Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	know_v	word_n	4,525	5	4.2540	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25316	The evidence of things not seen, or, Diverse scriptural and philosophical discourses, concerning the state of good and holy men after death ... by that eminently learned divine Moses Amyraldus ; translated out of the French tongue by a Minister of the Church of England.; Discours de l'estat des fidèles après la mort. English.	Amyraut, Moïse, 1596-1664.; Minister of the Church of England.	1700 (1700)	Wing A3036; ESTC R7638	98,543	248

for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Which shews sufficiently that he hath some respect to the day of the full Revelation of our Salvation but that which follows of the destruction of this earthly Tabernacle can it be understood otherwise than of the dissolution of the body That which he writes immediately afterwards that as long as we are lodged in this body we are absent and as it were strangers from our Lord but that through the assurance that we have of our Salvation we desire rather to be strangers from the body and be with the Lord can it be understood of the blessed Resurrection Shall we be then absent and strangers from our bodies or rather will not our Spirits have thereon eternal Habitations I therefore think that the Apostle in that place opposes the time in which we are in this life to that in which we shall be in it no more and that he says that as long as we are in this life we are absent from the Lord but when we are dislodged we are present with him and because although this future time consist of two parts the one wherein we are stripped of our bodies by death the other wherein we are reinvested in them by the Resurrection it is to that in the one and the other our condition must always be the enjoyment of the presence of Jesus Christ he considers it not but as one and the same tract of time in the first part whereof our happiness begins and is compleated in the second which excites our desires and affections to be now stripped of these bodies that we may enter on the possession of those happy beginnings till the time of full and compleat perfection shall come Now this is marvellously far from the opinion of those that take from the Souls of believers all sense and perception whatsoever even that of their proper faculties and essence St. Luke reports that St. Stephen being about to die recommended his Spirit to our Lord Christ saying Lord Jesus into thy hands I commend my Spirit and our Lord himself commended his to his Father on the Cross To what purpose was this then It was not without doubt to secure it from perishing and being reduced to nothing For the substance of the Soul contains nothing of matter nor of the mixture of the Elements 't is of its nature incorruptible and imperishable as are the Angels Was it then to be protected from the Temptations and assaults of the Devil or to be put into the fruition of happiness and glory As to the first it can have no place if the Spirits of the faithful remain swallowed of a sleep so deep that they absolutely lose all use of their understandings For the Temptations of the Devil consist either in an Artificial external presenting to our senses such objects as are proper to move our desires and appetites or in this that internally he forms in our Phantasy such Images of things as may stir and provoke us and in favouring with his efficacy such as are already there or in moving our humours and by our humours soliciting the appetites and passions of our Souls what can these attempts do upon substances which are not at all subject to the motion of humours which in death have lost the faculty of imagination which have no Corporeal senses seeing they are not Bodies and all whose Spiritual capacities are so fettered in the excercise of their powers that neither exteriour objects can by any means touch them nor visions from within be get the least thought there As to the second there is neither felicity nor glory can happen to Spirits without the exercise of their understanding and will There is not a person to whom we say that the Spirits of the faithful gone hence are happy and glorious which doth not immediately conceive that they are so far from being swallowed up in a profound drousiness or sleep that on the contrary they have a very lively and notable sense of their happiness and glory I am much of the opinion of those that think that in the words of our Saviour John 11. 26. and John 5. 24. he that believeth in me shall never see death He is passed from death to life There is a particular Emphasis which makes much to our present purpose I very well know that in divers places it seems probable that what interprets these words by that promise I will raise him up at the last day Nevertheless if since the time wherein he spake those words believers that are departed hence have slept unto this day and must yet sleep till the consummation of Ages without any bodily or mental sense of their condition or essence I am not able to comprehend how the hopes of the Resurrection can perfectly satisfy and compleat the sense and magnificence of the words Although the body sleep after that manner if the principal part of man and that whereof the Scriptures sometimes speaks as if it were the man and the body nothing but its Habitation live and be awake and perceive and exercise with content and joy such operations as are worthy the dignity of his nature death is not properly death nor doth it seem to deserve a name so terrible and odious 'T is much rather a sleep as the Scripture sometimes speaks wherein man entertains himself with visions very pleasant and delightful But if the perception of the Soul and body both be equally extinct and that not only for a little time but for I know not how many Ages how comes it to pass that it is not called death but a passing from death to life And it will appear yet much more strange if we apply it to the Fathers and Patriarchs that lived in the first Ages Such as were Adam Noah Seth and Abraham For since the Apostle Heb. 11. Attributes unto them one and the same faith with us although the things which faith embraces were not so plainly revealed to them as to us yet they ought to produce one and the same effect with respect to them and us Jesus Christ being the same yesterday and to day and for ever Are those then passed from death to life who from before the deluge and soon after were as to their bodies reduced to dust and as to their Souls carried in a profound sleep and total insensibility Truly it seems manifest that they had other hopes and expectations When Jacob after too many afflictions and irksom and troubleous Pilgrimages comforted himself with this that he hoped for the Salvation of God Gen. 49. 18. If he had no hope but that of losing the sense of all good and evil for so long a succession of Ages he would have had more occasion to be afflicted than to rejoyce to fear death than to draw comfort from the near approach and prospect of it besides 't is here very considerable that as he was at a greater distance from the day of judgment

