dice and destruction-that there are always such infatuated men that argue and reason against God their Creator, who made them after His own image, and bestowed on them never-dying souls. And what is the object of that infidel reasoning? It is "to prove that they are beasts, even they themselves." O brutish disinterestedness! O most horrid of suicides! How terribly does the Satanic venom operate in the hearts of the wicked! As they fear to approach the light lest their dark works become manifested, they not only hate the light, but even deny its existence. Trembling at the idea of having a soul eternally condemned to misery and gloom, they try to deny its existence; as if a thief or murderer, when detected in his lurking place by the agent of justice, would cry out, "I am not here," or I am dead," and thus think to save himself! Such outcasts of humanity try to cover their guilty souls with a wretched cloak of brutal lowliness and nothingness; and thus they think to escape the bitter cup prepared for them; but will they thus escape the wrath to come? In the following two verses Solomon gives us the substance of these reasonings, by which infidels pretend to prove that they have no more souls than the beasts of the field. 19. For (say they) man is a mere chance,* As also the beast is a mere chance; "Man is a mere chance," born by chance like an herb, like a wild plant out of the ground, by nature, not by any special providence or will of a Creator. (mikreh) signifies, "a chance, an event, an occurrence," independent of any will, uncalled for, and unforeseen. In the first two instances it is not said that a mikreh, a chance befals man and beast, but that man was a mikreh like the beast, i.e. that both are born and die by mere chance in nature, and that noneno special Creator-ordains their being. If it had been in the sense in which it is translated in the common versions, then One event also happeneth to them both : Yea they have all one breath, So that man hath no pre-eminence over the beast: 20. All go unto one place : They are all of the dust, and to the dust they return. Such is the wisdom or philosophy that Satan teaches his victims, and he is treacherous enough, for he hides from his pupils that which he himself well knows and trembles at. So stupified are his victims that they cannot see that had they been mere brutes without souls, Satan would despise them, and no more would he occupy himself about them than he does about a herd of oxen or swine; for they have no immortal souls to be ruined. Had this been the case, who would have instructed them to deny either the existence of the Supreme Being, the Creator and Governor of the universe, or the existence of their own souls? Is not the very fact of their infidel reasoning the strongest proof that they are not mere beasts, but that they must have rational, and hence never-dying souls, by whose intelligence they are enabled to reason? Does not even a denial of anything (accompanied with reasoning of whatever nature) demand the same intellectual power as that of believing and proving what one believes? Of course we cannot deny or contradict the infidels in the too well-known fact that they must die like the beast, and this is probably the principle of their the particle would have been used; (libney) "a mikreh befalleth (or happeneth) to the children of man ;" and even then the same phrase would be twice repeated to no use or purpose. But the third time it is distinctly said, "One mikreh happeneth to both of them," therefore we rendered it, "One event also happeneth to them both." vexation and the cause of their bitterness. But we can boldly oppose them with a louder and better speaking fact, which is, that no beast is an infidel,that their adopted brothers never trouble themselves about the existence of a soul, or of living after death, for they know not if they live, nor do they know that they must die; they have neither intelligence nor conscience, and therefore are as ignorant about what they are, or about what they will be, as they are of the fact that there are infidels who greatly desire their alliance, and to become their equals. Had this been the case with revolted and revolting blasphemers, had they no intelligence, no soul, and no conscience that troubles them and drives them to despair, they would feed as calmly and quietly on their pasture as their adopted brethren, and would not be capable even of a single thought entering their minds about what shall become of them after death. But let us hear what the wise man, yea, what the voice of inspiration says to the above reasoning of the materialist. 