Part 3
This view is made probable by the fact, that all the grounds on which the Apostle founds his statement might have been obviated by answering, that the soul indeed lives, but that the body, when once it has mouldered into dust, cannot possibly be raised. Let us furnish specimens. When he says, "Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished," he might have been refuted by the philosophers who strenuously asserted the immortality of the soul. When he asks, "What will those do who are baptized for the dead?" he might easily have been answered, that souls survive death. To the question, "Why are we in jeopardy every hour?" the reply might have been, that we expose this frail life for the immortality in which our better part will live.
We have now said much for which there would have been no occasion among persons of teachable disposition. For the Apostle himself says, that we are miserable if we have hope in Christ in this
life only. This is clear beyond dispute, even he being witness, who acknowledges that his feet were almost gone, and that this steps had well-nigh slipped when he saw sinners enjoying themselves on the earth. And certainly, if we look only to the present, we will call those happy to whom everything turns out to a wish. But if we extend our views farther, we see that happy is the people whose God is the Lord, for in His hands are the issues of death.
We can adduce something still more decided, not only to refute their objections:, but to explain the genuine meaning of the Apostle to these who are willing to learn without being disputatious. For if there is no Resurrection of the flesh, he justly for this one reason calls the pious unhappy, because they endure so many wounds, scourges, torments, contumely, in short, necessities of all kinds in their bodies, which they think destined to immortality; seeing they will be disappointed in this their expectation. For what can be, I do not say "more miserable," but even more ridiculous, than to see the bodies of those who live for the day indulging in all kinds of delicacies, while the bodies of Christians are worn out with hunger, cold, stripes, and all kinds of contumely, if the bodies of both equally perish! I might compare this by the words which follow, "Why are we in jeopardy every hour, I die daily through your glory, brethren," etc. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." It were better, he says, to act on the maxim, "Let us eat," etc., if the affronts which we suffer in our bodies are not compensated by that glory for which we hope! This cannot be unless by the Resurrection of the flesh. Then, though this were given up, I can adduce another argument, viz., We are more miserable than all men if there is no Resurrection, because, although we are happy before the Resurrection, we are not happy without the Resurrection. For we say that the spirits of saints are happy in this, that they rest in the hope of a blessed Resurrection, which they could not do, were all this blessedness to perish. True, there is the
declaration of Paul, that we are more miserable than all men if there is no Resurrection; and there is no repugnance in these words to the dogma, that the spirits of the just are blessed before the Resurrection, since it is because of the Resurrection.
They also bring forward what is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews concerning the ancient Patriarchs, (Hebrews 11:13) "All these died in faith, not having received the promises, but seeing them afar off, because they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For them who say so show that they seek a country. And, indeed, had they remembered the country from which they came, they had opportunity of returning, but now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country." Here our opponents argue as follows: If they desire a heavenly country, they do not already possess it: We, on the contrary, argue; If they desire, they must exist, for there cannot be desire without a subject in which it resides. And, as I attempt to force from them only, there must be a sense of good and evil where there is desire which either follows what carries an appearance of good, or shows that which appears evil. That desire, they say, lies in God, than which nothing can be imagined more ridiculous. For one of two things must follow - either that God desires something better than he has, or that there is something in God which belongs not to God. This circumstance makes me suppose that they are merely sporting with a serious matter.
To omit this, What is meant by "the power of returning?" Let them, then, return to a sound mind and listen to something better than they have yet embraced; if, indeed, they are really persuaded of that which they profess with their lips. The Apostle is speaking of Abraham and his posterity who dwelt in a foreign land among strangers; only not exiles, but certainly sojourners, scarcely sheltering their bodies by living in poor huts, in obedience to the
command of God given to Abraham, that he should leave his land and his kindred. God had promised them what he had not yet exhibited. Therefore they trusted the promises afar off, and died in the firm belief that the promises of God would one day be fulfilled. In accordance with this belief, they confessed that they had no fixed abode on the earth, and that beyond the earth there was a country for which they longed, viz., heaven. In the end of the chapter he intimates, that all those whom he enumerated did not obtain the final promise, that they might not be perfected without us. Had they attended to the peculiar meaning of this expression, they never would have excited so much disturbance. It is strange how they can be blind in so much light; but still more strange that they give us bread instead of stones - in other words, support our views while seeking to overthrow them!
