Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/47

 fkeirfrm belief of GocFs government of the 'world. 3 5.

by which he manifefted hirnfelf to Mofes and are firmly perfuaded they now live under the immediate government of the Deity. ' The afcenfion of the fmoke of their vidYim, as a fweet favour to Yobcwah, (of which hereafter) is a full proof to the contrary, as alfo that they worfhip God, in a fmoke and cloud, believing him to refide above the clouds, and in the element of the, fuppofed, holy annual fire. It is no way material to fix any certain place for the refidence of Him, who is omniprefent, and who fuftains every fyftem of beings. It is not eflential to future happinefs, whether we believe his chief place of abode is in c*eto tertio^ faradifo terrejlri, or element o igneo. God hath placed confcience in us for a monitor, witnefs, and judge. It is the guilty or innocent mind, that accufes, or excufes us, to Him. If any farther knowledge was required, it would be revealed i but St. Paul ftudi- oufly conceals the mylteries he faw in the empyreal heavens.

The place of the divine refidence is commonly faid to be above the clouds \ but that is becaule of the diftance of the place, as well as our utter igno rance of the nature of Elohim's exiflence, the omniprefent fpirit of the uni- verfe. Our finite minds cannot comprehend a being who is infinite. This infcrutable labyrinth occafioned Simonides, a difcreet heathen poet and phi- lofopher, to requeft Hiero, King of Sicily, for feveral days fuccefiively, to grant him a longer time to deicribe the nature of the Deity ; and, at the end, to confefs ingenuoufly, that the farther he waded in that deep myftery, the more he funk out of his depth, and was lefs able to define it.

If we trace Indian antiquities ever fo far, we {hall find that not one of them ever retained, or imbibed, atheiflical principles, except fuch whofe intereft as to futurity it notorioufly appeared to be whole practices made them tremble whenever they thought of a juft and avenging God : but thefc rare inftances were fo far from infecting the reft, that they were the more confirmed in the opinion, of not being able either to live or die well, without a God. And this all nature proclaims in every part of the univerfe.

ARGUMENT IV.

We have abundant evidence of the Jews believing in the miniftraticn of angels^ during the Old-Teftament difpenfation ; their frequent appearances, and their fervices, on earth, are recorded in the oracles, which the Jews themfclves receive as given by divine infpiration. And St. Paul in his

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