kind Physician who when nothing else in the Divine Pharmacopaea could be sound available for so great a Cure applies his own Body to heal the Distempers of our Souls and his Blood to restore the Spoyls of Humane Nature None but the Favourites of the King of Heaven are admitted to this Immortal Banquet None but such as have the Wedding Garment on can have Access to this Table of Delicacies this Repast of Royal Dainties Many indeed and too many 't is to be feared are licensed to come into the Kings Anti-Chambers and to sit down in the Church and taste the outward Elements but it is the Priviledge of his Saints only to enter his Cabinet and be Regal'd with the costly Entertainment of his Secret Table and to partake in the New Wine of the Kingdom of Heaven A Serious Christian once told me that if ever he was like Paul taken up into the Third Heaven it was when he first sat down at the Lords Table The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is the nearest and visiblest Communion that can be had with God and Christ upon Earth Here are the greatest revivings and the sweetest refreshings that a Pious Soul is capable of on this side Heaven it self Other Duties seem to be our work this our meat and wages other duties are but preparative to this Baptism Praying Preaching Hearing Meditating Conferring are all ordained but to sit us for this High and Mysterious Ordinance Here you have all the benefits of the Covenant of Grace folded up in one Rite Here is the whole contrivance of Salvation represented in a little Bread and Wine whereby God invisibly seals up an assurance of his Everlasting Love upon our Hearts It is grown even to a Proverb saith Acosta among the poor Indians that have entertained the Faith that Qui Eucharistiam semel susceperit c. He must never more be unholy that hath once received the Holy Communion As to the Posture of Receiving I am not scrupulous being willing to conform to the Custom of those with whom I communicate I can receive on my Knees without Danger of Idolatry or Sitting without the Guilt of Contempt This latter I esteem of greater Antiquity it being the Posture wherein Christ Communicated to his Disciples at the last Supper unless it be said they lay along according to the Mode of the Eastern People in those Days However I do not think the Position of the Body but the Preparation of the Soul is required to render one a Worthy Commun icant in these Holy Mysteries I censure not the Primitive Christians not those more Modern ones who Communicate frequently yet I should be timorous to approach these Holy Mysteries too often lest I should incur the Judgment which St. Paul has pronounced on those who eat and drink unworthily I have Charity for others who Celebrate this Sacrament Monthly Weekly or Daily but I should have little for my self should I receive this tremendous Mystery of Life with less Preparation than were requisite to fit me for Death It being in the Number of those Medicines which either Kill or Cure according to the Constitution to which they are applyed If we examine the Books of Physicians those Registers of Humane Frailty and Mortality we shall find no less than Six Thousand Diseases on the Score to which Man's Body is liable And 't is to be feared the Distempers of the Soul come not short of the Account What is Pride but a Tympany Lust but a Feaver Drunkenness but a Dropsie Envy and Malice but the Consumption of the Soul To obviate these and innumerable more Spiritual Maladies God has as a Token of his Infinite Bounty given His Ministers Commission to dispense to the Sons of Men the Sacrament of his Body and Blood as a Divine Catholicon or Cure for all the Diseases which are incident to our Souls but with this Condition That he who partakes of these Holy Mysteries unworthily instead of being healed does but increase his Malady work it up to a dangerous Crisis if not to a desperate Paroxism which affords no Hopes but a fearful Expectation of Judgment to come Cyprian tells us two remarkable Stories that one coming to the Sacrament after the Minister had given him the Bread and he going to eat it it stuck in his Throat Gladium sibi sumens non cibum saith he he received his Bane instead of Bread the other came and took the Bread into his Hand and when he went to eat it there was nothing but Ashes in his Hand This Apprehension I ingenuously declare has had such Influence on me as to restrain me long from approaching the Holy Table I tremble at the Thought of Eating and Drinking my own Damnation and of trampling under-foot the Blood of the Eternal Testament I love not to humour my Spleen or gratifie my Hypocondria by inveighing against the Luxury of the present Age as if it were worse than those of old and that our Fore-fathers did not Eat and Drink to Excess as well as we The present Intemperance of Mankind is but the Transmigration of the Former And our Posterity shall but act o're the Patterns we set them Drunkenness is as old