In Heaven, then, § 21 we shall tast Happinesse enough, to enable us to rectifie the Definition of it: We may there be instructed, how to Name and Rate all Goods by those that will Concenter into the Felicity we shall possesse; which shall be there made up of the Confluence, Perfection, and Perpetuity of all true Joyes; for, Heaven will make us happy, not (as Philosophy pretends to do) by the Confinement, but by the Fruition of our Desires: which shall neither Fail in the Choice of their Objects, nor Misse of the Enjoyment of them; but be, both unerringly Just, and infallibly Accomplish’t: In the former of which properties, (as our then Rectify’d reason wil consider things) we shall think our selves happier (yet) than in the latter. We shall there Resemble the Saints we here Admire, and shall not onely see and be like those pious Worthies, whose vertues Eclipse theirs, which among the Heathen Deify’d lesse deserving Heroes those excellent Persons that did as well Ennobles as Instruct Mankind, giving us cause to Glory, and to Blush that we are Men, and whose Stories have the unparallel’d Honour of being recorded by Inspired Pens; Those Spirits, I say, of just men made perfect, (Heb. 12.23) as the Scripture terms them, shall be our Constant and familiar Company, into whose blessed Society we shal not onely be Welcome, but Encrease it. In Heaven, we shall have a blest and familiar Conversation with those same glorious Spirits, whose Nature doth invest them with such a Lustre, that all the Disadvantage of their Disguizes, when they Appear to us, doth scarce suffice to confine our Raptures to Respects below Idolatry, and darken them into Objects for our Wonder, not Adoration. There we shall see (a sight worth dying for) that Blessed Saviour, of whom the Scripture does so Much and so Excellently entertain us, and who having done and suffer’d so much for us, does so highly deserve of us both upon the score of his Infinite Perfections, and upon the account of his Inestimable Benefits. Yes, there shall we see that Holy and Divine Person, who when he vouchsaf’d (as his Favorite-Disciple speaks) to to pitch his Tent among us, (Joh. 1.14) and dwell with men on Earth, to fit them by his Merits and Example to dwell with him in Heaven, did so admirably mixe an awefull Majesty with an humble Meeknesse, and the assum’d Infirmities of his humane Nature with the seasonable Coruscations of his Divine; expressing in his whole life, so Perfect and Exemplary a Vertue, and yet so much Sweetnesse and Gentlenesse, towards those Aspirers to it, that were the most Short of it, that the Jews themselves could say of him, That he had done all things well; and his very Enemies, that were imploy’d to apprehend him as a Malefactour, confess’d to those, that sent them, That never man spake like him. (Joh. 7.46) And his Apostles, who had most Opportunity to Pry narrowly into his Actions, and were of a Condition and Breeding very unlike to infuse into them Heroick Resolutions, did, in Spight of the frequent Reproofs their failings extorted from him, and of the Hardships that attended his Service, think ev’n Death it selfe in his Company, more Elegible, (Joh. 11.16) then Life led out of it; Let us also go that we may dye with him, (sayes ev’n the distrustfull Thomas, to his fellow-Disciples.) But, Lindamor, we shal there see the Son of God, not in that Form of a Servant, (Phil. 2.7) which he put on that he might Suffer for us, and exercise his Priestly and Prophetick Functions here below; but in that Regall State and Condition, which belongs to him by vertue of his Kingly office, on whose score he is styl’d in the Scripture, (Rev. 19.16) King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, All power or authority being (as himself speaks) given Him both in Heaven and in Earth.