AN ESSAY PROVING We shall Know OUR Friends in Heaven Writ by a Disconsolate Widower on the Death of his Wife and Dedicated to her Dear Memory Being a Subject never handled before in a distinct Treatise Sent in a Letter to a Reverend Divine Then shall I know even as also I am known 1 Cor. 13.12 LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by E. Whitlock near Stationers Hall 1698. THE Dedication To the Memory of Dear Eliza. THese Mournful Lines my dear Eliza were Writ o'er thy Grave whilest I was a Widower and are now Dedicated to thy Pious Name as a Memorial of our Constant Love As for the Essay Annex'd 't was Writ presently after thy Death to mitigate my Sorrow for it which is in some part Justified by the greatness of my Loss in being separated after so long Conversation from so kind a Wife 'T is no wonder that Phil. who Lov'd thee so much on Earth shou'd attempt to Prove He shall know thee again in Heaven We are taught by the Holy Scriptures That Love is strong as Death and that the Love of Christ to his Church who gave Himself to the Death for her is proposed to Christian Husbands as a Pattern of Love to their Wives He lov'd his Church with an Everlasting love and so must I thy Memory my Dearest while I continue to be and think It is no more possible to rob my Soul of thine Idea than to deprive it of its Immortality Death which hath made a Separation betwixt our Bodies is not able to Separate our Souls thou wast lovely and pleasant to me in thy Life and therefore can'st not be divided from me by thy Death though the unspeakable Joys whereof thou art now made Partaker make thee ignorant of me because thou art wholly taken up with Transports of Heavenly Love If it were otherwise I am sure thy Happiness could not be compleat 'till thy other half were also Transported into Heaven I don't envy thee though I groan also to be delivered from this Earthly Tabernacle which hinders me from partaking of Heavenly Society with thee which if I may make bold to say so makes Heaven it self the more desirable to me But for that I must stay 'till the Decree of the Eternal take effect and therefore seeing thy place here on Earth knows thee no more that I can no more enjoy sweet Communion with thee 'till we meet in Heaven I have no other Relief at present but to refresh and torment my self at the same time with the remembrance of thy Virtues Did Religion allow any Sacrifice to thy Shrine or Adoration at thy Tomb my head-strong Affection would push me on to it but that is (a) We are sure there is neither Command Example or Promise in all the Scripture to encourage us to make our Application to the Saints departed Mr. Rogers's Discourses of Sickness and Recovery p. 79. reserv'd for Him alone who is the Author of our Being and blessed me with such a Meet-help as I found thee always to be till the arrival of that fatal Moment which made the cruel Separation I call it so as 't was my frequent Wish we might expire in each others Arms that we might imitate herein the Mayor of Litomentias's Daughter who leaping into the River where her Husband was drown'd she clasped him about the Middle and expires with him in her Arms and what is very remarkable they were found the next day embracing one another The same Instance we have in the Captain and his Wife who were last Week cast away in the Tilt-boat for they were taken up so closely Lock'd in each others Arms that 't was hard to part them Thus had Heaven seen it meet that as we were Vnited in our Life we shou'd not have been Divided in our Death it would have perfum'd the Arrow of Mortality to me and made that King of Terrors a King of Pleasures But thou wast Riper for Everlasting Joy and therefore sooner transported thither and I must not repine For those whom God hath joyn'd together no Man must put asunder yet when he that made the Union makes the Separation there 's no saying What doest Thou Yet the Holy Spirit which hath taught us that the Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance will not be offended if I perpetuate thy Memory to my self and carry the Idea of thy Vertues constantly in my Mind that I may do nothing unworthy of my better half which is in Glory as I have read was the Practise of a certain Great Person who constantly carried his Father's Picture about him that he might not do any thing unworthy of such a Progenitor I shall imitate this Example by always carrying this Essay in my Pocket to Re-mind me daily of that Pattern you set me and as a Memento I shall see thee again which I can't but passionately desire as I enjoy'd both Worlds in Dear Eliza and were I to wed again and this I speak after Ten Years Tryal I 'd preferr thy self to the Richest Nymph God saw thee most (a) This was the Posie of our Wedding Ring fit for me and I cou'd not find such another had I a thousand Advisers and as many Worlds to range in to please my Eye and Fancy Thus you find if you Saints above know what 's done below how constant my Love is and that even in Death it self you can die but half whilst I am preserved And tho you 're gone to Heaven before me yet I hope I shall speedily follow after Thither Eliza will my Soul pursue When I like you have bid the World adieu There if my Innocence I still retain My Dear Eliza I shall Clasp again And there when Death shall stop her Pious Race With a more Charming and Angelick Face I shall behold the (a) Witness Her Ingenious Answers to the Letters I sent Her about the Miseries of Humane Life Matchless Daphnes Face And when dear Friend so near to Bliss you be Remember Cloris and remember me But cou'd the Fair Eliza see me mourn From that Bless'd Place she wou'd perhaps return But vain alas are my Complaints thou' rt gone And left me in this Desert World Alone For ah deprived my dearest Life of Thee The World is all a Hermitage to me Let ev'ry thing a sadder Look put on Eliza's Dead the lov'd Eliza's gone Philomelas Poems p. 53. What a melancholly thing does the World now appear However Eliza I can retire to God and my own Heart whence no Malice Time or Death can banish thee The Variety of Beauty and Faces I have seen since thy Death tho they are quick Vnder-miners of Constancy in others to me are but Pillars to support it since they then please me most when I most think of you I 've grav'd thy Virtue so deep in my Breast as is seen in the following Essay sent to our Friend Ignotus that 't will near out till I find the Original in the other World Don't think My
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
Impressed upon my Soul I have not the Comfort of any Child by so blessed and sweet a Yoke-fellow to be a living Evidence of our Mutual Endearments then God and Man I hope will pardon me if I endeavour to have the Idea of thy Perfections always before me and that I have drawn this faint Shadow of 'em with my rude Pen as a more useful and valuable Portraiture of thee than any that could be drawn by the Pencil of the most Famous Artist that is but the Outside but this is the Inside and what I was taught by the Divine Records That the King's Daughters are Glorious within I found it to be true by Experience in thee you convinc'd me what Charms there are in a Vertuous Spouse What a Mine of Pleasure What sprightly Life and Vigour did my Dear give to all my Thoughts Looks and Actions How many new Satisfactions in every thing you did How did I even live in your dying Words Oh the kind and tender Farewells you gave me with your last Breath such as Poor Rogue thou art the kindest Husband that ever lived Ill love thee as long as I live Thou art a dear Child to me I love thee dearly I pray God bless my dear Yoke-fellow and give him Grace I pray thee give him Grace to live so here as he may live with thee hereafter which you repeated over and over very earnestly further begging that God would make me his for there was Grace enough in store To the last Minute of your Life you spake nothing so sensibly as when you spake of Heavenly things and all this you utter'd at the time when you were actually dying It would be a pleasant and delectable Subject for me further to expatiate upon thy Graces and Moral Vertues but I shall conclude with the Wise Mans Character of a Vertuous Woman that Many Daughters have done Vertuously * Prov. 31.29 but thou excellest them all and therefore tho it should be my Lot to engage in a Second Marriage yet it will be impossible for any other Wife to deface the Impression which thou hast made upon me and seeing I can no more enjoy thy sweet Fellowship here on Earth I will contemplate upon thy Perfections and view this Picture which my Affection hath copied from the Original that thy Vertues had impressed upon my own Soul And thus my dearest I must with unexpressible Grief bid thee a long Adieu but that which still comforts me is that we shall meet in Heaven where there shall never be any more perplexing Separation And it shou'd be a great Satisfaction to me to consider That the Providence of God order'd thy Death