(Vol. iii., p. 374.)
"Can any of your readers inform me of any traces of the doctrine of the
resurrection before the Christian era?" I shall endeavour as briefly as
possible to do justice to this important subject by giving extracts
from, and references to, various authors, especially Hody in his work
_The Resurrection of the (Same) Body Asserted from the Traditions of the
Heathens, &c._ The arguments derived from this source are as follow:--
1. "The gross notions of the heathens concerning the soul in its state
of separation, that it has all the same parts as the body has."
Confer Farmer on the _Worship of Human Spirits in the Ancient Heathen
Nations_, p. 419. _et seq._; _Æschyli Persæ_, v. 616.; and Blomfield's
note; _Nicolaus de Sepulchris Hebræorum, &c._, cap. ix. and xiv.
2. "Their opinion concerning the transmigration of souls." Confer Vossii
_Idololat._, lib. i. c. x.
3. "Their opinion concerning the duration of the soul as long as the
body lasted, and its adherence to the body after death," v. Cicero,
_Tuscul. Quæst._, lib. i.; _Lucret._, lib. iii. Concerning the opinion
of the Egyptians, v. _Greenham on Embalming_.
4. "The belief that some men have ascended up into heaven in their
bodies, there to remain for ever," v. Hody.
5. "That others have done so even after death upon a re-union of their
souls and bodies." (H.) "There were not only certain persons under the
law and among the Jews who were raised to life; but there were also
histories among the Gentiles of several who rose the third day; and
Plato mentioneth another who revived the twelfth day after death, _Plato
de Rep._, lib. x.; _Plin._ lib. vii. 52., "De his qui elati revixerunt;"
_Philostrat._ lib. iii. c. xiii."--_Pearson on the Creed._ There are
histories of this description in _Bonifacii Hist. Ludiceæ_, p. 561. _et
seq._
6. "The opinion of the Pythagoreans and Platonists, &c., concerning the
restitution of our bodies, and of all other things in the world to their
former state, after the revolution of many ages, by a new birth or
production." On the Platonic year confer Gale's _Court of the Gentiles_,
book iii. c. 7.; on the Phoenix cycle of the Egyptians, Rev. Edw.
Greswell's _Fasti Catholici and Origines Calendariæ_. By some this
restitution is considered as merely astronomical, _v._ Costard's _Hist.
of Astronomy_, p. 131. "The opinion of some of the Genethliacal writers,
that the soul returns and is united to the same body in the space of 440
years."--_Varro ap Aug. de Civit._ xxii. 28.; Jackson's _Works_, vol.
iii. p. 424. "The opinion of the Stoics concerning the reproduction of
all the same men, &c., after the general conflagration," v. _Eusebii
Praep. Evang._, lib. xv.; _M. Antonin. Imp._, lib. xi. The resurrection
was asserted by the Persian Magi, the Indian Brachmans, and other
philosophers both oriental and western. "Thus we have demonstrated what
evident notices the heathens had of the last conflagration, with the
ensuing judgment, and man's immortal state; and all from sacred oracles
and traditions."--Gale, _ut suprà_.