as Noah 's Flood and Epicurism begun with Adam The one had no sooner escaped the Universal Inundation of Water but he had like to have been drown'd in a Deluge of Wine And the Other not content with the large Indulgence and Commission God had given Him to eat of the Fruits of Paradice must needs leap the Fence which guarded the Forbidden Tree and wheâ— he might have Banquetted without Satiety or End on the Varieties which would have given him Life and Immortality he plays the Glutton and Surfeits Himself with the Plant of Death and Damnation His Children soon learn'd to tread in their Father's Steps and Gluttony was equally propagated with Mankind And tho' that Repairer of Adam's almost Shipwrackt Progeny could he abstemious when he might have furnisht his Table with all the Beasts of the Earth and Fowls of the Air at one Meal yet he could not refrain from the tempting Fruit of the Vine His Ebriety was also catching and the Incestuous Off-spring of Lot ow'd their Original to the Blood of the Grape Before the Flood Men were busied in Banquetting and Riot so they have been ever since and so they will be to the End of the World Men are great Followers of Antiquity in the Practice of these Vices For my Part I envy not the Board of Vitellius that at one Meal was covered with two Thousand Fish and double that Number of Fowls Neither do I covet the more Expensive Feasts of Heliogabulus The refin'd Luxury of Cleopatra seems to me less Sordid tho' more Prodigal who at one Draught swallow'd down a King's Ransom It was not her Palate she gratify'd in that Rich Potion but she humour'd the Gust of her Ambition which is a Sublimer sort of Vice and may not unfitly be call'd the Gluttony of the Soul
Church Triumphant who cordially embraces with the extended Arms of good-will who ever are dignifi'd with the Image of Piety tho' not distinguish'd with his own Superscription I profess my self an impartial Lover of all good men and do presume every man to be good till I find him otherwise I have as little Zeal about things that are manifestly indifferent either pro or con as any man in the World for 't is a Principle I receiv'd from my Education that the real differences of good and intelligent People are not so wide as they seem and that through prejudice and interest they do many times contest about words whilst they do heartily think the same thing I am not fond of the Names which distinguish one Party from another in the Church I esteem not a man the better for being regimented in this Communion rather than in that And for ought I know in the Camp of God a Reformade may be as acceptable as in those of Men. However a Mutineer in either is odious and to raise Factions about Religion is to adore Mars instead of Christ and to commence a War for the sake of Peace I cannot approve of their bitter Zeal who if they cannot call down Fire from Heaven will kindle it on the Earth against all that think not as they do He is an ill Disputant for Christianity who uses no other Topicks than Gun-powder and Steel The Logick of Mahomet becomes not a Disciple of Jesus and I should make but an Hypocritical Convert were I to be Dragoon'd into Religion by the Domineering Arguments of Booted Apostles To perswade to Conformity by Prisons and Confiscations is in my apprehension something like demonstrating a proposition in Euclid or apologizing by a Beetle and Wedges and I conceive they will equally produce their Effects when any Mathematitian shall do the one the Spiritual Court may perform the other We find few edified by a Dungeon or instructed by the spoiling of their goods Force hath as little power on Souls as a Chirurgions Knife on the Understanding and Affections of men Remedies must have some Analogy with the Sick and their Diseases 'T is sound Reason which is of our Essence and Constitution with some little intermixtures of Kindness and Love that must make men Proselytes to the Church of England or nothing The use I make of this Variety in Religions is faâ— different Truth is Homogeneous and attracts to it self all that is of its own Nature wheresoever dispers'd or separated rejecting the rest as not pertaining to it Thus I overlooking the Errors and Mistakes of those who differ from me at the same time embrace their Orthodox Tenets and shunning their Vices I imitate their Vertues This is to take Things by the right handle and like the Bee to suck Honey out of every Weed It is of the Nature of the Sun who has commerce with many Pollutions yet remains himself undefiled I abhor that mercenary Course of joyning my self with any Party of Christians that is uppermost to abet the prevailing Faction and assert the Opinions most in Fashion This is to be a Weather-cock in Religion pliable to every fresh Gale of Interest Neither on the other side do I think it good Manners or Prudence to affront the Religion of the State and by a sawcy Impertinence condemn those who worship God in the manner prescrib'd by the