancient writers. 
 
 TlMJSUS. 
 
 It has been asserted that Plato never confounds 
 the Soul of the universe with the one First Cause 
 and Creator of all things. In illustration of this 
 assertion it may not be uninteresting, however ex- 
 travagant and little intelligible such a " rhapsody 
 " rather than a philosophy" may be in itself, to 
 give a short abstract of the creation of the world 
 compressed from the Timaeus. Having observed 
 that it is difficult to discover the Maker and Fa- 
 ther of all things, and when we have discovered 
 him it is impossible to reveal him to all men ; hav- 
 ing laid down a necessary distinction ^between 
 what is created and uncreated, and declared that 
 the one is discerned by reason and intelligence, 
 (voy](Ti^,) the other by sensible perception, (aiaOy^cng,) 
 the author proceeds to give an account of creation 
 in terms which he premises will be akin to the 
 nature of the subjects treated of, where proba- 
 
 <= Vide an extract from Philo Judseus in Gale's Opusc. My- 
 tholog. p. 501. ed. 1688. 
 
 ^ "Eariv ovv 8^ koct ifArjV ho^av irpurov ^lactper^ov raSe. t/ to ov ae), 
 yivea-iv Se ovk e%oy, ko,) il to yiyvQ^A.evov (/.ly ail, ov he ovhinore j Bek- 
 ker, pars iii. vol. ii. Timaeus, p. 22. 
 
115 
 
 bility not certainty is to be expected. In that 
 flowing and beautiful language which is peculiar 
 to him, as different from the compressed and sim- 
 ple style of the short composition by Timaeus the 
 Locrian as the ornamented Corinthian column 
 from its Doric original, he explains in detail how 
 the supreme Deity, influenced by the desire of 
 diffusing his own ^goodness, out of disorder re- 
 duced to ^ order the fluctuating mass of matter, 
 gave intelligence to the soul, united soul with 
 body, till the whole material world arose into ex- 
 istence, an ^ animal endowed with life and intelli- 
 gence through the providence of God. In the 
 formation of this visible fabric after the model of 
 the invisible archetype which was eternal in the 
 divine Mind, the Creator first took fire and earth, 
 and made the union of these two substances com- 
 plete by the addition of a third called Analogia^, or 
 
 ^ *Aya6o(; ijv, ayacQa Se oiJSei^ irepl o^Sevo? o^ScTroTe iyyiyverai (l)6ovoi* 
 Tovrov 8' €Kro(; av irdvra on [AtzXia-ra, yevetrOai i^ovX-^dvj irupanA'^<Tia 
 eavTw. Timaeus, p. 25. 
 
 f EU Tafiv avTo ^ya.yf.v Ik t^^ arouiia^. Timaeus, ibid. 
 
 g Zwoi/ ejiAi|/yp^ov ^vvavv re t^ aXvjfie/jt 5<a t^v rov Beov yevea-Qai Trpo- 
 votav. Timaeus, p. 26. 
 
 '^ This Analogia appears to be the law of nature, like the 
 apxh ^ApjMiyiccq, the law of harmonious arrangement ; (Aristot. 
 Polit. lib. i. cap. 35) or that law so beautifully described by 
 Hooker, to which all things in heaven and earth do homage : 
 ^evf/i.uv 8e KoKkKTroq 0^ av avTov KOii ra ^vv^ov[/.€vci on lAokiara ev 
 irojj. Timaeus, p. 28. The principles on which Analogia per- 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 Proportion, which was to regulate the order and 
 limits of their connection. The First Cause next 
 took air and water, gave it in charge to Analogia 
 to combine these with the former elements, and 
 all with itself, till the one vast fabric was bound 
 together in the ties of friendship indissoluble, ex- 
 cept at the hands of him who first connected it. 
 The supreme Creator then assigned motion to the 
 whole, and placed a soul in the centre, that its 
 energy might be extended from thence through- 
 out the various parts. Thus did the eternal 
 Deity create the universe as an inferior deity 
 possessed of consciousness and enjoying happi- 
 ness ; a second cause and servant of himself; 
 {evdaifJLOva 6eov eyevv^aaro.) But this Soul of the 
 
