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A57514 The certainty of a future state, or, An occasional letter concerning apparitions by J. Roe. Roe, J. 1698 (1698) Wing R1774; ESTC R27562 14,433 52

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THE CERTAINTY Of A FUTURE STATE THE CERTAINTY Of A FUTURE STATE OR AN OCCASIONAL LETTER CONCERNING APPARITIONS By J. Roe A. M. And Chaplain to the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Burlington If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded if one rose from the Dead Luke 16.31 LONDON Printed for Joseph Wild at the Sign of the Elephant at Charing-Cross MDCXCVIII To the Right Honourable Charles Boyle Baron Clifford of Lansbrow and Earl of Burlington Baron of Youghall and Bandon Viscount Kynalmeaky and Dongarvan and Earl of Cork in the Kingdom of Ireland Chief Governour of the County of Cork and of the City and County of the City of Cork Lord High Treasurer of Ireland Lord High Steward of the Royalty of Knaesbrough in the County of York and one of the Gentlemen of His Majesty's Bed-Chamber My Lord IT is not with any Design to Inform Your Lordships Judgment by any thing that can be met with in so mean a Discourse that I am induced to lay it at Your Lordships Feet But being Composed under Your Lordships Roof it Claims a Natural kind of Right of coming under Your Lordships Protection Things of little worth receive a Value when they are made the Offerings of Respect and Gratitude and this I am ohlig'd to Acknowledge upon the account of those Remarkable Instances of Generosity which I have received not only from Your Lordship but from Your truly Honourable and good Lady both before and since I had the Honour of being Entertain'd as Your Lordships Chaplain which I needs must own with all that deference which is justly owing to Your Lordships Eminent Quality and Personal Accomplishments It is Your Lordships Happiness to receive the Extraordinary Blessings of Providence without any Alteration of Temper which can only be Attributed to a peculiar Greatness of Spirit which the World is fully convincd of and of which Your Lordships Family in all degrees are particularly sensible It will be a difficult thing for Posterity rightly to distinguish between those who have deserv'd Well or Ill since some have been so averse to Truth that they have supplyd what has been really wanting in due Merit by their many Flattering and Excessive Commendations But I need not take such Measures with Your Lordship whose Accomplishments ate so Signal that they render Your Lordship in the Opinion of all that know you one of the greatest Ornaments of the Age we live in That Your Lordship may be truly thankful to Almighty God for so Great Endowments that Your Lordshiy may live Many and Many Years to make a Right and Good Vse of them in this World and be Rewarded for Well-doing in the Next is and always shall be the hearty Prayers of My Lord Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant and Chaplain I. Roe THE PREFACE TO THE READER THe following Letter was not Writ out of a desire to appear in Print nor from a Principle of too nicely Enquiring into the Judgments and Opinions of other Men but to gratifie the Requests of some whom I could not modestly refuse If it may any ways Contribute to Promote the Dignity and Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures or prove the Certainty of a Future State against the Scepticks of the Age without the Testimony of Apparitions I have my chief Aim Farwell THE CERTAINTY Of A FUTURE STATE OR An Occasional LETTER Concerning APPARITIONS SIR I Have often thought since our last meeting of the strange account you gave me of the Apparition of G. S. to W. D. and likewise of the dreadful Consequences that have attended some Persons who have entertain'd too credulous a Belief of them insomuch that to this very Day too many are grown to that height of Impiety that they will not be perswaded of any Future State unless some one rise from the Dead to make proof of it As you were pleased to be very free with me I shall take the same Liberty and must beg pardon if I cannot condescend so far as to be of your Opinion In the first place then I shall give you my own Notion of an Apparition 2dly The Reasons why I cannot believe any thing of them The Word Apparition is usually taken to signifie no more then the Species or Resemblance of a Deceased Person and that there are no such Apparitions whatever some may pretend I am very apt to believe upon these three accounts First Because it is a Supposition so far from being countenanced that it seems directly contrary to the sense of the Scriptures 2dly Because it is a Supposition altogether useless and unnecessary 3dly Because it seems to be inconsistent with common Reason I would not be thought to question much less to deny that that there are Spirits neither will I presume to limit the Wisdom and Power of Almighty God But as for the Apparitions of Deceased Persons so frequently Discoursed of in the World I believe there is nothing in them The Holy Scriptures in my opinion are so far from giving us the least encouragement to expect an Apparition upon any account whatever that God himself has strictly forbid us to apply our selves unto or have any manner of intercourse with the Dead Isaiah 8.19 And altogether as strict is the prohibition given by Moses Deut. 18.11 there shall not be found among you any one that is a Charmer Consulter with Familiar Spirits or a Necromancer for every one that doth these things is an abomination to the Lord. But besides th●se and such like Prohibitions the Holy Scriptures plainly do assure us that the Body of Man after Death returns to the Dust and the Spirit i. e. the Soul unto God that gave it i. e. to be disposed and determined by him to a fixt Station either of Happiness or Misery This is evident from the Account we have of Dives and Lazarus there being so vast a Gulf between them i. e. an irreversible Decree by the wife Order and Appointment of God passed upon them insomuch that as one observes it is impossible for all the Saints in Heaven to obtain any manner of Release for them Dr. Hammond in his Annotations on Luke 16. and altogether as impossible for themselves to be one Minute out of that State Now since it appears Demonstrable that the Souls of the Righteous are confined to a State of Happiness after Death where they are to continue and remain till the Day of the Resurrection and this by the special designation and appointment of God then it must necessarily be supposed that the Souls of the Wicked are closely confined by the same appointment to a State of Misery and Horror where they must necessarily and unavoidably continue till they receive the final Sentence And if both the Souls of the Righteous and the Souls of the Wicked are respectively Determined to their several States and have their bounds fixt by the positive Order and Appointment of Almighty God if the Body turns to Dust as we daily see it does and