²⁸ And how Nobly attended may we suppose this Divine Monarch to be in his Exalted Condition in Heaven, when in his state of Humiliation on Earth, (Mar. 1.13) whilst he was in the VVildernesse among the wild Beasts, the Angells are recorded to have ministred unto him; and, whilst he lay swath’d in a homely manger,²⁹ the multitude of the Coelestial host were heard to solemnize his miraculous Birth according to that passage of the writen to the Hebrews, (Heb. 1.6) When he bringeth in the first begotten into the World (he saith) And let all the Angells of God worship him! And yet such considerable and Noble Creatures, those Immateriall Intelligences call’d Angells, are, (2 King. 19.35) that One of them in One night was able to destroy above a hundred and fourscore thousand men, in the blasphemous Senacherib’s impious Camp. And so much Majesty, and Superiority, does their Nature give them, in reference ev’n to the eminentest of Mortalls, That, when the undaunted Josuah had boldly challeng’d one of them, that appear’d to him in the likenesse of a Man, and demanded, Whom he was for? when he knew him to be an Angel (unlesse he suppos’d him to be that promis’d Messiah, who is elsewhere call’d the Angell of the Covenant, (Mal. 3.1) as it is in the Originall, and in the same Text, the Lord) he alters his Addresse unto him into this Submissive one,³⁰ What saith my Lord unto his Servant; and ev’n wise and holy Daniel himself, who was the Second person of the World for Power, and the First for much nobler Attributes, Wisdom and Understanding, who saw so many Governours of vast Provinces, and Professours of admired Magick, inferiour to himself, yet confesses to the Angell, that appear’d to him, That he was confounded and disanimated at his presence, and addes, How can the Servant of this my Lord, (Dan. 10.17) talk with this my Lord. We may safely therefore expect that we shall then behold our Saviour not in those Disguises, which disfigur’d him in their Eyes, that only consider’d his Sufferings; but in that triumphant Condition, wherewith they are now Rewarded. The Thorns of his (now no more Galling, but Adorning) Crown will appear upon that radiant Head of His, more glorious, than those of the flaming Bush, (Exod 3.2) wherein God appear’d to Moses. And we shall not see, that despicable forme, which made the Prophet say (personating the Generality of the Jewish Nation contemporary with the Messias) — He hath no Form, (Isa. 53.2) nor Comelinesse, and when we shall see him, there is no Beauty, that we should desire him. But we shall see him Encompass’d with so much Majesty, and Shining with so much of his genuine Splendour and Beauty, that we shall deservedly esteem him Nephle, (Isa. 9.6) the admirable. And our ravisht Souls shall by the more attentive Contemplation of him, but find more cause to imitate the Spouse in Solomons mystick Epithalamium; who having dwelt upon the Beauty of the severall parts, that concurr’d to the accomplishing the divine Bridegroom, exclaims in an Epiphonema, very contrary to the Expression lately mention’d in the Prophet, He is altogether Desires, or, (Cant. 5.10) by an Hebraism, Most desirable, which our English renders, He is altogether lovely. His eyes will there appear, as St. (Rev. 1.14) John represents them, of active Fire, and will into the willing Breasts of the Ravisht beholders shoot Flames as Pure, as Holy, and as Deathlesse, as those Fathers of the Church, who believ’d not the Angels altogether Incorporeall, may be suppos’d to have conceived the Seraphims to consist of. Certainly, since (as the Scripture informs us) It never entred into the Heart of Man, what God has reserv’d in Heaven for those that love him; That Glory can be but Imperfectly express’d by the bare Epithet of Inconceivable, with which God rewards the meritorious Sufferings and Obedience of that Only begotten Son of his love; For whose sake, he is pleas’d to confer on so many Thousands of men, unimaginable Glories. He that vouchsafes ev’n to many of his Servants a brightnesse like that of the Starrs, (Dan. 12.3) will sure communicate a more radiant Lustre to the Sun of Righteousnesse, (Mal. 4.2) that Only Son of His, whom (to borrow inspir’d Expressions) he hath appoynted Heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds: (Heb. 1.2, 3) Who being the brightnesse of his Glory, and the expresse Image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purg’d our Sinns, sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, farre above all Principality, (Eph. 1.21) and Power, and Might, and Dominion, and every Name, that is named not only in this World, but in that which is to come, Thereby exalting him not onely above all Earthly Princes and Potentates, but ev’n above the Highest Orders of the Spirits of the Coelestial Hierarchie.

