that their Souls dy'd with them. The Author of a Sermon, ascrib'd to St. _Augustin_ tells us[291] that _Lazarus_ after his Resurrection made a large Report of _Hell_, where he had been: But as this is a mere Fiction of that Author, without the least Authority from Scripture; so I presume it will be accounted a _Blunder_ in him, to suppose the Soul of _Lazarus_, the Friend and beloved of _Jesus_, was in Hell. The Soul of _Jesus_ indeed, for Reasons best known to himself, upon his Death, descended into Hell, when some think he should rather have gone, with the penitent Thief, into Paradise. But the Thoughts, that any of _Jesus_'s Friends should go to Hell, I suppose will not be born with; or what will become of the Preachers of this Age, who would be accounted Men or that Denomination. And if _Lazarus_'s Soul had been in Paradise, it was hardly a good Work in _Jesus_ to recall it, for thirty Years afterwards, to the Miseries and Troubles of this wicked World. I wish therefore our _Divines_ could determine, where _Lazarus_'s Soul was for the four Days of his Burial; because I can't possibly conceive any thing else, than that he was not really dead, or that his Soul dy'd with him, or went to a bad place, otherwise after his Resurrection he had never absconded for fear of the _Jews_, as if he was unwilling to die again, and return to the Place from whence he came. But however it was with the Souls of these rais'd Persons before their Re-union to their Bodies, here is another Difficulty and Objection against these Miracles; and how will our _Divines_ get over it? Perhaps they may say, that tho' these rais'd Persons were before really dead; yet their Souls were not as yet gone to their Places prepared of God for them, but continued hovering about their Bodies, like the Flame about the Snuff of a Candle, with desires ----_iterumq; reverti Corpora_---- to be again rejoin'd to them. And withall my Heart let this Answer pass, if our _Divines_ and _Infidels_ can so agree upon it. As for my own Opinion, it is this, that these Miracles of _Jesus_ are Parables, and that it was beside the Purpose of the Parable, and of the _Evangelists_ to say any thing of the Place and State of the Soul upon its Separation from the Body; otherwise the Letter of their Stories is manifestly obnoxious to the Objection above, or the Deaths of these pretended rais'd Persons, upon Christian Principles, are questionable. But 6. And lastly, Let us consider the intrinsick Absurdities and Incredibilities of the several Stories of these three Miracles. And such Absurdities shall we find in them, that, if they had been intended as Testimonies of _Jesus_'s divine Power, had never been inserted in their Narratives.