to preserve each other in the Way And they who would wear the same Crown of rejoycing in the Presence of Christ will assist each other here that they perish not in the agony and conflict The Egyptians Embalmed the Carcasses of the Dead to preserve them if it were possible through all the parts of Time being guided by an opinion that so long as the Body continued undissolved the Soul would not forsake the Earth but continue hovering about the place where the Bodies lay In like manner the Souls of men which by many kinds of Association may be united into one mass and heap and as it were become parts of one another will continue the more vigilant and active for each others everlasting Welfare so long as they are perswaded against an eternal divorce and dissolution and do contrarily believe they shall be rewarded by a sense of each others happiness and that that union which is among themselves as of one member to another shall not be dissolved but perfected by that Union which shall unite them to Christ as to their Head and through him unto God Ignotus I might stop here for I hope by this time I have made it plain that the Saints know one another in Heaven But this being a Curious Point I shall yet bring more Authoritys to prove it and the next I shall Name is the Pious * See His four last things Bolton Who positively asserts The knowing of our Friends in Heaven his Words are these All comfortable knowledge shall be so far from being abolished in Heaven that it will be inlarged increased and perfected But to know one another is a comfortaâ—lâ— knowledge Yherefore we shall know one another in Heaven Our knowledge shall be perfected For We shall know as we are known 1. Cor. 13.12 Which is set out by Comparison of the less That our knowledge then shall differ from that now as the knowledge of a Child from that of a Perfect Man In Heaven all the mists of Ignorance and Blindness being perfectly cleared up and taken away we shall see one another together with all the Saints though we did not know them before For if Adam by vertue of the Divine Image stampt upon him knew Eve though taken out of his Body while he was asleep Why should not we being Transformed according to the same Image from Glory to Glory by the Father Son and Holy Ghost know the Members of the same Body Those full of the Spirit and Wisdom of God may as easily be suppos'd to know one another as Adam before the Fall while he retained the Image of God knew Eve who and whence she came And as Samuel knew Saul by the Inspiration of God though he had not seen him before Sam. 9.17 And John knew our Lord Christ in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin So their Minds were Enlightened by the Rayes of the Holy Spirit Then Conceive if thou canst Ignotus how grateful that knowledg will be by which we shall know all others as all others shall know us The Knowledge which all men in this Life unprofitably desire shall be such to the Good that they shall be ignorant of nothing they are willing to know For the Good shall be filled with the perfect Wisdom of God and shall see Him Face to Face and in seeing of this shall behold the Nature of all Creatures which they shall see in God better then themselves For then the Just shall know all things which God hath made knowable as well those which are past as those which are to come When the Elect shall see the antient Fathers in their Eternal Inheritance they shall know them by Sight whom they knew in their Work for they shall see them all by a common Illumination What is it they can there be ignorant of when they know him who knows all things The Vision of God is not only promised to the Saints in Heaven but also of all things that God has made as the Sun Moon Stars Earth Seas Rivers Living Creatures Trees and Mettals But our Minds know nothing i. e. No perfect Substance nor Essential Differences nor Properties nor Virtues Nor did ever any Man see his own Soul but we grope like the Blind and acquire the Knowledge we have by Discourse VVhat shall the Joy then be when we shall see by the Light bestowed upon us the nature of all things barefaced And how wonderfully shall we be transported when we shall see innumerable Armies of Angels in the Differences of their Degrees and Order And in Heaven as we shall know the Saints not in Outward Worldly Respects but as we know them in Christ by the Illumination of the Spirit so also we shall know the Spiritual Substances Offices Orders Excellencies of the Angels and the Nature Immutability Operations and Original of our own Souls c. and in a Word all things knowable Here 't is the happy Residentiaries Understandings are wide open'd to all the amazing Lights and Discoveries of Truth to the Mysteries of Creation and Providence of Redemption and Sanctification to the now puzzling Difficulties of Nature and of Grace of God's Prescience and Man's Free Will Here 't is the Wills also of the Glorified are render'd conformable unto are swallowed up in and made one with God's Holy Will and Pleasure ' There says the ingenious Boyle we shall have clearly expounded to us those Riddles of Providence which have but too often tempted even good Men to question God's Conduct in the Government of the World whilst the Calamities and Persecutions of Virtue and Innocence seem approved by him who accumulates Prosperities on their Criminal Opposers And I must profess adds he as Vnfashionable as such a Profession maâ— seem in a Gentleman not yet Two and Twenty that I find the Study of those excellent Themes Gods Word and his Providence so Di ficult and yet so Pleasing and Inviting that could Heaven afford me no greater Blessing than a clear Accompt of the Abstruse Mysteries of Divinity and Providence I should value the having my Vnderstanding Gratified and Enriched with Truths of so Noble and Precious a Nature enough to court Heaven at the rate of renouncing for it all those unmanly Sensualities and trifling Vanities for which Inconsiderate Mortals are wont to forfeit the Interest their Saviour so dearly bought them in it But this is not all for here we shall with wonderful Ravishment of Spirit and Spiritual Joy be admitted to the sight of those Sacred Secrets and Glorious Mysteries 1. Of the Holy Trinity into which some Divines may audaciously dive but shall never be able to explicate 2. Of the Union of Christ's Humanity to the Divine Nature and of the Faithful to Christ 3. Of the causes of God's Eternal Counsel in Election and Reprobation 4. Of the Angels Fall 5. Of the manner of the Creation of the World c. Neither is this all for we shall also be beatifically enlightned with a clear and glorious Sight of
tho a Heathen cou'd say My * Habui enim illos tanquam amissurus amisi tanquam habeam Senec. Ep. 63. Thoughts of the Dead are not as others are I have fair 〈◊〉 pleasant Apprehensions of â—heâ— for I enjoyed them as one that reckoned I must part with them and I part with them as one that makes account to have them Those great Witts though following the Dim Lamp of Nature yet were in the right so far that they thought as we Christians do that this Life was but a State of Probation for another and that the other Life was to be the State of Reward or Punishment for the Actions of this accordingly in all their Discourses of a Future State we find their Poets always describing proper Cells allotted to every sort of offenders and peculiar Punishments awarded to every particular sort of Crime and on the other side peculiar Mansions and Pleasures allotted to every Rank of Heroes according to the Degrees and Species of Vertue they did excel in whilest on Earth And indeed how can a Future-State be Imagined to be â—ounded on any thing else but a perfect Remembrance of all passages in this Life For the very Individuality of our Soul Consists in Memory and therefore if that perishes the Soul perishes too of Consequence For 't is not my thinking or understanding or willing that makes my Soul to be a particular Individual Soul distinct from others but 't is Remâ—mbering and Reflecting that I that think now am the same Soul that thought so and so an hour ago and not another 't is that that chiefly makes me an Individual 'T is the Conscience or Memory we have planted in us of good and bad Actions drawing along with it by main force our own Judgments to censure or approve us that is the great Evidence of another Life 'T is this Conscience that tells us this Life is but the way to another If Memory and Conscience then be so necessary in this Life now can we â—â—ppose that God wou'd continue the Soul in Bâ—ing after ' its seperation from the Body and much less joyn it afterward to it again at the Resurrection if Memory above all things were not to be preserved for if God shou'd continue our Souls in another Life without preserving in them the Remembrance of the passages of this it wou'd be the same thing as if he Created new Souls and not gave us the same again Nay they wou'd not be the same because their Individuality being lost they wou'd not differ from New Beings and then all the Actions of the past Life being totally forgot that Life wou'd be in vain and as if it had never been and the Grounds of Reward and Punishment in another State wou'd fall to the ground and it wou'd seem unjust to Condemn or Recompence men for things they cou'd not be sensible they ever did or performed Besides it wou'd be still more absurd to suppose A Resurrection from the Dead for the main Reason of the Bodies being restored to their several Souls being that the Souls may visibly receive the Recompence of what they have done in their Bodys and that their Bodys may share with them in the final Doom allotted to their Souls as they have shared with them in the Actions upon which it is awarded How cou'd this with any