They think they derive strong support from what is said in the Acts of the Apostles concerning Tabitha, who, when a disciple of Christ, full of alms and good deeds, was raised from the dead by Peter. (Acts 9:40.) They say, an injury was done to Tabitha, if we are correct in holding that the soul, when freed from the body, lives with God and in God, since she was brought back from the society of God and a life of blessedness to this evil world. As if the same thing might not be retorted upon them! For whether she slept, or was nothing, yet as she had died in the Lord she was blessed. It was, therefore, not expedient for her to return to the life which she had finished. They must themselves, therefore, first untie the knot which they have made, since it is but fair that they obey the law which they lay upon others. And yet it is easy for us to untie it.
Whatever be the lot which awaits us after death, what Paul says of himself, (Philippians 1:23,) is applicable to all believers - "for us to die is gain, and to be with Christ is better." And yet Paul says that
Epaphroditus, who certainly was in the number of believers, "obtained mercy of the Lord when sick nigh unto death," he recovered. (Philippians 2:27.) Those men, indeed, who handle the mysteries of God with so little reverence and sobriety, would interpret that mercy as cruelty. We, however, feel and acknowledge it to be mercy, seeing it is a step of Divine mercy to sanctify the elect and glorify the sanctified. Does not the Lord then display his mercy when he sanctifies us more and more? What! if the will of God is to be magnified in our body by life, as Paul says, is it not mercy? It is not surely ours to lay down laws for the miraculous works of God; it is enough if the glory of their author shine forth in them. What if we should say that God did not consult the advantage of Tabitha, but had respect to the poor at whose prayers she was raised up, while they kept weeping and showing the garments which Tabitha was wont to sew for them? Paul thought that this mode of living sufficed him, though it were far better for him to depart to God. After saying that God had had mercy on Epaphroditus, he adds, "And not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow." Go now and raise a plea against God for having given back to the poor a woman who was diligent in supplying their wants! For, however the operation may appear to us, Christ, who died and rose again, that he might rule over the living and the dead, is certainly entitled to be glorified both in our life and in our death.
David also, the best defender of our cause, they call in as a defender of theirs, but with so much effrontery, and in a manner so devoid of common sense, that one is both ashamed and pained to mention the arguments which they borrow from him. The whole, however, with which we are acquainted we shall now honestly state. First, they venture to quote the words, (Psalm 82:6,) "I said, Ye are gods, and all of you exalted sons, but ye shall die like men," etc. And they interpret that believers are indeed gods and sons of God, but
that they die and fall with the reprobate, so that there is the same lot to both till the lambs shall be separated from the kids. We give the answer which we have received from Christ, (John 10:34,) that "they are there called gods to whom the word of God came;" that is, ministers of God, namely, judges who bear in their hands the sword which they have received from God. Even had we not the interpretation of Christ and the usage of Scripture, which everywhere concurs, there is no obscurity in the passage itself, in which those are rebuked who judge iniquity and respect the faces of sinners. They are called gods, because acting as the representatives of God while they preside over others; but they are reminded of a future Judge to whom they must give an account of their office. See a specimen of the way in which our opponents argue!
Let us attend to another. It is said, secondly, (Psalm 146:4,) "His spirit will go forth and return to its earth. In that day all their thoughts perish." Here they take "spirit" for wind, and say, that the man will go away into the earth; that there will be nothing but earth; that all his thoughts will perish; whereas if there were any life they would remain. We are not so subtle, but in our dull way call a boat, a boat, and spirit, spirit! When this spirit departs from man, the man returns to the ground out of which he was taken, as we have fully explained. It remains, therefore, to see what is meant by thoughts "perishing." We are admonished not to put trust in men. Trust ought to be immortal. It were otherwise uncertain and unstable, seeing that the life of man passes quickly away. To intimate this, he said, that "their thoughts perish ;" that is, that whatever they designed while alive is dissipated and given to the winds. Elsewhere he says, "The sinner will see and be angry; he will gnash with his teeth and pine away; the desire of the sinner will perish," as it is said in another place, "dissipated:" "The Lord dissipates the counsels of the heathen:" again, "Form a scheme and it will be dissipated." The same
thing, in the form of a circumlocution, is expressed by the blessed Virgin in her song, "He hath dispersed the proud in the imagination of their hearts." (Psalm 112:10; 32:10; Isaiah 8:10; Luke 1:51.)