But apprehend not, § 22 Lindamor, that this sublime Exaltation of Christ will make him Despise the meanest of his Saints, or disdain communion with him; For, St. Paul assures us, That he was in the form of God, when he vouchsaf’d to take upon him the form of a Servant, to make us Free; and, sure, he that condescended so far, and stoop’d so low, to Invite and Bring us to Heaven, will not refuse us a gracious Reception there. In the dayes of his flesh he was pleas’d to own Lazarus, ev’n in the Dishonours of the Grave, and vouchsaf’d him in that despicable Condition the Glorious Title of his Friend. And when he descended the Mount of Olives, all the loud Acclamations of the glad Multitude, that sung Hosanna’s to him, and strow’d his way with their Palms,³¹ their Vestments and their Praises, could not divert him from Deploring, ev’n with Teares, Jerusalem’s approaching Fate; and expressing in the midst of his Triumphs a Concern, for the very worst and stubbornest of his Enemies. And, lest it should be thought, that he was thus concern’d for worthlesse Mortalls, only whilst he shar’d and felt the miseries of their Condition; Give me leave to observe to you, Lindamor, that immediately after his Resurrection whilst the Sense of the sudden and unexampl’d Change of his Condition was Fresh upon him, and the Remembrance of the Apostles Ingratitude in deserting him, almost as Recent; he sticks not to give those very Disciples that forsook him, the glorious Title, and that a more familiar one then we find him to have allow’d them on Earth, Of his Brethren; (Mat. 28.10) and particularly shows himself Sollicitous for that Peter, who, in spight of all those empty Boasts, (Mar. 16.7) wherewith he not only seem’d to defie Death, but Christs Prediction too, did not onely Forsake his Master, but Deni’d him. He can in Heaven be so concern’d for his distress’d members here on earth, that not onely he can take Notice of expiring Stephen,³² thorow that cloud of fatall Stones, that batter’d down his Prison; and can, when Saul was persecuting the vulgar Christians, cry out unto him, Saul, Saul, (Act. 9.4) why persecutest thou Me? as if He, and those, that Love him, were but One: But in the messages,³³ he sends to the Angels or Governours of the seven Churches, he sufficiently manifests, That single Christians may be as particularly in his thoughts, as if they had no other Object: His Greatnesse will not make his Kindnesse lesse Familiar, but only more Obligeing; He disdains not ev’n after his Ascension to say; Behold; I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voyce, (Rev. 3.20) and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. That King, in the Parable, by whom Himselfe is represented,³⁴ is pleas’d himself to welcome each Individual trusty Servant with a peculiar, Euge bone Serve; And in another Parable he scruples not, to represent the great Condescensions and Familiarity, wherewith the Lord shall remunerate the faithfull and watchfull Servants, by telling his Disciples, Blessed are those Servants, (Luk. 12.37) whom the Lord, when he commeth, shall find so watching. Verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and will make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth to serve them. At which Expression, you will the lesse Admire, if you Consider, that besides that it is Parabolicall, and probably Hyperbolicall, and therefore not to be taken (as the French speak, au pied de la lettre) in a strict sense: We find in the Evangelicall Story that our Saviour disdain’d not to converse familiarly with Publicans and Sinners, nor ev’n to Wash the Feet of his own Disciples. And since he condescended to such familiarity to those frail Mortalls, so many of whom were apt to turne the Favours of God into Want onnesse, we may the lesse admire his gracious Condescensions to those, the Sinlessenesse of whose Condition will keep them from turning his Vouchsafements into any thing, but Occasions of Joy and Gratitude. Marvaile not, Lindamor, as at an Impertinencie, that I appear so Sollicitous to possesse you with high Apprehensions of the super-eminent Dignity and Felicity of our exalted Saviour; And, that in the Loftiest and most magnificent Expressions, the Scripture affords me, I have endeavour’d to make out to you, that the bright Sun of Righteousnesse is now grown uncapable of suffering Eclipses, but shines with unclouded and unequall’d Splendour, and that we shall in Heaven (as the Writer to the Hebrews speaks) see Jesus who was made a a little (or for a short while, (Heb. 2.9) βραχύ τι) lower than the Angells, for the suffering of Death, crown’d with Glory and Honour. For it will make Heaven more Heaven to us, to find Him raigning there, who hath Suffer’d so much for us; and for whom, if we e’re come thither, we shall have so much Suffer’d. For, since our Love will, as the rest of our surviving Graces, be perfected, and grow Compleat in Heaven; The ineffable Happinesse of our Dear Redeemer, must needs bring an Encrease to ours, commensurate to the Ardency of our Love for him, and we shall relish no Happinesse more than That; which is therefore Ours, because He is happy, and Supposes in Him, what it Conferrs on Us. Besides that, since the Regall Dignity, wherein (as Mediator) he is Instated, may make us owe our Salvation to his Sentence, as well as to his Merits; Heaven it self will be inestimably endear’d to us, by our Injoying it upon his Account. I need not tell you, what a value Lovers are wont to set upon the least Favours, that can be bestowed on them by their Mistresses, and that oftentimes a worthlesse Ribband, a Bracelet of Hair, or some such Trifle that nothing can make precious but Hir presenting it, is highlyer valued by the transported Lover, than the richest Presents of Nature, or of Fortune. How great a Blessing must it then be, Lindamor, to owe Joyes, that need no endearing Circumstances to merit the name of Happinesse, to a Person so belov’d, that even Heaven it self will bring more Felicity to the amorous Soul, as it is a Proof of his Love, than as it is a Donative of his Bounty: As passionate Brides do incomparably more value the Wedding-Rings, which their glad Lovers give them, as Pledges, than as Gold. ‘Tis said of the persecuted and disgrac’d Apostles, that they rejoyced to have been counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (Act. 5.41) But if they deservedly Rejoyced, to be allow’d to Suffer for him; of how much Joy shall they have just cause, that are admitted to Reign with him. His having supported the Hardships and the Toyles (for I must not now call them Evills) to which our afflicted Condition of Mortality is Expos’d, does so much alleviate them, and refresh us under them, that in this sense also it may be truly said, (Isa. 53.5) That the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his hurts we are healed. But he that Reliev’d us even by his Crosse, will sure do more for us by his Crown; when he shal Admit, and even Invite, each faithfull Servant to no lesse a Blessing, than, (Matt. 25.21) to enter into his Masters joy. So rich a Source of Happinesse did Christ designe, to make himself to us in all his Capacities and Conditions, that in Heaven and in Earth, it Was, and Will be, his gracious and constant Imployment, to Share our Griefs, or Impart to us his Joyes; and either Lessen our Miseries by his Sufferings, or Encrease our Happinesse by his Felicity.