Congruity to the Wisdom and Justice of God be executed if all Memory of Actions done in the Bodâ— were after Death to cease The Aâ—lwise Pr vidence is not capable of doing any thâ—ng so vain and so absurd as this No we are not plac'd in this World but for some great end and what other end is worthy of us or of our Creator than that we may be â—â—â—d here to serve him in a better Life hereafter which Future State is to be regulated accordiâ—g to the Records taken of our Actions in this So that 't is certain my Dear Ignotus that nothing we do here shall be forgotten but be exactly Registered both in our Consciences below and in Heaven above and that our Memory â—ill be so far from being destroy ' d by our Bodily Death that it will awake up a much more exact quick and lively Faculty than heretofore For our Saviour tells the Wicked That the Worm of Conscience whose seat is chiefly in the Memory shall never dye Mark 9.44 but always torment them with the dreadful Remembrance of the particular offences they have committed and that it shall be reserved as Gods-Book in which all their Wickedness shall be set in order before them Psal 51.3 and that so exactly that men shall be obliged to answer not only for the smallest actions but even for every idle Word Mat. 12.36 And when Abraham answers Dives he appeals to his Memory Son remember says he that thou in thy Life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things Luke 16.25 In this Parable of the miserable Epecure and the happy Beggar as Mr. Boyle observes The Father of the Faithful is represented as knowing not only the Person and present condition but past story of Lazarus So that the case is plain that though we know not the nature of that abode into which the Soul passes after Death Yet that 't is certain that our Souls will then preserve the facultys that are Natural to 'em viz. To understand to will to remember As 't is represented to us in the fore mention'd Parable 'T is true as I hinted before We little know how the People of the disembodyed Societys Act and will and understand and therefore I e'en long to know it What Conception can I have of a separated Soul says a late Writer but that 't is all Thought And that at the Resurrection all men whether good or bad shall be restored with all their Sences and Facultys they shall see hear feel and above all Remember all things and in such manner as may give them the most Pleasure or Pain they in their Blest or Curst estate shall be capable of For then all the Heavy matter that clogg'd the Facultys of their Souls being taken away and their very Bodys exalted as near the Nature of Spirits as possible all their Sences and Facultys will be lively and quick in affecting them with the most vigorous Impressions of Torment or Delight If then in order to give so exact and minute Account as we must do at the last Judgment our Memory will re-mind us of our smallest Actions and most rivilous Words then it evidently follows that we shall no â—ess exactly know and remember all those particular Persons too we ever Conversed with either in good or evil For when Men shall be Examined about the Good or Evil of such or such a particular Action or Expression it will be a great Aggravation of their Guilt or Inhancement of their Vertue to be made to consider to or with what particular Persons they did such a thing or to whom they uttered such and such a Word
the same Individual Body I now carry about me tho there may not then be one of the same Individual Atomes to make it up which are its present Ingredients For neither are they the same now as they were 20 Years ago Yet I may be properly said to have the same Individual Body at this Hour which my Mother brought forth into the World tho it is manifest that there is so vast an Accession of other Particles since that time as are enough to make ten such Bodies as I had then which implys such a perpetual Flux of the former as 't would be a Solaecism in Philosophy to think I have one of my Infant Atomes now left about me if after all this I may be still said to have the same Individual Body as I had then tho there be not one of the same Individual Atomes left in its Composition why may we not assert the same of the Bodies we shall have after the Resurrection Matter is one and the same in all Bodies the Individuation of it the Meum and Tuum proceeds only from the Infinitely different Forms which actuate it Thus when my Soul at the Resurrection by the Power of God and Assistance of Angels shall be Reinvested with a Body it is proper to say it will be the same Individual Body I have now tho made up of Atomes which never before were Ingredients of my Composition since not the Matter but the Form gives a Title to Individuation Moreover That the same Bodies shall rise that died Job plainly asserts Job 19.26 27. And tho after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold and not another tho my Reins be consumed within me The same Body says a late Author which was so pleasant a Spectacle to thee shall be restor'd again Flavel yea the same Numerically as well as the same Specifically so that it shall not only be the what it was but the who he was These Eyes shall behold him and not another Job 19.27 c. So that if I get to Heaven I shall only want that poor Contemptible Clod of Earth that Body of Clay which altho now Corruptible Mouldring in its Bed of Dust yet I do believe it shall rise a Glorious Body And tho after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God in this hope of seeing God and meeting my Friends Ignotus Cloris and the scarce dearer Eliza I willingly commit my Body to the Dust It is a great Comfort * See Mr. Mead's Sermon preached upon the Death of Mr. Tim. Cruso under the loss of the Faithful Ministers of Christ and of Godly Relations and Friends for they are not lost for ever the Spirit of God hath the Care of them and he 'll quicken them again and therefore we may say with Martha when her Brother was dead I (a) Matth. 11.14 know that he shall rise again at the Resurrection you shall see them again and enjoy them again and that in a better manner than ever Now as this Author adds how wou'd the Belief of this Truth relieve and comfort against such Thoughts as these If I die (b) Rev. 14.13 1 Thes 4.14 I die in the Lord. Death is but a Sleep and I sleep in Jesus too when my Body is laid in the Grave it is laid into the Arms of the Spirit if it doth rot in the Dust it 's Vnion to the Spirit can't rot and therefore farewell my Flesh while I go into the immediate Blissful Presence of God go thou to Bed in the Dust I commit thee into the Arms of the Spirit and do willingly leave thee in that Union till he sees good to raise thee and bring us together again I beg of God therefore with this Author (c) P. 29. that whenever I die I may die in this Faith that my Soul shall immediately enter into the full Fruition of God And that my Body shall lie down in the Dust in an Everlasting Vnion to the Spirit of God who will at last quicken (d) 1 Thess 4.18 it because he dwells in it for if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the Dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken our Mortal Bodies by his Spirits that dwelleth in us wherefore comfort ye one another with these Words Such Thoughts as these will give as this Author calls his Sermon Comfort in Death and render the Horrors of the Grave less Affrighting and Dreadful Then let us not look on our departed Friends as a lost Generation think not that Death hath annihilated and utterly destroy'd them Oh! no they are not dead but only asleep And if they sleep they shall awake again we don't use to lament for our Wives and Children when we find them asleep upon their Beds Why Death says a late Author is but a longer sleep Flavel out of which they shall as surely awake as ever they did in the Morning in this World 'T is a Saying of the witty Overbury No Man goes to Bed till he dies nor wakes till the Resurrection and therefore good Night to you here and good morrow hereafter The very same Body you laid or are now to lay in the Grave shall be restored again Thou shalt find thy own Husband Wife or Child c. again I say the self same and not another And as you shall see the same Person that was so dear to you so you shall know them to be the same that were once endeared to you on Earth in so near a Tye of Relation For that they shall rise with Features to be distinguish'd is evident as is mention'd elsewhere by the Appearance of Moses and Elias to the Apostles of Dives's knowing Lazarus and Abraham and they knowing him again By the Example of those Saints that arose after Christ's Resurrection and went into the Hoy City Matth. 27. and appear'd to many there who must needs know by their Shapes who they were else could not they have pronounced them to be Saints and such who were known to have slept and have been before Dead and Bury'd And lastly to leave no room for doubting in this matter 't is evident to all that believe the Gospel that our Saviour the first Fruits from the Dead and after the Image of whom all the Bodies of the deceased Saints will be raised was raised with the self-same Body and with the same Features he was crucified with And therefore to question that ours shall be so too is but a dangerous Scrupulosity since it deprives us of one of the Means by which we may know our Friends again which I esteem one of the greatest Comforts next to those immediately resulting from the Vision of God himself we can meet with in Heaven and which is mention'd by St. Paul as I hinted before as one of the best Remedies against
