66 mons, with which all nature is peopled. "They conceived them, however, to be li"mited in their duration, returning at length “to their original, and lofing their separate "existence." DISCOURSE DISCOURSE VIII. The Principles of the Heathen Philosophy compared with those of Revelation. PART II. The world by wifdom knew not God. HAVING given you a comparative view of the religion of the Hebrews, and that of the ancient idolatrous nations, I began, in my last discourse, to give you a fimilar view of the principles of the heathen philofophy, that it might not be faid that I took an unfair advantage, in relating nothing more than the opinions and practices of the vulgar among the heathens, instead of the real fentiments of the wifeft among them. Thefe, however, I fhewed you were, in feveral respects, far less rational than those of the scriptures. I mentioned their univerfal opinion of the impoffibility of creation out of nothing, of the N eternity eternity and indestructibility of matter; its neceffary evil tendency; the doctrines of many of them, of the production of all inferior beings by emanation, or protrufion, from the fubftance of the deity, and their abforption into it again; the abfolute denial of the being of a God by many, and those some of the moft eminent, of the Greek philofophers; their various and unfatisfactory opinions concerning the origin of evil; their denial of a divine Providence; their belief of the existence of intelligent beings, inferior to the fupreme, who at their pleasure, and contrary to the will of the Supreme Being, interfered in the direction of human affairs. I now proceed to obferve, 7. If the heathen philofophers became fo vain in their imaginations when they speculated concerning the nature of God, and the origin and government of the universe, and were not able to retain the great truths which mankind had received by tradition relating to them, much more did they wander in uncertainty and error with refpect to the doctrine of a future ftate, concerning which, as I have obferved, the light of nature gives us no information at all. On this fubject, fo important portant that without it the doctrine concerning God and providence is merely a curious fpeculation, of no practical use, the principles of those philofophers who admitted a future ftate are totally difcordant with thofe of the fcriptures, which alone are agreeable to reafon, though not difcoverable by it. On this fubject, I must be excufed if I advance fome things which will not be approved by the generality of Chriftians, who, in my opinion, have not entirely got rid of doctrines introduced into Christianity from a heathen source, from which have been derived almost all its corruptions. According to the fcriptures, the future ftate of man depends entirely upon a refurrection, to take place at a distant period, called the last day, and nothing is faid concerning the rewards of the righteous, or the punishment of the wicked, antecedent to that time, Our Saviour, recommending acts of charity, fays (Luke xiv. 14), Thou shalt be recompensed at the refurrection of the juft; and on no occafion did he refer his hearers to any state of things prior to this. When he speaks of being cast into hell, it is with hands and eyes, which are members of the body; and the rich man in the parable is reprefented as with a tongue tormented with burning thirst, though for the fake of fome circumstances in the parable, the future ftate is represented as taking place before the proper time. The apostle Paul, comforting the Theffalonians on the death of fome of their friends, rèfers them only to the refurrection, and gives no hint of their enjoying any degree of happiness at the time that he was writing, which would have been unavoidable if, in his opinion, they had been happy then. 1 Thes. iv. 13, I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are afleep, that ye forrow not as those who have no hope. lieve that Jefus died and rofe For if we beagain, even so alfo them that fleep in Jefus will God bring with him, and the dead in Chrift fhall rise firft, that is, before any change take place on those who will be then alive. Why, indeed, did he use the term fleep, if, in his idea, the dead were not in a state of infenfibility, and not to be awaked to life and action, but at the resurrection? Again, when the fame apoftle exhorts Christians to live fober, righteous, and godly lives, Tit. ii. 13, he directs them to look for |