Laws of the Land In my Travels I learn'd this Moderation and he that knows not how to practise it is not fit to stir out of his Chimny Corner Religion does not authorize Rudeness neither is Arrogance compatible with Devotion It is difficult to find a Company of four or five men together where there is not at least a Triumvirate of Religions and he that will set up for a Dictator among them shall have all their Forces united against himself I do not value any mans Religion by his starch'd looks or supercilious Gravity I hate to put on an unsociable Face or screw my self into an ill-humour'd Riddle I do not angle for the Character of a Saint by magisterially declaiming against the Innocent Divertisements of Humane Life and ranking things indifferent among the greatest Crimes Above all I cannot approve of those who are prone to fasten Gods Judgments on particular Occasions as if they alone cou'd unlock the Secrets of the Almighty and were the Privy-Counsellors of Heaven No mans misfortune shall escape their Censure but forgetting what our Saviour said of those on whom the Tower of Siloam fell they condemn all alike and presume to distribute the Divinâ— Justice by their own false Weights and Measures I am in Love with that Saying oâ— Plato There is no Envy in the Deity Assuredly that Immense Ocean of Goodness never ceases to show'r down his Favours and Blessings on all that are capable of receiving them and he is not partial to any of hiâ— Creatures Like the Sun he imparts his Influence to all the World and if any â—â—joyce not in his Beams the Cloud that hindâ—â—s them is of their own raising Those men will hardly proselite me who dress the Deity in a frightful Figure and then wou'd perswade the World 't is his Essential Complexion While they exclaim against Pictures and Images they themselves commit Idolatry They set up an infinite Tyrant morose arbitrary and cruel instead of the Original Increated Beauty and Goodness worshiping the Idol of their own Imagination instead of the Indulgent Father of all things I do not take Prayer to consist in babling o're the devoutest Collects and Oraisons of the Church without a due Application of Spirit This is the Sacrifice of Fools without Salt or Fire and therefore must needs be unsavory to God The bended Knee submiss Looks and even a Body prostrate to the Ground unless accompanied with a proportionate Fervour and Humility of the Soul are but Religious Compliments and a Pious Banter Such Mock-Addresses I doubt are not graciously receiv'd in the Court of Heaven An equal dislike I have for those who offer up strange and unhallowed Flames burning Incense whose Composition is not warrantable who hold not fast the Form of sound Words but giving the Reins to their Tongue suffer it to commit a thousand Indecencies in the Hearing of Him who made the Ear. These as well as the Former are guiltâ—â—f Crimen laesae Majestatis while they affronâ— Heaven with Tautologies and vain Repetitions The one through Inadvertency the other through Presumption This bringing Form without Matter That offering Matter without Form and Both wanting the Spirit and Life of sincere Devotion Yet I neither censure such as use an allowable Form provided it be accompanied with attentive Devotion and less those who address themselves to Heaven in words of their own choosing provided it be season'd with Discretion and a modest Sobriety of Spirit For when a man fitly qualified endued with Learning too and above that adorn'd with a goâ—d Life breaks out into a warm and well deliver'd Prayer
of the Whole from which I am not excluded as a Member and therefore must needs participate of the Common Benefit even when I think I suffer Damage I am not peevish at a Calumny nor waspish at a loss When any one does me an Injury I take a singular Pleasure in forgiving him There is such a Noble Pride attends this generous Conquest of an Enemy as far surpasses the celebrated sweetness of Revenge I hate to gratifie my Passion the common way and because he has acted the part oâ— an ill Man I must do so too or worse by giving scope to my Rage and executing the severest Dictates of my Fury He is but a Tinker in Morality who to repair one Breach makes another and perhaps wider than the first Besides 't is the most profitable kind oâ— Revenge when I turn a Wrong to an Advantage by cancelling it since thereby I make a Friend of an Enemy and if he have but the leasâ— Spark of Gratitude and Vertue my Benignity makes him not only blush at his Offence buâ— puts him upon some ingenuous study how to make me amends Hath any wrong'd thee says * See his Encheridion Quarls bâ— bravely reveng'd slight it and the work 's begun forgive it and 't is finish'd He is below himself that is not above an Injury If thy Brother hath privately offended thee reprove him privately and having lost himself in an Injury thou shalt find him in thy forgiveness He that rebukes a private fault openly sordidly betrays it rather