Expect not, Lindamor, § 23 that I should Solemnly beg your Pardon, for this seeming Excursion, till I come to think it a Digression, to insist on the Blessednesse of Christ in Heaven, treating of the Happinesse, which those that Love him will enjoy there. Wherefore, not to spend time in imploring a needlesse Forgiveness, I shall proceed to tell you, Lindamor, that in Heaven, we shall not onely 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 onr Saviour tells us, (Luk. 20.36) that the Children of the Resurrection shall be ἰσάγγελοι, equall to, or like, the Angels; who yet in the Visions of Daniel and St. John, appear to be acquainted with each other; Since in the Parable of the miserable Epicure, and the happy Beggar,³⁵ the Father of the Faithfull is represented, as knowing, not onely the Person, and present Condition, but the past Story of Lazarus. Since the Instructor of the Gentiles, confidently expects his Converted and Pious Thessalonians, to be his Crown at that Great Day; (1 Thess. 2.19, 20) When the having turned many to Righteousness, shall, as the Scripture foretells,³⁶ confer a Star-like and Immortall Brightnesse. Since (which is chiefly considerable) the Knowledge 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: Since, I say, these Arguments, besides divers others, are afforded us by the Scripture; we may safely conclude it Probable, that we shall Know each other in a Place, where, since nothing requisite to Happinesse can be wanting, we may well suppoe, (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 Otherselves, our Friends. Nor is this onely Probable, Lindamor, but ‘tis not Improbable, that those friends that Know us in Heaven, shall Welcome us thither. For, since Christ assures us, that the very Angels (though they be so far from being Related to our Persons, that they are Forrainers to our very Nature) receive accession of Joy for a relenting Sinner, (Luk. 15.7) that by Repentance Begins to turn towards God; You will not think it Absurd, that in a Place, where Charity shall not onely continue, (as St. Paul speaks) but grow perfect: (1 Cor. 13.8) Our dear Friends should rejoyce to see us, not onely Being to Turn towards God, but Come home to him. Nor is it unlikely, that our transported Souls shall mutually Congratulate each other, their having now fully escaped the numerous Rocks, and Shelves, and Quicksands, and threatning Storms, and no lesse dangerous Calms, through which they are at length arrived at that Peacefull Haven, where Innocence and Delight (which are here so seldom Matcht) are inseparable Companions, both of each other, and each blessed Resident. With those friends we here Lamented, we shall there Rejoyce. And ‘twill be but need, that the Discovery of each other’s Vertues, should bring us to a mutuall Knowledge of our Persons; for otherwise, we shall be so Chang’d, that we should never know our Friends (and should 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 Horrours of Death, we shall then see assisting about the Majestick Throne of Christ, (Phil. 3.21) with their once vile bodies transfigured into the likenesse of his glorious body, mingling their glad Acclamations with the Hallelujah’s of Thrones, Principalities, and Powers, and the most dignifi’d Favourites of the Coelestiall Court. I need not tell you, Lindamor, that 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 onely 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, (Gen. 46.30) 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. The Re-union of Friends being there as priviledg’d from Divorce, as that of Soul and Body, (which scarce will be more Strict and Satisfactory) For, here indeed, if our Friends do not allay our Love or Affection by unwelcome Actions, or their contagious Sufferings, we commonly dote on them to a Degree, that, as it were, Reduces God to deprive us early of them, and Snatch our Idols, and his Rivalls, from us. But there, our, on both sides, compleated-Graces, will not onely Deserve, but Allow a higher Strain of Friendship. The near Contemplation and Fruition of the infinitely transcendent Perfections of the Creator, keeping all our Kindnesse to the Creatures, not onely Subordinate To the Love we owe to God, but Grounded On it; as Excited Needles, when they stick fastest to each other, owe their Union to their having both been touched by the Load-stone; to which they have therefore both of them incomparably stronger Inclinations, than either to the other.

