Dryden on Salvation for the Dead

Dryden on Salvation for the Dead

BY CLAUDE T. RARNES, M. S., P. R.

Many a dust-laden volume, with faded pages and peculiar type, contains, should we but try to find them, great truths, surprising philosophies and beauties of phraseology which need but an alteration of lettering to make them the expression of a loftier contemporary thought and culture. Indeed, I confess 'tis

a diversion never tiresome, to fish awhile with Walton, speculate for a time with Browne, take a mug with Addison at "Will's," or go on a lark with Fielding; in many respects their age immeasurably surpasses ours, for science and commerce have quite smothered our imagination. Truth is as old as the sun it must be, for scattered ; here and there in the writings of by-gone centuries, are nuggets of thought which prove that we are, after all, but an ordinary step in the ladder of infinity. Thus, it is indeed remarkable that John Dryden (1631-1700) should have ignored the credenda of his time and courageously thrust upon his compeers, in the form of a poem called Religio Laid, a staunch belief in the possibility of heathen salvation ; and, furthermore, that he should have argued concerning it with a clearness scarcely to have been expected without the illuminating influence of revelation. What he has said, therefore, certainly deserves to be recorded in the confirmatory literature of the subject. It illustrates and emphasizes the fact that the gospel is not new, but old, and that all down the ages there have been glimpses of it, saving truths to illu-

minate darkness of error and tradition. A logical interpretation of scripture, together with reflections on the perfection of divine justice, must convince one that it were monstrous indeed to condemn forever the heathen who never heard the name of Christ. In fact, various passages* of

*The argument unfolds itself in the following citations: Mark 16:16; John 3:5: Luke 23:39-43: Jolin 20:11-17; I Peter 3:18-20; John 5:25; Isaiah 24:22; 42:6-7;61:l; Job 33:27-30; I Cor. 15:29; Mai. 4:5-6; Phil. 2;9-ll; I Kings 7:23.

: :

300 IMPROVEMENT ERA

scripture lead one to suppose that even after death the spirit is

still given an opportunity to accept the teachings of the Savior. Such, for instance, is I Peter 4 : 6, which reads

"For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."

The doctrine of salvation for the dead, made plain in the religion of the Latter-day Saints, with its rites and amplifications, was, of course, unknown to Dryden, hence Religio Laid and its excellent preface are among the earliest arguments for this principle of universal justice. May it not be a remnant of the gospel truths first revealed to Adam, revived from the rubbish of false teachings through succeeding ages? The following excerpt is from the preface to the poem

"It has always been my thought that heathens who never did, nor without miracle could, hear of the name of Christ, were yet in a possibility of salvation. Neither will it enter easily into my belief, that before the coming of our Savior the whole world, excepting only the Jewish nation, should lie under the inevitable necessity of everlasting punishment, for want of that revelation, which was confined to so small a spot of ground as that of Palestine. Among the sons of Noah we read of only one who was accursed; and if a blessing in the ripeness of time was reserved for Japheth (of whose progeny we are), it seems unaccountable to me, why so many generations of the same offspring as preceded our Savior in the flesh should be all involved in one common condemnation, and yet that their posterity should be entitled to the hopes of salvation; as if a Bill of Exclusion had passed only on the fathers, which debarred not the sons from their succession; or that so many ages had been delivered over to Hell, and so many reserved for Heaven, and that the Devil had the first choice, and God the next. Truly I am apt to think that the revealed religion which was taught by Noah to all his sons might continue for some ages in the whole posterity. That afterwards it was included wholly in the family of Shem is manifest; but when the progenies of Ham and Japheth swarmed into colonies, and those colonies were subdivided into many others, in process of time their descendants lost by little and little the primitive and purer rites "of divine worship, retaining only

the notion of one deity; to which succeeding generations added others; for men took their degree in those ages from conquerors to gods. Revelation being thus eclipsed to all mankind, the Light of Nature, as the next in dignity, was substituted; and that is it which St. Paul con-