 forms its functions, Plato attempts to illustrate by a mystical 
 application of the relations of numbers. Vide Timaeus the 
 Locrian also Aristot. Metaph. lib. i. cap. 5. It should be re- 
 membered, however, that when the ancients appear to speak 
 so extravagantly of the power of numher^ they do not use the 
 word exactly in our sense, but as conveying the idea that all 
 things are subject to certain definite rules and proportions, 
 which may be illustrated by the operation of numbers ; as if 
 they had some obscure notions of those physical laws of com- 
 bination which modern philosophers have demonstrated : 01 
 fA€V yap TlvOayoptioi MIMH2IN ra cvrd (fyaariv flvai ray api6fji.Zy^ 
 Aristot. Metaph. lib. i. cap. 6. Thus when Aristotle in his 
 Rhetoric observes, Uepaiverai Se apiBfjLu itdvia, " All things are 
 " limited by number," he means, probably, all things are sub- 
 ject to some definite law. 
 
117 
 
 world, though mentioned last in the descrip- 
 tion, was not contrived the last in order, 
 but was prior both in production and in excel- 
 lence. It was composed of three essences, the 
 divisible and changeable, the indivisible and un- 
 changeable, and of a third made up of the combi- 
 nation of the other two. From these three sub- 
 stances, the divinity formed one soul, and distri- 
 buted it to the different members of the universe. 
 But when the composition of the soul had been 
 thus completed according to the intention of the 
 Composer', the eternal Cause then contrived all 
 the material mass within, and united it centre to 
 centre^. The soul, diffusing itself from hence, 
 
 5 EHEI AE RATA NOTN TOl STNI2TANTI itaaa ^ t^ ^A^^ffi 
 ^varouTiq iyiyevi^roy jwera rovro itav to (TftjjticaToeiSe? ivroq avt^^ ettKrai- 
 v€To. Thus translated by Cicero : " Aninmm igitur quum ille 
 " procreator mundi Deus ex sua mente et divinitate geniiisset." 
 This can hardly be considered a translation of the words. If 
 ex sua mente alone will bear the meaning, '* according to his 
 ** intention," ex sua mente et divinitate together, can scarcely 
 signify any thing else than, " out of his own divine essence," 
 which Plato does not say. Ciceronianum Lexicon Grseco-La- 
 tinum ab Henrico Stephano, edit. 1557. Platonis Loci a Ci- 
 cerone Interpretati, p. 23. 
 
 ^ The principles on which this distribution is made are de- 
 scribed with all the useless and unintelligible mysticism in 
 which Plato was so fond of indulging. The laws again by 
 which the composition of the soul was regulated are explained 
 by a fanciful combination of numbers. In this sense, the 
 number of the soul in Timaeus the Locrian is declared to be 
 
 I 3 
 
118 
 
 pervaded the extremity of the heaven revolving 
 upon itself around it, and established the com- 
 mencement of a life unceasing and full of intel- 
 lectual enjoyment. Formed by the most excellent 
 Creator the most excellent of created things, it is 
 endowed with a capacity of perceiving eternal 
 truths. From its proportionate distribution and 
 compound essence, and self-revolving power ^, when 
 it approaches any divisible or indivisible substance, 
 it is enabled to discern, by moving itself through 
 its own entire nature, the identity and differences 
 of things, to what class each belongs, the time and 
 place and manner of its existence, the distinction 
 
 1 1 4695. Vide Timseus the Locrian. Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. 
 p. 382. 
 
 Absurd as these speculations of Plato are, they are more than 
 equalled by those of Darjes, a German writer, (and he was only 
 one of a school,) not a century ago, who published a philoso- 
 phical treatise to demonstrate the Trinity by algebraical formula. 
 Tractatus philosophicus in quo Plurahtas Personarum in Deitate, 
 &C.1735. Problems of the same kind are also to be found in Stap- 
 fer, a divine of a different church, in a learned work, (Institu- 
 tiones Theolog. tomi 5. Tiguri, 1743.) Vid. vol. iii. p. 481, 482, 
 &c. And Dr. Hutchinson, in his inquiry into the origin of our 
 ideas of beauty and virtue, has applied algebra to the question 
 of "moral merit:" "The benevolence (moral merit) of an 
 " agent is proportional to a fraction, having the moment of 
 ** good for the numerator, and the ability of the agent for the 
 •* denominator." Life and Writings of Dr. Held, in Dugald 
 Stewart's edition of his works. 
 
 ' Cicero de Natura Deorum lib. i. cap. 10. 
 
