petites, but hath prescribed our Flesh the fober and continent Regimen of Life which He Himself used; which was manifeftly for this Reason, to keep it from Sin, as having a Hope of its Salvation hereafter, in the fame manner as Phyficians forbid thofe Patients every thing that is irregular, whom they have any hope of curing.

群

A Fragment of Jofephus,

out of a Tract, entituled,

Of the Caufe of the Univerfe against Plato, concerning Hades, in which are kept the Souls of the Fust and Unjust.

AND

ND let this fuffice to be faid concerning fuch Spirits as have never been in Bodies. It is neceffary to speak now of Hades, where are kept the Souls of the Righteous and Unrighteous. Hades is a Place in its very Constitution without Ornament; a fub. terranean Region, in which the Light of the World fhines not: And inafmuch as there never appears any Light here, there muft needs be perpetual Obfcurity. This Region is appointed as a Place of Custody for Souls, and over which there are certain Angels fet as Guards, who are the Distributers of Temporary Penalties to fuch as have deferved them.

IN this Region there is a Place separate from the reft, a Lake of unquenchable Fire; into which, according to our Opinion, there is no one yet caft; but it is prepared against the Day appointed by GOD, wherein a Sentence of juft Judgment will be paffed on all Men, according as they have deserved. The Wicked, and they who believe not GOD, but worship the vain Work of Men's Hands, Graven Images, as GOD, being guilty of the most abominable Pollutions, fhall be condemned to eternal Punishment: But the Juft fhall obtain a Kingdom incor ruptible, and from which they cannot fall: who now are, nevertheless, kept in Hades, but not in the fame Part as the Wicked.

FOR there is one Entrance into that Receptacle, at the Gate of which we believe there is an Archangel with a Guard standing; thro' which Gate pafs all thofe who are led by the Angels appointed to be Guardians of Souls: But thefe go not all the fame Way. The Righteous go to the Right Hand, guided by a Light,and are received with Hymns by the Angels who are fet over those Manfions, till they arrive at the Region of Light, where all the Juft, who have been from the Beginning of the World, converse together, not detain'd by any Force of Neceffity, but by the enjoying a continual Contemplation of prefent Goods, and full of Joy with the Expectation of future Rewards appointed

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for every one of them, which they believe more excellent than the prefent: In this Place there is no Labour, or Trouble; no Heat, nor Cold, nor Anxiety; but the pleafant Sight of the Righteous Fathers always fmiling, who wait for, after Continuance for fome time in this Receptacle, Rest, and an eternal Life in Heaven: And this Place we call Abraham's Bofom.

Bur the Wicked are dragg'd towards the Left by the tormenting Angels, not walking freely, but forced along with Violence like Prifoners, who are attended by the prefiding Angels according to their Office, reproaching them, and threatning them with terrible Faces, and driving them towards the Brink of the lowermoft Hell. The prefiding Angels drag them to the Brink of Gehenna, where they ftand, and continually hear the Boiling of the Lake, and are not free from. the Smoak. And having a near View of this Spectacle of terrible and exceeding red Fire, they are ftruck with a fearful Expectation of a Judgment to come, being now already virtually punished: They fee the Affembly of the Fathers and the Saints; that too is a Punishment to them. There is, moreover, a great and deep Chafm, or Gulf, fixed in the middle between them ; fo that none of the Righteous, out of Compaffion, or the Wicked, through Defperateness, can pass from one to the other.

THIS

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THIS is the Account of Hades, in which the Souls both of the Righteous and Unrighteous are kept till the Time appointed by GOD; when He will make a Refurre&tion of all, not a Tranfmigration of Souls from one Body into another, but a Refurrection of thofe very fame Bodies. But ye Gentiles feeing them diffolved, do not believe they will rife again; now learn not to be Infidels: For fince you believe, according to Plato, the Soul to have been made Immortal by GOD, you should not doubt but GOD is able to raise again the fame Body compounded of the fame Elements, and give it Immortality. The one cannot be faid to be poffible, and the other impoffible to GOD. We believe the Body will rife again, for it is diffolved, but not annihilated: The Earth takes the Remains of it, and preferves them, and they will spring up again like Seed fatned and filled with the fructifying Particles of the Earth. What is fown, is bare Seed fown; but by the Command of GOD the Creator, it rifes up flourifhing, cloathed, and glorious; yet not before it dies, and is mixed with the Earth. Thus we do not fondly believe the Refurrection of the Body: For tho' for a Season it fuffer a Diffolution, because of the first Difobedience, it is flung into the Ground as into a Potter's Furnace, to be formed again a-new; not fuch as before, corruptible, but

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