of God, or acted contrary to the plain dictates of enlightened reason, his conscience not only faithfully rebukes him for his immoral conduct, but, urging upon him the terrors of a future state, directs his thoughts to the awful doom that awaits him after death. On the other hand, when a man has, by the grace of God assisting him, been sincerely, uniformly, and perseveringly pious and circumspect, has carefully and firmly discharged his religious obligations according to the authority of Divine revelation, he has not only an approving conscience, but possesses the pleasing hope of enjoying happiness beyond the grave. Now if there were no real foundation for all these inward emotions, for the tormenting fears of a wicked man, and the joyful prospects and delightful anticipations. of a good man, how is it that these excitements so extensively prevail among mankind, and are so deeply rooted in human nature? The voice of conscience relative to these matters has been heard in all the ages of time, and among all thẹ nations of the earth; and its convictions have affected, more or less, the whole population of mankind.

The doctrine of the existence of the soul in a future state is not only congenial to the hopes and desires of man, but has been received among all nations as an undoubted reality. Indeed all the appearances of nature press the conviction of this truth upon every mind which stretches its views beyond the present term of sensation and action. The vegetable life, which

expires in the plant in autumn, revives in the seed in spring. The sluggish worm, which undergoes a species of death, and buries itself in a tomb of its own formation, springs again to life a gay and active creature, more beautiful in appearance, with new appetites and powers. Every thing on earth is changed, nothing annihilated; and what appears to expire or perish today, revives afresh in another form and flourishes in a more exalted state of renewed existence. Grotius, in his treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion, alluding to this general belief in a future state, speaks of it as a most ancient tradition, which, handed down from the first parents of mankind, has been spread among all the civilized nations, as appears from Homer's poems, and from the philosophers, not of the Greeks only, but also of the ancient Gauls, whom they called Druids, and of the Indians, whom they termed Brachmans; and from the accounts which many writers have given of the Egyptians, Thracians, nay, the Germans. He observes farther, "When the Canary Islands, America, and other remote parts of the world, were first discovered, the same opinion concerning the immortality of the soul and a future state, was found to prevail there." A future state has the universal suffrage of mankind, Jews and Pagans, Christians and Mohammedans. All nations and people, under different degrees of evidence, express a conviction of another life, in which are administered just rewards and punishments. The heathen poets,

philosophers, and historians, had strong presumptions of the immortality of the soul, as may be seen in their writings, which have been handed down to us; with the exception of the Epicureans, who utterly disavowed the belief of the existence of the soul after death. Phocy lides states, that "the soul is immortal and never grows old, but lives for ever." Trismegistus, the celebrated philosopher, says, "Man consists of two parts, being mortal in respect of his body, but immortal in respect of his soul, which is the true substantial man." Plato observes, "If it were not so, wicked men would have the advantage of the righteous, as after they had committed all manner of evil they would suffer none." Cicero, in his writings, has many passages to the same effect. In one place he observes, that "the soul of man has in it a certain presage of another world." In his book De Scnectute, he represents Cato as saying, "I do not repent having lived, since I have so lived, as that I have reason to think I was not born in vain. I depart out of this life as out of an inn, and not out of a home. For nature has granted us a lodging to sojourn, and not a place in which to dwell: Ŏ glorious day! when I shall go to the Divine council and assembly of souls, and shall depart out of this crowd and rabble!" The same author, speaking of himself, says, "I am not one that can think the soul perishes together with the man, (the body,) or that so much light of understanding, which is a ray of the Divine nature, can possibly be extinguished, but rather

that, having spent the time assigned it, it returns to immortality." Seneca uses this language: "To stay in the body is never desirable to great men they rejoice to depart and break forth, and with difficulty endure these narrow lodgings." Though these sayings plainly show, that the heathen believed in the immortality of the soul, yet all the philosophers positively denied the resurrection of the body. Pliny, the naturalist, deemed the resurrection of the body to be an absolute impossibility, even beyond the energy of Divine power: and both the Stoics and Epicureans made it the subject of profane mockery. The truth is, this important doctrine was entirely beyond their comprehension, and therefore it shared the fate of other doctrines of revelation: what they were unable to comprehend, they refused to believe.

As to the nature and duration of future rewards and punishments, the best of the heathen sages knew almost nothing; so that what they have stated concerning these, is merely what their own vain fancies and wild imaginations furnished. They were sure that the rewards of virtue were to be in a future state, that the soul was to survive the calamities of this world, and the death of the body; and under the influence of these notions, many of them acted bravely and virtuously but yet, with regard to the important realities of another state, they were awfully ignorant. Socrates, when near death, asserted, "that souls departing out of the body went two different ways: that those who had defiled

themselves with vices, wandered in a certain devious path, shut out from the council of the gods; but that, on the other hand, those who kept themselves pure and holy, and who, while dwelling in human bodies, had imitated the life of the gods, had easy and free access to their assembly." Some of these notions, which prevailed among the common people, were very ridiculous. Thus, for instance, as stated by Bishop Taylor, they supposed that the soul of Orpheus, who excelled in singing, should transmigrate into a swan; that of Thamyris, who had an equally good voice, should wander till it was confined to the body of a nightingale; that of Ajax, to a lion; Agamemnon, to an eagle; tyrant princes, to wolves and hawks; lascivious persons, to asses and goats; drunkards, to swine; crafty statesmen, to bees and ants; and Thersites, to an ape. Among the Hindus, equally absurd opinions are found, relating to the same subjects. In one of their most ancient and celebrated books, the Institutes of Menu, the following description is given of the torments of the wicked :- "The wicked shall have a sensation of agony in Tamisra, or utter darkness, and in other seats of horror; in Asipatravana, or the sword-leaved forest, and in different places, of binding fast and of rending, multifarious tortures await them: they shall be mangled by ravens and owls, and shall swallow cakes boiling hot; and shall walk over inflamed sands, and shall feel the pangs of being baked like the vessels of a potter; they shall assume