than reproves it The true way to adâ—â—nce anotheâ—s Vertue is to follow it and the best means to cry down anothers Vice is to decline it Have any wounded thee with Slanders meet them with Patience hasty wordâ— ranckle the wound soft Language dressâ—s it forgiveness cures it oblivion takes aâ—â—â— the Scar. It is more noble by silence to â—over an Injury than by argument to overcome or spread it But in all cases of this nature change conditions with thy Brother then ask thy Conscience what thou would'st be done to being resolv d exchange again and do thou the like to him and thy Christianity shall never err I esteem it one of the most substantial Exercises of Religion to subdue our Passions and because Anger is the most violent and precipitate I use my most strenuous Endeavours to stifle this in its Embryo Other Passions take a gradual Rise and insinuate by steps but Wrath like Gun-powder takes Fire all at once and blows a man up before he can look about him Therefore I have by long and assiduous Practice labour'd to get the Victory of this turbulent Aflection and I count it the Masterpiece of Humane Wit to be above all Provocation I cou'd long ago stop my Hand in the midst of its Career when aim'd at a faulty Servant or scurrilous Companion but now I can bridle the Nerves which wou'd have stretch'd it forth and curb the officious Spirits which were so ready to sally forth on such an Occasion I scorn to suffer my Tongue to be my Hand 's Deputy and to lavish out in unseemly Expressions as if the Height of Man's Wit and Valour lay in a biting Repartee Nay I will not permit so much as my Cheek to change colour my Eye to sparkle or any other part of my Face to receive the least impression of my Resentments whereby it may be perceiv'd that I am fermented Yet at the same time I am not insensible of an Affront nor void of due Reflexion on it All that I aim at is to comply with the Apostles Advice To be angry and not to sin I have no Pannick Fears of Death upon me neither am I sollicitous how or when I shalâ— make my Exit from the Stage of this Life Much less do I 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 Phancy of those who desire to be imprison'd in leaden Coffins till the Resurrection and to protract the Corruption oâ— 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 For my Part I admire the Indian Obsequies and were it not against the long establisht Custom of my Country wou'd sooner bequeath my Body to the Fire than be inhum'd that so I might be sooner resolv'd into the Elements of which I was first compounded Yet instead of that nearer way to Dissolution I can be 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 now my scattered Ashes shall be collected together neither do I for that Reason take Care for an Vrn to enclose them I am â—atisfied that at the last Trumpet I shall rise with the same Individual Body I now carry about me tho' there may not then be one of the same Individual Atomes to make it up which are its present Ingredients For neiâ—her are they the same now as they were â—wenty years ago Yet I may be properly â—aid to have the same Individual Body at this Hour which my Mother brought forth into â—he World tho' it is manifest that there â—s so vast an Accession of other Particles since that Time as are enough to make Ten such Bodies as I had then Which implies such a perpetual Flux of the former as 't would be a Solaecism in Philosophy to think I have one of my Infant Atomes now left about me If after all this I may be still said to have the same Individual Body as I had then tho' there be not one of the same Individuaâ— Atomes left in its Composition why may wâ— not assert the same of the Bodies we shalâ— have after the Resurrection Matter is onâ— and the same in all Bodies the Individuatioâ— of it the Meum and Tuum proceeds onelâ— from the infinitely different Forms which actuate it Thus when my Soul at the Resuâ—rection either by its own Energy or by thâ— Power of God and Assistance of Angels shaâ— be reinvested with a Body it is proper tâ— say it will be the same Individual Body have now tho' made up of Atoms which never before were Ingredients of my Compâ—sition since not the Matter but the Forâ— gives a Title to Individuation I am the more willing to believe this wiâ—â— be the manner of our Resurrection becausâ— I think it not Decorous to put the Angeâ— on the Drudgery of Scavengers as if it shoulâ— at that Day be their Employment to sweeâ— the Graves and Channel-houses to sift thâ— Elements and take in all the Receptacles oâ— the Dead for Mens divided Dust Not thâ—â— I think it impossible for God even this way
