Inspired Men or at least that the Matter therein contained is true than that there was ever such a Man as Alexander or Caesar because one of these has all the Moral Demonstrations of Truth the other has namely universal or unanswerable Humane Testimony both of Friends and Enemies and yet more to wit Miracles which are the Testimony of Heaven Now this Scripture gives us undeniable Evidence of the Existence of Souls after Death and therefore whatever God may think fit to order or permit in extraordinary Cases as revealing Injustice Murder c. It appears both fruitless dangerous and irreligious to expect any such thing ordinarily to happen since the Course of Nature is not to be altered without the highest Necessity and Reason So that you see 't is fruitless dangerous and irreligious to expect our Friends that are gone to Heaven or Hell though they still know and love us never so well should come from that Happy or Miserable Place to tell us what passes there But if this be granted perhaps 't will be asked in the last place Then pray tell us what is Death seeing that though nothing else can do it will open the Door to the other World and give us the Knowledge of those Friends departed with whom we earnestly wish to be To this I Answer That Death is no more than a soft and easie Nothing Shou'd you ask me then what is Life I 'd Answer with Crates who being asked this Question said nothing but turn d him round and vanisht and 't was judged a proper Answer But whatever 't is to live sure I am if you Credit Seneca 't is no more to Die than to be Born we felt no Pain coming into the World nor shall we in the Act of leaving it Death is but a ceasing to be what we were before we were We are kindled and put out to cease to be and not to begin to be is the same thing But you 'l say perhaps what do I mean by the same thing and that you are still as much in the dark as ever Why truly so am I as I told Eliza in the last Letter I sent her 'T is true there have been Men that have tryed even in Death it self to relish and taste it and who have bent their utmost Faculties of Mind to discover what this Passage is but there are none of them come back to tell us the News No one was ever known to wake Who once in Death's cold Arms a Nap did take Lucul Lib. 3. Canius Julius being Condemned by that Beast Caligula as he was going to receive the stroke of the Executioner was asked by a Philosopher Well Canius said he where about is your Soul now what is she doing what are you thinking of I was thinking replied Canius to keep my self ready and the Faculties of my Mind settled and fix'd to try if in this short and quick Instant of Death I cou'd perceive the Motion of the Soul when she starts from the Body and whether she has any Resentment of the Separation that I may afterwards come again to acquaint my Friends with it So that I fancy there is a certain way by which some Men make Tryal what DEATH is but for my own part I cou'd never yet find it out but let Death be what it will 't is certain 't is less troublesome than Sleep for in Sleep I may have dsquieting Pains or Dreams and yet I fear not going to Bed If you wonder I 'm able to give no better Account what DEATH is my Answer is That it often falls out that the more common a thing is the more difficult it is to speak well of it as in many sensible Objects Nothing is more easie than to discriminate Life and Death and yet to explicate the Nature of both is a severe task because the Vnion or Disunion of a most perfect form with ' its matter is inextricable however I shall offer those things that have given me the greatest satisfaction in my Enquities Death or a Cessation of doing or suffering is generally agreed to be the greatest Evil in Nature because 't is a destruction of Nature it self but why it should be represented so terrible is as great a Riddle to me as a certain knowledge of what Death really is This is the common Plea of Mortals Here we know and are known and all the Enterprizes we take in hand we have the satisfaction of reflection and a review when they are past but Dying deprives us of knowing what we are doing or what other State we are Commencing 'T is a leap in the Dark not knowing where we shall light as a late * Hobbs Naturalist to say no worse of him told his inquisitive Friend when he was going to die But this is a weakness which as it makes Men anticipate their Misery so it inlarges it too We look upon Nature with our Eyes not with our Reason or we should find a certain sweetness in Mortality for that can be no loss which can never be mist or desir'd again As Caligula passed by an Old Man requested him that he might be put to Death Why saith Caesar are you not dead already There is something in Death sometimes at least that is desireable by Wise Men who