FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.

In the ancient Astrolatry, two different systems of future rewards and
punishments were inculcated; the Oriental or East Indian, and the
Occidental or Egyptian; the former, ignoring the resurrection of the
body, taught but one judgment immediately after death, and the latter
inculcated an individual judgment immediately after death, the
resurrection of the body, and a general judgment at the end of the
world, or conclusion of the 12,000 year cycle.


The Oriental System.

Considering perfect happiness to consist in absolute rest, the Oriental
astrologers conceived a state of eternal and unconscious repose,
equivalent to soul absorption, to which they gave the name of Nirvana,
into which they taught that, by the awards of the gods, the souls of
the righteous, or those who had lived what they called "the
contemplative life," would be permitted to enter immediately after
death. But, for the souls of sinners, they invented a system of
expiatory punishments which, known as the Metempsychosis, or
transmigration of souls, taught that they would be compelled to
successively animate the bodies of beasts, birds, fishes, etc., for a
thousand years before being permitted to enter the Nirvana.


The Occidental System.