concerned about parting for I hope we shall both meet where we shall never part That she dy'd in this Belief yet furthet appears by the Letter she writ about her Funeral which concludes with saying My Dear as to what you mention about our Funerals I like it well and am yet further pleased with our Ground Bedfellows I doubt not but dear O thee and I shall make as wholesome a Morsel for the Worms as any and as we sleep together in the same Grave so I hope we shall be happy hereafter in the Enjoyment of the Beatifick Vision and in the Knowledge of one another for adds she I agree with you that we shall know our Friends in Heaven Wise and Learned Men of all Ages and several Scriptures plainly shew it tho I verily believe was there none but God and one Saint in Heaven that Saint wou'd be perfectly happy so as to desire no more but whilst on Earth we may lawfully please our selves with Hopes of meeting hereafter and lying in the same Grave where we shall be happy hereafter if a Senseless Happiness can be call'd so You mention Writing your Thoughts of the Nature of the Soul and that other World we are hastening too but seeing you did not send them I shall wait with Patience till those things are no longer the Object of our Faith but Vision 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 conveyed by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom where I hope you 'll find your constant Eliza. And as Eliza that part of my self now in Heaven believ'd she shou'd know me â—â—ere so I also find my Reverend Father of this Opinion as appears by the following Letter (*) This Letter was sent me during my Apprentiship in the City of London Viz. My Dear Child If you endeavour to please God and your Master I do not doubt but I shall meet thy Face in Heaven hereafter tho thro my Corporal Indisposition I fear I shall see thy Face no more on Earth and in that New-Jerusalem if thou diest in Christ I shall see thee not disfigured with Pockholes but dignified with Celestial Glory and there thou wilt see thine own Mothers Face who kill'd her self with Excess of Love to thee and who died praying so earnestly for thy Everlasting Salvation 'T is clear from hence that my Father thought he shou'd know my Face in Heaven and that I shou d see my Mother there so as to know her again My dear Mother was also of this Opinion as appears by the Letter to her Brother Jeremiah it concluding thus Pray Brother earnestly contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints that you may follow the Lord fully in your Generation and that you and I with all our Relations may one day sit down in Heavenly Places together with Jesus Christ. And Cloris too for I can't speak of Heaven without her is of this Opinion where she says speaking of Mr. That Saints and Angels listen to his Song and knew him so very well that not an Angel Critick durst correct his Verse Dear Charmer shall we see thee too in Heaven Phil. Then Cloris know in Heaven I 'll be Your Friend and Guardian-Angel too And tho with more refined Society I 'll leave Elysium to converse with you Cloris But grant Sir Phil. you still are kind You cannot long continue so When I like you become all Thought and Mind By what Mark then shall we each other know Phil. With Care on your last Hour I wi l attend And least like Souls shou'd me deceive I closely will imbrace my new-born Friend And never after my dear Pithia leave You see Ignotus I am all Rapture when I talk of Cloris but 't is Excusable sure if not Phil Forgive Bright Maid this little Extasie Ah! who can be compos'd that thinks of thee Who can Pindarick Flights refuse Whilst thou doest lash the Fiery-foaming Muse I 'll curb her in and try if I can be As Grave as Sober and as Wise as thee Nor think dear Friend I ramble now from you for I never talk to the Purpose but when I bring in Cloris our Friendship both here and hereafter wou'd be imperfect without her It shou'd sweeten the Thoughts of Heaven to us both to think we shall one day see her there Which if we do with what Ardours shall we then caress one another With what Transports of Divine Affection as one expresses it shall we mutually embrace and vent those Innocent Flames which had so long lain smothering in the Grave How Passionately Rhetorical and Elegant will our Expressions be when our Tender Sentiments which an aged Father and Death had frozen up when he congeal'd our Blood shall now be thaw'd again in the warm Airs of Paradice like Men that have escaped a common Shipwreck and swim safe to the Shoar shall we there Congratulate each other with Joy and Wonder I need not tell you says the Ingenious Boyle Tha we shall be more justly Transported at this Meeting than was good old Jacob at that of his Son Joseph whom having long mourn'd for dead and lost he found not only Alive but a great Favourite ready to welcome him to an unknown Court For whereas the Patriarch said to his Son Now let me dye since I have seen thy Face the seeing of our Friends in Heaven will assure us that we shall for ever Live with them there Dear Ignotus wonder not at this Rapture for if Eliza whilest on Earth had Christian love enough to Embrace the whole World in Heaven she has not left her Nature but only its imperfections she has not changed her affections but only hightened and improved them and therefore judge how happy I shall be when I see her again and how much more happy in her Excellent friendship for my part I can imagine nothing but an Extacy when we shall Live in such great Hearts which are nothing else but LOVE and JOY Nay this seems to be the summ of what we can say of the happiness of that State that it consists in a rapturous Love of God and one another Where this is found that Place is Heaven * * See Mr. Foes Car. of Dr. Annesly Could I Reheatse to your Conception what is Heaven above t would be Concisely thus all Heauen is Love Sure I am we shall behold no narrow Conclusive Soul in Heaven habitually prefering their private before a publick good and on this Score had I no better Grounds I should hope to meet Eliza in Heaven as she preferred that and the pleasing her Husband to all the Baggs in the World Then surely if I meet her again my first Address to Eliza will be 'a Dialect of Interjectons and short Periods the most Pathetick Language of surprise and high wrought Joy and all our after Converse even to Eternity will be Couch'd in the highest Strains of Heavenly Oratory methinks
Angels and Saints of that Heavenly Court are perpetually Singing Praises and Hallelujahs to God Almighty and to the Lamb that sits on the Throne and are daily Embracing each other For that there 's such a thing as Friendship among Angels I do not question for Love each other undoubtedly they must and Love more intensely they may such as have the most beautiful Characters of the Divine Power and Goodness upon them And that there is also a Communication of Angels and Souls in Heaven plainly appears from Rev. 7.9 10 11 12. 1 Cor. 13.1 Dan. 8.13 But I conceive this Communication to be chiefly in an ability of Insinuating their Thoughts to each other by a meer Act of their Wills just as we now speak to God or our selves in our Hearts when our Lips don't move or the least outward sign appear Whether there 's any other Converse I shall enquire at the end of this Essay but that there 's sufficient to know and be known I am fully satisfied But tho this may suffice as to our knowing the Angels Yet Secondly As to the Saints I shall never know them for certain I did know 'em on Earth 't is true but since they are gone to Heaven they are so hugely altered I shall not know one of 'em when I see 'em again Nay Phil. and I can't give an Instance will affect you more you 'l scarce know Eliza there The * See Dr. Sheldon of Mans Last End Glory of her Soul will be seen through her Body in such a sort that they 'l both shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of Heaven Neither can you tell me Philaret what kind of Matter our Bodies shall have in the other Life 'T is in the power of Microscopes to represent a Hair glittering and curious beyond Expression much more can a real Infinite Power effectively make it so Matter is all one to the Maker We have some light of our Resurrection by the first Fruits of it our Saviour who with that very same Body he was Crucified rose again and ascended into Heaven but was changed before he got there it being not a receptacle for Common Flesh and Blood I see no reason why Matter may not be changed to something else and only called so to our apprehension as well as form of Matter We have Instances of the different Forms our Saviour appear'd in after his Resurrection and once that with his Natural Body he appear'd to his Disciples when the doors were shut The Appearance our Bodies will have in Heaven will be shining and bright as may be gathered by Moses his Face shininig when he had seen the Glory of God as also the manner of Moses Enoch and Elias their Appearance to our Saviour in his Transfiguration the Description that St. John gives of our Saviour in the Revelations with many more places in Sacred Writ But to be express in my Definitions of this Matter 't is impossible since all reveal'd are only such Terms as are adapted to express what ever appears most Glorious and Dazling here not being yet capable to entertain greater manifestations and such as we shall really be fitted for hereafter The Mystery lies here when our Bodies shall be Immortalized at the last day we know not what Substance they will be of but I am satisfied the most refined Matter as it is now will be nothing like ' em All that can be said of it is this there will be new inexpressible somethings which will have the same proportion to one another as our place and Matter now have The Bodies of Christ Enoch and Elias are certainly in Heaven and the Sun Moon and Stars are certainly in the Firmament but what those bodies are and the Heaven they are in as also what those Stars are and the Firmament they are in I know not for it does not yet appear what we shall be that is we can give no full or exact account of the Future Condition either of our Bodies or Souls yet this in general we know that as our Souls shall be impeccable so our Bodies shall be incorruptable that they shall be glorified and therefore must be Glorious and Luminous like the Glorious Body of our Saviour at the Transfiguration It 's also probable that the Matter whereof they are composed shall be so refined in quality and perhaps so diminished in quantity that we shall as I mentioned before be in that Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that our Bodies shall be no