Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	day_n	earth_n	great_a	11,067	5	3.2684	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49844	Observations upon a short treatise, written by Mr. Timothy Manlove, intituled, The immortality of the soul asserted and printed in octavo at London, 1697.	Layton, Henry, 1622-1705.	1697 (1697)	Wing L757; ESTC R39118	87,777	128

taking his Part of the Question for granted Truth seems to be a Folly and Vanity suitable to the rest of his Deportment throughout this Treatise P. 152 The Advers says In many Things we shall be in the Dark without the Assistance of supernatural Revelation The Observer says There is a Sufficiency of supernatural Revelation in the Scriptures of God for the bringing Men a happy Resurrection and a blessed State after it But for our better Illumination the Advers cites a Sentence out of Porphyry who was as great an Opposer of Christianity as any he could have named being a bare Platonist and no more To this he adds the Names of Plato and Socrates pretending to collect thence a more lofty Strain for his Imaginations to work upon than those which are deliver'd in Holy Writ and spares not to quote the Devil's Oracles in Confirmation of his own fantastical Idea's nor the Sibylline Verses dictated usually by a Spirit of the like nature The Advers says That the great Heathen Law-makers pretended to take Help of Spirits and Daemons for the Inventing and Establishing their Laws From which Example perhaps he may intend to derive a Confirmation of his Opinion That there are other supernatural Revelations to be expected at this Day for Mens Guidance and Direction in their Religion than those that are deliver'd us in Holy Scripture Which is an Opinion rejected by the Observer and not received by the Reformed Christian Churches After this Train of Heathen Oracles and Spirits the Adversary returns again to the Holy Scriptures as if he pretended to add some Credit or Authority to them by the Testimony of his Commendations which they neither need nor can his Credit any way extend to the advancing of their Reputation Men knowing it is rather a Disgrace than an Advantage to be prais'd or commended by a slanderous Tongue But those Records are so Sacred that they can suffer no Disadvantage by any Man's Commendations or Discommendations but stand fixed and firm as Pillars and Foundations of the Christian Faith not enduring to be compar'd with the Fictions of idle Oracles Philosophick Daemons or Poetical Inventions nor with the Miracles or Enthusiasms of the Romish Mahometical or Phanatical Imaginary Revelations There can be no reasonable Comparison of such Vanities with the Text of Holy Scripture and therefore whatsoever the Advers pretends to say to that Purpose seems a great Piece of Vanity in him and an idle Imployment of his Time P. 155 The Advers says If you believe that the Soul is Immortal be not over-fond of the Body The Observer replies If you believe the Resurrection and the Last Judgment be not so fond of the Body or any thing else as thereby to be drawn out of the way of endeavouring to make your Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 3.10 The Day of the Lord shall come as a Thief in the Night in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great Noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent Heat the Earth also and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought ye to be in all Holy Conversation and Godliness looking for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness Wherefore seeing ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in Peace without Spot and Blameless St. Paul 1 Thess 4.13 directs That they should not sorrow for their dead Friends as if they were without Hope concerning them For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him and they shall be rais'd at the Sound of the Trumpet and the Voice of the Archangel He does not tell his Proselytes That their Friends Souls are gone to Heaven as any Comfort or Ease of their Sorrows but he builds their Comforts upon the strong Rock of the Resurrection And thus have we both Peter and Paul to sound and credible Witnesses in this Case directing to a good Life and a strong Comfort in Death from a firm Hope of a future Resurrection in due Time without one Word concerning the Soul's Immortality or drawing any Comfort or Help from thence at all P. 156 The Advers says Make not your Prison too strong as if he assented to the false Platonick Imagination That the Body was made by God for a Prison to the Soul Which every Man 's daily Experience contradicts and proves certainly to us as has been before said That the Conjunction of the Soul and Body is the most amicable of any thing in the World and their Separation most grievous and terrible and That the Body's being a Prison to the Soul is an Opinion both false and foolish tho' it seems very well fitted for the Adversary's Part. He goes on and says Think how quickly this Flesh must be laid aside He should have added And this Spirit extinguished and then there will be no miserable or happy Soul to take notice of P. 157 the Advers demands What Relief will it be to your Souls to remember that in this Life you had your good Things The Observer does not believe that before the Resurrection there will be any such Soul or Remembrance It is true that in the Parable of Dives Abraham says to him Son Remember that in thy Life-time thou hadst thy good Things But the Parable no where makes mention of a Soul but in all Places it applies to the Person Lazarus died and was carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosome And Dives died and being in Hell he lift up his Eyes and saw Lazarus afar off in Abraham's Bosome It seems fit to be consider'd how Dives cou'd see a Soul at so great a Distance and speak audibly to Abraham afar off without a Tongue Men do usually imagine This Discourse and Proposal shou'd be applied to the Souls of these two Persons But the Observer thinks there 's no Necessity to take it in that Sense but either to let it pass as a bare Similitude or Parable invented or that it may as well or better be intended concerning the Persons mentioned in the Text before quoted and the rather because Abraham calls Dives Son Remember This Term of Son cannot be applicable to a separate Soul because that Term is properly applied to the Person and also because if our Adversary say true such a Soul cou'd not be descended from Abraham but was newly created by God upon the Begetting of the Body of Dives Whence it seems still That the Relation concerning these Person is but a bare Similitude or Parable and proves nothing Or must be applied to the State of these two Person consider'd in the Contextures of their Bodies and Souls together The Adversary seems to doubt whether Souls go to appointed Places or hover about those Places where their Bodies are interr'd The Observer says It is no Wonder that Men of his Opinion have many Doubts concerning their

