Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	prophet_n	scripture_n	3,225	5	5.6489	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29388	Religio bibliopolæ in imitation of Dr. Browns Religio medici, with a supplement to it / by Benj. iBrgwater [sic], Gent.	Dunton, John, 1659-1733.; Bridgewater, Benjamin.; Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682. Religio medici.	1691 (1691)	Wing B4486; ESTC R19049	55,380	118

several Regions of the Sky and Air till being tyred with so vast a Ramble and willing to try all States of Life I was by the Force of a strong Inclination and the irresistible Charm of rightly adapted Matter allured into this Terrestrial Body here to do Penance for the Faults of my Superiour Life and in this Horizon between the upper and the lower World to make my Choice of Good or Evil Light or Darkness Life or Death This unlocks all the Aenigma's of Providence and reconciles the harsher Difficulties with which the Immediate Creation or Traduction of Souls is involved It is the noblest Instrument of Vertue the sharpest Spur to a Divine Life whilst it doubles the Hope we have of being Immortal à Parte post by assuring us we were so à Parte ante And that it is not from any Arbitrary Decree of God inconsistent with the Rest of his Divine Perfections that we shall live for ever but from our own Nature and Essence being Created to subsist an interminable Duration of Ages I believe those Books of the Holy Scripture which are lost could they possibly be recovered again would serve as a Lamp to enlighten us in many Obscurities of Religion History and Nature And if the Writings of Jasher Idd● the Prophet c. could inform us nothing of the Praeexistence of Souls 't is very probabl● the more early Oracles of Enoch would sinc● he was but the Seventh Soul that was drench'● in Terrestrial Matter and led so pure and incorrupt a Life as wou'd tempt one to believe That he was awaken'd to the Memory of his former State which for ought we know might have no small influence on his succeeding Change I have often wonder'd where St. Jude had so particular an Account of Michael the Arch-Angels dispute with the Devil about the Body of Moses that he was able to relate the very words that pass'd between them Surely the Jews had some Books or at least Traditions which were believed to be Orthodox tho' they were not so much as mention'd in the Sacred Canon for we cannot without great Impiety imagine that the Holy Saint wou'd impose upon our Belief any thing that was Forreign or Apocryphal I am apt to conclude from hence That there were many Traditional Doctrines entertained among the Hebrews which are by us esteemed no better than Fables However tho' I am thus convinced of the Truth of our Praeexistence and that this present Life is but a Shadow or Dream in comparison of what we enjoy'd before our Immersion in the Flesh yet I wou'd not have this Dream interrupted by any untimely or harsher stroke of Destiny I shou'd think it no inconvenience to live long but rather a Blessing That so a multitude of years might scum off the Froth and Sullage of our Appetites and Passions that so being gradually wean'd from those low Affections which brought us down to the Earth we may without any Disquiet or Turbulency remount to our Aetherial Homes For I am apt to think that those ●ouls who go out of their Bodies with any remaining Relish upon them of the Body like Fruit that is either pluck'd off or shaken down by violent Winds still retain in their separation a raw and eager smack of the Flesh with a languishing Byass toward it Whereas he that has tarried his full Period in the Body parts from it with Ease and Willingness as Ripe Fruit drops from the Tree And therefore I do not wonder that the most general Scene of Apparitions Ghosts c. is the Church-yard or at least that Place where the Body of the Spectrum was buried And the removed Earth which covered the Cobler of Silesia 's Body is a shrewd intimation That there are some Departed Souls which if they seek not a Reunion with their Bodies yet endeavour to hold a kind of Correspondence with them even in the Grave And tho' the Impossibility of being married again to these their dear Consorts after that final Divorce were enough one wou'd think to cure their Impotent Desires yet they burn with a new Lust and commit a Spiritual Adultery in the unlawful Bed of the Grave These I look on as the Effects of a too early and violent Separation and therefore esteem Methuselah and the Res● of the Fathers before the Flood happy who prolong'd their years to the utmost standar● of Humane Life and seem'd not so much t● die for that imports Violence as voluntarily to forsake their old Rotten Habitation shake Hands with their Bodies and so retu●● to the Aetherial Palaces from whence they ha● so long stragled Yet notwithstanding the great Esteem ● have of long Life as a Means rather to Improve than Impair us I cannot promise my self to out-live a Jubilee tho' I have already seen one Revolution of Saturn Neither do I affect to make Popes Emperours Kings and Grand Seigniours the Land-marks in the Chronology of my self That were to insult over the Royal Ashes of Princes besides the Ambition in Ranking my self in their Number Methinks I grow old even at those Years when the World counts me Young and possess the Heritage of David's last Ten Years of Fourscore in the Prime of my Age. Indeed the whole Earth and all this Planetary World seems to droop and decay Every Species of Beings grow weak and languid and seem to draw near their