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
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
Assaults of many Temptations and your Perseverance to the end of your Life If I could look within the Veil and view the Celestial Temple I shou'd see you there in Transports of Joy surrounded with a Glorious Ring of Rejoycing Spirits Then how unsuitable is it that I should immoderately grieve for Eliza when she is gone to inhabit a Joy unspeakable and glorious Eliza while I am mourning for thy Death thou art giving Thanks for it you are overjoy'd to think that it is over with you and that you have finish'd your last and worst Conflict with the Enemy of your Salvation How happy soever your Condition was on Earth it is much happier now The Place and Condition you are in is represented in the Divine Writings by all that is great pleasant and glorious in this World but we are also told there that all these Representations fall short of it I cannot know then how happy Eliza is till I go to see and that must be now the Care that engages me With all my Sorrow with all my vain Wishes I cannot bring you back again from thence and I should do you the greatest Diskindness if I could I must then if I am truly sorry to have parted with you be earnestly concern'd to meet you again And that I may do so I will earnestly concern my self to serve and promote the Glory of God among Men and to do all the good Offices to the World that I can And I will as often as I think of Dear Eliza who is gone before excite my self to these things in Consideration that this Course will bring me to dwell with her again And if I make such Resolutions as these and perform them then I may promise my in a little time to meet you where the Spirits of Just Men are made perfect where we shall love again and that with an Affection more pure and more ardent than before Where both of us shall be more happy than ever we could be here We shall have no Griefs to communicate no Complaints to make to one another No Burdens or Cares to divide hetween us no †'T is the Saying of one that to distrust the word of an honest Man is not only to expose him to H C but to rank him in the number of V le ts such Carking Jealousie justifies the severest Resentment as Reputation is a tender thing and dearer to a good Man than his Life then what Conscience must that Person have that makes those Resentments a Câ—ime which were occasioned by the Provocations given But I stop here for the Barbarous Treatments that 〈◊〉 and othâ—â—â— meet with in this kind â— sufficiently proves at what Door such Quarrels lie Distrust to allay our Happiness or damp our Joy no Distance of (a) As I hinted before in P. 8. Place shall part us there or hinder our delightful Communion with one another We shall be of one Family in one Sacred Temple and in one rejoycing Quire joyning to pay Eternal Adorations and Thankful Praises to the Father Son and Holy Ghost We shall never be parted more Within a little while this happy Meeting may be It cannot be far off since it will come at the end of my Life Then seeing a Part of me is now in Heaven I shall take Mr. Rogers Advice (a) See Mr. Rogers Character of a Good Woman P. 163. to his Friend Make this Vse of my Loss more diligently to prepare to meet you in Heaven where our Conversation will be infinitely more pleasant and more durable than it ever was on Earth and there as you told me on your Death-Bed We shall meet and never part This is also the Opinion of our Friend H n for in his last Epistle He wishes he may so live this Year and the Remainder of his time That at last he may meet Eliza c. and the rest of the Saints There we shall have Joys eo the full And I think adds he this will be ONE HAPPINESS to have sweet Conversation with Pure and Spotless Creatures without Hindrance or Disturbance for ever c. Some Hope that they in Heaven their Learning share But sure Love and Friendship enter there I am impatient till I find it again in Eliza and till that happy Minute come as I told your Brother All my pleasant Days are over 'T is true I have been at Agford since your Death and you saw me there if you know what 's done on Earth to see that Dear unknown you so much admir'd and as you thought cou'd have made me happy but when I arriv'd My Heaven was still as distant as before all I got was Joy in Reversion and scarce that For ever since that Fatal Afternoon I first saw Cloris Madam Shute and Madam W ch I have not tasted a Minutes Joy nor expect it now till I meet Eliza and she 's gone to Heaven Poor Miserable Phil If Fate happen to guild o're one Inch of thy Vnhappy Span and lend a Glimpse of Heaven in a Wife how soon does the Beauteous Vision vanish out of Sight Ah Cloris must we part then first let me close thy Eyes bedew thy (a) The Chinese always before they bury their Dead if he was a Married Man bring him to his Wife that so she might first kiss him and bid him farewel Cheeks a little compose thy Body for the Grave follow thee thither see thee put into it be one of the last that shall come thence as I desired of thee if I died first and then farewel till we meet in the Silent Grave where I 'll visit thee and when I leave this Light Come spend my time in the same Cell at Night Till then farewel farewel I cannot take A Final Leave until thy Ashes wake Dr. Brown applauds those ingenious Tempers that desire to sleep in the Vrns of their Fathers and strive to go the nearest way to Corruption 'T was the late Request of a great Divine to lie by his Wife in Shoreditch and for that reason he was buried there and Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston in his last Will desires his Executors that the Bones of his Father might be digged out of the Earth where they were buried and laid by his own Body in a new Vault he ordered them to erect for the same purpose that tho he could not live with his Father as Iong as he would have desired yet he designed their Bodies should lie together till the Resurrection As it is good to enjoy the Company of the Godly while they are living so it is not amiss if it will stand with Convenience to be buried with them after Death The old Prophets Bones escaped a burning by being buried with the other Prophets and the Man who was tumbled into the Grave of Elisha was revived by the Vertue of his Bones So good it is to be buried with those that are accounted Pious 'T was for this reason I formerly desired to Lie in the Chancel of with my
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
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
me again in the right path If not Some Courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be Norris For I have small Acquaintance with the Future State and never met with any one of those Millions of Souls that have past into the other World to learn any News concerning the Knowledge they have of each other And therefore 't will be excusable if now and then I advance what I cannot prove and follow their Examples who fill their Maps with Fancies of their own Brains And I am the more willing to treat concerning the Nature and Condition of separate Souls because it agrees with a Humour of Curiosity I have a long time been distemper'd with I have often thought what would I give for the least glimpse of that Invisible World which the first step I take out of this body will present me with and have tryed by an Eye of Faith to look within the Veil but still find my Intellect too light a Plummet and the whole Thread of Life tho spun out in finest Speculations still proves too short to reach the endless bottom But though I have never yet seen the Innumerable company of Angels converst with Abraham Isaac and Jacob or the Spirits of Just Men made perfect which daily minister about the Throne that I might know the mutual Love and Entertainment of the blessed the Spirituality of their Glorify'd Bodies how they communicate their Thoughts to each other or the Knowledge they have of their Old Acquaintance Yet have I here with my Pen drawn a Scheme of my thoughts of our Invisible Friends on purpose to see whither it wou'd lead me and whither I cou'd follow it It was but last Night I was complaining