longer Clogs to our Souls but obey their Commands and indue the Nature of Spirits in their quick and imperceptible Motion from one Term to another However this is certain * Lessius de summo bono l. 3. c. 5. Our Bodies shall be fully possest with Glory and the Soul full of the Light of Glory shall be diffused through the whole Body and all the parts of it The Eyes those Windows in the Vpper-Story how lightsome shall they be They shall then be renewed and made more Bright and clear than the light of the Sun The very act of Seeing shall be most clear and perfect the Eye shall be able to bear the Brightest Splendor We may conceive that those that are in this place of Blessedness at one single aspect may perfectly see from one end of the Heaven to the other there being no defect in the Objects Medium or Organ or any thing to intercept the sight The Objects being so Trasparent and Glorious What a pleasant sight is the out side of Heaven bedect with the Sun Moon and Stars What then is the inside where the Glory of a God is display'd Not through a Glass darkly but with Eyes enabled perfectly to behold it And as the EYES will be thus wonderfully altered from what they were so the EARS the Nostrils the Mouth the Hands the Lungs the Marrow the Bowels and every particular Member of the Body will be cast into a new Mold But 't is the Opinion of a Learned * See Mr. Colliers Ser. concerning the difference between the present and Future State of our Bodies Writer That though the Sences of Seeing Hearing and possibly that of Smelling too will accompaning the Bodies of the Saints to Heaven but for the other two grosser Sences they are too course and insignificant to have much Employment there And therefore he Judges they 'l be changed into Two-New-Ones of a more Spiritualized and more Refined Nature I may add to this that the Age wherein we shall Live again will so transform us that we can never be known in Heaven to our old Acquaintance for that which refers to the Kingdom of God in this World may in this case be very properly applied to that in the other There shall hencefoth be no more an Old Man neither an Infant of Days It seems not proper to say we shall be raised at Any Age I mean such a State as we were in at such an Age since undoubtedly we shall be endued with
much more Perfection though 't is probable as I hinted before not Cloathed with so much matter as we now carry about with us All Divines generally agree that Infants and Deformed Persons shall be perfect in Heaven and rise about the Age of Thirty or our Saviours Age at his Resurrection wâ—â—ch was Thirty-Three Lazarus his Body shall be then Beautiful Samson shall then have his Eyes which the Philistines pulled out Mephibosheth shall not be Lame in Heaven there shall be no imperfection in a Glorified Body All which laid together renders our knowledge of each other in Heaven very unlikely Then by the by who 'd be affraid of Death or quake tho his Grave were digging seeing 't is but Gods Refining-Pot wherein he shews his Power and Wisdom in changing our vile-Vile-Bodies and fashoning them like unto his glorious-Glorious-Body Phil. 3.21 From which 't is plain That as Iron when it is heated in the Fire it appears nothing else but firey So in Heâ—ven we shall not be able to see the Body for the Glory thereof Then pray Philaret as was said before How can we distinguish this Saint from that or be able to know one Friend from another To this I Answer That I can't deny but there are some Latent Faculties in the Soul that while we are under Confinement to Body can't operate but will when we are fteed from this Body exert themselves with full vigour but the new and extraordinary Actings of these Latent Faculties will be no obstacle to our knowing our Friends again for when we come to Heaven all our Senses and Faculties shall be inlarged that we shall see God Himself not in dark shadows but as He is 1 John 3.2 and we shall see all things in Him no more by outward Appearances but in their very Substances our Bodies as was hinted in the Objection shall be Transparent and Glorious and then as we shall be like Angels in almost all things else so like them too we shall see into one anothers very Souls The Sight of Spirits is unprescrib'd by space What see they not who see the Eternal Face See Mr. Foe 's Charact. of Dr. Annesley Whether this Knowledge shall be by the glorified Eyes discerning any Lineaments or property of Individuation remaining upon the glorified Bodies of our Relations Or whether it shall be by Immediate Revelation as Adam knew his Wife or as Peter James and John knew Moses and Elias in the Mount As it is difficult to determine so it is needless to puzzle our selves about it For as a worthy (a) Mr. Flavel Divine observes though the Saints shou'd not be rais'd with the same Features of Body as before they had â—et being râ—is'd with the same Perâ—ections of Mind and the same Inclinations though exalted to a much higher degree that so Charm'd us on Earth we shou'd soon distinguish one Saint from another and with Infinite Pleasure renew the Remembrance of our Old Acquaintance Add to this that we shall then enjoy the Spirit of God in so great a Measure that it will let us be ignorant of nothing forgetful of nothing the Knowledge or Remembrance of which may contribute any thing to heighten or increase our Happiness He is not unequal in his Dealings He will not remind the Wicked of their smallest ill Actions most trivial idle Words and of their Companions in Sin for the just Augmentation of their Torment and suffer his Saints to lose the Pleasure of knowing again and remembring their old Friends and Companions in Vertue and in all the mutuul Delights of an endearing Conversation No he will have our Joys augmented by all things Persons and Circumstances that can possibly conduce thereto and wou'd not command and encourage us so much to Commence a Vertuous Love with our Brother-Saints on Earth unless he designed it shou'd be renewed continued and rendred more compleat in Heaven Therefore though all Saints shall universally and dearly Love one another as common Friends to God and one another yet according to the more particular intimacies we have had with any Persons on Earth founded on Piety Vertue and the Love of God himself The Renewal of our Converse with them as I have already and shall afterwards shew shall have without doubt its particular grateful Relishes above that which we shall entertain with other Saints to whom as they enjoy the same Priviledges themselves these peculiar Friendships shall give no manner of Jealousie or Distaste Thus Ignotus have I Answer'd the chief Objections against knowing our Friends in Heaven and also proved That though we shou'd not be raised with the same Features we had on Earth yet that there be many other ways by which 't is certain that in a glorified State we shall know one another and that Vertuous Charmer who first gave us to one another I call it so seeing there 's a Marriage of Minds as well as Bodies and thence it follows that our three Souls must needs seek the Enjoyment of each other in Heaven and Love one another here as they 'l do hereafter by a Secret Sympathy But to leave none unsatisfied in this Comfortable Doctrine of Knowing our Friends in Heaven I shall further add That 't is an undoubted Truth that we shall all be raised with the very same Bodies again we lived in here bating that Deformity and grossness of Matter which as I have proved shall be taken away and with all the same natural Features that are necessary to distinguish them to be the same Bodies for otherwise they cannot be the same in a proper Sense and in such a Sense that the Scriptures intend they shou'd be understood the same and therefore Ignotus I do not much trouble my self about the manner of my Burial or to which of the Elements I shall commit my Carkass I Envy not the Funeral-State of great Men neither do I covet the Embalming of the Egyptians I wonder at the Fancy of those who desire to be Imprisoned in Leaden-Coffins 'till the Resurrection and to protract the Corruption of their Flesh out of which they shall be Generated de novo as if they dreamt of rising whole as they lay down and carrying Flesh and Blood into the Kingdom of Heaven without a Change The Natives of Ganges (a) Ovington 's new Voyage to Surat p. 381. when weary of Life by Sickness or old Age committed their Bodies to be devoured by the Dog-fish as the safest Passage to their Future Felicity But I am not of their Opinion but am contented to undergo the tedious Conversation of Worms and Serpents those greedy Tenants of the Grave who will never be satisfied 'till they have eat up the Ground-Landlord I do not puzzle my self with projecting how my scatter'd Ashes shall be collected together provided they are mingled with Eliza's 't is all I desire neither do I for that Reason take Care for an Vrn to enclose them I am satisfied that at the last Trump I shall rise with
Soul of a Woman And moreover because it is generally believed and no less sensibly acknowledged that they have each their particular Character the Soul and consequently the Vnderstanding of the one is Resolute and Constant that of the other Light Wavering and Changable Eliza Cloris Daphne Sapho Anonyma Ariadne your Dear Dorinda and my SHE-Angel are all the exceptions I know of from this Rule The Soul of one takes a pride in being Grave and speaking little the other talks much and cannot forbear twatling upon every thing and which is yet more to the purpose does not Moses say That the Sons of God whom several of the Fathers of the Church have Expounded to be Angels Fell in Love with the Daughters of Men And if there be a Sex mark'd out for Love in Angels we need not scruple to go a little farther and say that there is also a Sex in Souls To this we may likewise add certain Experssions of those great Men who are frequently Cited by Tertullian in his Writings I mean Homer who gives the Greeks the Appellation of She Achaeans and Virgil who calls the Trojans She-Phrygians and Cicero who Reports that Hortensius was treated at Rome with the Title of Madam whence could proceed this Custome of giving Men the Epithites of Women but only because that ' tho they had the Bodies of Men they had the Souls of Women And I might mention the Apparitions of Men and Women in the same Shape and Sex they formerly lived is in no contemplible proof of this Assertion But you 'l say perhaps Souls are not furnisht with Organs that make this distinction between 'em and that a Spirit cannot become Visible To this I Answer I own a Spirit cannot become Visible 't is not an Object