Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	apostle_n	heaven_n	loose_v	2,492	5	10.3143	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05186	Of ghostes and spirites walking by nyght and of strange noyses, crackes, and sundry forewarnynges, whiche commonly happen before the death of menne, great slaughters, [and] alterations of kyngdomes. One booke, written by Lewes Lauaterus of Tigurine. And translated into Englyshe by R.H.; De spectris, lemuribus et magnis atque insolitis fragoribus. English	Lavater, Ludwig, 1527-1586.; Harrison, Robert, d. 1585?	1572 (1572)	STC 15320; ESTC S108369	158,034	242

of those which lay in wayt to destroy Christ Iesus Wée reade in the tenth chapter of the Acts of the apostles that saint Peter fell into a traunce saw the heauens open and saw a vessel as it were a greate shéete descende downe vnto him from heauen knit togither at the foure corners wherin were all maner of foure footed beasts of the earth and wylde beasts and créeping things and foules of the heauen And there came a voyce vnto him Rise Peter kill and eate And in the .xvj. chapter as S. Paule was yet in Asia cōming downe towardes Troada this vision appeared vnto him There stode a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying Come into Macedonia and help vs Hereby Paul gathered it was the will of God that he should passe the sea and should preache the Gospell in Macedonia But I purpose not to write of Spirites and visions appearing vnto men in their sléepe least my Booke growe vnto an huge volume but only of those which we sensibly sée when we are awake CHAP. XVII That there happen straunge vvonders and prognostications and that sodeyn noises and cracks and such like are hearde before the death of men before battaile and before some notable alterations and chaunges IT happeneth many times that when men lye sicke of some deadly disease there is some thing heard going in the chamber like as the sicke men were wonte when they were in good health yea the sicke parties them selues do many times hear the same and by and by gesse what wil come to passe Oftentimes a litle before they yeld vp the ghost and some time a little after their death or a good while after either their owne shapes or some other shaddowes of men are apparantly séene And diuers times it commeth to passe that whē some of our acquaintaunce or friends lye a dying albeit they are many miles off yet there are some great stirrings or noises heard Sometimes we thinke the house will fall on our heads or that some massie and waightie thing falleth downe throughout all the house rendring and making a disordered noise and shortlie within fewe monthes after we vnderstande that those things happened the very same houre that our friends departed in There be some men of whose stocke none doth dye but that they obserue and marke some signes and tokens going before as that they heare the dores and windowes open and shut that some thing runneth vp the staires or walketh vp and downe the house or doth some one or other such like thing But here I cannot passe this in silence that there are many superstitious men which vainly persuade thēselues that this cousin and this or that friend of theirs wil shortly dye For in the end the falling out of the matter it selfe sheweth it was a vayne and folishe persuasion that they vnderstod suche things by any signes Cardanus in his booke De veri●ate rerum writeth that there was a certeine noble familie at Parma in Jtaly out of the which so often as any one died there was séene an olde woman in the chimney corner On a certaine tyme shée appeared when a mayden of the same familie laye very sicke and therefore they cleane dispayred of hir life but soone after she recouered againe and in the meane while an other which was thē in good helth sodainly dyed There was a certaine parishe priest a very honest and godly man whom I knewe well who in the plague time could tell before hand when any of his parishe should dye For in the night time he heard a noise ouer his bed like as if one had throwne downe a sacke full of corne from his shoulders which when he heard he would say Nowe an other biddeth me farewell After it was day he vsed to inquire who died that night or who was taken with the plague to the end he might comfort and strengthen them according to the duty of a good pastour It hath bin often obserued in Guilde halles where Aldermen sit that when one of those Aldermen was at the point of death there was hearde some ratling about hys seate or some other certeine signe of death The same thing happeneth beside pewes and stalles in Churches or in other places where men are often conuersaunt or accustomed to exercise their handy labour In Abbeys the Monks seruaunts or any other falling sicke many haue heard in the night preparation of chests for them in such sorte as the coffinmakers did afterwards prepare in déede In some country villages when one is at deaths dore many times there are some heard in the Euening or in the night digging a graue in the Churcheyarde and the same the next day is so found digged as these mē did heare before There haue