rSSAS" TO,tI*.LR 1t 'rt.-tr. [sECT. lit false doctrine. Let us prove the first proposition, by a view of the several ages of mankind and dispensations of religion. The heathens,. whO have had nothing else befit the. light elf nature to guide there, could have no notion at all of the resurrectionof the body; and, therefore; not onlythe % isest and best of them, but, perhaps,. the bulkof man- kind among the gentiles, at least in.Europe and Asia, if not in Afiica and America also, who have been taught by priests and poets, and the public opinions of their na- tion, and traditions of their ancestors, have generally supposed such a separate state after this life, wherein their souls should be rewarded or punished, except the fancy of transmigration prevailed ; and even these very transmigrations into other bodies; viz. of dogs, or horses or men, were assigned as speedy rewards or punishments of their behaviour in this fife. Now though this doctrine of immediate recornpences could not'be proved by them with certainty and clear- ness, and had many follies mingled with it, yet the pro- bableexpectation of it, so far as it bath, obtained among men, hat] had a good degree of influence, through the conduct. of common, providence, to keep the world in some tolerable order, amt prevent universal irregularities and excesses. of the highest degree; it bath had some force on the. conscience to restrain the enormouswicked- "less. of men.. The patriarchs of the first ages, whose history. is related in scripture, had no notion of the resurrection of the body expressly revealed to them, that we can find; and must. be the: hope of such a. state of recornpence of their souls after death, that influenced their practice of piety, if they were not informed; that their bodies should riseagain. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had no plain and distinct promise of the resurrection of the body ; yet it is said ; . Ieb. xi. 13---16. " They received thep-romises, that is; of some future happiness, and embraced them,- and con- fessed they were strangers and pilgrims. on earth, whereby they plainly declared, that they sought some othercoun- try ; that is, aheavenly, and God hath. prepared a city for then." What city, what heavenly country can this be,, *high, they themselves sought after,., but the city or coup-
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