of the Uniâ—erse shall be subject to the Action of Fire such as the Earth we tread on with the other Planetary Bodies but that the purest Aetheâ— shall remain for ever untouch'd unchang'd the Sanctuary of the Bless'd the Habitatioâ— of the Spirits of Just men made perfect I aâ— also confirmed in this Belief by somethiâ—â— more Sacred and Authentick than natural Phâ—losophy For when the Royal Psalmist in thâ— Divine Rhapsody calls upon the Heavens 〈◊〉 Heavens and the Waters which are above tâ—â— Heavens to praise God he gives this for â— Reason viz. Because he spake and the were made he commanded and they werâ— created He establish'd them to Eternitâ— and for Everlasting Ages He fix'd a Decree which he will not disannul Then he calls upoâ— the Earth and all Creatures therein to joyn iâ— the same Act of Praise but not for the samâ— Reason not because the Earth shall enduâ—â— for ever but because the Name of God alonâ— is exalted and his Honour above Heaven anâ— Earth Which Distinction seems to me aâ— evident Argument of the unalterable Stabiliâ—â— of the Coelestial and Aetherial World whatâ—â—ever Mutations and Changes the Terrestiâ—â— may be subject to That those immense Tracts of quiet and iâ—passible Aether shall be the Seat of the Bless is very consistent with Philosophy and 〈◊〉 ways repugnant to Divinity However leâ— the Place be where it pleases God we arâ— assured that the Entertainment and Joys â—â— far surpass all humane Comprehension Yeâ— tho' we cannot have adequate Conceptions of Supream Felicity there are some Land-marks by which we may take imperfect Measures of that Region of Promise The Dim-Light of Natural Reason may afford us a Glimpse or faint Prospect of those Superlative Joys and the Opticks of Faith will improve the View We shall have the same Nature and Faculties there as here but free from the least Alloy of Frailty and Imperfection Our Souls shall display the radiant Brightness of their Immortal Essence with stronger Vibrations than the Sun having no internal Scum of Concupiscence boyling out from the Center of a depraved Will or erroneous Understanding to blemish and stain those unspotted Orbs of Light nor a terrene gross Body to Eclipse and shut up their Splendors But being ever Bright and Serene they shall shine through their Glorified and Spiritual Bodies as the Sun does through the â—ervious Air or at least as he does on a Bright Cloud which drinks in his Beams to reflect them abroad with a more sensible Glory We shall then see not by receiving the Visible Species into the narrow Glass of an Organized Eye we shall then hear without the distinct and curious Contexture of the Ear. The Body shall then be all Eye all Ear. All Sense in the whole and every Sense in every Part. In a word it shall be all over a common Sensorium and being made of the purest Aether without the Mixture of any lower or grosser Element the Soul shall by one undivided Act at once perceive all that Variety of Objects which now cannot without several distinct Organs and successive Actions or Passions reach our Sense From this Superlative Tenuity and Claritude of our Bodies will arisâ— that ineffable Delicacy in the Sensation of the Soul which will transport it with Delighâ— infinitely transcending the Heighth of Mortâ—â— Voluptuousness nay and even those more exalted Pleasures which the Vertuous sometimeâ— enjoy here on Earth as Foretasts of their futurâ— Beatitude in Heaven What here excites buâ— an Ordinary Emotion of Joy in the Soul wiâ—â— there produce all Raptures and Ecstasies We shall be always in Paroxisms of Love such are the transcendent Beauties of that admirable Place and such the divinely amorous Bent of the Soul We shall be always languishing yet ever enjoying what we languish for Neither suffering the least Pain through the Want of Fruition nor through any Satiety that shall attend it But through the Vigour of an Immortal Activity we shall have ever freshly kindleâ— Desires and new Enjoyments being dissolv'd in a Circle of Beatitude without Measure or End Here on Earth Men generally strive to Monopolize Pleasure to themselves there being few of so generous a Temper as to be sensibly touch'd with Delight that another shou'd partake with them in that which they esteem Felicity This is the peculiar Advantage of the Bless'd in Heaven that even in the Heighth of the Affairs of Immortal Love and Empire where they possess Eternal Crowns and unfading Beauties there is no such Thing to be found as a Rival or Competitor but every one's Joy is enhanc'd by the Enjoyments of another Every one loves all and all love every one Neither wou'd their Felicity be Perfect cou'd any Member of that Happy Society be suppos'd not to have his full proportion and share of Beatitude So communicative is the Love and Joy of those Holy Souls that they must cease to love and enjoy themselves shou'd they