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
to preserve each other in the Way And they who would wear the same Crown of rejoycing in the Presence of Christ will assist each other here that they perish not in the agony and conflict The Egyptians Embalmed the Carcasses of the Dead to preserve them if it were possible through all the parts of Time being guided by an opinion that so long as the Body continued undissolved the Soul would not forsake the Earth but continue hovering about the place where the Bodies lay In like manner the Souls of men which by many kinds of Association may be united into one mass and heap and as it were become parts of one another will continue the more vigilant and active for each others everlasting Welfare so long as they are perswaded against an eternal divorce and dissolution and do contrarily believe they shall be rewarded by a sense of each others happiness and that that union which is among themselves as of one member to another shall not be dissolved but perfected by that Union which shall unite them to Christ as to their Head and through him unto God Ignotus I might stop here for I hope by this time I have made it plain that the Saints know one another in Heaven But this being a Curious Point I shall yet bring more Authoritys to prove it and the next I shall Name is the Pious * See His four last things Bolton Who positively asserts The knowing of our Friends in Heaven his Words are these All comfortable knowledge shall be so far from being abolished in Heaven that it will be inlarged increased and perfected But to know one another is a comfortaâ—lâ— knowledge Yherefore we shall know one another in Heaven Our knowledge shall be perfected For We shall know as we are known 1. Cor. 13.12 Which is set out by Comparison of the less That our knowledge then shall differ from that now as the knowledge of a Child from that of a Perfect Man In Heaven all the mists of Ignorance and Blindness being perfectly cleared up and taken away we shall see one another together with all the Saints though we did not know them before For if Adam by vertue of the Divine Image stampt upon him knew Eve though taken out of his Body while he was asleep Why should not we being Transformed according to the same Image from Glory to Glory by the Father Son and Holy Ghost know the Members of the same Body Those full of the Spirit and Wisdom of God may as easily be suppos'd to know one another as Adam before the Fall while he retained the Image of God knew Eve who and whence she came And as Samuel knew Saul by the Inspiration of God though he had not seen him before Sam. 9.17 And John knew our Lord Christ in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin So their Minds were Enlightened by the Rayes of the Holy Spirit Then Conceive if thou canst Ignotus how grateful that knowledg will be by which we shall know all others as all others shall know us The Knowledge which all men in this Life unprofitably desire shall be such to the Good that they shall be ignorant of nothing they are willing to know For the Good shall be filled with the perfect Wisdom of God and shall see Him Face to Face and in seeing of this shall behold the Nature of all Creatures which they shall see in God better then themselves For then the Just shall know all things which God hath made knowable as well those which are past as those which are to come When the Elect shall see the antient Fathers in their Eternal Inheritance they shall know them by Sight whom they knew in their Work for they shall see them all by a common Illumination What is it they can there be ignorant of when they know him who knows all things The Vision of God is not only promised to the Saints in Heaven but also of all things that God has made as the Sun Moon Stars Earth Seas Rivers Living Creatures Trees and Mettals But our Minds know nothing i. e. No perfect Substance nor Essential Differences nor Properties nor Virtues Nor did ever any Man see his own Soul but we grope like the Blind and acquire the Knowledge we have by Discourse VVhat shall the Joy then be when we shall see by the Light bestowed upon us the nature of all things barefaced And how wonderfully shall we be transported when we shall see innumerable Armies of Angels in the Differences of their Degrees and Order And in Heaven as we shall know the Saints not in Outward Worldly Respects but as we know them in Christ by the Illumination of the Spirit so also we shall know the Spiritual Substances Offices Orders Excellencies of the Angels and the Nature Immutability Operations and Original of our own Souls c. and in a Word all things knowable Here 't is the happy Residentiaries Understandings are wide open'd to all the amazing Lights and Discoveries of Truth to the Mysteries of Creation and Providence of Redemption and Sanctification to the now puzzling Difficulties of Nature and of Grace of God's Prescience and Man's Free Will Here 't is the Wills also of the Glorified are render'd conformable unto are swallowed up in and made one with God's Holy Will and Pleasure ' There says the ingenious Boyle we shall have clearly expounded to us those Riddles of Providence which have but too often tempted even good Men to question God's Conduct in the Government of the World whilst the Calamities and Persecutions of Virtue and Innocence seem approved by him who accumulates Prosperities on their Criminal Opposers And I must profess adds he as Vnfashionable as such a Profession maâ— seem in a Gentleman not yet Two and Twenty that I find the Study of those excellent Themes Gods Word and his Providence so Di ficult and yet so Pleasing and Inviting that could Heaven afford me no greater Blessing than a clear Accompt of the Abstruse Mysteries of Divinity and Providence I should value the having my Vnderstanding Gratified and Enriched with Truths of so Noble and Precious a Nature enough to court Heaven at the rate of renouncing for it all those unmanly Sensualities and trifling Vanities for which Inconsiderate Mortals are wont to forfeit the Interest their Saviour so dearly bought them in it But this is not all for here we shall with wonderful Ravishment of Spirit and Spiritual Joy be admitted to the sight of those Sacred Secrets and Glorious Mysteries 1. Of the Holy Trinity into which some Divines may audaciously dive but shall never be able to explicate 2. Of the Union of Christ's Humanity to the Divine Nature and of the Faithful to Christ 3. Of the causes of God's Eternal Counsel in Election and Reprobation 4. Of the Angels Fall 5. Of the manner of the Creation of the World c. Neither is this all for we shall also be beatifically enlightned with a clear and glorious Sight of