and Expectation of it is or should be one great Motive why we love 'em so well now If we thought we should not Know and Love them after Death we ought to Love 'em but as Earthly Transitory Things and not as Heirs of Heaven with such a Love as shall be perfected and last for ever Doubtless the Angels who rejoyce at the Conversion of a Particular Sinner and the Departed Saints too do know more even oâ— the State of this World than we dâ— who are acquainted with so very little a part and spot of it Which by the way should check an inordinate fond Desire of living to see Glorious Times on Earth For if we get to Heaven we are like to know much more of those Happy Times than if we remain'd alive in a Corner of the Isles of the Gentiles But as to our Mutual Knowledge in the Heavenly State Shall those whom we Reliev'd on Earth welcome us to Heaven and are therefore said to receive us into Everlasting Habitations Luk. 16. And shall not the departed Saints know one another in Glory Shall we then know as we are known And shall the Thessalonians be the Joy and Crown and Glory and Rejoycing of the Apostle Paul in the day of Christ And shall he not know them or they him who profited by his Ministry Did the Rich Man in Hell know Abraham afar off in Heaven and can we think a blessed Lazarus shall not For though that be a Parable there is some Truth as the Foundation of it Shall it aggravate the Misery of lost Souls to meet their wicked Companions in the Place of Torment as few deny or doubt And shall it not rejoyce the Blessed to meet their Holy Friends whom they knew in this World Did Peter James and John know Moses and Elias in the Transfiguration whom they never saw before and we read not that Christ told 'em who they were And shall those who were acquainted upon Earth and helped one another to Heaven utterly forget and lose the Remembrance of any such thing Now we may allow in that State all that Knowledge which is Cumulative and Perfective whatsoever may enlarge and heighten our Felicity and Satisfaction as this must needs be allowed to do as I shall yet further prove from Reason Scripture and the common Voice of the understanding part of Mankind and in this Point they are all in perfect Harmony and unitedly concurr together to give us all desirable Satisfaction in so agreeable a Curiosity For tho the Immortality of the Soul has been questioned by some Old and New Scepticks and in direct Terms oppugned by some antient Epicureans and is still so by too many baptized Infidels who are not ashamed to oppose their senceless Banters against it Notwithstanding Christ by his Triumphant Resurrection and Appearance from the Dead has abolished Death clear'd all Doubts concerning the supposed Dissolution of the Soul I say tho there have been many that have denied the Souls Immortality yet none have granted it to be Immortal but have believ'd withal that Its Memory survived with it as one of its chief Faculties and so essential to it that as the Soul is the Life of the Body so the Memory was ever justly esteem'd to be the Life of the Soul without which it not having any remaining Sense of its past Actions wou'd be no better than dead whilst alive and be no more than the Soul of an Insensitive Plant or Tree even in this Life if we look back to the Years of Childhood and Infancy we find the Will and Unstanding to act but little till the Memory be vigorous enough to assist them and afterwards shou'd not this Faculty keep a Faithful Register of every remarkable thingâ— they do all they had done would be insignificant and lost in the Air and the Soul it self wou'd be an idle useless thing in Nature and less valuable than the meanest Particle of Matter which is not without its Use in the Fabrick of the World And such Dunces are we that we have not yet attained a perfect Vnderstâ—â—ding of the smallest Flower and why the Grass shou'd rather be Green than Red. How many Curiosities be framed by the least Creatures of Nature unto which the Wit of Man doth not attain and what is all we know compared with what we know not * But more of this in my Essay on the Works of Creation Nay without Memory there cou'd be no Principles of Knowledge fixed in the Mind and much less any Conclusions cou'd be drawn from them or if drawn cou'd they be treasured up for use There cou'd be no Knowledge no Arts or Sciences no studying Philosophy with Cloris or learning French with Daphne nor so much as any Mechanick Trades tho of greatest Necessity exercised No Observations no Experiences cou'd be made and there cou'd be no such thing in Nature as Wisdom Prudence or indeed common Sense and Discretion to guide Men in their Actions There cou'd be no Societies no Kingdoms erected or maintain'd and it wou'd be to no more purpose to set up Courts of Judicature over Men than over so many Flocks of Cattle or rather over so many Herds of Wolves and Tygers since both the Judges and the Judged wou'd be in a worse State than that of Beasts who are not without some share of Memory and are accounted by so much the more perfect in their Kind the more Ready and Quick they are observ'd to be in exercising their Reminiscence Memory is the Seat of Conscience the Guide of unexperienced Reason the Mother of all Practical and Vseful Knowledge and the Grounds of all Judicatures both in this World and that to come Since therefore Memory is so necessary in this Life it must needs be so in another and this all that have taught a future State have always taught and believed so the old Druids of Gaul and Britain so the antient Egyptian and Babylonian Sages and Indian Brachmans held that Soul 's not only retain'd in their separate State The Memory of all their past Actions and knew again distinctly their former Friends and Enemies but that they carry'd out of the World with them the very same Inclinations they had here of this Judgment also were the Latin and Greek Poets who were the Divines and their Writings the Scriptures of the Heathen and who had their Doctrine from those Eastern Nations as you may see in a Summary of their Opinions in Virgil 's Description of Elysium For those very Heathens cou'd easily see by the very Light of Nature that 't would be very idle and impertinent to assert the Soul Immortal without affirming Her Essential Faculties and particularly Her Memory to remain and that as 't would be nonsensical to summon before any Court of Justice on Earth a Man without Wits or Memory so it wou'd be ridiculous to fancy a Judicature in the other World to Condemn or Reward Men for what they cou'd have no Remembrance of Seneca
Angels and Saints of that Heavenly Court are perpetually Singing Praises and Hallelujahs to God Almighty and to the Lamb that sits on the Throne and are daily Embracing each other For that there 's such a thing as Friendship among Angels I do not question for Love each other undoubtedly they must and Love more intensely they may such as have the most beautiful Characters of the Divine Power and Goodness upon them And that there is also a Communication of Angels and Souls in Heaven plainly appears from Rev. 7.9 10 11 12. 1 Cor. 13.1 Dan. 8.13 But I conceive this Communication to be chiefly in an ability of Insinuating their Thoughts to each other by a meer Act of their Wills just as we now speak to God or our selves in our Hearts when our Lips don't move or the least outward sign appear Whether there 's any other Converse I shall enquire at the end of this Essay but that there 's sufficient to know and be known I am fully satisfied But tho this may suffice as to our knowing the Angels Yet Secondly As to the Saints I shall never know them for certain I did know 'em on Earth 't is true but since they are gone to Heaven they are so hugely altered I shall not know one of 'em when I see 'em again Nay Phil. and I can't give an Instance will affect you more you 'l scarce know Eliza there The * See Dr. Sheldon of Mans Last End Glory of her Soul will be seen through her Body in such a sort that they 'l both shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of Heaven Neither can you tell me Philaret what kind of Matter our Bodies shall have in the other Life 'T is in the power of Microscopes to represent a Hair glittering and curious beyond Expression much more can a real Infinite Power effectively make it so Matter is all one to the Maker We have some light of our Resurrection by the first Fruits of it our Saviour who with that very same Body he was Crucified rose again and ascended into Heaven but was changed before he got there it being not a receptacle for Common Flesh and Blood I see no reason why Matter may not be changed to something else and only called so to our apprehension as well as form of Matter We have Instances of the different Forms our Saviour appear'd in after his Resurrection and once that with his Natural Body he appear'd to his Disciples when the doors were shut The Appearance our Bodies will have in Heaven will be shining and bright as may be gathered by Moses his Face shininig when he had seen the Glory of God as also the manner of Moses Enoch and Elias their Appearance to our Saviour in his Transfiguration the Description that St. John gives of our Saviour in the Revelations with many more places in Sacred Writ But to be express in my Definitions of this Matter 't is impossible since all reveal'd are only such Terms as are adapted to express what ever appears most Glorious and Dazling here not being yet capable to entertain greater manifestations and such as we shall really be fitted for hereafter The Mystery lies here when our Bodies shall be Immortalized at the last day we know not what Substance they will be of but I am satisfied the most refined Matter as it is now will be nothing like ' em All that can be said of it is this there will be new inexpressible somethings which will have the same proportion to one another as our place and Matter now have The Bodies of Christ Enoch and Elias are