Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	become_v	body_n	sin_n	4,701	5	4.7025	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45603	The harmless opinion of the revolution of humane souls as a probable hypothesis, and very serviceable to clear many doubts, and answer many objections of atheists against the divine providence, and the Holy Scriptures. Modestly defended in a reply to a late treatise, signed by J.H. printed at Oxford, and called by him, An answer to some queries, proposed by W.C. or a refutation of Helmont's pernicious error, &c.		1694 (1694)	Wing H799A; ESTC R221587	22,402	53

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 Decree● 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 o● 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 o● 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 ●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 pre●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 able●●t from Bodies for a long contract of Time as●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

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 ●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 f●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

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 but● 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