Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
death_n day_n time_n year_n 9,302 5 4.9795 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A45603 The harmless opinion of the revolution of humane souls as a probable hypothesis, and very serviceable to clear many doubts, and answer many objections of atheists against the divine providence, and the Holy Scriptures. Modestly defended in a reply to a late treatise, signed by J.H. printed at Oxford, and called by him, An answer to some queries, proposed by W.C. or a refutation of Helmont's pernicious error, &c. 1694 (1694) Wing H799A; ESTC R221587 22,402 53

There are 3 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

taken Captives by the Goths and Vandals so that they had the same measure meted to them again in this Life Reply As his applying that place of Scripture by a particular Limitation or Restriction to Nero or Domitian is very singular and contrary to the general Sense of Expositors so it is very absurd for it relates to some great Series or Succession of bloody Persecutors after the beginning of the 42 Months and entring of the Apostacy and the time of the Churches flight into the Wilderness for the same space of time otherwise call'd 1260 Days or three Years and a half as the Context maketh plainly appear many of which Persecutors as the persecuting Emperors in the fifth sixth and following Centuries after Christ's Resurrection died a natural Death in their Beds when they then lived and yet here it is foretold by John That they and such as joyned with them in bloody Persecution should suffer the like Punishment in their Posterity and Successors in after Ages as propably hath been in part already fulfil'd and yet is more to be fulfil'd But Math. 26.52 Speaketh universally For all they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword said Christ In his Answer to the third Query he giveth away the Cause more than he is aware of or understandeth if he knew the manner of the Revolution as it is generally held by the chief defenders of it he would go near to say the same for they hold that Men are not only punished in their Posteitry and successors by Revolving in them but that Ancestors do frequently Revolve in their Children in After-Ages in order to Conversion together with them But that this noted place in Rom. 11. should only be understood of the Posterity of them that should live in these After-ages yet to come excluding the Fathers and Ancestors is expresly contradictory both to this place and many other places of Scripture that say all Israel whereas the Posterity excluding the Fathers of so many Ages and Generations backwards would be but● very small part of Israel And indeed the many Arguments used by Paul in that Chapter to prove that the natural Branches that were cut off by them in belief shall be grafted in again even all of them by true Faith in Christ Jesus either proveth that the Fathers that dyed in their unbelief shall be grafted in again or the Apostles Arguments seem not effectual and of force for he Argueth universally concerning them all and not a part of them See ver 16 24 26 27 31 32. In his Answer to the fourth Query he again wrongs the Person querying saying he concludes whereas he but querieth the meaning of that place of Scripture Matth. 23.35 And he wholly passeth by that which is most material in that passage viz. That these Jews to whom Christ spake are charged expresly with slaying Zacharias whom they slew said Christ between the Temple and the Altar now if they had no share in it how could he charge it upon them as their Fact But his main defence is that by these words of Scripture Exod. 20. where it is said God visits the Sins of the Fathers to the third and fourth Generation God doth not limit his Justice as if it did never reach Offenders beyond the third and fourth Generation a greater number doth not exclude the less but contain the lesser under it Reply What is this but to sport with Scripture to put such strained Sence and Contradiction upon it He may as well say when the Scripture saith There were eight Persons saved in the Ark he may at this rate of perverting Scripture say there were eighty or eight hundred or as many more as he may fancy and defend himself by alledging if there were eighty or eight hundred there were eight but this is meer trifling instead of solid answering God said an Edomite was not to enter the Congregation of Israel until the fourth Generation nor a Bastard or Moabite until the tenth But it would be a gross perversion of Scripture to extend the Edomites enterance beyond four Generations or the Bastards and Moabites beyond ten seeing the Scripture preciesly mentions these numbers His Example out of Scripture as 1 Sam. 2.31 32. 2 Kings 5.27 and 1 Sam. 15.2 prove not what he intends unless be had proved that these Mens Posterity did neither Sin in their Fathers nor that their Fathers by Revolution did not live in them but in this he falleth short not understanding the true and real Hypothesis of that Doctrine which he undertaketh to refute but that he faith it is no injustice in God to punish Children for their Fathers Faults when they imitate their Fathers wickedness I answer if their Sin be only bare imitation and doing the same wicked things they are justly punished indeed for their own Faults but if they were not accessary to their Fathers Sins but only that they commit the same Sins they are punished for their own Sins according to that place of Scripture Every one shall die for his own Iniquity the Son shall not bear the Iniquty of the Father but the Soul that sinneth shall die and every one that eateth the sower Grapes his Teeth shall be set on edge But their Fathers Sins are not imputed to them only for their bare imitation but for having a share in their very Sins either whilst they were in their Fathers Loins and acting in them which is one Branch of the Revolutions or afterwards living together with them in distinct Bodies And because according to the Hypothesis of the Revolutions as delivered by Cabbalist and Mystick Writers the Souls of the Fathers do frequently Revolve in their Posterity as their Grand Children or Childrens Children therefore they are punished in and with their Children as their Children Sinned in and with them even as we all Sinned within Adam and his Sin is not our Sin by bare imputation as some alledge but by real participation the Souls of the Children while in their Parents Bodies being capable to act in them Good or Evil as it is said of Levi who received Tithes he paid Tythes in Abraham and though the Souls of his Bretheren were in Abraham as well as he yet it is not said of them but of him For his Reference to Dr. Cradocks Sermon on Eccles 9.2 I have not had oppertunity to see it and think it not material to enquire after it Next whereas he argueth that Christ maketh a manefest distinction between the Jews and their Fathers which he would not have done had they been the same Persons again he saith the same Men could not be the Children and Fathers too as our Inquirer imagines To this it is easily Replyed that though there is a manifest distinction betwixt the Fathers and the Children yet this hinders not but that without all Confusion the Children might have both Liv'd and Acted in their Fathers As Levi paid Tithes in Abraham and yet Levi was not Abraham And as the Souls
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 ●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 ●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 rec●o● 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 ●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 Rom●ns afterwards
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 Decree● 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 o● 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 o● 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 ●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 pre●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 able●●t from Bodies for a long contract of Time as●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