faculty which displays it self chiefly in the Operations of sense and motion I know not at all what will be then the constitution of our Organs nor what will be the nature of the Operation of our Soul upon them nor how the species of sensible things will be received by them And what is more I am not afraid to be esteemed an ignorant on this account at least for certain I shall have many Companions to partake with me in the blame thereof For I do not believe there is a man upon Earth that knows it But so it is that I very well know all will be otherwise than now it is the constitution of such Organs as now we have and the dispensation of Spirits whereupon depends all their Operations being a certain consequence of the passible and corruptible state of nature Now that which is natural will be swallowed up with that which is supernatural as that which is sensual by that which is Spiritual and that which is mortal by immortality and life And although we do not know the manner after which the Soul will be then joined to the Body for its Operations they will not be for that either the less certain or the less decorous If the measure of our knowledg were the measure of the Existence of things the greatest part of the objects of our faculties and their Operations would suffer very notable diminutions in the qualities of their Being yea some would be even absolutely expelled out of nature And I do not know whether we have used any of our senses as we ought That is to say whether of any of them we have very exactly and distinctly comprehended what it is that the Soul doth in their Operations what is the agency and activity of the Spirits And lastly what it is that the Organ it self contributes thereunto how ever it be the Organ after what manner so ever it be constituted the Soul after whatsoever manner it operate there will exercise so admirably each one what is proper to it self that they will do it without offence impediment errour or weariness with a vigour and clearness with an exactness and perfection wholly beyond imagination In conclusion to say something also of the appetites which have properly their seat in the Body and which as I have said are included under desire and anger these are passions which forasmuch as they are Corporeal will be so extinguished by death that they will return no more to life by the Resurrection And if it be true that there be virtues which have their seat in these passions as 't is apparent that Philosophy hath there placed those that they call properly moral either they will be no longer necessary because there will be no objects upon which they may be exercised or they consist not in the moderation of those appetites but in an excellent and invariable temper of the mind and will which will then be irrevocably fastened to all sorts of excellent objects by the light of the understanding All these impidements being removed if there were nothing else the reasonings of the Soul must be supreamly excellent For a good part of the failures which happen to us come either by the errour of our senses in the report that they make to us concerning sensible things or from the fumes of our passions which blind our understandings or from this that the aliments being not well concocted the Spirits which are formed out of part of their substance do retain something of their grossness and impurity wherewithal they infect the Organs which serve for the use of discourse or from this that from their first conformation there was some fault in their natural temper and construction But the same change which will put all the other parts of the Body into so excellent a constitution will put also those into the same condition wherein the intellective power of the Soul hath its seat and where it will form its ratiocinations This will be done the rather because all the other parts of the Body are not to be restored unless it be for their own proper felicity these are to serve the Operations of the Soul on which depends the happiness of the whole entire man and all the parts of him the Soul therefore being otherwise full of the illuminations of the Divine Spirit and strengthened by his presence far above the natural vigour of its faculties and coming to be lodged in a Body all whose power will be admirably perfect and bringing thither the impression of much excellent knowledg which it had already gained during the time of its residence in the Heavens it cannot effect any thing but productions worthy of its marvellous essence And as if during the time of a long separation the husband and wife had equally encreased in beauty and virtue and all other advantages they would receive incredible contentment if they might return to each other to enjoy long one and the same common felicity The Soul will rejoyce in its reunion to the Body and the Body will rejoyce in the presence of the Soul and both together composing one onely essence will be equally ravished with the happiness of their condition and with the assurance that they will have that it will be Eternal The second respect according to which man hath a Connexion and Relation to the World will deserve very attentive Consideration many things do manifestly show that the world was created for man The dignity of his nature which raised him infinitely above all other Creatures if he had remained in his integrity would not have permitted that he should have held any other place than that of an end to the use whereof other things were appointed The Empire that God gave him over all Plants and Animals at the beginning when he placed him in the Terrestrial Pardadise confirms it evidently For God would not have so ordained it if it had not been agreeable to the nature of the things themselves But nothing Teaches it unto us more expresly than the misery whereunto the world is subject on the occasion of mans sin For that 's it which the Apostle means when he says that the Creature is made subject to vanity not of it self but by reason of him which hath subjected it Rom. 8. 20. And if it be lawful to illustrate this by a Comparison taken from things Pagan the World was in regard of God as the statue of Minerva in regard of Phidias and man which is the image of God in the middle of the world as the image of Phidias in the middle of her Shield So that all the parts of the Statue were so aptly placed by their Jointures and Colligations that they met all together in the image of the workman in such manner that if it were plucked from thence all the work would fall in pieces all the parts of the World do so Abutt on this image of God that it cannot be corrupted by sin but the whole compages of