21. Who understandeth that the spirit of man That mounteth upwards, she belongeth to on high, *In the common version this verse reads: "Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" But the objection to this translation is, that it by no means expresses fully the Hebrew text (besides that it perverts its real meaning.) With respect to the soul of man, it is first said (haolah)," that goeth upward," or, "that mounteth upward;" and then (hie lemaalah), "that she belongeth to or appertaineth, or is destined for above, or for on high." But had the sacred author meant to express simply, "Who knoweth that the spirit of man goeth upward" (after death), then he T: T im ruach) אם רוח האדם עלה למעלה would doubtless have said T:T: The exclamation, "Who understandeth ?" with which the argument is opened in our verse, has haadam olah lemaalah), "If the spirit of man ascendeth on high," &c. Moreover, there would have been no need to repeat that the spirit (or breath) of the beast goeth downward, or, if it goeth downward, as this was already stated in the foregoing verse as a thing admitted by all, i.e. that it cometh from the dust and returns to the dust. The question was only regarding the spirit of man, if it also, like that of the beast, goeth to the dust, or not. Is it not thus evident that a new argument, a new idea, forced the inspired author to make that repetition in order to show the vast difference between the immortal soul of man, and the mere animating breath of the animal that dissolves in death? If the meaning which translators wished to ascribe to the text is, "Who knoweth, or who is acquainted with the spirit of man," i.e., that none can tell what becomes of it, then it is not only a perversion of the Hebrew text, (for, hie lemaalah, is an assertion, and not a doubt), but it is also greatly absurd; for in that case they make also the author suggest the possibility that the breath of the beast may also go to heaven-be immortal; a thing which was already put beyond doubt in the preceding passage, and thus the whole argument would be a confusion of doubt, of childish suggestion, yea, of aimless folly. But the fact is, that there is a deep and strong reasoning contained in this verse, and that the above-mentioned repeated words and phrases are most essential to the argument. (mi yodea) "Who knoweth," or, " who understandeth," or, "who comprehendeth?" this having the same force as in Isai. liii. 1, (mi heamin), "Who hath believed our report ?" so here Solomon exclaims against the above argument of the infidel, "Who understandeth ?" "that the ,(ruach beney haadam haolah) רוּחַ בְּנֵי הָאָדָם הָעֹלָה T:T: spirit of man (or, of the sons of man) that mounteth upward," or, "that lifteth itself by degrees," (i.e. towards heaven.) (hie lemaalah)" that she (the soul) belongeth, appertaineth to, or is destined for on high," (i.e. belongeth, and goeth to heaven, is immortal.) But some hard-headed critic may say that we added a "that" without having authority for it in the text. Now, to satisfy ignorance, we shall show by examples that in such like constructions a preposition, particle, or conjunction is always left out, and must be understood by the context, or from a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew syntax. 2 Samuel xii. 22 David said, (mi yodea), "Who knoweth ?" (yechanany Jehovah), “be gra L exactly the same force and meaning as the exclamation of the prophet, Isai. liii. 1, "Who hath believed our report ?" &c. In chap. lii., at the end, that prophet states the disadvantageous outward ap cious to me, Jehovah," here a "whether" must be added, Having established his argument with regard to the soul of man that mounts continually heavenwards (see our exposition), and that therefore she must not belong to matter, but must be immaterial, heavenly, must go up to heaven after her separation of matter (of the body) and be immortal, he now turns to consider the breath of the beast. With regard to it, he shows that from its attachment to the earth, from its incapability of lifting itself above matter, of thinking about things invisible which are on high, and from its continual decline (in gaiety, energy, liveliness) along with the body which it animates, it is clear that it must be a material and mortal existence like the body of man and its own, and extinguish along with the latter when by death it is delivered to decay and -veruach habehemah hayore) ורוח הבהמה הירדת .dissolution deth)" and that the spirit (or breath) of the beast that goeth downward," i.e. which not only can never lift itself above flesh and blood, cannot think, cannot reason, but which also continues to sink down along with the body in all degrees of feebleness, in all symptoms of decay produced by age(hie lemattah laaretz) "it belongeth (or, apper taineth, or is destined, to descend) to below, even to the earth," i.e. is a mere breath which animates the body while alive, but which gradually decreases and enfeebles along with the body, and when the latter descends to the dust, it dissolves along with it. |