Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	world_n	year_n	yield_v	103	3	6.7610	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28444	The oracles of reason ... in several letters to Mr. Hobbs and other persons of eminent quality and learning / by Char. Blount, Esq., Mr. Gildon and others.	Blount, Charles, 1654-1693.; Burnet, Thomas, 1635?-1715. Archaeology philosophicae.; Gildon, Charles, 1665-1724.; H. B.	1693 (1693)	Wing B3312; ESTC R15706	107,891	254

are not subject to the Corruption of Air and have carefully provided that whatsoever has been done by them should not sleep in obscurity but be kept in memory in the publick Writings of the most learned Men. Contra Appionem lib. 1. Which is as if he had said Forasmuch as no other Nations but the Aegyptians Phaenicians and Chaldees have certain Records of their Original therefore will I pretend my own Nation of the Iews to be ancienter than them who cannot disprove me but be●ause the Egyptians Phaenicians and Chaldees have more ancient Records of their Country in being to disprove me therefore to prevent being confuted I think it more convenient to yield to them in Antiquity And this is the secret meaning of what Iosephus says I have observ'd that no Prophets ever ●oretold the End of the World should happen till many years after their own deaths being thereby sure not to live to see themselves proved Lyars Cur mundi finem propriorem non facis ut ne Ante Obitum mendax arguerere sapis Owen upon Napier For they who prophesie of the World's destruction are upon sure grounds viz. that till it comes to pass it may be expected As Nature cannot create by making something out of Nothing so neither can it Annihilate by turning Something into N●thing whence it consequently follows As there is No Access so there is no Dimin●tion in the Universe no more than in the Alphabet by the infinite Combination and Transposition of Letters or in the Wax by the alteration of the Seal stamp'd upon it Now as for the Forms of natural Bodies no sooner doth any one abandon the Matter it inform'd but another steps instantly into the place thereof no sooner hath one acted his part and is retired but another comes presently forth upon the Stage tho' it may be in a different shape and so act a different part So that no Portion of the Matter is or at any Time can be altogether void and empty but like Vertumnus or Proteus it turns it self into a thousand shapes and is always supply'd and furnish'd with one Form or another there being in Nature Nothing but Circulation Ne Res ad Nihilum redigantur protinus omnes Lucret. lib. 2. And to this purpose divers of the Poets speak Nec sic interimit mors res ut materia Corpora con●iciat sed caetum dissipat ollis Indè aliis aliud conjugit efficit omnès Res ut convertant formas mutentque colores Et capiant Sensus puncto Tempore reddant Vt noscas referre eadem primordia rerum Lucret. lib. 2. Mutantur in aevum Singula inceptum alternat natura tenorem Quodque dies antiqua tulit post auferet ipsa Pontan Metamorph. cap. 48. Nec species sua cuique manet rerumque Novatrix Ex aliis alias reparat Natura figuras Nec perit in tanto quidquam mihi credite mund● Sed variat faciemque novat Nascique vocatur Incipere esse aliud quàm quod fuit anté morique Desinere illud idem cum sint huc forsitan illa Haec Translata illuc summâ tamen omnia constant Ovid. Metam 15. Also Philo in his Book of the World 's Incorruptibility alledgeth to this purpose the Verses of a Greek Tragick Poet and I think of Euripïdes which the Translator renders thus Genitum Nihil emoritur Sed Transpositum ultro Citroque For mam priorem alterat Casaubon likewise in his first Exercitation against Baronius sheweth from the testimony of Hippocrates Appolonius Seneca Antoninue the Emperor and others Nihil in rebus Creatis perire sed mutari duntaxat But to confirm what Ocellus saith we find something like it in the Scriptures for Solomon speaks much to the same purpose Eccles. 1.4 One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh but the Earth abideth for ever Now as Geographers use to place Seas upon that part of the Globe which they know not so Chronologers who are much of the same humour do generally blot out out past Ages which are unknown to them as the one drown those Countries they cannot describe so do the other with their cruel Pens destroy those times whereof they have no account The Grecians made three Divisions of Time the unknown times the Heroick or fabulous Times and the Historical times or such as they knew to have been true The unknown Times were those with them which past from the Beginning of things to the Flood which Time whether it had a Beginning by Computation can never certainly be comprehended as Censorinus from Varro affirms The fabulous and Heroick times were those that intervened betwixt the Flood and the first Olympiad buried likewise in obscurity nor is it certainly known how long Inachus was from Ogyges or Codrus from Inachus Lastly the Historical and known part of Time is computed from the first Olympiad and treasur'd up by the Greek Historians That the Aegyptians and Phenecians had a constant Record of things past is confess'd by the very Greeks themselves who but lately learn'd the use of Letters from Cadmus the Phaenician for which reason it has been doubted whether the Greeks had any use of Letters in time of the Trojan Expedition as we may find in Iosephus against Appion That the