Life Now let the Author clear it to us whether there was not a Divine Hand and Providence in these Cases and whether the Divine Justice is not herein demonstrated And if this will not prove God to be the Author of Sin in these Cases no more will it in any other of the like Nature and when Jerusalem to wit the People did put our Saviour to Death and about 40 Years afterward were severely punished 1100000 of them being slain by Titus Vespasian which was a most just Work upon them and many other the like Cases and Instances wherein all sincere Christians acknowledge a Divine Hand of Justice as when Jerusalem was formerly destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and yet they piously believe God is clear tho' the Instruments frequently are wicked unjust and cruel and that he is not the Author of their Wickedness and he hath a most infallible and perfect Knowlegde and Foresight of all that cometh to pass in this World be it ever so bad and he can and doth so bound the Sins of Men and show his over-ruling Hand over both the Sins and the Sinners that in all and over all his Power and Justice is glorified and his Mercy exalted towards all them that love him But it is no ways proper here to dispute about the Decreeâ— of God for it would make a Digression from the Subject that is proper to that which is foreign and wherein all Prosessions in Christendom are concerned to clear God from being the Author of Sin in such Cases when Men are here in this World punish'd suitably according to their Crimes as well as the Favourers of the Opinion of the Revolutions unless the Author will say that all such things are come to pass in this World by mere Chance or Accident without Divine Providence but this I hope he will be more pious than to affirm His Third Reason being of the like Importance with the former the same Answer may suffice Beside his Inadvertency is great that he considers not that Repentance or Satisfaction made to the Person offended and the offended Person forgiving the Offence as frequently cometh to pass putteth a stop to this Author 's Imaginary Wheel or Progress of Wickedness without end His Fourth Reason is only a Query which is but a dull and faint way of arguing for if neither the Author nor I could answer all the nice and curious Queries that one could raise about the Resurrection oâ— some other great Point of the Christian Faith it will not therefore follow that such querying is a Refutation of those Doctrines But in his Prosecution of his Query he supposeth some things to be absurd which the Favourers or Asserters of the Hypothesis of the Revolutions will not grant to be absurd for they are Parts and Branches of it when fully explain'd One is That two oâ— three Souls cannot revolve in one Humane Body but the Cabbalists and Mystick Authors who assert the Doctrine of the Revolutions say they can and that they frequently so do and this Author has said nothing as yet to prove the Absurdity of it when he doth in his next Answer he may have a Reply If one would argue this would make a Confusion of Persons that Levi was in Abraham together with his Brethren to wit as to their Souls and perhaps also as to the Seminal Principles of their Bodies which are very Spiritual and therefore well enough consistent together for some due time for the Body being as a House or Lodging to the Soul why may not divers Souls lodge in one Body for a time as well as â—ivers Men in one House But it is confess'd that evey Soul shall have its proper Body in its own proper Season and Time Another thing he supposeth to be absurd which will not be granted to him is that some Souls of Men drowned in Noah's Flood do remain unprovided with Bodies to this very day tho' this is no necessary Consequence yet until he prove the Absurdity of it let it remain as a possible thing so to be for according to Cabbalist Authors many Souls that sinn'd in and with Adam suffer'd Excision and remain unprovided with Bodies to this very day which they call new Souls not as being newly created for the Hypothesis holds that all Souls were created together and put in Adam's Body the first time they come into Humane Bodies since Adam's Fall and that still such new Souls will be coming into the World for the space of 6000 Years from Adam's Creation and no longer It is true there is a Query in the Treatise of the 200 Queries whether all Souls of Mankind had not begun their Revolutions before 2000 Years were expired which the Authors or Writers of that Treatise did seem to favour in the Affirmative but upon better Consideration and Acquaintance with Cahbalist Authors that hold the Negative they are better inform'd and here once for all let me advise the Readers of this Treatise of the 200 Queries not to turn every Query into a Position or Affirmative Conclusion as some have too unadvisedly done for the Person or Persons that did give forth these 200 Queries were not clear in many of them so as to make them Positions or Conclusions