understand what could concern them. The fame
Words Nazianzen ufes at the exequies of his Sifter Gor-
gonia, and in the former invective against Julian: But
this was upon another Reason; even because it was
uncertain what the state of Separation was, and whe-
ther our Dead perceive any thing of us till we shall
meet in the Day of Judgment. If it was uncertain
then, it is certain, fince that time we have had no
new Revelation concerning it; but it is ten to one but
when we die we fhall find the state of Affairs wholly
differing from all our Opinions here, and that no Man
or Set hath gueffed any thing at all of it as it is. Here
I intend not to difpute, but to perfuade: And therefore
in the general, if it be probable that they know or feel
the Benefits done to them, though but by a reflex Re-
velation from God, or fome under-Communication
from an Angel, or the ftock of acquired notices here
below, it may the rather endear us to our Charities or
Duties to them refpectively; fince our Virtues ufe not
to live upon Abstractions and metaphyfical Perfe-
tions or Inducements,
but then thrive when
they have material Ar-
guments, fuch which
are not too far from
Senfe. However it be,
it is certain they are not dead; and though we no
more fee the Souls of our dead Friends than we did
when they were alive, yet we have reafon to believe
them to know more things and better: And if our
Sleep be an Image of Death, we may alfo obferve con-
cerning it, that it is a ftate of Life fo feparate from
Communications with the Body, that it is one of the
ways of Oracle and Pro-

Ἦλθε δ ̓ ἐπὶ ψυχὴ Παρακλῆς δειλοίο,
καί μιν πρὸς μύθον έειπεν,
Εὕδεις, αὐτὰς ἐμεῖο λελασμένο ἐπλου, Αχιλλος
Οὐ μας μου ζώοντος ἀπήδεις, ἀλλὰ θανόντα.
Iliad. . . 65, 69.

Ἡ ἢ τῶ ἀνθρώπε ψυχὴ είτε δήπε θεστάτη καταφαίνει, και τότε τι δ μελλόντων προςά, τότε γὰς ὡς ἔοικε μάλισα ελευθερες). Έγιrus apud Xenoph. lib. 8. Inftitur.

13

phecy, by which the Soul,
beft declares her Immor-
tality, and the noblenets
of her Actions and Powers,
if the cou'd get free from
the Body, (as in the ftate of Separation) or a clear Do-
minion over it, (as in the Refurrection.) To which allo

་་

W

103.

Sect. 8. -Tie this Confideration may be added, that Men a long eiv dido do time live the Life of Senfe, before they use their Reaμοισι ψυχή eidaxov, a-fon; until they have furnish'd their Heads with exτης Φρίνες periments and notices of many Things, they cannot váμ- at all difcourfe of any thing: But when they come to Iliad. ufe their Reafon, all their Knowledge is nothing but Remembrance; and we know by Proportions, by Similitudes and Diffimilitudes, by Relations and Oppofitions, by Caufes and Effects, by comparing Things with Things; all which are nothing but Operations of Understanding upon the flock of former Notices, of fomething we knew before, nothing but Remembrances: All the Heads of Topicks, which are the ftock of all Arguments and Sciences in the World, are a certain Demonftration of this; and he is the wifeft Man that remembers moft, and joins thofe Remembrances together to the best purposes of Difcourfe. From whence it may not be improbably gathered, that in the ftate of Separation, if there be any A&t of Understanding, that is, if the Understanding be alive, it must be relative to the notices it had in this World; and therefore the A&s of it must be Difcourfes upon all the Parts and Perfons of their Converfation and Relation, excepting only fuch new Revelations which may be communicated to it; concerning which we know nothing. But if by feeing Socrates I think upon Plato, and by feeing a Pi&ture I remember a Man, and by beholding two Friends I remember my own and my Friend's Need, (and he is wifeft that draws moft Lines from the fame Centre, and moft Difcourfes from the fame Notices) it cannot but be very probable to believe, fince the feparate Souls understand better, if they understand at all, that from the notices they carry'd from hence, and what they find there equal or unequal to those notices, they can better difcover the things of their Friends than we can here by our Conjectures and craftieft Imaginations; and yet many Men here can guess fhrewdly at the Thoughts and Defigns of fuch Men with whom they difcourfe, or of whom they have heard, or whofe Characters they prudently have perceived. I have no other end in this Difcourse, but

that

that we may be engaged to do our Duty to our Dead; left peradventure they thou'd perceive our Neglect, and be witneffes of our tranfient Affections and Forgetfulnefs. Dead Perfons have Religion paffed upon them, and a folemn Reverence: And if we think a Ghoft beholds us, it may be we may have upon us the Impref fions likely to be made by Love, and Fear, and Religion. However, we are fure that God fees us, and the World fees us: And if it be matter of Duty towards our Dead, God will exact it; if it be matter of Kindness, the World will; and as Religion is the Band of that, fo Fame and Reputation is the Endearment of this.

It remains, that we who are alive fhould fo live, and by the Actions of Religion attend the coming of the Day of the Lord, that we neither be furprized nor leave our Duties imperfect, nor our Sins uncancel'd, nor our Perfons unreconcil'd, nor God unappeafed: But that when we defcend to our Graves, we may reft in the Bofom of the Lord, till the Manfions be prepared where we shall ting and feaft eternally. Amen.

Sec. III. Rules and Spiritual
Arts of lengthening our Days,

Reafons for a daily Examination,

p. ibid.
The Benefits of this Exercife, 45
Se&t. II1. Of exercising Charity
during our whole Life, SI
Sect. IV. General Confiderations,
to inforce the former Practices,
54

The Circumstances of a dying
Man's Sorrow and Danger, 55

CHA P. III.

and to take off the Objection of OF the Temptations inci-

a fhort Life,

16

Sect. IV. Confideration of the

A General Preparation to-

dent to the State of Sick-
nefs, with their proper Re-
medies,

59

Se&. I. Of the State of Sickness,
ibid.

62

65

Sect. II. Of Impatience,
Seat. III. Conftituent or integral
Parts of Patience,
Se&t. IV. Remedies against Im-
patience, by way of Confidera-
tion,
67
Sect. V. Remedies against Im-
patience, by way of Exercife,
75

wards a holy and blessed
Death, by way of Exercife, 37
Se&. I. Three Precepts prepara-
tory to a holy Death, to be pra-
Etifed in our whole Life, ibid.
Sect. II. Of daily Examination of
bur Actions in the whole courfe
of our Health, preparatory to Three appendent Confiderations,
Our Death-bed,

42

Sect. VI. Advantages of Sickness,

80

81, 82, 83
Se&.