when I could be present and perform the last Offices of my Love That it did not happen at such a time when I was in Holland and at a great Distance from thee So you had the Comfort of my Love to the last moments of your Life And doubtless it pleased and comforted you much and allay'd your Affliction to see that you enjoy'd in your distress the constant Attendance of so dear a Friend And if this softned your Affliction it may justly lessen my Sorrow for what you endur'd I may be satisfied too in this That I sought and procur'd for you the best Means and Helps to recover you that Art Nature could afford and sure I am could any Physitian or Friend have sav'd your Life it had been Dr. T Mr. C and Cousin J n whose unwearied Endeavours to preserve thy Life shall be * As you desired on your Death-Bed thankfully acknowledged to my Dying Day but it being evidently God's Will to take you from me no Care or Tenderness could retain you amongst us but my Comfort is that as you was Virtuous and Pious you was in the same measure willing to Die and able to receive your Death with an undanted Courage and Resolution Virtue * See Mr. Dorington's Consolations to a Friend is an Essay a kind of Preludium of Dying As it mortifies our Affections to this vain World and fixes them on better Objects the Gifts and Felicities of Heaven Eliza was practising Death by Degrees while she liv'd and mortified first one Affection then another To make the Burden of Dying more easier to bear you took it up by Parcels and so having delivered your self from them you did not bear it all at once Thus it came to pass that Eliza was no sooner sensible she must die than willing to do so She was ready to resign up her good Soul into the Hands of a Faithful Creator Eliza whose Death I am tempted inordinately to Lament did not at all Lament for her self Your willing Submission and Resignation to the Divine Disposal should teach me the same thing You went away perhaps not only contented but joyful that you was to go Tho your Love to me and your Wisdom might make you Conceal that you was willing to leavâ— me yet you was glad I may believe to find that you had finish'd your Course for you had such Foretastes of the Heavenly Bliss as even ravish'd your Soul away Then 't is very incongruous that I shou'd attend your Triumph and Ioy with my immoderate Sorrow and Tears the Remembrance of your Happiness in the unseen World should give Comfort to me under the great Loss I have by your Death Have I not taken Satisfaction heretofore to reflect upon the obliging and charming Conversation of Eliza when my Affairs have kept me absent from her And have not such Reflections sweetned and allay'd that Absence Why then should not such Reflections do me the same Kindness still If I let this Impertinent Thought afflict me that I must no more enjoy the same Delight it will deprive me too of all the Use and Comfort and Pleasure of what I once enjoyed in Eliza which would make my Condition still much the worse Then why shou'd I grieve (a) See the Note at the end of the Dedication with this Mark * thus seeing Eliza is only departed from me for a while she is not lost nor annihilated Thy Body Eliza is laid in the Dust to rest in the quiet Grave and is there watcht by the careful Eye of Divine Omnisience And wheresoever any Parts of that may happen in Ages to come to be scatter'd the Divine Power will certainly collect them all again and thou shall be perfectly restored to Being and Happiness But the mean while thy better Part the noble Soul is return'd to God that gave it And since so much of thee still lives I may say thou art gone to thy Celestial Kindred Upon your Departure from the Body I do believe you immediately found your self like the Soul of good Lazarus attended by kind and glorious Angels And they I must needs think were not silent at their meeting you They congratulate your Delivery from this World applaud your Patience in suffering the Evils of it your Diligence in doing Good your bold Conflicts against the
should know him in the second Life For the first he hits upon the sweetest and most soveraign Comfort which could possibly be imagined You can by no means saith he think your self desolate who enjoy the Presence and Possession of Jesus Christ in the inmost Closet of your Heart by Faith About the other he answers Pâ—â—emptorily This thy Husband by whose decease thou art called a Widow shall be most known unto thee And tells her further that there shall be no stranger in Heaven c. And Bullinger on his Death-bed said to his Friends and Relations then standing by him I exceedingly rejoyce that I am leaving this miserable and corrupt Age to go to my Saviour Christ Socrates said he was glad when his Death approached because he thought he should go to Hesiod Homer and other Learned Men deceased and whom he expected to meet in the other World then how much more do I joy who am sure that I shall see my Saviour Christ the Saints Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and all Holy Men which have lived from the beginning of the World These I say I am sure to see and to partake with them in Joys why then should I not be willing to dye to enjoy their perpetual Society in Glory and having said thus he patiently resigned up his Spirit into the hands of his Redeemer The knowing our Friends in Heaven has also been the support of the Christians of this Age. * See the Account of her Life Published by her Husband Mrs. Lucy Perrot on her Death-bed said thus to her Husband God hath been a long while weaning thee from me we must part but we shall after a while meet again She farther adds I am going home to my Fathers House where are my dear Children will they not follow after me to Heaven Being asked again whether she was not afraid to dye she replied I am not I do not look upon Death singly but at it brings me to Rest I must go through the dark Entry before I can get to my first Husband Bishop Atherton died saying to his Friends I dread not Death God send us an happy meeting in Heaven I am but going before you And in his Letter to his Wife he has these words My dear Wife tho we part in this World yet I hope we shall enjoy a more happy meeting in Heaven Mr. William Hewling said to his Sister before his Death When I went to Holland you knew not what snares sins and miserys I might fall into or whether ever we should meet again But now 't was spoke just before his Execution you know whither I am going and that we shall certainly have a most Joyful meeting And one taking leave of him he said Farewell till we meet in Heaven To another that was by him to the last he said Pray Remember my Dear Love to my Brother and Sister and tell them I desire they would comfort themselves that I am gone to Christ and we shall quickly meet in the Glorious Mount Sion above And Mr. Benjamin Hewling in his last Letter to his Mother has this Expression The Lord carry you through this vale of Tears with a resigning submissive Spirit and at last bring you to Himself in Glory where I question not but you will meet your dying Son Ben. Hewling Mr. William Jenkins in his Letter to his Mother has this Expression Honoured Mother I take leave of you also hoping that I shall again meet with you in that place of happiness where all Tears shall be wiped away from our Eyes and we shall Sorrow no more And in his Letter to his Sister Scot he says Farewell till we shall meet again in Glory and never be seperated more Mr. Eliot of New-England dyed asserting he should know his Friends in Heaven which made him often say that the old Saints of his Acquaintance especially those two dearest Neighbours of his Cotton of Boston and Mather of Dorchester who were got safe to Heaven before him would suspect him to be gone the wrong way because he staid to long behind them but they are now together adds the Author of his Life with the Blessed Jesus beholding of his Glory and Celebrating the High Praises of him that has called them into His marvellous Light whether Heaven was any more Heaven to him continues this Author because of his finding there so many Saints with whom he once had his Celestial Intimacies yea and so many Saints which had been the Seals of his own Ministry in this lower World I cannot say but in that Heaven I now leave him but not without Grynaeus Pathetical Exclamations Blessed will be the day oh Blessed the day of our arrival to the Glorious Assembly of Spirits which this great Saint is now rejoycing with Some months before Mr. Eliot died he would often tell us that he was shortly going to Heaven and that he would carry a deal of good news thither with him He said he would carry Tydings to the Old Founders of New-England which were now in Glory that Church-work was yet carried on among us that the number of our Churches were continually encreasing and that the Churches were still kept as big as they were by the daily Additions of those that shall be saved and thus dy'd The first Preacher of the Gospel to the