either Affirmative or Negative but rather left that to a farther consideration or to some other Person or Persons that with more clear Light and Understanding might be enabled to give positive Answers to every one of them which yet hath not been done and it is not to be supposed that this Author that is so preâ—udic'd against this Harmless Opinion shall be the Man that can do it except he lay aside his prejudice and be further enlightned But here I perceive some will be ready to object what time can these new Souls have to run their 12 Revolutions more or less after 6000 Years are expir'd when but a 1000 Years shall remain before the end But to this it is easily answered there will be no occasion for Souls then to revolve for the Necessity and Use of Revolutions will be supply'd some better way to wit by a greater encrease of Light and Grace and a longer time of Life such as was before the Flood and such as shall then be converted and become Saints shall not die but be changed as the Scripture plainly declareth And as concerning the times of the Souls that revolve absences from the Body nothing can be universally or generally determin'd for according to the Cabbalist Authors some Souls return very soon into Humane Souls as the Souls of such as die in Infancy or are not great Sinners but such as die great Sinners and are guilty of such Sins that deserve Excision which Moses's Law teacheth namely what particular Sins deserve Excision these may remain ableâ—â—t from Bodies for a long contract of Time asâ—uppose 300 Years or more or less as the Divin Wisdom and Justice hath appointed but that some do return quickly after Death or the Dissolution of the former
taken Captives by the Goths and Vandals so that they had the same measure meted to them again in this Life Reply As his applying that place of Scripture by a particular Limitation or Restriction to Nero or Domitian is very singular and contrary to the general Sense of Expositors so it is very absurd for it relates to some great Series or Succession of bloody Persecutors after the beginning of the 42 Months and entring of the Apostacy and the time of the Churches flight into the Wilderness for the same space of time otherwise call'd 1260 Days or three Years and a half as the Context maketh plainly appear many of which Persecutors as the persecuting Emperors in the fifth sixth and following Centuries after Christ's Resurrection died a natural Death in their Beds when they then lived and yet here it is foretold by John That they and such as joyned with them in bloody Persecution should suffer the like Punishment in their Posterity and Successors in after Ages as propably hath been in part already fulfil'd and yet is more to be fulfil'd But Math. 26.52 Speaketh universally For all they that take the Sword shall perish with the Sword said Christ In his Answer to the third Query he giveth away the Cause more than he is aware of or understandeth if he knew the manner of the Revolution as it is generally held by the chief defenders of it he would go near to say the same for they hold that Men are not only punished in their Posteitry and successors by Revolving in them but that Ancestors do frequently Revolve in their Children in After-Ages in order to Conversion together with them But that this noted place in Rom. 11. should only be understood of the Posterity of them that should live in these After-ages yet to come excluding the Fathers and Ancestors is expresly contradictory both to this place and many other places of Scripture that say all Israel whereas the Posterity excluding the Fathers of so many Ages and Generations backwards would be butâ— very small part of Israel And indeed the many Arguments used by Paul in that Chapter to prove that the natural Branches that were cut off by them in belief shall be grafted in again even all of them by true Faith in Christ Jesus either proveth that the Fathers that dyed in their unbelief shall be grafted in again or the Apostles Arguments seem not effectual and of force for he Argueth universally concerning them all and not a part of them See ver 16 24 26 27 31 32. In his Answer to the fourth Query he again wrongs the Person querying saying he concludes whereas he but querieth the meaning of that place of Scripture Matth. 