THE EVIDENCE Of things not SEEN OR Diverse Scriptural AND Philosophical Discourses Concerning the State of Good and Holy men after Death In Answer to these following Questions 1. Whether the Soul after death be endued with perception or sleeps without exercising any of its Faculties until the day of Judgment 2. What is the place of the Souls abode Immediately after death and what is then the measure of the happiness of the Faithful 3. What will be the Condition of the Soul and Body at the Resurrection when they shall be Joyning and Re-joyned together 4. What will be the Nature of a good Mans Happiness in Eternal Glory after the Resurrection By that Eminently Learned Divine MOSES AMYRALDUS Translated out of the French Tongue By a Minister of the Church of England LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Sign of the Three Legs in the Poultry THE TRANSLATOR TO HIS Dearest CONSORT My Dear THE Excellent Author of the following Discourses wrote them for the only use of his Dear Wife without any intention of Printing them but some Friends obtaining a sight of them in Manuscript were so delighted with them and so satisfied with the Philosophy and Reason of them together with the Scriptural evidences here made use of which do clearly reveal and plainly Manifest very much of the nature of mans future State and Condition as that they did not only judge them worthy of the Publick view but making it their earnest request to him did by the Mediation of so prevalent a person as his nearest Relation gain his consent as he tells us for the publishing of them Dear Heart I did sometimes since Translate them also for your use and now at your desire I do suffer them to pass the Press you have Communicated them to some of your Relations who think that they may be of great advantage to devout and pious Souls I do therefore willingly commit them to your and their Disposal and if they may promote and increase a love to and a faith in that blessed future State which is the Subject of them I shall most Heartily Rejoyce therein I very well know that such subjects are very congruous suitable and pleasant to your Soul and it was the knowledge thereof that did engage me at some Vacant hours to Translate them You have Experienced much good already by them and I doubt not but they will tend yet further to encrease a passion in you for God and Heaven It may be also that God may bless them to produce the same Effects upon many others that shall peruse them But as the Author inscribed them to no other Name than Hers for whose sake he Wrote them So I having made them English for your Use in a Especial manner do now make the Dedication of them only to your self always praying that God would so bless them to the profit of all that shall Read them that they together with us may be made Partakers of that blessed Inheritance a clear Map whereof is herewith so lively Delineated and so plainly Exhibited to our and their Eyes Now the God of peace fill thee my Dear with all joy through Believing which is the Dayly Prayer of thine G. J. Concerning the STATE Of the FAITHFUL After Death ALthough the Apostle St. Paul writing to the Thessalonians exhorts them to derive their Comforts in the loss of their Friends from the hopes of a happy Resurrection and tho the full Revelation of our happiness be reserved indeed till the day when that shall be Nevertheless we do not cease to Comfort those to whom such accidents arrive by this Consideration that assoon as the Soul is separate from the body it is received into a place of refreshment and repose where expecting this Resurrection it enjoys a Contentment greater than can be expressed We have been accustomed to give this hope to the diseased that we see in danger of death that if they be removed from this life it will be to enter into a better where they shall forthwith possess joy and happiness which we essay to describe in the most Illustrious manner that we are able But the thing it self must infinitely surpass all that we can in our words say concerning it And forasmuch as 't is apparent that naturally things a far off touch us little whereas those that are near and such as we think under our hand give to our Spirits motions and perceptions far more lively this Consolation hath I know not how more of efficacy both to sweeten the trouble of those that live and to abate the regret of those that die than the expectation of the re-establishment of this Body which according to all appearance of things seems to be differred to a time sufficiently long Now as 't is suitable to the Christian Religion and to the Office of those that are to Publish it to fill the minds of men with generous hopes and to make them feel the most lively Consolations so 't is worthy of its Excellence that these hopes and Consolations be true and certain and that those that do receive them have a full perswasion of it For the efficacy of such things depends on the evidence and solidity of their truth and in what degree a man doubts the truth of what is promised or whereof he receives assurance in the same degree the content that he receives from it doth weaken and diminish Forasmuch then as there is nothing the use whereof returns more frequently in the life of man and that there is not a Family among Christians that doth not sometimes need such Consolations and that the infirmity of the flesh finds always much of difficulty to impress on us aforehand the belief of these things and that even among Christians themselves some have doubted of the Estate of Souls after death and that it cannot be avoided but that in the particular Entercourse and Conversation of men they will happen on the discourse of this matter I do believe that it will not be altogether without reason to bestow some hours on the attentive Consideration of this Subject If my thoughts about it be of no use to the Edification of the Publick at least my near Allies may derive with me some particular utility from them in the Afflictions of this sort wherewith God hath visited us I propound to my self therefore to examine by the word of God for 't is from thence only that we can fetch such light as may satisfy us in these matters principally four things First what is the Estate of the faithful Soul after death Whether it be endowed with perception or whether it remain asleep without any use of its faculties until the day of Judgment Secondly it being supposed which we shall make appear that it exercises them with much joy and satisfaction what is the place where 't is received and what is the measure of the joy and happiness that it doth enjoy Thirdly what will be its State at the Resurrection and