Objection why do they not remember former things vea 11. There is no Remembrance of former Thing Which cannot relate to Memories or Records for such there were but to Revolutions it doth well refer In his Answer to Queiry seven from 1 Pet. 3.18 19 20. He takes it for granted without any solid Proof that Christ his preaching to them of the old World was his Spirit in Noah but this is at large refuted in the Book of two Hundred Queries and is is plain the preaching of Christ to them was after his Death and consequently long after Noah Again his preaching had a good effect upon them to Conversion for it is said They were sometimes disobedient and therefore not always but in Noahs time they remained disobedient until after Christs Death for they were all drowned for their disobedience And indeed Calvin is so ingenious as to confess it relates to the time of Christ after his Death though he hath another gloss upon it less propable than is here enquired But the Author doth greatly mistake the enquirer as if by Prison he meant Humane Bodies for he meaneth not Humane Bodies but their Sins and the power of Satan in which they were held until living again they were converted after Christs Death by the preaching of the Gospel yet it is not to be supposed that all were converted as neither all the Sodomites at their last Revolution shall be all converted for the words of Christ imply that some shall not be converted but perish It shall be more Tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgement c. In his Answer to the eight and last Query Taken from the Metaphor of a good Husband-Man that new Grafts and Transplants his Trees that so at last he may have kood Fruit. He alledgeth the Metaphorical Arguments will prove nothing but the weakness of such as make them Reply Metaphorical Arguments such as Parables and Allegories what is intended by them with respect to the scope and intention by them when dully apply'd and the Anology is due and proper as in this case it is being warranted by Scripture for Paul tells us Rom. 11. That the material Branches that in his Days were cut off for their Sin of unbelief shall be Grafted in again in some following Age or Time of the World so as to be made true Members of the Church of Christ Now how can this be but by their living again by Revolution in order to their Conversion seeing we find no ground in Scripture to believe that Souls are Converted any where else but as they live here in Humane Bodies on Earth His Arguments from Metaphor by way of reversion being partly false in matter of Fact and partly improper and unduly applyed I need not spend time nor Paper to refute it I say partly false in matter of Fact because contrary to his assertion a wise Gardiner will remove his Graft from his Stock he hath once incerted it if the Stock prove bad and happen to die and corrupt he will remove it to another stock and not easily lose it Also a wise Gardiner may by several Graftings or Transplantings of the same Tree make better Fruit as experience hath proved But the Author it seems has as little skill in good Husbandry as he hath in Scripture Mysteries And his last Argument on this head is most improper because Man dies not as a Tree dies as the Author confesseth the Soul of a Man after Death survives and though corruptable with Sin yet the wise Gardiner knowing that it is capable of amendment thinks fit to give it a Tryal of a new life again in a Humane Body Having thus briefly discovered the insufficiency of the Authors Answers to the Inquirers queries I shall in the next place with the like briefness consider and show the weakness and insolidity of his pretended Reasons against this harmless Opinion His first Reason is suppose some bloody Tyranty as Nero to have taken away the Lives often Thousand Christians and by more than a Hundred kinds of Death he argueth that by this Hypothefis of having the same measure return'd â—o him again he must die ten Thousand times and more then by a Hundred kinds of Death Reply This will not follow for even according to that divine instinct of Justice that is in Man if one Man kill ever so many Justice requires no more but that he die for all his Crimes with some additional Circumstances of his Death to make his punishment the more severe And the Authors own distinction of a Analogical measure of punishment may serve to answer him here but this Analogical measure cannot be understood to be the greatest and severest Punishment of all viz the torment of Hell Fire for Ages of Ages simply for offences done to ther fellow Creatures but rather some suitable Punishment executed here in this World as I have said above upon the Answer to the first Query and the like may be said in case of a raw Rebellion or self-murder some Analogical Punishment such as the most wise and just Judge of the whole World shall Judge most fit to be inflicted is sufficient in these cases the greatest and most severe Punishments of Hell-fire being reserved only for such as demonstrate themselves incorrigible after all these less severe Punishments here in this World have been inflicted on them For Christ himself hath taught us that the proper Punishments of every Sin is not Hell fâ—ire but only of the worst sort as Contempt of God finally Impenitency and Unbelief after God hath extended much