and Inquietudes of this Mortal Life which may very well be call'd a Rest and yet be consistent with an Activity far surpassing that which it was endued with in the Flesh The Scripture clothes many abstruse Mysteries in familiar Dresses the better to accommodate Them to the Conceptions of vulgar and ignorant People who make up far the grearest Part of Mankind and we must not expect the rigid Definitions of Aristotle from the Sacred Pen-Men But when we come Scientifically and according to the Method of the Schools to treat of the Natures of Things we ought to fit them with proper and Intelligible Terms and pursue their Essences by a continued Progress not by wild Fits and Starts I have but small acquaintance with the future State but this I 'm sure there will be no change that will be so surprizing to me as that By Death It is a thing of which I know but little and none of the millions of Souls that have past into the invisible World have come again to tell me how it is I. It must be done my Soul but 't is a strange A Dismal and Mysterious change Norris When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay And to an unknown somewhere wing away When Time shall be Eternity and thou Shalt be thou know'st not what and live thou know'st not how II. Amazing State no wonder that we dread To think of Death or view the Dead Thou' rt all wrapt up in Clouds as if to thee Our very knowledge had Antipathy Death could not a more sad retinue find Sickness and pain before and darkness all behind III. â—ome courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be â—ou warn us of approaching Death and why May we not know from you what 't is to dye But you having shot the Gulph delight to see â—ucceeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty IV. When Life 's close knot by writ from Destiny Disease shall cut or age unty When after some delays some dying strife The Soul stands shivering on the ridge of Life With what a dreadful Curiosity Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity V. So when the spacious Globe was delug'd o're And lower holds could save no more On th' utmost Bough th' astonish'd Sinners stood And view'd th' Advances of th' encroaching Flood O're-topp'd at length by th' Elements encrease With horror they resign'd to the untry'd Abyss It is very desirable to know in what condition our Souls will be when they leave the Body and what is the Nature of that abodâ— into which we must go but which we never saw into and through what Regions we must then take our flight and after what manner this will be done 'T is certain my Soul will then preserve the faculties that arâ— natural to it viz. to understand to will to remember as 't is represented to us under the Parable of Dives and Lazarus But alas we little know how the People of the disembodied Societies act and will and understand and communicate their thoughts to one another and therefore I long to know it What conception can I have of a separated Soul says a late Writer but that 'T is all Thought I firmly think when a mans body is taken from him by Death he is turn'd into all Thought and Spirit How great will be its Thought when it is without any hinderance from these material Organs that now obstruct its Operations In that Eternity as one expresses it the whole power of the Soul runs together one and the same way In Eternity the Soul is united in its Motions which way one faculty goes all go and the Thoughts are all concentred as in one whole Thought * Beverley's great Soul of Man pag. 292. of Joy or Torment These things have occasioned great variety of Thoughts in me and my Soul when it looks towards the other World and thinks it self near it can no more cease to be inquisitive about it than it can cease to be a Soul I am not at all edified in the Notion of the Blessed Trinity by the sight of a Triangle neither can the whole System of the Mathematicks improve my Knowledge in this Point of Divinity The three distinct Faculties of a Humane Soul are far from illustrating to me the Three Persons in One Essence since there is a Subordination in the Former whereas there is an Equality in the Latter Such Similitudes and Comparisons seem not to me a Stenography or short Characters but a false Spelling in Divinity And tho' to wiser Reasons and more Active Beliefs they may serve as Luminaries in the Abyss of knowledge yet my Heavy Judgment will never be able to mount on such weak and brittle Scales and Roundels to the lofty Pinnacles of true Theology All the force of Rhetorical Wit has not Edge enough to dissect so tough a Subject wherein the little obscure Glimmerings we gain of that Inaccessible Light come not to us in direct Beams but by the faint Reflexions of a Negative Knowledge And we can better apprehend what it is not than what it is In the Disquisition of his Works I own that those do highly magnifie Him whose Judicious Enquiry into his Acts and deliberate Research into his Creatures return the Homage of a Devout and Learned Paraphrase But in the Contemplation of that Eternal Essence to which no created Thought can be adaequate I will humbly sit down and silently admire that which neither the Heart can conceive nor the Tongue or Pen of Men or Angels can declare as they ought and as it is I do not affect