There, § 24 we shall satisfactorily understand those Deep & Obscure Mysteries of Religion, which the profoundest Clarks that love not to Flatter themselves, acknowledge, they are unable fully to Comprehend; being, after all the Toyle and Industry of their anxious Enquiries, reduc’d to sit down with the Apostle’s ὦ βάθος, an Admiration of that depth, whose Bottom they cannot Fathom: there we shall Understand those obscure passages of (That Divine book uncapable of flattery) The Scripture, which, for all that Bold Criticks and Learn’d Expositors have Attempted to Illustrate it, does still continue obscure. There, discerning how exquisitly the severall Parts of Scripture are fitted to the severall Times, Persons, and Occurrences, wherein their all-foreseeing Author intended most to use them, we shall discern not onely a Reconcileablenesse, but a Friendship, and perfect Harmony betwixt those Texts, that here seem most at Variance, and shal discover not onely the Sense of the obscurer passages, but the Requisitnesse of their having been written so obscurely. That strange and peculiar, as well, as otherwise Crypticall Method and Style of Scripture, which often costs us so much Study to find it Rationall, we shall there discover to be Admirable, and worthy of its Omniscient Author. There, I hope, we shall have clearly expounded to us those Ridles of Providence, which have, but too often, Tempted ev’n good men, to question Gods Conduct in the Government of the World; whil’st the Calamities and Persecutions of Vertue, and Innocence seem Approv’d by him, who Accumulates Prosperities on their Criminall Opposers. There, we shall be convinc’d, that all these Seeming Irregularities, which the Heathen thought fit to impute to the giddy Whimsies of a Blind femall Deity, are not onely Consistent with Gods Justice and Goodnesse, but are Productions of it. And though such a Beliefe do here to Intelligent Persons, seem perhaps a greater piece of Self-deniall, then to refraine from Wine, or Gold, or Mistresses; yet in Heaven it will appear as Reasonable, as here we find it Difficult. For, as Bildad speaks in Job, (Job 8.9) We are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our dayes upon Earth, are but a Shadow. And the Shortnesse of our Transitory lives, not permitting us to Continue long enough Spectatours here, to see above a Scene or two at most of that great Play, acted by Mankind upon the Stage of the World, ‘tis no wonder, we are apt to harbour sinister thoughts of the Contriver of a Plot, whose neither Beginning nor End we are acquainted with: which is no lesse injurious, than t’were to Censure the lofty Tragedian Seneca, or some other matchlesse Artist, having perused but a Piece of some Tragedy, whereof the Latter part never arrived at our view. But, when once Gods whole Plot (if I may so speak) and Conduct in the Administration of the World, shall come to be Disclos’d; all those Revolutions and Occurrences of Empires, States, Families, and Particular Persons, which men are here so prone to Quarrell with, will there appear so Just, so Requisite, and so Seasonable, that those very things, which Here tempted us to Deny God, shall There engage us to Praise him; and we shall not so properly be Satisfy’d with his Providence, as Ravish’t. But especially, we shall be Transported with Wonder and Gratitude, when God shal vouchsafe to discover to his particular Servants, the Reasons of his Dispensations towards them, and make out to them not onely the Necessity and Justice, but ev’n Mercifulnesse of those very Afflictions, that were most imputed to his Severity, (no Stroke from Gods Paternall Hand, either lighting Sooner or falling Heavier, or staying Longer, than the occasion, that Extorted it, exacted) and convince them, that their Hopes were never Disappointed, but to Secure their Title to Better things, than those they hoped for; nor their Inferiour Interests prejudic’d, but for the advantage of their Supream ones. Yes, all that unwelcome Darknesse, that here surrounded our purblind Understandings, will vanish at the dawning of that bright, and (as St. (2 Pet. 3.18) Peters expression may be interpetted) eternall day, wherein the Resolution of all those Difficulties,³⁷ which here Exercis’d (and perhaps Distress’d) our Faith, shall be granted us to Reward it. And I must professe to you, Lindamor, (as Unfashionable as such a Profession may seem in a Gentleman not yet two and Twenty) that I find the study of those excellent Themes, Gods Word, and his Providence, so Difficult, and yet so Pleasing and Inviting, that could Heaven afford me no greater Blessing than a clear Accompt of the abstruse Misteryes of Divinity and Providence, I should value the having my Understanding Gratifi’d and Enrich’d with Truths of so Noble and precious a Nature, enough to Court Heaven at the rate of renounceing for it all those unmanly Sensualities and trifling Vanities, for which inconsiderate Mortalls are wont to forfeite the Interest, their Saviour so dearly bought them in it.