certainly in Heaven and the Sun Moon and Stars are certainly in the Firmament but what those bodies are and the Heaven they are in as also what those Stars are and the Firmament they are in I know not for it does not yet appear what we shall be that is we can give no full or exact account of the Future Condition either of our Bodies or Souls yet this in general we know that as our Souls shall be impeccable so our Bodies shall be incorruptable that they shall be glorified and therefore must be Glorious and Luminous like the Glorious Body of our Saviour at the Transfiguration It 's also probable that the Matter whereof they are composed shall be so refined in quality and perhaps so diminished in quantity that we shall as I mentioned before be in that Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that our Bodies shall be no longer Clogs to our Souls but obey their Commands and indue the Nature of Spirits in their quick and imperceptible Motion from one Term to another However this is certain * Lessius de summo bono l. 3. c. 5. Our Bodies shall be fully possest with Glory and the Soul full of the Light of Glory shall be diffused through the whole Body and all the parts of it The Eyes those Windows in the Vpper-Story how lightsome shall they be They shall then be renewed and made more Bright and clear than the light of the Sun The very act of Seeing shall be most clear and perfect the Eye shall be able to bear the Brightest Splendor We may conceive that those that are in this place of Blessedness at one single aspect may perfectly see from one end of the Heaven to the other there being no defect in the Objects Medium or Organ or any thing to intercept the sight The Objects being so Trasparent and Glorious What a pleasant sight is the out side of Heaven bedect with the Sun Moon and Stars What then is the inside where the Glory of a God is display'd Not through a Glass darkly but with Eyes enabled perfectly to behold it And as the EYES will be thus wonderfully altered from what they were so the EARS the Nostrils the Mouth the Hands the Lungs the Marrow the Bowels and every particular Member of the Body will be cast into a new Mold But 't is the Opinion of a Learned * See Mr. Colliers Ser. concerning the difference between the present and Future State of our Bodies Writer That though the Sences of Seeing Hearing and possibly that of Smelling too will accompaning the Bodies of the Saints to Heaven but for the other two grosser Sences they are too course and insignificant to have much Employment there And therefore he Judges they 'l be changed into Two-New-Ones of a more Spiritualized and more Refined Nature I may add to this that the Age wherein we shall Live again will so transform us that we can never be known in Heaven to our old Acquaintance for that which refers to the Kingdom of God in this World may in this case be very properly applied to that in the other There shall hencefoth be no more an Old Man neither an Infant of Days It seems not proper to say we shall be raised at Any Age I mean such a State as we were in at such an Age since undoubtedly we shall be endued with
much more Perfection though 't is probable as I hinted before not Cloathed with so much matter as we now carry about with us All Divines generally agree that Infants and Deformed Persons shall be perfect in Heaven and rise about the Age of Thirty or our Saviours Age at his Resurrection wâ—â—ch was Thirty-Three Lazarus his Body shall be then Beautiful Samson shall then have his Eyes which the Philistines pulled out Mephibosheth shall not be Lame in Heaven there shall be no imperfection in a Glorified Body All which laid together renders our knowledge of each other in Heaven very unlikely Then by the by who 'd be affraid of Death or quake tho his Grave were digging seeing 't is but Gods Refining-Pot wherein he shews his Power and Wisdom in changing our Vile-Bodies and fashoning them like unto his Glorious-Body Phil. 3.21 From which 't is plain That as Iron when it is heated in the Fire it appears nothing else but firey So in Heâ—ven we shall not be able to see the Body for the Glory thereof Then pray Philaret as was said before How can we distinguish this Saint from that or be able to know one Friend from another To this I Answer That I can't deny but there are some Latent Faculties in the Soul that while we are under Confinement to Body can't operate but will when we are fteed from this Body exert themselves with full vigour but the new and extraordinary Actings of these Latent Faculties will be no obstacle to our knowing our Friends again for when we come to Heaven all our Senses and Faculties shall be inlarged that we shall see God Himself not in dark shadows but as He is 1 John 3.2 and we shall see all things in Him no more by outward Appearances but in their very Substances our Bodies as was hinted in the Objection shall be Transparent and Glorious and then as we shall be like Angels in almost all things else so like them too we shall see into one anothers very Souls The Sight of Spirits is unprescrib'd by space What see they not who see the Eternal Face See Mr. Foe 's Charact. of Dr. Annesley Whether this Knowledge shall be by the glorified Eyes discerning any Lineaments or property of Individuation remaining upon the glorified Bodies of our Relations Or whether it shall be by Immediate Revelation as Adam knew his Wife or as Peter James and John knew Moses and Elias in the Mount As it is difficult to determine so it is needless to puzzle our selves about it For as a worthy (a) Mr. Flavel Divine observes though the Saints shou'd not be rais'd with the same Features of Body as before they had â—et being râ—is'd with the same Perâ—ections of Mind and the same Inclinations though exalted to a much higher degree that so Charm'd us on Earth we shou'd soon distinguish one Saint from another and with Infinite Pleasure renew the Remembrance of our Old Acquaintance Add to this that we shall then enjoy the Spirit of God in so great a Measure that it will let us be ignorant of nothing forgetful of nothing the Knowledge or Remembrance of which may contribute any thing to heighten or increase our Happiness He is not unequal in his Dealings He will not remind the Wicked of their smallest ill Actions most trivial idle Words and of their Companions in Sin for the just Augmentation of their Torment and suffer his Saints to lose the Pleasure of knowing again and remembring their old Friends and Companions in Vertue and in all the mutuul Delights of an endearing Conversation No he will have our Joys augmented by all things Persons and Circumstances that can possibly conduce thereto and wou'd not command and encourage us so much to Commence a Vertuous Love with our Brother-Saints on Earth unless he designed it shou'd be renewed continued and rendred more compleat in Heaven Therefore though all Saints shall universally and dearly Love one another as common Friends to God and one another yet according to the more particular intimacies we have had with any Persons on Earth founded on Piety Vertue and the Love of God himself The Renewal of our Converse with them as I have already and shall afterwards shew shall have without doubt its particular grateful Relishes above that which we shall entertain with other Saints to whom as they enjoy the same Priviledges themselves these peculiar Friendships shall give no manner of Jealousie or Distaste Thus Ignotus have I Answer'd the chief Objections against knowing our Friends in Heaven and also proved That though we shou'd not be raised with the same Features we had on Earth yet that there be many other ways by which 't is certain that in a glorified State we shall know one another and that Vertuous Charmer who first gave us to one another I call it so seeing there 's a Marriage of Minds as well as Bodies and thence it follows that our three Souls must needs seek the Enjoyment of each other in Heaven and Love one another here as they 'l do hereafter by a Secret Sympathy But to leave none unsatisfied in this Comfortable Doctrine of Knowing our Friends in Heaven I shall further add That 't is an undoubted Truth that we shall all be raised with the very same Bodies again we lived in here bating that Deformity and grossness of Matter which as I have proved shall be taken away and with all the same natural Features that are necessary to distinguish them to be the same Bodies for otherwise they cannot be the same in a proper Sense and in such a Sense that the Scriptures intend they shou'd be understood the same and therefore Ignotus I do not much trouble my self about the manner of my Burial or to which of the Elements I shall commit my Carkass I Envy not the Funeral-State of great Men neither do I covet the Embalming of the Egyptians I wonder at the Fancy of those who desire to be Imprisoned in Leaden-Coffins 'till the Resurrection and to protract the Corruption of their Flesh out of which they shall be Generated de novo as if they dreamt of rising whole as they lay down and carrying Flesh and Blood into the Kingdom of Heaven without a Change The Natives of Ganges (a) Ovington 's new Voyage to Surat p. 381. when weary of Life by Sickness or old Age committed their Bodies to be devoured by the Dog-fish as the safest Passage to their Future Felicity But I am not of their Opinion but am contented to undergo the tedious Conversation of Worms and Serpents those greedy Tenants of the Grave who will never be satisfied 'till they have eat up the Ground-Landlord I do not puzzle my self with projecting how my scatter'd Ashes shall be collected together provided they are mingled with Eliza's 't is all I desire neither do I for that Reason take Care for an Vrn to enclose them I am satisfied that at the last Trump I shall rise with