A third passage which they adduce is, (Psalm 78:39,) "And he remembered that they are flesh, the spirit going and not returning." They here contend, as they uniformly do, that "spirit" is used for wind. In this they perceive not that they not only destroy the immortality of the soul, but also cut off all hope of Resurrection. For if there is a resurrection, the spirit certainly returns; and if it does not return, there is no Resurrection! Wherefore, they ought here rather to implore pardon for their imprudence than insist on such a concession being made to them. Thus much I have said merely to let all men see how easily I might be quit were it my only object to refute their arguments. For we willingly admit, in accordance with their assertion, that the term wind is here applicable. We grant that men are "a wind which flies and returns not:" but if they wrest this to their own views, they err, not knowing the Scriptures, with which it is common by that kind of circumlocution to intimate at one time the weakness of man's condition, at another the shortness of life.
When Job says of man, (Job 14:1,) "He is a flower which cometh forth, and is cut down, and fleeth as a shadow," what more did he mean than just to say that man is fleeting, and frail, and like a fading flower? Isaiah again is ordered to exclaim,
"All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof hath fallen away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever." (Isaiah 40:6.)
Here let them infer, in one word, that the soul of man withers and pines away, and see a little more acutely than the dull fisherman
who proves from it that all believers are immortal, because born again of incorruptible seed - that is, the word of God, which endureth for ever. Scripture gives the name of "fading flower" and "passing wind" to those who put their trust in this life. Having here as it were fixed their permanent abode, they think they are to reign without end; not looking to the end by which their condition is to be changed, and they must go elsewhere. Of such persons the Prophet also says, (Isaiah 28:15,) "We have stipulated with death, and made a compact with hell." Deriding their vain hope, he does not account as life that which is to them the beginning of the worst death. And he affirms that they cease and die, since it were better for them not to be than be what they are.
To the same effect we read in another Psalm,
"As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth all that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. And man is as grass, his day is a flower of the field, so will he flourish. For his spirit will pass away in him, and he will not subsist, and he shall no longer know his place." (Psalm 103:13.)
If they affirm from these verses that the spirit perishes and vanishes away, I again warn them not to open a door for atheists, if there are any such, to rise up and endeavor to overthrow their faith and ours in the Resurrection, as there are certainly many. For in the same way they will infer that the spirit does not return to the body, seeing it is said that it shall no longer know its place. They may say, the inference is erroneous, since such arguing is plainly in the face of the passages relating to the Resurrection; but I rejoice that their
inference also is erroneous, since the mode of arguing is common to both.
Almost similar to this is the passage in Ecclesiasticus, "The number of the years of man, as much as a hundred years, have been counted as the drop of water in the sea, and as the sand on the sea shore; but they are few compared with the whole duration of time. Therefore God is patient towards them, and sheds out his mercy upon them." (Ecclesiasticus 18:810.) Here they must admit that the prophet's sentiment was very different; from that which they dream, and means that the Lord pitied those whom he knew to stand by his mercy alone, and, who, were he for a little to withdraw his hand, would return to the dust whence they were taken. Thereafter he subjoins a brief description of human life, comparing it to a flower which, though it blooms today, will be nothing more than dead herbage tomorrow.
Had he even declared that the spirit of man perishes and comes to nothing, he would not have given any defence to their error. For when we say that the spirit of man is immortal, we do not affirm that it can stand against the hand of God, or subsist without his agency. Far from us be such blasphemy! But we say that it is sustained by his hand and blessing. Thus Irenaeus, who with us asserts the immortality of the spirit, (Irenaeus adv. Haeres. lib. 5,) wishes us, however, to learn that by nature we are mortal, and God alone immortal. And in the same place he says, "Let us not be inflated and raise ourselves up against God, as if we had life of ourselves; and let us learn by experience that we have endurance for eternity through his goodness, and not from our nature." Our whole controversy with David then, whom they insist on making our opponent, is simply this - He says, (Psalm 39:11,) that man, if the Lord withdraw his mercy from him, falls away and perishes; we teach, that he is supported by
the kindness and power of God, since he alone has immortality, and that whatever life exists is from him.