long-suffering towards them see Matt. 5.22 where three several degrees of Sin is held forth the first two against a Mans Neighbour as Anger and Contempt without cause they are only punishable by the Judgment of the Council to wit by the Superior Judicatories above unto which Superior Judicatories above the Jews had their inferiour Judicatories below corresponding as the Tabernacles and things of the Law here below did correspond to their Patterns above and to this Christ seemeth here to allude but for a Man to say to his Brother without a cause thou Fool is a manifest Contempt of God and reflects upon the great Creator himself and therefore he that is Guilty of this Sin is in danger of Hell-fire if he repent not timely of it His second Reason is that by the Hypothesis of the Revoluteons God would be the Author of Sin because whatsoever God hath ordered to come to pass in a certain and necessary manner of that he is the Author Reply Here the Author is greatly guilty against himself by his own inadvertncy Sua se jugulans gladio killing himself I mean his own Argument by his own Sword for hedid grant above that Domitian and Nero who butchered the Christians were butchered themselves and the Romans afterwards taken Captives by the Goths and Vandals And in these cases that Law of Justice of meting the same measure unto them was fulfill'd in this
Life Now let the Author clear it to us whether there was not a Divine Hand and Providence in these Cases and whether the Divine Justice is not herein demonstrated And if this will not prove God to be the Author of Sin in these Cases no more will it in any other of the like Nature and when Jerusalem to wit the People did put our Saviour to Death and about 40 Years afterward were severely punished 1100000 of them being slain by Titus Vespasian which was a most just Work upon them and many other the like Cases and Instances wherein all sincere Christians acknowledge a Divine Hand of Justice as when Jerusalem was formerly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and yet they piously believe God is clear tho' the Instruments frequently are wicked unjust and cruel and that he is not the Author of their Wickedness and he hath a most infallible and perfect Knowlegde and Foresight of all that cometh to pass in this World be it ever so bad and he can and doth so bound the Sins of Men and show his over-ruling Hand over both the Sins and the Sinners that in all and over all his Power and Justice is glorified and his Mercy exalted towards all them that love him But it is no ways proper here to dispute about the Decreeâ— of God for it would make a Digression from the Subject that is proper to that which is foreign and wherein all Prosessions in Christendom are concerned to clear God from being the Author of Sin in such Cases when Men are here in this World punish'd suitably according to their Crimes as well as the Favourers of the Opinion of the Revolutions unless the Author will say that all such things are come to pass in this World by mere Chance or Accident without Divine Providence but this I hope he will be more pious than to affirm His Third Reason being of the like Importance with the former the same Answer may suffice Beside his Inadvertency is great that he considers not that Repentance or Satisfaction made to the Person offended and the offended Person forgiving the Offence as frequently cometh to pass putteth a stop to this Author 's Imaginary Wheel or Progress of Wickedness without end His Fourth Reason is only a Query which is but a dull and faint way of arguing for if neither the Author nor I could answer all the nice and curious Queries that one could raise about the Resurrection oâ— some other great Point of the Christian Faith it will not therefore follow that such querying is a Refutation of those Doctrines But in his Prosecution of his Query he supposeth some things to be absurd which the Favourers or Asserters of the Hypothesis of the Revolutions will not grant to be absurd for they are Parts and Branches of it when fully explain'd One is That two oâ— three Souls cannot revolve in one Humane Body but the Cabbalists and Mystick Authors who assert the Doctrine of the Revolutions say they can and that they frequently so do and this Author has said nothing as yet to prove the Absurdity of it when he doth in his next Answer he may have a Reply If one would argue this would make a Confusion of Persons that Levi was in Abraham together with his Brethren to wit as to their Souls and perhaps also as to the Seminal Principles of their Bodies which are very Spiritual and therefore well enough consistent together for some due time for the Body being as a House or Lodging to the Soul why may not divers Souls lodge in one Body for a time as well as â—ivers Men in one House But it is confess'd that evey Soul shall have its proper Body in its own proper Season and Time Another thing he supposeth to be absurd which will not be granted to him is that some Souls of Men drowned in Noah's Flood do remain unprovided with Bodies to this very day tho' this is no necessary Consequence yet until he prove the Absurdity of it let it remain as a possible thing so to be for according to Cabbalist Authors many Souls that sinn'd in and with Adam suffer'd Excision and remain unprovided with Bodies to