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	raise_v	soul_n	5,861	5	5.5283	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30019	Discourses and essays on several subjects, relating chiefly to the controversies of these times, especially with the Socinians, deists, enthusiasts, and scepticks by Ja. Buerdsell ...; Selections. 1700	Buerdsell, James, 1669 or 70-1700.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5363; ESTC R7240	90,520	247

the Dead dwell in us he that rais'd Christ from the Dead shall also quicken our mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us So that a Resurrection of the Body is not only possible and highly probable but upon the prospects of the Divine Promises and Predictions certain As there shall thus be a Resurrection of the Body so Secondly This Resurrection shall be of the Body only And this Restriction is necessary to the overthrowing of an Opinion That the Souls of Men perish with their Bodies but yet so that both should be rais'd again at the last Day That they should both sleep in Darkness till the last Alarm and should both rise again at the finishing of all Things This Opinion was first started by some Arabian Bishops as we are inform'd by Eusebius St. Austin and Nicephorus and has been more vigorously in later times defended by great Pretenders to Reason Thus * Exam. 157 Err. p. 49. single ●dit Smalcius concludes That the Souls of the Saints are in a state of Sleep and suffer a kind of Annihilation and therefore are to be rais'd with the Body That † Contra Frantzium p. 409. it is doubtful whether the Spirit when it is parted from the Body can perceive any thing and whether it is capable of Pleasure till it is join'd with the glorify'd Body And in another * Contra Smiglec de Err. Arian c. 14. p. 149. place he expresly denies the Soul's resenting any Pleasure or Trouble without the Body Thus Crellius in his * c. 19. p. 134. Treatise concerning God and the Divine Attributes defines Angels in opposition to Men to be Spirits so perfect that they can subsist and act without a Body whereas an human Soul cannot And it may perhaps be enquir'd Whether the ingenious Hypotheses of late which have seem'd to level the distinction between different Species of Substance and so to break down the Boundaries between Spirit and Body have not help'd to abet this Opinion But to reply to this Fancy concerning the Sleep of the Soul In our Saviour's account of the different Fates of Lazarus and the Rich Man we find that the former was immediately convey'd to Bliss and the latter to Misery And granting that this is only a Parable or general Resemblance yet that it was an History of things truly transacted is the Opinion of * Ambros in Luc. Iertull lib. 4. contra Marcion Hilar. Enarrat in Psalm several of extraordinary Note yet the main design of it must be founded upon the Nature of Things and must shew that the distance is extreamly small between the Soul 's quitting the Body and its being transported to its final State Thus the Penitent Thief who was Crucify'd with our Saviour ascends forthwith after his Death from the Pains and Tortures of the Cross to the Joys of Paradise This Sleep or Rest of the Soul is chiefly grounded upon that usual Metaphor in Holy Writ by which Death is resembled to Sleep But the Scripture does not apply it to the Soul but the Body resting in the Grave that it may be awaken'd to a Resurrection For this would be wholly inconsistent with the Apostle's Assertion where he says that While we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord and that so soon as we are departed out of the Body we shall be present with the Lord. For to be with the Lord must imply a state of Felicity which Sleep is not but only of Inactivity and the Apostle's Argument would lose its force and would be no encouragement against the Terrours of Death if so soon as we are dead we should fall asleep sink into a Condition of Insensibility and till the Resurrection Be as if we were not at all The Soul therefore is not rais'd with the Body but is call'd from a state of Bliss or Woe to which it was remov'd immediately upon its separation from it to resume its ancient Mansion As this Resurrection is of the Body only so Thirdly This Resurrection shall be of the same Body from which the Soul was separated Which Conclusion bears a direct opposition to the Socinian Doctrin which affirms either that the Body some time before the Resurrection shall be * Smalc Exam. 100. Err. p. 33. de Divinit Christi c. 13. p. 79. annihilated by a Divine Power or if it is not thus annihilated yet that God will only raise a † Exam. 100. Err. p. 36. certain quantity of Matter sufficient to make up the Bodies of all Mankind and promiscuously infuse the Souls into it after that he has Organiz'd it fit for their reception But that the Bodies of the Dead shall be annihilated some time before the Resurrection is both against Revelation and against what some of our Adversaries seem more to admire Philosophy 'T is against Philosophy for the Divine Plato stiles Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which only supposes a separation of both parts not an Annihilation of either Thus in another place he affirms * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Timaeo tom 3. p 72. ● dit Serrant That when Death arrives the Fibres and Strings by which the Soul acted break and untwist just like the Rudder-bands of a Ship and she that is the Soul is left alone to roam at liberty and at random Against Revelation for the Scripture calls Death a returning to Dust a seeing of Corruption a sleeping Now that which returns to Dust which is corrupted which sleeps in the secret Repositories of Nature cannot be in a State of Non-existence It must have a Being how ignoble soever it is and how much soever changed from what it was in its State of Life Nor secondly is any other Matter rais'd and united to the Soul besides what fell How hard soever it is to settle the bounds of Identity and granting those Instances of Self-consciousness being united to all those different Subjects to make the same Person which one of the greatest Philosophers of our Age in his † ● ●ock's ●ssay Book 2. Chap. 27. Essay concerning Human Vnderstanding hints at yet this does not affect the Identity of the Rising Body For the Enquiry is not Whether the same Self-consciousness join'd to different Matter makes the same Person but Whether it is more suitable to the Doctrin of the Resurrection that God will raise the same or another Matter and unite it to the same self-conscious Principle That God will raise the same Body which fell seems most agreeable to Truth for most of those Arguments which prove that the Body shall rise at all seem to manifest also That the same Body shall rise For in the Identity of the Rising Body is founded all the Right and Justice of Rewards and Punishments Happiness and Misery which regard the Body For why should Man be blest for those Virtues in one Body which he practic'd in another Or why should this Body be tortur'd for Crimes committed in that Why should God