for a material Eye being it self not Matter but what appears to us in the Shape and Sex of Male and Female is somthing that a Spirit assumes as Condenced Air or the like neither does the Souls not being furnisht with Organs hinder the Distinction of Sex 't is true I acknowledge that Souls are simple Beings which admit of no composition of parts and so they cannot have that Distinction which appears in the Corporeal Sex But can there not be found a Spiritual Distinction seeing that we meet with a * As was hinted before in the Friendship between Ignotus and Philaret Marriage of Minds as well as Bodies Whence it comes to pass that two Minds seek the Injoyment of one another and Love each other by a Secret-Simpathy 'T is Objected that this Union never Produces other Souls But do all Bodies of different Sexes Produce other Bodies There are Insects that are Produced the same in likeness every way without the Assistance of Sexs There are perfect Creatures which have different Sexes which never Procrâ—ate such are Mules and Moyles This then can be no convincing Argument that there is no difference of Sex in Souls because their Union does not Produce another Soul Which is a thing that no Body neither can certainly determin for in regard we know not the Nature of Spirits neither can we have a perfect knowledge of their Faculties till we come to Heaven And Tertullia as was said before does affirm That they â—e able to Pro-create their like seeing that the â—ons of God became enamour'd of the Daughters of Men and that those Sons of God were Angels But that there is a difference of Sex in Souls is further evident if you consider that the Soul is so far from assuming the Disposition of the Body that 't is the Body which conforms to the Disposition of the Soul for this Disposition proceeds only from the Substantial Form The Body cannot give it to it self it is indifferent of it self but the Form is the Vnderstanding which determines it to be such as it is It should be then from the Soul that this distinction of Organs should proceed It should be she that should determine the Sex and consequently the Soul it self that should be Male and Female For as no Body can give that which it has not of necessity the Soul must be furnish'd with Sex before it can bequeath it to the Body Thus having Answered some of the Arguments denying There 's a Sex in Souls I shall next consider the Scripture Passages brought against this Opinion and shall first begin with that of Saint Paul's saying of Christ that He is neither Male nor Female I shall next consider that other Text which says There is no Marrying in Heaven These Texts being brought as the main Arguments to prove There 's no difference of Sex in Souls and that we shan't be known in Heaven by that distinction First as to St. Paul's saying That Christ is neither Male nor Female To this I Answer he speaks of the whole Jesus Christ or only of his Body or only of his Soul He does not speak of his Body for certain it is That as to his Body He was of the Masculine Sex If he speaks of his Soul that makes for my Opinion For in saying that of the Soul of Christ St. Paul intended to say something extraordinary of Him which was not common to Him with the rest of Men and to the end that that shou'd be 't is requisite that the Souls of all other Men shou'd be individually Male and Female else it had been of no Importance to say what he says of Christ The Apostle had told us nothing of Novelty in that particular But to give you a better Interpretation of the thing 't is the Opinion of a Learned Man that St. Paul meant the whole Jesus Christ That is to say that his Person Compos'd of two Natures Divine and Humane is Singular and has nothing of Similitude with other Bodies except some Organs that make the distinction of Sex so as to be enclin'd to the Production of others of the same double Nature and Order So that this makes nothing against my Opinion but much for it And as to that other Text which says That in Heaven there is neither Marrying nor giving in Marriage it directly proves my Assertion For Virginity and Celibacy are so far from denying Sex that they suppose it Thus Christ did not intend to say That there wou'd be no Distinction of Sexes in Heaven And if he does not Assert this we are left at liberty to believe there will for the Reasons I have here given which plainly prove that glorified Bodies shall be admitted into Heaven the Bodies of Male and Female Saints and that at present there are no other than Male and Female Souls in that blessed Place except it be the Body of Jesus Christ I might next consider the Words of St. Austin and Cyril who say all Souls are alike but their Opinion being meer Conjecture without any further Proof I shall pass it by in Silence Thus having largely proved That there 's a difference of Sex in Souls and consequently That we shall know one another in Heaven
me again in the right path If not Some Courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be Norris For I have small Acquaintance with the Future State and never met with any one of those Millions of Souls that have past into the other World to learn any News concerning the Knowledge they have of each other And therefore 't will be excusable if now and then I advance what I cannot prove and follow their Examples who fill their Maps with Fancies of their own Brains And I am the more willing to treat concerning the Nature and Condition of separate Souls because it agrees with a Humour of Curiosity I have a long time been distemper'd with I have often thought what would I give for the least glimpse of that Invisible World which the first step I take out of this body will present me with and have tryed by an Eye of Faith to look within the Veil but still find my Intellect too light a Plummet and the whole Thread of Life tho spun out in finest Speculations still proves too short to reach the endless bottom But though I have never yet seen the Innumerable company of Angels converst with Abraham Isaac and Jacob or the Spirits of Just Men made perfect which daily minister about the Throne that I might know the mutual Love and Entertainment of the blessed the Spirituality of their Glorify'd Bodies how they communicate their Thoughts to each other or the Knowledge they have of their Old Acquaintance Yet have I here with my Pen drawn a Scheme of my thoughts of our Invisible Friends on purpose to see whither it wou'd lead me and whither I cou'd follow it It was but last Night I was complaining to a VVater Drinker * Mr. Sh ley for I 'm now at Tunbridge swilling on Nature's bounty to Crazy Mortals of my Great Curiosity especially in things relating to the other World and in my Conversation by way of Prolepsis I have frequently been making Remarks that way But I tell you before-hand in treating of this Subject I shall leap over all Subdivisions and inferiour Sects of Christians and profess only to the World that the Divine Mercy and Favour is not limitted to a particular Canton or Party I am not only a Lover of good Men of all Perswasions but a meer Enemy to those Names which distinguish one Party from another in the Church Good men often contend about words when they heartily think the same thing and therefore I as little doubt to find Dr. Sherlock in Heaven as Mr. Aisop And do as little question their being of one mind in Heaven after all their Jangling as that they 'll presently know and rejoyce to see one another when they come there In Heaven says a late * Mr. Dorrington in his Discourse call'd The separate State of Good Souls Writer shall we meet many Dear Relations and Intimate Friends and perhaps some Enemies who shall then to our Great Joy and Satisfaction be perfectly reconciled to us which was that we most passionately desired before but it may be cou'd not find means to accomplish it However be it as it will I Live and Move by the Divine Providence and am willing to assert it in spight of all those Narrow Souls that dare trust God no further then they can see him or think none can be saved but those that are distinguish'd with their own Superscription But I shou'd remember I'm writing to one of an Extensive Charity and need not inlarge here So I come now to prove That if Infinite mercy bring us to Heaven we shall know one another there There are two things that comfort us under the Death of Friends The one is the hopes they are gone to Heaven And the other is That if Infinite Mercy bring us thither we shall one day see 'em again and have those very Friendships which they had Conâ—racted here below Transplanted to the Mansions above But what the knowledge is of our Souls separated and glorified we shall then know when ours come to be such In the mean time we can much less know their thoughts then they can know ours Sure we are they do not know in such manner as they did when they were in our Bosoms by the help of Senses and Phantasms by the discurssive inferences of Ratiocination But though we cannot see what manner of Metaphysical Matters our Souls are yet we know they really exist and act our Bodies although they are not Subject to Sense yet this doth not hinder but that a Spiritual substance may be separated from our Body and may be again Cloathed with a Body or Vehicle that may be Airy Fiery or Cloudy and be visible to our Senses although the existence or essence of the Spirit we cannot see but it's outward Cloathing and that such appearances have been in all Ages the Learned as well as the unlearned affirm from real matters of Fact But now whether the Soul in a state of separation acts independently of Matter purely by the strength of her own Powers or whether in order to the better knowing her self and other beings the makes use of a Body of Air shaped out into such Limbs and Sences as she hath occasional Employment for Whether or no the want of her old Companion is supplyed this way is uncertain But whatever abatements of happiness the pious Soul may suffer for want of a suitable body between the time of Death and the General Judgment then we are sure this inconvenience will be removed and it will be repossessed of its Ancient Seat out of which Violence or Nature had forced it But we cannot know these things Till we are strip'd into Naked Spirits and set a shore on the other invisible World Yet this we know at present that when our Souls are elevated to a condition suitable to the Blessed Angels so they know like them Though not by the means of a Natural Knowledge as they yet by that Supernatural Light of Intimation which they receive by their glorified Estate Whether by virtue of this Divine Illumination They know the particular occurrences which we meet with here below he were bold thas would determine Or if they do I 'm sure Eliza but her Love will tell you the rest only this we may confidently affirm that they do clearly know all those things which do any way appertain to their Estate of Blessedness Amongst which Whether the Knowledge of each other in that Region of Happiness may justly be ranked is not unworthy of our disquisition Doubtless as in God there is all perfection eminently and transcendantly so in the sight and fruition of God there cannot be but full and absolute felicity yet this is so far from excluding the knowledge of those things which Derive their Goodness and Excellency from him as that it compriseth and supposeth it As then we shall perfectly love God and his Saints in him so shall we know both And though it be