know 't is one of the Duties of Life to Dye and that Life would be a Slavery if the power of Death were taken away I had the Curiosity to visit two certain Persons one had been Hang'd and the other drown'd and both of 'em very miraculously brought to Life again I asked what Thoughts they had and what Pains they were sensible of The Person that was hang'd said He expected some sort of a strange Change but knew not what but the Pangs of Death were not so intollerable as some sharp Diseases nay he could not be positive whether he felt any other Pain than what his Fears created He added That he grew senseless by little and little and at the first his Eyes represented a brisk shining red sort of Fire which grew paler and paler till at length it turn'd into a black after which he thought no more but insensibly acted the part of one that falls asleep not knowing how or when The other gave me almost the same Account and both were dead apparently for a considerable time These Instances are very Satisfory in Cases of violent Death and for a natural Death I cannot but think it yet much easier Diseases make a Conquest of Life by little and little therefore the Strife must be less where the Inequality of Power is greater I have met with (a) Epicurus in Gassend Synt. one arguing thus Death which is accounted the most dreadful of all Evils is nothing to us saith he because while we are in Being Death is not yet present so that it neither concerns us as Living nor Dead for while we are alive it hath not touch'd us when we are dead we are not Moreover saith he The
Dear that Conjugal Affection can be dissolved by Death The Arms of Love are long enough to reach from Earth to Heaven Fruition and Possession principally appertain to the Imagination If we enjoy nothing but what we touch we may say farewell to the Money in our Closets and to our Friends when they go to Agford Part us and you kill us nay if we wou'd we cannot part Death 't is true may divide our Bodies but nothing else and scarce that For to use your Words whilst alive We may on Earth lawfully please our selves with Hopes of meeting hereafter and in lying in the same Grave where we shall be happy together if a senceless Happiness can be call'd so But suppose Death shou'd part our Bodies yet we have Souls to be sure and whilst they can meet and carress one another we may enjoy each other were we the length of the Map asunder Thus we may double Bliss stoln Love enjoy And all the spight of Place and Friends defie For ever thus we might each other bless For none cou'd trace out this new Happiness No Argus here to spoil or make it less 'T is not properly Absence when we can see one another as to be sure we shall tho in a State of Separation ' For sight of Spirits is unprescrib'd by Space ' What see they not who see the Eternal Face Vid. P. 54. in the Essay The Eyes of the Saints shall out-see the Sun and behold without Perspective the extreamest distances for if there shall be in our Glorified Eyes the Faculty of Sight and Reception of Objects as I prove to Ignotus there shall I cou'd think the visible Species there to be in as unlimitable a way as now the Intellectual St. Augustine tells us The Saints of God even with the Eyes of their Bodies closed up as now Yours are shall see all things not only present but also that from which they are Corporally absent for then shall be the Perfection whereof the Apostle saith we Prophesie but in part then the Imperfect shall be taken away Whither this be so I cannot say tho you know who have shot the Gulf yet sure I am that nothing can deprive me of the Enjoyment of thy Vertues while I enjoy my self Nay I have sometimes made good use of my Separation from thee we better fill'd and farther extended the Possession of our Lives in being parted you lived rejoyced and saw for me and I for you as plainly as if you had your self been there The World may perhaps censure this as a piece of Flattery or at least as the Fruit of unwarrantable Passion but had they known thy Worth as I did they would not presume so much as to blame me The Letter you sent me (a) Printed in Mr. Turner's History of Remarmable Providences p. 146. in your last Sickness shews thou' rt above Praise I 'll insert it here as a Proof of this and as a Pattern for other Wives Thy Letter 's this Viz. I received my Dearest thy obliging Letter and thankfully own that tho God has exercised me with a long and languishing Sickness and my Grave lies in view yet he hath dealt tenderly with me so that I find by Experience no Compassions are like those of a God 'T is true I have scarce Strength to answer your Letter but seeing you desire a few Lines to keep as a Memorial of our Constant Love I 'll attempt something tho by reason of my present Weakness I can write nothing worth