Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	scripture_n	word_n	6,515	5	4.2341	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52779	A letter to a gentleman touching the treatise entituled, Two hundred queries concerning the doctrine of the revolution of humane souls and its conformity to the truths of Christianity / by a pacifick Christian, a member of the Catholick Church, tho not of the Roman synagogue falsely so called.	Pacifick Christian.	1690 (1690)	Wing N42; ESTC R24019	20,535	64

the Earth in the same Captivity of the Devil that Christ might go and preach to them by his Spirit in their own Hearts and in the Ministry of the Apostles Or shall we with the Papists feign this Prison to be some Limbo under the Earth into which Christ descended after his Death but before his Quickning or Resurrection to preach to these Spirits Contrary to the express Doctrine of the Scriptures which never speak of any Plate but this Earth in which ●en can be converted and to the express Words of the Text it self which saith That it was after he was 〈◊〉 to death in the Flesh and quickned if the Spirit Or shall we with the Protestants 〈◊〉 general assert this preaching to them to have been only in the Days if Noah and by his Ministry alone contrary to the Text it self as above ●●served Or confessing that Preaching ●is after the Resurrection because it seems evident from the Text shall we by another Fetch of the Socini●●s contradict the Apostle another way viz. by denying that they were the very same Spirits to which Christ then preached which lived and were ●●sobedient in the days of Noah and that they were onely Men and Women guilty of the same Sins O● is it not best now a way is found out how it can be to take the Apostle's Words as they lie without any Fetch or Quirk of Wit forreign to the Text The Scripture saith in plain Terms That upon that Generation Matth. 23.31 which slew the Son of God should come all the righteous Blood shed from the Blood of the righteous Abel to the Blood of Zacharias Which is about Forty Generations But if this Doctrine by which that very Generation may have lived formerly as Christ says they did in the days of Zacharias and of the Prophets and did slay them be rejected and the Vulgar Doctrine maintain'd and it be said that all this Blood should come upon them for their Parents and their own Sins being found in the Foot-steps of their Parents and that they never lived before pray tell me how this Denuntiation of Christ is consistent either with the Doctrine of the Law or of the Gospel Seeing that even under the Law it self God never threatens to visit the Iniquities of the Parents upon the Children beyond the third or fourth Generation Exod. 20.5 even of them that hate him And that Ezechiel prophesied that in the days of the Gospel even that should also cease and that the Child should not bear the Iniquity of the Father but the Soul alone that sianed Ezek. 18.2 that alone should die Again The Scripture says plainly That that Generation Mat. 23.39 that then slew him should yet believe in him and say unto him Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Now is it probable that they were or could be at that time converted after Christ had pronounc'd such Woes against them and told them That they could not escape the damnation of Hell Matth. 23.33 35 37 38. that they had filled up the measure of their Fathers Iniquities that they would not be gathered Luke 19.42.13.15 that the things that belonged to their Pea●e were then bid from their eyes and that their House was for that time left them desolate Must they not then yet once more after that time live again upon Earth if they should ever see him whom they had pierced and pronounce him Blessed as coming in the Name of his Father As he there saith they shall ver 39. The Scripture saith most expresly Rom. 11.16 26. That after the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in All Israel shall be saved That the whole Mass as well as the First-fruits the Branches as well as the Roots are holy Now there is nothing more clear from Scripture than that at that time such blindness had hapned to Israel Rom. 9.2 that but very few but a remnant of them were saved Must they not then live once more on Earth that they might believe and be saved if all Israel shall he saved Or where do we read of wicked Mens being converted in the Grave These and such like are Sir the Reasonings of this Author upon which he thinks himself as certain of his Chief Doctrine That the Souls of Men do ordinarily live more than once upon this Earth as any Sect of Christians are or can be from the Scripture of any Opinion in Theology that is in Controversie among them Of all which whether true or false I shall forbear as yet to determine till I hear what Men of more mature and solid Judgment Piety and Learning shall say to it and what the Author hath to reply as when he must descend from the State of a Querer and take upon him that of an Asserter and Defender and perhaps of an Informer of his mistaken Adversary which a Man may easily be if he take not good heed and from which I dare not pronounce my self so altogether free as I am sure I am from intending to misrepresent him But this I think I may say That if it be an Error it seems to me to be an Error that has been received by Persons of as much Probity Piety and Prudence as perhaps greater are not to be found in the generality of the most refined Professors of Christianity of this Age which yet I grant far to exceed that of many Ages last past For Pythagoras and Plato before Christ Plotine Pro●lus and the best of the Heathen Philosophers since Christ and the Disciples of Christ when he was upon Earth did believe it to be a Truth And nothing is more plain than this that if Christ did not approve it he did at least bear with it in his Disciples And one would think it might without incurring his displeasure be as well born with now For altho' some Men of very sharp and penetrant Judgments may possibly discover here and there some Weakness in some or other part of the Fabrick yet the Author for his Good-will to Christianity for his Love to God and his Neighbour discovered by putting himself to the pains of thinking out this System to the clearing of the Divine Attributes of God's Justice Mercy and Wisdom and rendring the most perplext Articles of the Christian Religion so plain to the very meanest as well as to the largest Capacity that no Atheist can rationally oppose them deserves I should think to be treated with all Humanity and Christian Candour by the People of our Nation whom he honoured with the first Propositions of this Nature And not for every little Error or Mistake be rudely run upon unmannerly and unmanlike traduced with those vile Names of Papist Jesuit Atheist and what not A thing too common with many of the Professors of our Nation For which of us is or pre●ches to be free from all Mistakes or Errors in Judgment And which of us would be willing to be so treated for offering his Thoughts