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
at this vast Distance I Fancy her running to me and saying Ah! Philaret this place where I have now met thee never to part more shews how Loyal I was to thee cou'd I dye undutifull meet thee here and tho' thou wert too sincere thy self to distrust my Love yet in a State of Mortality I might have deceived thee but by meeting here thou findest my Love was as true as thine she 's no sooner gone to Congratulate other Spirits but methinks I see Argus having repented the injuries he did me Fido H n Ignotus and a Troop of Friends all coming to give me a particular welcome Dear Ignotus wonder not at this Conjecture for the Souls of those that have left their Bodys are as much alive in the other World as we are in this See his Ser. before the Qu. and do there †as Dr. Beveridge tells us as Familiarly Converse together as we do here with one another It much Sweetneth the thoughts of Heaven to me saith Mr. Baxter To Remember that there are a multitude of my Friends gone thither to think such a Friend that died at such a time and such a one at another time O! what a number of them could I name and that all these I shall meet again 'T is true adds he it 's a question with some whether we shall know each other in Heaven or no but 't is none with me for surely there shall no knowledge cease which now we have but only that which implyeth our imperfection and what imperfection can this imply Nor is it only my old Friends such as Essex Russel Sydney c. that I shall know in Heaven but all the Saints of all ages whose Faces in the Flesh I never saw See Dr. Annesley's Ser. of Commun with God We also find Dr. Annesley of this Opinon for in his Sermons of Communion with God he there tells us Those whom we have Loved and Prized with whom we have wept and prayed whose Company on Earth hath been refreshing how welcome will a never parting meeting be in Heaven ay those whom we have admired tho we never saw them we shall then see and enjoy for ever Mat. 8.11 they shall come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdâ—m of Heaven Those that know what 't is to Converse with Saints on Earth may be able to give a Guess what it will be in Heaven How sweet will it be to discourse with Moses when your Face shall shine as well as his to converse with Solomon when your Wisdom shall exceed whatever is recorded of his to joyn in the Consort of Praises with the sweet Singer of Israel when you shall be Persons after God's own Heart without a But in your Commendation We shall here converse with Saints of the highest Form with Enoch that walked with God with Elijah that was taken up in the Fiery Chariot and with Paul that was Christs Principal Secretary on Earth as to the Riches of Free Grace we shall freely converse with all these and with that beloved Disciple that could whisper to Christ what others durst not mention Our Saviour tells the Jews Luke 13.28 that they should see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and therefore we shall know them And what is there in reason that should hinder it why may nor Abraham and Isaac once so nearly related be again acquainted and with Joy repeat the History of the intended Sacrifice Why may not Moses and Aaron meet and discourse their Old Adventures Why may not the blessed Apostles and holy Martyrs be known to one another and entertain themselves with gladsome Relations of what they did and what they suffered together Thus the Saints in Heaven as they receive Happiness from the sight of God so they communicate the purest Pleasure to one another An unfeigned ardent Affection unites that pure Society Our Love is now kindled either from a Relation in Nature or a civil Account or some visible Excellencies that render a Person worthy of our Choice and Friendship but in Heaven the Reasons are greater and the degrees of Love incomparably more fervent In that blessed Society Says a * See Dr. Bates's Four Last Things Learned Author there is a constant Receiving and Returning of Love and Joy And that double Exercise of the Saints in the perfect Circle of Love is like the pleasant Labour of the Bees who all the day are flying to the Gardens and returning to their Hives and all their Art is in extracting the purest Spirits from fragrant Flowers and making sweet Honey O how do they rejoyce and triumph in the Happiness of one another With what an unimaginable Tenderness do they embrace What Reciprocations of Endearments are beâ—ween them O their Ravishing Conversation and sweet Entercourse for their Presence together in Heaven is not a silent Show In the Transfiguration Moses and Elias talk'd with Christ We may understand a little of it by the sensible Complasence that is among sincere Friends here In pure Amity there is a threefold Union a Union of Resemblance that is the Principle of it Likeness causes Love a Union of Affection that is its Essence 't is said of Jonathan that incomparable Friend His Soul was knit with the Soul of David and he loved him as his own Soul the Union of Conversation that is requisite to the Satisfaction of Love What an Entertainment of Love and Joy is there in the Presence and Discourses of dear Friends their mutual Aspects like a Chain composed of Spirits luminous and active draw and fasten their Souls to one another The Felicity of Love consists in their Conversation Now in Heaven whatever is pleasant in Friendship is in Perfection and whatever is distastful by Mens Folly and Weakness is abolished With what excellent Discourses do they entertain one another But these particular Friendships in Heaven says an Ingenious Writer they do [*] Dr. Patrick's Parable of the Pilgrim not at all spoil the Universal Kindness of the place others will not be loved the worse for them but rather loved better because they will teach those united Hearts the greatest Love They may be esteem'd also one of the Beauteous Spectacles of the place and be reckon'd among the grateful Varieties which will entertain us when after the Pleasures of a more general and large Conversation every one may retire to the Company of those he loveth most and if a particular Friendship in Heaven will give such unspeakable Joys What a Happiness will it be to see and embrace the Blissful Society of all the Saints and Angels at once about the Throne to see all the Martyrs with their Glorious Scars of Honour nay Angels Cherubims Seraphims and all that blessed Quire of Spirits who have done us while we were in Dangers here many an invisible Courtesie which they could never thank them for they being Ministring Spirits sent forth to
to preserve each other in the Way And they who would wear the same Crown of rejoycing in the Presence of Christ will assist each other here that they perish not in the agony and conflict The Egyptians Embalmed the Carcasses of the Dead to preserve them if it were possible through all the parts of Time being guided by an opinion that so long as the Body continued undissolved the Soul would not forsake the Earth but continue hovering about the place where the Bodies lay In like manner the Souls of men which by many kinds of Association may be united into one mass and heap and as it were become parts of one another will continue the more vigilant and active for each others everlasting Welfare so long as they are perswaded against an eternal divorce and dissolution and do contrarily believe they shall be rewarded by a sense of each others happiness and that that union which is among themselves as of one member to another shall not be dissolved but perfected by that Union which shall unite them to Christ as to their Head and through him unto God Ignotus I might stop here for I hope by this time I have made it plain that the Saints know one another in Heaven But this being a Curious Point I shall yet bring more Authoritys to prove it and the next I shall Name is the Pious * See His four last things Bolton Who positively asserts The knowing of our Friends in Heaven his Words are these All comfortable knowledge shall be so far from being abolished in Heaven that it will be inlarged increased and perfected But to know one another is a comfortaâ—lâ— knowledge Yherefore we shall know one another in Heaven Our knowledge shall be perfected For We shall know as we are known 1. Cor. 13.12 Which is set out by Comparison of the less That our knowledge then shall differ from that now as the knowledge of a Child from that of a Perfect Man In Heaven all the mists of Ignorance and Blindness being perfectly cleared up and taken away we shall see one another together with all the Saints though we did not know them before For if Adam by vertue of the Divine Image stampt upon him knew Eve though taken out of his Body while he was asleep Why should not we being Transformed according to the same Image from Glory to Glory by the Father Son and Holy Ghost know the Members of the same Body Those full of the Spirit and Wisdom of God may as easily be suppos'd to know one another as Adam before the Fall while he retained the Image of God knew Eve who and whence she came And as Samuel knew Saul by the Inspiration of God though he had not seen him before Sam. 9.17 And John knew our Lord Christ in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin So their Minds were Enlightened by the Rayes of the Holy Spirit Then Conceive if thou canst Ignotus how grateful that knowledg will be by which we shall know all others as all others shall know us The Knowledge which all men in this Life unprofitably desire shall be such to the Good that they shall be ignorant of nothing they are willing to know For the Good shall be filled with the perfect Wisdom of God and shall see Him Face to Face and in seeing of this shall behold the Nature of all Creatures which they shall see in God better then themselves