Phaenicians had the use of Letters long before Moses and spake the same Language as the the Hebrews did is clearly proved by Samuel Petit in his Mescellanea as well as by the Learned Bochart in his Phaleg For although we know of no Writer at this time extant more ancient than Moses unless it be Ocellus yet few will deny but that there were Writers before him out of whom he collected much of his own History wherefore says Dr. Brown I believe besides Zoroaster there were divers others that wrote before Moses Upon which his Annotator quotes a passage out of Apuleius in Apol. in these words Si quod libet modicum emolumentum probaveritis ego ille sim Carinondas vel Damigeron vel is Moses vel Iannes vel Appollonius vel ipse Dardanus vel quicunque alius post Zoroastrem Hostanem inter Magos celebratus est Diodorus Sciculus was not only famed for his great Learning but by reading enquiring and travelling throughout Europe Asia and Africa for the space of forty years had furnish'd his Library with many ancient and exquisite Volumes Now he speaking of the Chaldeans relates that they thought very long ago that the World according to its own Nature was eternal having no beginning nor that it should have any Corruption in order to an end and that mankind was from Eternity without any beginning of their Ge●eration that the Stars were eternal and by long observation of those eternal Stars as also an acute knowledge of each of their particular motions they foretold many future Events You will hardly says he believe the Number of years that the Colledge of Chaldeans affirm'd they had spent in Contemplation of the Vniverse for before the Expedition of Alexander into Asia they reckon'd four hundred and seventy thousand years from the time they began to observe the Stars Likewise Cicero who was cotemporary with Diodorus mentions the very same account of Time and Number of years Critias in Plato's Dialogue call'd Timaeus tells us how an ancient Egyptian Priest laugh'd at old Solon for boasting of the Primitive acts of the Athenians as of Phoroneus and Niobe before the Flood as also of Deucalion and Pyrrha after the Flood whereas the Priest told Solon there had formerly been many more Floods that he was ignorant even of the most famous of his Ancestors that he had no knowledge of another Athens the first and most ancient which stood before the Flood and was destroyed by it that he never heard of the glorious Enterprizes which those first Athenians had perform'd ten thousand years before the Flood at which time an innumerable Company of fierce Warriors had invaded Egypt and Greece and all that was against Hercules Pillars against whom the only Valor of the Citizens of old Athens was then shewn above all other Nations Now whether the Priest did this to banter poor Solon I shall not determine but the same History is cited likewise in Arnobius's Treatise against the Gentiles where he uses these words We were the Cause says he that Ten thousand Years ago a great Army of Men came from the Atlantick Islands as Plato relates and destroy'd a great many Cities Scaliger in his Book de Em●nd Temp. says That the Chineses reckon'd the World to have been Eight hundred eightscore thousand and seventy three Years old Anno Domini 1594. But I shall tire you no more with this Subject which as it does to me so undoubtedly it will to you and ought to do the same to every good Christian appear a meer Paradox tho' of as great Antiquity as any thing I ever yet met with in prophane Story However notwithstanding it does not edifie yet if it may in any kind serve to entertain and divert you 't is all that is aim'd at by SIR Your most faithful Friend and Servant BLOUNT FINIS Not to pass as Pyrrho is reported along without any regard to the mischance of his Friend Anaxarchus that was faln into a Ditch tho he that cou'd defend such sordid incompassion deserv'd to be so left A foolish man behind a friends back shall side with his enemy not remembring that of Horace Absentem qui rodit amicum qui non defendit c. * As Xenophon to Xantippe and the Children of Socrates who receiv'd no other benefit than his Learning from Socrates and yet expresses himself in his Epistle to Xantippe that he takes care only to thrive in the world for the sake of maintaining her and the Sons of his old Master Socrates

done is none of these Indeterminate is that which is in our power and to which part soever it inclines will be true or false Pythagoras of Fate and Fortune says All the parts of the World above the Moon are governed according to Providence and from Order the Decree of God which they follow but those beneath the Moon by four Causes by God by Fate by our Election by Fortune For instance to go abroad into a Ship or not is in our Power Storms and Tempest to arise out of a Calm is by Fortune for the Ship being under water to be preserved is by the Providence of God Of Fate there are many Manners and Differences it differs from Fortune as having a Determination Order and Consequence but Fortune is spontaneous and casual as to proceed from a Boy to a Youth and orderly to pass through other degrees of Age happens by one manner of Fate There is also Fate of all Things in general and in particular the cause of this Administration As for Zeno and some other Philosophers I will in my next send you their Opinions till then I rest Yours to Command AN. ROGERS TO THE Right Honourable THE MOST INGENIOUS STREPHON Ludgate-Hill Feb. 