VIVIFICO, to make alive, to raise to life, is taken in a literal Sense: For example, Dominus mortificat & vivificat, deducit ad inferos & reducit. And Hosea, Hos. vi. 3.Ipse percutiet & curabit nos; vivificabit nos post duos dies, in die tertia suscitabit nos. He will restore us to Life, after two Days; he will raise us up on the third Day. Elisha had restored the Widow’s Son to Life: Cujus vivificaverat filium.
To vivify is also put for preserving 1 Sam. ii. 6. 1 Sam. xxvii. 11.Life. David spared neither Man nor Woman of those he took in the Enemy’s Country: He gave Life to none: Virum & mulierem non vivificabat David.
Pharaoh commanded the Israelites to expose their Children, and not to bring Acts vii. 19. 2 Kings viii. 5.them up, nor to preserve their Lives: Ut exponerent infantes suos ne vivificarentur: When the Wicked shall be converted, and do that which is right, he shall save Ezek. xvii. 27. Psal. xl. 3.his Soul alive. Ipse animam suam vivificabit: Let the Lord preserve him, and vivify him; may he grant him Health and long Life.
In a figurative Sense, to vivify, is used for delivering from a great Danger, to bring out of Captivity, to heal of a great Sickness, to defend in a great Peril. The Captives of Babylon often asked of God in the Psalms1 to restore them to Life, to deliver them from a State of Death, of Oppression, of Trouble, under which they groaned. Vivify me by thy Mercy, restore me to Life, according to thy Word, &c.
To restore to Life, is used often in the Hebrew to express the repairing of a City, of a House, of a Wall: For example,2 Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burnt? Will they rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem? David built the Walls of Jerusalem from Millo all round:3 And Joab repaired (or revived) the rest of the City. He rebuilt all the rest of the Walls. Habbakkuk desires the Lord to cause his old Wonders to be shewn Habak. iii. 2. 1 Cor. xv. 36.forth anew. In medio annorum vivifica illud. And St. Paul says, Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die.
In the Writings of the Apostles, to vivify, to quicken or to revive, is often used for giving Life to the Soul, in a spiritual Sense; which Life consists in Faith, Charity, rity, Justice, Grace, Innocence. He that would save his Life at the expence of Truth, will lose his Soul; and he that shall lose his Life to preserve his Faith, and to maintain the Truth, shall save his Soul: Vivificabit eam. The Letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive. The Law cannot 2 Cor. iii. 6. Galat. iii. 21.make alive: It cannot communicate Righteousness, without Faith, animated by Charity.
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