A17654:39
An excellent treatise of the immortality of the soul By which is proved, that…An excellent treatise of the immortalytie of the soule By which is proued, that…
An excellent treatise of the immortality of the soul By which is proved, that the souls, after their departure out of the bodies, are awake and do live, contrary to that erroneous opinion of certain ignorant persons, who think them to lye asleep until the day of judgement. Set fourth by M. John Calvin, and englished from the French by T. Stocker.An excellent treatise of the immortalytie of the soule By which is proued, that the soules, after their departure out of the bodies, are avvake and doe lyue, contrary to that erronious opinion of certen ignorant persons, who thinke them to lye asleape vntill the day of iudgement. Set fourth by M. Iohn Caluin, and englished from the French by T. Stocker.
London: printed by John Daye, 1581London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1581
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
When our Saviour Christ exhorteth his disciples not to fear them which kill the body,1 & have no power over the soul: but to fear him, who after he hath slain the body, is able also to send the soul into hell fire: doth he not mean that the soul liveth, after that the dody is dead? And truly God hath very lovingly dealt with us herein, that he hath not suffered our souls to be at the disposition of those which would so soon kill them, or at the least though they cannot, yet do their best. The Tyrants torment, cut in pieces, burn, and hang, but it is the body only, for God only hath power over the soul to cast it into hell fire. So then either the soul abideth after death, or else this must needs be an untruth: That Tyrants have no power over the soul. Unto this they answer (as I hear) that the soul truly is slain for the time, when as the body is ⟨image 25⟩dead, but that it perisheth not, because that in time to come i• shall rise again. Now if they think to go away with this, they must and grant that the body perisheth not, for so much as it shall rise again. And because that they are both reserved until the day of Judgement, therefore neither of •oth pe• risheth. And yet our Saviour Christ confesseth that the body is slain, and testifieth that the soul abideth whole and sound.2 This manner of speech he useth of his own death, when he saith, destroy ye this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. But this he spake of the Temple of his body: by which reason he took the soul out of their power, which also, as S. Luke writeth, and as David foretold,3 when he drew near unto his death, he commended, into the hands of his Father. S. Stephen likewise after the same manner saith:4 Lord Jesus Christ receive my spirit. Have they here any thing, whereat to jangle, that Jesus Christ commended his soul unto ⟨p. 13⟩