this very day which they call new Souls not as being newly created for the Hypothesis holds that all Souls were created together and put in Adam's Body the first time they come into Humane Bodies since Adam's Fall and that still such new Souls will be coming into the World for the space of 6000 Years from Adam's Creation and no longer It is true there is a Query in the Treatise of the 200 Queries whether all Souls of Mankind had not begun their Revolutions before 2000 Years were expired which the Authors or Writers of that Treatise did seem to favour in the Affirmative but upon better Consideration and Acquaintance with Cahbalist Authors that hold the Negative they are better inform'd and here once for all let me advise the Readers of this Treatise of the 200 Queries not to turn every Query into a Position or Affirmative Conclusion as some have too unadvisedly done for the Person or Persons that did give forth these 200 Queries were not clear in many of them so as to make them Positions or Conclusions either Affirmative or Negative but rather left that to a farther consideration or to some other Person or Persons that with more clear Light and Understanding might be enabled to give positive Answers to every one of them which yet hath not been done and it is not to be supposed that this Author that is so preâ—udic'd against this Harmless Opinion shall be the Man that can do it except he lay aside his prejudice and be further enlightned But here I perceive some will be ready to object what time can these new Souls have to run their 12 Revolutions more or less after 6000 Years are expir'd when but a 1000 Years shall remain before the end But to this it is easily answered there will be no occasion for Souls then to revolve for the Necessity and Use of Revolutions will be supply'd some better way to wit by a greater encrease of Light and Grace and a longer time of Life such as was before the Flood and such as shall then be converted and become Saints shall not die but be changed as the Scripture plainly declareth And as concerning the times of the Souls that revolve absences from the Body nothing can be universally or generally determin'd for according to the Cabbalist Authors some Souls return very soon into Humane Souls as the Souls of such as die in Infancy or are not great Sinners but such as die great Sinners and are guilty of such Sins that deserve Excision which Moses's Law teacheth namely what particular Sins deserve Excision these may remain ableâ—â—t from Bodies for a long contract of Time asâ—uppose 300 Years or more or less as the Divin Wisdom and Justice hath appointed but that some do return quickly after Death or the Dissolution of the former
Considerations 1. That every Offence that a Man commits against his Neighbour hath a two fold Guilt in it one as it relates to God another as it relates to his Neighbour whom he hath offended the Offence against God is either forgiven upon sincere Repentance or if not repented of is to be punished after Death at the great Day of Account but the Offence or Guilt as it relates to the Neighbour offended as in case of Oppression Murther or the like is not so pardoned upon sincere Repentance as not to be punished either in this Life or some time after as probably by living again and then receiving that punishment if the Person offended have not Satisfaction made to him or perhaps it may be allowed that if the offended Person doth forgive the Offender upon his sincere Acknowledgment of the Offence Satisfaction being made that way he is not liable to Punishment for it either in the present Life or the future And is deserveth our serious Consideration that God will not only have us seek his Forgivenness in order to receive his Pardon but we must seek Forgiveness from the Persons that we have offended in order to have them forgive us also or otherwise there seemeth a Punishment suitable to the Offence to remain due to him that offendeth which cannot be supposed to be at the Day of Judgment in such a particular Case when the Offence is forgiven of God as to his part And it is worthy also of Observation that under the Law in case of Theft or Robbery no Sacrifice could avail without Restitution and in case of murder even as it is at this day Repentance doth not expiate the Crime without giving Life for Life as among Men tho' possibly it may be allowed that if one murther the other and the Person murther'd sincerely forgive him at the instant of death it may so alter the Case that the Punishment of Death may not be required of him in any following Revolution for every Man hath a Right given him of God as his Creator to his Goods and Life and if a Man take this Right from him by Injustice Justice requireth it to be restored to him by some Satisfaction of the thing it self or the Equivalent which to use the Author's Words may be called the same Analogick measure But now if God hath pardoned the Offence as it immediately relates to him but the Offended Person hath not pardoned it it is no Analogous measure of Punishment for the Offender to be cast into Hell Fire for his Offence barely against his Neighbour when God hath forgiven it as it respecteth him and therefore it seemeth probable it must be punished with some suitable and analogous Punishment either in the present or â—uture Life by