to a VVater Drinker * Mr. Sh ley for I 'm now at Tunbridge swilling on Nature's bounty to Crazy Mortals of my Great Curiosity especially in things relating to the other World and in my Conversation by way of Prolepsis I have frequently been making Remarks that way But I tell you before-hand in treating of this Subject I shall leap over all Subdivisions and inferiour Sects of Christians and profess only to the World that the Divine Mercy and Favour is not limitted to a particular Canton or Party I am not only a Lover of good Men of all Perswasions but a meer Enemy to those Names which distinguish one Party from another in the Church Good men often contend about words when they heartily think the same thing and therefore I as little doubt to find Dr. Sherlock in Heaven as Mr. Aisop And do as little question their being of one mind in Heaven after all their Jangling as that they 'll presently know and rejoyce to see one another when they come there In Heaven says a late * Mr. Dorrington in his Discourse call'd The separate State of Good Souls Writer shall we meet many Dear Relations and Intimate Friends and perhaps some Enemies who shall then to our Great Joy and Satisfaction be perfectly reconciled to us which was that we most passionately desired before but it may be cou'd not find means to accomplish it However be it as it will I Live and Move by the Divine Providence and am willing to assert it in spight of all those Narrow Souls that dare trust God no further then they can see him or think none can be saved but those that are distinguish'd with their own Superscription But I shou'd remember I'm writing to one of an Extensive Charity and need not inlarge here So I come now to prove That if Infinite mercy bring us to Heaven we shall know one another there There are two things that comfort us under the Death of Friends The one is the hopes they are gone to Heaven And the other is That if Infinite Mercy bring us thither we shall one day see 'em again and have those very Friendships which they had Conâ—racted here below Transplanted to the Mansions above But what the knowledge is of our Souls separated and glorified we shall then know when ours come to be such In the mean time we can much less know their thoughts then they can know ours Sure we are they do not know in such manner as they did when they were in our Bosoms by the help of Senses and Phantasms by the discurssive inferences of Ratiocination But though we cannot see what manner of Metaphysical Matters our Souls are yet we know they really exist and act our Bodies although they are not Subject to Sense yet this doth not hinder but that a Spiritual substance may be separated from our Body and may be again Cloathed with a Body or Vehicle that may be Airy Fiery or Cloudy and be visible to our Senses although the existence or essence of the Spirit we cannot see but it's outward Cloathing and that such appearances have been in all Ages the Learned as well as the unlearned affirm from real matters of Fact But now whether the Soul in a state of separation acts independently of Matter purely by the strength of her own Powers or whether in order to the better knowing her self and other beings the makes use of a Body of Air shaped out into such Limbs and Sences as she hath occasional Employment for Whether or no the want of her old Companion is supplyed this way is uncertain But whatever abatements of happiness the pious Soul may suffer for want of a suitable body between the time of Death and the General Judgment then we are sure this inconvenience will be removed and it will be repossessed of its Ancient Seat out of which Violence or Nature had forced it But we cannot know these things Till we are strip'd into Naked Spirits and set a shore on the other invisible World Yet this we know at present that when our Souls are elevated to a condition suitable to the Blessed Angels so they know like them Though not by the means of a Natural Knowledge as they yet by that Supernatural Light of Intimation which they receive by their glorified Estate Whether by virtue of this Divine Illumination They know the particular occurrences which we meet with here below he were bold thas would determine Or if they do I 'm sure Eliza but her Love will tell you the rest only this we may confidently affirm that they do clearly know all those things which do any way appertain to their Estate of Blessedness Amongst which Whether the Knowledge of each other in that Region of Happiness may justly be ranked is not unworthy of our disquisition Doubtless as in God there is all perfection eminently and transcendantly so in the sight and fruition of God there cannot be but full and absolute felicity yet this is so far from excluding the knowledge of those things which Derive their Goodness and Excellency from him as that it compriseth and supposeth it As then we shall perfectly love God and his Saints in him so shall we know both And though it be
a sufficient motive of our Love in Heaven That we know them to be Saints yet it seems to be no small addition to our happiness to know that those Saints were once ours And if it be a just Joy to a Parent here on Earth to see his Child gracious how much more accession shall it be to his Joy above to see the Fruits of his Loins Glorious when both his Love is more pure and their improvement absolute Can we * Bishop Hall make any doubt that the Blessed Angels know each other How Senseless were it to grant that no knowledge is hid from them but of themselves Or can we imagine that those Angelical Spirits do not take special notice of those Souls which they have guarded here and conducted to their glory If they do so and if the knowledge of our beatified Souls shall be like to theirs why should we abridge our selves more then them of the comfort of our interknowing Surely our dissolution shall abate nothing of our Natural Faculties Our glory shall advance them so as what we once kne◠we shall know better And if our souls can then perfectly know themselves why should they be denied the knowledge of others Not but I own 't will make me shrink to go from them I know to Persons I never saw * Mr. Norris To wing away to an unknown somewhere to be I know not what and live I know not how to leave Dear Ignotus the Dearer Cloris and yet Dearer Sapho Friends with whom I have familiarly Conversed and Corresponded to go into a World of Spirits where I may not meet one I know How strangely shall we look on one another What little content do I take in any Company on Earth where I meet with shiness but sure I am there will be nothing of this in Heaven That Excellent Society * Mr. Dorrington in his Discourse of separate Souls says Mr. Dorrington which the Saint shall enjoy in Heaven in his Fellow Creature shall add much to his Happiness He shall not spend his long abode there in an uncomfortable Solitude Even in this Paradice it wou'd not be good for Man to be alone He shall therefore enjoy much and that very Excellent Society He then meets and shall enjoy for ever with all those Excellent Persons those brave Examples of Piety and Virtue whom he has seen or heard or read of in this World with the Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets and Apostles and the Noble Army of Martyrs Souls joyn'd below in Virtuous Love and sad at parting here shall meet again there and Love again and dwell together for ever He shall dwell with the Souls of all Good Men that have ever lived in this World and the Company there is a * Rev. 9.7 great multitude which no man can Number of all Nations Kindred People and Languages So that you see 't is this Author's Opinion That the Saints above hold a Kind Friendly and Familiar Correspondence and I hope I shall be able to prove that the Saints in Heaven do not only see and know one another but also what passeth in Hell amongst the damned as the Patriarch Abraham did see Dives in his Torments Luk. 16.25 But you 'll say all this is but supposition and that I don't prove whether Ignotus and Phill. who won't believe Death can part 'em shall as distinctly know each other in Heaven By Face Stature Voice the Relation they stood in to each other on Earth