A fourth passage which they produce is,
"My soul is filled with evil, and my life has drawn near to hell. I am counted with those who go down into the deep, like a man without a helper, like the slain sleeping in their tombs, of whom thou art no longer mindful, they having been cut off from thy hand." (Psalm 88:4.)
What! they ask, if they have been cut off from the energy of God, if they have fallen away from his care and remembrance, have they not ceased to be? As if I had it not in my power to retort. What! if they have been cut off from the energy of God, if they have escaped his remembrance, how will they ever again be? And when will the Resurrection be? Again, how do the things agree? "The souls of the just are in the hands of God," (Wisdom 3:1;) or, to quote only from the sure oracles of God,
"The just will be in eternal remembrance." (Psalm 112:6.)
They have not therefore fallen from the hand of the Lord, nor escaped his remembrance. Nay, rather, in this mode of expression, let us perceive the deep feelings of an afflicted man, who complains before God that he is almost abandoned with the wicked to perdition, whom God is said not to know and to have forgotten; because their names are not written in the book of life; and to have been cut away from his hand:, because he does not guide them by his Spirit.
The fifth passage is, (Psalm 88:11,)
"Wilt thou do wonders to the dead, or will physicians raise them up, and they will confess to thee? Will any one narrate thy mercy in the tomb, or thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?"
Again, (Psalm 115:17,)
"The dead will not praise thee, O Lord, nor all who descend into the lower parts; but we who live bless the Lord from this time, yea, even for ever."
Again, (Psalm 30:9,)
"What utility is there in my blood when I shall have descended into corruption? Will the dust confess to thee, or announce thy truth?"
To these passages they join another of very similar import from the song of Hezekiah, (Isaiah 38:18,)
"For the grave will not confess to thee, nor will death praise thee: those who descend into the pit will not wait for thy truth. The living, the living he will confess, to thee, as I too do today; the father will make known thy truth to his children."
They add from Ecclesiasticus, "From the dead, as being nothing, there is nothing; there is no confession. Thou the living wilt confess." (Ecclesiasticus 17:26.)
We answer, that in these passages the term "dead" is not applied simply to those who have paid the common debt of nature when they depart this life: nor is it simply said that the praises of God cease at death; but the meaning partly is, that none will sing praises to the
Lord save those who have felt his goodness and mercy; and partly, that his name is not celebrated after death, because his benefits are not, there declared among men as on the earth. Let us consider all the passages, and handle them in order, so that we may give to each its proper meaning. First, let us learn this much, that though by death the dissolution of the present life is repeatedly signified, and by the lower region, (infernus,) the grave, yet it is no uncommon thing for Scripture to employ these terms for the anger and withdrawal of the power of God; so that persons are said to die and descend into the lower region, or to dwell in the lower region, when they are alienated from God, or prostrated by the judgment of God, or crushed by his hand. The lower region itself (infernus ipse) may signify, not the grave, but abyss and confusion. And this meaning, which occurs throughout Scripture, is most familiar in the Psalms: "Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into the pit," (infernum:) Again, "O my God, be not silent, lest I become like those who go down into the pit," (lacum:) Again, "O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the lower region, (inferno,) and saved me from these going down into the pit," (lacum:) Again, "Let sinners be turned into infernus, and all the nations which forget God:" Again, "Had not the Lord assisted me, my soul had almost dwelt in infernus:" Again, "Our bones have been scattered along infernus:" Again, "He hath placed me in dark places, like the dead of the world." (Psalm 28:1; 53:15; 30:4; 9:18; 14:7; 143:3.)
In the New Testament, where the Evangelists use the term a;|dhj, the translator has rendered it by infernus. Thus, it is said of the rich man, "When he was in hell," (infernus,) etc. (Luke 16:23.) Again, "And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven? Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt descend even unto hell," (infernus.) (Matthew 11:23.) In these places it signifies not so much the locality, as the condition of those whom God has condemned and doomed to
destruction. And this is the confession which we make in the Creed, viz., that Christ "descended into hell," (in inferos;) in other words, that He was subjected by the Father, on our account, to all the pains of death; that he endured all its agonies and terrors, and was truly afflicted, it having been previously said that "he was buried."
