The State of the Dead by John Milton

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 12, 1862

The State of the Dead.

By John Milton

BY JOHN MILTON. Author of "Paradise Lost."

(Concluded.)

THUS far proof has been given of the death of the whole man. But lest recourse should be had to the sophistical distinction that, although the whole man dies, it does not therefore follow that the whole of man should die, I proceed to give similar proof with regard to each of the parts—the body, the spirit, and the soul, according to the division above stated.

First, then, as to the body, no one doubts that it suffers privation of life. Nor will the same be less evident with regard to the spirit, if it be allowed that the spirit, according to the doctrine previously laid down, has no participation in the divine nature, but is purely human; and that no reason can be assigned why, if God has sentenced to death the whole of man that sinned, the spirit, which is the part principally offending, should be alone exempt from the appointed punishment; especially since, previous to the entrance of sin into the world, all parts of man were alike immortal; and that, since that time, in pursuance of God's denunciation all have become equally subject to death.

But to come to the proofs. The Preacher himself, the wisest of men, expressly denies that the spirit is exempt from death: Eccl. iii, 18, 20, "As the beast dieth, so dieth the man; yea, they have all one breath (Hebrew, spirit), . . . all go unto one place." And in the twenty-first verse he condemns the ignorance of those who venture to affirm that the way of the spirits of men and of beasts after death is different: "Who knoweth the spirit of man (an sursum ascendat), whether it goeth upward?" Ps. cxlvi, 4, "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Now the thoughts are in the mind and the spirit, not in the body; and if they perish, we must conclude that the mind and spirit undergo the same fate as the body. 1 Cor. v, 5, "That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." The apostle does not say "in the day of death," but "in the day of the Lord Jesus."

Lastly, there is abundant testimony to prove that the soul (whether we regard by this term the whole human composition, or whether it is to be understood as synonymous with the spirit), is subject to death, natural as well as violent. Num. xxiii, 10. "Let me (my soul, Hebrew, anima mea, Lat. Vulg.), die the death of the righteous." Such are the words of Balaam, who, though not the most upright of prophets, yet in this instance uttered the words which the Lord put into his mouth. Job xxxiii, 18. "He keepeth back his soul from the pit." Job xxxvi, 14. "They die in youth." (Heb., their soul dieth. Lat. Vulg., anima eorum.) Ps. xxii, 20. "Deliver my soul from the sword;" lxxviii, 50. "He spared not their soul from death." lxxxix, 48. "Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" xciv, 17. "My soul had almost dwelt in silence." Hence, man himself, when dead, is spoken of under the name of "the soul." Lev. xix, 28; xxi, 1, 11. "Neither shall he go in to any dead body." (Hebrew, dead soul.) Isa. xxxviii, 17. "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption." The just and sufficient reason assigned above for the death of the soul, is the same which is given by God himself. Eze. xviii, 20. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die;" and therefore on the testimony of the prophet and the apostle, as well as of Christ himself, the soul even of Christ was for a short time subject unto death on account of our sins. Ps. xvi, 10, compared with Acts ii, 27, 28, 31. "His soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption." Matt. xxvi, 38. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Nor do we anywhere read that the souls assemble, or are summoned to judgment, from heaven or from hell, but they are all called out of the tomb, or at least they were previously in the state of the dead. John v, 28, 29. "The hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." In this passage, those who rise again, those who hear, those who come forth, are all described as being in the graves, the righteous as well as the wicked. 1 Cor. xv, 52. "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised." 1 Thess. iv, 13–17. "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow

not, even as others which have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also

which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him; for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep; for the Lord himself shall descend, . . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." They were asleep; but the lifeless body does not sleep, unless inanimate matter can be said to sleep. "That ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope;" but why should they sorrow and have no hope, if they believed that their souls would be in a state of salvation and happiness even before the resurrection, whatever might become of the body? The rest of the world, indeed, who had no hope, might with reason despair concerning the soul as well as the body, because they did not believe in the resurrection; and therefore it is to the resurrection that Paul directs the hope of all believers. "Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him;" that is, to heaven from the grave.

