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death_n body_n soul_n union_n 6,110 5 9.7698 5 false
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B09949 The tree known by its fruits. Or A relation of the sufferings of Oliver Sansom of Boxford, in the county of Barkes, eagerly inflicted upon him through the means of, and by James Anderton priest of Boxford: Whereby it may appear to all people in the parish of Boxford, and elsewhere, where this shall come, who may with moderation peruse it; whether James Anderton do indeed walk in the way of the ministers of Christ, or in the very exact footsteps of the false prophets and deceivers, for hereby is he manifest, if it be lawfull to try him, and judge according to the rule of our saviour Jesus Christ, who hath said unto us, By their fruits ye shall know them, Mat. 7. 15, 16, &c. Sansom, Oliver, 1636-1710. 1667 (1667) Wing S686; ESTC R483576 23,631 75

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are fallen dangerously ill and that it had a Melancholy Effect upon you I could not considering our stricter Friendship but endeavour at least the removal of those Evils your Mind may lie under which perhaps is an Office no less grateful than making your Body Sound and Vigorous Sickness and Death are the common Lot of Mankind and to Repine and Grieve at the bearing of this Lot is to Combat the Laws of Nature and Fight against Impossibilities what Wise Man Repines at the Heat in Summer or Cold in Winter or troubles himself that the Sun ever goes out of our Hemisphere all the Night-time a common Evil that every Body bears ceases to be an Evil because there 's no one has a better Fortune to compare with it and without comparison nothing can be said to be better or worse thus also a Good made common Palls into Indifferency from the same Reasons But perhaps your Melancholy suggests unto you that 't is a dismal thing to Launch out into an unknown Abyss to be you know not where nor what I Answer I dream sometimes of frightful things and the Idea's that I have of them impress as afflicting Resentments upon my Spirits as if they were real but when I awake all vanishes Thus if we will examine Death and its supposed Consequences by the Prejudices of a Melancholy and Distracted Brain we may be Miserable proportionable to the heighth of our Folly but if by our Reason we take a View of these Formidable Monsters they grow tame and familiar to us I would demand of him that asks me What Estate I shall be in after Death What Estate he was in before Life Pain and Pleasure will leave their Impressions upon a Human Spirit 't is as natural as Wax to receive the Impression of that Seal by which it is Sealed Therefore if I was either Happy or Miserable before I commenced Humanity I must still reatin some Impression of it but I now do neither therefore shall do neither hereafter I came out of a State of Nothingness and shall return into the same again as the Flame of an extinguished Candle dissolves and loseth it self in the Circumambient Air even so the Taper of Life vanishes into pure Aether and is no more when the Laws of the Vnion of the Soul and Body are violated and broken Death it self is nothing and after Death there 's nothing and why should I be afraid of nothing Take Courage Man and either Die like your self Master of your Fate and Happiness so long as it is to be kept or Recover and Live Worthy the Character of a Person that knows how either to Live or Die So wishes Your real Friend and Servant A. B. I had no sooner read this Letter through but he surpriz'd us all with repeated dismal Groans as if his Soul had been strugling under the last Throws of Separation We thought it not convenient to press for the Reason of it considering that Human Nature feels or at least supposes an Ease by complaining of the Evil it suffers and it happened according to our Expectations for at length he broke out into these afflicting Imprecations Cursed be the Day wherein I commenced such a fatal Friendship Oh unhappy Time when first I imbib'd these Atheistical Principles When first I exchanged the Christian Faith for the Creed of Spinoza and the Leviathan When first I relinquish'd all reveal'd Religion for the natural one and the last for none at all When casting his Eyes upon me he said I am not able to write an Answer to that Letter though I earnestly desire there should be one nor is it worth my while to get an Emanuensis for that purpose for I suppose I shall have no occasion to write any more I 'm also sensible that you might be better able to answer such a Letter than I and yet my present Circumstances are such I being not only a Party but the dismal subject a Matter my self that what comes from me may make a deeper impression upon the Spirit of my Friend than what comes from a strange Hand therefore you will oblige me if you will only lend me your Hand and let me dictate which I freely offering he ordered a Chair to be set on the other Side of the Bed thinking it convenient to be as secret and free from Noise and Diversion as possibly he could And then he proceeded SIR BEing not able to use my own I have borrowed another Hand to answer yours possibly I may subscribe my self You say well It s a gratefuller Office to endeavour to remove the Evils of the Mind than of the Body What you urge of the common Lot of Mankind as Death and Sickness I could wish it were my Case but mine alas is a discovery that I pay dearly for viz. That Despair and Hell is the common lot of Atheists Now your Arguments cannot reach my Case unless you first prove that Atheism is as inevitable as Death and Sickness and that therefore the effects of it are to be born patiently unless a Man will combat Necessity and fight against the Laws of Fate Your way of arguing is such as I have us'd my self formerly and I cannot but wonder now bow I could think it conclusive Perhaps I never indeed thought of that but was pleased with it because I wish'd it to be true and because I saw it my Interest that it should be so If you please I 'll just make a Reflection or two upon what you have writ and then give you my Sentiments of the whole matter You say That if we examine Death and its supposed Consequences by our Reason those formidable Monsters grow tame and familiar If by our Reason you mean either the peculiar Creed of Atheists or the common Reason of Human Nature I am sure those Monsters will be less tame and familiar the more you think of them for since no Reason discovers what an unexperienc'd death is or the unknown change consequent thereupon how can we judg of things that we know not Reason as long as you please upon things that you are ignorant of and at last you will be as far from Truth and Satisfaction if not farther than when you first began like him that demanded a considerable Time to tell what God was and when that was expired he demanded yet a greater and being ask'd why he did so he replyed the more he thought the less he knew of him It might have been retorted on him though the same History gives no account of it Why then did he petition for means of greater Ignorance and Confusion Your Argument is extream weak about a pre-existent and future State viz. I retain no impression of Happiness or Misery that I had in a pre-existent State therefore shall retain none in a future State How that 's a consequence in any Rules of Logick I see not Next you would have me believe upon your bare Word That Death is nothing and that after Death there