For then the Just shall know all things which God hath made knowable as well those which are past as those which are to come When the Elect shall see the antient Fathers in their Eternal Inheritance they shall know them by Sight whom they knew in their Work for they shall see them all by a common Illumination What is it they can there be ignorant of when they know him who knows all things The Vision of God is not only promised to the Saints in Heaven but also of all things that God has made as the Sun Moon Stars Earth Seas Rivers Living Creatures Trees and Mettals But our Minds know nothing i. e. No perfect Substance nor Essential Differences nor Properties nor Virtues Nor did ever any Man see his own Soul but we grope like the Blind and acquire the Knowledge we have by Discourse VVhat shall the Joy then be when we shall see by the Light bestowed upon us the nature of all things barefaced And how wonderfully shall we be transported when we shall see innumerable Armies of Angels in the Differences of their Degrees and Order And in Heaven as we shall know the Saints not in Outward Worldly Respects but as we know them in Christ by the Illumination of the Spirit so also we shall know the Spiritual Substances Offices Orders Excellencies of the Angels and the Nature Immutability Operations and Original of our own Souls c. and in a Word all things knowable Here 't is the happy Residentiaries Understandings are wide open'd to all the amazing Lights and Discoveries of Truth to the Mysteries of Creation and Providence of Redemption and Sanctification to the now puzzling Difficulties of Nature and of Grace of God's Prescience and Man's Free Will Here 't is the Wills also of the Glorified are render'd conformable unto are swallowed up in and made one with God's Holy Will and Pleasure ' There says the ingenious Boyle we shall have clearly expounded to us those Riddles of Providence which have but too often tempted even good Men to question God's Conduct in the Government of the World whilst the Calamities and Persecutions of Virtue and Innocence seem approved by him who accumulates Prosperities on their Criminal Opposers And I must profess adds he as Vnfashionable as such a Profession maâ— seem in a Gentleman not yet Two and Twenty that I find the Study of those excellent Themes Gods Word and his Providence so Di ficult and yet so Pleasing and Inviting that could Heaven afford me no greater Blessing than a clear Accompt of the Abstruse Mysteries of Divinity and Providence I should value the having my Vnderstanding Gratified and Enriched with Truths of so Noble and Precious a Nature enough to court Heaven at the rate of renouncing for it all those unmanly Sensualities and trifling Vanities for which Inconsiderate Mortals are wont to forfeit the Interest their Saviour so dearly bought them in it But this is not all for here we shall with wonderful Ravishment of Spirit and Spiritual Joy be admitted to the sight of those Sacred Secrets and Glorious Mysteries 1. Of the Holy Trinity into which some Divines may audaciously dive but shall never be able to explicate 2. Of the Union of Christ's Humanity to the Divine Nature and of the Faithful to Christ 3. Of the causes of God's Eternal Counsel in Election and Reprobation 4. Of the Angels Fall 5. Of the manner of the Creation of the World c. Neither is this all for we shall also be beatifically enlightned with a clear and glorious Sight of
The Quality Condition or Circumstance of the Person very much adding to or taking from the Goodness or Badness of the Action or Expression Neither (a) See Mr. Shower's Mourner's Companion P. 63. can it well be Imagined how the Process and Proceedings of the Judgment Day according to the Scripture-Account of it can be manag d by the Man Christ Jesus or the Lord Redeemer cloathed with human Nature without our Knowledge of one another in the other World who were Acquainted and Conversed together in this 'T is true the present Relations by Marriages and Blood will then cease but there is no reason to think that the Remembrance of those Relations must also cease yea their Knowledge and Remembrance of us and their Affection to us whom we knew and lov'd in the Lord is not like to be Abolish'd but perfected by dying A particular Remembrance of our Actions and Words in the other World must needs infer as particular a Remembrance of the very individual Persons to whom they refer and do not think my Ignotus that God will preserve so intire a Memory in the Wicked for their Torment and will not preserve as perfect and exquisite a Remembrance in the Vertuous for the increase of their Joy As God will exact an Account for every idle Word Men shall speak so He will bring to the Remembrance of his Chosen all the good Actions they have done nor will He let them forget their dear Companions and pious Conversation they have had one with another So much as a Cup of cold Water given to a Disciple in the Name of a Disciple Matth. 10.42 He will not let us forget nor the Disciple neither to whom 't was given He will shew us every one of those Persons when we come to Heaven to whom we have done any Good on Earth and pointing to them will say to us Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Matth. 25.40 And as we shall be made to know and remember all the particular Persons we have done any Good to and with whom we have been acquainted So 't is as plain they shall be made to know and remember us as appears by the Parable of the unjust Steward since 't is intimated there that the Poor to whom the Richer Christians had been liberal shall plead with God that their Benefactors likewise may be received into the same everlasting Habitations with themselves which how they cou'd do unless they were some way or other made to know those particular Friends again that had relieved them is hard to conceive But since Christ assures us That the very Angels tho' they be so far from being related to our Persons that they are Foreigners to our very Nature which by the way is an addition to our Glory that our Natures not theirs was taken into the Personal Union with God receive accession of Joy for a relenting Sinner Luke 15.7 that by Repentance begins to turn towards God You will not think it absurd says the Ingenious Boyl That in a place where Charity shall not only continue as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 13.8 but grow perfect our dear Friends shouâ—d rejoyce to see us not only begin to turn towards God but come home to Him nor is it unlikely as I hinted before that our Transported Souls shall mutually Congratulate each other their having now fully escaped the numerous Rocks and Shelves and Quick Sands and threatning Storms and no less dangerous Calms thro which they are at length arrived at that peaceful Haven where is both Innocence and Delight which are here so seldome match'd with those Friends we here lamented we shall there rejoyce And 't will be but needful that the Discovery of each others Vertues shou'd bring us to a mutual Knowledge of our Persons for otherwise we shall be so changed that we shou'd never know our Friends and shou'd scarce know our selves were not an Eminent Encrease of Knowledge a part of that happy Change for those departed Friends whom at our last Separation we saw disfigured by all the Ghastly Horrors of Death we shall then see assisting about the Majestick Throne of Christ with their once vile Bodies transfigured into the likeness of his Glorious Body mingling their glad Acclamations with the Hallelujahs of Thrones Principalities and Powers and the most dignified Favourites of the Celestial Court In Heaven continues this Author we shall not only see our elder Brother Christ but probably also all our Kindred Friends and Relations that living here in his Fear died in his Favour For since our Saviour tells us that the Children of the Resurrection shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to or like the Angels Luk. 20.46 who yet in the Visions of Daniel and St. John appear to be acquainted with each other When the having turned many to Righteousness Dan. 2. shall as the Scripture foretells confer a Star-like and Immortal Brightness Since which is chiefly considerable the knowledge * As was hinted before in P. 34. of particular Actions and consequently Persons seems requisite to the Attainment of that great End of God in the day of Judgment the Manifestation of his Punitive and Remunerative Justice considering this 't is very probable that we shall know each other in a place where since nothing requisite to Happiness can be wanting we may well suppâ—se â—at least if we can imagine here what we shall think there that we shall not want so great a satisfaction as that of being knowingly happy in our other selves our Friends Nor is this only probable Lindamor but 't is not improbable that those Friends that knew us in Heaven shall welcome us thither It was no small Contentment and Satisfaction to St. Paul that he should meet his beloved Thessalonians in the Presence of Christ for thus much seemeth to be intimated by that his exuâ—ting demand what is our Hope or Joy or Crown of Rejoycing are not ye even in the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming Which must needs imply his distinct Knowledge of them in that day which must be many Hundred Years after Death hath separated them from each other And the same Apostle when he would set Bounds and Limits to a Christian's sorrowing for the Dead tells us that we must not sorrow as those that have no Hope Such Mens Sorrow finds no Ease because that Good whose Absence they bemoan in their Opinion is irrecoverably lost and to shake Hands with a Dying Friend is with them as much as to bid them everlastingly farewel But a Christian's Tears like Drops from a Cloud may sometimes fall they must not like a River be always running He may sorrow because he is parted from some Good suppose from a loving Friend but this Sorrow must be tempered with this Hope that he shall see his Friend again And we find the late Athenians of this Opinion for being asked by one of their
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
