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
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
at this vast Distance I Fancy her running to me and saying Ah! Philaret this place where I have now met thee never to part more shews how Loyal I was to thee cou'd I dye undutifull meet thee here and tho' thou wert too sincere thy self to distrust my Love yet in a State of Mortality I might have deceived thee but by meeting here thou findest my Love was as true as thine she 's no sooner gone to Congratulate other Spirits but methinks I see Argus having repented the injuries he did me Fido H n Ignotus and a Troop of Friends all coming to give me a particular welcome Dear Ignotus wonder not at this Conjecture for the Souls of those that have left their Bodys are as much alive in the other World as we are in this See his Ser. before the Qu. and do there †as Dr. Beveridge tells us as Familiarly Converse together as we do here with one another It much Sweetneth the thoughts of Heaven to me saith Mr. Baxter To Remember that there are a multitude of my Friends gone thither to think such a Friend that died at such a time and such a one at another time O! what a number of them could I name and that all these I shall meet again 'T is true adds he it 's a question with some whether we shall know each other in Heaven or no but 't is none with me for surely there shall no knowledge cease which now we have but only that which implyeth our imperfection and what imperfection can this imply Nor is it only my old Friends such as Essex Russel Sydney c. that I shall know in Heaven but all the Saints of all ages whose Faces in the Flesh I never saw See Dr. Annesley's Ser. of Commun with God We also find Dr. Annesley of this Opinon for in his Sermons of Communion with God he there tells us Those whom we have Loved and Prized with whom we have wept and prayed whose Company on Earth hath been refreshing how welcome will a never parting meeting be in Heaven ay those whom we have admired tho we never saw them we shall then see and enjoy for ever Mat. 8.11 they shall come from the East and West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdâ—m of Heaven Those that know what 't is to Converse with Saints on Earth may be able to give a Guess what it will be in Heaven How sweet will it be to discourse with Moses when your Face shall shine as well as his to converse with Solomon when your Wisdom shall exceed whatever is recorded of his to joyn in the Consort of Praises with the sweet Singer of Israel when you shall be Persons after God's own Heart without a But in your Commendation We shall here converse with Saints of the highest Form with Enoch that walked with God with Elijah that was taken up in the Fiery Chariot and with Paul that was Christs Principal Secretary on Earth as to the Riches of Free Grace we shall freely converse with all these and with that beloved Disciple that could whisper to Christ what others durst not mention Our Saviour tells the Jews Luke 13.28 that they should see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and therefore we shall know them And what is there in reason that should hinder it why may nor Abraham and Isaac once so nearly related be again acquainted and with Joy repeat the History of the intended Sacrifice Why may not Moses and Aaron meet and discourse their Old Adventures Why may not the blessed Apostles and holy Martyrs be known to one another and entertain themselves with gladsome Relations of what they did and what they suffered together Thus the Saints in Heaven as they receive Happiness from the sight of God so they communicate the purest Pleasure to one another An unfeigned ardent Affection unites that pure Society Our Love is now kindled either from a Relation in Nature or a civil Account or some visible Excellencies that render a Person worthy of our Choice and Friendship but in Heaven the Reasons are greater and the degrees of Love incomparably more fervent In that blessed Society Says a * See Dr. Bates's Four Last Things Learned Author there is a constant Receiving and Returning of Love and Joy And that double Exercise of the Saints in the perfect Circle of Love is like the pleasant Labour of the Bees who all the day are flying to the Gardens and returning to their Hives and all their Art is in extracting the purest Spirits from fragrant Flowers and making sweet Honey O how do they rejoyce and triumph in the Happiness of one another With what an unimaginable Tenderness do they embrace What Reciprocations of Endearments are beâ—ween them O their Ravishing Conversation and sweet Entercourse for their Presence together in Heaven is not a silent Show In the Transfiguration Moses and Elias talk'd with Christ We may understand a little of it by the sensible Complasence that is among sincere Friends here In pure Amity there is a threefold Union a Union of Resemblance that is the Principle of it Likeness causes Love a Union of Affection that is its Essence 't is said of Jonathan that incomparable Friend His Soul was knit with the Soul of David and he loved him as his own Soul the Union of Conversation that is requisite to the Satisfaction of Love What an Entertainment of Love and Joy is there in the Presence and Discourses of dear Friends their mutual Aspects like a Chain composed of Spirits luminous and active draw and fasten their Souls to one another The Felicity of Love consists in their Conversation Now in Heaven whatever is pleasant in Friendship is in Perfection and whatever is distastful by Mens Folly and Weakness is abolished With what excellent Discourses do they entertain one another But these particular Friendships in Heaven says an Ingenious Writer they do [*] Dr. Patrick's Parable of the Pilgrim not at all spoil the Universal Kindness of the place others will not be loved the worse for them but rather loved better because they will teach those united Hearts the greatest Love They may be esteem'd also one of the Beauteous Spectacles of the place and be reckon'd among the grateful Varieties which will entertain us when after the Pleasures of a more general and large Conversation every one may retire to the Company of those he loveth most and if a particular Friendship in Heaven will give such unspeakable Joys What a Happiness will it be to see and embrace the Blissful Society of all the Saints and Angels at once about the Throne to see all the Martyrs with their Glorious Scars of Honour nay Angels Cherubims Seraphims and all that blessed Quire of Spirits who have done us while we were in Dangers here many an invisible Courtesie which they could never thank them for they being Ministring Spirits sent forth to