Rhodomontadoes in Religion nor to boast of the Strength of my Faith I do not covet Temptations nor court Dangers Yet I can exercise my Belief in the difficultest Point when call'd to it and walk stedfast and upright in Faith without the Crutch of a visible Miracle I can firmly believe in Christ without going in Pilgrimage to his Sepulchre neither need I the Confirmation that was vouchsaf'd to St. Thomas that Proverb of Vnbelief However I do not bless my self nor esteem my Faith the better because I lived not in the Days of Miracles nor ever saw Christ or any of his Disciples Or because I was not one of his Patients on whom he wrought his Wonders Both their Faith and mine were infus'd by the Ministration of the Sences And as they believe 't because they saw so I believe because I hear undenyable Witnesses give Testimony of the same Matter of Fact Nor do I esteem their Faith the more Extraordinary who lived before his Coming since they raised not a Belief of the future Messias but on clear Prophesies and most significant Types being assured by the constant stream of Tradition from Father to Son that what God had predetermin'd and foretold to Adam in Paradise to Abraham to Jacob and the Prophets should infallibly be accomplish'd in the fulness of Time And I cannot see wherein their Faith
several Regions of the Sky and Air till being tyred with so vast a Ramble and willing to try all States of Life I was by the Force of a strong Inclination and the irresistible Charm of rightly adapted Matter allured into this Terrestrial Body here to do Penance for the Faults of my Superiour Life and in this Horizon between the upper and the lower World to make my Choice of Good or Evil Light or Darkness Life or Death This unlocks all the Aenigma's of Providence and reconciles the harsher Difficulties with which the Immediate Creation or Traduction of Souls is involved It is the noblest Instrument of Vertue the sharpest Spur to a Divine Life whilst it doubles the Hope we have of being Immortal à Parte post by assuring us we were so à Parte ante And that it is not from any Arbitrary Decree of God inconsistent with the Rest of his Divine Perfections that we shall live for ever but from our own Nature and Essence being Created to subsist an interminable Duration of Ages I believe those Books of the Holy Scripture which are lost could they possibly be recovered again would serve as a Lamp to enlighten us in many Obscurities of Religion History and Nature And if the Writings of Jasher Iddâ— the Prophet c. could inform us nothing of the Praeexistence of Souls 't is very probablâ— the more early Oracles of Enoch would sincâ— he was but the Seventh Soul that was drench'â— in Terrestrial Matter and led so pure and incorrupt a Life as wou'd tempt one to believe That he was awaken'd to the Memory of his former State which for ought we know might have no small influence on his succeeding Change I have often wonder'd where St. Jude had so particular an Account of Michael the Arch-Angels dispute with the Devil about the Body of Moses that he was able to relate the very words that pass'd between them Surely the Jews had some Books or at least Traditions which were believed to be Orthodox tho' they were not so much as mention'd in the Sacred Canon for we cannot without great Impiety imagine that the Holy Saint wou'd impose upon our Belief any thing that was Forreign or Apocryphal I am apt to conclude from hence That there were many Traditional Doctrines entertained among the Hebrews which are by us esteemed no better than Fables However tho' I am thus convinced of the Truth of our Praeexistence and that this present Life is but a Shadow or Dream in comparison of what we enjoy'd before our Immersion in the Flesh yet I wou'd not have this Dream interrupted by any untimely or harsher stroke of Destiny I shou'd think it no inconvenience to live long but rather a Blessing That so a multitude of years might scum off the Froth and Sullage of our Appetites and Passions that so being gradually wean'd from those low Affections which brought us down to the Earth we may without any Disquiet or Turbulency remount to our Aetherial Homes For I am apt to think that those â—ouls who go out of their Bodies with any remaining Relish upon them of the Body like Fruit that is either pluck'd off or shaken down by violent Winds still retain in their separation a raw and eager smack of the Flesh with a languishing Byass toward it Whereas he that has tarried his full Period in the Body parts from it with Ease and Willingness as Ripe Fruit drops from the Tree And therefore I do not wonder that the most general Scene of Apparitions Ghosts c. is the Church-yard or at least that Place where the Body of the Spectrum was buried And the removed Earth which covered the Cobler of Silesia 's Body is a shrewd intimation That there are some Departed Souls which if they seek not a Reunion with their Bodies yet endeavour to hold a kind of