of Man insomuch that the Sun shall stand still upon Gibeon and the Moon in the Valley of Ajalon As a Miracle thus surpasses the Power of Nature so the Person in favour of whom it is wrought ought to know that this Miracle shall be thus wrought He ought either to know in particular that this Miracle will be wrought and no other or that a Miracle of some kind will be wrought when natural Helps shall fail Thus Moses when Pharaoh prest behind and the Red-Sea rag'd before tho' he seems to have had no special Revelation that the Sea should be made dry Land and the Waters be divided yet he knew in gross that The salvation of the Lord should be seen that day and that the Aegyptians whom they had seen that day should no more be seen again for ever Therefore the dividing the Red-Sea was a Miracle perform'd by Moses tho' he did not particularly foresee it But when the Person in behalf of whom a miraculous Work is brought about is wholly ignorant of it this can be no Miracle nor ought any Consequence to be drawn from it as if that Person was immediately Commission'd from God The sudden Advancement of Men from the lowest Fortunes to the highest Stations by unaccountable and unforeseen means is sometimes assuredly the immediate Hand of God but since this Exaltation may be for the Ruin as well as for the Happiness of Mankind and since the Party exalted could not foresee his Success 't is no Miracle tho' it is wrought by a Divine Power nor ought we to conclude that this Person is a nearer Favourite of Heaven than the rest of Human kind The Creation of a Reasonable Soul is miraculous but because it is usual is not of that kind of Miracles exprest in the Words Thus the Inspiration of Grace is miraculous but because it works now a-days according to the method of Reason and Discourse whatsoever the Enthusiasts may pretend to the contrary assisting us while we use such moral Means as Religion commands and Reason prescribes it is not to be rang'd with the Miracles mention'd here Since Miracles therefore are the Effect of a Power more than Natural it is just to enquire Secondly What Power is capable of working a Miracle Where notwithstanding what the acute Le Cler● and others of this Age have Jean ●e Clere de l' Incredulite Lettre 2. p. 355. advanc'd That Miracles may be wrought by good or bad Angels or by a Power less than Infinite yet it may be laid down as a Conclusion That infinite Power alone is capable of working a Miracle For a Miracle proclaims an omnipotent Agent and carries the Hand of God written upon it in bright Characters legible to the most Vulgar Reason For every true Miracle is a forming of something out of nothing and that either in the thing it self or in the manner of forming it In the thing it self when it is of that sort that it cannot be form'd by any second and ordinary Causes As the Resurrection of the Dead the Re-union of the Soul and Body the restoring of the Springs and Mechanism of Motion after a total separation For Death is a Prison which surrenders back its Captives upon no other Summons below those of the Almighty To restore Life being only the Prerogative of him who gave it Or a Miracle may consist in forming something out of nothing as to the manner of doing it when the thing lies within the power of second Causes yet is brought about without the assistance of any of them As to cure Diseases by a Word speaking or by touching the Hem of the Garment Where there is something which answers calling Light out of Darkness and commanding every thing to be from nothing Creation therefore being one of the peculiar Acts of God and which we do not know that He ever communicated to a Creature the Power of working Miracles as to the original of it must be so too For only He who first form'd the Laws of Nature can suspend or alter them 'T is true the Angels far surpass us in the excellency of their Faculties and therefore may perform such things as are apt to raise Admiration in us because of our unacquaintedness with the causes of them or manner of their Production Even the fal● Angels themselves have not their Forces so much broken by Sin but that by Lying Wonders they may easily impose on the Spectator's Eye tho' 't is wholly impossible for them by any Power of their own to alter the Course of Nature or produce a real Miracle So that if a Miracle has been wrought for the confirmation of any Doctrin 't is a sufficient warrant that this Doctrin is of God But since the evil Angels who have assum'd the Person of God may also counterfeit his wondrous Works it will be necessary Thirdly To enquire into some of those Marks whereby a true Miracle may be distinguish'd from a false one So that a difference may be put betwixt the Works of God and those of his greatest Enemies The first Mark of a true Miracle is That there should be sufficient Evidence that this Miracle has been wrought and the Effect of it ought to be addrest to our Senses For a Miracle it self is not an object of our Belief tho' it is form'd in confirmation of something which we are oblig'd to believe For then a Miracle would be as obscure as the thing which it is produc'd to prove And every Miracle would want another to make it serviceable to its grand design The second Mark of a true Miracle is That it ought not to tend to the overthrowing of any Doctrin before establish'd by God by sufficient Miracles For God cannot be divided against himself But should he overthrow that by Miracle which he had before settled by Miracle Eternal Truth would disagree with himself For Miracles and a Doctrin give mutual support one to another as Miracles declare the Doctrin to be true so the purity and excellence of the Doctrin confirm the Miracles to be Divine But if there is an Inconsistency between the Miracles and the Doctrin the decision must be in favour of the Doctrin in opposition to the Miracles For if a Person acts the most wonderful Works to give Sanction to a Religion which contains low Idea's of God or interferes with the great Duties we owe to one another his Miracles are nothing but artful Frauds and he himself only a more pompous Deceiver So on the other hand when Miracles are produc'd in favour of a Doctrin which is pure and holy whose prospects of Rewards are only laid in a future State which enjoins Modesty Temperance Sobriety and Patience and whatsoever is fitted to advance Human Nature such a Doctrin is highly fitted to perswade Men that the Miracles wrought in behalf of it are true The third Mark of a true Miracle is That the Effects of it ought to be lasting and durable If Diseases are remov'd by a