of a different splendor and as the Stars the Air and Water by their borrowed Lights do raise us to behold the Sun the Fountain of all that Light so wheresoever the Rays of Glory are cast whether on Angels or Men we cannot but behold God shining on each Nature and confess Him to be All in All. Moreover it is not a glance but a fixing on the Creature which in that state is not to be feared can endanger our Happiness otherwise neither God nor Angels are truly Blessed for the Divinity of former Ages would persuade us That God as it were cometh daily out of Himself to behold his own Image in the Angels and the Angels look upon the same Resemblance as cast from them and reflected by the Soul but neither God nor Angels are so ravished with those dimmer Beauties as to dwell upon them but do suddenly return back to the Fountain God to Himself and the Angels unto God Thus have I Answered two of the Objections Against knowing our Friends in Heaven and have proved we shall know 'em if we get thither since Heaven is a Place where since nothing requisite to happiness can be wanting we may well suppose that we shall not want so great a satisfaction as that of being knowingly happy in our other selves our Friends c. Object 3. But how can it be may some say that the Saints can know their Earthly Acquaintance again after so great an alteration by the Resurrection and so great an addition of Luster and Beauty to what they had before when many times we can hardly know a man again here after some Years absence or after the disfigurement of a Wound or sharp Disease Neither do I know one Angel in Heâ—ven or the Spirits of any Just men that are gone thither so that when I come there I mâ—â—ike â—o be a meer stranger to that Blessed * As was hinted at the beginning of this Essay Company To this I Answer First as to the Angels What if thou knowest not one Angel in all the Heavens Is it not enough says a late Writer That many of 'em may know thee But how shall I know that How Thou hast been their special Charge ever since thou wast born to Jesus Christ Are they not all Ministring Spirits to all them that are Heirs of Glory How kindly did an Angel Comfort Mary Magdalen and the other Mary when they early came to visit the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord How well did he know their Persons and their business when he said Fear not I know that ye seek Jesus which was Crucified he is not here for he is Risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his Disciples that he is Risen from the Dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him Mat. 28.5 So as I have told you what Discourse could be more kind friendly and famliar So that the Ministration of Angels is certain but the manner how is the Knot to be untied 'T was generally believ'd by the Antient Philosophers That not only Kingdoms had their Tutelary Guardians but that every Person had his particular Genius or Good Angel to Protect and Admonish him by Dreams Visions c. We read that Origen Hierome Plato and Empedocles in Plutarch were also of this Opinion and the Jews themselves as appears by that Instance of Peter's Deliverance out of Prison who retreating to his Friend's House the unexpectedness of his Escape made 'em believe it could not be Peter but his Angel We are not without Examples of the Friendly Offices of Angels Witness Grinaeus his Admonition and Escape from Spires Vide Melancthon's Commentary upon Daniel Bodinus his Relation of his Friend 's Calestial Monitor with many more which would be too tedious to recount particularly We possitively affirm say the Athenians that every Infant has his particular Angel Matth. 18.10 and that it is a good Angel is deducible from Matth. 19.14 nor can we believe that good Angels cease to preside over Adult Persons thâ— never so Vicious Luke 15.10 Now if God has commissioned his Angels to minister to his Saints to defend and keep them to guard and shield them from Dangers and Mischiefs and if these glorious Harbingers bear so * See Mr. Steven's Sermons on Dives and Lazarus great Love to Men as has been plainly prov'd doubtless they are very ready to receive and carry the Souls of good Men into Heaven one of the Fathers calls the Angels Evocatores Animarum the Callers forth of Souls and such as shew them Paraturam Diversorii the Preparations of those Mansions they are going to which supposes a very particular Knowledge of them Hence we observe says the same Author when good Men die they are often in silent Raptures and express a kind of Impatience till they are dissolv'd and why because they Spiritually see what they cannot utter as did St. Paul when he was wrapt up into the third Heaven There is a kind of a draught presented to them by their Guardian Angels of those Transcendent Joys they are almost ready to enter in Possession of and therefore long and pine till they are convey'd into that place of unspeakable Felicity and these Heavenly Spirits adds this Author succour and support them under their Pain and Sickness and when their Souls are storm'd out of their Bodies they encompass and embrace them soaring through the Regions of evil Angels as the Text speaks concerning Lazarus till they are carry'd into Abraham 's Bosom And as the Angels shall know us so the Saints shall see and know the innumerable Company of Angels their Natures each of their Persons in particular As the Angels know every Elect Person because it is their work to gather the Elect from all the Corners of the Earth and to sepaparate them from the wicked Matth. 