and by the difference of Sex as they did when they first met in London to deceive the tedious hours with Discourses of Ph la who by the by I wish will be one we shall know in Heaven for a Thousand Reasons and this among others as she was The blest occasion of our first Acquaintance neither can I be just to her Friendship shou'd I wish my self in Heaven without her 'T was said * See Herberts Life p. 25. Mrs. Jane became so much a Platonick as to Fall in Love with Herbert unseen The case was the same with me for I loved Cloris before I saw her neither did I for many Years expect that Happiness till I came to Heaven where I shall see her again for in that Heavenly Court she 'll be still A SINGER Of Praises and Hallelujahs to God Almighty and to the Lamb that sits on the Throne for ever and ever When I was first blest with a Glimpse of her and 't was but a Glimpse I had Angels Visits are short and sweet so chast was my Errand to her that I desired to dye with Cloris in my Arms. And if ever Friendship shewed a Miracle my Heart shall bear her Picture to the other World tho I never see her again in this But tho I Love Cloris with a Flame as Pure as Light as kind as Love and as strong as Death yet I 'm now a pure Platonick again neither will my Flesh as Eliza * In a Letter she sent her whilst I was at Tunbridge told her E'r creep in for a share not but she might with a smile lead me like a Dog in a string which way she pleased and with a Word make me leap over Steeples to serve her yet you know Ignotus that the least indifference cures Love-Melancholy in a few Minutes I do assure you Valeria's Great Alembic has refin'd all my Love and 't is now become as spiritual as Cloris But this has cost me many a Sigh many a Tear But being at Tunbridge I can tell my Grief to the Rocks and Groves for they 'll Listen though she won't and eccho back her endearing Name as oft as I sigh it out But these melancholy Groves have kept me longer than I did expect but you won't be angry Ignotus since they are grown so civil as to listen to an honest meaning and do Reply in their way of speaking to every word I utter but there be no Rocks in the New Burying place So I expect no Eccho thence no though 't were to a dying Gasp or a Letter writ with primitive Ink. But in the other World when Argus and his Friend get to Heaven for I hope to meet and know 'em there they 'l License our Thoughts our Words our very Looks and know us better than to stop or blame our Correspondence which was begun in time and discontinued a while that the Sadness of parting here might be abundantly recompenced by the Joy of meeting hereafter And this among other things was that with which Augustine comforted the Lady †Aug. Ep. 6. Italica after the Death of her dear Husband telling her That she shou'd know him in the World to come among the glorified Saints The Story is thus †See Bolton's Four Last Things Italica craved very importunately both by word and writing some Consolations from him to support her under that incomparable Cross of her Husband's Loss and Widow-hood and as it may seem she desired to know whethet she
should know him in the second Life For the first he hits upon the sweetest and most soveraign Comfort which could possibly be imagined You can by no means saith he think your self desolate who enjoy the Presence and Possession of Jesus Christ in the inmost Closet of your Heart by Faith About the other he answers Pâ—â—emptorily This thy Husband by whose decease thou art called a Widow shall be most known unto thee And tells her further that there shall be no stranger in Heaven c. And Bullinger on his Death-bed said to his Friends and Relations then standing by him I exceedingly rejoyce that I am leaving this miserable and corrupt Age to go to my Saviour Christ Socrates said he was glad when his Death approached because he thought he should go to Hesiod Homer and other Learned Men deceased and whom he expected to meet in the other World then how much more do I joy who am sure that I shall see my Saviour Christ the Saints Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and all Holy Men which have lived from the beginning of the World These I say I am sure to see and to partake with them in Joys why then should I not be willing to dye to enjoy their perpetual Society in Glory and having said thus he patiently resigned up his Spirit into the hands of his Redeemer The knowing our Friends in Heaven has also been the support of the Christians of this Age. * See the Account of her Life Published by her Husband Mrs. Lucy Perrot on her Death-bed said thus to her Husband God hath been a long while weaning thee from me we must part but we shall after a while meet again She farther adds I am going home to my Fathers House where are my dear Children will they not follow after me to Heaven Being asked again whether she was not afraid to dye she replied I am not I do not look upon Death singly but at it brings me to Rest I must go through the dark Entry before I can get to my first Husband Bishop Atherton died saying to his Friends I dread not Death God send us an happy meeting in Heaven I am but going before you And in his Letter to his Wife he has these words My dear Wife tho we part in this World yet I hope we shall enjoy a more happy meeting in Heaven Mr. William Hewling said to his Sister before his Death When I went to Holland you knew not what snares sins and miserys I might fall into or whether ever we should meet again But now 't was spoke just before his Execution you know whither I am going and that we shall certainly have a most Joyful meeting And one taking leave of him he said Farewell till we meet in Heaven To another that was by him to the last he said Pray Remember my Dear Love to my Brother and Sister and tell them I desire they would comfort themselves that I am gone to Christ and we shall quickly meet in the Glorious Mount Sion above And Mr. Benjamin Hewling in his last Letter to his Mother has this Expression The Lord carry you through this vale of Tears with a resigning submissive Spirit and at last bring you to Himself in Glory where I question not but you will meet your dying Son Ben. Hewling Mr. William Jenkins in his Letter to his Mother has this Expression Honoured Mother I take leave of you also hoping that I shall again meet with you in that place of happiness where all Tears shall be wiped away from our Eyes and we shall Sorrow no more And in his Letter to his Sister Scot he says Farewell till we shall meet again in Glory and never be seperated more Mr. Eliot of New-England dyed asserting he should know his Friends in Heaven which made him often say that the old Saints of his Acquaintance especially those two dearest Neighbours of his Cotton of Boston and Mather of Dorchester who were got safe to Heaven before him would suspect him to be gone the wrong way because he staid to long behind them but they are now together adds the Author of his Life with the Blessed Jesus beholding of his Glory and Celebrating the High Praises of him that has called them into His marvellous Light whether Heaven was any more Heaven to him continues this Author because of his finding there so many Saints with whom he once had his Celestial Intimacies yea and so many Saints which had been the Seals of his own Ministry in this lower World I cannot say but in that Heaven I now leave him but not without Grynaeus Pathetical Exclamations Blessed will be the day oh Blessed the day of our arrival to the Glorious Assembly of Spirits which this great Saint is now rejoycing with Some months before Mr. Eliot died he would often tell us that he was shortly going to Heaven and that he would carry a deal of good news thither with him He said he would carry Tydings to the Old Founders of New-England which were now in Glory that Church-work was yet carried on among us that the number of our Churches were continually encreasing and that the Churches were still kept as big as they were by the daily Additions of those that shall be saved and thus dy'd The first Preacher of the Gospel to the Indians in America in a firm belief that he should meet and know his Friendâ— in Heaven I shall next