Indians in America in a firm belief that he should meet and know his Friendâ— in Heaven I shall next add thâ— words of Bp. * See Ar. Bp. Tillotson's Ser. on Phil. 3. v. 20. Tillotson who tells us when we come to Heaven we shall enter into the Society of the Blessed Angels and of the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect we shall then meet with all those Excellent Persons those brave Minds those Innocent and Charitable Souls whom we have seen and heard and Read of in this World There we shall meet with many of our dear Relations and intimate Friends and perhaps with many of our Enemys to whom we shall then be perfectly reconciled for Heaven is a State of perfect Love and Friendship there will be nothing but kindness and good nature there and all the prudent Arts of Endearment and wise ways of rendring Conveâ—sation mutually pleasant to one another Mâ— dear Ignotus I need not add a greater Authority then the Assertion of this Great and Learned Prelate to prove we shall know one another in Heaven But to come yet nearer home I might have added to my one self For I instance in one that I Love as well 'T was the Opinion of this Friend I mean of my dear departed That she should know me again in Heaven the thoughts whereof gave her comfort on her Death-bed for when her approaching end gave me a deeper Sorrow than before she endeavour'd to solace me by saying 'T is true my dear Tho I desire to live for thy sake and nothing else tho I have all the World in having thee and had rather die than thou should'st be sick yet don't be so
Inspired Men or at least that the Matter therein contained is true than that there was ever such a Man as Alexander or Caesar because one of these has all the Moral Demonstrations of Truth the other has namely universal or unanswerable Humane Testimony both of Friends and Enemies and yet more to wit Miracles which are the Testimony of Heaven Now this Scripture gives us undeniable Evidence of the Existence of Souls after Death and therefore whatever God may think fit to order or permit in extraordinary Cases as revealing Injustice Murder c. It appears both fruitless dangerous and irreligious to expect any such thing ordinarily to happen since the Course of Nature is not to be altered without the highest Necessity and Reason So that you see 't is fruitless dangerous and irreligious to expect our Friends that are gone to Heaven or Hell though they still know and love us never so well should come from that Happy or Miserable Place to tell us what passes there But if this be granted perhaps 't will be asked in the last place Then pray tell us what is Death seeing that though nothing else can do it will open the Door to the other World and give us the Knowledge of those Friends departed with whom we earnestly wish to be To this I Answer That Death is no more than a soft and easie Nothing Shou'd you ask me then what is Life I 'd Answer with Crates who being asked this Question said nothing but turn d him round and vanisht and 't was judged a proper Answer But whatever 't is to live sure I am if you Credit Seneca 't is no more to Die than to be Born we felt no Pain coming into the World nor shall we in the Act of leaving it Death is but a ceasing to be what we were before we were We are kindled and put out to cease to be and not to begin to be is the same thing But you 'l say perhaps what do I mean by the same thing and that you are still as much in the dark as ever Why truly so am I as I told Eliza in the last Letter I sent her 'T is true there have been Men that have tryed even in Death it self to relish and taste it and who have bent their utmost Faculties of Mind to discover what this Passage is but there are none of them come back to tell us the News No one was ever known to wake Who once in Death's cold Arms a Nap did take Lucul Lib. 3. Canius Julius being Condemned by that Beast Caligula as he was going to receive the stroke of the Executioner was asked by a Philosopher Well Canius said he where about is your Soul now what is she doing what are you thinking of I was thinking replied Canius to keep my self ready and the Faculties of my Mind settled and fix'd to try if in this short and quick Instant of Death I cou'd perceive the Motion of the Soul when she starts from the Body and whether she has any Resentment of the Separation that I may afterwards come again to acquaint my Friends with it So that I fancy there is a certain way by which some Men make Tryal what DEATH is but for my own part I cou'd never yet find it out but let Death be what it will 't is certain 't is less troublesome than Sleep for in Sleep I may have dsquieting Pains or Dreams and yet I fear not going to Bed If you wonder I 'm able to give no better Account what DEATH is my Answer is That it often falls out that the more common a thing is the more difficult it is to speak well of it as in many sensible Objects Nothing is more easie than to discriminate Life and Death and yet to explicate the Nature of both is a severe task because the Vnion or Disunion of a most perfect form with ' its matter is inextricable however I shall offer those things that have given me the greatest satisfaction in my Enquities Death or a Cessation of doing or suffering is generally agreed to be the greatest Evil in Nature because 't is a destruction of Nature it self but why it should be represented so terrible is as great a Riddle to me as a certain knowledge of what Death really is This is the common Plea of Mortals Here we know and are known and all the Enterprizes we take in hand we have the satisfaction of reflection and a review when they are past but Dying deprives us of knowing what we are doing or what other State we are Commencing 'T is a leap in the Dark not knowing where we shall light as a late * Hobbs Naturalist to say no worse of him told his inquisitive Friend when he was going to die But this is a weakness which as it makes Men anticipate their Misery so it inlarges it too We look upon Nature with our Eyes not with our Reason or we should find a certain sweetness in Mortality for that can be no loss which can never be mist or desir'd again As Caligula passed by an Old Man requested him that he might be put to Death Why saith Caesar are you not dead already There is something in Death sometimes at least that is desireable by Wise Men who know 't is one of the Duties of Life to Dye and that Life would be a Slavery if the power of Death were taken away I had the Curiosity to visit two certain Persons one had been Hang'd and the other drown'd and both of 'em very miraculously brought to Life again I asked what Thoughts they had and what Pains they were sensible of The Person that was hang'd said He expected some sort of a strange Change but knew not what but the Pangs of Death were not so intollerable as some sharp Diseases nay he could not be positive whether he felt any other Pain than what his Fears created He added That he grew senseless by little and little and at the first his Eyes represented a brisk shining red sort of Fire which grew paler and paler till at length it turn'd into a black after which he thought no more but insensibly acted the part of one that falls asleep not knowing how or when The other gave me almost the same Account and both were dead apparently for a considerable time These Instances are very Satisfory in Cases of violent Death and for a natural Death I cannot but think it yet much easier Diseases make a Conquest of Life by little and little therefore the Strife must be less where the Inequality of Power is greater I have met with (a) Epicurus in Gassend Synt. one arguing thus Death which is accounted the most dreadful of all Evils is nothing to us saith he because while we are in Being Death is not yet present so that it neither concerns us as Living nor Dead for while we are alive it hath not touch'd us when we are dead we are not Moreover saith he The