7 th 1679 80. Concerning the Immortality of the Soul My LORD I Had the Honour Yesterday to receive from the Hands of an Humble Servant of your Lordship's your most incomparable Version of that Passage of Seneca's where he begins with Post mortem nihil est ipsaque mors nihil c. and must confess with your Lordship's Pardon that I cannot but esteem the Translation to be in some measure a confutation of the Original since what less than a divine and immortal Mind could have produced what you have there written Indeed the Hand that wrote it may become Lumber but sure the Spirit that dictated it can never be so No my Lord your mighty Genius is a most sufficient Argument of its own Immortality and more prevalent with me than all the Harangues of the Parsons or Sophistry of the Schoolmen No subject whatever has more entangled and ruffled the Thoughts of the wisest Men than this concerning our Future State it has been controverted in all Ages by Men of the greatest Learning and Parts We must also confess that your Author Seneca has not wanted Advocates for the Assertion of his Opinion nay even such who would pretend to Justifie it out of the very Scriptures themselves Ex. gr as when Solomon says Eccles. 7.12 Then shall the Dust return to Dust as it was and the Spirit to God that gave it And Eccles. 3.20 21. when he declares All go to the same place all are of dust and all turn to dust again Who knoweth the Spirit of Man that goeth upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth downward to the Earth Again Eccles. 3.19 when he tells us That which befalleth the Sons of Men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them both As the one dieth so doth the other yea they have all one Breath so that a Man hath no preeminence above a Beast Likewise to such who are desirous to know what their Friends are in the other World or to speak more properly their dead Friends know Solomon answers their inconsiderate Vtinam Eccles. 9.5 with these words The Living know they shall die but the Dead know not any thing Moreover others for the purpose cite that Passage of Luke 20.38 where it is said He is not a God of the Dead but of the Living All which Texts through the Weakness of Understanding have by some Men been misapplied as concurrent with the Anima Mundi of Pythagoras which has been since in great measure revived by Averroes and Avicenna although in one point they differ'd among themselves For that Averroes believed after Death our Souls return'd and mix'd with the common Soul of the World whereas Avicenna thought it a distinct● portion of the Anima Mundi which after our Deaths remain'd entire and separate till it met with some other Body capable of Receiving it and then being cloathed therewith it operated ad modum Recipientis Monsieur Bernier likewise gives us agreeable to Averroes an account of much the same Opinion held at this time by some of the Indians of Indostan whose Faith he Illustrates after this Manner They believe says he the Soul in Man's Body to be like a Bottle fill'd with Sea-water which being close stop'd and cast into the Sea tydes it up and down till by some Accident or other the unfaithful Cork or decrepit Bottle becomes disorder'd so as the Water Evacuates and Disgorges it self again into the common Ocean from whence it was at first taken Which agrees very well with what as Philostratus tells us lib. 8. chap. 13. Apollonius after his Death revealed to a Young Man concerning the Immortality of the Soul in these words as rendred from the Greek Est Anima immortalis incorrupta manebit Non tua res verum quae provides omnia Divae Quae velut acer equus corrupto corpore Vinclis Prosilit tenui miscetur flamine Caeli Cui grave servitium est atque intolerabile visum The Soul 's immortal and once being free Belongs to Providence and not to thee She like a Horse let loose doth take her flight Out of the Carcass and her self unite With the pure Body of the liquid Sky As weary of her former slavery But he among the Heathens who spake plainest and fullest of this matter was Pliny in his Natural History lib. 7 ch 4. where he writes to this purpose After the Interment of our Bodies there is great diversity of Opinions concerning the future state of our wandring Souls or Ghosts But the most general is this That in what condition they were before they were born men in the same they shall remain when dead forasmuch as neither Body nor Soul hath any more sense after our dying-day than they had before the day of our Nativity However such is the Folly and Vanity of men that it extendeth even to future Ages nay and in the very time of Death even flattereth it self with fine Imaginations and Dreams of I know not what after this Life For some crown the Soul with Immortality others pretend a Transfiguration thereof and others suppose that the Ghosts sequestred from the Body have sense Whereupon they render them honour and worship making a God of him that is not so much as a man As if the manner of mens Breathing differ●d from that of other Living Creatures or as if there were not to be found in the World many more things that live much longer than man and yet no man judgeth in them the like immortality But shew me if you can what is the Substance and Body of the Soul as it were by it self what kind of matter is it apart from the Body where lieth the Cogitation that she hath how is her Seeing how is her Hearing perform'd what toucheth she Nay what one