and Philaret to find that siâ—cere Friendship which for 15 Years they had beâ—â— Contracting here below translated to the Mansions â—bove when I shall see and know her again wiâ— whom I had lived so well and slept so long in tâ— Dust I say in the Dust for I desire in my WILâ— to be buried with her that so as our Souls shâ— know each other when they leave the Bodies our Bodies also may rise together after the lâ— Night of Death and you find Eliza * As you nâ— find in the Iâ—dication to 〈…〉 Essay of this Opinion where she says Dear Phil whilst on Earth we may lawfully please our selves with Hopes of meeting hereafter and in lying in the same Grave where we shall be happy together if a sâ—less Happiness can be call'd so Further in answer to the Question whether I and Wife shall love one another above other Saiâ— Let us remember rightly that Instruction our Saviour Jesus Christ who teacheth us how the Fruits of Marriage ought to stretch and what Distinction we are to make between our Habitation and Being in this World and our Rest in Heaven between that Angelical Nature and this which is Corrupt and Humane for in Heaven the Fruits Reasons and Respects of Marriage do cease the only Divine and Angelical Nature bringeth forth her Effects in Spiritual Vertues and not in Humane Passions which having had their Course in this Crasie Life could never pass into Heaven The Husband and Wife shall die I mean the Bodies of Husband and Wife but not the Gift of God which shineth in the Faculty of the Soul and in such Vertues as are inseparable from her Over all which Death and the Grave hath no Power as it hath over the Body and Sensual Affections * See a Treatise call'd The Treasure of a Christian Soul The Corporal Conjunction between the Husband and the Wife shall cease but the Memory in the Soul shall remain not of Bodily Things and of contrary Nature unto that Heavenly Glory but of such things as are agreeable unto a Spiritual Being Likewise also Bodily Temporal and Sensual Love shall remain in the Grave but Charity which desireth to see her in Glory and Immortality shall fly into Heaven and there from Day to Day will inflame it self in such wife as that the Soul of the Departed Husband being in Heaven will there Love and Know her whom he loved in this World yet then not as being his but as being the Spouse of Christ not as having been one Flesh Corruptible and Mortal in times past but as being to be in time to come both of them together as also with all the Holy Ones Bones of the Bones of Christ and Flesh of his Flesh So that if Philaret gets to Heaven he 'll there not only Know but Love his Eliza with a Remembrance becoming a Spiritual Nature freed from Fear void of Care alienate from all Mortal Desire so thâ—t he who in the World remembred her whom then he possessed in Condition of a Wife and for a use both Carnal and Corruptible shall Remember her in Heaven in condition as being a Member of Christ for the Society of the same Glory and for a use Dedicated to God only to Celebrate Eternally his Praises and Immortal Glory Now that this Desire or Remembrance and Charity is in those Blessed Souls not of a quality imperfect or infirm as here in the World but sutable and becoming unto that their Estate of Perfection appeareth by that meeting and Conference of Moses and Elias with our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 9.30 In the Mount whereon he was Transfigured upon the Subject of his Death and Passion As also by the desire of those Souls which rest in Heaven under the Golden Altar and that their desire and remembrance was of such things as had passed and were done in this World is apparent in this complaint Rev. 6.9 How long Lord Holy and True dost thou not Judge and Avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth But is it so may some say that we shall know and so particularly Love our Wives and Friends again in Heaven Then pray tell us will this Friendship be lasting or shall we be placed according to our Love to God in different Spheres and so get New-Friends My Answer is I believe we shall For God is an Infinite Object that which is Finite tho never so refined and advanced in its Nature cannot know God altogether nay can never know him all I think it therefore fair arguing that our knowledg of him there must be successive our Capacity still augmenting with our Knowledge as our Happiness with both Take another not improbable Argument for the same Head In Heaven we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Angels Their Knowledge is gradual for they look into the Church to learn the Mysteries thereof even though in Heaven And why then may not ours be so too if e're we are so happy by Gods Grace to get thither But if it be so that the Sainâ—s in Heaven not only know their former Acquaintance but are further contracting of new Friendships then I wou'd know says another Inquirer Whether they have any knowledge of or ever concern themselves with the affairs of their Friends in this Life and what is to be thought of the Apparitions of the Dead To this I Answer as formerly that the Platonists have made many bold Assertions both concerning the State of the Soul before it came into the Body as also after but their Reasons are as strange as their Assertions What Priviledges some Souls may enjoy in their separate State above others is yet a Riddle but there are some Instances of this Nature unaccountable To mention one Caesar Baronius in his Annals mentions an entire Friendship betwixt one Michael Mercatus and Marsilius Ficinus and this Friendship was the stronger betwixt them by reason of a mutual Agreement in their Studies and an addictedness to the Doctrines of Plato It fell out that these two Discoursing together as they used of the State of Man after Death according to Plato's Opinions there is Extant a Learned Epistle of Marsilius to Michael Mercatus upon the same Subject but when their Disputation and Discourse was drawn out something long they shut it up with this firm Agreement that whichsoever of them two should first depart out of this Life if it might be should ascertain the Survivor of the State of the other Life and whether the Soul be Immortal or not this Agreement being made and mutualy sworn unto they departed In a short time it fell out that while Michael Mercatus was one Morning early at his Study upon the sudden he heard the noise of an Horse upon the Gallop then stopping at his Door withal he heard the Voice of Marsilius his Friend crying to him Oh Michael Oh Michael those things are true they are true Michael wondering to hear his Frienâ—s Voice rose up and opening the Casement
is over those Heats allayed which were at first stirred up in him he will quickly invent Excuses and Arguments why he should not effect that Reformation he has so much Aversion from For First Tho he was deeply touched at first and all his Powers in such a Consternation that he was scarce himself yet being recover'd from the Fright the Inclination he has to Sin will put him upon Doubt and Scrutiny and to question the Reality of the thing He knows not but the Vision was only the Effect of Melancholy and a Drooping Mind or the Imagination of a distemper'd Brain He knows that when Persons lie under the Extremity of a Fever their Fancies are very whimsical and suppose they see frightful Shapes and a Company of Fiends about their Beds or that they see Hell open and abundance of Souls tormenting there That some who are naturally frightful suppose an Apparition instead of their Shadow and will scarce be beaten out of that strong Illusion and thus the World comes to be filled with Relations of Ghosts and Apparitions He knows that some by strength of Fancy will imagine a cluster of Clouds to be an Army of Men engaged in a pitcht Battle and why may not the Vision which he saw be only an imaginative Shape nothing real but a thing framed in his disorder'd Mind It is easie for a Man who is willing not to believe any thing of this Nature to bring himself to such an Opinion to evade and shift off the Thoughts of it that they might not disturb and trouble him in his Wickednesses But then he is much more encouraged when he tells his idle and wanton Companions the Relation who upon hearing it will not forbear jesting him out of the Conceit nor will they want Arguments to convince him that he was either in a Dream or was pensively musing or was imploying his Thoughts about Stories which tell of Ghosts and Spirits and so giving way to them foolishly conjectured that his melancholy Fancy metamorphos'd it self into Form and Shape But he must banish all such whimsical Notions and never credit any thing of that Kind or otherwise he must forsake their Society and not din their Ears with such Nonsence but those who are easie too credulous Persons who spend their time in carrying such ridiculous Relations up and down the World But Secondly Supposing that notwithstanding all this he cannot easily baffle the Credit of his Senses for tho he has hitherto used all the Means he could to banish the Belief of the Vision yet he cannot be fully perswaded but that there was somewhat in it My Blood says he would not so suddenly without some extraordinary cause fly in my Face nor would my Powers ruffle together in such Confusion if something preter-natural had not made towards me I was neither asleep nor musing but perfectly in my Senses when I saw the Apparition and therefore I cannot deny Matter of Fact But still the great Love he bears to Sin will put him upon framing another Argument It is true I was amazed at a Vision but how do I know that it was one risen from the Dead It might peradventure be a Humane Body dress'd up in grave Cloaths imitating the Walk and Gesture of a Ghost who intended by this Religious