Dear that Conjugal Affection can be dissolved by Death The Arms of Love are long enough to reach from Earth to Heaven Fruition and Possession principally appertain to the Imagination If we enjoy nothing but what we touch we may say farewell to the Money in our Closets and to our Friends when they go to Agford Part us and you kill us nay if we wou'd we cannot part Death 't is true may divide our Bodies but nothing else and scarce that For to use your Words whilst alive We may on Earth lawfully please our selves with Hopes of meeting hereafter and in lying in the same Grave where we shall be happy together if a senceless Happiness can be call'd so But suppose Death shou'd part our Bodies yet we have Souls to be sure and whilst they can meet and carress one another we may enjoy each other were we the length of the Map asunder Thus we may double Bliss stoln Love enjoy And all the spight of Place and Friends defie For ever thus we might each other bless For none cou'd trace out this new Happiness No Argus here to spoil or make it less 'T is not properly Absence when we can see one another as to be sure we shall tho in a State of Separation ' For sight of Spirits is unprescrib'd by Space ' What see they not who see the Eternal Face Vid. P. 54. in the Essay The Eyes of the Saints shall out-see the Sun and behold without Perspective the extreamest distances for if there shall be in our Glorified Eyes the Faculty of Sight and Reception of Objects as I prove to Ignotus there shall I cou'd think the visible Species there to be in as unlimitable a way as now the Intellectual St. Augustine tells us The Saints of God even with the Eyes of their Bodies closed up as now Yours are shall see all things not only present but also that from which they are Corporally absent for then shall be the Perfection whereof the Apostle saith we Prophesie but in part then the Imperfect shall be taken away Whither this be so I cannot say tho you know who have shot the Gulf yet sure I am that nothing can deprive me of the Enjoyment of thy Vertues while I enjoy my self Nay I have sometimes made good use of my Separation from thee we better fill'd and farther extended the Possession of our Lives in being parted you lived rejoyced and saw for me and I for you as plainly as if you had your self been there The World may perhaps censure this as a piece of Flattery or at least as the Fruit of unwarrantable Passion but had they known thy Worth as I did they would not presume so much as to blame me The Letter you sent me (a) Printed in Mr. Turner's History of Remarmable Providences p. 146. in your last Sickness shews thou' rt above Praise I 'll insert it here as a Proof of this and as a Pattern for other Wives Thy Letter 's this Viz. I received my Dearest thy obliging Letter and thankfully own that tho God has exercised me with a long and languishing Sickness and my Grave lies in view yet he hath dealt tenderly with me so that I find by Experience no Compassions are like those of a God 'T is true I have scarce Strength to answer your Letter but seeing you desire a few Lines to keep as a Memorial of our Constant Love I 'll attempt something tho by reason of my present Weakness I can write nothing worth your Reading First then As to your Character of me Love blinds you for I don't deserve it but am pleased to find you enjoy by the help of a strong Fancy that Happiness which I can't tho I wou'd bestow But Opinion is the rate of things and if you think your self happy you are so As to my self I have met with more and greater Comforts in a Marry'd State than ever I did expect But how cou'd it be otherwise when Inclination Interest and all that can be desired concur to make up the Harmony From our Marriage till now thy Life has been one continued Act of Courtship and sufficiently upbraids that Indifference which is found among Married People Thy Concern for my present Sickness tho of long Continuance has been so Remarkably tender that were it but known to the World 't would once more bring into Fashion Mens loving their Wives Thy WILL alone is a Noble Pattern for others to Love by and is such an Original Piece as will ne'er be equall'd I next come to consider the Imprudence of where I must say I am so far from blaming your Conduct that I admire the Greatness of your Conjugal Love in that very Particular which shewed it self to be like the Apple of the Eye which is disturbed with the least Dust But my Dear be concern'd at nothing for I am pleased with all you say or do and have such a Kindness for you that I dread the Thoughts of surviving thee more than I do those of Death Cou'd you think I 'd marry again when it has been one great Comfort under all my Languishments to think I should die first and that I shall live in him who ever since the happy Vnion of our Souls has been more dear to me than Life it self I shall only add my hearty Prayer That God wou'd bless you both in Soul and Body and that when you die you may be convey'd by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom where I hope you 'll find Your Constant E This Letter shews what a Wife thou wert and justifies this Address but to shew thy Piety was the same in Health as on a Sick-bed I 'll trace thy Life from the Cradle to the Grave And here when I remember you Unmarried in your Father's Family in your Blooming Years and Flaming Piety How does it pierce my Soul with fresh pangs of my first Love and sometimes transports me so far with the Thoughts of my Beloved Object that I am ready to forget I have lost her and willing to indulge my self as Men do in a Dream that they actually are in Possession of that which they admire but when I come to my self again and consider that I have lost thee the Thoughts of thy Excellency renders me inconsolable Again when I reflect on the Love of our Espousals our Mutual Affection and Endearments which many Waters could (a) When I went beyond Sea I gave Eliza a Ring with this Inscription Cant. 8.7 not quench nor distance of Place diminish I fancy my self in the midst of Greater Pleasures than the Poets ever fancied in their Elisian Fields My old Joys begin to revive and their Fruit is sweet to my Taste but when I consider that God hath poured out such a bitter Cup to me as the depriving me of one half of my Soul I am not able to contain my self nor to express my Grief In the next place when I think on the Sweets I enjoyed by thy Excellent Society who
If I am able to keep Servants they shall be as near as I can discover and by enquiring know of others those that truly fear God at least they shall be Civilized As for Men-servants if I should marry a Citizen I shall think it my Duty to let my Husband alone with them but if he doth neglect his Duty to them by not calling them to an Account for the Sermons they hear Reading c. If I can't perswade him to it I shall then think I may and must take some care of their Souls As for Maids I 'll before ever I hire them tell them they must go with me to hear at the same place I do but if they are joyn'd with any others then I 'll let them go sometimes there and sometimes with me They shall give an Account of what they hear until the Affairs of my Family are such that I can't do it They shall read to me at least once a day or else I 'll ask them about their Reading for I shall think it to be my Duty when I take any into my Family to take some care of their Souls as well as for their Bodies and to do all I can for their Souls good by admonishing them and giving them all the good Council I can and giving all Encouragement I can in what is good If they grow wicked and careless and will not bear Reproof I shall look upon it my Duty to change them and not to mind what People say of my frequent changing of Maids David would not abide a Lyar in his sight and I am sure that is most pleasing to God to have as near as I can all in my Family that fear him and delight in his ways As for Children if it please God to bless me with them I shall look upon it to be my Duty if I am able to Nurse them my self and to take all the care of them I can in their Infancy and betimes to check the Buddings of Original Sin by not encouraging of Revenge or Pride in them and as soon as they are able to learn to teach them their Catechism and what is good but so as not to tire them but make it as pleasant to them as I can by giving them all the Encouragement and Praise when they do well and timely Correcting them when they do what is sinful As for my Carriage to my Husband I shall reckon it both Prudence and my Duty to study his Humour when we first come together and then to do all I can without sinning to please and oblige him to obey him in all things that are not contrary to the Commands of God If I should light on one that is wicked I 'll endeavour what I can by my Carriage to engage his Affections throughly to me and then to make use of that tye to engage him to God and by my Christian Carriage to try what can be done to win him over to Christ by reproving of him with all Meekness and acknowledging my great Love to him and that 't is Love that makes me do it and my desire of his being happy for ever I shall reckon it my Duty if I have a good Man to be willing to learn of him and to do what we can to engage each other more entirely to God to make use of our Love to one another to inflame our Souls with Love to Christ Being convinced from Scripture and Reason that 't is my Duty to give to the Poor I now resolve when I marry to give according to my ability Tho' I cannot Resolve upon any Sum yet I 'll give according to my Ability When I make any Provisions that I 'de have kept I 'll give some to all in the Family that so I may not put 'em upon the Temptation of Stealing And as for other Victuals they shall have sufficient but none to waste if I can help it This is a thing that I hate for People to repeat my words after me I will not therefore allow any under my care to do it and if ever it please God that I keep Servants I now resolve to endeavour to do my Duty towards them though they should