Revolution before the Day of Judgment seeing the Punishment of Hell Fire upon the supposition of God's forgiving what relates immediately to him is too severe and â—o way Analogous in that Case and seeing the places of Scripture above-cited seem chiefly to relate to Men's Offences against their Neighbours the Punishments seem chiefly or rather only to relate to the times of Life here in this World and not to that which is to come when it may be supposed that God hath forgiven or may forgive afterwards the Offence as immediately relative to himself 2. It is a Maxim among the Mystick or Cabbalist Authors that seemeth very agreeable both to Scripture and good Reason si sit judicium infra non est judicium supra i. e. If Judgment be executed here below in this World it is not executed above or in the World to come for the same Offence for no Earthly Judge punisheth twice for the same Offence may it not therefore be allowed that to prevent the severe Punishment of Hell Fire that cometh upon the finally Impenitent it pleaseth God to punish Men here in this World with less severe Punishments than Hell Fire which is the most severe according to which there is a Maxim among the Hebrew Mystick Authors that God doth punish the People of Israel with long and great Punishments in this World that they may escape the more severe Punishment of Hell Fire in the World to come they believing that every Israelite shall inherit the Felicity of the World to come however severely they are here punished for their Sins in order to their Amendment all their Punishments here being Fatherly Corrections and this may not only be extended to all the natural Branches of Israel but to all God's Elect and Heirs of Salvation of Gentiles as well as of Jews and seemeth well warranted by Scripture both of the Old and New-Testament that saith all Israel shall be saved and the whole House of Israel which comprehendeth all God's Elect every where both of Jews and Gentiles and thus the Cabbalists expound the place in the Mystical Sense Gen. 25.28 Isaac loved Esau 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia venatio in ore ejus because the Hunting or Prey was in his Mouth see the Hebrew Text understanding the word His to relate not to Isaac but to Esau himself Isaac foreseeing by the Spirit of Prophecy that Esau's Posterity should greatly afflict the Posterity of Jacob in the latter Days for a Punishment of their Sins and he fore-seeing that this Punishment should be for their Good and to prevent their being punished with Hell Fire in the World to come therefore he loved Esau the rather on that account and accordingly the Jews recâ—oâ— that the Gentiles or Nations that so hardly now use them are of Esau and do but fulfil Isaac's Prophecy that they may only have evil things here in this World that so they may escape greater vils in the World to come as Christ said concerning Lazarus He had his evil things in this Life And why many good Men are so greatly afflicted with Poverty and other Chastisements in this Life seem to have a reference to the like Case The places of Scripture above-cited by the Author prove not that this Life is no time of Recompense in any Case for he granteth that in some Cases it is and these places indeed prove as well as common Experience daily teacheth us that many wicked and cruel Oppressors escape Punishment in this present time of Life but that they are not punished in their Posterity some time before the end of the World they prove not and that cited place in Job 27. seemeth rather to prove the contrary even that Oppressors and wicked Men are punished in their Children and Posterity as v. 19. God layeth up his Iniquity see the Marginal Note i. e â—he Punishment of his Iniquity for his Children he rewardeth him and he shall knew it but how this is done will appear more hereafter In his Answer to the second Query from Rev 13.10 he restraineth that He particularly to some bloody Persecutor of the Christian Religion either Nero or Domitian or both who having butchered the Christians were butchered themselves and the Româ—ns afterwards
Iâ—fidel so as to contradiâ—â— the express Testimony of Scripture the Souls of the Children come out of the Loins of their Fathers Gen. 46.26 and are conveyed into â—umane Bodies by humane Generation but to 〈◊〉 to all the curious and knotty Question either about the Soul as when or how it comes into the Child's Body it 's probable that as it surâ—â—sseth my Knowledge either of Physicks or Metaphysicks so it surpasseth his also and perhaps of most Men. His pleasing himself to requently with his jocund Humour on this and other Heads without any just Occasion given whereby to render the Hyâ—othesis of the Revolutions ridiculous is more like to have a contrary Effect upon himself as if at this rate a Woman might be with Child without a Man or that Abraham did not beget Isaac which are but ridiculous Consequences of his own framing having no â—ust Ground or Foundation from the Hyâ—othesis iâ— self Another of his wild and ridiculous Consequences is that a Man may beget his own Grand father and Grand-mother also that Men may be their own Fathers and thus the Genealogy of Adam shall be confounded and there shall not be seven Generations or Persons from Adam to Enoch tho' the Scripture calleth them seven