Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	body_n	death_n	soul_n	2,773	5	5.8777	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25439	Animadversions on a late book entituled, The reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures		1697 (1697)	Wing A3191; ESTC R11192	66,692	112

Reasonableness of Christianity p. 2. that Since these sacred Writings were designed by God for the Instruction of the illiterate Bulk of Mankind in the way to Salvation as well as others of larger Capacities they ought generally and in necessary Points to be understood in the plain direct Meaning of the Words and Phrases such as they may be supposed to have had in the Mouths of the Speakers who used them according to the Language of that Time and Country wherein they lived without putting any artificial and forced Senses upon them Now what we lost by Adam may indeed be seen as our Author urges from the second and third Chapters of Genesis and that was Bliss and Immortality and a perfect State of Righteousness which was without any of the Miseries of Life or fear of Death But what the Punishment of his Transgression was or more properly speaking would have been had not the Messiah been then promised to recover him from his lapsed State and had not the Merits of his future Satisfaction been imputed to him and all his Posterity from his Fall is not so clearly discovered by any part of that History The Sentence denounced against him if he sinned was only this In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 Now this indeed does threaten the Punishment of Death or Mortality to the Body and does not seem to imply any future Expectation of Eternal Misery for he was from that time subject to a state of Death and Mortality And this is a part of the Punishment which devolves on all his Posterity 1 Cor. 15.22 p. 4. In Adam all die i. e. to use our Author's words by reason of his Transgression all Men are mortal and come to die But though this may be admitted as the natural Meaning of those Words yet it cannot be infer'd from them that the Soul also should be subject to the same Death and Mortality with the Body as our Author contends or that the whole Man should cease to be p. 15. or that By the loss of Men's Souls in Scripture could only be meant the loss of their Lives For besides this Opinion seems wholly precarious and is no way countenanc'd by this other part of the Sentence Cursed is the Ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy Life in the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat Bread till thou return unto the Ground for out of it wast thou taken for Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return Which words will by no means infer that Conclusion which our Author draws from them p. 7. viz. That his Life should end in the Dust out of which he was made and to which he should return and then have no more Life or Sense than the Dust had out of which he was taken For it is not possible that the Mortality of the Soul should be infer'd from hence Nay the directly contrary seems necessarily implied For the returning unto the Ground for Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return can relate only to that part of Man which was formed out of the Dust And therefore if the Soul was of a different Original and of a Divine Extract as we are told in Gen. 2.7 And God formed Man of the Dust of the Ground and breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life and Man became a living Soul It is plain that the Soul could not be included in the Sentence And therefore by this Sentence of Death or that of to Dust shalt thou return cannot be understood a total ceasing to be or a losing of all Actions of Life and Sense p. 6. which the Reasonableness of Christianity so much contends for But moreover if we are to understand no more of the Nature and Extent of the Sentence than is to be found in the second and third Chapters of Genesis and may have no Recourse to the Gospel Dispensation especially to that part of it deliver'd in the Epistles I would desire to know by what Authority our Author includes the Posterity of Adam in the Punishment p. 6. and makes them subject to Death for his Disobedience since there is not the least mention of them in the Sentence For that seems directly level'd against him and not to include any others in it Indeed our Author proves it from Rom. 5.12 p. 4. By one man Sin entred into the world and Death by Sin But if he has no other Proof for it than from the Epistles this would be no sufficient Reason to make it an Article of our Faith since according to him we are not to fetch any Articles of Faith from the Epistles So that this is all would be left for us to believe as to this that all Men are subject to Death but that God has not indispensibly required us to believe that it was a Punishment due to all Men for Adam's Transgression From whence it appears that the full Extent even of Adam's Punishment cannot be gather'd from the Sentence denounc'd against him which in the plainest Sence of the Words could only threaten Death or Mortality to the Body and not a Death of the same kind to the Soul Nor that even this can be proved from the Nature of the Sentence as we find it recorded in the second and third Chapters of Genesis that Death was entail'd upon all Adam's Posterity for his Offence And therefore it must be from the New Testament where we have more Light and larger Discoveries to guide us that we must expect a clearer Account of the Nature of the Punishment that was due to Adam and what sort of Death it was that his Posterity was freed from by Christ's Coming into the World But by the way since his chief Argument for his Notion of Adam's Punishment is that nothing more is meant in the Sentence denounc'd against him I would desire to know why by Death in that place may not be meant an Eternal Loss of God's Favour in a State of Existence as well as by never Dying in many other places is to be understood an Eternal Enjoyment of Happiness or a Freedom from Eternal Misery For by not Dying in such like places is not meant an Exemption from the common Fate of all Men but only not Dying after that manner which others do who believe not in Christ And if by this Joh. 11.26 He that believeth on me shall never dye or as in another place He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into condemnation Joh. 5.24 can only be interpreted of an Immortal State of Bliss and Immortality then I see no Reason why the Sentence of Death or Condemnation may not imply an Eternal Loss of that Happiness in a State of Misery especially since I have already shewn that the Mortality of the Soul could not be included in that Sentence of Death denounc'd against Adam And

