Semi. CXX. a.r drfcover'd by Nature alad dy fZevelatìoll. I t7 tram font : This is a verygreat Argument that Nature dothfecretly, and in Men:fi- lent thoughtsdetermine the Immortality of the Soul, That all Men arefelicitous ofwhat 1h41 bezome ofthem after death. Nefcio quomodo inharret in mentibus pal; graoddam auguriumfaturorum, idque in maximis ingenue animis & exi- flit maxime & apparet facillime : I know not how (faith he) there flicks in the Mind a. certainkind ofprefage ofa ,future State, and this is enofl deeply fixt and dip covers it felf faonefl in the choicefl Spirits. Again the fame Author, Vt Deos effe Hamra opinamtar, fie permanere animo: arbitrarur confenfunationum omnium : Asthis Opinion is planted in us byNature, That thereis a God, fo by the content of all Nati- ons we believe that Souls remainafter the Body. I might multiply Teftimonies to this purpofe out of the antient Heathen Writers ; but thefe which I have produced out of this great Author, are fo plain and exprefs, that I need bringno other. As for thofe barbarous Nations which have been discovered in thefe latter Ages of theWorld, and which before the firft planting of America, were never known to have held Correfpondence with thefe Parts of the World, yet all thofe Nati- onsagree in this Principle, of the Immortality of the Soul ; nay even the moft barbarous of thofe Nations, thofe who are molt inhumane and eat one another, thole of 7oupinamboult in Brafile, who are faid by fome Authors, but I think not upon fufficient grounds, not to acknowledgethe Being of a God ; yet even thefe (as Lerius tells us, wholived among them) hada very fixt and firm perfwafion of this Principle of Religion, the Immortalityof theSoul. There is not, fays he, a- ny Nation in the World more remotefrom all Religion than there were yet tothew that there isfame light inthe midfl of thisdarknefs, Ican, Pays he, trulyaffirm, that they have not onlyfame apprehenfions of the Immortality of the Soul, but 4 moll confident perfwafion ofit. Their Opinion, fays he, is that the Souls offlout and valiant Men after deathfly beyond thehighefi Mountains, and there are gathered to their Fathers, and Grand-Fathers, andlive inpleafant Gardens, with all manner of delights; but :the Soulsoffiothful and unalive Men, and thofe whodo nothing for their Country, are 'carried to Aygman (fo theycall the Devil) and live with him in perpetual Torments. The like'Xaverius and others, who laboured in the Converfion of the remote Parts of theEafl Indies, tell us concerningthofe Nations, that they found them generally poffeft with thisPrinciple, of the Soul'sImmortality. Now what will we call a Natural Notion, if not that which Mankind in all places of the World, in all Ages, fo far as Hiftory informs, did univerfallyagree in? What Evidence greater than this can any Man give, to Chew that any thing isnatural ? And if we believe a God, (which I told you I do all along in this Argument fuppofe to be already proved) can we imagine that this Wifeand Good God would plant fuch aNotion and Apprehenfion in the Underftandings of Men, as would put an univerfal Cheat and Delnfion upon HumanNature ? And that theUniverfal Confent of all Nations in this Principle, cannot be re- folved either into the Fears and groundlefs Jealoufie and Superftition of Human Nature, nor intoUniverfal Tradition, which had its Original from force Impo- nor, nor intoReafon and Policyof State, I might thew particularly : but having formerly done that, concerning the Univerfal Confent ofall Nations in the belief ofa God, and the Reafon being the very fame, as to this Principle of the Imiüor- talityof the Soul, I (hall not need to do this over again upon this Argument. And that Come Perlons, and particular Sets in the World, havedifowned this Principle, is no fufficient Objeâion againft it. It cannot be denied, but the Epi- cureans among the Philofophers, did renounce this Principle ; and force alfo a- mong the Stoicks do fpeak doubtfully of it. The Sadduces likewife among the Sews fell into this Error, upon a miftake and mifapprehenfion of the Marine of their Mailer Sadoc, who, as fofephus tells us, did rife to inculcate this Principle to his,Scholars, That tho there were no Rewards nor Punishments after this Life, vet Men ought tobe good and live virtuoufly; from whence in procefs of time, by heat of Oppofition againft the Pharifees, who brought in Oral Tradition, and made it equal with the written Word of God, they fell into that Error, and de- nyed the Souls Immortality, not finding fuch clear Texts for it in the Old Tefta- ment, as to them did feem fully convincing of thisTruth. Xaveriuslikewife tells us,: that among the leverai Selts ofReligion which he found in japan, there was one
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