Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	life_n	world_n	7,582	5	4.5981	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25669	Antiquity reviv'd, or, The government of a certain island antiently call'd Astreada in reference to religion, policy, war and peace some hundreds of years before the coming of Christ.		1693 (1693)	Wing A3510; ESTC R19475	60,242	129

ador'd by the limited qualification of humane Understanding Others have so lower'd the Divinities they celebrate as by their Commixtures with Mankind they either give 'em the Title o● Demy-godships as has been precedently observ'd or they express 'em in resemblance to humane Bodies and not only knowing of the Infirmities and Depravations of Mankind but in the worst conception Actors themselves which polutions of Heaven must have been politickly and for Interest devis'd and complicated with Beliefs that such as were so devoted might with more assurance hope for pardon from their Deities whom they judg'd no less than Men notoriously sinful These Particulars I thought previously necessary to inculcate here because they have affinity to the various Extravagancies that some Persons by their Doctrines undertake to defend in reference to the Immortalising of the Soul after this Life The first is That the humane Soul consists of a Spiritual Essence and that it is by the excellency of its substance likewise Immortal But how can these Dogmatizers of Religion according to this Notion of theirs not vent an Absurdity of the highest Nature For if the Soul of Man be essentially a Spirit and that they hold as they would be thought to do the God they adore a Spirit also Do they not in effect d●ifie the animating part of Mankind after death it being impossible to distinguish by any rational Discussion how much one Spirit is essentially purer than another On which ground it follows that wh●t is spiritually Immortal may be allow'd to be Infinite So little distinction is there by this Doctrine betwixt the Soul of Man and the Deity they worship and yet 't is well known to all of us how numerous a part of the World assert this Tenent as the first Maxim of their Creed Others affirm That the purest Substance or ghostly Form of Life when separated by Death is represented by a shadow of the Body which some pretend to have beheld in that Figure as ocular Witnesses that the Soul of Man do's in th●t manner outlive the Body And this your Grecian Poets to whose Inventions your Prie●thood is not a little beholding with their fanciful Glosses undertake ●o deliver But of what credit their Au●hority is I need not debate who in being Poe●● must be granted Divulgers of fabulous Contrivances And what can be a greater Solecism to Reason than a Position so vainly extravagant nay how is it possible to c●nceive that a Shadow do's not imply the presence of the Body if it appears as its Shadow a●d consequently that the Soul has no such separative existence after bodily death Besides all which the Absurdities are innumerable that redound from this Tenent for if every Body of Mankind were by its Soul to be shadow'd or liken'd it must follow that every Man and Womans Soul are commensurable and therefore differenc'd in breadth and length and lik●wise in substance as one Shadow may be proportionably finer than another or have more likeness to the Body it appertain'd to Notwithstanding I confess that whosoever was the first Author of this dark conceit that the Soul did survive as an umbrage of the Body after life comes nearer the confines of Sense than the precedent Opinion in respect that as the animating Faculty of Mankind do's furnish in due proportion every Member that it actuates and informs whilst it resides within the Body so it should remain after Corporeal Life in some kind of similitude to its operation within the composition of humane Nature when the Life of the Body was determin'd by Death The third Tenent of the Soul's Immortality appears more terrene and therefore not less familiar to the apprehension and this depends upon believing that the Soul of all things is essentially the same and differenc'd only in its being in variety of Bodies as Men Beasts Plants and whatsoever has life and motion This Opinion has had no less Vogue in the World than long acceptation with persons held of profound disc●rnment in the universal Series of Nature to which purpose they infer that the continuation of the Universe or at least of all corporal Beings within the compass of the sublunary World depends upon a perpetual course of Generation and Corruption from one individual Being to another and consequently that whatsoever dies by corruption do's tend to the generation of some other corporeal Being And this Position is so far apparently certain insomuch as Life in one kind or other is incident to Matter as it convertibly depends on whatsoever is generated and consequently alter'd into a corporeal Being differently animated to what it was before On which Philosophical Evidence added the Fidefendon do's consist the ancient opinion of not a few learnedly Famous who maintain'd the Transmigration of Souls when separated from their precedent Mansions by death and that they pass'd into other Bodies The Speculation however naturally passable do's in a high degree lessen the dignity of the humane Soul by reason that in such a method of progression from Body to Body it must at one time or other animate an ignobler Creature than Man which gives cause of Reproof to the Assertion Another Doctrine there is and much insisted on by some which I shall but touch because it seems more extravagant or opposite to the ordinary progress and course of Nature than any I have precedently mention'd and this undertakes to assert That the humane Soul is immortally generated which in plain words is to affirm That one immortal Thing begets another or that the Soul of the Father do's animate an Eternity in begetting the Soul of the Son which conceit is so fictitiously absurd as it is repugnant to the total method of the causes and effects of Generation However to repel these Contradictions the Abettors of this Doctrine assure us by an unintelligible method That the Soul is divinely infus'd from above and spiritually commix'd with the Act of Generation But how a Spirit as has been argu'd before can mix with a corporeal Substance is a Riddle fit to be left to such Authors to explain The last Opinion that remains to be expos'd to a free judiciary Determination is That Soul and Body of every Individual of Mankind is restor'd to an immortal Perfection and Union after Death Which Doctrine has gain'd a very plausable Reception with many Nor can it be thought ungrateful to the beautiful of both Sexes if the excellency of their Features and Proportions accompany them to a future Life which wonderful Receptacle of the Persons of Men and Women after Death not a few of you Grecians said the Fidefendon call the Elysium or another World in which Mankind shall have Being by a miraculous Restauration after Living here and where they shall be more or less happy or unhappy how long they have not certainly determin'd after made Survivors in their future Abodes But should it be ask'd of any of these wonderful Tutors what possible Assurance they have that the Persons of Mankind shall be