add thâ— words of Bp. * See Ar. Bp. Tillotson's Ser. on Phil. 3. v. 20. Tillotson who tells us when we come to Heaven we shall enter into the Society of the Blessed Angels and of the Spirits of Just Men made Perfect we shall then meet with all those Excellent Persons those brave Minds those Innocent and Charitable Souls whom we have seen and heard and Read of in this World There we shall meet with many of our dear Relations and intimate Friends and perhaps with many of our Enemys to whom we shall then be perfectly reconciled for Heaven is a State of perfect Love and Friendship there will be nothing but kindness and good nature there and all the prudent Arts of Endearment and wise ways of rendring Conveâ—sation mutually pleasant to one another Mâ— dear Ignotus I need not add a greater Authority then the Assertion of this Great and Learned Prelate to prove we shall know one another in Heaven But to come yet nearer home I might have added to my one self For I instance in one that I Love as well 'T was the Opinion of this Friend I mean of my dear departed That she should know me again in Heaven the thoughts whereof gave her comfort on her Death-bed for when her approaching end gave me a deeper Sorrow than before she endeavour'd to solace me by saying 'T is true my dear Tho I desire to live for thy sake and nothing else tho I have all the World in having thee and had rather die than thou should'st be sick yet don't be so
minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation If a Diagoras when he saw his three Sons crowned in one day at the Olympick Games as Victors died away while he was embracing them for Joy and good old Simeon when he saw Christ but in a Body subject to the Infirmities of our Natures and had him in his Arms cried out Now Lord lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace for my Eyes have seen thy Salvation Luk. 2.29 What unspeakable Joy will it be to see all our Christian Friends to whom we have been instrumental in their new Birth and Regeneration all crown'd in one day with an Everlasting Diadem of Bliss which never shall decay there shall be no Hypocrite then for us to loose our Love upon which is now the great Cooler of our Friendship and keeps our Affections in a greater Reserve When the Glorious Angels begin their Hallelujahs the Saints shall also joyn in one common Quire They shall be joyful in Glory and sing aloud upon their Everlasting Beds of Rest Psal 149.5 Oh how the Arches of Heaven will eccho when the High Praises of God shall be in the Mouths of such a Congregation With what Life Alacrity will the Saints in their blessed Communion celebrate the Object of their * See D. Bates's Four Last Things Love and Praises The Seraphims about the Throne cryed to one another to express their Zeal and Joy in celebrating his Eternal Purity and Power and the Glory of his Goodness O the unspeakable Pleasure of this Concert when every Soul is harmonious and contributes his part to the full Musick of Heaven O could we hear but some Eccho of those Songs wherewith the Heaven of Heavens resounds some remains of those Voices wherewith the Saints above triumph in the Praises of God c. For Angels and Saints to make one Consort of Praise to God what Musick will that be So that the thoughts of leaving my dear Priends and Acquaintance shall never sadden me more since they shall all follow me e're long and be ever with the Lord to enjoy each other in the Lord in a more Triumphant way than now we can and for these few Friends left behind for the present I shall enjoy an innumerable Company of Blessed Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect and all such Godly Friends as died in the Lord particularly my dear Eliza whose Departure for the present seem'd to rend a piece of my Soul with her These I shall all meet again and never part more How oft have I measured a long and foul Journey to see some Good Friend and digested the Tediousness of the Way with the Expectation of a kind Entertainment and the thought of that Complacency which I should take in so dear Presence And yet perhaps when I have arrived I have found the House disorder'd one Sick another disquieted my self indisposed then with what chearful Resolution should I undertake my last Voyage where I shall meet with my best Friends and find them perfectly happy and my self with them And therefore Phil. will no longer think himself a Stranger to all the Spirits of the Just now in Heaven seeing Eliza and half my Kindred are now there and many others that I 've sometimes formerly had sweet Fellowship with in the Ordinances of the Gospel If I shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom surely I shall know them to be such Besides their Natures in Heaven are all perfectly Gracious and Holy and I shall be like them and we shall know each other to be so And what shiness can there possible be among such who are satisfied in each others sincere Love and Affection Thou mayest Ignotus be acquainted with a thousand Saints and Angels in an Hours time as if thou hadst known 'em a Thousand Years we shall see them without any thing of Fear or Dread and be acquainted from themselves with their Offices on Earth There is no * See Dr. Patricks Parable of the Pilgrim Strangeness at all among them or the Saints you can meet with no Body there but they will entertain you with as much Kindness and Sincerity as if they had known you many Years When many come together in one place there is no danger of their Jarring by reason of their different Sentiments there they entwine in the dearest Embraces and study to encrease not to diminish their mutual Happiness If this be so poor Phil be not amazed at the great Change of Company at Death for as Dr. Preston said We shall change our Place but not our Company It is a pleasant * See Mr. Showers Discourse of Mourning for the Deed. Thought and proper to support under the Death of those we have honoured and lov'd and profited by on Earth to think that hereafter we shall meet and know several Ministers of Christ whose Preaching and Converse and Writings have been useful to us That we shall then meet and know several of our Holy Relations and Acquaintance with whom we were wont to walk together to the House of God and meet often at the Table of the Lord with whom we conferr'd about the Mysteries and Promises of the Gospel and many a time discours'd together of the Heavenly Inheritance believingly to foresee and consider that though they are gone before we shall meet 'em again at the last great Supper of the Lamb in the Celestial Kingdom Shall we thus know our Friends in Heaven then as Mr. Showers further advises I 'll resolve to have Communion with them though they are Departed by Contemplating what they are and where they are and what they do and what they possess and by Rejoyceing in their Blessedness more than I would have done for their Temporal Advancement in any kind on Earth I 'le desire and endeavour to be as like 'em as I can by imitating their Temper and Work above in the Love of God and the delightful thankful Praises of the Redeemer When I look up to Heaven I 'le think they are there when I think of Christ in Heaven I 'le remember they are part of his Family Above When I think with hope of entring into Heaven my self I 'le think with Joy of meeting Eliza and the rest of my Friends there Oh welcome welcome happy meeting with Christ and them Never more to Part never more to Mourn never more to Sin O happy Change O Blessed Society Fit me Lord for such a Day and Come Lord Jesus Come quickly Amen Thus you see this perswasion of a Restoration to a mutual knowledge of each other containeth great Advantages and Motives to a Godly Life for the fear of being Eternally divided from those I sincerely Love on Earth will draw me to an imitation of their Sanctity if herein they be Exemplary or give me the Courage to lead them into the way if their Course be irregular and exorbitant For those who unfeignedly desire to meet at the Journeys end will study