13.41 so the Glorified Saints shall know the Holy Angels whom the Lord sent forth to minister for them whom the Lord appointed for their Guard while they were upon Earth who encamped round about them while they were encompassed with so many Dangers Some Divines are of Opinion that the number of the Angels is so great that they exceed without comparison all Corporal and Material Things in the Earth Again If every one of the Angels yea tho it be the least Angel among them all be more beautiful and goodly to behold than alâ— this visible World what a Glorious Sight shall it then be to see and know such a number of beautiful Angels to see the Perfections and Offices that every one hath in that high and glorious City There do the Angels go as it were in Embassages are exercised in their Ministry there the Principalities and Thrones Triumph there do the Cherubims give Light and the Seraphims burn with Fervent Love to God Who all like Stars have Brightness from his Rays And they Reflect it back again in Praise Mr. Foe All the
much more Perfection though 't is probable as I hinted before not Cloathed with so much matter as we now carry about with us All Divines generally agree that Infants and Deformed Persons shall be perfect in Heaven and rise about the Age of Thirty or our Saviours Age at his Resurrection wâ—â—ch was Thirty-Three Lazarus his Body shall be then Beautiful Samson shall then have his Eyes which the Philistines pulled out Mephibosheth shall not be Lame in Heaven there shall be no imperfection in a Glorified Body All which laid together renders our knowledge of each other in Heaven very unlikely Then by the by who 'd be affraid of Death or quake tho his Grave were digging seeing 't is but Gods Refining-Pot wherein he shews his Power and Wisdom in changing our Vile-Bodies and fashoning them like unto his Glorious-Body Phil. 3.21 From which 't is plain That as Iron when it is heated in the Fire it appears nothing else but firey So in Heâ—ven we shall not be able to see the Body for the Glory thereof Then pray Philaret as was said before How can we distinguish this Saint from that or be able to know one Friend from another To this I Answer That I can't deny but there are some Latent Faculties in the Soul that while we are under Confinement to Body can't operate but will when we are fteed from this Body exert themselves with full vigour but the new and extraordinary Actings of these Latent Faculties will be no obstacle to our knowing our Friends again for when we come to Heaven all our Senses and Faculties shall be inlarged that we shall see God Himself not in dark shadows but as He is 1 John 3.2 and we shall see all things in Him no more by outward Appearances but in their very Substances our Bodies as was hinted in the Objection shall be Transparent and Glorious and then as we shall be like Angels in almost all things else so like them too we shall see into one anothers very Souls The Sight of Spirits is unprescrib'd by space What see they not who see the Eternal Face See Mr. Foe 's Charact. of Dr. Annesley Whether this Knowledge shall be by the glorified Eyes discerning any Lineaments or property of Individuation remaining upon the glorified Bodies of our Relations Or whether it shall be by Immediate Revelation as Adam knew his Wife or as Peter James and John knew Moses and Elias in the Mount As it is difficult to determine so it is needless to puzzle our selves about it For as a worthy (a) Mr. Flavel Divine observes though the Saints shou'd not be rais'd with the same Features of Body as before they had â—et being râ—is'd with the same Perâ—ections of Mind and the same Inclinations though exalted to a much higher degree that so Charm'd us on Earth we shou'd soon distinguish one Saint from another and with Infinite Pleasure renew the Remembrance of our Old Acquaintance Add to this that we shall then enjoy the Spirit of God in so great a Measure that it will let us be ignorant of nothing forgetful of nothing the Knowledge or Remembrance of which may contribute any thing to heighten or increase our Happiness He is not unequal in his Dealings He will not remind the Wicked of their smallest ill Actions most trivial idle Words and of their Companions in Sin for the just Augmentation of their Torment and suffer his Saints to lose the Pleasure of knowing again and remembring their old Friends and Companions in Vertue and in all the mutuul Delights of an endearing Conversation No he will have our Joys augmented by all things Persons and Circumstances that can possibly conduce thereto and wou'd not command and encourage us so much to Commence a Vertuous Love with our Brother-Saints on Earth unless he designed it shou'd be renewed continued and rendred more compleat in Heaven Therefore though all Saints shall universally and dearly Love one another as common Friends to God and one another yet according to the more particular intimacies we have had with any Persons on Earth founded on Piety Vertue and the Love of God himself The Renewal of our Converse with them as I have already and shall afterwards shew shall have without doubt its particular grateful Relishes above that which we shall entertain with other Saints to whom as they enjoy the same Priviledges themselves these peculiar Friendships shall give no manner of Jealousie or Distaste Thus Ignotus have I Answer'd the chief Objections against knowing our Friends in Heaven and also proved That though we shou'd not be raised with the same Features we had on Earth yet that there be many other ways by which 't is certain that in a glorified State we shall know one another and that Vertuous Charmer who first gave us to one another I call it so seeing there 's a Marriage of Minds as well as Bodies and thence it follows that our three Souls must needs seek the Enjoyment of each other in Heaven and Love one another here as they 'l do hereafter by a Secret Sympathy But to leave none unsatisfied in this Comfortable Doctrine of Knowing our Friends in Heaven I shall further add That 't is an undoubted Truth that we shall all be raised with the very same Bodies again we lived in here bating that Deformity and grossness of Matter which as I have proved shall be taken away and with all the same natural Features that are necessary to distinguish them to be the same Bodies for otherwise they cannot be the same in a proper Sense and in such a Sense that the Scriptures intend they shou'd be understood the same and therefore Ignotus I do not much trouble my self about the manner of my Burial or to which of the Elements I shall commit my Carkass I Envy not the Funeral-State of great Men neither do I covet the Embalming of the Egyptians I wonder at the Fancy of those who desire to be Imprisoned in Leaden-Coffins 'till the Resurrection and to protract the Corruption of their Flesh out of which they shall be Generated de novo as if they dreamt of rising whole as they lay down and carrying Flesh and Blood into the Kingdom of Heaven without a Change The Natives of Ganges (a) Ovington 's new Voyage to Surat p. 381. when weary of Life by Sickness or old Age committed their Bodies to be devoured by the Dog-fish as the safest Passage to their Future Felicity But I am not of their Opinion but am contented to undergo the tedious Conversation of Worms and Serpents those greedy Tenants of the Grave who will never be satisfied 'till they have eat up the Ground-Landlord I do not puzzle my self with projecting how my scatter'd Ashes shall be collected together provided they are mingled with Eliza's 't is all I desire neither do I for that Reason take Care for an Vrn to enclose them I am satisfied that at the last Trump I shall rise with
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-New-Friends My Answer is I believe we shall For God is an Infinite Object that which is Finite tho never so refined and advanced in its Nature cannot know God altogether nay can never know him all I think it therefore fair arguing that our knowledg of him there must be successive our Capacity still augmenting with our Knowledge as our Happiness with both Take another not improbable Argument for the same Head In Heaven we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Angels Their Knowledge is gradual for they look into the Church to learn the Mysteries thereof even though in Heaven And why then may not ours be so too if e're we are so happy by Gods Grace to get thither But if it be so that the Sainâ—s in Heaven not only know their former Acquaintance but are further contracting of new Friendships then I wou'd know says another Inquirer Whether they have any knowledge of or ever concern themselves with the affairs of their Friends in this Life and what is to be thought of the Apparitions of the Dead To this I Answer as formerly that the Platonists have made many bold Assertions both concerning the State of the Soul before it came into the Body as also after but their Reasons are as strange as their Assertions What Priviledges some Souls may enjoy in their separate State above others is yet a Riddle but there are some Instances of this Nature unaccountable To mention one Caesar Baronius in his Annals mentions an entire Friendship betwixt one Michael Mercatus and Marsilius Ficinus and this Friendship was the stronger betwixt them by reason of a mutual Agreement in their Studies and an addictedness to the Doctrines of Plato It fell out that these two Discoursing together as they used of the State of Man after Death according to Plato's Opinions there is Extant a Learned Epistle of Marsilius to Michael Mercatus upon the same Subject but when their Disputation and Discourse was drawn out something long they shut it up with this firm Agreement that whichsoever of them two should first depart out of this Life if it might be should ascertain the Survivor of the State of the other Life and whether the Soul be Immortal or not this Agreement being made and mutualy sworn unto they departed In a short time it fell out that while Michael Mercatus was one Morning early at his Study upon the sudden he heard the noise of an Horse upon the Gallop then stopping at his Door withal he heard the Voice of Marsilius his Friend crying to him Oh Michael Oh Michael those things are true they are true Michael wondering to hear his Frienâ—s Voice rose up and opening the Casement
so of the other Senses the Reason of this is plain and convincing for if both I mean the Bodies of the Just and Unjust were not thus qualified they could not be proper Subjects for the Exercise of an Eternity but would consume and be liable to Dissolution or new changes Hence I assert as formerly that every Individual Person in Heaven and Hell shall hear and see all that passes in either * As Was mentioned in P. 8. State these to a more exquisite aggravation of their Tortures by the loss of what the other enjoy and those to a greater increase of their Bliss in escaping what the other suffer For a further proof of this See the Parable of Dives and Lazarus for you there find That as The Saints know oâ—e another in the Kingdom of Heaven so the wicked in Hell know those and their vile Companions they left on Earth For if Abraham knew Dives in Torments saying that he had received good things in this Life 'T is as certain that the Wicked knâ—w one another as is plain by the Rich Man knowing his Brethren tho absent why therefore shou'd not those which are present know one other as those which are absent pray one for another for this is plainly shown in that the Good know the Bad and on the contrary the Bad the Good for Dives is known by Abraham and Abraham also known to him seeing he prays to him saying Send Lazarus that he may touch and refresh my Tongue with cold Water In which the Returns of Gratitude are not only seen but the Good have this further to rejoyce in that they shall see whom they love but the Wicked shall be tormented not only in their own but in the Punishment of those they love As to that part of the Question Whether the Damned particularly know those in Heaven who in this Life they Scorned and Abused and perhaps Murder'd To this I answer That in the