On the other hand, those are said to LIVE, and be about to live, whom the Lord visits in kindness: "For there the Lord hath commanded the blessing and life even for evermore." Again, "That he may deliver their souls from death, and nourish them in famine." Again, "The Lord will pluck thee up from thy tabernacle, and thy root from the land of the living." Again, "I will please the Lord in the region of the living." (Psalm 133:3; 33:19; 52:7; 56:14.)
To make a conclusion, let one passage suffice us, which so graphically depicts both conditions as fully to explain its own meaning, without our saying a word: It is in Psalm 49, "Those who confide in much strength and glory in the multitude of riches. The brother does not redeem, will man redeem? Will he not give his own atonement to God, and the price of redemption for his soul, and labor for ever, and still live even to the end? Shall he not see death, when he shall see the wise dying? The unwise and the foolish will perish together. Like sheep they have been laid in the grave, (infernus.) Death shall feed upon them; and the just will rule over them in the morning, and assistance will perish in the grave (infernus,) from their glory. Nevertheless God will redeem my soul from the hand of hell, (infernus,) when He will receive me." The sum is, those who trust in their riches and strength will die and descend into infernus; the rich and the poor, the foolish and the wise, will perish together: he who hopes in the Lord will be free from the power of hell, (infernus.)
I maintain that these names "DEATH" and "HELL," (Mors et Infernus,) cannot have any other meaning in the verses of the Psalms which they obtrude upon us, nor in that song of Hezekiah; and I hold that this can be proved by clear arguments: for in the verses, "Wilt thou do wonders to the dead?" etc., and "What advantage is there in my blood?" etc., either Christ the head of believers, or the Church his body speaks, shunning and deprecating death as something horrid and detestable. This too is done by Hezekiah in his song. Why do they shudder so at the name of death, if they feel God to be merciful and gracious to them? Is it because they are no more to be anything? But they will escape from this turbulent world, and instead of inimical temptations and disquietude, will have the greatest ease and blessed rest. And as they will be nothing, they will feel no evil, and will be awakened at the proper time to glory, which is neither delayed by their death, nor hastened by their life. Let us turn to the examples of other saints, and see how they felt on the subject. When Noah dies he does not deplore his wretched lot. Abraham does not lament. Jacob, even during his last breath, rejoices in waiting for the salvation of the Lord. Job sheds no tears. Moses, when informed by the Lord that his last hour is at hand, is not moved. All, as far as we can see, embrace death with a ready mind. The words in which the saints answer the call of the Lord uniformly are, "Here I am, Lord!"
There must, therefore, be something which compels Christ and his followers to such complaints. There is no doubt that Christ, when he offered himself to suffer in our stead, had to contend with the power of the devil, with the torments of hell, and the pains of death. All these things were to be done in our nature, that they might lose the right which they had in us. In this contest, therefore, when He was satisfying the rigor and severity of the Divine justice, when he was engaged with hell, death, and the devil, he entreated the Father not to abandon him in such straits, not to give him over to the power
of death, asking nothing more of the Father than that our weakness, which he bore in his own body, might be freed from the power of the devil and of death. The faith on which we now lean is, that the penalty of sin committed in our nature, and which was to be paid in the same nature, in order to satisfy the Divine justice, was paid and discharged in the flesh of Christ, which was ours. Christ, therefore, does not deprecate death, but that grievous sense of the severity of God with which, on our account, he was to be seized by death. Would you know from what feeling his utterance proceeded? I cannot express it better than he himself did, in another form, when he exclaimed, "Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Those, therefore, who are dead and buried, and carried into the land of forgetfulness, He calls "forsaken of God." In this way the saints, taught by the Spirit of God, will not use these expressions in order to avert death, when coming as the call of God, but to deprecate the judgment, anger, and severity of God, with which they feel themselves to be seized by means of death. That this may not seem an invention of my own, I ask, whether a believer would call simple natural death "the wrath and terror of God?" I do not think they will be so shameless as to affirm this. But in the same passage the Prophet thus interprets that death, (Psalm 88:7,) "Thy wrath, O God, has passed over me, and the terrors of death have troubled me." And he adds many other things applicable to the Divine anger. In another passage, (Psalm 30:6,) the words are, "Since there is force (momentum) in his indignation, and life in his favor." But I exhort my readers to have recourse to the sacred volume, that from the two entire Psalms and the Song they may satisfy themselves. Thus there will be no gloss, and I feel sure of the concurrence of those who read with judgment.