he saw the back-side of him whom he had heard in White and Galloping away upon a white Horse he called after him Marsilius Marsilius and followed him with his Eye but he soon vanished out of sight He amazed at this extraordinary Accident very solicitously enquired if any thing had happened to Marsilius who then lived at Florence where he had breath'd his last and he found upon strict Enquiry that he died at that very time wherein he was thus heard and seen by him And Sophronius Bishop of (a) Prat. Spir. c. 195. Referente Baroniâ— ad An. 411. Jerusalem delivereth this Passage to Posterity as a most certain thing That Leontius Apamiensis a most Faithful Religious Man that had lived many Years at Cyrene assured them that Synesius who of a Philosopher became a Bishop found at Cyrene one Evagrius a Philosopher who had been his old Acquaintance Fellow-Student and intimate Friend but an obstinate Heathen and Synesius was earnest with him to become a Christian but all in vain yet did he still follow him with those Arguments that might satisfie him of the Christian Verity and at last the Philosopher told him That to him it seemed but a meer Fable and Deceit that the Christian Religion teacheth Men that this World shall have an end and that all Men shall rise again in these Bodies and their Flesh be made Immortal and Incorruptible and that they shall so Live for ever and receive the Reward of all that they have done in the Body and that he that hath pity on the Poor lendeth to the Lord and he that gives to the Poor and Needy shall have Treasures in Heaven and shall receive an hundred fold from Christ together with Eternal Life these things he derided Synesius by many Arguments assured him that all these things were certainly true and at last the Philosopher and his Children were Baptized A while after he comes to Synesius and brings him three hundred Pound of Gold for the Poor and bid him take it but give him a Bill under his Hand that Christ should re-pay it him in another World Synesius took the Money for the Poor and gave him under his hand such a Bill as he desired Not long after the Philosopher being near to Death commanded his Sons that when they buried him they should put Synesius Bill in his Hand in the Grave which they did And the third Day after the Philosopher seemed to appear to Synesius in the Night and said to him Come to my Sepulchre where I lye and take thy Bill for I have Received the Debt and am satisfied which for thy Assurance I have Subscribed with my own Hand The Bishop knew not that the Bill was buried with him but sent to his Sons who told him all and taking them and the chief Men of the City he went to the Grave and found the Paper in the hands of the Corps thus Subscribed I Evagrius the Philosopher to thee most Holy Sir Bishop Synesius greeting I have received the Debt which in this Paper is written with thy hands and I am satisfied and I have no Law or Action against thee for the Gold which I gave to thee and by thee to Christ our Lord and Saviour They that saw the thing admired and glorified God that gave such wonderful Evidence of his Promises to his Servants And saith Leontius this Bill Subscribed thus by the Philosopher is kept at Cyrene most carefully in the Church to this Day to be seen of such as do desire it As to these Apparitions of the Dead Although it cannot be denied but in some grand and extraordinary Cases as the Resurrection of those dead which appeared upon our Saviour's Crucifixion and the Apparition of Moses and Elias at the Transfiguration And in some other Cases as many Instances might be reckon'd up The Departed may Converse with us or appear but perhaps ordinarily Apparitions are not the Souls of the Dead but of other Spirits and mostly of evil ones Augustine was of this Opinion and said if 't was a common thing he was sure his Mother Monica wou'd have appear'd to him whose Love was so extraordinary great whilest living Neither had Dear Eliza a lesser Concern for my Souls welfare than Monica had for her Son Augustine and cou'd She come again I 'm sure She wou'd to tell me what she (a) She 'd often say in her Sickness Well 'twont be long now e'r I shall know what 's the Future State learnt by dying and to assist me in all my Distresses These with some other credible Instances which have occur'd argue that either some departed Souls have particular Commissions in this Case or that all of them have a Cognizance of our Affairs agreeable to the Parable of Dives and Lazarus and that of the Angels in Heaven rejoycing at the Conversion of a Sinner And it must be a Truth if departed Souls and Angels come under the same Predicament as to their Essence and I don 't yet know in what they differ But have the Saints in Heaven such a general Knowledge of their Friends that arrive there and of those they left behind them in the State of Mortality then I 'd further know says another Querist Whether they see and know the wicked in Hell and whether the Damned particularly know those that are in Heaven who in this Life they scorned and abused and possibly were Instruments by some violent Means of hastening them thither and also whether they know one another in Hell or their Companions in Sin which they left on Earth To this I Answer this presupposes another Question viz. In what state or condition the Bodies of the Just and Vnjust shall arise at the Day of Judgment The Consequence of which Answer will Resolve the Question In order to which I affirm That they shall both arise alike equally Immortal and equally qualified for an Eternity of Duration diversified in nothing but their last Sentence Neither State shall so much as change a Thought but think of all things together which will be actually present to the Intellect of both 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 Every Sense shall be Perfect the Ear shall hear every thing at once throughout the spacious Limits both of Heaven and Hell with a Perfect Distinction and without Confounding that Anthem with this Blasphemy the Eye shall find no Matter or Substance to fix it and
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
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
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
was perceptible to thy Family that thou hadst been with God thy first Visit in the Morning was to Heaven and the sweet smell of that was not to be worn off by any other Visits throughout the day Thou wast like Martha not slothful in business and at the same time like Mary fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. Thou knewest that thy Soul was more excellent than thy Body and therefore didst spend the chief of thy time about the affairs of Eternity and wast more frequent at thy Prayers than at the Toilet or Glass the Review of which made thee say in thy last sickness were my work now to do I were undone for ever Thy Carriage in thy Family was Mild and Gentle not provoking but encouraging to Servants both by Example and Precept Thou shewedst thy Goodness by thy dutiful behaviour to my self and remembredst that thou wast a Subject as well as a Companion and didst exactly resemble Sarah and Rachel in thy loving and dutiful deportment towards me thou didst bear with my Infirmities coveredst them in love didst not run to this Neighbour and that with abusive or silly stories a but overcam'st me by gentle He that will but one â—â—de hear Tho he judge right is no good Justicer Herbert Exhortations and Intreaties and in all thy Prayers my Soul was minded as thy own Thy Words nor Carriage were never disrespectful to me Tho thou wert ' kin to a Noble Family yet the Blood that fill'd thy Veins (a) See Mr. How 's Sermon at Mrs. Hammond's Funeral did not swell thy Mind Thou wast always ready to gratifie me in all my lawful requests and thoughtest nothing below thee that might tend to my satisfaction and advantage When I was abroad thou longest to see me and wheh I returned home I was received with Smiles If at any time I was perplexed in mind thou wast not quiet till I was so too Thy Sympathy with me in all the Distresses of my Life both at Sea and Land will make thy Vertues shine with the greater Lustre as Stars in the darkest Night and assure the World you lov'd me not my Fortunes Fair course of Passions where two Lovers start And run together Heart thus yok'd in Heart In my Health thou lovedst me as a Wife and in my Sickness attended'st me as a Nurse My Head no sooner ak'd but thy Heart felt it and had I faln Sick in your dying Hour you 'd e'en then have (a) Eliza spake often to this Effect in her last Sickness crawl'd up Stairs to have seen me Thou wast afflicted with all my Sorrows and delighted with all my Joys When Man and Wife love so little that the one is unconcern'd in the others Tryals there follows a Hell of Disquiet in the Mind a greater Clog upon the Conscience than Man is able to bear and ordinarily a Blast upon the Estate besides Guilt and Shame unspeakable but thou like a Wife who studied duty in order to practice didst not expect God would bless thee in any thing whilst you saw me uneasie and did not attempt to remove it or lessen it by taking part of the Grief And indeed all our Distresses of Body and Mind were so equally divided that all yours were mine and all mine were yours we remembred we married for better for worse for richer for poorer and that we were one Flesh and therefore were no more offended with the Words or Failings and Wants of each other than we wou'd have been had they been our own And this made thee as careful to conceal my Losses as thou wast forward to repair them A Woman of Sense knows she must shine by her Husband's Honour and must be darkned if he suffer an Eclipse and therefore did'st never keep this Joynture for the sake of thy Husband that House for the sake of a Brother and this Bag for the sake of some She-Cousin no if my Occasions requir'd it they were all forc'd into my Lap with My dear I rejoyce I am able to serve thee and as long as I have it 't is all thine In this you imitate Madam C y who sold her Estate unask'd to oblige her Spouse and indeed the Design of Jointures is to defend against bad Husbands and not to ruin those that are Sober and wou'd be Honest if their Wives wou'd let them and therefore didst often say What does a Jointure signifie to a Woman that loves her Husband Thou wert not Sordidly (a) As is hinted in the following Pages Covetous or as Cowely calls it so Emphatically poor as to talk of wanting in the midst of Plenty under all my Distresses thy Motto was God will provide When I into thy Closet look Wherein you greatest Pleasure took I find i' th' Front of every Book God will provide Let an Anatomist with Art Dissect each Member and each Part He 'll find this written on thy Heart God will provide God will provide was ever in thy Mouth as a Cordial to ease thy Cares and Mine This encourag'd thee to a generous Charity with this you cheer'd the Spirits of those that had lost their Friends and Estates 't was from this we both of us received a fresh and full Supply under all the Losses we ever met with and in a word 't was to this Motto and your Prayers for me that in some measure I owe all the Blessings I now enjoy or hope to receive hereafter How oft would you chear Philaret with saying See how the Birds of the Air do all depend upon God! and the Sparrow that hath dined and knows not where to get his Supper yet chearfully waits on Divine Providence and shall not we God hath my Dear Provided for us hitherto then why should we mistrust he will not provide for us for the future Our Unbelief indeed may make him hold his Hand and hinder him from doing any mighty Work for us but what can we fear if in the Use of Lawful Means we throw our selves upon him How often have we been in Straits and Exigencies and God hath found some way or other to deliver us and shall we by our Unbelief hinder him from working such another Deliverance for us Of how many Men have we read and heard that have trusted God in despight of all Improbabilities and God hath succour'd and assisted them beyond all Expectation How oft would you say Come Phil. we do not want for the present why should we believe we shall want hereafter when we know not whether we shall live a Day to an end Come come tho your Bag is empty to Day 't will be fill'd to Morrow You never yet wanted Money when you had occasion to use it those unexpected Friends I met with when you were in America should cure us of all Distrust of Providence besides what did we ever get by immodeate Carckings but torment of Mind Is it not much sweeter to rest upon God's Goodness and enjoy Content We are never the nearer a Supply when
