same young man appeared again to him another night, and asked if he knew him. To which he answering, Yes, very well, he asked him where he had seen him. And Gennadius presently related how by his conduct he was once led to hear the hymns and see the sight before mentioned. Here the young man asked him, whether he saw and heard what he related in his sleep or waking. In my sleep, said Gennadius. True, said the other; and now thou seest me in thy sleep, dost thou not? To which he consenting, his instructor proceeded to ask him, Where is thy body now? In my bedchamber, said Gennadius. Dost thou know then, replied the young man, that thy eyes are now bound up, and shut, and lie idle in that body, so that with them thou seest nothing? I know it, said Gennadius. What eyes then are these, said his instructor again, wherewith thou seest me? Here, Gennadius being silent, not knowing what to say, the young man laid hold of this occasion to open to him the meaning of all these questions; saying, Those eyes of thy flesh, which is asleep, and lies in thy bed, have no employment and do nothing at all; and yet thou hast eyes wherewith thou seest me. Just so when thou art dead, and the eyes of thy flesh are put out and can do nothing, vita tibi inerit, qua vivas, sensusque, quo sentias, there will be life in thee, whereby to live, and sense, whereby to perceive.' Beware now hereafter how thou doubtest that life remains after death." And thus, that faithful man told St. Austin, the providence and mercy of God quite removed his doubt.

But I shall not insist on such reasons as these, my intention being only to show what we learn from the apostles, the faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ, to confute that drowsy conceit of the sleep of the soul; which, like a thistle, sprung up first" in the wild deserts of Arabia, but ought not to be suffered to grow in the garden of God. In which this doctrine of the apostles, I might show, hath been so deeply rooted; that to testify the church's belief of it, was one great end of the commemorations and prayers which were made for the faithful departed this life. So we learn from Epiphanius his confutation of Aerius, who did not approve of this practice. The very first

n Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. vi. c. 37. [p. 299.]

account he gives of it is, that those who were present might believe őτɩ oi åπeλOóvtes (ŵσi, &c., that they who were departed live,' and are not gone out of being, but exist and live with the Lord. And they did not suppose, I may add, that those whom they remembered in their sacred offices were frying in the flames of hell, as the present Roman church doth; but in a state of happiness, though imperfect, and some more imperfect than other. This we learn from the service of the church in those days, especially at the funerals of the departed. Whensoever they celebrated the dreadful mysteries, together with the holy martyrs, and confessors, and priests, whom they commemorated, they prayed for the whole world, for which Christ's blood was an expiation; not forgetting those who slept in him, whom the priest desired those who were present to remember. For we are all one body, (saith St. Chrysostom P, who reports this,) though one member be brighter than another; and therefore they desired all might have συγγνώμην καὶ παραμυθίαν, ' pardon and consolation. Which they hoped they had, it is plain from the funeral office, which, in great part, was eucharistical, consisting of psalms and hallelujahs. So the same great person informs us in his Commentaries on the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he takes occasion from those words deliver them who through fear of death, &c. to reprehend the bitter lamentations and wailings of those who mourned for their dead friends, as altogether inconsistent with what the church did at their funerals: where the bright lamps they saw burning proclaimed that they attended them as valiant champions; and the hymns that were sung glorified God, and gave him thanks for crowning him that was departed, and for freeing him from his labours, and for delivering him from a state of fear, that he might have him with himself. "Are not the hymns," saith he, "for this end? is not this the meaning of the singing psalms ? ταῦτα πάντα χαιρόντων Tív and all these things are proper to those that rejoice :' according to that of St. James, Is any well pleased, let him sing psalms." And a little after he bids them mind what

r

• Hæres. lxxv. n. 7. [tom. i. p. 911 A.]

I

P Hom. xli. in 1 Cor. p. 524. 20. [ed. Ben. tom. x. p. 392, 3.]