Nor shall we onely converse with Saints and Angells, § 25 but with that infinitely more glorious Deity, that made them, what they are, without at all Impoverishing Himselfe. In Heaven, we shall enjoy (its Maker) God,³⁸ and see Him as he is, who (as the Scripture telleth us) shall then be all in all: Comprising all the goods, we value in the Creatures, as eminently and fully, as the Sun doth the Light, that Twinkleth in the Starrs.

If one,³⁹ that was none of the least of the Philosophers, scrupl’d not to tell the man that ask’d him, What he was borne for, that, It was to contemplate the Sun; If our best Naturalists themselves, though the darknesse that is here cast upon things, and the dimnesse of our Intellectual Eyes, (which I remember Aristotle fitly compares to those of an Owle) permit us to discern but very little of that Wisdom, Power, and Goodnesse, which he has expressed in the Creation, are yet often transporeed and ravish’d with a just Admiration of the Perfections, He has displayed in his Workman-ship. If the wise Queen that came so far to visit Solomon, was put almost into an Extasie, by the sight of his, though Wise, yet Human, Ordering of things; And if the Angels themselves (as St. Peter informs us) desire to look into the mysterious contrivances of God, in order to Man’s Redemption: How great a Satisfaction, Lindamor, may we justly conceive it must needs be, to be admitted to See so much of God, as Heaven will Discover to us? Especially, since so much of our future Happinesse will consist in that Beatifick Vision, (as the School-men justly call it) that St. John concluded, that we shall be like God, because we shal see Him as He is. And our Saviour himself paraphrases our Coelestiall felicity by this blessed Vision, (Matt. 5.8) where he says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God: As on the other side the Writer to the Hebrews imployes the being deny’d the sight of that Divine Object, as a Description of extreme wretchednesse, in that Text, where having exhorted those to whom he writes to follow peace and holinesse; he adds, (Heb. 12.14) as the formidablest Menace which he could make useof to Deterr them from sleighting his Exhortation, without which no man shall see the Lord. And by this Vision our Saviour seems to describe the happinesse even of Angels; where, forbidding the Scandalizing of any of those little ones that beleeve in him, he adds, to enforce what he had said, that their Angells do alwaies see the face of his Father in Heaven. (Matt. 18.10) We shall be so taken up with the Contemplation and Fruition of that Glorious Object, (in whose Infinity all goods are included and Dilated) that Ages numberlesse as the Joyes That Beatifick Vision abounds with, will scarce afford us leasure for a Diversion to any other Pleasures, than those it self creates; which are so Numerous, and so Entire, that we shall there Desire nothing, that we Have not, except more Tongues to sing more Praises to him, or at least a Capacity to pay him greater Thankss, for what we Have; And even those Desires, Gods gracious Acceptation wil make, in being Conceiv’d, Accomplished: for, otherwise Heaven’s Residents scarce know any other Want, then that of Need to Wish; The Compleat Blessednesse of their Condition, reducing them to a happy Uselesnesse of Wishes, by affording them a full Prae-possession of all the Objects of Desire. There Time, like Fire, having destroy’d What ever it could prey on, shall at last Dye it self, and shall Goe Out into Eternity. Whose Nature is such, that though our Joyes, after some Centuryes of Years, may seem to have been grown Elder, by having been enjoyed so many Ages, yet will they really still continue New, not onely upon the scores of their Welcomenesse and Freshnesse, but by their perpetually Equall (because Infinite) Distance from a Period. There, our felicity shall alwaies be the Same, yet ever New. Wearinesse arguing Imperfection, either in the Object, or the Appetite; the Former of which is Impossible in God, and the Latter shall Cease in Heaven; Where our Felicity shall be so Great, that Variety (it self) shall not be needed as a part of it. And if Heaven do admit Variety, it may be supposed such a one, as shall consist in a Further Knowledge of the First Object (God), not a forsaking of it; and such as arises from the fixt Beholding of the changingnecks of Doves, or such as we may see in the diversisi’d Refractions of the same sparkling Diamond. In God, there is such a various Identity, that the Fruition of Him both Satisfies and Creates Desires: though That, without Satiety; and This, without Disquiet. Other Delights, like the usuall Cloaths we wear, quickly grow Stale, and are soon Worn out; where as Coelestiall Pleasures participate the Prerogative of the Jews Garments in the (Deut 29.5) Wildernesse, of not Impairing by being used Long. But as the amorous Needle, once joyn’d unto the Loadstone, would never, uncompell’d, forsake the inchanting Minerall; but, after ages, cling no lesse closely to it than at the first moment of their Union: So do the Saints in Heaven, with the same undiminisht Freshnesse, ever possesse their Joyes, as if each moment were the First that they possest them in. And if their Happinesse do not improve by lastinger Enjoyment, ‘tis perhaps but because it was at first uncapable of Increase. Or, if our Pleasures do admit Accession, they shall receive it from our Assurance, that we shall taste them Ever, and perpetually repeat (or rather continue) the same renewed Fruitions to an Eternity, endear’d by nothing more, than by the quiet leisure it will afford us, undistractedly to employ it, in Celebrating of the Author’s Praises; and in a Condition, happier in that by it we grow past Doing, than past Suffering Ill. In Heaven, (in a word) our inexhausted Joyes will be so numberlesse, and so immense, that we shall need (as well as have) Eternity it self to taste them fully.