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
of a different splendor and as the Stars the Air and Water by their borrowed Lights do raise us to behold the Sun the Fountain of all that Light so wheresoever the Rays of Glory are cast whether on Angels or Men we cannot but behold God shining on each Nature and confess Him to be All in All. Moreover it is not a glance but a fixing on the Creature which in that state is not to be feared can endanger our Happiness otherwise neither God nor Angels are truly Blessed for the Divinity of former Ages would persuade us That God as it were cometh daily out of Himself to behold his own Image in the Angels and the Angels look upon the same Resemblance as cast from them and reflected by the Soul but neither God nor Angels are so ravished with those dimmer Beauties as to dwell upon them but do suddenly return back to the Fountain God to Himself and the Angels unto God Thus have I Answered two of the Objections Against knowing our Friends in Heaven and have proved we shall know 'em if we get thither since Heaven is a Place where since nothing requisite to happiness can be wanting we may well suppose that we shall not want so great a satisfaction as that of being knowingly happy in our other selves our Friends c. Object 3. But how can it be may some say that the Saints can know their Earthly Acquaintance again after so great an alteration by the Resurrection and so great an addition of Luster and Beauty to what they had before when many times we can hardly know a man again here after some Years absence or after the disfigurement of a Wound or sharp Disease Neither do I know one Angel in Heâ—ven or the Spirits of any Just men that are gone thither so that when I come there I mâ—â—ike â—o be a meer stranger to that Blessed * As was hinted at the beginning of this Essay Company To this I Answer First as to the Angels What if thou knowest not one Angel in all the Heavens Is it not enough says a late Writer That many of 'em may know thee But how shall I know that How Thou hast been their special Charge ever since thou wast born to Jesus Christ Are they not all Ministring Spirits to all them that are Heirs of Glory How kindly did an Angel Comfort Mary Magdalen and the other Mary when they early came to visit the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord How well did he know their Persons and their business when he said Fear not I know that ye seek Jesus which was Crucified he is not here for he is Risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his Disciples that he is Risen from the Dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him Mat. 28.5 So as I have told you what Discourse could be more kind friendly and famliar So that the Ministration of Angels is certain but the manner how is the Knot to be untied 'T was generally believ'd by the Antient Philosophers That not only Kingdoms had their Tutelary Guardians but that every Person had his particular Genius or Good Angel to Protect and Admonish him by Dreams Visions c. We read that Origen Hierome Plato and Empedocles in Plutarch were also of this Opinion and the Jews themselves as appears by that Instance of Peter's Deliverance out of Prison who retreating to his Friend's House the unexpectedness of his Escape made 'em believe it could not be Peter but his Angel We are not without Examples of the Friendly Offices of Angels Witness Grinaeus his Admonition and Escape from Spires Vide Melancthon's Commentary upon Daniel Bodinus his Relation of his Friend 's Calestial Monitor with many more which would be too tedious to recount particularly We possitively affirm say the Athenians that every Infant has his particular Angel Matth. 18.10 and that it is a good Angel is deducible from Matth. 19.14 nor can we believe that good Angels cease to preside over Adult Persons thâ— never so Vicious Luke 15.10 Now if God has commissioned his Angels to minister to his Saints to defend and keep them to guard and shield them from Dangers and Mischiefs and if these glorious Harbingers bear so * See Mr. Steven's Sermons on Dives and Lazarus great Love to Men as has been plainly prov'd doubtless they are very ready to receive and carry the Souls of good Men into Heaven one of the Fathers calls the Angels Evocatores Animarum the Callers forth of Souls and such as shew them Paraturam Diversorii the Preparations of those Mansions they are going to which supposes a very particular Knowledge of them Hence we observe says the same Author when good Men die they are often in silent Raptures and express a kind of Impatience till they are dissolv'd and why because they Spiritually see what they cannot utter as did St. Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heaven There is a kind of a draught presented to them by their Guardian Angels of those Transcendent Joys they are almost ready to enter in Possession of and therefore long and pine till they are convey'd into that place of unspeakable Felicity and these Heavenly Spirits adds this Author succour and support them under their Pain and Sickness and when their Souls are storm'd out of their Bodies they encompass and embrace them soaring through the Regions of evil Angels as the Text speaks concerning Lazarus till they are carry'd into Abraham 's Bosom And as the Angels shall know us so the Saints shall see and know the innumerable Company of Angels their Natures each of their Persons in particular As the Angels know every Elect Person because it is their work to gather the Elect from all the Corners of the Earth and to sepaparate them from the wicked Matth. 13.41 so the Glorified Saints shall know the Holy Angels whom the Lord sent forth to minister for them whom the Lord appointed for their Guard while they were upon Earth who encamped round about them while they were encompassed with so many Dangers Some Divines are of Opinion that the number of the Angels is so great that they exceed without comparison all Corporal and Material Things in the Earth Again If every one of the Angels yea tho it be the least Angel among them all be more beautiful and goodly to behold than alâ— this visible World what a Glorious Sight shall it then be to see and know such a number of beautiful Angels to see the Perfections and Offices that every one hath in that high and glorious City There do the Angels go as it were in Embassages are exercised in their Ministry there the Principalities and Thrones Triumph there do the Cherubims give Light and the Seraphims burn with Fervent Love to God Who all like Stars have Brightness from his Rays And they Reflect it back again in Praise Mr. Foe All the
Immoderate Sorrow for the Death of Friends 1 Thess 4.13 14 18. I wou'd not have you says he to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him wherefore comfort ye one another with these Words Now if our Friends were to rise in such a disguised manner as not to be known again by us this kind of Consolation wou'd be Impertinent and Vain Neither let the many Cavils my dear Ignotus which Atheistical Scoffers oppose against the Resurrection of the Dead with the same Bodies startle us since besides the Divine and Rational Proofs I have urged for it there are more Natural Arguments against than for these Opposers for to omit other Allegations it must needs be very Absurd in 'em to grant that God first took a Parsel of Matter and moulded it into the Body of such and such a particular Man fashioning it with such and such Features as might distinguish it from the Bodies of other Men and yet not be willing to own he can tell how to take up and collect together the same Individual Parts of Matter again and make them up again into the same Fabrick with the same Features since Nature it self assisted by a little Art is daily found to effect something very approaching that Divine Operation it being a very usual thing with expert Chymists by their Skill and Conduct to make the dispersed Particles of a calcin'd Flower or Plant to fly up and assemble together again in the perfect Shape and with the lively Colour of the Flower or Plant to which they belong'd but slighting these Men's trifling Objections let us Ignotus keep fast to that Infalible Word that promises Eternity to our new Friendship and that all the Innocent Joys it gives us here shall be remembred and continued in Heaven Thus have I largely prov'd by Arguments drawn from Scripture Reason and the best Writers that if we get to Heaven we shall know one another there by Face Stature Voice and the Relation we had to each other on Earth And not only so but that we shall know the general Assembly and Church of the First Born whose Names are now written in Heaven the * Heb. 12.23 Patriarcks Prophets Apostles Martyrs and People of God that have lived in all Ages and Nations from the beginning of the World to the end of it Object But may some say if we shall know me another in Heaven I 'de be further inform'd what wi l be the subject Matter of our Discourse there And in what Language shall we then talk Nay good Sir excuse me here for who has ever mounted to the highest