"We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep." But there would have been no reason to fear lest the survivors should prevent them, if they who were asleep had long since been received into heaven; in which case the latter would not come "to meet the Lord," but would return with him. "We," however, "which are alive shall be caught up together with them," not after them, "and so shall we ever be with the Lord," namely, after, not before, the resurrection. And then at length "the wicked shall be severed from among the just." Matt. xiii, 49. Dan. xii, 2. "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

In such a sleep I should suppose Lazarus to have been lying, if it were asked whither his soul betook itself during those four days of death. For I cannot believe that it would have been called back from heaven to suffer again the inconveniences of the body, but rather that it was summoned from the grave, and roused from the sleep of death. The words of Christ themselves lead to this conclusion: John xi, 11, 13. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep; howbeit Jesus spake of his death;" which death, if the miracle were true, must have been real. This is confirmed by the circumstances of Christ's raising him. Verse 43. "He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth!" If the soul of Lazarus, that is, if Lazarus himself, was not within the grave, why did Christ call on the lifeless body which could not hear? If it were the soul which he addressed, why did he call it from a place where it was not? Had he intended to intimate that the soul was separated from the body, he would have directed his eyes to the quarter from whence the soul of Lazarus might be expected to return, namely, from heaven; for to call from the grave what is not there, is like seeking the living among the dead, which the angel reprehended as ignorance in the disciples. Luke xxiv, 5. The same is apparent in raising the widow's son. Luke vii, 14.

CHAPTER III.

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED AND EXPLAINED.

On the other hand, those who assert that the soul is exempt from death, and that when divested of the body it wings its way, or is conducted by angels, directly to its appointed place of reward or punishment, where it remains in a separate state of existence to the end of the world, found their belief principally on the following passages of Scripture. Ps. xlix, 15. "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave." But this proves rather that the soul enters the grave with the body, as was shown above, from whence it needs to be redeemed, namely, at the resurrection, when "God shall receive it," as follows in the same verse. As for the remainder, "their redemption ceaseth forever," verse 8, and they are like the beasts that perish, verses 12, 14.

The second text is Eccl. xii, 7. "The spirit shall return unto God that gave it." But neither does this prove what is required; for the phrase, the spirit returning to God, must be understood with considerable latitude; since the wicked do not return to God at death, but depart far from him. The Preacher had moreover said before, Eccl. iii, 20, "All go unto one place;" and God is said to have given and to gather to himself the spirit of every living thing, whilst the body returns to dust. Job xxxiv, 14, 15. "If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust." See also Ps. civ, 29, 30. Euripides, in the Suppliants, has, without being aware of it, given a far better interpretation of this passage than the commentators in question.

Each various part That constitutes the frame of man, returns Whence it was taken; to th' ethereal sky The spirit, the body to its earth. Line 599 Potter's Trans.

That is, every constituent part returns at dissolution to its elementary principle. This is confirmed by Eze. xxxvii, 9. "Come from the four winds, O breath." It is certain, therefore, that the spirit of man must have previously departed thither from whence it is now summoned to return. Hence perhaps originates the expression in Matt. xxiv, 31, "They shall gather together the elect from the four winds." For why should not the spirits of the elect be as easily gathered together as the smallest particles of their bodies, sometimes most widely dispersed through different countries. In the same manner is to be understood 1 Kings xvii, 21. "Let this child's soul come into him again." This, however, is a form of speech applied in fainting in general. Judges xv, 19. "His spirit came again, and he revived." See also 1 Sam. xxx, 12. For there are many passages of Scripture, some of which undoubtedly represent the dead as devoid of all vital existence; but what was advanced above, respecting the death of the spirit, affords a sufficient answer to the objection.

The third text is Matt. x, 28. "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." It may be answered that properly speaking, the body cannot be killed, as being in itself a thing inanimate; the body therefore, as is common in Scripture, must be taken for the whole human compound, or for the animal and temporal life; the soul for that spiritual life with which we shall be clothed after the end of the world, as appears from the remainder of the verse, and from 1 Cor. xv, 44.

The fourth text is Phil. i, 23. "Having a desire to depart (cupiens dissolvi, having a desire for dissolution) and to be with Christ." But, to say nothing of the uncertain and disputed sense of the word analusai, which signifies anything rather than dissolution, it may be answered, that although Paul desired to obtain immediate possession of heavenly perfection and glory, in like manner as every one is desirous of attaining as soon as possible to that, whatever it may be, which he regards as the ultimate object of his being, it by no means follows that when the soul of each individual leaves the body, it is received immediately either into heaven or hell. For he had "a desire to

be with Christ;" that is, at his appearing, which all the believers hoped and expected was then at hand. In the same manner one who is going on a voyage desires to set sail and arrive at the destined port (such is the order in which his wishes arrange themselves), omitting all notice of the intermediate passage. If, however, it be true that there is no time without motion, which Aristotle illustrates by the example of those who were fabled to have slept in the temple of the heroes, and who, on awakening, imagined that the moment in which they awoke had succeeded without an interval to that in which they fell asleep; how much more must intervening time be annihilated to the departed, so that to them to die and to be with Christ will seem to take place at the same moment? Christ himself, however, expressly indicates the time at which we shall be with him. John xiv, 3. "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." See Col. iii, 4.