your Reading First then As to your Character of me Love blinds you for I don't deserve it but am pleased to find you enjoy by the help of a strong Fancy that Happiness which I can't tho I wou'd bestow But Opinion is the rate of things and if you think your self happy you are so As to my self I have met with more and greater Comforts in a Marry'd State than ever I did expect But how cou'd it be otherwise when Inclination Interest and all that can be desired concur to make up the Harmony From our Marriage till now thy Life has been one continued Act of Courtship and sufficiently upbraids that Indifference which is found among Married People Thy Concern for my present Sickness tho of long Continuance has been so Remarkably tender that were it but known to the World 't would once more bring into Fashion Mens loving their Wives Thy WILL alone is a Noble Pattern for others to Love by and is such an Original Piece as will ne'er be equall'd I next come to consider the Imprudence of where I must say I am so far from blaming your Conduct that I admire the Greatness of your Conjugal Love in that very Particular which shewed it self to be like the Apple of the Eye which is disturbed with the least Dust But my Dear be concern'd at nothing for I am pleased with all you say or do and have such a Kindness for you that I dread the Thoughts of surviving thee more than I do those of Death Cou'd you think I 'd marry again when it has been one great Comfort under all my Languishments to think I should die first and that I shall live in him who ever since the happy Vnion of our Souls has been more dear to me than Life it self I shall only add my hearty Prayer That God wou'd bless you both in Soul and Body and that when you die you may be convey'd by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom where I hope you 'll find Your Constant E This Letter shews what a Wife thou wert and justifies this Address but to shew thy Piety was the same in Health as on a Sick-bed I 'll trace thy Life from the Cradle to the Grave And here when I remember you Unmarried in your Father's Family in your Blooming Years and Flaming Piety How does it pierce my Soul with fresh pangs of my first Love and sometimes transports me so far with the Thoughts of my Beloved Object that I am ready to forget I have lost her and willing to indulge my self as Men do in a Dream that they actually are in Possession of that which they admire but when I come to my self again and consider that I have lost thee the Thoughts of thy Excellency renders me inconsolable Again when I reflect on the Love of our Espousals our Mutual Affection and Endearments which many Waters could (a) When I went beyond Sea I gave Eliza a Ring with this Inscription Cant. 8.7 not quench nor distance of Place diminish I fancy my self in the midst of Greater Pleasures than the Poets ever fancied in their Elisian Fields My old Joys begin to revive and their Fruit is sweet to my Taste but when I consider that God hath poured out such a bitter Cup to me as the depriving me of one half of my Soul I am not able to contain my self nor to express my Grief In the next place when I think on the Sweets I enjoyed by thy Excellent Society who
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
them to attend the same thy Care to have thy Soul in readiness to hear what God had to say was greater than that of having thy Body adorn'd contrary to the common Practise of our Age. How attentive wast thou when at Sermons and with what Greediness didst thou suck in the Sincere Milk of the Word and how Conscientious to see that thy Servants took heed to what they heard and that they perform'd their Duty to God as well as to thâ—e Neither didst thou think to compound with Heaven by being thus zealous in Religious Duties that thou may'st Slander Covet Lie and act other Sins with the greater Freedom here and in other Places none but the Guilty are meant and none but such will wince but these Eliza will have more Wit than to publish their Guilt by declaring their Innocence The Extensiveness of thy Charity is another Character which endears thy Memory and makes it precious to me as well as to many others who felt the Effects of it How like to the Author of all Good did that excellent Grace make thee and how did it Adorn thy Holy Profession Dionysius the Tyrant wonder'd at his Son that with all the Gold and Silver he had in his House he had made no Man his Friend but thou wast innocently frugal that thou might'st be bounâ—ifully Charitable And the Truth is the best and surest way to have any outward Mercy is to be content to want it or to make good Use of what we have when Men's Desires are over eager after the World thy must have so much a Year and a House well furnish'd or else they will not be content