Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A57514
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The certainty of a future state, or, An occasional letter concerning apparitions by J. Roe.
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Roe, J.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing R1774; ESTC R27562
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14,433
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52
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if the Soul is confined to a certain Station either of Happiness or Misery from whence it cannot make any escape all which is clearly intimated in Scripture then how is it likely there should be any such thing as the Apparition or real Representation of a Deceased Person It is Gods Prerogative to be the Creator of Mankind and ' t is God only that can give him Life and Being and if so call we think it to be in the power of Dust Corruption or any other created Being whatever either to Vnite or Animate that same Body and Soul which Death has deprived both of Life and Being upon Earth There have been some its true who have maintained the contrary Dr. Henry Moor. Mr. Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus who positively affirm that departed Souls have a care and regard to their fellow Souls upon Earth See Dr. Moor's Letter to Mr. Glanvil because a Soul appeared to St. Stephen when stoned and to St. Paul before his Conversion I shall not trouble you to shew what a forced Inference this is the Scriptures only mention Angels doing so which I am far from questioning but yet I think there is some difference between an Angel and the Soul of Man otherwise the Holy David needed not to have told us that Man was made lower then the Angels and Tertullian likewise de anima to have defined the Angels evocatores animarum i. e. the Messengers of God which command the Souls out of their Bodies And whose business as that Father intimates it is to Conduct and shew them whereunto they are designed after Death If any reply that an Apparition may be tho' not of the Body or Soul of any Deceased Person I shall Answer this in its proper place where I am to shew the inconsistency of such a Supposition with common Reason At present I must confess Almighty God can do whatsoever pleases him both in Heaven and in Earth in the Sea and in all Deep Places insomuch that every particle of our Bodies every Dust and Atome that belongs to us is known to him for he who numbers the very Sands of the Sea and the very Hairs of our Heads must needs keep an account of all the scatter'd Bones see into all the Graves and Tombs search all the Repositories of the Earth and know what Dust belongs to each Body what Body to each Soul and by what ways and means as at the first Creation those scatter'd Particles should be again united and the ruined Fabrick of Man's Body once more Composed But to Unite a dead Carkass to a living Soul or to permit and suffer a true and real Resemblance thereof to be acted by any other and all this only to make a slight shew and appearance for some little time either only to be the Messengers of God's Will or a Terror to the Living seems altogether inconsistent with those Methods of Divine Revelation which God has been already pleased to favour us with The Question whether the Souls of Men departed do appear to those who remain alive is decided by most both Antient and Modern Writers negatively and they who are for the Affirmitive Part can resolve it no other way but this that when such Apparitions are 't is only by special Dispensation thus at our blessed Saviours Transfiguration there appeared Moses and Elias and likewise at his Crucifixtion the Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose But now the case is otherwise for since Miracles are ceased and the Christian Dispensation is very sufficiently confirmed to us there is not one Instance in the whole Bible to encourage us to expect an Apparition in these times but on the contrary there is nothing more usual with God then to frustrate and disappoint the Expectations all such as will not acquiesce in the ordinary Dispensation of his Will To suppose therefore that this Course of Consulting with the Dead were not Prohibited tho' you have seen it is and to suppose yet farther that it is a very likely and probable way of succeeding in what may be design'd thereby yet this must be granted of necessity that 't is not the ordinary Course which God has appointed and therefore cannot be depended on as likely to become successful unto any The Pharisees we know desired a Sign from our Blessed Saviour to Confirm his Mission and Doctrine to them they were not contented with those wonderful Miracles that he wrought amongst them and which were then as I may say his ordinary means to Attest his Divinity and Convince the World of their Unbelief nothing would do with them but a Sign from Heaven and no other Sign then such as was given at the first promulgation of the Law But the vanity of all this our Saviour plainly discovers and severely rebukes in these words there shall no Sign be given Thus when Men presume to Capitulate as it were with Almighty God as to the enforcing the Duties of Faith and Obedience upon them as the chief Priests and Elders did with our Blessed Saviour at his Crucifixion namely that if he would come down from the Cross then they would believe him I say when Men begin to question the Power of God and the Authority of his Word and resolve neither to believe in him nor obey him unless he will condescend to let them have such Signs as may answer and gratifie their foolish expectations and unreasonable Curiosities when they will not believe there is a Future State of Punishment prepared for the Wicked without an Apparition to confirm the truth of it 't is not only usual but just with God to frustrate and baffle them in such unreasonable Proposals 2dly But supposing God should permit and suffer Apparitions to wander up and down and haunt his Servants upon Earth yet what end and purpose can we imagine there should be in it Can it any ways tend to promote the Honour and Glory of Almighty God The Psalmist expresly tells us that the Dead praise him not neither they that go down into silence Or can it answer any other of the Designs of his wise Providence in governing the Word Or in the least Contribute to the Reformation of Mankind Some perhaps may object and say why may it not consist with Gods Wisdom to send an Apparition to make a Discovery of some strange Murder which may have been concealed for some time But in this it may be answered that Almighty God has many extraordinary ways to make such Discoveries without an Apparition whereof we have many Instances as well from History as our own Experience for if the Heavens above the Earth beneath and every thing moving therein are the Work of Gods Hands and subservient to his wise Providence in governing the World what need of an Apparition to make such Discoveries Since they may be done well enough without it and by such ways and means as very well consist with his other Methods of Administrations here on Earth And