9 ii. 15.

r Hom. iv. p. 453. 35; 454. 10. [ed. Ben. tom. xii. p. 46, 7.]

they sung at those solemnities:-Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee: and, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me: and again, Thou art my refuge from the affliction that compasseth me about. This was part of the funeral service, to which he tells them they did not attend, but were drunk with sorrow; or else they would not have made such lamentations. For to say, Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thees, and yet to weep and lament, is a mockery and a stageplay, not a serious piece of devotion. This and much more that great man there says, to show how preposterous it was to mix their lamentations with those hymns: which supposed the souls of the deceased to be in rest and peace, and to partake liberally of the bounteous goodness of God; and therefore ought to have composed and comforted the minds of the living, who confessed their friends had made a blessed change of a troublesome life, for one full of quiet and happy repose. Το which the order of burial in our church, which professes to tread in the steps of the first ages of Christianity, is very conformable where we sing, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, &c., and acknowledge that "we ought not to be sorry as men without hope, for them that sleep in him ;" because the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord do live with God; and, "being delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity.". Not complete indeed, but we pray him (after we have given thanks for delivering our brother "out of the miseries of this sinful world")" to hasten his kingdom, that we, with all those that are departed in the true faith of his holy name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul in his eternal and everlasting glory."

But it is not my business, as I said, to seek for testimonies to this truth any lower than from the apostles themselves, who, as they preached the glad tidings of eternal life everywhere, so they protest most solemnly (and they were men, you shall hear, who taught and practised the strictest truth and honesty) that they had a most certain knowledge of it; and therefore we may safely rely upon their testimony. Those words wherewith St. John begins his first Epistle may serve instead of all that might be alleged to assert this"; where he gives an acS $ [Ps. cxvi. 7.] u 1 John i. 1, 2, 3.

t[1 Thess. iv. 13.]

count of the reason they had to publish to the world that Word of life (Jesus and his gospel), as they had done a long time. "For they said nothing concerning that eternal life which it was in the purpose of God the Father from the beginning to bestow, and now was manifested to them, but what they had heard, that is, received from his own mouth, and been constant auditors of: which made them the more confident to declare these things to others, because they had them not at the second hand, but immediately from himself."

And because it is the least of testimonies to say we have heard a thing, therefore he adds, in the second place, that they had seen it; beheld, that is, all the marvellous works he did to confirm this doctrine which he delivered, as the word seen seems to be understood John xv. 24; If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now they have seen and yet hated both me and my Father. They saw the vast numbers that he fed with a little food, the sick that he cured with speaking a word, the dead that he raised when all their friends gave them for lost, and despaired of seeing them again in this world: in short, so many instances of his divine power and authority, that if they should have been written every one, this apostle supposes the world would not have been able to contain the books that should have been written'. But these are recorded which we find in the gospel, as he concludes the foregoing chapter, that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing we might have life through his name.

And lest any should imagine it was but a transient sight they had of these things, and their eyes might be deluded (as we sometimes are when a thing suddenly flies away from us), or that they were but seldom spectators of these things, and so could not gather much from thence, he adds, in the third place, that they had looked on it; that is, had this evidence continually before their eyes. They scarce saw any thing else but miracles. They had not leisure ofttimes so much as to eat their meat by reason of the great multitude of people that came to be healed by him. They conversed a long time with Lazarus after he was risen; and our Lord himself was seen of

t John xxi. 25.

them forty days after his resurrection, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God". And when the Holy Ghost came, they themselves, to whom the apostle here writes, could testify the wonderful variety of spiritual gifts that were poured on believers.

:

But because we imagine that to feel a thing is far more considerable for our satisfaction than to see it or look upon it; (as St. Thomas would not believe those who had seen our Lord and heard him speak, but he would put his hands into his wounds before he would be satisfied;) therefore the apostle tells us further, that they declared nothing but what they had handled of the Word of life. That is, there was most palpable evidence and demonstration given of the truth of their report. They were so near as to touch and feel that their eyes were not deceived, when they thought they saw such miracles wrought for their own hands distributed the bread and the fish to the hungry multitude; and some of them untied the grave-clothes of Lazarus when he was raised from the dead: and (to give one instance for all) when he himself rose again from his grave, they not only discoursed with him, and saw him eat and drink, and beheld him several times and in several places, but he called them to him, and said, Behold my hands and my feet: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me havex. This very handling of him was a greater argument of the eternal life which was with the Father, but was hereby made manifest unto us; for it proves his resurrection, and that is a proof of ours.

Now they having thus heard, and seen, and beheld, and handled these things, how could they choose but publish that Jesus is the Author of eternal life? And we receiving such testimony from them, how can we refuse to believe their word, that we may have fellowship with them in God and his Son, i.e. be partakers, as they were, in that most blessed life of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ? If we do but believe there were such men as St. John and St. Paul and all the rest; and if they had eyes and ears and hands like other men; if they were men of sound brains and understandings (as it appears by their writings they were); if any credit may be given to sober