desist from loving and rejoicing in the Happiness of their Fellow-Citizens And if we may take our Measures of their Joys from our Common Experiences here on Earth it will be no small Augmentation of their Complacency to find those very Friendships which they had contracted here below translated to the Mansions above when they shall both see and know those whom they once loved on Earth how to be made Denizens with them in Heaven with what Ardours will they caress one anoâ—her With what Transports of Divine Affection will they mutually embrace and vent those Innocent Flames which had so long lain smothering in the Grave How passionately Rhetorical and Elegant will their Expressions be when their Sentiments which Death had Frozen up when he congeal'd their Blood shall now be Thaw'd again in the warm Airs of Paradise Like Men that have escap'd a common Shipwrack and swim safe to the Shore they will congratulate each other's Happiness with Joy and Wonder Their first Addresseâ— will be a Dialect of Interjections and short Periods the most Pathetick Language of Surprize and high wrought Joy And all their after converse eveâ— to Eternity will be couch'd in the highesâ— Strains and Flowers of Heavenly Oratory wiâ—â— Allelujahs intermix'd It much sweetneth the thoughts of Heaveâ— to me to remember that there are a multituâ—â— of my Friends gone thither to think such â— Friend that died at such a time and such a 〈◊〉 at another time O! what a number of thâ—â— cou'd I name and that all these I shall meet â—gain 'T is true it 's a question with some whethâ—â— we shall know each other in Heaven or no bâ—â— 't is none with me for surely there shall â—â— Knowledge cease which now we have bâ—â— only that which implyeth our Imperfectioâ— and what Imperfection can this imply Indeâ—â— we shall not know each other after the flesh nâ—â— by Stature Voice Colour or outward Shapâ— nor by Terms of Affinity and Consanguiniâ—â— nor by Youth or Age nor I think by Sex buâ— by the Image of
〈◊〉 accomplish the Resurrection of the Dead tho' thâ— Bodies of all Mankind were crumbled into Dusâ— and that Dust scatter'd before the Wind or dâ—still'd into Water or attenuated into Air 〈◊〉 tho' those Bodies were eaten by the Beasâ—â— of the Earth or the Fish of the Sea as those Beasts and Fish eaten again by Men. Tho' they shou'd undergo all these Changes and Transmigrations yet were they still in the great Repository of God The whole World in this sence being but as one great Store-house and all the Elements as so many Cells therein so that wheresoever we shall be laid up whether in the Bellies of Fishes Entrails of Beasts or by various Alteraâ—ions become â—he Food of Men yet the Great Architect of all Things knows where to find our scatter'd Remnants But why should we engage Him in so infinite a Task when the Work may as well be done a nearer way And put him to the Expence of multiplying Miracles when fewer will serve the turn When the Grand Alarm is given He can soon fit our Souls with proper Matter for their future Bodies out of the Elements as well as out of their own Antiquated Embers The Jewish Rabbins seem to deny the gathering together our dispers'd Ashes and assign the Trouble to a certain small Bone in every Man 's Back which they say never suffers any Putrofaction but remaining to the last Day in its Primitive Consistency impassible and incorruptible is then impregnated by a Dew from Heaven which diffusing its Vertue like a Ferment not only animates and quickens this Seminal Bone but also attracts all the Atomes which formerly constituted the Body tho' dispers'd in the remotest Corners and most hidden Recesses of the Vniverse marshalling them in the same Order as they had before their Dissolution and so in a moment recovering the Body to its Primitive State But these are gross Conceipts for Christians who believe that our bodies shall in that great and Final Change become Spiritual and Immortal being for ever divested of all the peculiar Circumstances of Flesh and Blood Let the manner be how it will please God I am ravish'd to think what a bright and serene Morning the Resurrection will prove after the long Night of Death and the languishing slumbers of the Grave How vigorous and active we shall rise from our Beds of Darkness how merry and blithe from the melancholy Regions of Horror and Silence More sprightly than Youth stronger than Lyons and swifter than Eagles Full of Light full of Joy we shall soar aloft and like well-mounted Travellers post it away through the Balmy Air and liquid Skies till we arrive at the Place of admirable Mansions and be welcom'd to the House of God I dare not with some of the Jewish Rabbins say that all shall not rise at the great Day much less will I presume with others to particularize so far as to exclude all those who perish'd in Noah's Flood or with a third sort to confine the