God usually if not constantly breaks their Wills by denying them or else puts a Sting into them that a Man had been as good he had been without them If a Man have but a little Income if he have a great Blessing and like Eliza have a Heart to do Good with the little he has that 's enough to make it up alas we must not account Mercies by the bulk what if another have a Pound to my Ounce if mine be Gold for his Silver I will never change with him 'T was you my Dear that cross'd the Proverb That Fortune sees not where she bestows her Gifts that most commonly they fall to the Share of those who have not Hearts to use them for your Great Charity brought that exellent Character upon you of being Kind and Generous beyond others you 'd often say We * 1 Tim. 6.7 brought nothing into this World and shall carry nothing out so did all the Good you could whilst you liv'd in this imitating Sir John Frederick who made his own Hands his Executors and his Eyes the Overseers 'T is observed that Covetousness is the only Sin that grows young as Men grow old But 't was not so in you you liv'd in the World so much above it as was an Evidence of the Real Greatness of your Soul and that you thought that a little thing wherein others place Greatness this made Charity so natural to you that 't was scarce a Vertue There was in your Nature an Aversion to a Covetous Person as he is one which the Lord abhorts Psal 10.3 When I read That 't is easier (a) Mat. 19.24 for a Camel to enter thro the Eye of a Needle than for a rich Man who sets his Heart on his Riches to enter into Heaven I am almost frighted with the Expression Cou'd Aristippus throw his Gold into the Sea and say It 's better I shouâ—d drown thee than that thou shouldst undo me and shall I who have one Foot in the Grave be a Slave to my Wealth I complain of my * Dr. Horneck Neighbour for being hard hearted and unkind to People in Distress and is that a Vertue in me which is Vice in another A good Bishop says a late Writer cou'd have preached an Hour together in saying nothing but Beware of Covetousness And so charitable was Dear Eliza that her whole Life seem'd to be one continued Satyr against Avarice You durst not rake together what you cou'd in your Life to bequeath it to your self at your Death I say to your self for who that has half a Soul wou'd creep to a Miser all his Life for Wealth he may lose with the next Breath neither will he obtain it if the Wretch can carry it to the other World as is seen by the following Instances Hermocrates a Grecian Philosopher dying bequeathed all his Estate to himself his Mind being fix'd immoveably on the Trash he had scraped together And Cardinal Angelot was so wrapt up in Covetousness as by a Trap-Door to get into his Stable and so steal the Corn his Groom had given his Horses And I knew one my self so wretchedly covetous as to steal Candle-ends in the Church after Evening Lesture was over to serve his Occasions at home and this he did tho worth soveral Thousand Pound Well what shall we say There is saith the Wise Man a Man to whom (a) Eccl. 24.4 God hath given Riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all he desireth yet God giveth him not Power to eat thereof but a Stranger eateth it This is Vanity and an evil Disease 'T is clear from hence that tho a little sufficeth Nature and less Grace yet that Covetousness is never satisfied and is certainly curst The contented Man is never poor let him have never so little The Discontented Man is never rich let him have never so much Tho I have a Iust * See the Case of the Young Lady P. 40 Title to 6000 l. as may †THAT' 's ONCE appear in Conjunction with my own Birth-right and so much clear from any Encumbrance and have neither Child nor Chick to waste it and my self as great an Enemy to Extravagance as to what 's Sneaking yet if I an 't contented with this Estate I am poorer than he that begs if content with the Scraps he gets Content is all we aim at with our Store And having that with little what needs more But the Covetous or Disconted Man for they are all one always thinks himself miserable and so he can never be happy But Eliza was none of these had nothing in her mean or little no my Dear had thy Purse been as large as thy Heart you 'd ne'er been rich whilst any Man was poor and I am sure Eliza you had more Piety than to think your self undone had we lost all but one another Would the Miser * See Dr. Horneck's Great Law of Consideration study Eternity he 'd see 't is little material to him whether he is Poor or Rich Your Generous Temper Eliza might fully convince him of this Neither was thy Extensive Charity any Let to thy strict Justice or to the Punctual Performance of all thy Promises in thy Dealings with Men you knew that none must dwell in the HOLY * Psal 15.1 2.