bin séene some in the night whē the moone shined going solemnlie with the corps according to the custome of the people or stāding before the dores as if some bodie were to be caried to the Church to burying Many suppose they sée their owne image or as they saye theyr owne soule and of them diuers are verily persuaded that except they dye shortlie after they haue séene them selues they shall liue a very great time after But these things are superstitious Let euery man so prepare him selfe as if he shoulde dye to morrowe left by being too secure he purchase himselfe harme There happen other straunge things also For when some lye in the prison in chaynes readie to suffer punishmēt for their offēces many times in the night season there is heard a great noise and rumbling as if some body were breaking into the gayle to deliuer the prisoners When mē come to vnderstand the matter they can neither heare nor sée any body and the prisoners likewise say they heard no manner thing Some executioners or hāgmen do report that for the most part they knowe before hand whether any mā shall shortly be deliuered into their hands to suffer for their swords will moue of their owne accord And there are other that saie they can tell before after what sorte the prisoners shall suffer Many wonderfull and straunge things happen about those which wilfully cast away thēselues Somtime their corpses must be caryed a great way off before they béeing thrust in a sacke can be throwne into the sea and béeing layd in a waggon or cart the horse could scant draw them downe the hill but vp the hill they néed not labour at all for the carte woulde runne very fast of his owne accorde Some men béeing slayne by théeues when the théeues come to the dead body by and by there gusheth out freshe blood or else there is declaration by other tokens that the théefe is there present Plato writeth in the firste booke of his lawes that the soules of suche as haue ben slayne doo oftentymes cruelly molest and trouble the soules of those whiche slewe them For whiche cause Marsilius Fiscinus doth thinke it chaunceth that the wounde of a man being slayn

those that are departed from this lyfe in the true faith of the Messias to come in suche sort that they feele no gréefe but yet are depriued of the sight of god This place they call Abrahams bosom and hell for Hell doth not always betoken a place of tormente but also generally the state that soules are in after this lyfe And that our lord Iesus Christ did visite and release them and when he ascended caried them with himselfe into heauen Albeit certain of the fathers as Ireneus Tertullian Hilarie others think that they shal at the last day ascend to heauē Some also there be of our tyme which maintaine this fonde opinion that the soules sléep vntil the day of the last iudgement in which they shal be again coupled with their bodies but this assertion hath no groūd in holy scripture of the which point diuers haue entreated But especially Iohn Caluin that worthy seruaunt of God in a proper treatise that hée wrote of the same matter in which he doth learnedly confute their reasons that maintein the contrary opinion Wherfore sith holy scriptures as the Fathers vnderstand interprete them teache that the soules of men as soone as they departe from the bodies do ascende vp into heauen if they were godly descende into hell if they were wicked and faithlesse and that there is no thirde place in which soules should be deliuered as it were out of prison that soules cā neither ●e reclaimed out of heauen or hell Hereby it is made euident that they cānot wander on the earth desire aide of mē For first the soules of the blyssed néed no aide or help y men cā giue them on the other side the damned sort can no way be releued the which S. Ciprian the martir in his oration against Demetriā dothe plainly witnesse in these words whē we be once departed out of this world ther is afterward no place left for repētāce no way to make satisfactiō here life is either woon or lost so forth Albeit the testimonies alredy alleged on this point of doctrin may wel suffise those that loue the truth are desirous to come to the knowledge therof yet to increase the nūber I wil recite other testimonies also out of the fathers to proue manifestly that the soules departed do not again return wander on the earth so that all they which haue not yet stopped their cares that the truth myght not pierce enter into them may euidētly perceiue that those ancient tymes taught a far better doctrine of those spirits ghosts than other later tymes vnder poperi● haue cōmended allowed Tertullian a very auncient writer in the end of his booke De anima sayth the soules do not any longer abide on the earth after they be once loosed from their bodies that neither by their own accord nor other mens cōmandement they do wāder at all after they haue descended into hel but he sayth that euil spirits do vse this kinde of deceyt to fayne themselues to be the soules of suche as are deceassed And that Hell is not open to any soule that it should afterward at any time depart thence Christ our Lord in the parable of