Day of Judgment when every Man's Actions shall be disclos'd the Damned shall particularly See and Know those whom they Oppressed or Revil'd or Murder'd and the Saints shall be Witnesses against them Our-Saviour speaks in allusion to this Mat. 12.41 42. The Men of Nineveh shall rise up in Judgment with this Generation and condemn it they shall appear as so many Witnesses against the Scribes and Pharisees and the other Unbelieving Jews of this Age and shall be Instruments as to that Condemnation which God shall at that day pronounce against them because they repented not at the Preaching of Jonah but these wou'd not at the Preaching of Christ Then shall appear Shadrach Meshach and Abednego against a wicked Nebuchadnezzar who caused them to be bound Hand and Foot and cast into a Fiery Furnace for their Love and Loyalty to their God the Martyrs against their Executioners shall be visibly Condemned Haled into their Residences of Misery in the Presence of the Saints But cou'd the Rays of Bliss †See Mr. Steven's Sermons on Dives and Lazarus glance thro some Cranny into that Dungeon of Darkness this wou'd administer some Comfort but this must ne're be expected But further Shall the Saints know one another in Heaven as also those Friends they left on Earth And do they likewise see and know the Damned in Hell and on the other Hand shall the Damned see and know those Saints in Heaven they Scorn'd Abused and Murder'd and also know their vile Companions they left behind ' em If all this be so as has been largely prov'd 't is then proper to ask in the next place Whether it be lawful for Friends solemnly to engage if one dies first to appear to the other and inform them of the Condition of the Soul in another World whether it be in Heaven or Hell To this I answer The Earl of Rochester did make this Contract with one of his Friends that he that died first shou'd come again to his Surviving Friend to tell him what he knew of the other World But my Lord Rochester's Friend dying first and never appearing to him afterwards he owns it hardned him in his Atheism and that he heartily repented of this foolish Contract so that the least that can be said of such a Contract is that 't would be 1. Fruitless since Truth it self tells us If they will not hear Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe tho one rose from the Dead For if the common Methods of God's Providence will not convince an Atheist neither is he to expect any new way of Satisfaction nor if he had his Desire would he be without some Evasion or other still to continue his Infidelity 2. 'T would be dangerous on more Accounts than one If no such Appearance which unless we were better acquainted with the Oeconomy of the World of Spirits we have little Reason to expect this might incline a weak Man to doubt yet more of the Truth of those things which we are clearly taught both by Natural and Revealed Religion If any Appearance how shou'd the Person to whom 't was made certainly know whether 't is really the Spirit of his departed Friend or some illusive Daemon which may either tell him a Falshood instead of a Truth or mingle Truth and Falshood together the more cunningly to deceive him But says a Learned * See Mr. Steven's Sermons on Dives and Lazarus Author suppose God should condescend to gratifie a Wicked Man's vain Curiosity by causing one to rise from the Dead and to testifie unto him that the Course he takes without speedy Amendment will be the Eternal Ruine of him and that the Preparations in Hell are very terrible and insupportable yet he will invent Arguments and propound Reasons to fortifie himself that he may not be affected with and influenced by such an Apparition and frightful Relation as heretofore he did to withstand the prevalent Motives of Religion It is not to be disputed but that if a Spectrum or Ghost should appear to a very wicked Man suppose it to be an Aerial Representation of his Companion who with a hollow Voice dreadful Visage and lamentable Utterance tells him That there is a God both just and powerful and that there is an eternally Happy and miserable State and that it is his Misfortune to be doom'd to the latter which in his Life-time he used all the Means he could to banish from his Thoughts and that if he does not speedily amend his Life and heartily repent of the many Wickednesses he has willfully and presumptuously committed as they were formerly Companions in Sin so they would be unhappy Fellow-sufferers in a lamentable Eternity I say I question not but if a Ghost should appear to any of us after this manner it would make some Impression upon us But then whether or no this Miracle wrought would so prevail with a Man who has habituated himself to Wickedness as to work a Reformation in him It is supposed No For after the Surprize
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
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
concerned about parting for I hope we shall both meet where we shall never part That she dy'd in this Belief yet furthet appears by the Letter she writ about her Funeral which concludes with saying My Dear as to what you mention about our Funerals I like it well and am yet further pleased with our Ground Bedfellows I doubt not but dear O thee and I shall make as wholesome a Morsel for the Worms as any and as we sleep together in the same Grave so I hope we shall be happy hereafter in the Enjoyment of the Beatifick Vision and in the Knowledge of one another for adds she I agree with you that we shall know our Friends in Heaven Wise and Learned Men of all Ages and several Scriptures plainly shew it tho I verily believe was there none but God and one Saint in Heaven that Saint wou'd be perfectly happy so as to desire no more but whilst on Earth we may lawfully please our selves with Hopes of meeting hereafter and lying in the same Grave where we shall be happy hereafter if a Senseless Happiness can be call'd so You mention Writing your Thoughts of the Nature of the Soul and that other World we are hastening too but seeing you did not send them I shall wait with Patience