to the Colossians in these Words Col. 4.16 And when this Epistle is read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea which very probably is that which is now inscribed to the Ephesians For it seems most likely that it was sent to those of Laodicea where St. Paul had never been at that time they having lately received the Christian Religion and had a wrong Inscription put to it by the Collector of the Epistles into one Body Which was an easy Mistake considering that a Copy of it was very probably at Ephesus as well as Coloss as appears from the C●ose of that Epistle and other places Some indeed are of Opinion that St. Paul did not write any Epistle to the Laodiceans and that the Passage in the Colossians that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea must mean an Epistle writ by the Laodiceans to St. Paul Of this Opinion is † Baronius Annal. Tom. 1. ad Ann. D. 60. Baronius and cites both Chrysostom and Theodoret for it who thought that St. Paul never writ any Epistle to the Laodiceans But there is little ground for this Opinion especially from the Words in the Colossians that from Laodicea for the natural Meaning of them is that they of Coloss should receive that Epistle which was writ to Laodicea from thence and read it in their Assembly And this meaning Dr. Hammond applies to it in his Note on the Place And he is of Opinion that a Copy of it was sent from Ephesus to Laodicea since Tertullian affirms that the Epistle which is inscribed to the Ephesians was sent to those of Laodicea But he thinks this solves the Difficulty that Ephesus being the Metropolis of Asia and Laodicea being a Church within that Circuit it might not only be design'd thither as well as Ephesus but that it was also Copied out and communicated to them and so might be called the Epistle to the Laodiceans or which the Church of Laodicea had received But tho' indeed it might have been so yet I think it most probable that it was writ only to those of Laodicea and not to Ephesus For as it is certain that St. Paul did write an Epistle to the Laodiceans which we have not under that Title so is there great reason to imagine that this Epistle was not writ to the Ephesians For St. Paul had liv'd three Years at Ephesus as is plain from the History of the Acts and therefore it is not probable that he would write to them there as in the third Chapter If so be ye have heard of the dispensation of the Gospel given me to you-ward And besides it is very strange that if this was writ to the Ephesians amongst whom St. Paul had so long been there should be no Salutations in it to any particular Persons which is so very usual in the rest of his Epistles And thus it seems most probable that this Epistle was that which was mention'd to be writ to them of Laodicea And this Remark is the more material because if this Epistle is looked upon as it seems designed to contain several Doctrines necessary to be believed by a Church at its first Constitution the Doctrines contain'd in it may carry a greater weight with them especially amongst those who will admit no other Doctrines as necessary to be believed but what have such a reason to confirm them But however it be this is certain that as this Epistle was writ by one Divinely Inspired so it is necessary to be believed to Salvation in those places where the Sense is plain and easy and of the highest Importance to us whether it was written with a Design to instruct or to confirm a Church in the Christian Faith But to return Let us suppose that some of the Epistles contain Matter proper to those Times and Churches to which they were sent May not the same Objection be raised against the Gospels most of our Saviour's Parables and very many of his Discourses relate to the State of the Jews at that time and the Destruction of their Nation and Religion which was soon after accomplished Now there is nothing in the Gospels but what was thought at first by the Apostles to respect the Jews only nay and for some time after the Mission of the Holy Ghost St. Peter particularly amongst the Apostles had such a wrong Notion of our Saviour's coming as to imagine that the Jews were only to reap the Advantage of it as may be seen in the History of the Acts. But tho' in a little time the Reason of our Saviour's coming was more fully understood yet at the first it was looked upon as particular and all his Discourses were interpreted to such a Sence Which ought to caution us in judging of the Epistles which notwithstanding their Directions to particular Churches might be design'd for general Instructions And we have good Reason to judge that there are no Cases set down but what may on some Occasions be of use to all Christians But what if it should be granted that they were writ upon particular Occasions will this hinder them from being necessary to be believed If it will then some of the Gospels must suffer too For the Gospel of St. Luke seems to be writ particularly to give Theophilus a more perfect knowledge of those things in which he had been before instructed as I have already observed of it as well as of the Acts which were writ by the same Evangelist upon the same Occasion In like manner the Gospel of St. John was writ upon a particular Occasion to confute the Heresies of the Cerinthians and Ebionites who denied the Divinity of our Saviour as is confessed by the most Ancient Fathers and has lately been very * Vid. Dr. Williams 's Vindicat. of the late Arch-bishop's Sermons p. 16 17 c. Joan. Cleric in 18. prima Commenta Evang Joan. p. 15 16 c. 80. Learnedly proved and must it upon this account be rejected as not necessary to Salvation So that if all parts of the Scripture must be laid aside that were writ upon particular Occasions our Faith would lie indeed in a much narrower Compass But we should not be I am afraid the better Christians for it For tho' some things might be writ upon particular Occasions yet it will be difficult to prove that the Holy Spirit did not design them for general Directions and as necessary to be believed to Salvation by others as those to whom they were writ But besides whatever particular Occasions there might be for some of the Epistles yet the general Design of them is to settle and strengthen Men in the Faith and to be perpetual Guides and Directions to them in the way to Happiness and indeed if there had been no occasion for this they certainly would not have been written But it was also necessary that the Apostles should dictate and leave