Fraud to scare me from my Sins but it so confounded him that he could not distinguish truly between the Imposture or the Reality But supposing it is no Fraud but indeed a Spirit yet he knows not whether it be his Friend if he was convinced of this he would credit his Relation and immediately change upon it But for ought he knows it may be one of those evil Spirits in the Air who disturb and fluster Men and possess them with strange whimsies fancies and frightful Imaginations and therefore till further Conviction to the contrary he will not be influenced and wrought upon by any Spirit of that Order since I know and have heard that they are maliciously bent against us and would do us much more Mifchief than they do if they were not limited and restrained by a Superior Power But Thirdly As it is not to be doubted that such a Man as I am now speaking of will create and raise many Arguments to withstand the Force and Influence of such a Miracle wrought in order to his Conversion so there is one more yet remaining which he may probably urge to fortifie himself against Conviction and Conversion And that is the unusualness of such kind of Means as a Spirit or Apparition to bring Men to Repentance It is true he has been haunted but why he above the rest of Mankind The singularity of the thing will increase his Doubt It the Neighbourhood where he lives were thus disturbed or if any of his near Acquaintance should come and tell him that at such a time they were surprized by a Ghost who told them That if they continued in that course of Life they so vigorously prosecuted they would be as miserable as himself who suffers Eternal Torments for committing the very same Sins they now live in this Relation would indeed alarm him and make him suspect his present Circumstances and leave those Vices he is diswaded from But since none that he knows of are thus handled he has no reason to credit the Relation of the Spirit If such means of Conviction were rational and powerful doubtless others would be afforded them as well as he but since he hears nor knows of none he shall not take things upon trust but continue unperswaded as he is Thus we see how Men who withstand the Motives of Christianity refuse to be reform'd by Moses and the Prophets by Jesus Christ and his Apostles will also find out shifts and ways to evade the Force and Argument of a Spirit should one be sent on purpose to convert them And that such Methods used for our Conversion as an Apparition or Ghost will not perswade us to Repentance And thus is Abraham's Answer made good to the Rich Man who importunately desired him to send Lazarus from the Dead to testifie to his Brethren for that they could not withstand the force of such a Miracle wrought for their Reformation No says Abraham If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perâ—waded tho one came from the Dead But I have been too large in this Second Head so shall be shorter in the Third I therefore add that besides the Vncertainty and the Danger there would be in such a Practice which way soever it terminates I think 't would be also 3. Irreligious since it too plainly implies a distrust of the Truth of God nay more that those who use it would believe humane Testimony and perhaps Diabolical rather than Divine No say they 't is rather to confirm the Truth of such Testimony as is said to be Divine But is there any want of all reasonable Confirmation Han't we stronger Evidence that the Scriptures were written by
Assaults of many Temptations and your Perseverance to the end of your Life If I could look within the Veil and view the Celestial Temple I shou'd see you there in Transports of Joy surrounded with a Glorious Ring of Rejoycing Spirits Then how unsuitable is it that I should immoderately grieve for Eliza when she is gone to inhabit a Joy unspeakable and glorious Eliza while I am mourning for thy Death thou art giving Thanks for it you are overjoy'd to think that it is over with you and that you have finish'd your last and worst Conflict with the Enemy of your Salvation How happy soever your Condition was on Earth it is much happier now The Place and Condition you are in is represented in the Divine Writings by all that is great pleasant and glorious in this World but we are also told there that all these Representations fall short of it I cannot know then how happy Eliza is till I go to see and that must be now the Care that engages me With all my Sorrow with all my vain Wishes I cannot bring you back again from thence and I should do you the greatest Diskindness if I could I must then if I am truly sorry to have parted with you be earnestly concern'd to meet you again And that I may do so I will earnestly concern my self to serve and promote the Glory of God among Men and to do all the good Offices to the World that I can And I will as often as I think of Dear Eliza who is gone before excite my self to these things in Consideration that this Course will bring me to dwell with her again And if I make such Resolutions as these and perform them then I may promise my in a little time to meet you where the Spirits of Just Men are made perfect where we shall love again and that with an Affection more pure and more ardent than before Where both of us shall be more happy than ever we could be here We shall have no Griefs to communicate no Complaints to make to one another No Burdens or Cares to divide hetween us no †'T is the Saying of one that to distrust the word of an honest Man is not only to expose him to H C but to rank him in the number of V le ts such Carking Jealousie justifies the severest Resentment as Reputation is a tender thing and dearer to a good Man than his Life then what Conscience must that Person have that makes those Resentments a Câ—ime which were occasioned by the Provocations given But I stop here for the Barbarous Treatments that 〈◊〉 and othâ—â—â— meet with in this kind â— sufficiently proves at what Door such Quarrels lie Distrust to allay our Happiness or damp our Joy no Distance of (a) As I hinted before in P. 8. Place shall part us there or hinder our delightful Communion with one another We shall be of one Family in one Sacred Temple and in one rejoycing Quire joyning to pay Eternal Adorations and Thankful Praises to the Father Son and Holy Ghost We shall never be parted more Within a little while this happy Meeting may be It cannot be far off since it will come at the end of my Life Then seeing a Part of me is now in Heaven I shall take Mr. Rogers Advice (a) See Mr. Rogers Character of a Good Woman P. 163. to his Friend Make this Vse of my Loss more diligently to prepare to meet you in Heaven where our Conversation will be infinitely more pleasant and more durable than it ever was on Earth and there as you told me on your Death-Bed We shall meet and never part This is also the Opinion of our Friend H n for in his last Epistle He wishes he may so live this Year and the Remainder of his time That at last he may meet Eliza c. and the rest of the Saints There we shall have Joys eo the full And I think adds he this will be ONE HAPPINESS to have sweet Conversation with Pure and Spotless Creatures without Hindrance or Disturbance for ever c. Some Hope that they in Heaven their Learning share But sure Love and Friendship enter there I am impatient till I find it again in Eliza and till that happy Minute come as I told your Brother All my pleasant Days are over 'T is true I have been at Agford since your Death and you saw me there if you know what 's done on Earth to see that Dear unknown you so much admir'd and as you thought cou'd have made me happy but when I arriv'd My Heaven was still as distant as before all I got was Joy in Reversion and scarce that For ever since that Fatal Afternoon I first saw Cloris Madam Shute and Madam W ch I have not tasted a Minutes Joy nor expect it now till I meet Eliza and she 's gone to Heaven Poor Miserable Phil If Fate happen to guild o're one Inch of thy Vnhappy Span and lend a Glimpse of Heaven in a Wife how soon does the Beauteous Vision vanish out of Sight Ah Cloris must we part then first let me close thy Eyes bedew thy (a) The Chinese always before they bury their Dead if he was a Married Man bring him to his Wife that so she might first kiss him and bid him farewel Cheeks a little compose thy Body for the Grave follow thee thither see thee put into it be one of the last that shall come thence as I desired of thee if I died first and then farewel till we meet in the Silent Grave where I 'll visit thee and when I leave this Light Come spend my time in the same Cell at Night Till then farewel farewel I cannot take A Final Leave until thy Ashes wake Dr. Brown applauds those ingenious Tempers that desire to sleep in the Vrns of their Fathers and strive to go the nearest way to Corruption 'T was the late Request of a great Divine to lie by his Wife in Shoreditch and for that reason he was buried there and Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston in his last Will desires his Executors that the Bones of his Father might be digged out of the Earth where they were buried and laid by his own Body in a new Vault he ordered them to erect for the same purpose that tho he could not live with his Father as Iong as he would have desired yet he designed their Bodies should lie together till the Resurrection As it is good to enjoy the Company of the Godly while they are living so it is not amiss if it will stand with Convenience to be buried with them after Death The old Prophets Bones escaped a burning by being buried with the other Prophets and the Man who was tumbled into the Grave of Elisha was revived by the Vertue of his Bones So good it is to be buried with those that are accounted Pious 'T was for this reason I formerly desired to Lie in the Chancel of with my
