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Bramins, and the Zendavesta of the Parsees, the Greeks first learned it. But Dr. Good says it was a mere philosophical theory, leaving the mind in “utter doubt and indecision; hope perpetually neutralized by fear." At first it was only held upon the sublime and mystical doctrine of emanation and immanation, as a part of the great soul of the universe; issuing from it at birth, and resorbed into it upon the death of the body, and hence altogether incapable of individual being or a separate state of existence." In Dobson's Encyclopedia, vol. ii. p. 588-594, it is illustrated by water inclosed in a vessel, floating on the ocean, which, when it breaks, the water is blended with the ocean. The Greeks and others followed the Hindu philosophers. Such also was the doctrine of Orpheus, the Stoics and Pythagoreans. The Greeks having derived this tenet from a heathen source believe it after the Indian manner.

2d. In Arabia the immortality of the soul was unknown. While the Hindu philosophers believed the immortality of the soul on the emanation and immanation scheme, the Arabian philosophers rest future existence entirely on the resurrection of the body. The same idea exists in Arabia in a great measure to the present day.

3d. The Dr. contends, that the oldest book in the world, and an inspired book, originated in Arabia. Concerning Job he says" Yet in this sublime and magnificent poem, replete with all the learning and wisdom of the age, the doctrine upon the subject before us is merely as I have stated it, a patriarchal or traditionary belief of a future state of retributive justice not by the natural immortality of the soul, but by a resurrection of the body." There the immortality of the soul is-" left in as blank and barren a silence, as the deserts by which they are surrounded." Qur orthodox brethren, and Mr. Hud

son also, may see, that their punishment for disembodied spirits is without the shadow of a foundation in the oldest divine communications which have descended to us. If they will contend for punishment after death, it ought to be after the resurrection of the dead. But it is pretty generally admitted that no such "state of retributive justice" is taught by Job or any other Old Testament writer. Dr. Good says "the tradition, indeed, of a future state of retributive justice seems to have reached the schools of this part of the world, and to have been generally, though perhaps not universally accredited." If this tradition reached the schools of this part of the world, it was not from divine revelation, for no man can quote a single passage from Job which teaches a punishment after death for either soul or body.

2d, Let us now hear Dr. Good concerning the popular traditions. He says, p. 374, 375, "While such were the philosophical traditions, the popular tradition appears to have been of a different kind, and as much more ancient as it was more extensive. It taught that the disembodied spirit becomes a ghost as soon as it is separated from the corporeal frame; a thin, misty, aerial form, somewhat larger than life, with a feeble voice, shadowy limbs; knowledge superior to what was possessed while in the flesh; capable under particular circumstances, of rendering itself visible; and retaining so much of its former features as to be recognized upon its apparition; in a few instances wandering about for a certain period of time after death, but for the most part conveyed to a common receptacle situated in the interior of the earth, and denominated sheol, hades, hell, or the world of shades. Such was the belief of the multitude in almost all countries from a very early period of time; with this difference, that the hades of various nations was supposed to exist in some remote sit

uation on the surface of the earth, and that of others in the clouds. The first of these modifications is still to be traced among many of the African tribes and perhaps all the aboriginal tribes of North America. The tradition which describes the hades, or invisible world, as seated in the clouds, was chiefly common to the Celtic tribes, and particularly to that which at an early age peopled North Britain. It is by far the most refined and picturesque idea that antiquity has offered upon the subject, and which has consequently been productive, not only of the most sublime, but of the most pathetic, descriptions to which the general tradition has given rise, under any form."

After quoting two examples from Ossian's poems, respecting the ghosts of Crugal and Trenmor, appearing in their former habiliments of war, he proceeds thus, p. 376, 377. "The same popular belief was common to the Greeks and Romans. Thus Eneas, according to Virgil, in his descent to the infernal regions, beholds the shades of the Trojan_heroes still panting for fame, and amusing themselves with the martial exercises to which they had been accustomed, and with airy semblances of horses, arms and chariots :

The chief surveyed full many a shadowy car,
Illusive arms, and coursers trained for war,
Their lances fixed in earth, their steeds around,
Now free from harness, graze the mimic ground.
The love of horses which they had alive,
And oare of chariots, after death survive.

"Virgil, while true to the tradition of his country, is well known to have copied his description from Ho. mer; and in Homer's time the same popular tradition was common to the Jews, and runs through almost all their poetry. It is thus Isaiah, who was nearly contemporary with Homer, satirizes the fall of Belshazzar, ch. 14: 9.

The lowermost HELL is in motion for thee,
To congratulate thy arrival:

For thee arouseth he the MIGHTY DEAD,
All the chieftains of the earth.

"The term MIGHTY DEAD is peculiarly emphatic. The Hebrew word is Rephaim, the "gigantic spectres," ""the magnified and mighty ghosts;" exhibiting, as I have already observed, a form larger than life, or, as Juvenal has admirably expressed it upon a similar occasion, xiii. 221.

Humana.

-Major imago

A more than mortal make;

whence the term Rephaim is rendered in the Septuagint, Inves, and by Theodotion, ravтes.

"To the same effect, Ezekiel, about a century af terwards, in his sublime prophecy of the destruction of Egypt, a piece of poetry that has never been surpassed in any age or country, chap. 32: 19–26. 1 can only quote a few verses, and I do it to prove that the tradition common to other nations, that the ghosts of heroes were sourrounded in hades, or the invisible world, with a shadowy semblance of their former dress and instruments of war, was equally common to Judea.

v. 2. Wail! Son of Man, for multitudinous Egypt,
Yea, down let her be cast,

Like the daughters of the renowned nations,
Into the nether parts of the earth,

Amongst those that have descended into the pit.
Thou! that surpassest in beauty!

Get thee down.

To the sword is she surrendered:
Draw him forth, and all his forces.

The chieftains of the MIGHTY DEAD
Call to him and his auxiliaries

From the lowest depths of hell,—

v. 27. To the grave who have descended

With their instruments of war;

With their swords placed under their heads.

"From what quarter this popular and almost universal tradition was derived, or in what age it originated, we know not. I have said that it appears to be more ancient than any of the traditions of the philosophers: and in support of this opinion, I chiefly allude to one or two hints at it that are scattered throughout the book of Job, which I must again take leave to regard as the oldest composition that has descended to us. I do not refer to the fearful and unrivalled description of the spectre that appeared to Eliphaz, because the narrator himself does not seem to have regarded this as a human image, but, among other passages, to the following part of the afflicted patriarch's severe invective against his friend Bildad:

Yea the MIGHTY DEAD are laid open from below,
The floods and their inhabitants.

HELL is naked before him ;

And DESTRUCTION hath no covering.

"Bildad had been taunting Job with ready-made and proverbial speeches; and there can be no doubt that this of Job's, in reply, is of the same sort; imbued with popular tradition, but a tradition not entering into the philosophical creed either of himself or of any of his friends; for throughout the whole scope of the argument upon the important question of a future being, the immortality and separate existence of the soul is never once brought forward; every ray of hope, being, as I have already observed, derived from the doctrine of the future resurrection of the body."

The popular opinions formerly held by the heathen have descended to us. As to ghosts, and the condition of disembodied spirits after death, these opinions are now for substance held among Christians. Locating hell in a different place, or giving it another name, makes no great difference. The idea of the Trojan heroes, still panting for fame, and

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