Reply All this wild and ridiculous way of reasoning proceedeth not from any Absurdity of the Hypothesis it self but from his great Ignorance as touching the several Parts Stroaks Lineaments of it as asserted by its chief Favourers the Cabbalist Writer therefore in order to help him to a better understanding of the Hypothesis let him know that they commonly teach that every Child that is born into the World beside the Soul or Souls that revolve in the Body of that Child hath a Soul that is most properly the Soul of that Child and which is commonly a new Soul as formerly describ'd but these revolved Souls suppose of the Child 's Grand father are but Inmates in comparison to that other Soul that is the only proper Soul of the Child and this maketh no confusion at all to say the Soul of the Grand father may lodge in or impregnate the Body of the Grand-child more than to say the Soul of the Grand-child did formerly lodge in or impregnate the Body of the Grand-father as that Levi was in Abraham's Loins which the Scripture expresly declares yea and paid tyths in Abraham Besides that it is not probable nor allowed that the Souls of these worthy Men as Abraham Isaac and Jacob and many others either needed or had any Revolution in their Children The only most seeming difficulty on this Head is if divers Souls by Revolution live together in one Body with that call'd the new Soul that is most properly the peculiar Soul of that Body if these Souls attain to a perfect Restitution in that Body whose shall that Body be at the Resurrection or which of these Souls shall have it But this may be some way answer'd by the Similitude of a Grain of Corn that is sown in the â—arth how out of it divers Stalks and Eares of Corn and many Grains arise each Grain as full as that single Grain that was sown for tho' the gross visible Body of a Man be but one yet so much of Spiritual parts of Bodies may be lodged within that Shell or Husk of the gross visible Body as may suffice to be Seeds or Seminal Principles to as many Bodies as there are Souls lodged within that one Body And thus as the Scripture teacheth Every Seed shall have its own Body for thou sowest not the Body that shall be but bare or naked Grain c. See 1 Cor. 15. The distinction betwixt Revolution and Impregnation the Cabbalist or Mystick Hebrew Authors hold to be this that the Soul that revolveth into a Child's Body cometh into that Body immediately after the Child is born into the World so is not convey'd from the Father of the Child but cometh ab extra i. e. from without but the Soul that doth impregnate another Body cometh not into that Body when it is newly born but some considerable time thereafter as at the age of 20 or â—0 Years But that besides the Soul that is the most proper and peculiar Soul of the Child's Body which the Child receiveth from the â—ather not by Generation but by Conveyance â—even as Water is conveyed out of one Vessel into another another Soul may come into the same Body by Revolution or Impregnation which two they distinguish they prove from Gen. 46.12 where it is said that Er and Onan died in the Land of Canaan and yet they are numbred to be of the 70 Souls that went down into Egypt therefore they must needs have revolv'd into some of their Brethren and that most probably â—harez and Zarah who were born to Judâ—â— their Father after they viz. Er and Onan died That â—ew or none have deliver'd their thoughts about the Revolutions when they died is no Argument against it tho' he make it one good Men do not revolve commonly and what bad Men say is little to be minded tho' Balaan seem'd to Prophesie of his Revolution in these words that may be read Prophetically in the future I shall die the Death of the Righteous and my last end shall be like his and yet his Death was not such as to that time of Life as also his Prophecy that he should see Christ but not near which Origen takes to be spoke Prophetically but how could this be true if he did not revolve in one of them See Origen Hom. 15. in num Ipse velut de seipso Prophetans dicit moriatur Amma mea inter Animas justorum fiat semen meum sicut semen justorum In English thus he to wit Balaam as prophecying of himself saith Let my Soul die among the Souls of the Righteous and let my Seed be as the Seed of the Righteous so the Septuagint as to this latter part of the Verse Numb 23.10 but in the former part he seems expresly to hold forth the Metempsychosis or Transanimation according to the Septuagint Version the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. Let my Soul die in the Souls of the Righteous and that the wise Men or Magi of the East who come to worship the Child Jesus had their Descent from him and their Knowledge or Institution he saith expresly Hom. 14. in num â—â—x illo denique fertur Majorum genus inâ—sâ—tutio in partibus Orientis vigere ideo quando Natus est Jesus agnoverunt stellam intellexerunt adiâ—â—â—â—i prophetiam magis quam populus Isâ—ael In English thus Of him the Kindred of Magi is said to have come and their Institution or Learning to have grown in the Eastern parts and therefore when Jesus was born they knew the Star viz. that he prophesied of Numb 24.17 and understood that the Prophecy was fulfilled more than the Peâ—â— of Israel These words in Psal 78.39 God remembeâ— that we are but