119 
 
 between essences eternal and the same, and those 
 created and changeable. But when the Father 
 who had made this image of the eternal deities 
 had seen it living and moving, he was well-pleased 
 and rejoiced, and he determined to perfect his 
 work, and to render it still more similar to the 
 original archetype. He then applied himself to 
 the creation of time ™, the sun, moon, and stars, 
 and other divinities, who though parts of the one 
 vast animal, are endowed with separate conscious- 
 ness and personal happiness ". When the Father 
 
 "" It is remarkable that Plato makes no distinction of time in 
 the eternal archetype of the world as it existed in the divine 
 mind ; AeyofMv yap tv} uq ^v tarn re ku) eo^a/, t^ he ro tan [/.ovov 
 KUTo, Toy aXuj^ Xoyov 'rrpo(jr,K€i. Timaeus, p. 36. 
 
 " This is certainly Plato's theory, Timaeus, p. 29. If then all 
 the animals which are parts of the material universe possess 
 separate consciousness, what reason is there for supposing that 
 he believed the soul after death, when it became a part of uni- 
 versal mind, would lose its personality. He uniformly repre^ 
 sents it as possessed of individuality. Parts are used in a figu- 
 rative sense : Plato himself tells us that the term body is ap- 
 plied to the universe, not literally, but figuratively, (Timaeus, p. 
 30.) I am well aware that by subsequent writers the distinctions 
 of the philosopher were not so accurately observed, and that 
 the still greater absurdity of their notions respecting the Anima 
 Mundi might justify the satire of the Epicurean in Cicero, or 
 the keener ridicule of St. Augustine : though we can hardly 
 imagine the creed of any to have extended so far as to embrace 
 the belief, that all things were literally a part of Jupiter, and 
 that the Deity in the torrid zone was parched with heat, and in 
 the hyperborean regions was stiff with cold ; and that he actually 
 
 I 4 
 
of all things had created these principal parts of 
 the universe, he afterwards assigned to them, as 
 second causes and subject deities, their subordinate 
 departments in the work of creation. To their 
 care was committed the formation of other ani- 
 mated essences inferior to themselves. They are 
 charged in gratitude for the immortality which 
 their Maker in his benevolence has given them, 
 and to which they had no natural claim, to devote 
 themselves diligently to the task: "^ Deities of dei- 
 " ties, of whom I am Creator and Father, ye are 
 " not immortal and indissoluble; what I have made 
 " I can dissolve, yet ye shall not be dissolved, nor 
 *' be subject to death, through the might of my 
 *' will. Apply yourselves to the creation of ani- 
 " mals, imitating my power exerted in your pro- 
 " duction. , I will furnish you with the first prin- 
 " ciples and eternal seeds for the formation of 
 " those who are to resemble the immortal Gods, 
 " but do ye, adding the mortal to the immortal 
 " nature, mould and produce them into being, 
 
 died in men, and was whipped in hoys : " Quid infelicius credi 
 ** potest quam Jovis partem vapulare cum puervapulat," Cicero 
 de Natura Deorum lib. i. cap. lo, ii. St. Augustin, Civ. Dei, 
 lib. iv. cap. 13. Dr. Ireland, p. 184, 185. Vide also Comment. 
 Marsil. Ficini, lib. iii. cap. 3. Plotini Ennead. 4. 
 
 ° The spirit and beauty of the passage beginning ©eo* Oewv, 
 &v ^ya IvKA.iovpyoi itaTfip re epyecv will be felt by every reader of 
 Plato. Timseus, p. 43. 
 
Ul 
 
 " nourish and multiply them, and receive back 
 " their dissolved elements when they perish." 
 Saying this, he turned to the cup in which he had 
 tempered the soul of the universe, and mingled 
 the materials in the same manner as before, but of 
 inferior purity ; and having formed souls, he dis- 
 tributed them to different stars, each to its own 
 star, to be reserved for the production of an ani- 
 mal distinguished for piety towards the Gods. 
 When these souls should be introduced into 
 bodies, and become subject to the influence of 
 bodily passions, the Creator ordained that the man 
 who lived his allotted time subduing his appetites 
 should enjoy a life of future happiness, returning 
 to that kindred star in which his spirit had been 
 at first deposited. If he failed to conquer them, 
 he was destined in his second formation to put on 
 the nature of woman p, and unless corrected then, 
 he was to pass into other animals, till the irrational 
 part should be at length overcome, and his soul 
 should approach to that excellency and purity in 
 which it had at first been formed. The Creator 
 having established these laws, in order that him- 
 
 P In other works Plato seems to consider women on an 
 equality with men. Vid. Republic, fifth book, in which he re- 
 commends the same course of bodily and mental discipline, 
 IMva-iK^i and yvfAvatrriKrj, to both. Aristotle considered women 
 inferior. Aristot. Polit. book i. chap. 13. 
 