till those things are no longer the Object of our Faith but Vision I shall only add my hearty Prayer that God wou'd bless you both in Soul and Body and that when you die you may be conveyed by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom where I hope you 'll find your constant Eliza. And as Eliza that part of my self now in Heaven believ'd she shou'd know me â—â—ere so I also find my Reverend Father of this Opinion as appears by the following Letter (*) This Letter was sent me during my Apprentiship in the City of London Viz. My Dear Child If you endeavour to please God and your Master I do not doubt but I shall meet thy Face in Heaven hereafter tho thro my Corporal Indisposition I fear I shall see thy Face no more on Earth and in that New-Jerusalem if thou diest in Christ I shall see thee not disfigured with Pockholes but dignified with Celestial Glory and there thou wilt see thine own Mothers Face who kill'd her self with Excess of Love to thee and who died praying so earnestly for thy Everlasting Salvation 'T is clear from hence that my Father thought he shou'd know my Face in Heaven and that I shou d see my Mother there so as to know her again My dear Mother was also of this Opinion as appears by the Letter to her Brother Jeremiah it concluding thus Pray Brother earnestly contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints that you may follow the Lord fully in your Generation and that you and I with all our Relations may one day sit down in Heavenly Places together with Jesus Christ. And Cloris too for I can't speak of Heaven without her is of this Opinion where she says speaking of Mr. That Saints and Angels listen to his Song and knew him so very well that not an Angel Critick durst correct his Verse Dear Charmer shall we see thee too in Heaven Phil. Then Cloris know in Heaven I 'll be Your Friend and Guardian-Angel too And tho with more refined Society I 'll leave Elysium to converse with you Cloris But grant Sir Phil. you still are kind You cannot long continue so When I like you become all Thought and Mind By what Mark then shall we each other know Phil. With Care on your last Hour I wi l attend And least like Souls shou'd me deceive I closely will imbrace my new-born Friend And never after my dear Pithia leave You see Ignotus I am all Rapture when I talk of Cloris but 't is Excusable sure if not Phil Forgive Bright Maid this little Extasie Ah! who can be compos'd that thinks of thee Who can Pindarick Flights refuse Whilst thou doest lash the Fiery-foaming Muse I 'll curb her in and try if I can be As Grave as Sober and as Wise as thee Nor think dear Friend I ramble now from you for I never talk to the Purpose but when I bring in Cloris our Friendship both here and hereafter wou'd be imperfect without her It shou'd sweeten the Thoughts of Heaven to us both to think we shall one day see her there Which if we do with what Ardours shall we then caress one another With what Transports of Divine Affection as one expresses it shall we mutually embrace and vent those Innocent Flames which had so long lain smothering in the Grave How Passionately Rhetorical and Elegant will our Expressions be when our Tender Sentiments which an aged Father and Death had frozen up when he congeal'd our Blood shall now be thaw'd again in the warm Airs of Paradice like Men that have escaped a common Shipwreck and swim safe to the Shoar shall we there Congratulate each other with Joy and Wonder I need not tell you says the Ingenious Boyle Tha we shall be more justly Transported at this Meeting than was good old Jacob at that of his Son Joseph whom having long mourn'd for dead and lost he found not only Alive but a great Favourite ready to welcome him to an unknown Court For whereas the Patriarch said to his Son Now let me dye since I have seen thy Face the seeing of our Friends in Heaven will assure us that we shall for ever Live with them there Dear Ignotus wonder not at this Rapture for if Eliza whilest on Earth had Christian love enough to Embrace the whole World in Heaven she has not left her Nature but only its imperfections she has not changed her affections but only hightened and improved them and therefore judge how happy I shall be when I see her again and how much more happy in her Excellent friendship for my part I can imagine nothing but an Extacy when we shall Live in such great Hearts which are nothing else but LOVE and JOY Nay this seems to be the summ of what we can say of the happiness of that State that it consists in a rapturous Love of God and one another Where this is found that Place is Heaven * * See Mr. Foes Car. of Dr. Annesly Could I Reheatse to your Conception what is Heaven above t would be Concisely thus all Heauen is Love Sure I am we shall behold no narrow Conclusive Soul in Heaven habitually prefering their private before a publick good and on this Score had I no better Grounds I should hope to meet Eliza in Heaven as she preferred that and the pleasing her Husband to all the Baggs in the World Then surely if I meet her again my first Address to Eliza will be 'a Dialect of Interjectons and short Periods the most Pathetick Language of surprise and high wrought Joy and all our after Converse even to Eternity will be Couch'd in the highest Strains of Heavenly Oratory methinks
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
