Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A37813
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Eclectical chiliasm, or, A discourse concerning the state of things from the beginning of the Millennium to the end of the world
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T. F., 17th cent.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing E157A; ESTC R171901
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22,921
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80
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of Fire with all whose names are not found Written in the Book of Life and the flying away of the Earth and the Heaven from the face of him that sits on the Throne these are somwhat obscure expressions and not so easily understood 1. St. Paul tells us that the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death 1 Cor 15. 26. Which destruction is here expressed by casting Death and Hell or Hades the place of separate Souls into the lake of Fire And signifies that there shall be no more seperation of Soul and Body but that Men arise to an immortal and endless Life But whether this immortality and endless duration be common to all Men or peculiar only to the Blessed is made matter of dispute That good Men shall live for ever in a State of unspeakable happiness is a privilege beyond the merit of the most perfect virtue But eternal Life is a gift very becoming the infinite Goodness of God to bestow And no Man ever Quarrel'd with God on this Score for promising to reward the imperfect Services of Men with Eternal Happiness But by some it is thought very Hard and no way consistent with the laws of justice to punish the sins of a short life with an eternity of Torment that Men who sin but a few years must live for ever in insupportable Misery there being no proportion between Time and Eternity This indeed is a very great difficulty and hath inforced some Men to put a period to the miseries of the Damned as not knowing how to reconcile the Divine Justice to the Eternity of Hell Torments Whatever is necessary for the preservation of Government and securing obedience to laws must be allowed to be just and lawful Which justifies the severity of God in denouncing everlasting misery against impenitent sinners because nothing less would be a sufficient restraint upon most Men from breaking the laws of God For if the generality of Men despise these Terrors of the Lord what regard would they have for menaces less severe But that God should execute these threats according to the strictest sense of them there is no necessity For tho Promises oblige to a performance yet Threats do not induce any obligation nor does justice require the Execution of them And therefore God if he pleases may deal with Sinners more mercifully than he hath threatned But whether he will shew them favour and abate any thing of the utmost he has denounced I cannot tell This is most certain that no Man shall suffer beyond the just desert of his actions But who dare say that God cannot in justice inflict Eternal punishment For any Man upon such a presumption to harden himself against the clear and express threats of endless Misery is the height of madness For if at last the Torments of a future state are Eternal how sad and deplorable will his Condition be And if they prove finite and end in his final destruction yet what an amazing and insupportable thought is this for a Man to suffer the pains of Hell so long as the Divine justice can inflict them and at last with all sense of farther sufferings to lose his Being for ever This indeed is the mildest fate the Sinner can expect but a much more severe may be his doom II. This punishment of wicked Men is exprest by being cast into the lake of Fire Which some interpret according to the literal sense of Torment by real fire Others understand this to be a Metaphorical description of the unknown miseries of the Damned The truth seems divided between these two opinions For first it is clear from St. Peter that the Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment 2 Ep. 3. 7. And whatever operation this fire may have upon the Apostate Spirits it will doubtless affect the bodies of wicked Men with most painful impressions But secondly This seems only the Prologue to a more tragical state which they must enter upon when this Conflagration is ended and of which a lake of fire and Brimstone is only a representation The miseries of Hell are described in Scripture by the most sensible and painful things And because the most dreadful Idea of pain the mind can form is the suffering by a raging and devouring fire therefore this Metaphor of fire is most frequently used And as for the lake of Fire and Brimstone so often mentioned in the Revelation it relates to the lake Asphaltites or the Dead Sea the lasting Monument of those showrs of Fire and Brimstone wherewith the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed These and the like descriptions are lively Images and Representations of Hell Torments and signifie them to be intolerable great but they do not express the true nature of them This indeed is in a great measure unknown to us and the most affrighted imagination cannot reach the truth and terror of them For who can tell or conceive what evils and Miseries the wrath of God and his vengeance on the ungodly comprehends III. By the Earth and the Heaven flying away from the face of him that sits on the Throne I understand the destruction of their present frame I see no reason from this or any other place of Scripture to conclude the utter Abolition or Annihilation of the World The matter and Substance of the Earth and the rest of the Mosaic Creation will doubtless continue the same but they will receive a new form or rather be rudis indigestaque moles an indigested heap without form or order This Dissolution of things St. Peter speaks of and tells us that this wonderful Metamorphosis shall be effected by Fire 2 Pet. 3. Some are apt to fancy that this Conflagration of the World is in order to its refining and that the Heavens and Earth being purged by Fire God will erect a new World out of the old Materials for the seat and habitation of the Blessed But this is a mere Imagination and is directly contrary to Scripture which teaches us that the Kingdom which the Righteous must inherit was prepared for them from the foundation of the World Matt. 25. 24. And as for the New Heavens and the New Earth which St. John and St. Peter speak of I have shewed that they do not signifie the Creation of a New World after the day of Judgment but a New state of things in the old Others think this Conflagaation to be perpetual and to be designed for the punishment of the wicked who shall live and suffer in this Fire to Eternnl Ages This seems to have some foundation in Scripture which speaks of the condemnation of the wicked to everlasting Fire But this fire to which wicked Men will be condemned is the same with that prepared for the Devil and his Angels which cannot be a Real One. For the evil Angels are spiritual Substances and have no sense of Material Impressinns If then the punishment of the Devil and wicked Men be of