122 
 
 self might be guiltless of the evil which should 
 hereafter infect them, interspersed some souls in 
 the moon, others in the sun, and others in the 
 various stars. The inferior deities, having received 
 these first principles of the immortal soul, proceed 
 to the accomplishment of their work, and to form 
 the body of man as well as that mortal soul which 
 is the seat of the passions, and of pleasure and 
 pain : of pleasure, the greatest allurement to evil ; 
 of pain, that most strongly deters us from good ; 
 of anger and fear, inconsiderate twin-counsellors ; 
 of hope, that easily seduces by means of the 
 irrational senses ; and of love, that dares every 
 enterprise. Yet, fearing to mingle their work 
 with that of the supreme Deity, they implant this 
 irrational soul in the breast, whereas the immortal 
 soul was placed in the head, in order that from 
 this acropolis, or citadel, it might issue its com- 
 mands with authority to the inferior faculties and 
 passions. 
 
 An apology is perhaps necessary for introducing 
 such a wild and fanciful narrative to the notice of 
 the reader, but it may possibly furnish some illus- 
 tration of Plato's opinions, as well as of the poeti- 
 cal colouring with which he adorned them, though 
 we may be unable to determine the exact mea- 
 sure of belief which he himself gave to the dif- 
 ferent parts of such a theory. It is clear how- 
 
123 
 
 ever, from the tenor of the whole account, that 
 he never confounds the soul of the universe with 
 the One First Cause ; nor can any inference be de- 
 duced, either directly or indirectly, from it, that 
 he believed the human soul after death would so 
 become a part of the Anima mundi as to lose per- 
 sonal consciousness. It will be no uninstructive 
 lesson to compare this diffuse and tedious history, 
 in which the acts of the Deity are so elaborately 
 detailed, with the simple and sublime language of 
 inspiration on the same subject. If such an argu- 
 ment were wanting to establish the truth of the 
 Mosaic history, the style itself would furnish 
 strong evidence in its favour. No attempt is 
 made to enchain the reader's attention, or satisfy 
 unprofitable curiosity upon matters too exalted 
 for human comprehension, by copious and high- 
 wrought descriptions. The sacred writer repre- 
 sents not the Creator mingling elements and sub- 
 stances like an earthly workman^, and determining 
 by calculated arrangements and multiplied com- 
 binations the limits and proportions of their union, 
 but as an Almighty Being, whose words and 
 whose works are the same. The single sentence, 
 
 '1 The disciple of Epicurus in Cicero makes this objection to 
 Plato's narrative : " Quae molitio ? quas ferramenta ? qui vectes ? 
 ** quae machinae? qui niinistri tanti operis fuerant?" De Natura 
 Deormn lib. i. cap. 8. 
 
124 
 
 Let there he light, and there was light, serves at 
 once to repress curiosity, and fill the mind with a 
 magnificent image of that infinite Power, who 
 spake, and it was done ; who commanded, and it 
 stoodfast. 
 
 The work of Timaeus the Locrian^ in the Doric 
 dialect, which has been before alluded to, and 
 which is supposed to contain the principles of the 
 Pythagoreans, differs in no important particulars 
 from the more diffuse description of Plato. Two 
 original principles are represented as existing from 
 eternity, God or Mind, and Necessity; 0€Of or 
 vovg, and avajKri, of which Matter and Form, vKfi 
 and /^ea, are the offspring ^ And it is asserted in 
 another passage, that before the heaven was pro- 
 duced the Deity and Matter existed, and also the 
 essential archetype or form of things ^ The Soul 
 of the universe is described as the composition of 
 the Deity with a degree of minuteness and mysti- 
 cism that Plato himself has not surpassed. But 
 there is nothing in the narrative to lead us to the 
 inference that the writer imagined the First Cause 
 to confound himself with the Soul of the universe, 
 the work of his own creation, or that the soul of 
 
 ■■ T//*aio$ AoVpo? TaSe e^a. is the commencement of the work. 
 
 ^ Ilpiv uv ^pavov <yev€<TBct^ Xoy^ Tjcrnjv l^eot re ko,) vXa koI o 0€o< 
 ZafAiovpyoq ta jScXr/ovo?. Bekker, pars iii. vol. iii. p. 380. The 
 Deity is also called *Xpy^ rSv apia-ruv, p. 379. 
 