23.35 And he wholly passeth by that which is most material in that passage viz. That these Jews to whom Christ spake are charged expresly with slaying Zacharias whom they slew said Christ between the Temple and the Altar now if they had no share in it how could he charge it upon them as their Fact But his main defence is that by these words of Scripture Exod. 20. where it is said God visits the Sins of the Fathers to the third and fourth Generation God doth not limit his Justice as if it did never reach Offenders beyond the third and fourth Generation a greater number doth not exclude the less but contain the lesser under it Reply What is this but to sport with Scripture to put such strained Sence and Contradiction upon it He may as well say when the Scripture saith There were eight Persons saved in the Ark he may at this rate of perverting Scripture say there were eighty or eight hundred or as many more as he may fancy and defend himself by alledging if there were eighty or eight hundred there were eight but this is meer trifling instead of solid answering God said an Edomite was not to enter the Congregation of Israel until the fourth Generation nor a Bastard or Moabite until the tenth But it would be a gross perversion of Scripture to extend the Edomites enterance beyond four Generations or the Bastards and Moabites beyond ten seeing the Scripture preciesly mentions these numbers His Example out of Scripture as 1 Sam. 2.31 32. 2 Kings 5.27 and 1 Sam. 15.2 prove not what he intends unless be had proved that these Mens Posterity did neither Sin in their Fathers nor that their Fathers by Revolution did not live in them but in this he falleth short not understanding the true and real Hypothesis of that Doctrine which he undertaketh to refute but that he faith it is no injustice in God to punish Children for their Fathers Faults when they imitate their Fathers wickedness I answer if their Sin be only bare imitation and doing the same wicked things they are justly punished indeed for their own Faults but if they were not accessary to their Fathers Sins but only that they commit the same Sins they are punished for their own Sins according to that place of Scripture Every one shall die for his own Iniquity the Son shall not bear the Iniquty of the Father but the Soul that sinneth shall die and every one that eateth the sower Grapes his Teeth shall be set on edge But their Fathers Sins are not imputed to them only for their bare imitation but for having a share in their very Sins either whilst they were in their Fathers Loins and acting in them which is one Branch of the Revolutions or afterwards living together with them in distinct Bodies And because according to the Hypothesis of the Revolutions as delivered by Cabbalist and Mystick Writers the Souls of the Fathers do frequently Revolve in their Posterity as their Grand Children or Childrens Children therefore they are punished in and with their Children as their Children Sinned in and with them even as we all Sinned within Adam and his Sin is not our Sin by bare imputation as some alledge but by real participation the Souls of the Children while in their Parents Bodies being capable to act in them Good or Evil as it is said of Levi who received Tithes he paid Tythes in Abraham and though the Souls of his Bretheren were in Abraham as well as he yet it is not said of them but of him For his Reference to Dr. Cradocks Sermon on Eccles 9.2 I have not had oppertunity to see it and think it not material to enquire after it Next whereas he argueth that Christ maketh a manefest distinction between the Jews and their Fathers which he would not have done had they been the same Persons again he saith the same Men could not be the Children and Fathers too as our Inquirer imagines To this it is easily Replyed that though there is a manifest distinction betwixt the Fathers and the Children yet this hinders not but that without all Confusion the Children might have both Liv'd and Acted in their Fathers As Levi paid Tithes in Abraham and yet Levi was not Abraham And as the Souls
Objection why do they not remember former things vea 11. There is no Remembrance of former Thing Which cannot relate to Memories or Records for such there were but to Revolutions it doth well refer In his Answer to Queiry seven from 1 Pet. 3.18 19 20. He takes it for granted without any solid Proof that Christ his preaching to them of the old World was his Spirit in Noah but this is at large refuted in the Book of two Hundred Queries and is is plain the preaching of Christ to them was after his Death and consequently long after Noah Again his preaching had a good effect upon them to Conversion for it is said They were sometimes disobedient and therefore not always but in Noahs time they remained disobedient until after Christs Death for they were all drowned for their disobedience And indeed Calvin is so ingenious as to confess it relates to the time of Christ after his Death though he hath another gloss upon it less propable than is here enquired But the Author doth greatly mistake the enquirer as if by Prison he meant Humane Bodies for he meaneth not Humane Bodies but their Sins and the power of Satan in which they were held until living again they were converted after Christs Death by the preaching of the Gospel yet it is not to be supposed that all were converted as neither all the Sodomites at their last Revolution shall be all converted for the words of Christ imply that some shall not be converted but perish It shall be more Tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgement c. In his Answer to the eight and last Query Taken from the Metaphor of a