the poore man that was in rest and the riche glutton that was in torment doth playnely ratifie vnder the person of Abraham that there can be no mā sent back to shew or tel ought of the state of hell And albeit the fathers haue noted certain errors and scapes in Tertullian yet ther was neuer any that reproued him for this opinion Athanasius in his booke of questiōs the .xiij. question doth giue a reason wherfore God wil not suffer y any soul decessed shuld return vnto vs declare what the state of things is in hel what great misery is there hereby saith he many errors wold easily spring vp among vs for many diuels might so take on them the shape of men be trāsformed into the likenesse of the dead say that they arose frō the dead and so publish many lying tales false opinions of things there don therby to seduce and hurt vs Weigh these words of Athanasius I pray thée Sainct Chrysostome in his nynetéenth Homilie on the eight chapter of sainct Mathews Gospell hath in maner the same woordes for hée moueth thys question Why suche as were possessed with Spirites lyued in graues Therefore sayeth he they abode there to put this false opinion in mens heads that those persons soules whyche by violent death departed were turned into Dyuels so dyd seruice vnto witches and soothsayers The which opinion the diuell first broughte in thereby to diminishe the Martyrs prayse and glorie that so the Sorcerers mighte ●lea those persons whose wicked trauell help they vsed those matters saith he ar far from truth For he proueth by the Scripture that the spirites of the godly are not vnder the power of the Diuels nor yet do stray abroade after deathe then that they woulde retourne vnto theyr owne bodyes if they myghte wander whether they lusted And further if they dydde any seruice too theyr Murderers by that meanes they should at their handes receyue a reward for an yll déede and displeasure By natural reason also it can not come to passe that a mās body should be turned into an other body and therfore also the spirite of a man can not be chaunged into a deuill But among other things which proprely belong to our purpose he sayth If we heare a noyse that sayth I am suche a soule we muste thus thinke that thys talke procedeth of some sleight and subtiltie of the deuill and that it is not the soule of the dead body that speketh these things but the Deuill that deuiseth them to deceyue the hearers And by and by he sayeth that these are to be counted olde wiues words or rather doting fooles toyes to mocke children withall For the soule when it is parted from the body cannot walke any longer in these parties For the soules of the iust are in the hands of god And on the other side the soules of the wicked after their departure hence are straightway lead aside and withdrawne frō vs which may euidently be séene by Lazarus the rich man And in another place also the Lorde sayth This day will they take thy soule from thée wherefore the soule cannot here wander when it is departed from the body A little afterwarde he addeth that it may be proued out of many places of scripture that the soules of the iust doo not here wander after death For Steuen saide Lorde receiue my Spirit and Paule desired to be loosed and to departe hence and to be with Christ. Also the scripture as touching the patriarks death vseth this phrase he is layde vnto his fathers growen vp vnto a good olde age And that the soules of sinners and wicked men cannot after their departure here abide any longer we may

that soule He also confuteth the opinion of the Ethnikes prouing by the testimonie of the very Magitians whom they highly reuerenced that the soule was immortall These men affirmed and taught that they did call vp soules from the dead the which poynt euen those of the Gentiles beleeued who notwithstanding thought that the soule did streightway die with the bodie Iustine the Martyr in the seconde Apologie whiche he wrote in the defence of Christians hath these wordes I will sayth he say the truth In times past wicked angels through vayn visions deceyued women and children and with straunge and monstrous sightes made men afrayde by whiche meanes they often wroong that oute of foolishe and rude persons whiche by reason they coulde neuer get of them And therefore not knowyng that these were the Diuels engins and policies tendyng to delude them they by one consente termed the workers of these slye conueyances by the name of Gods assignyng to eache of them their propre names as best pleased themselues c. Afterwardes in the same Apologie hée exhorteth the heathens that they would not deny mens soules after this lyfe to be indued with sense but at the least way woulde giue credite to their owne Necromancers who teach that they call vp mens soules Also let them beléeue those that affirm they haue ben vexed with spirits of dead men which persons the cōmon people term furious frantike bodies In Augustin de ciuitate dei many such things be cōteined Now what dreadfull strange and maruellous ceremonies they vsed when they went aboute by their Magicall artes to call vp the soules of the deade a man may sée in the