125 
 
 man was absorbed in it after death. The neces- 
 sity of the irrational part obeying the rational is 
 insisted on, and it is declared, that the perception 
 of truth will conduct the man who observes this 
 law to a life of the greatest happiness ". But it is 
 uncertain whether this relates to a future state of 
 happiness or not. The idea of future punishment, 
 and the menaces respecting it, are discarded, and 
 such doctrines are permitted only as providing a 
 check for those who refuse the admonitions of 
 reason ^. Yet the last words of the treatise leave 
 a doubt upon the mind whether the writer, re- 
 jecting as he did the representation of the poets, 
 and the fables of the metempsychosis, had not 
 some belief in an avenging Nemesis to punish the 
 guilty after death ; nor are they satisfactorily ex- 
 plained by the distinction that Warburton makes 
 between the physical and moral metempsychosis. 
 
 " A*' ocKaOecrrdTav ho^oiv ayerai €7ri tov ti/taifAOviaTarov ^lov. Bek- 
 ker, pars iii. vol. Hi. p. 391, 
 
 * *n^ yap roc o-ufAara voa-a^ea-i ttoKo. vyia^ofAeq^ ou ko. [Arj cIktj to<V vyi6i- 
 voTaTOig, ovru raq ypv^aq a,iT€ipyoi/.€q x^cfSeo-t Xoyoiq^ ei kcc fM] ay^tcti a\a- 
 Bea-i. Timseus ad fin. Vide also the concluding sentence of the 
 treatise. If Plato had left no works of his own behind him, 
 this passage might have been admitted as affording evidence of 
 his opinions ; but its authority is of little weight when opposed 
 to the numerous treatises written by himself, in which contrary 
 doctrines are inculcated. Vid. Warburton's Divine Legation, 
 book iii. sect. 3. also sect. i. vol. ii. p. 2. 54, 55. 
 
U6 
 
 In conclusion it may be observed, that War- 
 burton's knowledge of ancient philosophy was 
 more extended, than sound and accurate y. He 
 asserts, that Aristotle believed the care of Provi- 
 dence not to extend to individuals; the Ethics 
 alone might have convinced him of his error. 
 He denies that the affection of love, joy, &c. were 
 believed by Plato and Pythagoras to belong to the 
 supreme Deity, but only to inferior divinities^; in 
 the Timaeus the supreme Deity is represented as 
 rejoicing when he had made the world. He ob- 
 serves again, that in taking away human passions 
 from God, they left him nothing but that kind of 
 natural excellence which went not from his will, 
 but his essence only. The assertion is not limited 
 to the Stoics, but applied universally. Did the 
 author of the Divine Legation ever read the pas- 
 sage in the Timaeus before alluded to ? " Deities of 
 " deities, ye are not immortal, and yet ye shall not 
 " be dissolved, t^$- efxvj^ povX'^a-ecDg, k. t. A. through 
 " the power of my will." * Upon a general re- 
 
 y Book iii. sect. 4. p. 95, 96. vol. ii. Aristot. Ethics, lib. i. 
 cap. 9. lib. X. cap. 8. E* ydp nq i'jrt(Ji.€K€ia tuv avBficimivuv vico Seav 
 yiveTOci uairep So/fe?, Koci etvj oiv evKoyov xaipeiv re avrolq r^ (rvyyeve- 
 a-Ta.1'^. and hence he deduces the inference, that he is the hap- 
 piest man who is dearest to the gods. Cudworth, lib. i. cap. i. 
 sect. 45. 
 
 z Book iii. sect. 4. p. 97, 98. vol. ii. 
 
 ^ Vide also Alcinous on the doctrines of Plato, cap. x. Cud- 
 worth, Hb. i. cap. 4. p. 415. 
 
