§ 20. ACCORDING to this explication, the rich man and Lazarus were both in hades, though in very different situations, the latter in the mansions of the happy, and the former in those of the wretched. Both are comprehended under the same general name. In the conversation lately quoted between Saul and the ghost of Samuel, the prophet, amongst other things, said to the king, Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me", which does not imply that their condition would be the same, though each would have his place in the receptacle of departed spirits. Let us see how the circumstances mentioned, and the expressions used, in the parable, will suit this hypothesis. First, though they are said to be at a great distance from each other, they are still within sight and hearing, so as to be able to converse together. This would have been too gross a violation of probability, if the one were considered as inhabiting the highest heavens, and the other as placed in the infernal regions. Again, the expressions used are such as entirely suit this explanation, and no other; for first, the distance from each other is mentioned, but no hint that the one was higher in situation than the other; secondly, the terms whereby motion from the one to the other is expressed, are such as are never employed in expressing motion to, or from heaven, but always when the places are on a level, or nearly so. Thus, Lazarus, when dead, is said " anɛvexInvai, to be 93 Luke, xvi. 22.

92 1 Sam. xxviii. 19.

93

95

carried away, not avevexInvai, to be carried up, by angels, into Abraham's bosom; whereas, it is the latter of these, or one similarly compounded, that is always used, where an assumption into heaven is spoken of. Thus, the same writer, in speaking of our Lord's ascension, says", avepepeto εis tov ovpavov, and Mark ", in relation to the same event, says, ανελήφθη εις τον ουρανον, he was taken up into heaven. These words are also used, wherever one is said to be conveyed from a lower to a higher situation. But, what is still more decisive in this way, where mention is made of passing from Abraham to the rich man, and inversely, the verbs employed are, διαβαίνω and διαπεραω, words which always denote motion on the same gound or level; as, passing a river or lake, passing through the Red Sea, or passing from Asia into Macedonia. But, when heaven is spoken of as the termination to which, or from which, the passage is made, the word is, invariably, either in the first case, avaßauvw, and in the second, xaτaßaire, or some word similarly formed, and of the same import. Thus, both the circumstances of the story, and the expressions employed in it, confirm the explanation I have given. For, if the sacred penmen wrote to be understood, they must have employed their words and phrases, in conformity to the current usage of those for whom they wrote.

94 xxiv. 51.

95 Mark, xvi. 19.

VOL. I.

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97

21. WHEN our Saviour, therefore, said to the penitent thief upon the cross", To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise; he said nothing that contradicts what is affirmed of his descent into hades, in the Psalms, in the Acts, or in the Apostles creed. Paradise is another name for what is, in the parable, called Abraham's bosom. But it may be urged on the other side, that Paul has given some reason to conclude that paradise and heaven, or the seat of the glorious hierarchy, are the same. It is not, says he ", expedient for me doubtless to glory: I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth), such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth), how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. The Jews. make mention of three heavens. The first is properly the atmosphere where the birds fly, and the clouds are suspended. The second is above the first, and is what we call the visible firmament, wherein the sun, moon, and stars appear. The third, to us invisible, is conceived to be above the second, and therefore sometimes styled the heaven of heavens. This they considered as the place of the throne of God, and the habitation of the holy 97 2 Cor. xii. 1, 2, 3, 4.

96 Luke, xxiii. 43.

angels. Now it is evident that, if, in the second and fourth verses, he speak of one vision or revelation only, paradise and heaven are the same; not so, if, in these, he speak of two different revelations. My opinion is, that there are two, and I shall assign my reasons. First, he speaks of them as more than one, and that not only in introducing them, I will come to visions and revelations; for sometimes it must be owned, that the plural is used in expressing a subject indefinitely; but afterwards, in referring to what he had related, he says 98, lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, twv añoxa2viewv. Secondly, they are related precisely as two distinct events, and coupled together by the connexive particle. Thirdly, there is a repetition of his doubts", in regard to the reality of his translation, which, if the whole relate to a single event, was not only superfluous, but improper. This repetition, however, was necessary, if what is related in the third and fourth verses, be a different fact from what is told in the second, and if he was equally uncertain, whether it passed in vision or in reality. Fourthly, if all the three verses regard only one revelation, there is, in the manner of relating it, a tautology unexampled in the Apostle's writings. I might urge, as a fifth reason, the opinion of all Christian antiquity, Origen alone excepted. And this, in a question of philology, is not without its weight.

98 Verse, 7.

69 Verse, 2, 3.

I shall only add, that, though, in both verses, the words in the English Bible are caught up, there is nothing in the original answering to the particle up. The Apostle has very properly employed here the word άρлα, expressive more of the suddenness of the event, and of his own passiveness, than of the direction of the motion 100 The only other place in which παραδεισος occurs is in the Apocalypse 101 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst το παραδεισο of the paradise of God. Here our Lord, no doubt, speaks of heaven, but, as he plainly alludes to the state of matters in the garden of Eden, where our first parents were placed, and where the tree of life grew, it can only be understood as a figurative expression of the promise of eternal life, forfeited by Adam, but recovered by our Lord Jesus Christ.

§ 22. Το conclude this long discussion, I shall observe that, though we may discover hence, pretty

100 The learned reader may peruse the following passage from Epiphanius on this subject, in opposition to Origen. Ουδε ό αποςολος υποτίθεται τον παράδεισον είναι εν τρίτω ουρανω, τοις λεπτων ακροασθαι λόγων επισαμένοις οίδα γαρ άρπαγεντα έως τρίτου λεγων ου βανου. και οίδα τον τοιςτον ανθρωπον, είτε εν σώματι, είτε χωρίς σωμα τος, ὁ θεος οίδεν, ὅτι ἡρπαγη εις τον παραδεισον. δυο αποκαλύψεις μεγα λας έωρακέναι μηνυεί, δις αναληφθείς εναργως, άπαξ μεν έως τρίτες ερανό, άπαξ δε εις τον παράδεισον. το γαρ οίδα άρπαγέντα τον τοιστον έως τριτο ερανό, ιδίως αποκαλυψιν αυτω κατα τον τριτον αναληφθεντι περηγεναι συνίσησι. το δε, και οιδα παλιν επιφερομενον τον τοιέτον ανθρωπον, είτε εν σωματι, είτε εκτος του σώματος, εις τον παραδεισον, έτεραν αυθις αυτῷ πεφανερώσθαι κατα τον παραδεισον αποκαλυψιν δείκνυσι. Εpiph. Lib. ii. Hær. 44.

101 Rev. ii. 7.