Scale of Heavenly Bliss Ler him come down and tell as what is the Pious Conference and Language in Heaven Let him come down and tell us the Mysteries wrapt up in Clouds the Secrets hid within the Veil of Inaccessible Light Let him describe the Wonders of the Beatifick Vision and say how deep the Rivers of Pleasure are which run by Gods Right-Hand for evermore for my part I must confess I 'm lost in that Abyss of Wonders and therefore shou'd modestly withdraw my Pen to Subjects within my Reach However something I 'le guess at tho that 's all to Answer these Curious Inquirers but hold says another before you go any further I wou'd also know strange How far will some mens Curiosity lead them That if we shall know one another in Heaven By Face Stature Voice c. Whether we shan't alse know one another By difference of Sex Answ Yes doubtless we shall and because this Question hath something of Novelty in 't for it opposes the general received Opinion particularly Mr. Baxters who says the Saints shall know one another in Heaven but adds he I think not by Sex I 'le prove this in the First Place And then tell you as far as I can what will be the Discourse and Language of that Blessed Acquaintance that get to Heaven and with that Conclude this tedious Letter And here seeing Novelties make an impression on the Mind before I Handle this Nice-Point I 'le First Premise that 't is charity to lend a Crutch to a lame Conceit However if I am askt for my Authorities I Answer what appears reasonable wants no other Recommendation than being so and as to what appears over strange let Ignotus consider that Philosophy had never been improved had it not been for New-Opinions which afterwards were rectified by abler Pens and so the First Notions were lost and nameless under new Superstructures but such a Fate to use the Words of a late Author is too Agreeable for my Judgement to repine at or my Vanity to hope for But that there 's a difference of Sex in Souls and will be Male and Female in Heaven tho the Notion's new yet I never doubted it and hope to make it plain before we part Object But you 'l say when the Holy Spirit speaks of separated Souls that are gathered up into Heaven he does not speak of Male or Female but only of Souls without distinguishing either kind or Sex And further that 't is said there is no Marrying in Heaven Mark 12.25 And that in Jesus Christ there is neither Male nor Female Gal. 3.28 VVhich it directly contrary to the distinction of Sex in Souls For if Sex be only for the sake of Marriage where there is no Marriage there is no need of Distinct-Sex Then why that in Heaven which there 's no need of All that 's of the Essence of a Man will undoubtedly he there and that 's a Rational Soul united to an Organiz'd Body but what Organs will be necessary then we can't tell however these cannot Besides this difference is only Accidental Man and Woman being in Essence the same But in a State of Bl ss and Perfection all that 's Imperfect or Accidental shall be removed and accordingly one wou'd think Sexes should I won't add for another Reason what as I remember one of the Fathers has said That were there any Woman in Heaven the Angels could not stand long but would certainly be seduced from their Innocency and fall as Adam did But one wou'd think that if Souls were to Marry it ought to be in Heaven which is the Element of Spirits after the Bodies had been united in Marriage upon Earth the Seat of material things Perhaps you 'l also Object the Words of St. Austin who says The Soul is not distinguished into Sexes And that of St. Cyril who liv'd before him who also says The Souls of Men and Women are absolutely alike nor is there any parts of their Bodies wherein there is any difference to be observed To this I Answer That Souls may be distinguish't into Male and Female notwithstanding these Objections since 't is a Common saying The Soul of a Man and the
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
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
so of the other Senses the Reason of this is plain and convincing for if both I mean the Bodies of the Just and Unjust were not thus qualified they could not be proper Subjects for the Exercise of an Eternity but would consume and be liable to Dissolution or new changes Hence I assert as formerly that every Individual Person in Heaven and Hell shall hear and see all that passes in either * As Was mentioned in P. 8. State these to a more exquisite aggravation of their Tortures by the loss of what the other enjoy and those to a greater increase of their Bliss in escaping what the other suffer For a further proof of this See the Parable of Dives and Lazarus for you there find That as The Saints know oâ—e another in the Kingdom of Heaven so the wicked in Hell know those and their vile Companions they left on Earth For if Abraham knew Dives in Torments saying that he had received good things in this Life 'T is as certain that the Wicked knâ—w one another as is plain by the Rich Man knowing his Brethren tho absent why therefore shou'd not those which are present know one other as those which are absent pray one for another for this is plainly shown in that the Good know the Bad and on the contrary the Bad the Good for Dives is known by Abraham and Abraham also known to him seeing he prays to him saying Send Lazarus that he may touch and refresh my Tongue with cold Water In which the Returns of Gratitude are not only seen but the Good have this further to rejoyce in that they shall see whom they love but the Wicked shall be tormented not only in their own but in the Punishment of those they love As to that part of the Question Whether the Damned particularly know those in Heaven who in this Life they Scorned and Abused and perhaps Murder'd To this I answer That in the Day of Judgment when every Man's Actions shall be disclos'd the Damned shall particularly See and Know those whom they Oppressed or Revil'd or Murder'd and the Saints shall be Witnesses against them Our-Saviour speaks in allusion to this Mat. 12.41 42. The Men of Nineveh shall rise up in Judgment with this Generation and condemn it they shall appear as so many Witnesses against the Scribes and Pharisees and the other Unbelieving Jews of this Age and shall be Instruments as to that Condemnation which God shall at that day pronounce against them because they repented not at the Preaching of Jonah but these wou'd not at the Preaching of Christ Then shall appear Shadrach Meshach and Abednego against a wicked Nebuchadnezzar who caused them to be bound Hand and Foot and cast into a Fiery Furnace for their Love and Loyalty to their God the Martyrs against their Executioners shall be visibly Condemned Haled into their Residences of Misery in the Presence of the Saints But cou'd the Rays of Bliss †See Mr. Steven's Sermons on Dives and Lazarus glance thro some Cranny into that Dungeon of Darkness this wou'd administer some Comfort but this must ne're be expected But further Shall the Saints know one another in Heaven as also those Friends they left on Earth And do they likewise see and know the Damned in Hell and on the other Hand shall the Damned see and know those Saints in Heaven they Scorn'd Abused and Murder'd and also know their vile Companions they left behind ' em If all this be so as has been largely prov'd 't is then proper to ask in the next place Whether it be lawful for Friends solemnly to engage if one dies first to appear to the other and inform them of the Condition of the Soul in another World whether it be in Heaven or Hell To this I answer The Earl of Rochester did make this Contract with one of his Friends that he that died first shou'd come again to his Surviving Friend to tell him what he knew of the other World But my Lord Rochester's Friend dying first and never appearing to him afterwards he owns it hardned him in his Atheism and that he heartily repented of this foolish Contract so that the least that can be said of such a Contract is that 't would be 1. Fruitless since Truth it self tells us If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe tho one rose from the Dead For if the common Methods of God's Providence will not convince an Atheist neither is he to expect any new way of Satisfaction nor if he had his Desire would he be without some Evasion or other still to continue his Infidelity 2. 'T would be dangerous on more Accounts than one If no such Appearance which unless we were better acquainted with the Oeconomy of the World of Spirits we have little Reason to expect this might incline a weak Man to doubt yet more of the Truth of those things which we are clearly taught both by Natural and Revealed Religion If any Appearance how shou'd the Person to whom 't was made certainly know whether 't is really the Spirit of his departed Friend or some illusive Daemon which may either tell him a Falshood instead of a Truth or mingle Truth and Falshood together the more cunningly to deceive him But says a Learned * See Mr. Steven's Sermons on Dives and Lazarus Author suppose God should condescend to gratifie a Wicked Man's vain Curiosity by causing one to rise from the Dead and to testifie unto him that the Course he takes without speedy Amendment will be the Eternal Ruine of him and that the Preparations in Hell are very terrible and insupportable yet he will invent Arguments and propound Reasons to fortifie himself that he may not be affected with and influenced by such an Apparition and frightful Relation as heretofore he did to withstand the prevalent Motives of Religion It is not to be disputed but that if a Spectrum or Ghost should appear to a very wicked Man suppose it to be an Aerial Representation of his Companion who with a hollow Voice dreadful Visage and lamentable Utterance tells him That there is a God both just and powerful and that there is an eternally Happy and miserable State and that it is his Misfortune to be doom'd to the latter which in his Life-time he used all the Means he could to banish from his Thoughts and that if he does not speedily amend his Life and heartily repent of the many Wickednesses he has willfully and presumptuously committed as they were formerly Companions in Sin so they would be unhappy Fellow-sufferers in a lamentable Eternity I say I question not but if a Ghost should appear to any of us after this manner it would make some Impression upon us But then whether or no this Miracle wrought would so prevail with a Man who has habituated himself to Wickedness as to work a Reformation in him It is supposed No For after the Surprize
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