Manaffah Ben Ifrael, who holds that Job taught the very contrary to a future State, (not apprehending the nature of the Compofition) has a whole chapter against the Sadducees, to fhew, that this makes nothing against the reality of fuch a State, I cannot better conclude what hath been here faid, on this famous paffage, or better introduce what will be faid on others to come next under examination, than with the judicious remark of an ancient Catholic Bishop, on this very book: It is FIT WE SHOULD UNDERSTAND NAMES AGREEABLY TO THE NATURE OF THE SUBJECT MATTER; AND NOT MOLD AND MODEL THE TRUTH OF THINGS ON THE ABUSIVE SIGNIFICATION OF WORDS. This, though a maxim of the most obvious reafon, can never, in theologic matters especially, be too often inculcated. How ufual is it, for inftance, to have the following words of St. Paul quoted as a proof for the general refurrection of the dead, by thofe who (as the good Bishop fays) mold the truth of things on the abufive fignification of words. "He that raised up Chrift from the dead "fhall alfo quicken your mortal bodies by his fpirit "that dwelleth in you." III. But as the terms, in this paffage of Job, are fuppofed, by me, to be metaphorical, and to allude to the restoration of a dead body to life, fome have ventured to infer, that those who ufe fuch terms and make fuch allufions must needs have had the • Πλὴν καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα προσήκει νοεῖν πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὑπο ειμένων πραγμάτων συνύτητα, καὶ ἐ προς την κατάχρησιν τῶν λέξεων τ ̓ ἀληθῆ navorite. Serv. in Catena Græca in Job. PROM. viii, II, faving knowledge of the thing alluded to, Refur rection of the Body: And the following obfervation has been repeated, by more than one Writer, with that air of complacency, which men usually have for arguments they think unanswerable-If the Scriptures Speak of temporal misfortunes and deliverance, in terms of death and a Refurrection, then the doctrine of a refurrection must have been well known, or the language would have been unintelligible. And bere I will lay down this rule, All words that are ufed in a figurative fenfe, must be first understood in a literal This looks, at firft fight, like faying fomething; but is indeed an empty fallacy; in which two very different things are confounded with one another; namely, the idea of a Refurrection, and the belief of it. I fhall fhew therefore that the very contrary to the firft part of the learned Doctor's obfervation is true, and that the latter is nothing to the purpose, I. The Meffengers of God, prophecying for the people's confolation in difaftrous times, frequently promise a restoration to the former days of felicity; and to obviate all distrust from unpromising appearances, they put the cafe even at the worst, and affure the People, in metaphorical expreffions, that though the Community were as entirely diffolved as a dead body reduced to duft, yet God would raise that Community again to life. Thus Ifaiah: Thy dead men fhall live, together with my dead body fhall they arife: Awake and fing, ye that dwell in the duft: For thy dew is as the Dr. Felton's two Sermons before the University of Oxford, p. 18, 19, dew dew of herbs, and the earth shall caft out the dead". And that we may have no doubt of the Prophet's meaning, he himself explains it afterwards in the following words': And I will camp against thee round about, and I will lay fiege against thee with a mount, and I will raife forts against thee. And thou shalt be brought down, and fhalt fpeak out of the ground, and thy fpeech fhall be low out of the duft, and thy voice fhall be as one that hath a familiar fpirit, out of the ground, and thy Speech fhall whisper out of the dust. Nothing could be more plain or fimple than fuch a metaphoric image, even amongst men who had no knowledge that the natural body was indeed to rife again; because every man knowing what it is to live and to die, every man knows what it is to revive, this being only an idea compounded of the other two: So that we fee there was no occafion for the doctrine of the Refurrection to make the language intelligible. Nay farther, this metaphorical expression must have there most efficacy where the doctrine of the Refurrection was unknown. For we have obferved it was employed to infpire the higheft fentiments of God's Omnipotency; but that always ftrikes the mind most forcibly which is as well new as fuperior to its comprehenfion. Therefore life from the dead was ufed, (and from the force with which a new idea ftrikes) it became almost proverbial in the writings of the Prophets, to exprefs the most unlikely deliverance, by the exertion of Almighty power. The following inftance will fupport both these obfervations; and fhew, that the Doctrine was un known; and that the Image was of more force for its being unknown. The Prophet Ezekiel', when the ftate of things was moft defperate, is carried, by the Spirit, into a valley full of dry bones, and asked this queftion, Son of man, Can thefe dry bones live? A queftion which God would hardly have made to a Prophet brought up in the knowledge and belief of a Refurrection. But fuppofing the queftion had been made; the answer by men fo brought up, muft needs have been, without hesitation, in the affirmative. But we find the Prophet altogether furprized at the strangenefs of the demand. He was drawn one way by the apparent impoffibility of it to natural conceptions; he was drawn the other, by his belief in the Omnipotence of God. Divided between these two fentiments, he makes the only anfwer which a man in such circumftances could make, O Lord God thou knoweft". This furprizing act of Omnipotency is therefore fhewn in Vilion, either real or imaginary. The bones come together; they are cloathed with flesh, and receive the breath of life. And then God declares the meaning of the reprefentation. "Then he faid unto me, Son of 66 Man, thefe bones are the whole houfe of Ifrael: "Behold, they fay, Our bones are dried, and our hope is loft, we are cut off for our parts. There"fore prophefy and fay unto them, Thus faith "the Lord God, Behold, O my People, I will દ open your graves, and caufe you to come up out "of your graves, and bring you into the land "of Ifrael. And ye fhall know that I am the "Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my People, and brought you up out of your graves, and fhall put my Spirit in you, and ye hall live; and I fhall place you in your own t Chap. xxxvii. Ver. 3. * Ver. 8, 10. "Land. Then fhall ye know that I the Lord "have spoken it, and performed it, faith the "Lordy." Here we fee, in a Prophecy delivered in Action or Vision, instead of Words (the nature and original of which has been difcourfed of elsewhere) and afterwards explained by words, to afcertain its meaning, that the figurative ideas of Death and Refurrection are used for temporal diftreffes and deliverance and this, at a time when the Doctrine of the Refurrection, from whence the metaphor is fuppofed to arife, was fo far from being well known, that the figure could never have acquired its force and energy but from the People's ignorance of fuch a doctrine; the scenical representation, without all question, alluding to that proverbial speech amongst the Jews: Wilt thou fhew wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arife and praise thee? On the whole then nothing was ever worse grounded than the observation, that if the Scriptures Speak of temporal misfortunes and deliverance in the terms of death and a refurrection, then the DOCTRINE of a refurrection must have been well known, or the language would bave been unintelligible. II. And now for the general Rule which follows: "All words that are used in a figurative fenfe must be first understood in a literal. If no more be meant than that every figurative fenfe has a literal, the propofition is true, but trifling, because figurative is a relative term, and implies literal as its correlative. If it means, that he who ufes words in a figurative sense must have an idea of the literal, this is likewife true, but nothing to the purpofe, y Ver. 11, & feq. 2 Ps. lxxxviii. 10. because |