good Husband-Man that new Grafts and Transplants his Trees that so at last he may have kood Fruit. He alledgeth the Metaphorical Arguments will prove nothing but the weakness of such as make them Reply Metaphorical Arguments such as Parables and Allegories what is intended by them with respect to the scope and intention by them when dully apply'd and the Anology is due and proper as in this case it is being warranted by Scripture for Paul tells us Rom. 11. That the material Branches that in his Days were cut off for their Sin of unbelief shall be Grafted in again in some following Age or Time of the World so as to be made true Members of the Church of Christ Now how can this be but by their living again by Revolution in order to their Conversion seeing we find no ground in Scripture to believe that Souls are Converted any where else but as they live here in Humane Bodies on Earth His Arguments from Metaphor by way of reversion being partly false in matter of Fact and partly improper and unduly applyed I need not spend time nor Paper to refute it I say partly false in matter of Fact because contrary to his assertion a wise Gardiner will remove his Graft from his Stock he hath once incerted it if the Stock prove bad and happen to die and corrupt he will remove it to another stock and not easily lose it Also a wise Gardiner may by several Graftings or Transplantings of the same Tree make better Fruit as experience hath proved But the Author it seems has as little skill in good Husbandry as he hath in Scripture Mysteries And his last Argument on this head is most improper because Man dies not as a Tree dies as the Author confesseth the Soul of a Man after Death survives and though corruptable with Sin yet the wise Gardiner knowing that it is capable of amendment thinks fit to give it a Tryal of a new life again in a Humane Body Having thus briefly discovered the insufficiency of the Authors Answers to the Inquirers queries I shall in the next place with the like briefness consider and show the weakness and insolidity of his pretended Reasons against this harmless Opinion His first Reason is suppose some bloody Tyranty as Nero to have taken away the Lives often Thousand Christians and by more than a Hundred kinds of Death he argueth that by this Hypothefis of having the same measure return'd â—o him again he must die ten Thousand times and more then by a Hundred kinds of Death Reply This will not follow for even according to that divine instinct of Justice that is in Man if one Man kill ever so many Justice requires no more but that he die for all his Crimes with some additional Circumstances of his Death to make his punishment the more severe And the Authors own distinction of a Analogical measure of punishment may serve to answer him here but this Analogical measure cannot be understood to be the greatest and severest Punishment of all viz the torment of Hell Fire for Ages of Ages simply for offences done to ther fellow Creatures but rather some suitable Punishment executed here in this World as I have said above upon the Answer to the first Query and the like may be said in case of a raw Rebellion or self-murder some Analogical Punishment such as the most wise and just Judge of the whole World shall Judge most fit to be inflicted is sufficient in these cases the greatest and most severe Punishments of Hell-fire being reserved only for such as demonstrate themselves incorrigible after all these less severe Punishments here in this World have been inflicted on them For Christ himself hath taught us that the proper Punishments of every Sin is not Hell fâ—ire but only of the worst sort as Contempt of God finally Impenitency and Unbelief after God hath extended much long-suffering towards them see Matt. 5.22 where three several degrees of Sin is held forth the first two against a Mans Neighbour as Anger and Contempt without cause they are only punishable by the Judgment of the Council to wit by the Superior Judicatories above unto which Superior Judicatories above the Jews had their inferiour Judicatories below corresponding as the Tabernacles and things of the Law here below did correspond to their Patterns above and to this Christ seemeth here to allude but for a Man to say to his Brother without a cause thou Fool is a manifest Contempt of God and reflects upon the great Creator himself and therefore he that is Guilty of this Sin is in danger of Hell-fire if he repent not timely of it His second Reason is that by the Hypothesis of the Revoluteons God would be the Author of Sin because whatsoever God hath ordered to come to pass in a certain and necessary manner of that he is the Author Reply Here the Author is greatly guilty against himself by his own inadvertncy Sua se jugulans gladio killing himself I mean his own Argument by his own Sword for hedid grant above that Domitian and Nero who butchered the Christians were butchered themselves and the Romans afterwards taken Captives by the Goths and Vandals And in these cases that Law of Justice of meting the same measure unto them was fulfill'd in this