Impressed upon my Soul I have not the Comfort of any Child by so blessed and sweet a Yoke-fellow to be a living Evidence of our Mutual Endearments then God and Man I hope will pardon me if I endeavour to have the Idea of thy Perfections always before me and that I have drawn this faint Shadow of 'em with my rude Pen as a more useful and valuable Portraiture of thee than any that could be drawn by the Pencil of the most Famous Artist that is but the Outside but this is the Inside and what I was taught by the Divine Records That the King's Daughters are Glorious within I found it to be true by Experience in thee you convinc'd me what Charms there are in a Vertuous Spouse What a Mine of Pleasure What sprightly Life and Vigour did my Dear give to all my Thoughts Looks and Actions How many new Satisfactions in every thing you did How did I even live in your dying Words Oh the kind and tender Farewells you gave me with your last Breath such as Poor Rogue thou art the kindest Husband that ever lived Ill love thee as long as I live Thou art a dear Child to me I love thee dearly I pray God bless my dear Yoke-fellow and give him Grace I pray thee give him Grace to live so here as he may live with thee hereafter which you repeated over and over very earnestly further begging that God would make me his for there was Grace enough in store To the last Minute of your Life you spake nothing so sensibly as when you spake of Heavenly things and all this you utter'd at the time when you were actually dying It would be a pleasant and delectable Subject for me further to expatiate upon thy Graces and Moral Vertues but I shall conclude with the Wise Mans Character of a Vertuous Woman that Many Daughters have done Vertuously * Prov. 31.29 but thou excellest them all and therefore tho it should be my Lot to engage in a Second Marriage yet it will be impossible for any other Wife to deface the Impression which thou hast made upon me and seeing I can no more enjoy thy sweet Fellowship here on Earth I will contemplate upon thy Perfections and view this Picture which my Affection hath copied from the Original that thy Vertues had impressed upon my own Soul And thus my dearest I must with unexpressible Grief bid thee a long Adieu but that which still comforts me is that we shall meet in Heaven where there shall never be any more perplexing Separation And it shou'd be a great Satisfaction to me to consider That the Providence of God order'd thy Death when I could be present and perform the last Offices of my Love That it did not happen at such a time when I was in Holland and at a great Distance from thee So you had the Comfort of my Love to the last moments of your Life And doubtless it pleased and comforted you much and allay'd your Affliction to see that you enjoy'd in your distress the constant Attendance of so dear a Friend And if this softned your Affliction it may justly lessen my Sorrow for what you endur'd I may be satisfied too in this That I sought and procur'd for you the best Means and Helps to recover you that Art Nature could afford and sure I am could any Physitian or Friend have sav'd your Life it had been Dr. T Mr. C and Cousin J n whose unwearied Endeavours to preserve thy Life shall be * As you desired on your Death-Bed thankfully acknowledged to my Dying Day but it being evidently God's Will to take you from me no Care or Tenderness could retain you amongst us but my Comfort is that as you was Virtuous and Pious you was in the same measure willing to Die and able to receive your Death with an undanted Courage and Resolution Virtue * See Mr. Dorington's Consolations to a Friend is an Essay a kind of Preludium of Dying As it mortifies our Affections to this vain World and fixes them on better Objects the Gifts and Felicities of Heaven Eliza was practising Death by Degrees while she liv'd and mortified first one Affection then another To make the Burden of Dying more easier to bear you took it up by Parcels and so having delivered your self from them you did not bear it all at once Thus it came to pass that Eliza was no sooner sensible she must die than willing to do so She was ready to resign up her good Soul into the Hands of a Faithful Creator Eliza whose Death I am tempted inordinately to Lament did not at all Lament for her