But, Lindamor, § 26 it was not my Design to give you a particular Topographie of this Coelestiall Canaan; but onely in a few words to let you see, that ‘tis, a Land flowing with Milk and Hony, And though I acknowledge, I have given you but dark Descriptions (and sometimes, rather Poeticall than Chorographicall) of what the Apostle styles, (Col. 1.12) the Inheritance of the Saints in light. Yet since, to whet our Longings for Fruitive (or Experimentall) Knowledg it is reserv’d among the Prerogatives of being in Heaven, to know how happy we shall be, when There: And since what the Scripture hath reveal’d of Paradise, seemes meant rather to Quicken our Obedience, then Satisfie our Curiosity; I may for those purposes, have perhaps tolerably perform’d that taske (of Heavenly Topographie) by the acknowledgments of my Disability to do it worthily. I shall now onely adde this Property of our expected Blisse, that the vast Multitude of Partners does detract nothing from each private Share, nor does the Publicknesse of it lessen Propriety in it. This Ocean of Felicity being so Shoarlesse and so Bottomless, that all the Saints and Angels cannot exhaust it, it being as impossible for any Aggregate of Finites to comprehend or exhaust one Infinite, as ‘tis for the greatest number of Mathematick Points to amount to, or constitute, a Body. Our neighbour-regions doe all enjoy the benefit of light as well as we; yet we enjoy not Lesse, than if they enjoy’d None. Indeed, there is this difference between the Sun of Righteousnesse, and that of Heaven; that, whereas the later by his presence Eclipses all the Planets (his Attendants); the former, though radiant with a much mightier Splendour, will by his Presence Impart it to his Saints: according to that of the Apostle; (Coll. 3.4) When Christ who is our Life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in Glory. So that the Elect, in relation to this Sun, shall not be like Starres, which his shining obscures and makes to disappear; but like polisht Silver, or well glaz’d Armes, or those vaster Balls of burnisht Brasse, the topps of Churches are sometimes adorn’d with, which shine not till they be shin’d upon, and derive their glittering Brightnesse and all the fire, that environs and illustrates them from their being expos’d (unskreen’d) to the Sun’s refulgent beams. (Cant. 6.3) I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine, sayes every Saint (with the Spouse in the Canticles) to hir Redeemmer. David sayes of them that put their trust in God, (Psal. 36.8) That he shall abundantly satisfie them with the fatnesse of His house, and make them drink of the River of his pleasures: As if he meant to insinuate, that, as when a multitude of persons drink of the same River, none of them is able to exhaust it, and yet each of them may have the full liberty of drinking as much as he can, or as much as he could though none but himselfe should be Allow’d to drinke of it: so whosoever enjoyes God, enjoyes him wholly, or at least doth enjoy him so entirely, in Relation to that man’s capacity that the Fruition of whatsoever rests unenjoy’d of God, is forbidden by the Immensity of the Object, and not the Praepossession of his Rivalls. The Angels, though of a Nature Differing from our’s, and thereby plac’d above the personal Experience of our sufferings, and infirmities, doe yet so sympathize with us, that (as our Saviour informs us) they rejoyce at the repentance of a sinner.

