Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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B21451
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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 ...
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Dunton, John, 1659-1733.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing D2624
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94,787
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150
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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
them to attend the same thy Care to have thy Soul in readiness to hear what God had to say was greater than that of having thy Body adorn'd contrary to the common Practise of our Age. How attentive wast thou when at Sermons and with what Greediness didst thou suck in the Sincere Milk of the Word and how Conscientious to see that thy Servants took heed to what they heard and that they perform'd their Duty to God as well as to thâ—e Neither didst thou think to compound with Heaven by being thus zealous in Religious Duties that thou may'st Slander Covet Lie and act other Sins with the greater Freedom here and in other Places none but the Guilty are meant and none but such will wince but these Eliza will have more Wit than to publish their Guilt by declaring their Innocence The Extensiveness of thy Charity is another Character which endears thy Memory and makes it precious to me as well as to many others who felt the Effects of it How like to the Author of all Good did that excellent Grace make thee and how did it Adorn thy Holy Profession Dionysius the Tyrant wonder'd at his Son that with all the Gold and Silver he had in his House he had made no Man his Friend but thou wast innocently frugal that thou might'st be bounâ—ifully Charitable And the Truth is the best and surest way to have any outward Mercy is to be content to want it or to make good Use of what we have when Men's Desires are over eager after the World thy must have so much a Year and a House well furnish'd or else they will not be content God usually if not constantly breaks their Wills by denying them or else puts a Sting into them that a Man had been as good he had been without them If a Man have but a little Income if he have a great Blessing and like Eliza have a Heart to do Good with the little he has that 's enough to make it up alas we must not account Mercies by the bulk what if another have a Pound to my Ounce if mine be Gold for his Silver I will never change with him 'T was you my Dear that cross'd the Proverb That Fortune sees not where she bestows her Gifts that most commonly they fall to the Share of those who have not Hearts to use them for your Great Charity brought that exellent Character upon you of being Kind and Generous beyond others you 'd often say We * 1 Tim. 6.7 brought nothing into this World and shall carry nothing out so did all the Good you could whilst you liv'd in this imitating Sir John Frederick who made his own Hands his Executors and his Eyes the Overseers 'T is observed that Covetousness is the only Sin that grows young as Men grow old But 't was not so in you you liv'd in the World so much above it as was an Evidence of the Real Greatness of your Soul and that you thought that a little thing wherein others place Greatness this made Charity so natural to you that 't was scarce a Vertue There was in your Nature an Aversion to a Covetous Person as he is one which the Lord abhorts Psal 10.3 When I read That 't is easier (a) Mat. 19.24 for a Camel to enter thro the Eye of a Needle than for a rich Man who sets his Heart on his Riches to enter into Heaven I am almost frighted with the Expression Cou'd Aristippus throw his Gold into the Sea and say It 's better I shouâ—d drown thee than that thou shouldst undo me and shall I who have one Foot in the Grave be a Slave to my Wealth I complain of my * Dr. Horneck Neighbour for being hard hearted and unkind to People in Distress and is that a Vertue in me which is Vice in another A good Bishop says a late Writer cou'd have preached an Hour together in saying nothing but Beware of Covetousness And so charitable was Dear Eliza that her whole Life seem'd to be one continued Satyr against Avarice You durst not rake together what you cou'd in your Life to bequeath it to your self at your Death I say to your self for who that has half a Soul wou'd creep to a Miser all his Life for Wealth he may lose with the next Breath neither will he obtain it if the Wretch can carry it to the other World as is seen by the following Instances Hermocrates a Grecian Philosopher dying bequeathed all his Estate to himself his Mind being fix'd immoveably on the Trash he had scraped together And Cardinal Angelot was so wrapt up in Covetousness as by a Trap-Door to get into his Stable and so steal the Corn his Groom had given his Horses And I knew one my self so wretchedly covetous as to steal Candle-ends in the Church after Evening Lesture was over to serve his Occasions at home and this he did tho worth soveral Thousand Pound Well what shall we say There is saith the Wise Man a Man to whom (a) Eccl. 24.4 God hath given Riches Wealth and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all he desireth yet God giveth him not Power to eat thereof but a Stranger eateth it This is Vanity and an evil Disease 'T is clear from hence that tho a little sufficeth Nature and less Grace yet that Covetousness is never satisfied and is certainly curst The contented Man is never poor let him have never so little The Discontented Man is never rich let him have never so much Tho I have a Iust * See the Case of the Young Lady P. 40 Title to 6000 l. as may †THAT' 's ONCE appear in Conjunction with my own Birth-right and so much clear from any Encumbrance and have neither Child nor Chick to waste it and my self as great an Enemy to Extravagance as to what 's Sneaking yet if I an 't contented with this Estate I am poorer than he that begs if content with the Scraps he gets Content is all we aim at with our Store And having that with little what needs more But the Covetous or Disconted Man for they are all one always thinks himself miserable and so he can never be happy But Eliza was none of these had nothing in her mean or little no my Dear had thy Purse been as large as thy Heart you 'd ne'er been rich whilst any Man was poor and I am sure Eliza you had more Piety than to think your self undone had we lost all but one another Would the Miser * See Dr. Horneck's Great Law of Consideration study Eternity he 'd see 't is little material to him whether he is Poor or Rich Your Generous Temper Eliza might fully convince him of this Neither was thy Extensive Charity any Let to thy strict Justice or to the Punctual Performance of all thy Promises in thy Dealings with Men you knew that none must dwell in the HOLY * Psal 15.1 2.