not do theirs towards me and to endeavour conscientiosly to discharge my Duty towards all Relations begging of God that he would now help me to do it O that I could now do all with an Eye to God and be willing always to be at his dispose in every thing My Dear by these your Rules for rendring Marriage happy may not only be seen what a suitable Wife thou wert for you fully practised 'em but also the happy Effects of a regular course of Piety for certainly never was there seen on a Sick bed a greater Instance of a willing Resignation to the Will of God as to either Life or Death You would often say to Philaret Oh my Dear t is a solemn thing to dye but I can freely leave all the World but you and at saying so you would still burst out into Tears you would say at other times Sickness is no time to prepare for Death were my work now to do I were undone for ever Neither Marriage nor the troubles of it could make thee less serious than thou wert in thy Vergin-state Thou mad'st Conscience of taking care that the Incumbrances of this World should not make thee neglect the weighty Duties relating to the other Thy Kindness to other Relations was not diminished by a fond Affection to me at first as is usual with other Young Brides because thou didst look upon due kindness to thy Relations as an act of Duty to thy Maker and their Generous Favours to me did mightily heighten your esteem for them Thy Closet was the Withdrawing-room wherein thou didst most delight because there thou didst entertain Communion with Heaven and many times when thou retiredst thither in sadness thou camest out again refreshed Oh how it pierces my Soul to think I have lost such an Heavenly Companion an Help-meet indeed not only as to the things of this World but as to those of another How Fervent were thy Prayers for my Self and all thy other Relations for the Church of God and mankind in general How seasonable have I found thy directions to my self when under affliction And how powerful have I found thy Joint-prayers to our Common God and Saviour Thy Devotion had more of Seriousness than Pomp and the Seasons of it many times stoln to avoid Ostentation not like those fluttering Women who will be sure to frequent Publick-Prayers Morning and Evening and hug their Prayer Books in their Hands as they walk the Streets and tuffle them over in their Closets without any thing else that looks like Religion in the whole Course of their Lives Thy Closet was furnished with the Holy (a) Wherein thou hast marked a milion of remarkable Texts Bible and Practical Books instead of Dead Lifeless Formularies Play-Books and Romances When thou camest from thy Retirements it
them to attend the same thy Care to have thy Soul in readiness to hear what God had to say was greater than that of having thy Body adorn'd contrary to the common Practise of our Age. How attentive wast thou when at Sermons and with what Greediness didst thou suck in the Sincere Milk of the Word and how Conscientious to see that thy Servants took heed to what they heard and that they perform'd their Duty to God as well as to thâ—e Neither didst thou think to compound with Heaven by being thus zealous in Religious Duties that thou may'st Slander Covet Lie and act other Sins with the greater Freedom here and in other Places none but the Guilty are meant and none but such will wince but these Eliza will have more Wit than to publish their Guilt by declaring their Innocence The Extensiveness of thy Charity is another Character which endears thy Memory and makes it precious to me as well as to many others who felt the Effects of it How like to the Author of all Good did that excellent Grace make thee and how did it Adorn thy Holy Profession Dionysius the Tyrant wonder'd at his Son that with all the Gold and Silver he had in his House he had made no Man his Friend but thou wast innocently frugal that thou might'st be bounâ—ifully Charitable And the Truth is the best and surest way to have any outward Mercy is to be content to want it or to make good Use of what we have when Men's Desires are over eager after the World thy must have so much a Year and a House well furnish'd or else they will not be content God usually if not constantly breaks their Wills by denying them or else puts a Sting into them that a Man had been as good he had been without them If a Man have but a little Income if he have a great Blessing and like Eliza have a Heart to do Good with the little he has that 's enough to make it up alas we must not account Mercies by the bulk what if another have a Pound to my Ounce if mine be Gold for his Silver I will never change with him 'T was you my Dear that cross'd the Proverb That Fortune sees not where she bestows her Gifts that most commonly they fall to the Share of those who have not Hearts to use them for your Great Charity brought that exellent Character upon you of being Kind and Generous beyond others you 'd often say We * 1 Tim. 6.7 brought nothing into this World and shall carry nothing out so did all the Good you could whilst you liv'd in this imitating Sir John Frederick who made his own Hands his Executors and his Eyes the Overseers 'T is observed that Covetousness is the only Sin that grows young as Men grow old But 't was not so in you you liv'd in the World so much above it as was an Evidence of the Real Greatness of your Soul and that you thought that a little thing wherein others place Greatness this made Charity so natural to you that 't was scarce a Vertue There was in your Nature an Aversion to a Covetous Person as he is one which the Lord abhorts Psal 10.3 When I read That 't is easier (a) Mat. 19.24 for a Camel to enter thro the Eye of a Needle than for a rich Man who sets his Heart on his Riches to enter into Heaven I am almost frighted with the Expression Cou'd Aristippus throw his Gold into the Sea and say It 's better I shouâ—d drown thee than that thou shouldst undo me and shall I who have one Foot in the Grave be a Slave to my Wealth I complain of my * Dr. Horneck Neighbour for being hard hearted and unkind to People in Distress and is that a Vertue in me which is Vice in another A good Bishop says a late Writer cou'd have preached an Hour together in saying nothing but Beware of Covetousness And so charitable was Dear Eliza that her whole Life seem'd to be one continued Satyr against Avarice You durst not rake together what you cou'd in your Life to bequeath it to your self at your Death I say to your self for who that has half a Soul wou'd creep to a Miser all his Life for Wealth he may lose with the next Breath neither will he obtain it if the Wretch can carry it to the other World as is seen by the following Instances Hermocrates a Grecian Philosopher dying bequeathed all his Estate to himself his Mind being fix'd immoveably on the Trash he had scraped together And Cardinal Angelot was so wrapt up in Covetousness as by a Trap-Door to get into his Stable and so steal the Corn his Groom had given his Horses And I knew one my self so wretchedly covetous as to steal Candle-ends in the Church after Evening Lesture was over to serve his Occasions at home and this he did tho worth soveral Thousand Pound Well what shall we say There is saith the Wise Man a Man to whom (a) Eccl. 24.4 God hath given Riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all he desireth yet God giveth him not Power to eat thereof but a Stranger eateth it This is Vanity and an evil Disease 'T is clear from hence that tho a little sufficeth Nature and less Grace yet that Covetousness is never satisfied and is certainly curst The contented Man is never poor let him have never so little The Discontented Man is never rich let him have never so much Tho I have a Iust * See the Case of the Young Lady P. 40 Title to 6000 l. as may †THAT' 's ONCE appear in Conjunction with my own Birth-right and so much clear from any Encumbrance and have neither Child nor Chick to waste it and my self as great an Enemy to Extravagance as to what 's Sneaking yet if I an 't contented with this Estate I am poorer than he that begs if content with the Scraps he gets Content is all we aim at with our Store And having that with little what needs more But the Covetous or Disconted Man for they are all one always thinks himself miserable and so he can never be happy But Eliza was none of these had nothing in her mean or little no my Dear had thy Purse been as large as thy Heart you 'd ne'er been rich whilst any Man was poor and I am sure Eliza you had more Piety than to think your self undone had we lost all but one another Would the Miser * See Dr. Horneck's Great Law of Consideration study Eternity he 'd see 't is little material to him whether he is Poor or Rich Your Generous Temper Eliza might fully convince him of this Neither was thy Extensive Charity any Let to thy strict Justice or to the Punctual Performance of all thy Promises in thy Dealings with Men you knew that none must dwell in the HOLY * Psal 15.1 2.
