Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	church_n	salvation_n	visible_a	2,151	5	9.7825	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29388	Religio bibliopolæ in imitation of Dr. Browns Religio medici, with a supplement to it / by Benj. iBrgwater [sic], Gent.	Dunton, John, 1659-1733.; Bridgewater, Benjamin.; Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682. Religio medici.	1691 (1691)	Wing B4486; ESTC R19049	55,380	118

〈◊〉 accomplish the Resurrection of the Dead tho' th● Bodies of all Mankind were crumbled into Dus● and that Dust scatter'd before the Wind or d●still'd into Water or attenuated into Air 〈◊〉 tho' those Bodies were eaten by the Beas●● of the Earth or the Fish of the Sea as those Beasts and Fish eaten again by Men. Tho' they shou'd undergo all these Changes and Transmigrations yet were they still in the great Repository of God The whole World in this sence being but as one great Store-house and all the Elements as so many Cells therein so that wheresoever we shall be laid up whether in the Bellies of Fishes Entrails of Beasts or by various Altera●ions become ●he Food of Men yet the Great Architect of all Things knows where to find our scatter'd Remnants But why should we engage Him in so infinite a Task when the Work may as well be done a nearer way And put him to the Expence of multiplying Miracles when fewer will serve the turn When the Grand Alarm is given He can soon fit our Souls with proper Matter for their future Bodies out of the Elements as well as out of their own Antiquated Embers The Jewish Rabbins seem to deny the gathering together our dispers'd Ashes and assign the Trouble to a certain small Bone in every Man 's Back which they say never suffers any Putrofaction but remaining to the last Day in its Primitive Consistency impassible and incorruptible is then impregnated by a Dew from Heaven which diffusing its Vertue like a Ferment not only animates and quickens this Seminal Bone but also attracts all the Atomes which formerly constituted the Body tho' dispers'd in the remotest Corners and most hidden Recesses of the Vniverse marshalling them in the same Order as they had before their Dissolution and so in a moment recovering the Body to its Primitive State But these are gross Conceipts for Christians who believe that our bodies shall in that great and Final Change become Spiritual and Immortal being for ever divested of all the peculiar Circumstances of Flesh and Blood Let the manner be how it will please God I am ravish'd to think what a bright and serene Morning the Resurrection will prove after the long Night of Death and the languishing slumbers of the Grave How vigorous and active we shall rise from our Beds of Darkness how merry and blithe from the melancholy Regions of Horror and Silence More sprightly than Youth stronger than Lyons and swifter than Eagles Full of Light full of Joy we shall soar aloft and like well-mounted Travellers post it away through the Balmy Air and liquid Skies till we arrive at the Place of admirable Mansions and be welcom'd to the House of God I dare not with some of the Jewish Rabbins say that all shall not rise at the great Day much less will I presume with others to particularize so far as to exclude all those who perish'd in Noah's Flood or with a third sort to confine the Resurrection to the Children of Israel as if we that are of the Gentiles were not capable of it as well as they But above all I reject the Censure of the Talmudists who say that neither Bilha the Concubine of Jacob that lay with Reuben nor Doeg that caused Saul to kill Abimelech and the Priests nor Gehazi the servant of Elijah the Prophet nor Achitophel David's prime Minister of State shall rise from the Dead These are the Memoirs of Hebrew Superstition Invidious Remarks the peculiar Heresie of that over-weening Nation Yet I am more scandaliz'd at some Christians who will not allow Salvation to any man that is not within the visible Pale of their Church as if the Eternal Sun of Justice were Eclips'd to all that are out of their narrow Horizon Surely He enlightens every man that comes into this World and his Rays are not confin'd to Countries or Parties He shines Universally and no man can trace him in the Zodiack of his Mercy I dare not 't is true with Justin Martyr canonize the Philosophers and place Socrates and Heraclitus in Heaven neither am I sure that Aristotle by his learned Treatises of Heaven has obtain'd an Inheritance there himself 'T is too officious a Regard and too bold a Charity thus happily to dispose of Particular Men. On the other side I dread to pass the Sentence of Damnation on all the antient Pagans and to aver that none were saved that died before the fifteenth year of Tiberius Tho' the mere Light of Natural Reason was not sufficient to conduct them nor al● their Morality enough to entitle them to Supreme Felicity Yet I cannot be perswaded ●hat the infinite Goodness would doom the vertuous Gentiles to the Abyss of Misery Neither can any man demonstrate That Christ was not the Light of the Gentiles before his Incarnation as well as after And since Abraham saw his Day and was glad how do we know that Plato Solon Lycurgus Pythagoras Cyrus and other wise Law-givers Philosophers and Kings men renown'd for their Prudence Temperance Fortitude Chastity Liberality and the like Vertues might not also be favour'd with a glimpse of the Messias the desire of all Nations before he appear'd in the Flesh Tho' we have no Records in Scripture of Hermes Trismegistus Zoroaster Phocilides Homer Theognes Epictetus Theseus and Hercules yet we cannot be assured but that they had Faith and expected the Redeemer to come as well as Job who was not of the Holy Line but a Branch of the Gentiles When I consider what Pains some of the wiser Heathens have taken to find out the Truth when I contemplate a Pythagoras travelling through Asia and particularly conversant in Palestine an Empedocles Journeying into Africk to learn the Wisdom of the Aegyptians an Alexander the Great falling at the Feet of the Hebrew High-Priest I cannot think the Heathen World to be so ignorant of the true Religion as is commonly imagin'd They had a Balaam to instruct them the Sybills to guide them to the Knowledge of a future Messias and for ought I know some of them might have the Scriptures of the Old Testament too or at least a good part of them even before that celebrated Translation of the Septuagint was extant since it was easie for those Gentiles who had Commerce with the Jews to procure Copies of their Law especially when they were made Captives in Media Assyria Aegypt and Babylon An Esther lying in the Bosom of Ahasuerus a Daniel sitting at the Right Hands of Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzer and Darius had fair Opportunities of instructing those Heathen Monarchs in the Mysteries of the Mosaick Law and surely such Holy Persons wou'd never neglect so noble a Work as proselyting the Kings and Princes of the Gentiles to God In the Days of Solomon the Fame of the Jewish Nation had reach'd the utmost Parts of the Earth Kings came from far and Queens from the remotest Borders of the Continent to be the Disciples of that Royal Philosopher and