remov'd after the manner they determine from the visible corporeal World to another whose place they are not able to demonstrate otherwise than by an implicit Belief that goes farther with them than real Proof I cannot apprehend what Answer they 'd return unless they would ingeniously confess that they do not know nor can I guess on what they ground their Notion of transporting the Persons of all after death from one World to another pretended unless it be that they believe the compass of this World is not spacious enough to receive the vast numbers of both Sexes that is to say all that have and shall enter the Confines of Mortality by Death And I grant that it may be some Question whether the Terrestrial Globe be sufficiently large to give entertainment to all of humane Composition after living here or if room enough for them to move or stand foot by foot together But whether moving sitting standing or lying be the general suppos'd posture of such as by future Life shall reside in the Elisium Abodes is not derermin'd by your Grecian Dogmatists But as for the personal ●ppearance of every Individual of humane kind there I conceive they allow them to pass thither as naked as they first came to their Graves and Sepulchres And if they grant that bodily Organs are restor'd to both Sexes as they survive again I do not see how they can deny our corporeal Sense and Appetites in the Elisium they ordain Neith●r do I doubt but their Tenent is so indulgent to Beauty as to concede to Men and Women such a Renovation as may best refine the Splendors of their Youth and Features And who can question but this pleasant Imagination has proselited not a few especially the most delicate of both Sexes in all Ages Some I confess affirm That both Soul and Body shall not be only renovated but purified from the natural Passions and Affections that were theirs when earthly Inhabitants But how they can presume that humane Composition is capable of such a cleansing or refining in similitude to the practical effects of Fire or Water I do as little understand as they are able to inform me In sum concluded the Fidefendon We are not averse to any of the before recited Doctrines on the account that we would be thought to pretend to greater assurance by any Notions of our own that relate to future living in another World Be pleas'd therefore to take notice that we of this Island are no such Bigots for any Assertions of Belief that are rather problematical and discussive than evident to the understanding nothing being more fundamentally repugnant to our Creed than to intermix any dubious Conjectures with Maxims of our Faith much less impose th●m on others a precipitate hazard or Crime for which too many Religions are at this day accountable If Providence our familier and visible Director as has been enough instanc'd do's not perspicuously guide our Assents as far as the cursory Doctrines of others extend 't is they that dissent exorbitantly f●om us and not we from them and whosoever do's undertake to deliver Maxims of Faith less sensibly proceeding from the undoubted manifestation of Providence or less ocularly and rational●y certain than the order and conduct of ●he Universe in all respects must grant his Propositions as palpably deficient if compar'd with ours as the shadows of Night are to the Illuminations of the clearest Light And yet there is no Article of ●heir Worship that is evident to Sense nor any distribution of moral Virtue or sincere esteem of pious Conversation and Life that is not entirely embrac'd by us True it is that in the punishment nature and qualifications of Sin there may be some diversity betwixt their Tenents and the integrity and certainty of ours and the Reason is because they prescribe farther than their Understandings can accompany their Creeds Let this briefly be the Example We do not deny that after Death according to every desert of humane kind there shall be future Reward to the good in whatsoever excellency of Being the providential Disposer of all things has determin'd as likewise Infli●●ions on the evil Deeds and Impieties of others Which Doctrine is not asserted by us as a manifest Article of our Faith but as our comfortable hope and expectation of Felicity to come after our periods of living here But not having the same familiar and open prospect of Providence whereby we as palpably apprehend the place and manner of future Life as perspicuously as we behold the actual conduct and existence of the Universe in which we inhabit we do not dogmatically impose after their Model the belief of another World nor can any affirm that they have the emphatical and visible as●urance by any providential Operation or Object of a subsequent Being reserv'd ●or Mankind either in Soul or Body or in both conjoin'd to possess Neither do we said the Fidefendon as ● even now express'd in any kind re●ect the comfortable Opinion of future Felicity though we hold it not as equally convictive as we are sensible of the Providence that we are demonstratively oblig'd to reverence here in doing of which we do not infer that a Tenent may not be useful for Contemplation and Encouragement in order to the attaining of humane Perfection though it has no intelligible note or known assurance from proof However we are indubitably confirmed that all Wickedness is arraign'd by the discerning Tribunal that Con●cience does erect in every requisite understanding besides the publick and outward Ignomy that Laws inflict on enormous and presumptuous transgressions of Life and where there is sufficient capacity the sting of Sin must needs be grievous in the sense of the Offender as ●his inward Punishment and cause a deploring of his Guilt suitable to the natur● of his Crime But on the contraty where invincibl● Ignorance to scupidity prevails that th● Sinner is neither considerate or duly capacitated to penetrate his Offence h● may be notwithstanding held a legal Offender and punish'd as an Inconvenienc● and Scandal to civil Society according t● his Fact but cannot be deem'd intelligent of his Crime because every S●● ought to proceed from the guilt an● cause of the understanding To preve●● which Imbecillity and want of Consid●ration in the Soul we Fidefendons an● publickly ordain'd to stir up in the hea● a suitable inspection of Sin as also th● most thankful and devout returns to th● Supreme Providence from whose Benignity and merciful Effects we enjoy the comforts of Soul and Body And this is th● Summ of our Astreadan Belief and Worship The Philosopher told the Fidefendon tha● he had nothing to object against the natural and manifest way of Devotion whic● he had deliver'd as the common Persuasio● of his Nation And turning to the Astreada● Jussinedos or Magistrate there present he requested him to inform them briefly By what Political Rules or Measures the Government of that Island hath been so long happy in not