GOD Himself about which Schoolmen fall upon differing Conceits Some say God shall then be known by a Species representing the Divine Essence and by a Light of Glory elevating the Understanding by a super-natural Strength Others That the Divine Essence shall be represented to the glorified Understanding not by any Species but immediately by it self yet they also require Light of Glory to elevate and fortifie the Understanding by reason of its Weakness and Infinite Disproportion and Distance from the Incomprehensible Deity Others hold That to the clear Vision of God there is not required a Species representing the Divine Essence as the first sort suppose nor any Created Light elevating the Understanding as the second sort think but only a Change of the Natural Order of knowing It is sufficient say they that the Divine Essence be immediately represented to a Created Understanding Which tho it cannot be done according to the Order of Nature as Experience tells us For we so conceive things first having passed the Sense and Imagination Yet it may be done according to the Order of Divine Grace c. But it is sufficient for a sober Man to know that in Heaven we shall see Him Face to Face And if we shall do this and have our Understandings so enlarged as has been mention'd Why then should we doubt of Knowing one another especially since our Saviour Christ setteth forth the State of the Blessed by the knowledge one of another Matth. 17. In Heaven says Mr. Bolton †See his Four Last Things we shall enjoy every good thing and Comfortable Gift which may any way increase and inlarge our Joy and Felicity But meeting there knowing then and conversing for ever with our old dear Christian Friends and all the Glorious Inhabitants of those Sacred Palaces will mightily please and refresh us with sweetest Delight Therefore we shall know one another Society is not comfortable without familiar Acquaintance Be assured then it shall not be wanting in the Height and Perfection of all Glory Bliss and Joy Nay our Minds being abundantly and beatifically illuminated with all Wisdom and Knowledge we shall be enabled to know not only those of former Holy Acquaintance but also Strangers and such as we never knew before In the Elect saith a Learned Authour there is somthing admirable because they do not only acknowledge those whom they knew in this World but also as men seen and known they know the Good whom they never saw There saith Anselm All men shall be known of every several man and every several man shall be known of all Again Conceive if thou canst how comfortable that knowledg will be by which as thou of all others so all others shall be known of thee in that Life Yet let me tell you adds this Author That this for the most part is the Curious Quaerie of carnal people who feeding falsly their presumptious Conceipts with golden Dreams and vain hopes of many future imaginary felicities in the World to come whereas in the mean time they have no care at all use no means take no pains to enter into the Holy Path which leads unto that blessed Place It is even as if one should busie himself much and boast what he will do in New-England when he comes thither and yet poor man he hath neither Ship nor Money nor Means nor Knowledge of the â—ay nor Provision before hand for his comfortable Planting there Thus far Mr. Bolton I may further add If there be Joy in Heaven at the Conversion of a Sinner here it cannot be thought but they 'l know that Convert when he comes to Heaven And 't is worth observing that the Martyrs frequently Cited their Adversaries Witnesses c. to the Just Barr of Heaven which supposes knowing them there Besides there are several Texts as I shall afterwards prove very plain for it Not one of the Primitive Fathers ever doubted it and 't is impossible it should be otherwise seeing Heaven is to be a Place of Perfection but to be limited in our Knowledge wou'd argue imperfection Thus you see 't is not only mine but the concurrent Voice of my Reverend Father my pious Mother my dear Departed and several Learned men That we shall know one another in Heaven But lest some should say these Opinions have no Foundation but are the idle fancies of a Distemper'd Brain I 'le further prove the Point with Arguments drawn From Reason and the Authority of Divine Revelation And this task I shall undertake though with unequal Ability â— yet with equal Zeal to what you have shewn in the Progress of our Friend ship For there is nothing in the World I wou'd more willingly prove nor any Proposition can be advanc'd which I more desire should be true then this That the Saints in Heaven shall particularly know those again they have known on Earth and that Cloris Ignotus and Phil. c. Whose Love is a Kin to that pure Flame that burnt in the Breasts of the first Christians if they are so happy as to meet in Heaven shall not only know and Lovingly greet one another there as was said before but Remember likwise and sweetly reflect on all those Innocent and enâ—â—ring Words and Actions human Frailties only abated that past between 'em in their Earthly State Indeed as Flavel says We shall not know our Friends in any Carnal Relation Death Dissolv'd that Bond But we shall know 'em to be such as once were our Dear Relations and Acquaintance in this World and be able to single them out from among that great Multitude and say This was my Father Mother Husband Wife or Child This Eliza Cloris J son C t H n This was the Person for whom I wept and made supplication who was an Instrument of good to me or to whose Salvation God then made me instrumental It 's a great Relief says a late * See Mr. Showers Ser. Preacht soon after his Wifes Funeral Writer to a Christian Mourner to consider that his deceased Friends are not lost but Live I know continues this Author That I shall shortly follow the desire of mine Fyes I hope I shall be silent and adore and not charge God foolishly But methinks I know with sensible supporting Influence from such a thought that she is not dead but sleepeth she is not lost but lives And if I get to Heaven shall meet her there in the Presence of the Lord our Redeemer and then the Company of our Holy Relatives will be more sweet than ever it was on Earth For tho the Blessed Vision †This Eliza also mentions in her Funeral Letter of God be our chiefest Hope and Joy yet the Presence of all the Blessed Spirits wilâ— make a Real tho Subordinate Part of our Happiness and Delight I am so far from * Mr. Baxter of the Knowledge of God Part 3. Page 331. doubting whether we shall Know and Love one another in the Heavenly State that the Belief
and Expectation of it is or should be one great Motive why we love 'em so well now If we thought we should not Know and Love them after Death we ought to Love 'em but as Earthly Transitory Things and not as Heirs of Heaven with such a Love as shall be perfected and last for ever Doubtless the Angels who rejoyce at the Conversion of a Particular Sinner and the Departed Saints too do know more even oâ— the State of this World than we dâ— who are acquainted with so very little a part and spot of it Which by the way should check an inordinate fond Desire of living to see Glorious Times on Earth For if we get to Heaven we are like to know much more of those Happy Times than if we remain'd alive in a Corner of the Isles of the Gentiles But as to our Mutual Knowledge in the Heavenly State Shall those whom we Reliev'd on Earth welcome us to Heaven and are therefore said to receive us into Everlasting Habitations Luk. 16. And shall not the departed Saints know one another in Glory Shall we then know as we are known And shall the Thessalonians be the Joy and Crown and Glory and Rejoycing of the Apostle Paul in the day of Christ And shall he not know them or they him who profited by his Ministry Did the Rich Man in Hell know Abraham afar off in Heaven and can we think a blessed Lazarus shall not For though that be a Parable there is some Truth as the Foundation of it Shall it aggravate the Misery of lost Souls to meet their wicked Companions in the Place of Torment as few deny or doubt And shall it not rejoyce the Blessed to meet their Holy Friends whom they knew in this World Did Peter James and John know Moses and Elias in the Transfiguration whom they never saw before and we read not that Christ told 'em who they were And shall those who were acquainted upon Earth and helped one another to Heaven utterly forget and lose the Remembrance of any such thing Now we may allow in that State all that Knowledge which is Cumulative and Perfective whatsoever may enlarge and heighten our Felicity and Satisfaction as this must needs be allowed to do as I shall yet further prove from Reason Scripture and the common Voice of the understanding part of Mankind and in this Point they are all in perfect Harmony and unitedly concurr together to give us all desirable Satisfaction in so agreeable a Curiosity For tho the Immortality of the Soul has been questioned by some Old and New Scepticks and in direct Terms oppugned by some antient Epicureans and is still so by too many baptized Infidels who are not ashamed to oppose their senceless Banters against it Notwithstanding Christ by his Triumphant Resurrection and Appearance from the Dead has abolished Death clear'd all Doubts concerning the supposed Dissolution of the Soul I say tho there have been many that have denied the Souls Immortality yet none have granted it to be Immortal but have believ'd withal that Its Memory survived with it as one of its chief Faculties and so essential to it that as the Soul is the Life of the Body so the Memory was ever justly esteem'd to be the Life of the Soul without which it not having any remaining Sense of its past Actions wou'd be no better than dead whilst alive and be no more than the Soul of an Insensitive Plant or Tree even in this Life if we look back to the Years of Childhood and Infancy we find the Will and Unstanding to act but little till the Memory be vigorous enough to assist them and afterwards shou'd not this Faculty keep a Faithful Register of every remarkable thingâ— they do all they had done would be insignificant and lost in the Air and the Soul it self wou'd be an idle useless thing in Nature and less valuable than the meanest Particle of Matter which is not without its Use in the Fabrick of the World And such Dunces are we that we have not yet attained a perfect Vnderstâ—â—ding of the smallest Flower and why the Grass shou'd rather be Green than Red. How many Curiosities be framed by the least Creatures of Nature unto which the Wit of Man doth not attain and what is all we know compared with what we know not * But more of this in my Essay on the Works of Creation Nay without Memory there cou'd be no Principles of Knowledge fixed in the Mind and much less any Conclusions cou'd be drawn from them or if drawn cou'd they be treasured up for use There cou'd be no Knowledge no Arts or Sciences no studying Philosophy with Cloris or learning French with Daphne nor so much as any Mechanick Trades tho of greatest Necessity exercised No Observations no Experiences cou'd be made and there cou'd be no such thing in Nature as Wisdom Prudence or indeed common Sense and Discretion to guide Men in their Actions There cou'd be no Societies no Kingdoms erected or maintain'd and it wou'd be to no more purpose to set up Courts of Judicature over Men than over so many Flocks of Cattle or rather over so many Herds of Wolves and Tygers since both the Judges and the Judged wou'd be in a worse State than that of Beasts who are not without some share of Memory and are accounted by so much the more perfect in their Kind the more Ready and Quick they are observ'd to be in exercising their Reminiscence Memory is the Seat of Conscience the Guide of unexperienced Reason the Mother of all Practical and Vseful Knowledge and the Grounds of all Judicatures both in this World and that to come Since therefore Memory is so necessary in this Life it must needs be so in another and this all that have taught a future State have always taught and believed so the old Druids of Gaul and Britain so the antient Egyptian and Babylonian Sages and Indian Brachmans held that Soul 's not only retain'd in their separate State The Memory of all their past Actions and knew again distinctly their former Friends and Enemies but that they carry'd out of the World with them the very same Inclinations they had here of this Judgment also were the Latin and Greek Poets who were the Divines and their Writings the Scriptures of the Heathen and who had their Doctrine from those Eastern Nations as you may see in a Summary of their Opinions in Virgil 's Description of Elysium For those very Heathens cou'd easily see by the very Light of Nature that 't would be very idle and impertinent to assert the Soul Immortal without affirming Her Essential Faculties and particularly Her Memory to remain and that as 't would be nonsensical to summon before any Court of Justice on Earth a Man without Wits or Memory so it wou'd be ridiculous to fancy a Judicature in the other World to Condemn or Reward Men for what they cou'd have no Remembrance of Seneca
tho a Heathen cou'd say My * Habui enim illos tanquam amissurus amisi tanquam habeam Senec. Ep. 63. Thoughts of the Dead are not as others are I have fair 〈◊〉 pleasant Apprehensions of â—heâ— for I enjoyed them as one that reckoned I must part with them and I part with them as one that makes account to have them Those great Witts though following the Dim Lamp of Nature yet were in the right so far that they thought as we Christians do that this Life was but a State of Probation for another and that the other Life was to be the State of Reward or Punishment for the Actions of this accordingly in all their Discourses of a Future State we find their Poets always describing proper Cells allotted to every sort of offenders and peculiar Punishments awarded to every particular sort of Crime and on the other side peculiar Mansions and Pleasures allotted to every Rank of Heroes according to the Degrees and Species of Vertue they did excel in whilest on Earth And indeed how can a Future-State be Imagined to be â—ounded on any thing else but a perfect Remembrance of all passages in this Life For the very Individuality of our Soul Consists in Memory and therefore if that perishes the Soul perishes too of Consequence For 't is not my thinking or understanding or willing that makes my Soul to be a particular Individual Soul distinct from others but 't is Remâ—mbering and Reflecting that I that think now am the same Soul that thought so and so an hour ago and not another 't is that that chiefly makes me an Individual 'T is the Conscience or Memory we have planted in us of good and bad Actions drawing along with it by main force our own Judgments to censure or approve us that is the great Evidence of another Life 'T is this Conscience that tells us this Life is but the way to another If Memory and Conscience then be so necessary in this Life now can we â—â—ppose that God wou'd continue the Soul in Bâ—ing after ' its seperation from the Body and much less joyn it afterward to it again at the Resurrection if Memory above all things were not to be preserved for if God shou'd continue our Souls in another Life without preserving in them the Remembrance of the passages of this it wou'd be the same thing as if he Created new Souls and not gave us the same again Nay they wou'd not be the same because their Individuality being lost they wou'd not differ from New Beings and then all the Actions of the past Life being totally forgot that Life wou'd be in vain and as if it had never been and the Grounds of Reward and Punishment in another State wou'd fall to the ground and it wou'd seem unjust to Condemn or Recompence men for things they cou'd not be sensible they ever did or performed Besides it wou'd be still more absurd to suppose A Resurrection from the Dead for the main Reason of the Bodies being restored to their several Souls being that the Souls may visibly receive the Recompence of what they have done in their Bodys and that their Bodys may share with them in the final Doom allotted to their Souls as they have shared with them in the Actions upon which it is awarded How cou'd this with any Congruity to the Wisdom and Justice of God be executed if all Memory of Actions done in the Bodâ— were after Death to cease The Aâ—lwise Pr vidence is not capable of doing any thâ—ng