self Your willing Submission and Resignation to the Divine Disposal should teach me the same thing You went away perhaps not only contented but joyful that you was to go Tho your Love to me and your Wisdom might make you Conceal that you was willing to leavâ— me yet you was glad I may believe to find that you had finish'd your Course for you had such Foretastes of the Heavenly Bliss as even ravish'd your Soul away Then 't is very incongruous that I shou'd attend your Triumph and Ioy with my immoderate Sorrow and Tears the Remembrance of your Happiness in the unseen World should give Comfort to me under the great Loss I have by your Death Have I not taken Satisfaction heretofore to reflect upon the obliging and charming Conversation of Eliza when my Affairs have kept me absent from her And have not such Reflections sweetned and allay'd that Absence Why then should not such Reflections do me the same Kindness still If I let this Impertinent Thought afflict me that I must no more enjoy the same Delight it will deprive me too of all the Use and Comfort and Pleasure of what I once enjoyed in Eliza which would make my Condition still much the worse Then why shou'd I grieve (a) See the Note at the end of the Dedication with this Mark * thus seeing Eliza is only departed from me for a while she is not lost nor annihilated Thy Body Eliza is laid in the Dust to rest in the quiet Grave and is there watcht by the careful Eye of Divine Omnisience And wheresoever any Parts of that may happen in Ages to come to be scatter'd the Divine Power will certainly collect them all again and thou shall be perfectly restored to Being and Happiness But the mean while thy better Part the noble Soul is return'd to God that gave it And since so much of thee still lives I may say thou art gone to thy Celestial Kindred Upon your Departure from the Body I do believe you immediately found your self like the Soul of good Lazarus attended by kind and glorious Angels And they I must needs think were not silent at their meeting you They congratulate your Delivery from this World applaud your Patience in suffering the Evils of it your Diligence in doing Good your bold Conflicts against the
Reverend Father but Love to a Parent tho ne'er so tender is lost in that to a Wife And now as is mentioned in the following Essay if I can mingle my Ashes wi h thine I have nothing farther to ask those few Hours I do survive thee but can I word it so when your Letter says When dead and gone you shaâ—â— still live in Phil. who is dearer to you than Lâ—fe it self thy Tomb shall be my Breast till on six Shoulders I am brought to thee and n as the only Companions of my long Home So that now leaving All Pleasures behind me and my Dear fast asleep in her Grave I 'll drop a few Tears on thy Coffin and so depart to my own House which tho once so pleasant to thee and me will now whilst thou art found in no room of it appear a very melancholy thing Tears To the Memory of DEAR ELIZA who departed this Life in the Year 1697. SAcred Urn with whom we trust This Dear Pile of Sacred Dust Know thy Charge and safely Guard 'Till Death's Brazen Gates unbarr'd 'Till the Angel bids it rise And remove to Paradise A Wife Obliging Tender Wise A Friend to Comfort and Advise Vertue mild as Zephir's Breatb Piety which smiled in Death Such a Wife and such a Friend All Lament and all Commend Most with Eating Cares opprest He who knew and loved her best Who her Loyal Heart did share He who reign'd Unrivall'd there And no Truce to Sighs will give 'Till he die with her to live Or if more we woud comprize Here Interr'd ELIZA lies Thus you see my Dear if you can see from Heaven to Earth how loth I am to give the beck'n of Farewell the best of Wives and my Truest Friend is but part of your Character and I can't leave such a Treasure in Post haste I had kinder things to add but my whole Family Friend J n and honest N y call me down so must reserve the rest ' til we meet in Heaven * The Primitive Christians buried their Saints with Hymns and Psalms of Joy Chrysostom on the Hebrews saith We are to glorifie God and give thanks to him that he hath crown'd the Deceased and freed them from their Labours and chides those that mourn'd And the Days of their Death were called the Birth-days of the Saints And Hierome in