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soul_n according_a body_n spirit_n 5,891 5 5.2175 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
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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deny but it is God's Prerogative and peculiar Priviledge to Fashion and Compose a Man and every Man from the first Creation till the Dissolution of all things is the undeniable Work of his Hand For it is he that has made us and not we our selves his Eyes beheld our Substance when imperfect and in his Book and his alone are all our Menbers written Now if to Create is God's peculiar Priviledge If nothing of an Inferior Being can pretend to it If Death makes a real Division and Separation both of Soul and Body by the special Appointment and Designation of God himself and such a Disolution that the Body returns to Dust Corruption and Putrefaction and the Soul is taken into the safe Custody of Angels who are to answer for it and Conduct it to that State either of Happiness or Misery where it is to remain till the Resurrection yet there can be no reason to think supposing there may be an Apparition that this Apparition should consist of the same Body and Soul which did belong to the Deceased Person because it is Gods Prerogative only to Create and Vnite the Body and Soul of Man and the same Body and Soul being once dissolv'd and separated by Death are consined by the Wise Order and Appointment of God to their respective States untill the last Trumpet sound and Command them to rise again and therefore as it cannot be with the same Body and Soul it is altogether as unlikely it should be with the Body or Soul of any other Deceased Person whatever for the same reason of Confinement already given And therefore to suppose there may be an Apparition yet of what can we imagine it should consist It must either consist of Substance or Matter or else it must be Immaterial and without Substance If it consists of Substance and Matter and consequently may be Seen Felt and Understood why may it not be secured and kept for the Conviction of such as will not believe there are such Beings but this was never yet attempted and therefore I dare conclude that either there can be no such thing at all or if there be it must be Incorporeal or Immaterial And to suppose this How is it likely it should perform the same operations with Matereal and Corporeal Beings as is frequently pretended either by discoursing with discovering things past or foretelling things that are to come Or to suppose a Point further that it is neither meerly Corporeal nor yet meerly Incorporeal But as some Philosophers Imagined a Being or Existence between both yet if so how is it likely it should so nearly resemble such a Being as was both Material and Immaterial and as such consisted both of Soul and Body for if it be Incorporeal it must necessarily be Immaterial and if it is Immaterial it must as necessarily be Invisible and if so the Controverfie is at an end But to beg your Patience a while longer according to the Platonick Hypothesis Spirits are Embodied Mr. Locks Humane Understanding page 162. Book 2d Chap. 23. and altho' a very ingenious Person seems to think that Spirits can assume to themselves Bodies of different Figure and Conformation of Parts yet the same Person as ingeniously confesses 't is but a meer Conjecture owns that he can give no manner of Reason for it but common Report and is so far from imposing it upon the World that he calls it his own extravagant Opinion Historians I am sensible make frequent mention of the Miracles of Magicians and several other Unaccountable Prodigies by Invisible Powers and wicked Spirits thus they tell us that not only the time but the place of Cesars Death was fortold to Pompey and Crassus but as this happen'd in a little time after so it was as much expected as it was foretold as Tully witnesses lib. 2. de Divinatione And altho' some of their Predictions might happen to be true yet this must be suppos'd in Common Reason to happen but by Chance because they so often failed which can be owing to nothing more then the over-ruling Power and Providence of God who bringeth the Councels of the Heathens to naught and maketh their Devices to be of none effect thus Demosthenes confessed that the Delphian Oracle was determined by Philip of Macedon and their Corruption is clearly taken notice of in several other Authors Eusebius Prepar lib. 4. shews that several of the Heathen Priests publickly confessed the Impostures of their Oracles and that their Confessions have been if they are not still upon Record and as the World increased in Knowledge they were rejected and laid aside For as soon as Light and Immortality became discovered by the Power of the Gospel they were visibly slighted and disregarded till at length they became despicable every day more and more I make no doubt but there have been Apparitions as in the several forementioned Instances from Scripture for Ends and Designs best known to God as perhaps for the Manifestation of his Power and Wisdom of his Love and Goodness to Mankind but I cannot see the least reason why or how there should or can be any such in these times Since Miracles are Ceased Gods ways are sufficiently known upon the Earth and his saving Health amongst all Nations For as God cannot propose any thing considerable to Mankind as to the Revelation of his Will and Pleasure here or his Rewards and Punishments in the other Life either by raising the Dead or suffering or permitting an Apparition as has been already shewn so neither can I think that any other Being has Power to do it for altho' the Devil had a Power once given him to Metamorphose and take strange shapes upon him as he did to Eve in the shape of a Serpent yet it does not follow that he has the same Power to do so still and altho' God might permit and suffer it in those times and likewise Eve to be tempted by him perhaps to bring about that profound Mystery of his Love the Incarnation and Crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour yet since the Coming of our Saviour into the World according to that Prediction of him the Seed of the Woman has bruised the Serpents Head the Power of Satan is destroyed and his Kingdom is at an End and thanks be to God who has given us the Victory through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ God has eng●ged himself by a solemn Promise to us in the first Epistle to the Corinthians chap. 10. that no temptation shall befall us but such as is common to Man and more over that he will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able Now if this be so it cannot be in the Power of Satan or any of his Agents to make any extraordinary Assaults upon us without our own Concurrence and altho' some Persons do pretend to Praeternatural and Extraordinary Temptations I dare be possitive this is more owing to their own Wickedness and Debaucheries then to any thing