The fifth text evidently favors my view of the subject. 1 Pet. iii, 19. "By which also he went and preached to the spirits that are in prison;" literally, in guard, or as the Syriac version renders it, in sepulchro, in the grave, which means the same; for the grave is the common guardian of all till the day of judgment. What therefore the apostle says more fully, chap. iv, 5, 6, "Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead; for, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead;" he expresses in this place by a metaphor, "the spirits that are in guard;" it follows, therefore, that the spirits are dead.

The sixth text is Rev. vi, 9. "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain." I answer, that in the Scripture idiom the soul is generally often put for the whole animate body, and that in this passage it is used for the souls of those who were not yet born; unless indeed the fifth seal was already opened in the time of John; in the same manner as in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, Luke xvi, though Christ, for the sake of the lesson to be conveyed, speaks of that as present which was not to take place till after the day of judgment, and describes the dead as placed in two distinct states, he by no means intimates any separation of the soul from the body.

The seventh text is Luke xxiii, 43. "Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." This passage has on various accounts occasioned so much trouble that some have not hesitated to alter the punctuation, as if it had been written, "I say unto thee to-day;" that is, although I seem to-day the most despised and miserable of all men, yet I declare to thee and assure thee, that thou shalt hereafter be with me in paradise, that is, in some pleasant place [for properly speaking, paradise is not heaven], or in the spiritual state allotted to the soul and body. . . . Nor is it necessary to take the word, to-day, in its strict acceptation, but rather for a short time, as in 2 Sam. xvi, 3; Heb. iii, 7. However this may be, so much clear evidence should not be rejected on account of a single passage, of which it is not easy to give a satisfactory interpretation.

The eighth text is Luke xxiii, 46. "Into thy hands I commend my spirit." But the spirit is not therefore separated from the body, or incapable of death; for David uses the same language, Ps. xxxi, 5, although he was not then about to die: "Into thine hand I commit my spirit," while it was yet abiding in and with the body. So Stephen, Acts vii, 59: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, . . . . . . . and when he had said this he fell asleep." It was not the bare spirit divested of the body that he commended to Christ, but "the whole spirit, and soul, and body," as it is expressed, 1 Thess. v, 23. Thus the spirit of Christ was to be raised again with the body on the third day, while that of Stephen,

was to be reserved unto the appearing of the Lord. So 1 Pet. iv, 19. "Let them commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing."

The ninth passage is 2 Cor. v, 1–20. It is sufficiently apparent, however, that the object of this passage is not to inculcate the separation of the soul from the body, but to contrast the animal and terrestrial life of the whole man with the spiritual and heavenly. Hence in the first verse, "The house of this tabernacle," is opposed not to the soul, but to "a building of God, a house not made with hands," that is, to the final renewal of the whole man, as Beza also explains it, whereby "we are clothed upon," in the heavens, being clothed, . . . . not naked. This distinctly appears from the fourth verse: "Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." So also verse 5. "Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God;" not for the separating the soul from the body, but for the perfecting of both. Wherefore the clause in the eighth verse, "to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," must be understood of the consummation of our happiness; and "the body" must be taken for this frail life as is common in the sacred writers, and the absence spoken of, for our eternal departure to an heavenly world; or perhaps to be at "home in the body and to be absent from the Lord," may mean nothing more than to be entangled in worldly affairs, and to have little leisure for heavenly things; the reason of which is given, "for we walk by faith and not by sight;" whence it follows, "we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord;" that is, to renounce worldly things as much as possible, and to be occupied with things heavenly. The ninth verse proves still more clearly that the expressions, "to be present with the Lord," and, "to be absent," both refer to this life: "Wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of God;" for no one supposes that the souls of men are occupied from the time of death to that of the resurrection, in endeavors to render themselves acceptable to God in heaven; that is the employment of the present life, and its reward is not to be looked for till the second coming of Christ. For the apostle says, "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." There is, consequently, no recompense of good or bad after death, previous to the day of judgment. Compare 1 Cor. xv, the whole of which chapter throws no small light on this passage. The same sense is to be ascribed to 2 Pet. i, 13–15: "As long as I am in this tabernacle," &c., that is, in this life. It is however unnecessary to prolong this discussion, as there is scarcely one of the remaining passages of scripture which has not been already explained by anticipation.