so vain and so absurd as this No we are not plac'd in this World but for some great end and what other end is worthy of us or of our Creator than that we may be â—â—â—d here to serve him in a better Life hereafter which Future State is to be regulated accordiâ—g to the Records taken of our Actions in this So that 't is certain my Dear Ignotus that nothing we do here shall be forgotten but be exactly Registered both in our Consciences below and in Heaven above and that our Memory â—ill be so far from being destroy ' d by our Bodily Death that it will awake up a much more exact quick and lively Faculty than heretofore For our Saviour tells the Wicked That the Worm of Conscience whose seat is chiefly in the Memory shall never dye Mark 9.44 but always torment them with the dreadful Remembrance of the particular offences they have committed and that it shall be reserved as Gods-Book in which all their Wickedness shall be set in order before them Psal 51.3 and that so exactly that men shall be obliged to answer not only for the smallest actions but even for every idle Word Mat. 12.36 And when Abraham answers Dives he appeals to his Memory Son remember says he that thou in thy Life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things Luke 16.25 In this Parable of the miserable Epecure and the happy Beggar as Mr. Boyle observes The Father of the Faithful is represented as knowing not only the Person and present condition but past story of Lazarus So that the case is plain that though we know not the nature of that abode into which the Soul passes after Death Yet that 't is certain that our Souls will then preserve the facultys that are Natural to 'em viz. To understand to will to remember As 't is represented to us in the fore mention'd Parable 'T is true as I hinted before We little know how the People of the disembodyed Societys Act and will and understand and therefore I e'en long to know it What Conception can I have of a separated Soul says a late Writer but that 't is all Thought And that at the Resurrection all men whether good or bad shall be restored with all their Sences and Facultys they shall see hear feel and above all Remember all things and in such manner as may give them the most Pleasure or Pain they in their Blest or Curst estate shall be capable of For then all the Heavy matter that clogg'd the Facultys of their Souls being taken away and their very Bodys exalted as near the Nature of Spirits as possible all their Sences and Facultys will be lively and quick in affecting them with the most vigorous Impressions of Torment or Delight If then in order to give so exact and minute Account as we must do at the last Judgment our Memory will re-mind us of our smallest Actions and most rivilous Words then it evidently follows that we shall no â—ess exactly know and remember all those particular Persons too we ever Conversed with either in good or evil For when Men shall be Examined about the Good or Evil of such or such a particular Action or Expression it will be a great Aggravation of their Guilt or Inhancement of their Vertue to be made to consider to or with what particular Persons they did such a thing or to whom they uttered such and such a Word
The Quality Condition or Circumstance of the Person very much adding to or taking from the Goodness or Badness of the Action or Expression Neither (a) See Mr. Shower's Mourner's Companion P. 63. can it well be Imagined how the Process and Proceedings of the Judgment Day according to the Scripture-Account of it can be manag d by the Man Christ Jesus or the Lord Redeemer cloathed with human Nature without our Knowledge of one another in the other World who were Acquainted and Conversed together in this 'T is true the present Relations by Marriages and Blood will then cease but there is no reason to think that the Remembrance of those Relations must also cease yea their Knowledge and Remembrance of us and their Affection to us whom we knew and lov'd in the Lord is not like to be Abolish'd but perfected by dying A particular Remembrance of our Actions and Words in the other World must needs infer as particular a Remembrance of the very individual Persons to whom they refer and do not think my Ignotus that God will preserve so intire a Memory in the Wicked for their Torment and will not preserve as perfect and exquisite a Remembrance in the Vertuous for the increase of their Joy As God will exact an Account for every idle Word Men shall speak so He will bring to the Remembrance of his Chosen all the good Actions they have done nor will He let them forget their dear Companions and pious Conversation they have had one with another So much as a Cup of cold Water given to a Disciple in the Name of a Disciple Matth. 10.42 He will not let us forget nor the Disciple neither to whom 't was given He will shew us every one of those Persons when we come to Heaven to whom we have done any Good on Earth and pointing to them will say to us Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Matth. 25.40 And as we shall be made to know and remember all the particular Persons we have done any Good to and with whom we have been acquainted So 't is as plain they shall be made to know and remember us as appears by the Parable of the unjust Steward since 't is intimated there that the Poor to whom the Richer Christians had been liberal shall plead with God that their Benefactors likewise may be received into the same everlasting Habitations with themselves which how they cou'd do unless they were some way or other made to know those particular Friends again that had relieved them is hard to conceive But since Christ assures us That the very Angels tho' they be so far from being related to our Persons that they are Foreigners to our very Nature which by the way is an addition to our Glory that our Natures not theirs was taken into the Personal Union with God receive accession of Joy for a relenting Sinner Luke 15.7 that by Repentance begins to turn towards God You will not think it absurd says the Ingenious Boyl That in a place where Charity shall not only continue as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 13.8 but grow perfect our dear Friends shouâ—d rejoyce to see us not only begin to turn towards God but come home to Him nor is it unlikely as I hinted before that our Transported Souls shall mutually Congratulate each other their having now fully escaped the numerous Rocks and Shelves and Quick Sands and threatning Storms and no less dangerous Calms thro which they are at length arrived at that peaceful Haven where is both Innocence and Delight which are here so seldome match'd with those Friends we here lamented we shall there rejoyce And 't will be but needful that the Discovery of each others Vertues shou'd bring us to a mutual Knowledge of our Persons for otherwise we shall be so changed that we shou'd never know our Friends and shou'd scarce know our selves were not an Eminent Encrease of Knowledge a part of that happy Change for those departed Friends whom at our last Separation we saw disfigured by all the Ghastly Horrors of Death we shall then see assisting about the Majestick Throne of Christ with their once vile Bodies transfigured into the likeness of his Glorious Body mingling their glad Acclamations with the Hallelujahs of Thrones Principalities and Powers and the most dignified Favourites of the Celestial Court In Heaven continues this Author we shall not only see our elder Brother Christ but probably also all our Kindred Friends and Relations that living here in his Fear died in his Favour For since our Saviour tells us that the Children of the Resurrection shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to or like the Angels Luk. 20.46 who yet in the Visions of Daniel and St. John appear to be acquainted with each other When the having turned many to Righteousness Dan. 2. shall as the Scripture foretells confer a Star-like and Immortal Brightness Since which is chiefly considerable the knowledge * As was hinted before in P. 34. of particular Actions and consequently Persons seems requisite to the Attainment of that great End of God in the day of Judgment