me again in the right path If not Some Courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be Norris For I have small Acquaintance with the Future State and never met with any one of those Millions of Souls that have past into the other World to learn any News concerning the Knowledge they have of each other And therefore 't will be excusable if now and then I advance what I cannot prove and follow their Examples who fill their Maps with Fancies of their own Brains And I am the more willing to treat concerning the Nature and Condition of separate Souls because it agrees with a Humour of Curiosity I have a long time been distemper'd with I have often thought what would I give for the least glimpse of that Invisible World which the first step I take out of this body will present me with and have tryed by an Eye of Faith to look within the Veil but still find my Intellect too light a Plummet and the whole Thread of Life tho spun out in finest Speculations still proves too short to reach the endless bottom But though I have never yet seen the Innumerable company of Angels converst with Abraham Isaac and Jacob or the Spirits of Just Men made perfect which daily minister about the Throne that I might know the mutual Love and Entertainment of the blessed the Spirituality of their Glorify'd Bodies how they communicate their Thoughts to each other or the Knowledge they have of their Old Acquaintance Yet have I here with my Pen drawn a Scheme of my thoughts of our Invisible Friends on purpose to see whither it wou'd lead me and whither I cou'd follow it It was but last Night I was complaining to a VVater Drinker * Mr. Sh ley for I 'm now at Tunbridge swilling on Nature's bounty to Crazy Mortals of my Great Curiosity especially in things relating to the other World and in my Conversation by way of Prolepsis I have frequently been making Remarks that way But I tell you before-hand in treating of this Subject I shall leap over all Subdivisions and inferiour Sects of Christians and profess only to the World that the Divine Mercy and Favour is not limitted to a particular Canton or Party I am not only a Lover of good Men of all Perswasions but a meer Enemy to those Names which distinguish one Party from another in the Church Good men often contend about words when they heartily think the same thing and therefore I as little doubt to find Dr. Sherlock in Heaven as Mr. Aisop And do as little question their being of one mind in Heaven after all their Jangling as that they 'll presently know and rejoyce to see one another when they come there In Heaven says a late * Mr. Dorrington in his Discourse call'd The separate State of Good Souls Writer shall we meet many Dear Relations and Intimate Friends and perhaps some Enemies who shall then to our Great Joy and Satisfaction be perfectly reconciled to us which was that we most passionately desired before but it may be cou'd not find means to accomplish it However be it as it will I Live and Move by the Divine Providence and am willing to assert it in spight of all those Narrow Souls that dare trust God no further then they can see him or think none can be saved but those that are distinguish'd with their own Superscription But I shou'd remember I'm writing to one of an Extensive Charity and need not inlarge here So I come now to prove That if Infinite mercy bring us to Heaven we shall know one another there There are two things that comfort us under the Death of Friends The one is the hopes they are gone to Heaven And the other is That if Infinite Mercy bring us thither we shall one day see 'em again and have those very Friendships which they had Conâ—racted here below Transplanted to the Mansions above But what the knowledge is of our Souls separated and glorified we shall then know when ours come to be such In the mean time we can much less know their thoughts then they can know ours Sure we are they do not know in such manner as they did when they were in our Bosoms by the help of Senses and Phantasms by the discurssive inferences of Ratiocination But though we cannot see what manner of Metaphysical Matters our Souls are yet we know they really exist and act our Bodies although they are not Subject to Sense yet this doth not hinder but that a Spiritual substance may be separated from our Body and may be again Cloathed with a Body or Vehicle that may be Airy Fiery or Cloudy and be visible to our Senses although the existence or essence of the Spirit we cannot see but it's outward Cloathing and that such appearances have been in all Ages the Learned as well as the unlearned affirm from real matters of Fact But now whether the Soul in a state of separation acts independently of Matter purely by the strength of her own Powers or whether in order to the better knowing her self and other beings the makes use of a Body of Air shaped out into such Limbs and Sences as she hath occasional Employment for Whether or no the want of her old Companion is supplyed this way is uncertain But whatever abatements of happiness the pious Soul may suffer for want of a suitable body between the time of Death and the General Judgment then we are sure this inconvenience will be removed and it will be repossessed of its Ancient Seat out of which Violence or Nature had forced it But we cannot know these things Till we are strip'd into Naked Spirits and set a shore on the other invisible World Yet this we know at present that when our Souls are elevated to a condition suitable to the Blessed Angels so they know like them Though not by the means of a Natural Knowledge as they yet by that Supernatural Light of Intimation which they receive by their glorified Estate Whether by virtue of this Divine Illumination They know the particular occurrences which we meet with here below he were bold thas would determine Or if they do I 'm sure Eliza but her Love will tell you the rest only this we may confidently affirm that they do clearly know all those things which do any way appertain to their Estate of Blessedness Amongst which Whether the Knowledge of each other in that Region of Happiness may justly be ranked is not unworthy of our disquisition Doubtless as in God there is all perfection eminently and transcendantly so in the sight and fruition of God there cannot be but full and absolute felicity yet this is so far from excluding the knowledge of those things which Derive their Goodness and Excellency from him as that it compriseth and supposeth it As then we shall perfectly love God and his Saints in him so shall we know both And though it be
Immoderate Sorrow for the Death of Friends 1 Thess 4.13 14 18. I wou'd not have you says he to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him wherefore comfort ye one another with these Words Now if our Friends were to rise in such a disguised manner as not to be known again by us this kind of Consolation wou'd be Impertinent and Vain Neither let the many Cavils my dear Ignotus which Atheistical Scoffers oppose against the Resurrection of the Dead with the same Bodies startle us since besides the Divine and Rational Proofs I have urged for it there are more Natural Arguments against than for these Opposers for to omit other Allegations it must needs be very Absurd in 'em to grant that God first took a Parsel of Matter and moulded it into the Body of such and such a particular Man fashioning it with such and such Features as might distinguish it from the Bodies of other Men and yet not be willing to own he can tell how to take up and collect together the same Individual Parts of Matter again and make them up again into the same Fabrick with the same Features since Nature it self assisted by a little Art is daily found to effect something very approaching that Divine Operation it being a very usual thing with expert Chymists by their Skill and Conduct to make the dispersed Particles of a calcin'd Flower or Plant to fly up and assemble together again in the perfect Shape and with the lively Colour of the Flower or Plant to which they belong'd but slighting these Men's trifling Objections let us Ignotus keep fast to that Infalible Word that promises Eternity to our new Friendship and that all the Innocent Joys it gives us here shall be remembred and continued in Heaven Thus have I largely prov'd by Arguments drawn from Scripture Reason and the best Writers that if we get to Heaven we shall know one another there by Face Stature Voice and the Relation we had to each other on Earth And not only so but that we shall know the general Assembly and Church of the First Born whose Names are now written in Heaven the * Heb. 12.23 Patriarcks Prophets Apostles Martyrs and People of God that have lived in all Ages and Nations from the beginning of the World to the end of it Object But may some say if we shall know me another in Heaven I 'de be further inform'd what wi l be the subject Matter of our Discourse there And in what Language shall we then talk Nay good Sir excuse me here for who has ever mounted to the highest Scale of Heavenly Bliss Ler him come down and tell as what is the Pious Conference and Language in Heaven Let him come down and tell us the Mysteries wrapt up in Clouds the Secrets hid within the Veil of Inaccessible Light Let him describe the Wonders of the Beatifick Vision and say how deep the Rivers of Pleasure are which run by Gods Right-Hand for evermore for my part I must confess I 'm lost in that Abyss of Wonders and therefore shou'd modestly withdraw my Pen to Subjects within my Reach However something I 'le guess at tho that 's all to Answer these Curious Inquirers but hold says another before you go any further I wou'd also know strange How far will some mens Curiosity lead them That if