We conclude, therefore, that in these passages "death" is equivalent to a feeling of the anger and judgment of God, and being disturbed and alarmed by this feeling. Thus Hezekiah, when he saw that he was leaving his kingdom exposed to the insult and devastation of the enemy, and leaving no offspring from which the hope of the Gentiles might descend, was filled with anxiety, by these signs of an angry and punishing God, not at the terror of death, which he afterwards overcame without any deprecation. On the whole, I acknowledge that death in itself is an evil, when it is the curse and penalty of sin, and is both itself full of terror and desolation, and drives those to despair who feel that it is inflicted on them by an angry and punishing God. The only thing which can temper the bitterness of its agonies is to know that God is our Father, and that we have Christ for our leader and companion. Those devoid of this alleviation regard death as confusion and eternal perdition, and therefore cannot praise God in their death.
The verse, "The dead will not praise thee," etc., concludes the praises of the people, when giving thanks to God for having by His hand protected them from danger. Its meaning is, Had the Lord permitted us to be oppressed, and to fall into the power of the enemy, they would have insulted His Name, and boasted that they had overcome the God of Israel; but now, when the Lord has repelled and crushed their proud spirit, when he has delivered us from their cruelty by a strong hand and uplifted arm, the Gentiles cannot ask, "Where is their God?" He hath shown himself to be truly the living God! Nor can there be any doubt of his mercy, which he has so wondrously exhibited. And here those are called "dead" and "forsaken of God," who have not felt his agency and kindness towards them, as if he had delivered up his people to the lust and ferocity of the ungodly.
This view is plainly confirmed by a speech which occurs in the Book of Baruch, or at least the book which bears his name, - " Open thine eyes and see: for not the dead who are in hell, (infernus,) whose spirit has been torn from their bowels, will ascribe glory and justice to God; but the soul which, sad for the magnitude of the evil, walks bent and weak, and the failing eyes and the hungry soul will give glory." (Baruch 2:17.) Here we undoubtedly see that, under the names of "dead" are included those who, afflicted and crushed by God, have gone away into destruction; and that the sad, bent, and weak soul, is that which, failing in its own strength, and having no confidence in itself, runs to the Lord, calls upon him, and from him expects assistance. Any one who will regard all these things as prosopopoeia, will find an easy method of explaining them, Substituting things for persons, and death for dead, the meaning will be, The Lord does not obtain praise for mercy and goodness when he afflicts, destroys, and punishes, (though the punishment, is just,) but then only creates a people for himself, who sing and celebrate the praise of his goodness, when he delivers and restores the hopes of those who were afflicted, bruised, and at despair. But lest they should cavil, and allege that we are having recourse to allegory, and figurative interpretations, I add, that the words may be taken without a figure.
I said that they act erroneously in concluding, from these passages, that saints after death desist from the praises of God, and that "praise" rather means making mention of the goodness of God, and proclaiming his benefits among others. The words not only admit, but necessarily require this meaning. For to announce, and narrate, and make known, as a father to his children, is not merely to have a mental conception of the Divine glory, but is to celebrate it with the lips that others may hear. Should they here rejoin that they have it in their power to do the same thing, if (as we believe) they are
with God in paradise, I answer, that to be in paradise, and live with God, is not to speak to each other, and be heard by each other, but is only to enjoy God, to feel his good will, and rest in him. If some Morpheus has revealed this to them in a dream, let them keep their certainty to themselves! I will not take part in those tortuous questions, which only foster disputation, and minister not to piety. The object of Ecclesiastes is not to show that the souls of the dead perish, but while he exhorts us early, and as we have opportunity, to confess God, he at the same time teaches that there is no time of confessing after death; that is, that there is then no time for repentance. If any of them still asks, What is to become of the sons of perdition? that is no matter of ours. I answer for believers, -
"They shall not die, but live, and show forth the works of the Lord." "Those who dwell in His house will praise him for ever and ever." (Psalms 118:17; 84:5.)