his Epitaph on Holy Paula saith That at her Funeral no Shreeks were heard but Multitudes of Psalms and Hymns were sung in divers Languages See Mr. Henry's Life p. 206. but here 's enough to let you see that as in Life so in Death I am wholly Yours and shall so continue as long as I am Philaret From Eliza 's Grave July 10th 1697. AN ESSAY PROVING We shall know our Friends in Heaven c. In a Letter to a Reverend Divine OUR Secret Correspondence my Dear Ignotus as it owes its Rise to the melodious Notes of the WESTERN NIGHTINGALE so it has been continued ever since with a World of Harmony Maugre the great Opposition it met with from Argus and his Aged Friend In this long Correspondence I attempted to prove as the First Step to our Friendship That there may be a greater Love 'tween Man and Man than 'tween Man and Woman I next proceeded to other Subjects and from thence to treat of Conjugal Love where I gave you the Character of my First Wife told you how she designed to Love if ever she married proved the practised her own * They were Rules she writ whilst a Virgin for her own practice if ever she entred into a married state Rules and having told you what her Rules were I next from my own Experience compar'd a single Life and a married together defended my Loving again in a months time and having ended with Honey-Moon 't is proper next to speak of that state of Life where they neither marry nor are given in Marriage And this leads me to enquire Whether we shall Know our Wives Parents Children and Friends in Heaven if ever we get thither I told you in my Last the Answering of this shou'd be the Subject of this Letter and that I 'de send it by this Post I have now kept my word and heartily wish you having so much desir'd it the Mountain may not produce a Mâ—use However I have done my best But before I discourse of Knowing our Friends in Heaven I must first tell you That good Eliza that dearest part of my self went thither in May last Her Death has made me so very melancholy that I had pin'd away in a few days had not the hopes of finding her again in Heaven given me some Relief Oh! the Sighs the Wishes the Languishments with a long c. Chargeable on that Account really Sir there are yet Tears in my Eyes left undried for the Dear Eliza the best of Wives and best of Friends I yet feel the Torments to which a Heart is exposed that loses what it Loves none love as I have lâ—ved My sentiments have a delicacy unknown to my others but my self and my Heart Lov'd Eliza more in one Hour then others do in all their Lives Witness the Tears shed on her Grave to what excess I love her I want to know wâ—at sullen â—â—â—r â—ul'd at my Birth that Phil. should Live when Eliza iâ— Dead or at least Dead to me or if there be a Beam of Comfort 't is n't to shine till the Resurrection or till I meet her in Heaven Thus the kind Turtle parted from his Mate passes by a Thousand Objects and only mourns at all he sees but met their Life and Love is through each others Bill convey'd But Mum for that for Valeria and I have now compounded with one another and Resolv'd for better for worse have been at I Ned take thee Hannah But on what Conditions with the Terms of our Honey Moon you shall know hereafter 'T is enough if I say at present That she fully understands and practises all the Duties of a Tender Wife so that she seems to be Eliza still in a New Edition more Correct and Enlarged or rather my First Wife in a New Frame for I have only changed the Person but not the Vertues But I leave Valeria here for the Dearest Friends must part to answer this Curious Question Whether we shall know our Friends in Heaven I send you my Sentiments in this matter in hopes you 'll Rectifie my Judgment where you find it Err and supply my Defects with better thoughts of your own that so between us this Curious Subject may be fully handled which I the rather mention for that te'nt my way to say much to the purpose on common Suhjects much less can you expect it in such a Theam as this where had I an Angel's Tongue I should be at a Loss The way to Heaven is Long and Difficult and therefore no wonder if now and then I mistake a Turning but when I do I hope Ignotus you 'll set
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
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