Resurrection to the Children of Israel as if we that are of the Gentiles were not capable of it as well as they But above all I reject the Censure of the Talmudists who say that neither Bilha the Concubine of Jacob that lay with Reuben nor Doeg that caused Saul to kill Abimelech and the Priests nor Gehazi the servant of Elijah the Prophet nor Achitophel David's prime Minister of State shall rise from the Dead These are the Memoirs of Hebrew Superstition Invidious Remarks the peculiar Heresie of that over-weening Nation Yet I am more scandaliz'd at some Christians who will not allow Salvation to any man that is not within the visible Pale of their Church as if the Eternal Sun of Justice were Eclips'd to all that are out of their narrow Horizon Surely He enlightens every man that comes into this World and his Rays are not confin'd to Countries or Parties He shines Universally and no man can trace him in the Zodiack of his Mercy I dare not 't is true with Justin Martyr canonize the Philosophers and place Socrates and Heraclitus in Heaven neither am I sure that Aristotle by his learned Treatises of Heaven has obtain'd an Inheritance there himself 'T is too officious a Regard and too bold a Charity thus happily to dispose of Particular Men. On the other side I dread to pass the Sentence of Damnation on all the antient Pagans and to aver that none were saved that died before the fifteenth year of Tiberius Tho' the mere Light of Natural Reason was not sufficient to conduct them nor alâ— their Morality enough to entitle them to Supreme Felicity Yet I cannot be perswaded â—hat the infinite Goodness would doom the vertuous Gentiles to the Abyss of Misery Neither can any man demonstrate That Christ was not the Light of the Gentiles before his Incarnation as well as after And since Abraham saw his Day and was glad how do we know that Plato Solon Lycurgus Pythagoras Cyrus and other wise Law-givers Philosophers and Kings men renown'd for their Prudence Temperance Fortitude Chastity Liberality and the like Vertues might not also be favour'd with a glimpse of the Messias the desire of all Nations before he appear'd in the Flesh Tho' we have no Records in Scripture of Hermes Trismegistus Zoroaster Phocilides Homer Theognes Epictetus Theseus and Hercules yet we cannot be assured but that they had Faith and expected the Redeemer to come as well as Job who was not of the Holy Line but a Branch of the Gentiles When I consider what Pains some of the wiser Heathens have taken to find out the Truth when I contemplate a Pythagoras travelling through Asia and particularly conversant in Palestine an Empedocles Journeying into Africk to learn the Wisdom of the Aegyptians an Alexander the Great falling at the Feet of the Hebrew High-Priest I cannot think the Heathen World to be so ignorant of the true Religion as is commonly imagin'd They had a Balaam to instruct them the Sybills to guide them to the Knowledge of a future Messias and for ought I know some of them might have the Scriptures of the Old Testament too or at least a good part of them even before that celebrated Translation of the Septuagint was extant since it was easie for those Gentiles who had Commerce with the Jews to procure Copies of their Law especially when they were made Captives in Media Assyria Aegypt and Babylon An Esther lying in the Bosom of Ahasuerus a Daniel sitting at the Right Hands of Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzer and Darius had fair Opportunities of instructing those Heathen Monarchs in the Mysteries of the Mosaick Law and surely such Holy Persons wou'd never neglect so noble a Work as proselyting the Kings and Princes of the Gentiles to God In the Days of Solomon the Fame of the Jewish Nation had reach'd the utmost Parts of the Earth Kings came from far and Queens from the remotest Borders of the Continent to be the Disciples of that Royal Philosopher and
several Regions of the Sky and Air till being tyred with so vast a Ramble and willing to try all States of Life I was by the Force of a strong Inclination and the irresistible Charm of rightly adapted Matter allured into this Terrestrial Body here to do Penance for the Faults of my Superiour Life and in this Horizon between the upper and the lower World to make my Choice of Good or Evil Light or Darkness Life or Death This unlocks all the Aenigma's of Providence and reconciles the harsher Difficulties with which the Immediate Creation or Traduction of Souls is involved It is the noblest Instrument of Vertue the sharpest Spur to a Divine Life whilst it doubles the Hope we have of being Immortal à Parte post by assuring us we were so à Parte ante And that it is not from any Arbitrary Decree of God inconsistent with the Rest of his Divine Perfections that we shall live for ever but from our own Nature and Essence being Created to subsist an interminable