Correspondence with them even in the Grave And tho' the Impossibility of being married again to these their dear Consorts after that final Divorce were enough one wou'd think to cure their Impotent Desires yet they burn with a new Lust and commit a Spiritual Adultery in the unlawful Bed of the Grave These I look on as the Effects of a too early and violent Separation and therefore esteem Methuselah and the Resâ— of the Fathers before the Flood happy who prolong'd their years to the utmost standarâ— of Humane Life and seem'd not so much tâ— die for that imports Violence as voluntarily to forsake their old Rotten Habitation shake Hands with their Bodies and so retuâ—â— to the Aetherial Palaces from whence they haâ— so long stragled Yet notwithstanding the great Esteem â— have of long Life as a Means rather to Improve than Impair us I cannot promise my self to out-live a Jubilee tho' I have already seen one Revolution of Saturn Neither do I affect to make Popes Emperours Kings and Grand Seigniours the Land-marks in the Chronology of my self That were to insult over the Royal Ashes of Princes besides the Ambition in Ranking my self in their Number Methinks I grow old even at those Years when the World counts me Young and possess the Heritage of David's last Ten Years of Fourscore in the Prime of my Age. Indeed the whole Earth and all this Planetary World seems to droop and decay Every Species of Beings grow weak and languid and seem to draw near their Dissolution Yet 't is needless to engage God in the Act since tho' Creation was above the Force of Nature yet Mutation is not and no Annihilation can proceed from that Paternal Essence of Essences It seems easie to me to believe That the World will perish upon the Ruins of its own Principles And tho' the precise Period of its Destruction be not known to the Angels themâ—elves yet there are not wanting some Philosophical Rules whereby one might venture to Calculate its Duration and by observing the various Attempts Eruptions and Devastations made by Fire already one may conjecture â—bout what Time that most active Element â—hall be let loose to destroy this Face of the World and transform this Superannuated Heaâ—en and Earth into New Ones as the Holy Prophet has foretold For as to Annihilation look on it as a Chimera or Non Entity which cannot be said to slow from Him who â—s All-being and the Fountain of Existence â—t were easier to conceive that Cold should â—e the immediate Effect of Fire and Darkâ—ess the Natural Result of the actual Preâ—ence of Light than to think that Annihiâ—â—tion or not Being can proceed from Him â—ho is the Original Source of Being from â—hose Divine Power Wisdom and Goodâ—ess all Things flow by a Necessary Emanaâ—â—on and continue in their several Perfectiâ—ns by as unalterable a Law as that which â—ave them so that there can be no Vanity supposed in their Eternal Subsistence â—o Leaps or Starts from Something to Noâ—â—ing It is far more agreeable to the Prinâ—â—ples of Philosophy to conceive That only â—â—e Gross and Corruptible Part
of the Uniâ—erse shall be subject to the Action of Fire such as the Earth we tread on with the other Planetary Bodies but that the purest Aetheâ— shall remain for ever untouch'd unchang'd the Sanctuary of the Bless'd the Habitatioâ— of the Spirits of Just men made perfect I aâ— also confirmed in this Belief by somethiâ—â— more Sacred and Authentick than natural Phâ—losophy For when the Royal Psalmist in thâ— Divine Rhapsody calls upon the Heavens 〈◊〉 Heavens and the Waters which are above tâ—â— Heavens to praise God he gives this for â— Reason viz. Because he spake and the were made he commanded and they werâ— created He establish'd them to Eternitâ— and for Everlasting Ages He fix'd a Decree which he will not disannul Then he calls upoâ— the Earth and all Creatures therein to joyn iâ— the same Act of Praise but not for the samâ— Reason not because the Earth shall enduâ—â— for ever but because the Name of God alonâ— is exalted and his Honour above Heaven anâ— Earth Which Distinction seems to me aâ— evident Argument of the unalterable Stabiliâ—â— of the Coelestial and Aetherial World whatâ—â—ever Mutations and Changes the Terrestiâ—â— may be subject to That those immense Tracts of quiet and iâ—passible Aether shall be the Seat of the Bless is very consistent with Philosophy and 〈◊〉 ways repugnant to Divinity However leâ— the Place be where it pleases God we arâ— assured that the Entertainment and Joys â—â— far surpass all humane Comprehension Yeâ— tho' we cannot have adequate Conceptions of Supream Felicity there are some Land-marks by which we may take imperfect Measures of that Region of Promise The Dim-Light of Natural Reason may afford us a Glimpse or faint Prospect of those Superlative Joys and the Opticks of Faith will improve the View We shall have the same Nature and Faculties there as here but free from the least Alloy of Frailty and Imperfection Our Souls shall