the ordinary expressions, in all languages, relative to dreams, rather tends to foster. We are accustomed to say, indifferently, either, "I saw so and so, in a dream," or, "I dreamed that I saw it:" and though both expressions are designed to convey the same meaning, the former of them, according to its strict sense, suggests (while the latter does not) the idea of a real object distinct from the mind: for that of which we can, properly, say, I saw it, we conceive to have a real existence. That such was the origin, and such the character, of the ancient popular notions respecting a future state, is abundantly confirmed by the language of the poets; who perpetually compare the souls of the departed to dreams. And the rewards and punishments of the future state, they represent as of the same dreamy and unsubstantial character:-as "only shadows dealt out to shadows;" and, what is more remarkable still, as producing only a sort of shadowy and unreal enjoyment. The poet from whom so * Thus Virgil's "Volucrique simillima somno," &c. f Hinds's "History of the Rise and Progress of Christianity;" Introduction. many were content to derive their creed, represents Achilles, among the shades, as declaring that the life of the meanest drudge on earth, is preferable to the very highest of the unsubstantial glories of Elysium. Βουλοίμην κ' ἐπάρουρος ἐὼν θητευέμεν ἄλλῳ It is remarkable too that the same poet seems plainly to regard the body, not the soul, as being properly "the man," after death has separated them. We should be apt to say that such a one's body is here, and that he, properly the person himself, is departed to the other world; but Homer uses the very opposite language in speaking of the heroes slain before Troy; viz. that their souls were despatched to the shades, and that THEY themselves were left a prey to dogs and birds. Πολλὰς δ ̓ ἐφθίμους ΨΥΧΑΣ ἄΐδι προΐαψεν Ἠρώων, ΑΥΤΟΥΣ δὲ ἑλώρια τεύχε κύνεσσιν. 8 A curious instance of that kind of confusion of thought I have been speaking of, is afforded by those theological or ecclesiastical writers who reckon Barnabas among the § 4. It may be thought, however, (though the supposition does not seem a probable one,) that the philosophers I have mentioned, mistook, or misrepresented, the opinions of their countrymen: let us turn to the records of matters of fact, as presented to us by an able and faithful historian, who possessed the amplest opportunities for obtaining information. The testimony of Thucydides, not as to the professed belief, but as to the conduct, of the Athenians, under those trying circumstances in which the near approach of death impresses the most forcibly the thought of a future state on the minds of those who expect it his testimony, I say, as to their conduct on such an occasion, must alone prove almost "Apostolical Fathers," on the ground that an epistle is extant under his name, which is generally suspected, or more than suspected, to be spurious. If they had been quite sure that Barnabas did write it, they would have reckoned it the work, not of an Apostolical Father, but, of an undoubted Apostle; if again they had been quite sure that Barnabas did not write it, they would not have applied to him any title or description having reference to the work: but their minds being in an intermediate state between the affirmative and negative conclusion, they adopted respecting Barnabas himself a sort of intermediate language, implying at once that he is, and that he is not, the Author. decisive of the question. For it will hardly be denied, that those who firmly believe in a future state, or even regard it as a thing highly probable, however the pursuits and occupations of this world may have drawn off their attention from it, will be likely, when death evidently draws near-death, not in the tumultuous ardour of battle, but in the calm, yet resistless, progress of disease to think with lively and anxious interest of the life of another world. If they have any apprehensions at all of judgment to come, they will usually wish to "die the death of the righteous," even though they may not have been willing to lead the life of the righteous. Even those who have been in some doubt respecting this truth, or who have studied to keep it out of sight, are generally found to believe in it the most firmly at that awful moment, when they would be most glad to disbelieve it; and then to think most of it, when the thought is the most intolerable. It is not necessary for the present purpose to contend, that what has been just said constitutes a rule without exception; let it be admitted only as applying to the generality, or even to a considerable portion merely, of mankind; (and thus far at least we are surely borne out, both by reason and experience;) and let any one, with these principles before him, contemplate the picture drawn of the pestilence which ravaged Athens during the Peloponnesian war, by that judicious historian who was an eye-witness and a partaker of the calamity. Whether the ancient Poets, or Philosophers, be regarded as the better instructors in the doctrine of a future state, Athens had no deficiency in either: and a plague so wide-spreading, so irresistible, and which brought with it to those whom it seized (as we are expressly told) such an utter despair of recovery, may be fairly expected to have had the effect, in some minds at least, of awakening whatever belief, or even suspicion, they might have entertained respecting Tartarus and Elysium, and of calling into action their fears and hopes on the subject. We might expect to find some of them at least bewailing their sins, making reparation to those they had injured, and in every way striving to prepare for the judgment that seemed impending. The very reverse took place. The historian Ꭰ |