a sufficient motive of our Love in Heaven That we know them to be Saints yet it seems to be no small addition to our happiness to know that those Saints were once ours And if it be a just Joy to a Parent here on Earth to see his Child gracious how much more accession shall it be to his Joy above to see the Fruits of his Loins Glorious when both his Love is more pure and their improvement absolute Can we * Bishop Hall make any doubt that the Blessed Angels know each other How Senseless were it to grant that no knowledge is hid from them but of themselves Or can we imagine that those Angelical Spirits do not take special notice of those Souls which they have guarded here and conducted to their glory If they do so and if the knowledge of our beatified Souls shall be like to theirs why should we abridge our selves more then them of the comfort of our interknowing Surely our dissolution shall abate nothing of our Natural Faculties Our glory shall advance them so as what we once kne◠we shall know better And if our souls can then perfectly know themselves why should they be denied the knowledge of others Not but I own 't will make me shrink to go from them I know to Persons I never saw * Mr. Norris To wing away to an unknown somewhere to be I know not what and live I know not how to leave Dear Ignotus the Dearer Cloris and yet Dearer Sapho Friends with whom I have familiarly Conversed and Corresponded to go into a World of Spirits where I may not meet one I know How strangely shall we look on one another What little content do I take in any Company on Earth where I meet with shiness but sure I am there will be nothing of this in Heaven That Excellent Society * Mr. Dorrington in his Discourse of separate Souls says Mr. Dorrington which the Saint shall enjoy in Heaven in his Fellow Creature shall add much to his Happiness He shall not spend his long abode there in an uncomfortable Solitude Even in this Paradice it wou'd not be good for Man to be alone He shall therefore enjoy much and that very Excellent Society He then meets and shall enjoy for ever with all those Excellent Persons those brave Examples of Piety and Virtue whom he has seen or heard or read of in this World with the Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets and Apostles and the Noble Army of Martyrs Souls joyn'd below in Virtuous Love and sad at parting here shall meet again there and Love again and dwell together for ever He shall dwell with the Souls of all Good Men that have ever lived in this World and the Company there is a * Rev. 9.7 great multitude which no man can Number of all Nations Kindred People and Languages So that you see 't is this Author's Opinion That the Saints above hold a Kind Friendly and Familiar Correspondence and I hope I shall be able to prove that the Saints in Heaven do not only see and know one another but also what passeth in Hell amongst the damned as the Patriarch Abraham did see Dives in his Torments Luk. 16.25 But you 'll say all this is but supposition and that I don't prove whether Ignotus and Phill. who won't believe Death can part 'em shall as distinctly know each other in Heaven By Face Stature Voice the Relation they stood in to each other on Earth and by the difference of Sex as they did when they first met in London to deceive the tedious hours with Discourses of Ph la who by the by I wish will be one we shall know in Heaven for a Thousand Reasons and this among others as she was The blest occasion of our first Acquaintance neither can I be just to her Friendship shou'd I wish my self in Heaven without her 'T was said * See Herberts Life p. 25. Mrs. Jane became so much a Platonick as to Fall in Love with Herbert unseen The case was the same with me for I loved Cloris before I saw her neither did I for many Years expect that Happiness till I came to Heaven where I shall see her again for in that Heavenly Court she 'll be still A SINGER Of Praises and Hallelujahs to God Almighty and to the Lamb that sits on the Throne for ever and ever When I was first blest with a Glimpse of her and 't was but a Glimpse I had Angels Visits are short and sweet so chast was my Errand to her that I desired to dye with Cloris in my Arms. And if ever Friendship shewed a Miracle my Heart shall bear her Picture to the other World tho I never see her again in this But tho I Love Cloris with a Flame as Pure as Light as kind as Love and as strong as Death yet I 'm now a pure Platonick again neither will my Flesh as Eliza * In a Letter she sent her whilst I was at Tunbridge told her E'r creep in for a share not but she might with a smile lead me like a Dog in a string which way she pleased and with a Word make me leap over Steeples to serve her yet you know Ignotus that the least indifference cures Love-Melancholy in a few Minutes I do assure you Valeria's Great Alembic has refin'd all my Love and 't is now become as spiritual as Cloris But this has cost me many a Sigh many a Tear But being at Tunbridge I can tell my Grief to the Rocks and Groves for they 'll Listen though she won't and eccho back her endearing Name as oft as I sigh it out But these melancholy Groves have kept me longer than I did expect but you won't be angry Ignotus since they are grown so civil as to listen to an honest meaning and do Reply in their way of speaking to every word I utter but there be no Rocks in the New Burying place So I expect no Eccho thence no though 't were to a dying Gasp or a Letter writ with primitive Ink. But in the other World when Argus and his Friend get to Heaven for I hope to meet and know 'em there they 'l License our Thoughts our Words our very Looks and know us better than to stop or blame our Correspondence which was begun in time and discontinued a while that the Sadness of parting here might be abundantly recompenced by the Joy of meeting hereafter And this among other things was that with which Augustine comforted the Lady †Aug. Ep. 6. Italica after the Death of her dear Husband telling her That she shou'd know him in the World to come among the glorified Saints The Story is thus †See Bolton's Four Last Things Italica craved very importunately both by word and writing some Consolations from him to support her under that incomparable Cross of her Husband's Loss and Widow-hood and as it may seem she desired to know whethet she
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
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
Querists then deeply in Love with a fine (a) T was the Ingenious Daphne who I have Reason to think is dead Woman whether if she died first he shou'd know her again in Heaven their Answer was We must first enquire whether we shall so much as know one another there if not we doubt Lovers Souls will be in the same Case with others unless they make use of Mr. Dryden 's Expedient and wear Inscriptions to distinguish 'em * See Mr. Dryden's Tyrannick Love Tho we must confess our Judgment is for the Affirmative as we think we have formerly declared it and that separate Souls shall know each other at least glorified Saints when perfect in Heaven because their Knowledge wou'd be imperfect if they shou'd not and that in relation to such Objects as wou'd conduce to the Addition and Perfection of their Happiness as well as the Glory of him who chiefly makes it because the Societâ— of Saints in Glory is by all granted to be one of the Blisses of Heaven but Society without knowledge can't be easily conceiv'd Because we shall be then like the Angels who we are sure know each other and whom we believe indued with all Knowledge they are capable of as they seem to be of all but what is Infinite Because otherwise we shou'd be less perfect than we are upon Earth Because if there be any thing of Humanity left and the Essentials will still remain it seems congruous to suppose we shan't be without what we shou'd think wou'd conduce so much to our Happiness as to see our Friends partake thereof Because there are no valuable Objections against it that of Abraham 's being ignorant of us and St. Paul ' s knowing no Man after the Flesh relating plainly to our State in this World And lastly because it seems agreeable to the Divine Equity that the Obligations of Gratitude shou'd never cease but last even to the other World we mean such real Obligations as the Effects of 'em are Eternal such as make us more Virtuous and Holy and such especially as bring us to Heaven and if they last so long how can they be acknowledged and repay'd unless we know those who conferr'd 'em Not withstanding which lower degree of Happiness the â—nfinite Being may be still All in All and we may in a the rest only Admire and Love the Expressions or Emanations of his Goodness Thus far the Athenians to which I shall add the Opinion of Martin Luther It being propounded as a doubt to Martin Luther Chemnit Harmon Evang. cap. 87. a little before his Death-bed Whether Glorified Saints should have mutual Knowledge of each other He thus resolved his Friends That as Adam knew his Wife in Paradise when she was first presented to him for he asked not what she was or whence she came but saith she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Among those transcendent desires which issue from our Natures this is one that those Acquaintances which were vertuously begun on Earth may be renewed and perfected in Heaven This desire was once of so great Authority that former Ages had respect unto it for when they found it easier to overcome aâ—l