And though, the members of the Church Militant, and those of the Triumphant, live as farre asunder, as Heaven is from Earth, and are not more Distant as to place, than Differing as to Condition; yet St. Paul reckons all the Saints to be but one Family in Heaven and Earth. (Eph. 3.15) If then the disparity of Residences, of Qualities, and of Conditions, cannot Now hinder the Lovers of God, from being so concern’d in one another; how much of endearing Kindnesse may we suppose, that they will Enterchange, When both their Love shall be perfected, and all those other Graces, that are proper to cherish and encrease it: For, the same Apostle, who, to assist us to conceive the strictnesse of the Union both betwixt Christ and his Saints, and the Saints among themselves, tells us, that He is the Head,⁴⁰ and they are his Body, and Members, in particular; teaches us to make this inference That, (to expresse his Doctrine in his own words) If one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it;⁴¹ and if one Member be honour’d, all the Members rejoyce with it. Yes, Lindamor, in that blest Condition, our wills being perfectly conform’d unto our Maker’s, no Saint nor Angel can enjoy his Love without possessing a proportionate Degree of ours. And then, since perfect Friendship appropriates to each Friend the Crosses and Prosperities of the other (as good Barzillai could not be highlier oblig’d by David, (2 Sam. 19.37) than by the Kings kindnesse to his Son) each severall Beatitude in Heaven, shall (in some sort concern the whole Society, and) be Ours. As the Earth receives Addition of Light by the Sun’s Beames bestow’d upon the Starrs, and from the Moon reflecting upon Her. And because our personall Capacities are too too narrow, to contain all that Joy, we are (by the strange Arithmetick of Friendship) multiplyed into as many Happy Persons, as there are Saints and Angells blest in Heaven. Our perfect Union to Our Common Head, and mutuall Communion with each other, applying and bringing home every Felicity of theirs to us. This Friendly and reciprocall Sympathy, reaching us each Glorified Saint’s Blessednesse, and Him ours, by a blest Circulation, which makes us encrease, by our resenting them, those Joyes (of others) whose Encrease we resent. But my Thoughts are ingaged in so good Company, Lindamor, that they keep me from considering, how fast the Hours passe, and have almost made me forget, that the Time which my Occasions allow me for Scribling to you, is so far spent, that not now at last to Reprieve you from the Persecutions of my blunt Pen, were to be almost as Injurious to my own Affairs, as to your Patience. Hereafter yet, I may possibly make you some amends for this, with Riper Discourses of the Nature and Duties, or (if you will) the Properties and Returns of this Love, to which I have hitherto presented you some Motives. To (the last of) which, I might add; That, our Love to the Creature is an Earnest, but to God ‘tis a Title; the One makes Us the Object’s, but the Other makes the Object Ours: That, since there is in Love so strong a Magick, as to Transform the Lover into the Object Lov’d; We ought to be extreamly carefull of the Dedication of a Passion, which, as it is plac’d, must either Dignifie our Nature, or Degrade it. And not to Addresse to any Lower (or, which is all one, to any Other) Object, the highest Intensity of a Love, which cannot Stoop without our Degradation. And these I might Exspatiate on, and Recruit them with many other Motives, additionall to those already insisted on; but that I may more properly reserve them to the Treatise of the Properties of that Love, whose Nature so partakes That of its Object, that there can hardly be produc’d more powerfull Motives to it than the Conditions of it. Since then (as I freshly intimated) I cannot but feare that your tir’d Patience, as well as my urgent Occasions (though these will recall me to morrow Morning to my own VVesterne Hermitage) doth at present summon me to leave you: and since I cannot do so in a happier place, than Heaven, I shall suspend my Farewells, onely to begge you to believe, that so Noble a Motive of Exalting-Friendship, as the Ambition of rendring mine a fit Return for yours, hath so Improv’d my Kindnesse that my Affection without wronging its own Greatnesse, could not Expresse it self by any Lesse Attempt, then this of gaining you the Greatest and the most Desireable of all Goods, by elevating (that Noble Harbinger of your Soul,) your Love to Heaven: Whose Joyes alone are not Inferiour to those which the Being made Instrumentall to procure them you, would really Create in,

SIR, Your most Faithfull, most Affectionate, and most Humble Servant, ROBERT BOYLE. From Leese this 6th of Aug. 1648.*

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Footnotes

1. The Name Seraphim, in Hebrew, springs from the Root Saraph, which signifies to burn or flame: Whence, Numb. 21.6. those pernicious Creatures, that our Translators English, Fiery-Serpents, are styled in the Originall, Hannechasim has-seraphim. ↩

2. Numb. c. 21. v. 8, 9. ↩

3. Heb. 11.[…]7. ↩

4. Rev 22.4. & 19.1. ↩

5. Act. 8.17. Luk. 1.52. ↩

6. 1 Tim. 1.17. 1 Tim. 6.16. ↩

7. Psal. 42.1. Cervina caro sicca est, &c. Sennert. Insti. De Alimenter facultatibus. lib. 4. part. 1. cap. 3. ↩

8. Ibidem v. 136. ↩

9. Ps. 101.6. ↩

10. The Text refers her extraction to Syrophaenicia, the same Region with Canaan. ↩

11. Ezek. 28.24. 2 Cor. 12.7. ↩

12. Exod. 32. vers. 4, 5. In the latter of which it is expresly said, that the Feast was proclaimed, […], To Jehovah, the peculiar Name of the true God. ↩

13. Luk: 10. ↩

14. See also Joh. 14. v. 9, 10, 11. ↩

15. Numb. 13 23, 27. ↩

16. Gen. 30. ↩

17. vers. 11. ↩

18. Act. 27.24 25, & 28. ↩

19. Heb. 7. per totum. ↩

20. 1 Chro 29.11, 1 13, 14, 1 16 ↩

21. Luk 2.37. &c. ↩

22. Act. 16.25 26, &c. ↩

23. Matth. 25.37, &c. ↩

24. 2 Tim. 4. v. 7, 8. ↩

25. especially Chap. 17. Num, 5, 6 ↩

26. pag. 97. ↩

27. Mat. 5 12. ↩

28. Matth. 28 18. ↩

29. Luk. 1. ↩

30. Josh. 52 13, 14. ↩

31. Luk. 19.37, 38—41 ↩

32. Act. 7. ↩

33. In the 2d and 3d chapters of the Apocalyps. ↩

34. Matth. 25. ↩

35. Luk 16. ↩

36. Dan. 12 3. ↩

37. […] ↩

38. 1 Joh. 3.2. 1 Cor. 15.28. ↩

39. Anaxageras. ↩

40. 1 Cor. 12. ↩

41. v. 27, 28. ↩