the Manifestation of his Punitive and Remunerative Justice considering this 't is very probable that we shall know each other in a place where since nothing requisite to Happiness can be wanting we may well suppâ—se â—at least if we can imagine here what we shall think there that we shall not want so great a satisfaction as that of being knowingly happy in our other selves our Friends Nor is this only probable Lindamor but 't is not improbable that those Friends that knew us in Heaven shall welcome us thither It was no small Contentment and Satisfaction to St. Paul that he should meet his beloved Thessalonians in the Presence of Christ for thus much seemeth to be intimated by that his exuâ—ting demand what is our Hope or Joy or Crown of Rejoycing are not ye even in the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming Which must needs imply his distinct Knowledge of them in that day which must be many Hundred Years after Death hath separated them from each other And the same Apostle when he would set Bounds and Limits to a Christian's sorrowing for the Dead tells us that we must not sorrow as those that have no Hope Such Mens Sorrow finds no Ease because that Good whose Absence they bemoan in their Opinion is irrecoverably lost and to shake Hands with a Dying Friend is with them as much as to bid them everlastingly farewel But a Christian's Tears like Drops from a Cloud may sometimes fall they must not like a River be always running He may sorrow because he is parted from some Good suppose from a loving Friend but this Sorrow must be tempered with this Hope that he shall see his Friend again And we find the late Athenians of this Opinion for being asked by one of their
by the distinction of Male and Female And 't is supposed by some that we shall know one another by Voice which brings me in the last place to Treat of the Discourse and Language of the Saints in Heaven And First as to what the Discourse will be in Heaven I won't tell ye for indeed I can't but will give some imperfect Guesses at it Doubtless we shall then Discourse over the whole Business of our Redemption of the Wisdom Patience and Mercy of God in sending Christ to Save us We have some little Glimpse of this in Christ's Transfiguration when the Scripture tells us when the Saints were sent from Heaven to Discourse with Christ there talked with him Moses and Elias who appeared to Him in Glory then they spake of the Death of Christ what a Price He was to pay to Divine Justice for Man's Sins Luk. 9.30 31. As Christ's Transfiguration gives us some little Glimpse of our Transfiguration in Glory so their Discourse shews something what we shall have in Glory The Apostle Paul heard wordless Words Words in Heaven that cou'd not be spoke over again upon Earth In the Revelations we have mention of the Blessed Rev. 5.9 They sung a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book c. We have frequent accounts of the Saints Glorifying God by their Speech Rev. 7.9 I beheld a great Multitude that no Man cou'd number crying Salvation Honour and Power unto God and to the Lamb for ever and ever And 11th Rev. The Twenty Four Elders that sate before God fell on theit Faces and worshipped God 12th Rev. 10. I heard a great Voice in Heaven saying Now is come Salvation Strength and the power of God 'T is true variety of Tongues shall then cease 1 Cor. 13. The Apostle reckons that amongst the things that shall then cease because variety of Languages had their Original from Sin at Babel Now 't is a Question amongst some what Language shall be spoke in Heaven 'T is the general Opinion of Learned Men that Hebrew shall be the Language because there are some Hebrew Words the same in all Languages as Amen and Hallelujah tho others interpret that place 1 Cor. 13. that all Tongues shall then cease that had been used upon Earth The Apostle Paul heard Words that were peculiar to Heaven and Zephan 3.9 God promises I 'le turn to a people of a pure Language a singular kind of Language And the Apostle speaks of the Tongue * 1 Cor. 13.1 of Angels as if there were a Language spoke peculiarly there But whatever their Language is in Heaven sure I am we shall know our Friends that get thither But Methinks I hear some Disconsolate Widower saying I am now fully satisfied we shall know our Friends in Heaven but having lately lost an extraordinary Wife 't is my own Case I desire to know if I get to Heaven whether I shall have a greater Love to her than to the rest of the Glorified Saints notwithstanding all Carnal Love shall be quite banisht in that State you know Phil. quoth this Querist that the Relation 'tween Man and Wife is nearer than any other even so near that the Apostle Paul saith He that loveth his Wife loveth himself Eph. 5. v. 28 31. and that of two they are one Flesh So that I think this Question deserves a particular Answer than Philaret I hope you 'll prove for my present Support that as I shall know my Wife if I get to Heaven so I shall love her more than other Saints For if the Condition of Man be changed by Death into a better how can it be he being perfect that he should have less Love and Conjugal Charity in him than he had while he liv'd in the World And if Memory be a Faculty of the Soul as has been prov'd and Charity be also one of the notablest Vertues that be in Man's Soul the Soul being gone out of the Body and more perfect than it was while it abode here below shall it be thought to be alter'd in the Faculty of her Memory Or else shall we imagine her to be void of her Vertue of Charity which the Scriptures reporteth to be in this Respect greater than Faith and Hope 1 Cor. 13.13 Forasmuch as those two continue only for a time until we enjoy those things we hope for but this only abideth for ever and flourisheth in Heaven while we enjoy there that Immortal Glory And being united with God who is perfect Charity can we forget that Party whom we had loved in him yea according to his Commandment and most Holy Ordinances To this I answer There 's a Notion which seems to prove that if Man and Wife meet in Heaven that they shall have more Love to each other than to the rest of the Glorified Saints and the Notion is embraced by Persons of very good Sense and Learning and which I think but few deny namely That such good Works of good Men as survive 'em here for instance Books of Devotion and in a Sense good Examples c. When they have an effect on such as they leave behind shall thereby advance their actual Glory and Felicity in the other World And is' t not then highly probable that such as are advantaged by 'em nay directed to that happy place shou'd when they once arrive there both know and acknowledge their Benefactors And here may be room for Philaret to please himself with not impossible Hopes for if any of those pieces of Service he did Eliza while she lived were such as made her really more Religious here and more Happy above nay if he imitates her Piety and Vertue wherein he thinks she as far exceeded others as in her Generosity and Love then they may probably not only Know but Love each other better than others in a better World But then must have a Care to Regulate my Extravagant Passion for her Memory here or else I only flatter my self when I hope to get thither and must expect to exchange this long Separation for what will be Eternal But how can I talk of a Separation having told you in the Dedication that my Love has nothing of parting in 't 't will if possible follow her in the same Tract to Heaven where I hope to find and know her hereafter and to respect her above others for why may not Husband and Wife that helped forward each others Salvation whose Souls were mutually dear and who went to Heaven as it were Hand in Hand there meet In a more than ordinary eudearing Manner And return each other Thanks for those Christia◠Offices Holy David cheared up his Thought after the Death of his Beloved Child with th◠Meditation I shall go to him but he shall not return to me 2 Sam. 12.23 which had been littl◠Comfort if he had thought never to have know him there and loved him too more than other◠and certainly 't will be no small Augmentation 〈◊〉 Happiness to Eliza