other terrorâ— of Death then that one of an everlasting absence from a Friend they were careful to chear a departing Soul by assuring it that the happiness of the other World next to the Contemplation of the Divine Nature consisted in the gaining of new and the indissoluble recovery of old acquaintance Our Creed moreover calls upon us to believe a Communion of Saints which if it be a matter of our Faith here it must be an object of our Knowledge hereafter if we must believe that there are some who sincerely communicate with us in the Faith in this Life then we shall hereafter clearly know who were our Fellow-Members in that Communion and as Faith it self shall be done away by Evidence so shall that Communion which is here by Faith be hereafter perfected by that Communion which â—hall be by Vision Besides I may add If the Soul may carry with it a sociable Inclination then may it for the Use and Exercise of this Desire be admitted to the Knowledge of other Souls and of those especially with whom it had sojourned on Earth that like Fellow-travellers who have been equally afflicted with the Difficulties of the way they may thenceforth interchangeably communicate their Joys springing from their present Rest and Peace But the nearest Instance is his who best cou'd give it having been there himself Luke 13.28 distinctly ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out Now if the Damned can at sight know the Blessed as I afterwards prove can it be supposed that Abraham c. cannot distinctly know each other yea from the Highest to the lowest from Abraham to Lazarus and not only so but of what Country soever as from the East from the West from the North and from the South as the 29th Verse * As was mentioned before in Page 18. intimates and in Matth. 25.32 't is said All Nations shall be gathered as a Shepherd who knows his Sheep and Verse 40. they knew one another because he says In as much as ye have relieved the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me and the Damned shall be told they did not relieve any the least of these as his Brethren and shall therefore be thrust out Object 1. But it may be said that in our Vnion unto God shall be supplied all imaginable Contents and that the Souls of the Blessed shall be held in so great Admiration as that they cannot admit the mixture of any second or less Joy Resp Though this Opinion seems specious and agreeable to Reason yet we must consider that as in the Divine Nature we admit no useless Attributes so likewise in the Humane we must either say it hath no aptness Eternally to desire or rejoyce in the good of another which a sociable Nature inwardly abhorreth or else we must allow it an Object whereon to practice its endless Love and Joy This Love we conceive shall be the perfection of that Desire which was begun on Earth but always mixt with Fear and Jealousie and this Joy we believe shall succeed in the place of that Condolency and Compassion which on Earth we sustained one for another This Love therefore and this Joy must have such an Object as was once the subject of our Fear and Compassion which cannot be either God or Angels but a Creature only of the same Nature and Condition with us Object 2. But it may be feared that our Knowledge of one another and our mutual delight in each other may beget some Interruptions in our Vnion with God Sol. This fear I think will vanish so soon as we consider that it is the same Beauty which we behold in God and love in the Creature though
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
by the distinction of Male and Female And 't is supposed by some that we shall know one another by Voice which brings me in the last place to Treat of the Discourse and Language of the Saints in Heaven And First as to what the Discourse will be in Heaven I won't tell ye for indeed I can't but will give some imperfect Guesses at it Doubtless we shall then Discourse over the whole Business of our Redemption of the Wisdom Patience and Mercy of God in sending Christ to Save us We have some little Glimpse of this in Christ's Transfiguration when the Scripture tells us when the Saints were sent from Heaven to Discourse with Christ there talked with him Moses and Elias who appeared to Him in Glory then they spake of the Death of Christ what a Price He was to pay to Divine Justice for Man's Sins Luk. 9.30 31. As Christ's Transfiguration gives us some little Glimpse of our Transfiguration in Glory so their Discourse shews something what we shall have in Glory The Apostle Paul heard wordless Words Words in Heaven that cou'd not be spoke over again upon Earth In the Revelations we have mention of the Blessed Rev. 5.9 They sung a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book c. We have frequent accounts of the Saints Glorifying God by their Speech Rev. 7.9 I beheld a great Multitude that no Man cou'd number crying Salvation Honour and Power unto God and to the Lamb for ever and ever And 11th Rev. The Twenty Four Elders that sate before God fell on theit Faces and worshipped God 12th Rev. 10. I heard a great Voice in Heaven saying Now is come Salvation Strength and the power of God 'T is true variety of Tongues shall then cease 1 Cor. 13. The Apostle reckons that amongst the things that shall then cease because variety of Languages had their Original from Sin at Babel Now 't is a Question amongst some what Language shall be spoke in Heaven 'T is the general Opinion of Learned Men that Hebrew shall be the Language because there are some Hebrew Words the same in all Languages as Amen and Hallelujah tho others interpret that place 1 Cor. 13. that all Tongues shall then cease that had been used upon Earth The Apostle Paul heard Words that were peculiar to Heaven and Zephan 3.9 God promises I 'le turn to a people of a pure Language a singular kind of Language And the Apostle speaks of the Tongue * 1 Cor. 13.1 of Angels as if there were a Language spoke peculiarly there But whatever their Language is in Heaven sure I am we shall know our Friends that get thither But Methinks I hear some Disconsolate Widower saying I am now fully satisfied we shall know our Friends in Heaven but having lately lost an extraordinary Wife 't is my own Case I desire to know if I get to Heaven whether I shall have a greater Love to her than to the rest of the Glorified Saints notwithstanding all Carnal Love shall be quite banisht in that State you know Phil. quoth this Querist that the Relation 'tween Man and Wife is nearer than any other even so near that the Apostle Paul saith He that loveth his Wife loveth himself Eph. 5. v. 28 31. and that of two they are one Flesh So that I think this Question deserves a particular Answer than Philaret I hope you 'll prove for my present Support that as I shall know my Wife if I get to Heaven so I shall love her more than other Saints For if the Condition of Man be changed by Death into a better how can it be he being perfect that he should have less Love and Conjugal Charity in him than he had while he liv'd in the World And if Memory be a Faculty of the Soul as has been prov'd and Charity be also one of the notablest Vertues that be in Man's Soul the Soul being gone out of the Body and more perfect than it was while it abode here below shall it be thought to be alter'd in the Faculty of her Memory Or else shall we imagine her to be void of her Vertue of Charity which the Scriptures reporteth to be in this Respect greater than Faith and Hope 1 Cor. 13.13 Forasmuch as those two continue only for a time until we enjoy those things we hope for but this only abideth for ever and flourisheth in Heaven while we enjoy there that Immortal Glory And being united with God who is perfect Charity can we forget that Party whom we had loved in him yea according to his Commandment and most Holy Ordinances To this I answer There 's a Notion which seems to prove that if Man and Wife meet in Heaven that they shall have more Love to each other than to the rest of the Glorified Saints and the Notion is embraced by Persons of very good Sense and Learning and which I think but few deny namely That such good Works of good Men as survive 'em here for instance Books of Devotion and in a Sense good Examples c. When they have an effect on such as they leave behind shall thereby advance their actual Glory and Felicity in the other World And is' t not then highly probable that such as are advantaged by 'em nay directed to that happy place shou'd when they once arrive there both know and acknowledge their Benefactors And here may be room for Philaret to please himself with not impossible Hopes for if any of those pieces of Service he did Eliza while she lived were such as made her really more Religious here and more Happy above nay if he imitates her Piety and Vertue wherein he thinks she as far exceeded others as in her Generosity and Love then they may probably not only Know but Love each other better than others in a better World But then must have a Care to Regulate my Extravagant Passion for her Memory here or else I only flatter my self when I hope to get thither and must expect to exchange this long Separation for what will be Eternal But how can I talk of a Separation having told you in the Dedication that my Love has nothing of parting in 't 't will if possible follow her in the same Tract to Heaven where I hope to find and know her hereafter and to respect her above others for why may not Husband and Wife that helped forward each others Salvation whose Souls were mutually dear and who went to Heaven as it were Hand in Hand there meet In a more than ordinary eudearing Manner And return each other Thanks for those Christia◠Offices Holy David cheared up his Thought after the Death of his Beloved Child with th◠Meditation I shall go to him but he shall not return to me 2 Sam. 12.23 which had been littl◠Comfort if he had thought never to have know him there and loved him too more than other◠and certainly 't will be no small Augmentation 〈◊〉 Happiness to Eliza