Duration of Ages I believe those Books of the Holy Scripture which are lost could they possibly be recovered again would serve as a Lamp to enlighten us in many Obscurities of Religion History and Nature And if the Writings of Jasher Iddâ— the Prophet c. could inform us nothing of the Praeexistence of Souls 't is very probablâ— the more early Oracles of Enoch would sincâ— he was but the Seventh Soul that was drench'â— in Terrestrial Matter and led so pure and incorrupt a Life as wou'd tempt one to believe That he was awaken'd to the Memory of his former State which for ought we know might have no small influence on his succeeding Change I have often wonder'd where St. Jude had so particular an Account of Michael the Arch-Angels dispute with the Devil about the Body of Moses that he was able to relate the very words that pass'd between them Surely the Jews had some Books or at least Traditions which were believed to be Orthodox tho' they were not so much as mention'd in the Sacred Canon for we cannot without great Impiety imagine that the Holy Saint wou'd impose upon our Belief any thing that was Forreign or Apocryphal I am apt to conclude from hence That there were many Traditional Doctrines entertained among the Hebrews which are by us esteemed no better than Fables However tho' I am thus convinced of the Truth of our Praeexistence and that this present Life is but a Shadow or Dream in comparison of what we enjoy'd before our Immersion in the Flesh yet I wou'd not have this Dream interrupted by any untimely or harsher stroke of Destiny I shou'd think it no inconvenience to live long but rather a Blessing That so a multitude of years might scum off the Froth and Sullage of our Appetites and Passions that so being gradually wean'd from those low Affections which brought us down to the Earth we may without any Disquiet or Turbulency remount to our Aetherial Homes For I am apt to think that those â—ouls who go out of their Bodies with any remaining Relish upon them of the Body like Fruit that is either pluck'd off or shaken down by violent Winds still retain in their separation a raw and eager smack of the Flesh with a languishing Byass toward it Whereas he that has tarried his full Period in the Body parts from it with Ease and Willingness as Ripe Fruit drops from the Tree And therefore I do not wonder that the most general Scene of Apparitions Ghosts c. is the Church-yard or at least that Place where the Body of the Spectrum was buried And the removed Earth which covered the Cobler of Silesia 's Body is a shrewd intimation That there are some Departed Souls which if they seek not a Reunion with their Bodies yet endeavour to hold a kind of Correspondence with them even in the Grave And tho' the Impossibility of being married again to these their dear Consorts after that final Divorce were enough one wou'd think to cure their Impotent Desires yet they burn with a new Lust and commit a Spiritual Adultery in the unlawful Bed of the Grave These I look on as the Effects of a too early and violent Separation and therefore esteem Methuselah and the Resâ— of the Fathers before the Flood happy who prolong'd their years to the utmost standarâ— of Humane Life and seem'd not so much tâ— die for that imports Violence as voluntarily to forsake their old Rotten Habitation shake Hands with their Bodies and so retuâ—â— to the Aetherial Palaces from whence they haâ— so long stragled Yet notwithstanding the great Esteem â— have of long Life as a Means rather to Improve than Impair us I cannot promise my self to out-live a Jubilee tho' I have already seen one Revolution of Saturn Neither do I affect to make Popes Emperours Kings and Grand Seigniours the Land-marks in the Chronology of my self That were to insult over the Royal Ashes of Princes besides the Ambition in Ranking my self in their Number Methinks I grow old even at those Years when the World counts me Young and possess the Heritage of David's last Ten Years of Fourscore in the Prime of my Age. Indeed the whole Earth and all this Planetary World seems to droop and decay Every Species of Beings grow weak and languid and seem to draw near their Dissolution Yet 't is needless to engage God in the Act since tho' Creation was above the Force of Nature yet Mutation is not and no Annihilation can proceed from that Paternal Essence of Essences It seems easie to me to believe That the World will perish upon the Ruins of its own Principles And tho' the precise Period of its Destruction be not known to the Angels themâ—elves yet there are not wanting some Philosophical Rules whereby one might venture to Calculate its Duration and by observing the various Attempts Eruptions and Devastations made by Fire already one may conjecture â—bout what Time that most active Element â—hall be let loose to destroy this Face of the World and transform this Superannuated