Querists then deeply in Love with a fine (a) T was the Ingenious Daphne who I have Reason to think is dead Woman whether if she died first he shou'd know her again in Heaven their Answer was We must first enquire whether we shall so much as know one another there if not we doubt Lovers Souls will be in the same Case with others unless they make use of Mr. Dryden 's Expedient and wear Inscriptions to distinguish 'em * See Mr. Dryden's Tyrannick Love Tho we must confess our Judgment is for the Affirmative as we think we have formerly declared it and that separate Souls shall know each other at least glorified Saints when perfect in Heaven because their Knowledge wou'd be imperfect if they shou'd not and that in relation to such Objects as wou'd conduce to the Addition and Perfection of their Happiness as well as the Glory of him who chiefly makes it because the Societâ— of Saints in Glory is by all granted to be one of the Blisses of Heaven but Society without knowledge can't be easily conceiv'd Because we shall be then like the Angels who we are sure know each other and whom we believe indued with all Knowledge they are capable of as they seem to be of all but what is Infinite Because otherwise we shou'd be less perfect than we are upon Earth Because if there be any thing of Humanity left and the Essentials will still remain it seems congruous to suppose we shan't be without what we shou'd think wou'd conduce so much to our Happiness as to see our Friends partake thereof Because there are no valuable Objections against it that of Abraham 's being ignorant of us and St. Paul ' s knowing no Man after the Flesh relating plainly to our State in this World And lastly because it seems agreeable to the Divine Equity that the Obligations of Gratitude shou'd never cease but last even to the other World we mean such real Obligations as the Effects of 'em are Eternal such as make us more Virtuous and Holy and such especially as bring us to Heaven and if they last so long how can they be acknowledged and repay'd unless we know those who conferr'd 'em Not withstanding which lower degree of Happiness the â—nfinite Being may be still All in All and we may in a the rest only Admire and Love the Expressions or Emanations of his Goodness Thus far the Athenians to which I shall add the Opinion of Martin Luther It being propounded as a doubt to Martin Luther Chemnit Harmon Evang. cap. 87. a little before his Death-bed Whether Glorified Saints should have mutual Knowledge of each other He thus resolved his Friends That as Adam knew his Wife in Paradise when she was first presented to him for he asked not what she was or whence she came but saith she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone Among those transcendent desires which issue from our Natures this is one that those Acquaintances which were vertuously begun on Earth may be renewed and perfected in Heaven This desire was once of so great Authority that former Ages had respect unto it for when they found it easier to overcome aâ—l other terrorâ— of Death then that one of an everlasting absence from a Friend they were careful to chear a departing Soul by assuring it that the happiness of the other World next to the Contemplation of the Divine Nature consisted in the gaining of new and the indissoluble recovery of old acquaintance Our Creed moreover calls upon us to believe a Communion of Saints which if it be a matter of our Faith here it must be an object of our Knowledge hereafter if we must believe that there are some who sincerely communicate with us in the Faith in this Life then we shall hereafter clearly know who were our Fellow-Members in that Communion and as Faith it self shall be done away by Evidence so shall that Communion which is here by Faith be hereafter perfected by that Communion which â—hall be by Vision Besides I may add If the Soul may carry with it a sociable Inclination then may it for the Use and Exercise of this Desire be admitted to the Knowledge of other Souls and of those especially with whom it had sojourned on Earth that like Fellow-travellers who have been equally afflicted with the Difficulties of the way they may thenceforth interchangeably communicate their Joys springing from their present Rest and Peace But the nearest Instance is his who best cou'd give it having been there himself Luke 13.28 distinctly ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out Now if the Damned can at sight know the Blessed as I afterwards prove can it be supposed that Abraham c. cannot distinctly know each other yea from the Highest to the lowest from Abraham to Lazarus and not only so but of what Country soever as from the East from the West from the North and from the South as the 29th Verse * As was mentioned before in Page 18. intimates and in Matth. 25.32 't is said All Nations shall be gathered as a Shepherd who knows his Sheep and Verse 40. they knew one another because he says In as much as ye have relieved the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me and the Damned shall be told they did not relieve any the least of these as his Brethren and shall therefore be thrust out Object 1. But it may be said that in our Vnion unto God shall be supplied all imaginable Contents and that the Souls of the Blessed shall be held in so great Admiration as that they cannot admit the mixture of any second or less Joy Resp Though this Opinion seems specious and agreeable to Reason yet we must consider that as in the Divine Nature we admit no useless Attributes so likewise in the Humane we must either say it hath no aptness Eternally to desire or rejoyce in the good of another which a sociable Nature inwardly abhorreth or else we must allow it an Object whereon to practice its endless Love and Joy This Love we conceive shall be the perfection of that Desire which was begun on Earth but always mixt with Fear and Jealousie and this Joy we believe shall succeed in the place of that Condolency and Compassion which on Earth we sustained one for another This Love therefore and this Joy must have such an Object as was once the subject of our Fear and Compassion which cannot be either God or Angels but a Creature only of the same Nature and Condition with us Object 2. But it may be feared that our Knowledge of one another and our mutual delight in each other may beget some Interruptions in our Vnion with God Sol. This fear I think will vanish so soon as we consider that it is the same Beauty which we behold in God and love in the Creature though