exquisite Knowledge of this that Death belongs not to us makes us enjoy this Mortal Life with Comfort Neither need they fear the Consequence of Death who have lived a Godly Life 't is true Conscience makes Cowards of us all Lewis II. King of France when he was sick forbid any Man to speak of DEATH in his Court but there 's nothing in Death it self that can affright us 't is only Fancy gives Death those hideous Shapes we think him in 'T is the Saying of one I fear not to be dead yet am afraid to die there is no Ponyards in Death it self like those in the way or Prologue to it and who wou'd not be content to be a kind of Nothing for a moment to be within one Instant of a Spirit and soaring thro Regions he never saw and yet is curious to behold Thus far we may venture to speak of the Language and State of the Blessed of our knowing 〈◊〉 Friends in Heaven and the Damned in Hell 〈◊〉 our Passage to the other World and of Death â—hat sets us ashoar But further I dare not wade â—or by venturing beyond our Depth we are lyable to all the Dangers that are out of Ken 'T is enough that I have scaled the Mountains scrabbled above the Clouds and opened a little the Curtains that hid and separated the Secrets of Heaven from common View and this I have done as thinking it proper to ascend Pisgah by Degrees when we get to the Top our Desire will be to take a Prospect of the whole Hemisphere to leave the Stars while we make Inquiry after all the Invisible Host in which Glorious Assembly I hope shortly to find my Dear Ignotus whose TRVE FRIENDSHIP has been so useful to me in my way thither and indeed all Friendship is no further valuable than as it is founded on Love to Vertue and some way or other promotes our Eternal Happiness If I have advanc'd any thing in this Essay that 's not agreeable to sound Doctrine 't is your Province Ignotus to find it out and tho your good Nature is as ready to forgive Faults as your Wit is able to find them yet pray Sir tell me my Errors Mistakes and Omissions not with the Tongue of a Courtier but with the Severity of a true Friend But I must think my Errors the more excusable as the Death of Eliza * To whose Memory this Essay is Dedicated has Distracted every Faculty and as the Subject was never handled before which heightens my Presumption to venture at it and in some part excuses it for all Ages as if Athens had been the Original have been curious in their Inquiries Curiosity it self being so much a part of Nature that there is no laying it aside till the whole Frame is dissolv'd We all are seiz'd with the Athenian Itch News and new Things do the World bewitch Dr. Wild. Then no wonder that Phil. is aiming at new Discoveries when he does it in Obedience to your Commands to divert himself in the Second Place and lastly to comfort those who have lost any near Relation tho by an ill Management I fear I have lost my End yet as ill as the Subject 's handled I judge he that has bury'd a Wife Child or Friend c. will be pleased to hear tho weakly prov d that he shall know them again in Heaven I own 't is a great Vanity to quote my self except I was one whose Life and Actions might serve for Examples yet 't is not amiss to say that the chief Assistance I had was from Answers I formerly published from Letters of my own writing sent to (a) Printed in Mr. Turner's History of Remarkable Providences Pag. 146. Eliza Cloris and your Dear Self c. which I here insert to shew I can ne'er forget the Ladies concern'd especially the Ingenious W ch to whose generous Favour in bringing Cloris to a Stand whether to take or refuse makes me her Eternal Debtor and shall ne'er be forgot whilst Virtue Wit and God Nature have any Esteem in the World I would serve this Lady thro all Difficulties and write her Particular Character but that to praise her is to lose her Friendship yet I often quote her in this Essay by a Name she can never know and as often put one Name for another as in P. Valeria is put for the Spouse I expected and in P. Sapho is put for Cloris and in P Cloris is put for Eliza c. The unknown Ariadne is also quoted whose ready Wit is always producing of new Charms Neither is Leander forgot for tho Beauty in a Man is a Jest yet Honour joyn'd to Love comprises all that a Maid can wish for And this Hint leads me to Lincoln to the Honourable c. who tho dead and gone I here kiss her Name as the nearest way to her Soul neither do I forget HONEY-MOON now the Musick of Fiddlers is over I might also mention the Learned Anonyma and that Mistress of TRVE SENSE the Ingenious * A near Relation of the Dear Eliza. KATE But I 'll stop here for shou'd I proceed to the other Ladies mention'd in this Essay you 'd think me a meer Rambler but if I am 't is excusable in me seeing when at any time I go out of my way 't is rather upon the Account of License than Oversight for I take a Pleasure in suffering the least sudden Thought or Extravagant Fancy to lead me Ten Twenty nay sometimes an Hundred Pages out of my way as you find in P. 8. Where at one Jump I leap from Heaven to Cloris and in P. 10. from Cloris to Heaven again I have seen two parts of the World and find there is something in Travelling that makes a Man's Thoughts reel and that leads his Pen to wander as much as his Person does I have here made an odd Composition especially where I prove There 's a Sex in Souls but let it go ramble if it will into the World as it rises for I have a mind to represent the Progress of my Humour that every one may see every piece as it came from the Forge I love a Poetical March by Leaps and Skips there are pieces in Plutarch as well as in Philaret where he forgets his Theme yet how beautiful are his Variations and Digressions and then most of all when they seem to be fortuitous and introduc'd for want of Heed 'T is the indiligent Reader that looses my Subject and not I there will always be found some Words or other in a Corner to make good my Title Page tho they lie very close Constancy is not so absolutely necessary in Authors as in Husbands and for my own part when I have my Pen in my Hand and Subject in my Head I look upon my self as mounted my Horse to ride a Journey where altho I design to reach such a Town by Night yet will I not deny my self the Satisfaction of going a Mile or Two out of the way to gratifie my Senses with some New and Diverting Prospect Now he that is of this Rambling Humour will certainly be pleased with my Frequent Digressions however in this I have the Honour to imitate the great Montaigne whose Umbrage is sufficient to protect me against any one Age of Criticks But if his Authority won't suffice I must cast the Fault in to the great heap of Humane Error for seeing we digress in all the ways of our Lives yea seeing the Life of Man is nothing else but Digression I may the better be excused But so much for quoting my Self and Friends and way of Writing c. A Word now of the Graver Authors and then farewel till I meet You and Cloris in Heaven or else at that BLESSED VILLAGE where Angels Sit and Listen to her Song All Musicks Nothing to this Nightingale Oh the (a) As I told Cloris in Answer to Numb 23. Joys I fell at this Harmonious Name The Dying Swan advanc'd with Silver Wings So in the Sedges of Meander Sings When she lays Her Hands to the Spinnet or Charms with Her Heavenly Tongue Phil. cou'd turn Camelion and live for ever on this Air. BLESSED AGFORD A Garden in a Paradice wou'd be But a too mean Periphrasis of thee I cou'd scarce die till I had seen this New Parnassus I call it so as 't is the present Residence of Madam LAVREAT 'T was to this Place and to this Lady that my Reverend Friend But Presto be gone for I 'm now in London again and in the Arms of the Dear Valeria But whether do I ramble from the Graver Authors As to these Learned Gentlemen tho I have great Assistance from them yet I have endeavour'd to digest the same into such a Method Stile and Form as was most pleasing to my Self adding thereunto my own Remarks tho after all the Knowing our Friends in Heaven is so Copious a Theme that I am very sensible Your Learned Pen will find out more and better Arguments than I here produce and pray let me have 'em with all speed for as soon as you give this Subject its Finishing Stroke we 'll fall to discourse on the Visible Frame of Things and of Matters more Domestick 'T is proper to consider this World a little through which we must pass to that Heavenly Country where we shall have the perfect Knowledge of one another and of that Virtuous Nymph yes Cloris I will meet thee there who was the first Occasion of our Correspondence This with a Thousand Loves to H len and a Boon Voyage to Madam (a) Whose Character you 'll find in my New Parnassus or Gentleman's Library which has taken up my Leisure Hours for several Years and will scarce be finish'd till Sh te returns from the East-Indies Sh te is all at present from Your Eternally Devoted Friend Philaret FINIS