Body divers Cabbalist Authors affirm and I know no sufficient Reason to contradict it His 5th Reason I have already answered by telling him that all Revolutions according to Cabbalist Authors will end at the Expiration of 6000 â—â—ars from Adam's Creation so it will be all one thing whether Souls then be in their tenth or eleventh or first and second Revolutions for there will be need of any more His 6th Reason is soon dispatch'd Solomon tells us That there is no Remembrance of sormer things at present but at the great Day of Accounts when the Books shall be opened there will be a Remembrance of all things his Argument is most weak and impertinent as if Men's living again can be to no purpose or of no service for their Amendment or Melioration except they remember former things or as if their Punishments would have no Service to their Good Reply How many times doth God punish Nations Countries Cities and particular Persous for particular â—ins that many or most are not sensible oâ— and have noâ— a distinct knowledge of and yet these â—uniâ—â—â—â—ents are of Service to them and are blessed 〈◊〉 sanctified to many for their Conversion and â—â—ormation of Liâ—e the Application is easie 〈◊〉 he Caâ—e in Hand And to move Men to â—epeâ—tance for former Sins whether committed in the present Life or any former time of Lâ—â—e it may suffice that they are sensible they have such Sâ—â—s in them and that they must be cleaused from them before they can enjoy the Peace and Favour of God and enter into the Kingdom of God â—or how many do sincerely repent of Pride and Envy and the like Sins and do sincerely labour to crucifie these and the like Sins in them with great Success by the help of Godâ—s Grace and yet they cannot tell neither when nor where the Root of these Sins began to take place in them for it is but too appareâ—t that Men generally not only bring into the 〈◊〉 â—orld with them the Seed of Adam's Transgression but other strong and great Roots of Sin that had grown up in them when formerly they lived in the World I lâ—t pass his Eâ—cursion on this Head grounded on his own â—â—â—â—â—â—ation as of his proffering to pay 2000 l for â—â—00 l Present to a Man at his second Revolution having no other Service but to gratifie his jocund Humour or perhaps to let the World know that he is so rich or of so good Credit that he can give good Security for 2000 l. to be paid after so many Years Expiration Thus having answered his pretended Arguments taken from Reason against the Revolutions of Souls let us in the last place consider his Argument he essays to bring from Scripture but with as little Success His first Argument is that it interfers with the Doctrine of the Resurrection for if the Soul have lived in more Bodies than one in shall rise in all these Bodies but the Soul riseth but in one Body Therefore c. Reply It seemeth this Author for all his professed Skill in Physicks and Metaphysicks hath but little knowledge in either of them otherwise he could not argue so weakly on this Head Doth he not know that the Physicks teach that all natural Bodies both of Animals and of Men are in a continual change of their visible and gross Parts even as a River that continually changeth its Water so that perhaps not one drop of Water is now in it that was in it some small time past and this my Physicks taught me which I learned when I was a School-boy and I well remember that the great Objection then that was made against this continual â—hange of the visible and gross Parts of the natural Bodies of Mankind was that it seemed to interfer with the Resurrection of the Body for by the Doctrine of Physicks almost universally received no Man living hath an Ounce weight or Grain weight of the visible and gross Parts of that Body which he had some Years past â— yea as some think some few Months past and if we divide the Age of a Man's Life that liveth till he be 70 Years of age suppose that but once in seven Years he changeth all the visible and gross Parts of his Body tho' it is generally acknowledg'd he changeth them much oftner he hath by this account changed his whole visible Body ten times at least in this space of timeâ— now let the Author tell me with which of these Bodies he shall rise at the Resurrection and I shall answer him with the â—ike Reply to this present Objection but if he say there are certain Spiritual and invisible Parts belonging to these visible and gross Bodies that may or shall make up the intire Spiritual Body at the Resurrection I can say the same in the present Case and if he can tell me where these Invisible and Spiritual Parts of all these Bodies are lodged in the mean time whither they cleave to the Body or are separate from the Body in that Interim I can tell him to the same purpose in our present case and can as easily answer all his Queries in the one case as he can answer mine in the