The history of all religions in the world, from the creation down to this present time in two parts : the first containing their theory, and the other relating to their practices ... : to which is added, a table of heresies : as also a geographical map, shewing in what countrey each religion is practised ... / by William Turner ...

Jews.

I Need not here declare what the Sentiments of the ancient Jews before our Saviour's time were; it shall su••fice to tell what their Opinion is in the present Age, as Dr. Addison hath informed us in his Present State of the Jews in Barbary.

1. They say, that all Souls were created toge∣ther, and placed in a certain Region, whence the several Bodies in their proper times are furnished, as they are ready to receive them; and if the Souls offend in this State, they are sent into infirm Bodies for a Punishment; and this Pre-existence they found on Eccles. 4.3.

2. Souls are conjoyned with Bodies, which is an Imprisonment, like Birds in Cages.

3. Afterwards they are separated from the Bo∣dy to a Temporal State of Happiness or Unhappi∣ness, wherein they continue till the final Sentence.

4. At last, they are disposed of into a State of Eternal Duration; yet,

5. They hold a Purgatory to be in Hell, from whence they can never be delivered, but by the vertue of the Kaddish, a Prayer repeated once a day, for the space of a year by some surviving Relation.

6. They generally hold, that none stays there a∣bove a Twelve-month.

7. If any one's Sins are too great or many to be purged, the Soul by Transmigration is to finish its Penance in another Body, and so on in a Third,—Fourth,—Fifth,—Sixth,— till it come to a Seventh, where it finds rest.

[illustration]

Heaven eternal.

• 1. The State of Pre-existent Souls.
• 2. Of Souls con∣joyned with Bodies.
• 3. The Temporal State of Souls Sepa¦rated from Bodies by death till the day of Judg∣ment.
• 4. A years Purga∣tory.
• 5. The Soul not purged in trans∣migration to other Bod••••••.
  • 1. Body.
  • 2 Body.
  • 3 Body.
  • 4 Body.
  • 5 Body.
  • 6 Body.
  • 7 Body.
  • Rest.

They hold, That they which are not of their Religion, (if found disobedient to the Law of Nature, I suppose my Author means) shall suf∣fer a total Perdition of their Being; themselves are liable only to a lesser Happiness.

Both Jews and Moors are of Opinion, That the Infernal Torments shall have an end, and that the fallen Angels shall be then restored to Mercy.

They place the Consummation of the World in a Restoration of it to that Beauty and Order it was at first designed.

They say the Resurrection shall be only out of the Holy Land, whither all that are buried in o∣ther Countries must uncessantly rowl thro' the dark Caverns of the Earth; and to avoid this trouble, they endeavour, when old, to return to Palestine.

Four Privileges of the Jews.

• 1. The Land of Canaan.
• 2. The Law of Moses.
• 3. The Gift of Prophecy.
• 4. And the Resurrection.