display the radiant Brightness of their Immortal Essence with stronger Vibrations than the Sun having no internal Scum of Concupiscence boyling out from the Center of a depraved Will or erroneous Understanding to blemish and stain those unspotted Orbs of Light nor a terrene gross Body to Eclipse and shut up their Splendors But being ever Bright and Serene they shall shine through their Glorified and Spiritual Bodies as the Sun does through the â—ervious Air or at least as he does on a Bright Cloud which drinks in his Beams to reflect them abroad with a more sensible Glory We shall then see not by receiving the Visible Species into the narrow Glass of an Organized Eye we shall then hear without the distinct and curious Contexture of the Ear. The Body shall then be all Eye all Ear. All Sense in the whole and every Sense in every Part. In a word it shall be all over a common Sensorium and being made of the purest Aether without the Mixture of any lower or grosser Element the Soul shall by one undivided Act at once perceive all that Variety of Objects which now cannot without several distinct Organs and successive Actions or Passions reach our Sense From this Superlative Tenuity and Claritude of our Bodies will arisâ— that ineffable Delicacy in the Sensation of the Soul which will transport it with Delighâ— infinitely transcending the Heighth of Mortâ—â— Voluptuousness nay and even those more exalted Pleasures which the Vertuous sometimeâ— enjoy here on Earth as Foretasts of their futurâ— Beatitude in Heaven What here excites buâ— an Ordinary Emotion of Joy in the Soul wiâ—â— there produce all Raptures and Ecstasies We shall be always in Paroxisms of Love such are the transcendent Beauties of that admirable Place and such the divinely amorous Bent of the Soul We shall be always languishing yet ever enjoying what we languish for Neither suffering the least Pain through the Want of Fruition nor through any Satiety that shall attend it But through the Vigour of an Immortal Activity we shall have ever freshly kindleâ— Desires and new Enjoyments being dissolv'd in a Circle of Beatitude without Measure or End Here on Earth Men generally strive to Monopolize Pleasure to themselves there being few of so generous a Temper as to be sensibly touch'd with Delight that another shou'd partake with them in that which they esteem Felicity This is the peculiar Advantage of the Bless'd in Heaven that even in the Heighth of the Affairs of Immortal Love and Empire where they possess Eternal Crowns and unfading Beauties there is no such Thing to be found as a Rival or Competitor but every one's Joy is enhanc'd by the Enjoyments of another Every one loves all and all love every one Neither wou'd their Felicity be Perfect cou'd any Member of that Happy Society be suppos'd not to have his full proportion and share of Beatitude So communicative is the Love and Joy of those Holy Souls that they must cease to love and enjoy themselves shou'd they desist from loving and rejoicing in the Happiness of their Fellow-Citizens And if we may take our Measures of their Joys from our Common Experiences here on Earth it will be no small Augmentation of their Complacency to find those very Friendships which they had contracted here below translated to the Mansions above when they shall both see and know those whom they once loved on Earth how to be made Denizens with them in Heaven with what Ardours will they caress one anoâ—her With what Transports of Divine Affection will they mutually embrace and vent those Innocent Flames which had so long lain smothering in the Grave How passionately Rhetorical and Elegant will their Expressions be when their Sentiments which Death had Frozen up when he congeal'd their Blood shall now be Thaw'd again in the warm Airs of Paradise Like Men that have escap'd a common Shipwrack and swim safe to the Shore they will congratulate each other's Happiness with Joy and Wonder Their first Addresseâ— will be a Dialect of Interjections and short Periods the most Pathetick Language of Surprize and high wrought Joy And all their after converse eveâ— to Eternity will be couch'd in the highesâ— Strains and Flowers of Heavenly Oratory wiâ—â— Allelujahs intermix'd It much sweetneth the thoughts of Heaveâ— to me to remember that there are a multituâ—â— of my Friends gone thither to think such â— Friend that died at such a time and such a 〈◊〉 at another time O! what a number of thâ—â— cou'd I name and that all these I shall meet â—gain 'T is true it 's a question with some whethâ—â— we shall know each other in Heaven or no bâ—â— 't is none with me for surely there shall â—â— Knowledge cease which now we have bâ—â— only that which implyeth our Imperfectioâ— and what Imperfection can this imply Indeâ—â— we shall not know each other after the flesh nâ—â— by Stature Voice Colour or outward Shapâ— nor by Terms of Affinity and Consanguiniâ—â— nor by Youth or Age nor I think by Sex buâ— by the Image of