we shall know one another in Heaven By Face Stature Voice c. Whether we shan't alse know one another By difference of Sex Answ Yes doubtless we shall and because this Question hath something of Novelty in 't for it opposes the general received Opinion particularly Mr. Baxters who says the Saints shall know one another in Heaven but adds he I think not by Sex I 'le prove this in the First Place And then tell you as far as I can what will be the Discourse and Language of that Blessed Acquaintance that get to Heaven and with that Conclude this tedious Letter And here seeing Novelties make an impression on the Mind before I Handle this Nice-Point I 'le First Premise that 't is charity to lend a Crutch to a lame Conceit However if I am askt for my Authorities I Answer what appears reasonable wants no other Recommendation than being so and as to what appears over strange let Ignotus consider that Philosophy had never been improved had it not been for New-Opinions which afterwards were rectified by abler Pens and so the First Notions were lost and nameless under new Superstructures but such a Fate to use the Words of a late Author is too Agreeable for my Judgement to repine at or my Vanity to hope for But that there 's a difference of Sex in Souls and will be Male and Female in Heaven tho the Notion's new yet I never doubted it and hope to make it plain before we part Object But you 'l say when the Holy Spirit speaks of separated Souls that are gathered up into Heaven he does not speak of Male or Female but only of Souls without distinguishing either kind or Sex And further that 't is said there is no Marrying in Heaven Mark 12.25 And that in Jesus Christ there is neither Male nor Female Gal. 3.28 VVhich it directly contrary to the distinction of Sex in Souls For if Sex be only for the sake of Marriage where there is no Marriage there is no need of Distinct-Sex Then why that in Heaven which there 's no need of All that 's of the Essence of a Man will undoubtedly he there and that 's a Rational Soul united to an Organiz'd Body but what Organs will be necessary then we can't tell however these cannot Besides this difference is only Accidental Man and Woman being in Essence the same But in a State of Bl ss and Perfection all that 's Imperfect or Accidental shall be removed and accordingly one wou'd think Sexes should I won't add for another Reason what as I remember one of the Fathers has said That were there any Woman in Heaven the Angels could not stand long but would certainly be seduced from their Innocency and fall as Adam did But one wou'd think that if Souls were to Marry it ought to be in Heaven which is the Element of Spirits after the Bodies had been united in Marriage upon Earth the Seat of material things Perhaps you 'l also Object the Words of St. Austin who says The Soul is not distinguished into Sexes And that of St. Cyril who liv'd before him who also says The Souls of Men and Women are absolutely alike nor is there any parts of their Bodies wherein there is any difference to be observed To this I Answer That Souls may be distinguish't into Male and Female notwithstanding these Objections since 't is a Common saying The Soul of a Man and the
Soul of a Woman And moreover because it is generally believed and no less sensibly acknowledged that they have each their particular Character the Soul and consequently the Vnderstanding of the one is Resolute and Constant that of the other Light Wavering and Changable Eliza Cloris Daphne Sapho Anonyma Ariadne your Dear Dorinda and my SHE-Angel are all the exceptions I know of from this Rule The Soul of one takes a pride in being Grave and speaking little the other talks much and cannot forbear twatling upon every thing and which is yet more to the purpose does not Moses say That the Sons of God whom several of the Fathers of the Church have Expounded to be Angels Fell in Love with the Daughters of Men And if there be a Sex mark'd out for Love in Angels we need not scruple to go a little farther and say that there is also a Sex in Souls To this we may likewise add certain Experssions of those great Men who are frequently Cited by Tertullian in his Writings I mean Homer who gives the Greeks the Appellation of She Achaeans and Virgil who calls the Trojans She-Phrygians and Cicero who Reports that Hortensius was treated at Rome with the Title of Madam whence could proceed this Custome of giving Men the Epithites of Women but only because that ' tho they had the Bodies of Men they had the Souls of Women And I might mention the Apparitions of Men and Women in the same Shape and Sex they formerly lived is in no contemplible proof of this Assertion But you 'l say perhaps Souls are not furnisht with Organs that make this distinction between 'em and that a Spirit cannot become Visible To this I Answer I own a Spirit cannot become Visible 't is not an Object for a material Eye being it self not Matter but what appears to us in the Shape and Sex of Male and Female is somthing that a Spirit assumes as Condenced Air or the like neither does the Souls not being furnisht with Organs hinder the Distinction of Sex 't is true I acknowledge that Souls are simple Beings which admit of no composition of parts and so they cannot have that Distinction which appears in the Corporeal Sex But can there not be found a Spiritual Distinction seeing that we meet with a * As was hinted before in the Friendship between Ignotus and Philaret Marriage of Minds as well as Bodies Whence it comes to pass that two Minds seek the Injoyment of one another and Love each other by a Secret-Simpathy 'T is Objected that this Union never Produces other Souls But do all Bodies of different Sexes Produce other Bodies There are Insects that are Produced the same in likeness every way without the Assistance of Sexs There are perfect Creatures which have different Sexes which never Procrâ—ate such are Mules and Moyles This then can be no convincing Argument that there is no difference of Sex in Souls because their Union does not Produce another Soul Which is a thing that no Body neither can certainly determin for in regard we know not the Nature of Spirits neither can we have a perfect knowledge of their Faculties till we come to Heaven And Tertullia as was said before does affirm That they â—e able to Pro-create their like seeing that the â—ons of God became enamour'd of the Daughters of Men and that those Sons of God were Angels But that there is a difference of Sex in Souls is further evident if you consider that the Soul is so far from assuming the Disposition of the Body that 't is the Body which conforms to the Disposition of the Soul for this Disposition proceeds only from the Substantial Form The Body cannot give it to it self it is indifferent of it self but the Form is the Vnderstanding which determines it to be such as it is It should be then from the Soul that this distinction of Organs should proceed It should be she that should determine the Sex and consequently the Soul it self that should be Male and Female For as no Body can give that which it has not of necessity the Soul must be furnish'd with Sex before it can bequeath it to the Body Thus having Answered some of the Arguments denying There 's a Sex in Souls I shall next consider the Scripture Passages brought against this Opinion and shall first begin with that of Saint Paul's saying of Christ that He is neither Male nor Female I shall next consider that other Text which says There is no Marrying in Heaven These Texts being brought as the main Arguments to prove There 's no difference of Sex in Souls and that we shan't be known in Heaven by that distinction First as to St. Paul's saying That Christ is neither Male nor Female To this I Answer he speaks of the whole Jesus Christ or only of his Body or only of his Soul He does not speak of his Body for certain it is That as to his Body He was of the Masculine Sex If he speaks of his Soul that makes for my Opinion For in saying that of the Soul of Christ St. Paul intended to say something extraordinary of Him which was not common to Him with the rest of Men and to the end that that shou'd be 't is requisite that the Souls of all other Men shou'd be individually Male and Female else it had been of no Importance to say what he says of Christ The Apostle had told us nothing of Novelty in that particular But to give you a better Interpretation of the thing 't is the Opinion of a Learned Man that St. Paul meant the whole Jesus Christ That is to say that his Person Compos'd of two Natures Divine and Humane is Singular and has nothing of Similitude with other Bodies except some Organs that make the distinction of Sex so as to be enclin'd to the Production of others of the same double Nature and Order So that this makes nothing against my Opinion but much for it And as to that other Text which says That in Heaven there is neither Marrying nor giving in Marriage it directly proves my Assertion For Virginity and Celibacy are so far from denying Sex that they suppose it Thus Christ did not intend to say That there wou'd be no Distinction of Sexes in Heaven And if he does not Assert this we are left at liberty to believe there will for the Reasons I have here given which plainly prove that glorified Bodies shall be admitted into Heaven the Bodies of Male and Female Saints and that at present there are no other than Male and Female Souls in that blessed Place except it be the Body of Jesus Christ I might next consider the Words of St. Austin and Cyril who say all Souls are alike but their Opinion being meer Conjecture without any further Proof I shall pass it by in Silence Thus having largely proved That there 's a difference of Sex in Souls and consequently That we shall know one another in Heaven