other As for that Hypothesis of the Souls attracting to its selt the Particles of its former Body by a 〈…〉 Virtue it is only queried and not 〈…〉 and therefore I am the less concern'd to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I find no difficulty to defend it against all that he â—â—ith against it in a bare affirmation without proof viz. That the Soul hath no â—uch Magnetick Virtue or Cuality but it is very probable it hath because of its great â—nion with the Body and Love to it as we find bâ— experience in our selves â— and the Souls being loath to be uncloathed of the Body as Paul saith but only for the sure Hopes that it hath to be cloathed upon at the Resurrection of the Dead And upon this Head he turns Inquirer by proposing about 7 or 8 Queries that have no force in them against the Hâ—pothesis of the Revolutions more than against the Doctrine of the Resurrection generally believ'd by all good Christians and professed by himself and I could query as many or rather more things relating to the Resurrection it self that would be as hard or harder for him to answer with Satisfaction but this is an improper and ineffectual way to dispute against an Opinion to query and to give no positive Reasons whereby to oppose it But that he may not only seem to query he will rather give some shadow of Reasons without all Substance than none at all One is that after this fashion Men shall be brought into the World without any rather for a Man begets not the Souls of his Children and as for the Body the Soul attracts and unites that to it self o that the Man we call Father hath nothing to do in the Matter Reply Tho' a Man begetâ— not the Souls of his Children yet iâ— he will not turn
of the Children may or do impregnate the Fathers without Confusion See for this in Gen. 46.26 So may the Souls of the Fathers live in the Children by Impregnation or Revolution without all Confusion as the chief Assertors of the Hypothesis of the Revolutions do hold for thus they understand these words Exod. 20. Visiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon or in the Children to the third and fourth Generation That is when the Souls of the Fathers live again by Revolution three â—or four several times in the Children they are gently corrected and punished in order to their Melioration or Amendment which is called their Visiting but if they do not Amend they suffer Excision for some long tract of time and have not the benefit of any farther Revolution until that tract of time be expired But if in the third or fourth Revolution they amend and are Meliorated in any degree they may have many Revolutions as the Cabbalists say Even as many they need were it to a Thousand Generations For so they understand these words Shew Mercy to Thousands of them that love me and regard my Commandments so the translation which is said to express the rich and abundant Mercy of God but not that so many shall be needed as Christ adviced the Disciples to forgive not only seven times a Day but seventy seven times And yet none need so many times Forgiveness every Day for it is probable few if any need or have above twelve answering the twelve Hours of the Day How beit I find not that the Ancient Cabbalist Writers limit the number of the Revolutions to twelve that being rather queried than asserted as a probable Circumstance by some private Persons but whether true or false â—oucheth not the substance of the Opinion it self as neither do some other Circumstantial â—hings Query in the two hundred Queries or Historically Narated in the Printed Epistle cited by â—his Author But that he saith The Inquirer â—â—th not Arguâ— from the Murder of Abel that bears equal weight with that of Zacharias but â—his is only the Authors own Conceit but the Argument holds equally good from the Murder of Abel as that of Zacharias nor do his two supposed Reasons he brings ruin the proof for the Souls of all those Jews upon whom the Blood of Abel was charged might have been at that very time in Cain when he murder'd righteous Abel and might have been consenting to that Act of murder in Cain as according to the Doctrine of the Cabbalists concerning Pre-existence we all Sinned in Adam being in him when he Sinned and concenting to his Sin And it is but a weak and trifling Objection that some make against this that so many Souls could not be contained in Adam for Souls being Spirits and in corporeal Beings do not justle for room as Bodies do There were seven unclean Spirits in Mary Magdalen and a Legion of unclean Spirits the Legion containing 6000 and more in one Man But if Spirits did justle for rooms as Bodies do so many could not have been in them His second supposed Reason proceeds from his own Ignorance or in Advertency and not from the Letter cited by him for though the Letter and Book of the two hundred Queries allow to every Man if need be and that they are not perfectly converted and restored sooner a Thousand Years to live in the Body yet