The place of the divine residence is commonly said to be above the clouds; but that is because of the distance of the place, as well as our utter ignorance of the nature of Elohim’s existence, the omnipresent spirit of the universe. Our finite minds cannot comprehend a being who is infinite. This inscrutable labyrinth occasioned Simonides, a discreet heathen poet and philosopher, to request Hiero, King of Sicily, for several days successively, to grant him a longer time to describe the nature of the Deity; and, at the end, to confess ingenuously, that the farther he waded in that deep mystery, the more he sunk out of his depth, and was less able to define it. If we trace Indian antiquities ever so far, we shall find that not one of them ever retained, or imbibed, atheistical principles, except such whose interest as to futurity it notoriously appeared to be—whose practices made them tremble whenever they thought of a just and avenging God: but these rare instances were so far from infecting the rest, 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 universe. ARGUMENT IV. We have abundant evidence of the Jews believing in the _ministration of angels_, during the Old-Testament dispensation; their frequent appearances, and their services, on earth, are recorded in the oracles, which the Jews themselves receive as given by divine inspiration. And St. Paul in his {35} epistle addressed to the Hebrews, speaks of it as their general opinion, that “Angels are ministring spirits to the good and righteous on earth.” And that it was the sentiment of those Jews who embraced christianity, is evident from _Acts_ xii. where an angel is said to deliver Peter from his imprisonment, and when the maid reported that Peter stood at the gate knocking, his friends doubting, said, “It is his angel.” Women also are ordered to have their heads covered in religious assemblies, because of the presence of the angels, and to observe silence, the modest custom of the eastern countries. The Indian sentiments and traditions are the same.—They believe the higher regions to be inhabited by good spirits, whom they call _Hottuk Ishtohoollo_, and _Nana Ishtohoollo_, “holy people,” and “relations to the great, holy One.” The _Hottuk ookproose_, or _Nana ookproose_, “accursed people,” or “accursed beings,” they say, possess the dark regions of the west; the former attend, and favour the virtuous; and the latter, in like manner, accompany and have power over the vicious: on which account, when any of their relations die, they immediately fire off several guns, by one, two, and three at a time, for fear of being plagued with the last troublesome neighbours: all the adjacent towns also on the occasion, whoop and halloo at night; for they reckon, this offensive noise sends off the ghosts to their proper fixed place, till they return at some