and Philaret to find that siâ—cere Friendship which for 15 Years they had beâ—â— Contracting here below translated to the Mansions â—bove when I shall see and know her again wiâ— whom I had lived so well and slept so long in tâ— Dust I say in the Dust for I desire in my WILâ— to be buried with her that so as our Souls shâ— know each other when they leave the Bodies our Bodies also may rise together after the lâ— Night of Death and you find Eliza * As you nâ— find in the Iâ—dication to 〈…〉 Essay of this Opinion where she says Dear Phil whilst on Earth we may lawfully please our selves with Hopes of meeting hereafter and in lying in the same Grave where we shall be happy together if a sâ—less Happiness can be call'd so Further in answer to the Question whether I and Wife shall love one another above other Saiâ— Let us remember rightly that Instruction our Saviour Jesus Christ who teacheth us how the Fruits of Marriage ought to stretch and what Distinction we are to make between our Habitation and Being in this World and our Rest in Heaven between that Angelical Nature and this which is Corrupt and Humane for in Heaven the Fruits Reasons and Respects of Marriage do cease the only Divine and Angelical Nature bringeth forth her Effects in Spiritual Vertues and not in Humane Passions which having had their Course in this Crasie Life could never pass into Heaven The Husband and Wife shall die I mean the Bodies of Husband and Wife but not the Gift of God which shineth in the Faculty of the Soul and in such Vertues as are inseparable from her Over all which Death and the Grave hath no Power as it hath over the Body and Sensual Affections * See a Treatise call'd The Treasure of a Christian Soul The Corporal Conjunction between the Husband and the Wife shall cease but the Memory in the Soul shall remain not of Bodily Things and of contrary Nature unto that Heavenly Glory but of such things as are agreeable unto a Spiritual Being Likewise also Bodily Temporal and Sensual Love shall remain in the Grave but Charity which desireth to see her in Glory and Immortality shall fly into Heaven and there from Day to Day will inflame it self in such wife as that the Soul of the Departed Husband being in Heaven will there Love and Know her whom he loved in this World yet then not as being his but as being the Spouse of Christ not as having been one Flesh Corruptible and Mortal in times past but as being to be in time to come both of them together as also with all the Holy Ones Bones of the Bones of Christ and Flesh of his Flesh So that if Philaret gets to Heaven he 'll there not only Know but Love his Eliza with a Remembrance becoming a Spiritual Nature freed from Fear void of Care alienate from all Mortal Desire so thâ—t he who in the World remembred her whom then he possessed in Condition of a Wife and for a use both Carnal and Corruptible shall Remember her in Heaven in condition as being a Member of Christ for the Society of the same Glory and for a use Dedicated to God only to Celebrate Eternally his Praises and Immortal Glory Now that this Desire or Remembrance and Charity is in those Blessed Souls not of a quality imperfect or infirm as here in the World but sutable and becoming unto that their Estate of Perfection appeareth by that meeting and Conference of Moses and Elias with our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 9.30 In the Mount whereon he was Transfigured upon the Subject of his Death and Passion As also by the desire of those Souls which rest in Heaven under the Golden Altar and that their desire and remembrance was of such things as had passed and were done in this World is apparent in this complaint Rev. 6.9 How long Lord Holy and True dost thou not Judge and Avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth But is it so may some say that we shall know and so particularly Love our Wives and Friends again in Heaven Then pray tell us will this Friendship be lasting or shall we be placed according to our Love to God in different Spheres and so get New-Friends My Answer is I believe we shall For God is an Infinite Object that which is Finite tho never so refined and advanced in its Nature cannot know God altogether nay can never know him all I think it therefore fair arguing that our knowledg of him there must be successive our Capacity still augmenting with our Knowledge as our Happiness with both Take another not improbable Argument for the same Head In Heaven we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the Angels Their Knowledge is gradual for they look into the Church to learn the Mysteries thereof even though in Heaven And why then may not ours be so too if e're we are so happy by Gods Grace to get thither But if it be so that the Sainâ—s in Heaven not only know their former Acquaintance but are further contracting of new Friendships then I wou'd know says another Inquirer Whether they have any knowledge of or ever concern themselves with the affairs of their Friends in this Life and what is to be thought of the Apparitions of the Dead To this I Answer as formerly that the Platonists have made many bold Assertions both concerning the State of the Soul before it came into the Body as also after but their Reasons are as strange as their Assertions What Priviledges some Souls may enjoy in their separate State above others is yet a Riddle but there are some Instances of this Nature unaccountable To mention one Caesar Baronius in his Annals mentions an entire Friendship betwixt one Michael Mercatus and Marsilius Ficinus and this Friendship was the stronger betwixt them by reason of a mutual Agreement in their Studies and an addictedness to the Doctrines of Plato It fell out that these two Discoursing together as they used of the State of Man after Death according to Plato's Opinions there is Extant a Learned Epistle of Marsilius to Michael Mercatus upon the same Subject but when their Disputation and Discourse was drawn out something long they shut it up with this firm Agreement that whichsoever of them two should first depart out of this Life if it might be should ascertain the Survivor of the State of the other Life and whether the Soul be Immortal or not this Agreement being made and mutualy sworn unto they departed In a short time it fell out that while Michael Mercatus was one Morning early at his Study upon the sudden he heard the noise of an Horse upon the Gallop then stopping at his Door withal he heard the Voice of Marsilius his Friend crying to him Oh Michael Oh Michael those things are true they are true Michael wondering to hear his Frienâ—s Voice rose up and opening the Casement