mitted in a former state: that the happiness of the soul consisted in its being loosed and disengaged from the body; and that a resurrection of the body, or the soul's being again united to it, if it were possible, was far from being a desirable thing. Celsus calls it the hope of worms, a very filthy and abominable, as well as an impossible thing; and that it is what God neither can nor will do, as being base and contrary to nature.* But it is to be observed, that the latter Platonists and Pythagoreans after Christianity appeared, supposed that purified souls after their departure from the body were invested with shining, agile, celestial bodies, pretty nearly answering St. Paul's description of the risen bodies of the saints, in the noble account he gives of the change which shall pass upon them at the resurrection. And it is very probable, that, in this as well as other instances, they improved their notions from the Gospel discoveries, though being no friends to Christianity, they were unwilling to acknowledge the obligation. See Dr. Whitby, in his Annotations on 1 Cor. xv. 44. It is said, indeed, that there were some notions of the resurrection of the body among the ancient Persians. And some think that to this Diogenes Laërtius has a reference, when he gives it as a part of the doctrine of the ancient Magi, ἀναβιώσεσθαι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ ἔσεσθαι ἀθανάτους. That "men shall live again, and be immortal."+ And it is not improbable, that some notion of the resurrection of the body might have been part of the original tradition, derived along with the notion of the immortality of the soul from the first ages. That it obtained among the Jews a considerable time before the coming of our Saviour, appears from the account given us of Eleazar, and of the mother and her seven sons, who were put to the most cruel torments for their religion under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, and who comforted themselves with the hopes that God would raise * Orig. cont. Cels. lib. v. p. 240. + Laërt. in Proœm. segm. 9. them from the dead.* And to this the sacred writer of the epistle to the Hebrews probably refers, when he speaks of the good men in former times, who, "were tortured, not "accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better re"surrection."+ From several passages in the New Testament, it is evident, that this was a doctrine generally received among the Jews, at the time of the first publishing of the Gospel, except by the Sadducees, who for that reason had an ill character among the people. But the notions the Jews generally entertained of the resurrection seem to have been very gross, as is manifest from the objection of the Sadducees against it, and which they were at a loss how to answer, till our Saviour taught them to form more just and sublime notions concerning it. If therefore we suppose some notion of the resurrection of the body to have been communicated to mankind in the first ages, it became soon corrupted and obscured. And some learned persons have supposed, that the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which became very general, was a corruption and depravation of that doctrine, and at length greatly contributed to destroy the true notion of it. .. Perhaps also it was owing to a corruption of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, that in many parts of the world, where they held a life after this, the notion they had of it seems to have been this, that it shall be a life perfectly like the present, with the same bodily wants, the same exercises and employments, and the same enjoyments and pleasures, which they had here. Hence it was that among some nations it was customary for the, women, the slaves, the subjects or friends of the deceased, to kill themselves, that in the other world they might serve those whom they loved and respected in this. Such was the practice among the ancient Danes, as Bartholinus informs us, in his Danish Antiquities. Thus also it still is in Japan, Macassar, and * 2 Maccab. chap. vi. and vii. + Heb. xi. 55. other places. It is said to be a custom in Guinea, that when a king dies many are slain, and their bloody carcases buried with him, that they may again live with him in the other world.* It was formerly a well known custom in the East Indies for women to kill themselves after the death of their husbands, that they might accompany them in the next life. And so lately as in the year 1710, when the prince of Morava, on the coast of Coromandel, died, aged above eighty years, his wives, to the number of forty-seven, were burned with his corpse.+ We are told also, that in Terra Firma, in America, when any of their casiques dies, his chief servants, men and women, kill themselves to serve him in the other world, and they bury with them maize and other provisions, for their subsistence.‡ And it is said concerning the disciples of Foe in China, that some of them, when they meet with obstacles to their passions, go together to hang or drown themselves, that when they rise together again, they may become husband and wife.§ Mons. de Montesquieu, who mentions some of these things, is of opinion, that this flows not so much from a belief of the immortality of the soul, as of the resurrection of the body: from whence they drew this consequence, that after their death men would have the same sentiments, necessities, and passions as now. I do not deny but this might have been occasioned by an abuse or misunderstanding of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. But it does not necessarily follow, that they believed the same body that died would rise again, though probably they thought the soul would have bodies of the like kind, or corporeal vehicles, which would • English Acquisitions in Guinea, p. 22. + There is a particular account of this in a letter from F. Martin to F. de Villette, who were both of them missionaries in that country. Concerning which, see Millar's History of the Propagation of Christianity, Vol. II. p. 154, 155. Perrier's Collection of Voyages, p. 194. § See a tract of a Chinese philosopher in Du Halde's History of China, Vol. III. p. 272. English translation. have the same wants, necessities, and enjoyments, as they have at present. But the remark which that celebrated author makes upon the whole is very judicious. "That it is "not sufficient that religion should establish the doctrine of a future state, but it should also direct to a proper use of "it; and that this is admirably done by the Christian re"ligion. The doctrine of a future state is there represented "as the object of faith, and not of sense or knowledge; and "even the resurrection of the body, as there taught, leads to "spiritual ideas."* How admirably our Saviour, and his apostles who wrote under the direction of his Spirit, have provided against the abuse of the doctrine of the resurrection, and what noble ideas they have given of it, will be evident to any one that impartially considers what is said of it by our blessed Lord, Luke xx. 35, 36. and by St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv. from the 42d verse to the end; and 1 Thess. iv. 13-18. * L'Esprit de Loix, vol. II. livre xxiv. chap. 19. p. 167. edit. Edinb. CHAP. IX. Our Lord Jesus Christ brought life and immortality into the most clear and open light, by the Gospel. He both gave the fullest assurance of that everlasting happiness which is prepared for good men in a future state, and made the most inviting discoveries of the nature and greatness of that happiness. The Gospel also contains express declarations concerning the punishment which shall be inflicted upon the wicked in a future state. The necessity and importance of this part of the Gospel Revelation shown. The conclusion; with some general reflections upon the whole. FROM the account which hath been given of the state of the Heathen world, with respect to the belief of a state of future rewards and punishments, it appears, that some notion of this obtained among the nations from the remotest antiquity: that the most eminent Pagan writers represent it as a tradition, which obtained long before the ages of learning and philosophy, and which was regarded as of divine original: that in process of time, this tradition became greatly corrupted, and was mixed with fables and fictions by the poets and mythologists, and by the legislators and civil magistrates too, with a view to adapt it to the gross imaginations of the people, and to serve political purposes, and the interests of society and government: that afterwards, when the philosophers arose, who pretended to an extraordinary penetration above the vulgar, and to examine every thing by the rules of strict reasoning, they in this, as well as other instances, corrupted the ancient traditions, and for the most part, rejected the immortality of the soul, and a state of rewards and punishments; that those of them who professed to believe it, the chief of whom were the Pythagoreans and Platonists, generally placed it on wrong foundations, and argued for it from principles which were either false or not to be depended upon: that those who sometimes expressed themselves strongly in favour of the immortality of the soul and a future state, at other times said things which seem to be inconsistent with that belief; or, if |