DRYDEN ON SALVATION FOR THE DEAD 301

eludes to be the rule of the heathens, and by which they are hereafter to be judged. If my supposition be true, then the consequence which I have assumed in my poem may also be true; namely, that Deism, or the principles of natural worship, are only the faint remnants or dying flames of revealed religion in the posterity of Noah; and that our modern philosophers, nay, and some of our philosophizing divines, have too much exalted the faculties of our souls, when they have maintained that by their force mankind has been able to find out that there is one supreme Agent or intellectual Being which we call God; that praise and prayer are his due worship; and the rest of those deducements, which I am confident are the remote effects of Revelation, and unattainable by our Discourse, I mean as simply considered, and without the benefit of divine illumination. So that we have not lifted ourselves up to God by the weak pinions of our Reason, but he has been pleased to descend to us; and what Socrates said of him, what Plato writ, and the rest of the heathen philosophers of several nations, is all no more than the twilight of Revelation, after the sun of it was

set in the race of Noah. That there is something above us, some principle of motion, our Reason can apprehend, though it cannot discover what it is by its own virtue. And indeed 'tis very improbable that we, who by the strength of our faculties cannot enter into the knowledge of any being, not so much as of our own, should be able to find out by them that supreme nature, which we cannot otherwise define than by saying it is infinite; as if infinite were definable, or infinitely a subject for our narrow understanding. They who would prove religion by reason, do but weaken the cause which they endeavor to support; 'tis to take away the pillars from our faith, and to prop it only with a twig; 'tis to design a tower like that of Babel, which, if it were possible (as it is not) to reach heaven, would come to nothing by the confusion of the workmen. For every man is building a several way; impotently conceited of his own model and his own materials; reason is always striving, and always at a loss; and of necessity it must so come to pass, while 'tis exercised about that which is not its proper object. Let us be content at last to know God by his own methods; at least so much of him as he is pleased to reveal to us in the sacred Scriptures; to apprehend them to be the word of God is all our reason has to do; for all beyond it is the work of Faith, which is the seal of Heaven impressed upon our human understanding."

That part of the poem pertinent hereto reads as follows:

"But stay: the Deist here will urge anew, No supernatural worship can be true; Because a general law is that alone Which must to all and everywhere be known: A style so large as not this book can claim,

302 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Nor aught that bears Revealed Religion's name. Tis said the sound of a Messiah's birth Is gone through all the habitable earth; But still that text must be confined alone To what was then inhabited and known: And what provision could from thence accrue To Indian souls and worlds discovered new? In other parts it helped, that, ages past, The Scriptures there were known, and were embraced, Till Sin spread once again the shades of night: What's that to these who never saw the light? Of all objections this indeed is chief To startle reason, stagger frail belief: We grant, 'tis true, that Heaven from human sense Has hid the secret paths of Providence; But boundless wisdom, boundless mercy may Find even for those bewildered souls a way; Iffrom His nature foes may pity claim, Much more may strangers who ne'er heard His name; And though no name be for salvation known, But that of his Eternal Son's alone, Who knows how far transcending goodness can Extend the merits of that Son to man? Who knows what reasons may His mercy lead, Or ignorance invincible may plead? Not only charity bids hope the best, But more the great Apostle has exprest: That if the Gentiles, whom no law inspired, By nature did what was by law required, They who the written rule had never known Were to themselves both rule and law alone, To Nature's plain indictment they shall plead And by their conscience be condemned or freed. Most righteous doom! because a rule revealed Is none to those from whom it was concealed. Then those who followed Reason's dictates right, Lived up, and lifted high their natural light, With Socrates may see their Maker's face, While thousand rubric-martyrs want a place. Nor does it balk my charity to find The Egyptian Bishop of another mind; For, though his creed eternal truth contains, 'Tis hard for man to doom to endless pains All who believed not all his zeal required, Unless he first could prove he was inspired. Then let us either think he meant to say

DRYDEN ON SALVATION FOR THE DEAD 303

This faith, where published, was the only way; Or else conclude that, Arius to confute, The good old man, too eager to dispute, Flew high; and, as his Christian fury rose, Damned all for heretics who durst oppose.

Particularly opportune, in view of recent abstruse discussions on vague and unprofitable subjects, such as the possible identity ofAdam and the Savior, is the closing admonition of Rcligio Laid:

For no man's faith depends upon his will, 'Tis some relief, that points not clearly known Without much hazard may be let alo'ne; And after hearing what our Church can say, our reason runs another way, If still That private reason 'tis more just to curb Than by disputes the public peace disturb. For points obscure are of small use to learn: But common quiet is mankind's concern."