Dissolution Yet 't is needless to engage God in the Act since tho' Creation was above the Force of Nature yet Mutation is not and no Annihilation can proceed from that Paternal Essence of Essences It seems easie to me to believe That the World will perish upon the Ruins of its own Principles And tho' the precise Period of its Destruction be not known to the Angels them●elves yet there are not wanting some Philosophical Rules whereby one might venture to Calculate its Duration and by observing the various Attempts Eruptions and Devastations made by Fire already one may conjecture ●bout what Time that most active Element ●hall be let loose to destroy this Face of the World and transform this Superannuated Hea●en and Earth into New Ones as the Holy Prophet has foretold For as to Annihilation look on it as a Chimera or Non Entity which cannot be said to slow from Him who ●s All-being and the Fountain of Existence ●t were easier to conceive that Cold should ●e the immediate Effect of Fire and Dark●ess the Natural Result of the actual Pre●ence of Light than to think that Annihi●●tion or not Being can proceed from Him ●ho is the Original Source of Being from ●hose Divine Power Wisdom and Good●ess all Things flow by a Necessary Emana●●on and continue in their several Perfecti●ns by as unalterable a Law as that which ●ave them so that there can be no Vanity supposed in their Eternal Subsistence ●o Leaps or Starts from Something to No●●ing It is far more agreeable to the Prin●●ples of Philosophy to conceive That only ●●e Gross and Corruptible Part

interrupt her Meditation by the Proposal of external Objects which do not at all concern her It is the best Acquaintance we can have and would deal more faithfully and wisely in her Advisements than the best Friend we know upon Earth It is I am confident the want of this Intelligence that occasions all the Irregularities and Disorders we are guilty of Remember to make Reason and Conscience of your Party and you will soon perceive your Anxiety and Torment abated Then should we not only be Wise but in a great measure Happy to boot And for ought I know in as high a Degree as humane Nature is capable of attaining For the greatest part of our Felicity as I take it in this Life is placed in a due management of our Afflictions or the intire Dominion and Monarchy of Reason over our Passions It is a prejudicate Opinion begot by Example fomented by Education and inveterate by Custom which has infected our Minds and debauch'd our Palates that we can relish nothing according to it 's true and natural Taste For the Objects we converse with have for the most part an indifferent inclination to Good or Evil and operate upon us only after the Judgment we make of them We are Masters of every thing before us and a wise Man hath an admirable Dexterity of drawing Sweetness from what others call a Calamity And makes ●ll the Injuries of Fortune serve his Designs and further his Advancement They are ge●erally Men of weak Spirits who are dejected wi●h Adversity or exalted with Prosperity And who is either way affected with these ●hings gives a strong Argument of his Imbecility that he knows not how to live agreeable ●o either Nature or Reason Will any Man Glory in another Man's Excellencies and value himself because his Neighbour has a House better furnished than his own The Case is the same Whatsoever is in the Power of Fortune belongs not to us We ought no more to be concern'd at her Contempts than elevated with her Favours She is a capricious Goddess and the Frailty of Mankind is the subject of her Humour She swells a Bubble with Pride and breaks it with Scorn Whoever trusts her does but Treasure up to himself an abundant and inexplicable Matter of Discontent and Perturbation I could in some fits of contemplative Melancholy fall asleep as soon in a Church-Yard as on my Bed and am often so weary of dull Life that my greatest delight is in such Objects as speak most to it's advantage I know that I carry a Ghost always about me and that I my self am a Walking Spirit This thought allays in me those vulgar Fears of the haunts and visits of Spectres And as I am not at all afraid of my self so I am very little apprehensive of Apparitions Nay more I could wish the Communications more frequent betwix● us and the Inhabitants of the Vpper World I would harden our Christian Courage familiari●● to us the Thoughts of Separation and creat● in us a more passionate love of the Heaven● Country I pretend not by the Title of this small Tre●tise to any extraordinary Scheme or new draug●● of Religion for Men of my own Profession much less would I be thought slighly to suggest any neglect or deficiency of theirs in the Practice of the Old I am very well assur'd that Religio Bibliopolae seems a direct Tautologie But surely it can be no Offence to say that I could wish we were all more in earnest for Heaven and that we had all the Wisdome and Vertue that ever appeared in the guise of true Reason in the World summ'd up and amassed in a Christian Book-seller especially in a daily sincere contempt of this World No eager pursuit or restless intemperate desire of Wealth or Honour must be harboured by us who are to fix our whole hopes on another Country and we should confess our selves Strangers and Pilgrims on this Earth by the Precepts and Examples of all the Holy Prophets and Apostles throughout the whole Book of God To set any extraordinary value on the World is to unravel the peculiar Principle of Christianity and run retrograde to the steps of the Holy Jesus FINIS