[157]. Vid. Euseb. Præparat. Evang. Lib. xi. Cap. xxxv. It is mentioned by Plutarch, Symp. Lib. ix. Cap. v.
[158]. Macrobius speaking concerning it, in Somn. Scip. Lib. 1. Cap. 1. represents Cicero as being under a great concern, that this story of Er was ridiculed, by many who did not stick to say, Visum fuisse Erem, vitam effundere, animamq; recipere, quam revera non amiserat. See more to this purpose in Hust. Demonst. Evang. Prop. ix. Cap. cxlii.
[159]. See a late learned writer, Hody on the resurrection of the same body; who refers to several places in Heathen writers, of whom some believed it; others exposed it as fabulous, Pag. 13-16.
[160]. Thus Pliny, who a little before related several stories of persons raised from the dead, notwithstanding calls the doctrine of the resurrection, puerile deliramentum. Vid. Ejusd. Nat. Hist. Lib. vii. Cap. lv. and elsewhere he speaks of it as a thing in its own nature impossible; and therefore concludes it to be one of those things which God cannot do. Lib. ii. Cap. vii. Ne Deum quidem posse omnia, nec mortales æternitate donare, aut revocare defunctos. And Minutius Felix. Vid. Ejusd. Octav. Cap. xi. brings in an Heathen, who was his friend, railing at it, without any decency, as though it was no better than an old wives fable; and the principal argument he produces, is, because he supposes it impossible for a body that was burnt to ashes, to spring up into life again. And Celsus, speaking concerning the impossibility of God’s doing any thing contrary to nature, reckons this among those things. Vid. Orig. Contr. Cels. Lib. v. Page 240. and says, the hope hereof is more worthy of worms than men and styles it an abominable, as well as an impossible thing, which God neither can nor will do.
[161]. Αναστασις.
[162]. Vid. Volkel. de vera relig. Lib. iii. Cap. xi. Apparet promissionem vitæ sempiternæ in prisco illo foedere factam minime fuisse. And in a following part of this chapter, wherein he professedly treats on this subject, he adds; Quæ apertis luculentissimisq; verbis ut in nova scriptura fieri videamus, hoc Dei beneficium nobis polliceantur. Ex quorum munere, hoc de quo agimus, nequaquam esse hinc patet, quod antequam Christus illud explicaret, nemo unquam extitit, qui vel suspicari auderet, tale quid illo comprehendi.
[163]. Vid. Joseph. de Bell. Jud. Lib. ii. Cap. vii. Και γαρ ερρωτσαι παρ αυτοις ηδε διξα φθαρτα μεν εναι τα σωματα, και τήν υλὴγ ου μονιμον αυτοις, &c.
[164]. See Dr. Hody on the resurrection, &c. Page 56-59.
[165]. See Bishop Pearson on the Creed, Artic. 11. who observes, from their writings, that because, in the formation of man, mentioned in Gen. ii. 7. Moses uses the word וייצר, and in the formation of beasts, verse 19. the word ויצר, the former having two jods, the latter but one: Therefore the beasts are made but once, but man twice; to wit, once in his generation, and the second time in his resurrection. And they strangely apprehend a proof of the resurrection to be contained in the malediction, Gen. iii. 19. Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, q. d. thou art now dust while thou livest; and, after death, thou shalt return unto this dust, that is, thou shalt live again, as thou, dost now: And those words in Exod. xv. 1. then sang Moses and the children of Israel; they render he shall sing, viz. after the resurrection in the life to come, and from thence infer this doctrine, which could afford but very small satisfaction to the Sadducees, while they omitted to insist on other pregnant proofs thereof.
[166]. See Vol. II. Heb. and Talmud. Exercit. on John iv. 25. wherein he says, that they pretend to prove it from Deut. xxxi. 16. where God says to Moses, Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and rise again; which is an addition to, as well as a perversion of the text; which says, the people shall rise up and go a whoring, &c. and Page 541, and 787. he represents them as proving it from Josh. viii 30. where it is said, that Joshua built an altar unto the Lord; which they translate, he shall build an altar; supposing this to be after the resurrection: And from Psal. lxxxiv. 4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee, they suppose is meant of their praising God after the resurrection. See many other absurd methods of reasoning to the same purpose, referred to by him in the same place.