they allow four Thousand Years for the whole time from the first to last as suppose the Intervals of time that Souls are diflodged from all Humane Bodies until they return to live in Bodies together with that time they live in Bodies till all their Revolutions be finished making up the space of four Thousand Years See for this in the Book of the two Hunred Queries Query 27 28 61. all which expeesly mention four Thousand Years His flourish by his envying against the favorers of this innocent Hypothesis grounded only on his Mistakes and inadvertency I let pass without any other Answer on this Head In his Answer to the fifth Query from Ezek. 16.25 He is grosly mistaken as if these words did imply an exalted manner of denying that ever Jerusalem to wit the Stone or Timber or Houses but the People shall return to her former estate for the following words in ver 60 61 62 63. do plainly intimate that she to wit the People shall return and God will Mercifully remember his Covenant with them and shall have this good Effect on them that they shall remember their ways and shall be ashamed when she shall receive her two Sisters Sodom and Samaria so that the words are no denial but a positive promise to Jerusalem and the other two viz. Sodom and Samaria His Reasons against this are not worth answering as if by Cities were to be meant not the People but the Houses of Stone and Timber whereas it is plain the People only is to be understood and not the Houses with their Materials or as if all returns were made within a Thousand Years according to the Hypothesâ—â— of the Revolutions but that is showed above to be his mistake the whole Interval being four Thousand Years And his third Reason is very weak and idle like the former for thoâ—â— all the Citizens of Sodom were destroyed and had no posterity of their own to revolve in theâ— might revolve in others having nearest Affinity or Relation to them that did remain of otheâ— Cites In his Answer to Query six from Psal 90. â—â— Thou turnest Man to Deâ—â—ruction and sayest Return ye Children of Men. He alledgeth this Return is at the general Resurrection but the following words correct his mistake that have a necessary reference to them for a Thousand Years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a Watch in the Night which Peter iâ— his â— Epist 3.8 expounds as holding fort Gods long Suffering towards Men in general giving them four Thousand Years space from first to last in order to repent and amend which is but as four Days or as four Watches oâ—â— Night therefore this Return of Men seemed not to be understood of the general Resurrection but of the Revolutions of the Souls of Men and the like may be said in answer to what he saith from that other place in Eccles 1.4 Generation goeth and Generation cometh Which must needs have another sence than what we say Year cometh and Year goeth because of the Similitudes and Examples that Solomon bringeth from the Sun the Winds and the Rivers for the same Year goeth away cometh not again but the same Sun that goeth down riseth again and the same Wind that goeth to the South returneth to the North and the same Rivers that come from the Sea return to the Sea Therefore the same Generation of Men in Solomon's time that went off did afterwards return again until they finish their Circuit excepting such particulars as were made perfect and so need no Revolution And here he anticipates that
Iâ—fidel so as to contradiâ—â— the express Testimony of Scripture the Souls of the Children come out of the Loins of their Fathers Gen. 46.26 and are conveyed into â—umane Bodies by humane Generation but to 〈◊〉 to all the curious and knotty Question either about the Soul as when or how it comes into the Child's Body it 's probable that as it surâ—â—sseth my Knowledge either of Physicks or Metaphysicks so it surpasseth his also and perhaps of most Men. His pleasing himself to requently with his jocund Humour on this and other Heads without any just Occasion given whereby to render the Hyâ—othesis of the Revolutions ridiculous is more like to have a contrary Effect upon himself as if at this rate a Woman might be with Child without a Man or that Abraham did not beget Isaac which are but ridiculous Consequences of his own framing having no â—ust Ground or Foundation from the Hyâ—othesis iâ— self Another of his wild and ridiculous Consequences is that a Man may beget his own Grand father and Grand-mother also that Men may be their own Fathers and thus the Genealogy of Adam shall be confounded and there shall not be seven Generations or Persons from Adam to Enoch tho' the Scripture calleth them seven Reply All this wild and ridiculous way of reasoning proceedeth not from any Absurdity of the Hypothesis it self but from his great Ignorance as touching the several Parts Stroaks Lineaments of it as asserted by its chief Favourers the Cabbalist Writer therefore in order to help him to a better understanding of the Hypothesis let him know