obtaining of an End which he design'd in it He Quotes in this Chapter the Words of the Prophet Zechariah saying Tell ye the daughter of Sion behold thy King cometh unto thee meek and sitting upon an asse and a colt the foal of an asse His Quotation shews that this Place of Zechary was known to him and his own Relation of the Story seems to Prove That he intended to make our Saviour's Fact in this Place agree punctually and in terminis with those Words of Zechary which he had before Quoted And the Observer conceives it somewhat likely that he has erred in like manner in delivering the Words our Saviour us'd in the Doctrine before-mentioned where our Lord Teaches his Disciples to Fear God rather than Men And to give a further strength to this Conception he Quotes Matth 28. which delivers many Circumstances concerning our Lord's Resurrection viz. In the end of the sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher And behold there was a great earth-quake for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow And for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men And the angel answered and said unto the women Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified He is not here for he is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him lo I have told you And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his disciples word And as they went to tell his disciples behold Jesus met them saying All hail And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him Comparando with this Relation he Quotes John 20. where the Words are The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher Then she ran to Peter and John and saith unto them They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him And the two Apostles were so affected with this Relation that they arose and ran to the Sepulcher to make themselves Eye-Witnesses of the Truth of this Fact And coming to the sepulcher they went into it and saw the linnen cloths used at his Burial but the Body was clean gone Then the disciples went away again unto their own home But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher and seeth two angels who ask'd the cause of her VVeeping She answered Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Then turning her self back she saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was he Jesus saith unto her Woman why weepest thou whom seekest thou she supposing him to be the gardiner saith unto him Sir if thou hast born him hence tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away Men that well examine these two Relations will find a great difference and even an incompatibility between them For that if Mary Magdelene had seen the Angel Discours'd of in the Text of St. Matthew and heard such Tidings from him and soon after had seen and spoken with our Lord himself it opposes the common Reason of Mankind to conceive she should so behave her self upon this Occasion as the Relation of St. John has described to us It seems somewhat clear to this Observer That there is error in one of these two Relations and he thinks That the Relation made by S. John is more credible and that the error lies on the side of St. Matthew because St. John was Pars magni facti He tells us what himself saw and knew whereas it is probable That St. Matthew's Discourse was rather grounded upon Relations of some of the frighted Women than proceeding from any thing of his own certain knowledge These two Instances Prove That all the Relations we find in St. Matthew are not Infallible Truths but some of them have need to be searched by Humane Sagacity and the comparing of them with other Scriptures The Observer inclines to take his Wording our Saviour's Doctrine against the over great fear of Men to be like one of the two former Instances and that it may stand in need to be compared with its parallel Text in the Gospel of St. Luke and to be Examined by it But he is resolved to leave this Point to the further Consideration of Mr. M. In this Chapter also he Quotes many other particular Texts of Scripture which he thinks may Prove or Strengthen his Assertion But the Observer finds not one among them whose Proof is so full or so clear as that before Quoted out of St. Matthew All his other Texts except the Parable of Dives and that of the Thief upon the Cross seem to arise from Collections upon Inferences and some accidental Expressions or Forms of Words in Places of Scripture which do not Teach any thing concerning the future State of Mankind nor are spoken in those Places with intent to Teach concerning it In which rank he places Solomon's short Saying The spirit returns to God who gave it He does not wonder that Mr. M's Quotations seem to him such clear and evident Proofs as he pretends they do For the reason thereof may be and very likely is because he Reads and Considers them with the Mind already satisfied and assured That the Soul is Immortal and capable of Subsisting in a State of Separation from the Body But to a Man that is otherwise perswaded the much greater Part of his Quotations will seem to be of very little force for the Proof of that Opinion which he produces them for The Observer can and does inform him That there is not one of them which is not mentioned and discussed in that larger Treatise of the Observer's which is before-mentioned He has no mind in this Place Acta agere but rather chuses to refer Mr. M. in this Point to that Treatise which he has a strong Inclination and Intent to Publish if God please to lengthen the feeble Thread of his Life and give him Opportunity so to do Chap. 3d. He directs Men to expect Proofs of the Soul's Immortality by Arguments and Rules derived from Nature and Reason without enough considering That before he determin'd concerning the Adjuncts he should endeavour to Prove the real Substance of that Subject to which they must belong It seems he has attentively Perused his Pamphlet entituled Observations upon Mr. B's Sermon but does not think fit to take Notice what is there demanded by