“A dying sparkle in a cloudy place;
when it no longer
Looks thro’ the windows of the eye and ear.”
But rather is all eye, all ear, all sense, in a manner we cannot yet conceive. And have we not a clear proof of the possibility of this, of seeing without the use of the eye, and hearing without the use of the ear? Yea, and an earnest of it continually? For does not the soul see, in the clearest manner, when the eye is of no use, namely, in dreams? Does she not then enjoy the faculty of hearing, without any help from the ear? But however this be, certain it is, that neither will our senses, any more than our speech, be intrusted to us in the manner they are now, when the body lies in the silent grave.
7. *How far the knowledge or learning which we have gained by education will then remain, we cannot tell. Solomon indeed says, There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest. But it is evident, these words cannot be understood in an absolute sense. For it is so far from being true, that there is no knowledge after we have quitted the body, that the doubt lies on the other side, whether there be any such thing as real knowledge till then? Whether it be not a plain sober truth, not a mere poetical fiction,
That “all these shadows which for things we take,
Are but the empty dreams, which in death’s sleep we make”?
Only excepting those things which God himself has been pleased to reveal to man. I will speak for one: after having sought for truth with some diligence for half a century, I am at this day hardly sure of any thing, but what I learn from the bible. Nay, I positively affirm, I know nothing else so certainly, that I would dare to stake my salvation upon it.
So much however we may learn from Solomon’s words, that that there is no such knowledge or wisdom in the grave, as will be of any use to an unhappy spirit; there is no device there, whereby he can now improve those talents, with which he was once intrusted. For time is no more: the time of our trial for everlasting happiness or misery is past. Our day, the day of man, is over; the day of salvation is ended. Nothing now remains but the day of the Lord, ushering in, wide, unchangeable eternity.
8. But still our souls, being incorruptible and immortal, of a nature little lower than the angels, (even if we are to understand that phrase of our original nature, which may well admit of a doubt) when our bodies are mouldered into earth, will remain with all their faculties. Our memory, our understanding will be so far from being destroyed, yea, or impaired by the dissolution of the body, that on the contrary, we have reason to believe, they will be inconceivably [♦]strengthened. Have we not the clearest reason to believe, that they will then be wholly freed from those defects, which now naturally result from the union of the soul with the corruptible body? It is highly probable, that from the time these are disunited, our memory will let nothing slip: yea, that it will faithfully exhibit every thing to our view, which was ever committed to it. It is true, that the invisible world is in scripture termed the land of forgetfulness; or as it is still more strongly expressed in the old translation, the land where all things are forgotten. They are forgotten; but by whom? Not by the inhabitants of that land, but by the inhabitants of the earth. It is with regard to them that the unseen world is the land of forgetfulness. All things therein are too frequently forgotten by these; but not by disembodied spirits. From the time they have put off the earthly tabernacle, we can hardly think they forget any thing.