A53708:43
Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ
Meditations and discourses on the glory of Christ, in his person, office, and grace with the differences between faith and sight applied unto the use of them that believe / by the late Reverend John Owen, D.D.
London: printed by B.A., 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
THIS is the preeminence of the nature of Man, as the wise Man declares. For unto that Objection of Atheistical Epicureans, As the one dieth, so dieth the other; they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast and all go into one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to the dust again: He granteth, that as unto their Bodies it is for a season, in them we have a present participation of their nature; But, saith he, here lieth the Difference, Who knoweth the spirit of a Man that goeth upward, and the spirit of a beast that goeth downward unto the earth? Unless we know this, unless we consider the different state of the spirit of Men and Beasts, we cannot be ⟨image 11⟩delivered from this Atheism; but the thoughts hereof will set us at liberty from it. They dye in like manner, and their bodies go equally to the dust for a season; but the Beast hath no spirit, no soul, but what dies with the body and goes to the dust. If they had, their bodies also must be raised again unto a conjunction with them. Otherwise Death would produce a new race of creatures unto Eternity. But man hath an immortal Soul, saith he, an heavenly Spirit, which when the Body goes into the dust for a season, ascends to Heaven (where the guilt of sin, and the curse of the Law, interpose not) from whence it is there to exist and to act all its Native powers in a state of blessedness.
THIS is the preeminence of the nature of Man, as the wise Man declares. For unto that Objection of Atheistical Epicureans, As the one dieth, so dieth the other; they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast and all go into one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to the dust again: He granteth, that as unto their Bodies it is for a season, in them we have a present participation of their nature; But, saith he, here lieth the Difference, Who knoweth the spirit of a Man that goeth upward, and the spirit of a beast that goeth downward unto the earth? Unless we know this, unless we consider the different state of the spirit of Men and Beasts, we cannot be ⟨image 11⟩delivered from this Atheism; but the thoughts hereof will set us at liberty from it. They dye in like munner, and their bodies go equally to the dust for a season; but the Beast hath no spirit, no soul, but what dies with the body and goes to the dust. If they had, their bodies also must be raised again unto a conjunction with them. Otherwise Death would produce a new race of creatures unto Eternity. But man hath an immortal Soul, saith he, an heavenly Spirit, which when the Body goes into the dust for a season, ascends to Heaven (where the guilt of sin, and the curse of the Law, interpose not) from whence it is there to exist and to act all its Native powers in a state of blessedness.