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ESSAY
TOWARD THE
[SECT,
III.
full
of
immortality
;"
and
iv.
7.
"
Though
the righteous
be
prevented
with
death, yet
they shall
be
in
rest."
That
this was the
most common
doctrine of
the Jews,
except
the sadducees
and their
followers,
in
our Saviour's
time, and
that
it
was
the doctrine
of
the
primitive Christi-
ans,
also,
need
not
be proved
here
;
though
they,
also,
had
the
expectation of
the
resurrection
of
the body.
Now
if
this
be
the chief or
only
doctrine,
which men,
could
attain
to,
under
the dispensation
of natural
reason,
as
the most powerful motive to virtue and
piety,
if
this
be
the
chiefest
doctrine of that
kind
that
we
know
of,
which
the patriarchs and primitive
Jews
enjoyed,
if
this also be
a
constant doctrine of later
Jews,
that
is,
the
wisest
and
best
of
them,
and
also
of
the
primitive
Christians,
which
had
so much
influence on the good
behaviour
of
all
of
them
toward
God
and
men,
and
by
which
God carried
on
his
work
of
piety
in
their hearts
and
lives,
and
by
which also he impressed
the consciences
of
evil
men in
some
measure,
and restrained
them
from
their utmost
excesses
of
vice
and
wickedness,
is
it not hard
to be
sup-
posed,
that
this
doctrine
is
all
were
fancy
and
delusion,
and
bath nothing
of truth
in
it?
And, indeed,
if
this
doc-
trine
had
been taken
away,
the heathens would
be
left
without any
possible
true notion
of
a future state
of,
re-
eompence, and the
patriarchs
seem to have had no
suffi-
cient principle or
motive to
virtue and
piety
left
them,
and the principles and
motives
of
goodness,
in
the
fol-
lowing
ages,
among
Jews and
Christians,
had
been
greatly diminished and enfeebled.
At
the
conclusion
Of
this
chapter,
I
cannot
help taking
notice, though
I
shall
but
just
mention
it,
that
the
mul-
titude
of
narratives,
which
we
have
heard of
in
all
ages
of
the
apparition
of'
the spirits or
ghosts
of
persóns de-
parted
from'
this
life,
can hardly be
all
delusion and
falsehood.
Some
of
them have been
affirmed to
appear
upon
such
great and important
occasions
as
may be
equal
ío such
an
unusual event
;
And several
of
these accounts
have been attested, by
such
witnesses
of
wisdom,
and
prudetTt e,
and
sagacity,
under
no
distempers
of
imagina-
tion,
that
they
may justly
demand a
belief; and
the
effects
of
these
apparitions,
in
the discovery
of
murders,
and
things
unknown,
have been
so
considerable
and
use-
ful,
that
a
fair
disputant
should hardly venture
to
run
directly counter
to such
a.croud of
witnesses,
.
without