The sixth passage which they adduce is, (Psalm 144:2,) "I will praise the Lord in my life; I will sing unto my God as long as I have being." On this they argue, If he is to praise the Lord in life, and while he has being, he will not praise him after life, and when he has no being! Since I think they speak thus in mere jest and sport, I will take them up in their own humor. When Virgil's Aeneas promised gratitude to his hostess as long as memory should remain, did he intimate that he was one day to lose his memory? When he said, "While life shall animate these limbs," did he not think that he would feel grateful, even among the Manes, in those fabled plains? Far be it from us to allow them to wrest the passage, so as to fall into the heresy of Helvidius! I will now speak seriously. Lest they pretend that I have not given equal for equal, I will render fivefold:
"My God, I will confess to thee for ever:" "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall always be in my mouth :" "I will confess to thee for ever, for thou didst it;" "I will praise thy name for ever and ever:" "So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows." (Psalms 30:12; 34:1; 52:9; 145:1; 111:8.)
They lately claimed David as their friend! Do they now perceive how strenuously he assails them? Have done, then, with arguments which are merely framed out of garbled passages or fragments!
Their seventh passage is,
"Cease from me and I shall be strengthened, until I go and be no more." (Psalm 34:14)
To this they join the passage of Job,
"Send me away that I may for a little bewail my sorrow, before I go and return not; to the darksome land, a land armed with the blackness of death, a land of misery and darkness, where is the shadow of death, and no order, and where eternal horror dwells." (Job 10:20.)
All this is irrelevant. The words are full of smart and anxiety of conscience, truly expressing, and, as it were, graphically depicting the feeling of those who, smitten with the terror of the Divine judgment, are no longer able to bear the hand of God. And they pray, that if they deserve to be cast off by God, they may at least be permitted to breathe a little from the anger of God, by which they are agitated, and that under extreme despair. Nor is it strange that the holy servants of God are brought to this, for the Lord mortifies and
quickens them, takes them down to the lower regions, and brings them back. The expression "not to be," is equivalent to being estranged from God. For if He is the only being who truly is, those truly are not who are not in him; because they are perpetually cast down and discarded from his presence. Then I see not why the mode of expression should be so offensive to them, when they are not said to be absolutely dead, but dead only with reference to men. For they are no longer with men, nor in the presence of men, but only with God. Thus (to explain in one word) "not to be" is not to be visibly existing, as expressed in the passage of Jeremiah, "A voice was heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, for they are not." (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:18.)
Let us now consider the remaining passages taken from the history of Job. We have touched on some in passing as they occurred. The first is, (Job 3:11-19,)
"Why did I not die in the womb? Why did I not perish at my birth? Why was I taken upon the knee and placed at the breast? For now, sleeping, I would be silent and rest in my sleep with the kings and rulers of the earth who build deserts for themselves, or with princes, who possess gold and fill their houses with silver, or as an abortive hidden thing would not exist, but be like those who were conceived, but never saw the light. There the wicked have ceased from turmoil, and the weary are at rest; and those once bound, freed from molestation, have not heard the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master."
What if I should retort with the 14th chapter of Isaiah, where "the dead" are described as coming forth from their tombs and going to meet the king of Babylon, and thus addressing him, "Lo! thou art humbled like us," etc. I would have as good ground to argue that the
dead feel and understand, as they have to infer that they have lost all power of perception. But I make them welcome to all such trifling. In explaining the passage which they quote, we shall not find much difficulty, if we do not make labyrinths for ourselves. Job, when pressed with sore affliction, and in a manner borne down by the load, sees only his present misery, and makes it not only the greatest of all afflictions, but almost the only affliction. He shudders not at death, nay, he longs for it as putting all on an equal footing, as ending the tyranny of kings and the oppression of slaves, as, in short, the final goal, at which every one may lay aside the condition which has been allotted him in this life. Thus he hopes that he himself will see the end of his calamity; meanwhile, he considers not on what terms he is to live there, what he is to do, what to suffer. He only longs earnestly for a change of his present state, as is usual with those who are pressed and borne down with any grievous distress. For if, during the scorching summer's heat, we deem winter pleasant, and, on the other hand, when benumbed by the winter's cold, we wish with all our heart; for summer, what will he do who feels the hand of God opposed to him? He will recoil from no evil, provided he can escape the present one. If they are not persuaded of this, there is no wonder. They excerpt and provide themselves with minute passages, but overlook the general scope. Those who have looked distinctly at the whole narrative will, I am confident, approve my explanation.