the same Individual Body I now carry about me tho there may not then be one of the same Individual Atomes to make it up which are its present Ingredients For neither are they the same now as they were 20 Years ago Yet I may be properly said to have the same Individual Body at this Hour which my Mother brought forth into the World tho it is manifest that there is so vast an Accession of other Particles since that time as are enough to make ten such Bodies as I had then which implys such a perpetual Flux of the former as 't would be a Solaecism in Philosophy to think I have one of my Infant Atomes now left about me if after all this I may be still said to have the same Individual Body as I had then tho there be not one of the same Individual Atomes left in its Composition why may we not assert the same of the Bodies we shall have after the Resurrection Matter is one and the same in all Bodies the Individuation of it the Meum and Tuum proceeds only from the Infinitely different Forms which actuate it Thus when my Soul at the Resurrection by the Power of God and Assistance of Angels shall be Reinvested with a Body it is proper to say it will be the same Individual Body I have now tho made up of Atomes which never before were Ingredients of my Composition since not the Matter but the Form gives a Title to Individuation Moreover That the same Bodies shall rise that died Job plainly asserts Job 19.26 27. And tho after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold and not another tho my Reins be consumed within me The same Body says a late Author which was so pleasant a Spectacle to thee shall be restor'd again Flavel yea the same Numerically as well as the same Specifically so that it shall not only be the what it was but the who he was These Eyes shall behold him and not another Job 19.27 c. So that if I get to Heaven I shall only want that poor Contemptible Clod of Earth that Body of Clay which altho now Corruptible Mouldring in its Bed of Dust yet I do believe it shall rise a Glorious Body And tho after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God in this hope of seeing God and meeting my Friends Ignotus Cloris and the scarce dearer Eliza I willingly commit my Body to the Dust It is a great Comfort * See Mr. Mead's Sermon preached upon the Death of Mr. Tim. Cruso under the loss of the Faithful Ministers of Christ and of Godly Relations and Friends for they are not lost for ever the Spirit of God hath the Care of them and he 'll quicken them again and therefore we may say with Martha when her Brother was dead I (a) Matth. 11.14 know that he shall rise again at the Resurrection you shall see them again and enjoy them again and that in a better manner than ever Now as this Author adds how wou'd the Belief of this Truth relieve and comfort against such Thoughts as these If I die (b) Rev. 14.13 1 Thes 4.14 I die in the Lord. Death is but a Sleep and I sleep in Jesus too when my Body is laid in the Grave it is laid into the Arms of the Spirit if it doth rot in the Dust it 's Vnion to the Spirit can't rot and therefore farewell my Flesh while I go into the immediate Blissful Presence of God go thou to Bed in the Dust I commit thee into the Arms of the Spirit and do willingly leave thee in that Union till he sees good to raise thee and bring us together again I beg of God therefore with this Author (c) P. 29. that whenever I die I may die in this Faith that my Soul shall immediately enter into the full Fruition of God And that my Body shall lie down in the Dust in an Everlasting Vnion to the Spirit of God who will at last quicken (d) 1 Thess 4.18 it because he dwells in it for if the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the Dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken our Mortal Bodies by his Spirits that dwelleth in us wherefore comfort ye one another with these Words Such Thoughts as these will give as this Author calls his Sermon Comfort in Death and render the Horrors of the Grave less Affrighting and Dreadful Then let us not look on our departed Friends as a lost Generation think not that Death hath annihilated and utterly destroy'd them Oh! no they are not dead but only asleep And if they sleep they shall awake again we don't use to lament for our Wives and Children when we find them asleep upon their Beds Why Death says a late Author is but a longer sleep Flavel out of which they shall as surely awake as ever they did in the Morning in this World 'T is a Saying of the witty Overbury No Man goes to Bed till he dies nor wakes till the Resurrection and therefore good Night to you here and good morrow hereafter The very same Body you laid or are now to lay in the Grave shall be restored again Thou shalt find thy own Husband Wife or Child c. again I say the self same and not another And as you shall see the same Person that was so dear to you so you shall know them to be the same that were once endeared to you on Earth in so near a Tye of Relation For that they shall rise with Features to be distinguish'd is evident as is mention'd elsewhere by the Appearance of Moses and Elias to the Apostles of Dives's knowing Lazarus and Abraham and they knowing him again By the Example of those Saints that arose after Christ's Resurrection and went into the Hoy City Matth. 27. and appear'd to many there who must needs know by their Shapes who they were else could not they have pronounced them to be Saints and such who were known to have slept and have been before Dead and Bury'd And lastly to leave no room for doubting in this matter 't is evident to all that believe the Gospel that our Saviour the first Fruits from the Dead and after the Image of whom all the Bodies of the deceased Saints will be raised was raised with the self-same Body and with the same Features he was crucified with And therefore to question that ours shall be so too is but a dangerous Scrupulosity since it deprives us of one of the Means by which we may know our Friends again which I esteem one of the greatest Comforts next to those immediately resulting from the Vision of God himself we can meet with in Heaven and which is mention'd by St. Paul as I hinted before as one of the best Remedies against
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
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
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