127 
 
 view of the inquiry, we may, I think, venture to de- 
 termine, that he has by no means proved his asser- 
 tions against the philosophers of Greece : to quote 
 the words of Mosheim^, " Non apertis et planis 
 " testimoniis causam suam agit vir praeclarus, quod 
 " in tanti momenti accusatione necessarium vide- 
 " tur, sed conjecturis tantum, exemplis nonnullis, 
 " denique consectariis ex institutis quibusdam et 
 " dogmatibus philosophorum quibusdam ductis." 
 Though the author of the Divine Legation has 
 attempted to refute this charge, it will appear, 
 upon an accurate examination, not only strictly 
 true, but to fall short of the truth. In what man- 
 ner, for example, are the opinions of Plato attempt- 
 ed to be ascertained? Not by a comprehensive 
 view of his own writings, but by an appeal to 
 Jamblichus, Albinus, or Celsus. The sentiments 
 of Aristotle are pronounced upon after an investi- 
 gation equally partial and unsatisfactory. The 
 most important passage in the Ethics that bears 
 upon the subject is omitted, and the observations 
 on the chapters in the treatise de Anima are made 
 up partly of unwarranted assumption, partly of 
 reasoning, alike superficial and unphilosophical. 
 The statements of bishop Warburton, respecting 
 the other philosophers of Greece, are often founded 
 
 ^ De Rebus Christ, ante Constantinum Magnum, p.i8. quoted 
 by Warburton, lib. iii. sect. 4. vol. ii. p. 138. 
 
128 
 
 in the same manner upon scattered passages, ap- 
 plied with wonderful dexterity and ingenuity, but 
 not upon any general comparison of their writ- 
 ings. Nor does he shew much critical acumen 
 (and this is surprising in so acute a writer) in dis- 
 tinguishing the relative value of the testimonies 
 which he cites. He appears at times to argue in 
 the spirit of a man who might think Plutarch, or 
 even Porphyry, as good evidence for the doctrine 
 of the Academy as Plato himself; and M. Antoni- 
 nus or Apuleius sound authorities on the philoso- 
 phy of Aristotle. In answer to the chancellor of 
 Gottingen, he asserts, that the Greek philosophers 
 are proved by him to have made use of a double 
 doctrine — to have held it lawful to deceive, and 
 to say one thing when they thought another — to 
 have sometimes owned, and sometimes denied a 
 future state of rewards and punishments — to have 
 held that God could not be angry, nor hurt any 
 one — that the soul was part of the substance of 
 God — to have avowed that the consequence of 
 these ideas of God and the soul was no future 
 state of rewards and punishments. But how few 
 of these propositions have been established upon 
 any solid grounds. The author of the Divine Le- 
 gation has not shewn, nor is it possible to shew, 
 that Plato and Aristotle held the notion of a 
 double sense distinct from the division of doctrines 
 
129 
 
 into exoteric and esoteric : the assertion, that Plato 
 held it lawful to deceive for the public good, is 
 grounded chiefly on a translation of a sentence by 
 Cicero, either wrong in itself, or misunderstood : 
 that they sometimes owned and sometimes denied 
 a future state, is not true of Plato, if it is meant 
 that his expressions of denial, or rather of doubt, 
 bear any proportion to those of belief and ac- 
 knowledgment ; and in the case of other philoso- 
 phers, occasional doubts upon such a subject would 
 furnish no very decisive evidence against the ge- 
 neral character of their belief. That they held God 
 could not be angry, was an opinion of some sects 
 of philosophy, not of all : the supposition that the 
 soul*^ was part of the substance of God does not 
 necessarily affect the argument respecting a future 
 state of retribution ; for the Platonists did not 
 imagine that being a part of universal mind ex- 
 cluded the notion of personal consciousness : that 
 they avowed the consequences of these ideas of 
 God and the soul was no future state of rewards 
 and punishments, is not true of the philosophers 
 in general, but chiefly of the Stoics. Nor are the 
 theories of bishop Warburton^ respecting the be- 
 
 ^ Tertullian held that the soul was part of the substance of 
 God. 
 
 ^ In Schrockh's Ecclesiastical History there is this brief and 
 just criticism on Warburton's theory : Sinnreich genugy aber 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 lief of the ancient Jews supported by more solid 
 arguments. History, prophecy, and precept, the 
 common hopes and fears of mankind, are all made 
 to bend to the supposed influence of a law, which, 
 while it included within the range of its enact- 
 ments temporal rewards as well as punishments, 
 cannot be proved upon any sound principles to 
 have excluded the expectation of future recom- 
 pense. Our admiration of learning and ingenuity, 
 however perverted and misapplied, will always en- 
 sure to the works of Warburton a certain degree 
 of popularity; but opinions like those developed 
 in the Divine Legation of Moses will never ex- 
 tensively prevail, till the love of novelty and inge- 
 nuity gets the better alike of sober criticism and 
 common sense. 
 
 nur sinnreich! "Ingenious enough, but otily ingenious!" 
 Schrockh viii. theil. vol. xliii. p. 753. 
 
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