The second passage is, (Job 7:7,)
"Remember that my life is wind, and my eye will not return to see good, nor will the eye of man behold me. Thy eyes are upon me, and I shall not subsist. As the cloud is consumed and passes away, so he who has gone down to the lower parts will not reascend.
In these words Job, deploring his calamity before God, exaggerates in this, that no hope of escape is mentioned. He only sees his calamities, which are pursuing him to the grave. Then it occurs to him that a miserable death will be the termination of a calamitous life. For he who feels the hand of God opposed to him cannot think otherwise. From this amplification he excites commiseration, and laments his case before God. I see not what else you can discover in this passage, unless it be that no Resurrection is to be expected - a point which this is not the place to discuss.
The third passage is, (Job 17:1,) "The grave alone remains for me." Again, "Everything of mine shall descend into the depths of hell," (infernus.) This, indeed, is most true. For nothing better remains for him who has not God propitious, as Job then thought to be his case, than hell and death. Therefore, when he had run over the whole story of his misery, he says that the last act is confusion. And this is the end of those on whom God lays His hand. For there is death in his anger, and life in his mercy! This is not inelegantly stated by Ecclesiasticus when he says, (Ecclesiasticus 37:28) "The life of a man is in the number of his days, but the days of Israel are innumerable." But as the authority of that writer is doubtful, let us leave him, and listen to a prophet, admirably teaching the same thing, in his own words, (Psalm 102:24,)
"He hath broken my strength in its course, he hath shortened my days: but I said, O Lord, take me not away in the midst of my days. Thy years are eternal. Heaven and earth, which thou didst found of old, shall perish; like a vesture shall they be folded up."
Thus far he has shewn how fleeting and frail the condition of man is, and how nothing under the heavens is stable, seeing they too are verging on destruction. He afterwards adds,
"But thou art, and thy years shall not end. The sons of thy servants shall dwell, and their posterity shall be established before thee." (Psalm 102:27, 28.)
We here see how he connects the salvation of the righteous with the eternity of God. As often, therefore, as they bring forward Job, afflicted by the hand of God and almost desperate, representing that nothing is left to him but death and the grave, I will answer, that while God is angry, this is the only end that awaits us, and that His mercy consists in rescuing us from the jaws of death.
The fourth passage is, (Job 34:14,)
"If He will direct his heart to him, he will draw the spirit and breath of man to himself; at the same time all flesh shall fail, and man shall return to ashes."
If these words are understood of the judgment, as if it were said, that by His anger man is dissolved, cut down, confounded, and brought to nothing, I will grant them more than they ask. If they understand that the spirit, that is, the soul, at death returns to God, and that the breath, (flatus,) that is, the power of motion or the vital action, withdraws from man, I have no objection. If they contend that the soul perishes, I oppose them strenuously, although the meaning of the Hebrew is somewhat different. But, contented with disposing of their cavils, I will not pursue the matter farther.
They brandish some other darts, but they are pointless, They give no stroke, and they do not even cause much fear. For they quote some passages which, besides being irrelevant, are taken from books of doubtful authority, as the 4th of Esdras, and the 2d of the Maccabees. To these, the answer we gave in discoursing of the Resurrection is sufficient. In one thing their procedure is shameless, and is seen by all to be so, namely, in claiming Esdras, though he is wholly on our side. And they are not ashamed to bring forward the books of the Maccabees, where dead Jeremiah prays to the Lord on behalf of his warring people; and where prayers are made for the dead, that they may be delivered from their sins! Possibly they have other arguments, but they are unknown to me, as it has not been my lot to see all their fictions. I have not intentionally omitted anything which might mislead, or make any impression on the simple.
I again desire all my readers, if I shall have any, to remember that the Catabaptists (whom, as embodying all kinds of abominations, it is sufficient to have named) are the authors of this famous dogma. Well may we suspect anything that proceeds from such a forge - a forge which has already fabricated, and is daily fabricating, so many monsters.