that they commonly teach that every Child that is born into the World beside the Soul or Souls that revolve in the Body of that Child hath a Soul that is most properly the Soul of that Child and which is commonly a new Soul as formerly describ'd but these revolved Souls suppose of the Child 's Grand father are but Inmates in comparison to that other Soul that is the only proper Soul of the Child and this maketh no confusion at all to say the Soul of the Grand father may lodge in or impregnate the Body of the Grand-child more than to say the Soul of the Grand-child did formerly lodge in or impregnate the Body of the Grand-father as that Levi was in Abraham's Loins which the Scripture expresly declares yea and paid tyths in Abraham Besides that it is not probable nor allowed that the Souls of these worthy Men as Abraham Isaac and Jacob and many others either needed or had any Revolution in their Children The only most seeming difficulty on this Head is if divers Souls by Revolution live together in one Body with that call'd the new Soul that is most properly the peculiar Soul of that Body if these Souls attain to a perfect Restitution in that Body whose shall that Body be at the Resurrection or which of these Souls shall have it But this may be some way answer'd by the Similitude of a Grain of Corn that is sown in the â—arth how out of it divers Stalks and Eares of Corn and many Grains arise each Grain as full as that single Grain that was sown for tho' the gross visible Body of a Man be but one yet so much of Spiritual parts of Bodies may be lodged within that Shell or Husk of the gross visible Body as may suffice to be Seeds or Seminal Principles to as many Bodies as there are Souls lodged within that one Body And thus as the Scripture teacheth Every Seed shall have its own Body for thou sowest not the Body that shall be but bare or naked Grain c. See 1 Cor. 15. The distinction betwixt Revolution and Impregnation the Cabbalist or Mystick Hebrew Authors hold to be this that the Soul that revolveth into a Child's Body cometh into that Body immediately after the Child is born into the World so is not convey'd from the Father of the Child but cometh ab extra i. e. from without but the Soul that doth impregnate another Body cometh not into that Body when it is newly born but some considerable time thereafter as at the age of 20 or â—0 Years But that besides the Soul that is the most proper and peculiar Soul of the Child's Body which the Child receiveth from the â—ather not by Generation but by Conveyance â—even as Water is conveyed out of one Vessel into another another Soul may come into the same Body by Revolution or Impregnation which two they distinguish they prove from Gen. 46.12 where it is said that Er and Onan died in the Land of Canaan and yet they are numbred to be of the 70 Souls that went down into Egypt therefore they must needs have revolv'd into some of their Brethren and that most probably â—harez and Zarah who were born to Judâ—â— their Father after they viz. Er and Onan died That â—ew or none have deliver'd their thoughts about the Revolutions when they died is no Argument against it tho' he make it one good Men do not revolve commonly and what bad Men say is little to be minded tho' Balaan seem'd to Prophesie of his Revolution in these words that may be read Prophetically in the future I shall die the Death of the Righteous and my last end shall be like his and yet his Death was not such as to that time of Life as also his Prophecy that he should see Christ but not near which Origen takes to be spoke Prophetically but how could this be true if he did not revolve in one of them See Origen Hom. 15. in num Ipse velut de seipso Prophetans dicit moriatur Amma mea inter Animas justorum fiat semen meum sicut semen justorum In English thus he to wit Balaam as prophecying of himself saith Let my Soul die among the Souls of the Righteous and let my Seed be as the Seed of the Righteous so the Septuagint as to this latter part of the Verse Numb 23.10 but in the former part he seems expresly to hold forth the Metempsychosis or Transanimation according to the Septuagint Version the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. Let my Soul die in the Souls of the Righteous and that the wise Men or Magi of the East who come to worship the Child Jesus had their Descent from him and their Knowledge or Institution he saith expresly Hom. 14. in num â—â—x illo denique fertur Majorum genus inâ—sâ—tutio in partibus Orientis vigere ideo quando Natus est Jesus agnoverunt stellam intellexerunt adiâ—â—â—â—i prophetiam magis quam populus Isâ—ael In English thus Of him the Kindred of Magi is said to have come and their Institution or Learning to have grown in the Eastern parts and therefore when Jesus was born they knew the Star viz. that he prophesied of Numb 24.17 and understood that the Prophecy was fulfilled more than the Peâ—â— of Israel These words in Psal 78.39 God remembeâ— that we are but