first booke of Lucan the Poet where he setteth foorth howe Erictho a famous Wytche in Thessalye reuiued and restored a souldioure to lyfe againe who was lately slayne before Whiche acte he did at the requeste of Sextus Pompeius that so he myght by him learne what wold be the issue of the battayle fought at Pharsalia This kind of Magike they proprely terme Necromancie or Psycomancie which is wrought by raising vp the spirites and soules of the dead Of whiche there were dyuerse sortes For sometyme appeared vnto menne the whole bodies of the dead but at an other time onely ghostes and spirites and often nothing was hearde sauyng onely a certayne obscure voyce Plutarche in the lyfe of Cimon as hée is translated by Ioachimus Camerarius in the Preface on Plutarches bookes De oraculis quae defecerint de conseruata figura Delphis writeth that Pausanias when he had taken the Citie of Bizance sente for Cleonice a mayden of noble parentage to haue vnhoneste companie with hir Whome hir parentes partely by necessitie and partely for feare sente vnto him But after that the Uirgin had once obtayned so muche of his wayghters in hys priuie chamber that they shoulde at hir fyrst entraunce put out the lyghtes sh●e in the darke goyng softly towards Pausanias bedde by the waye stumbled on the candlesticke and ouerthrew it agaynste hir will as hée laye asléepe in his bedde who béeing troubled wyth the sodayne noyse drewe a swoorde that laye by hym and therewith slewe the virgin as she had bin his enimie whiche went priuily to sette vppon hym But shée béeing thus slayne wyth that deadly stroake woulde neuer after suffer Pausanias to take his quiet reste but in a vision appearing vnto him in the nyghte season denounced sentence of hatred against this noble captayn in these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Answere to the lawe for wrong is an euill thing vntoo all men This heynous déede of Pausanias was very gréeuously taken of all his companions who therfore vnder the conduction of captayne Cymo ▪ sette on him and chased him out of Thracia And thus hauyng lost the citie of Biz●nce when as it is reported the sight continued in troubling him hée fledde vnto Necyomantium at Heraclea where the soule of Cleonices béeing called vp hée by intreatie pacified hir displeasure Shée didde there bothe present hir self vntoo hys syght and also told hym it shold shortly come to passe that the euill towards him shold cease as soone as he came to Sparta Héereby priuily intimating his death c. This Pausanias did at the first soberly and discreatly demeane him selfe but afterwardes béeing puffed vp with such victories as he had obteined he ruled and raigned lyke a very Tyraunt Wherefore when the Magistrates called Ephori would haue committed him to pryson he tooke Sanctuarie in a Temple where he was shutte vp vntill he famished through hunger I might héere heap togither many such like Hystories to proue euidently what this Samuel was In other matters also if God licence him the Deuill is not destitute of power and howe craftie and ready he is for all assayes experience doth well declare Furthermore graunt that wherein the pith strength of the question doth consist which can neuer be proued by Scripture that God did permit Samuel to return and to Prophesie of things to come after hys death yet will it not thereof followe that suche visions shoulde nowe be shewed also or that those thyngs shoulde be out of hande credited and done which they commaund God in tymes past did often in visible shape sende his Angels vnto men but nowe we heare not that many are sent vnto men neither in déed is the same necessarie Whē the Apostles lyued héere many notable miracles were doone but nowe for certaine good causes they cease and fal away for whatsoeuer is necessarie for our Saluation is expresly conteyned in the worde of god These notes touching Samuels appearing may suffise CHAP. X. Moyses and Elias appeared in the Mounte vnto Chryst our Lorde many haue ben raised from the dead both in body and soule and therefore Soules after they are departed may returne on earth againe IN like manner they obiecte vnto vs out of the 17. of Matthew that Moses and Helias were séene in the Mount whiche is called by the olde Wryters Tabor with our Lord Iesus by the Apostles whom he had chosen for the same purpose and that they dyd speake with him Luke telleth of what matters they cōmuned with him to wit of his deth that is the deth of the crosse Thereupon they gather that the soules of dead men may come againe into the earth appeare vnto men we haue graūted before the God is able to send soules again into the earth but that it is his will so to do or that it is necessary especially at these days is not yet proued Moses Helias apered not to al the Apostles but only to thrée neither did they speake to those thrée they brought no new Doctrine they cōmaunded them not to build Churches in their honor or to do any such like thing whether that their soules came alone or their bodies also sure it is they were not sente to the Apostles but to Chryst only It was very necessarie that they which shuld be