these novelists a great council was presently called, wherein the famous Origen was present; and he by his arguments so effectually dealt with them, that they renounced their error, and so prevented the anathema of the council, that would otherwise certainly have been denounced against them. I add over and above, that the subsistence of the soul of man after the death of his body, was a tradition generally, nay I think universally, received among the civilized heathen nations. For though certain wrangling and contentious philosophers among them disputed the matter, and by disputing came at last most of them to doubt of it, and some of them flatly to deny it; yet this could not hinder, but that the notion still prevailed among the generality of men in every age and nation. Nay in that part of the world, which for so many ages remained undiscovered and unknown to the rest of the earth, (there being no very ancient historian or writer extant, that gives us any certain account of it,) I say, in that part of the world which is called America, when it was first discovered by the Christians, this faith of the soul's immortality was found to obtain. Joseph Acosta, a learned Spaniard, and an approved author, who had lived in those parts, tells us, l. v. c. 7. that the Indians of Peru believed commonly, "that the "souls of men lived after this present life, [and that "the good were in glory, and the bad in pain."] Nay, in that region of America which is called Nova Francia, New France, although when it was first discovered, the people were found rude and barbarous; insomuch that a good author saith of them, "That they are not bound by any laws, nor observe "any good customs, but live as beasts devoid of દ reason;" yet even of these the same author thus testifieth, "They believe the immortality of men's "souls, and say, that when they leave their bodies, "they go to another region, where their deceased "friends area." Moreover, Leriusb tells us of a strange sort of people in America, of a hard name, (they are called by him, To vou pinam baultii,) who acknowledge no particular God at all, but only in general, certain spirits with whom their priests converse, from whom they believe themselves to receive courage and success in war, and the production of the fruits of the earth: and therefore they are instanced in by some as a nation atheistical, though unjustly; for those spirits which they acknowledge are their gods. However these very men (as the same Lerius informs us) confess, that "the souls of "the virtuous" (that is, of those who have valiantly defended their country, for this seems to be the chiefest, if not the only virtue which they admired,) "do presently after death fly beyond certain very high mountains, and at last light on most pleasant gardens, where they lead a merry life in perpetual delights and dances: and that on the other side, "the souls of cowards, and degenerate souls, go ad 66 66 66 66 aygnan, that is, to the Devil, and live in torments "with him." In a word, I am yet to seek for that nation in the world, among whom the primitive religion, taught by God to the first men, is so utterly a Animarum credunt immortalitatem, dicuntque quod postquam ex corpore migrarunt, tunc in aliam migrant regionem, ubi amici illorum defuncti reperiuntur. b [Historia Navigationis in Brasiliam a Joanne Lerio Burgundo. 1686.] corrupted and lost, but that they have still some notion remaining among them of the soul's immortality and permanence after death. To conclude therefore, let us firmly adhere to this confessed truth, this great truth, this fundamental truth, not only of our Christian religion, but of religion in general. Let us take heed of those men, who professing to believe the resurrection promised in the Gospel, do yet deny the subsistence of man's soul in the interval between death and that resurrection. That faith and this denial cannot well stand together; the resurrection of the body necessarily supposing the immortality and permanence of the soul, as I have evidently shewn you. They therefore that deny the latter, lay a sure foundation for the denial of the former too; which is the great article of our religion, the subversion whereof renders our whole faith vain, as the apostle tells us, 1 Cor. xv. 16, 17. But much more are we to beware of those, who deny this truth with a direct design to destroy all our hopes or fears of any life to come. Let not the sophistry of these men, who study to shake off their Christianity and the religion of mankind at once, in the least unsettle our persuasion and belief of this established verity. It is here, if any where, certain, that Vox populi (or rather populorum) est vox Dei, the voice of all people and nations, howsoever distant in place, however otherwise differing in religion from each other, yet all here singing the same song, must needs be the voice of God; or at least an echo of that voice, by which God spake to holy men in the infancy of the world, and revealed to them the doc trine of a future life; a voice once so strongly and convincingly uttered, that it went through all the earth, and to the end of the world; and there is no speech nor language, no people or nation, where the same voice is not still heard; to allude to the words of the Psalmist, Psalm xix. 3, 4. This were sufficient to arm us against the cavils of those few selfopiniated men, that in every age (especially in this of ours) have made it their business to molest and disturb the common faith of the world. But when we have the consent of nations confirmed by a new divine revelation, a revelation proved to be such by the most undeniable arguments, what madness were it to doubt! Let us not therefore give any ear to the voice of the Epicurean, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die; that is, Let us live like beasts, because we are to die as such, 1 Cor. xv. 32; but rather let us resolve to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; because though as to our bodies we may die to-morrow, and. must die shortly, yet our souls are certainly to live and subsist after death, in order to a future doom of happiness or misery. Let us hearken to the wisest of men, Solomon; who having asserted the soul's immortality, Eccles. xii. 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it; presently after, ver. 13, 14. concludes, and his conclusion shall be mine, in these words: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. |