Heaâ—en and Earth into New Ones as the Holy Prophet has foretold For as to Annihilation look on it as a Chimera or Non Entity which cannot be said to slow from Him who â—s All-being and the Fountain of Existence â—t were easier to conceive that Cold should â—e the immediate Effect of Fire and Darkâ—ess the Natural Result of the actual Preâ—ence of Light than to think that Annihiâ—â—tion or not Being can proceed from Him â—ho is the Original Source of Being from â—hose Divine Power Wisdom and Goodâ—ess all Things flow by a Necessary Emanaâ—â—on and continue in their several Perfectiâ—ns by as unalterable a Law as that which â—ave them so that there can be no Vanity supposed in their Eternal Subsistence â—o Leaps or Starts from Something to Noâ—â—ing It is far more agreeable to the Prinâ—â—ples of Philosophy to conceive That only â—â—e Gross and Corruptible Part
interrupt her Meditation by the Proposal of external Objects which do not at all concern her It is the best Acquaintance we can have and would deal more faithfully and wisely in her Advisements than the best Friend we know upon Earth It is I am confident the want of this Intelligence that occasions all the Irregularities and Disorders we are guilty of Remember to make Reason and Conscience of your Party and you will soon perceive your Anxiety and Torment abated Then should we not only be Wise but in a great measure Happy to boot And for ought I know in as high a Degree as humane Nature is capable of attaining For the greatest part of our Felicity as I take it in this Life is placed in a due management of our Afflictions or the intire Dominion and Monarchy of Reason over our Passions It is a prejudicate Opinion begot by Example fomented by Education and inveterate by Custom which has infected our Minds and debauch'd our Palates that we can relish nothing according to it 's true and natural Taste For the Objects we converse with have for the most part an indifferent inclination to Good or Evil and operate upon us only after the Judgment we make of them We are Masters of every thing before us and a wise Man hath an admirable Dexterity of drawing Sweetness from what others call a Calamity And makes â—ll the Injuries of Fortune serve his Designs and further his Advancement They are geâ—erally Men of weak Spirits who are dejected wiâ—h Adversity or exalted with Prosperity And who is either way affected with these â—hings gives a strong Argument of his Imbecility that he knows not how to live agreeable â—o either Nature or Reason Will any Man Glory in another Man's Excellencies and value himself because his Neighbour has a House better furnished than his own The Case is the same Whatsoever is in the Power of Fortune belongs not to us We ought no more to be concern'd at her Contempts than elevated with her Favours She is a capricious Goddess and the Frailty of Mankind is the subject of her Humour She swells a Bubble with Pride and breaks it with Scorn Whoever trusts her does but Treasure up to himself an abundant and inexplicable Matter of Discontent and Perturbation I could in some fits of contemplative Melancholy fall asleep as soon in a Church-Yard as on my Bed and am often so weary of dull Life that my greatest delight is in such Objects as speak most to it's advantage I know that I carry a Ghost always about me and that I my self am a Walking Spirit This thought allays in me those vulgar Fears of the haunts and visits of Spectres And as I am not at all afraid of my self so I am very little apprehensive of Apparitions Nay more I could wish the Communications more frequent betwixâ— us and the Inhabitants of the Vpper World I would harden our Christian Courage familiariâ—â— to us the Thoughts of Separation and creatâ— in us a more passionate love of the Heavenâ— Country I pretend not by the Title of this small Treâ—tise to any extraordinary Scheme or new draugâ—â— of Religion for Men of my own Profession much less would I be thought slighly to suggest any neglect or deficiency of theirs in the Practice of the Old I am very well assur'd that Religio Bibliopolae seems a direct Tautologie But surely it can be no Offence to say that I could wish we were all more in earnest for Heaven and that we had all the Wisdome and Vertue that ever appeared in the guise of true Reason in the World summ'd up and amassed in a Christian Book-seller especially in a daily sincere contempt of this World No eager pursuit or restless intemperate desire of Wealth or Honour must be harboured by us who are to fix our whole hopes on another Country and we should confess our selves Strangers and Pilgrims on this Earth by the Precepts and Examples of all the Holy Prophets and Apostles throughout the whole Book of God To set any extraordinary value on the World is to unravel the peculiar Principle of Christianity and run retrograde to the steps of the Holy Jesus FINIS