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nally conclude, replied I, that the future ftate of blifs will be confummate; there will not be any deficiency in it: but without mutual knowledge it will be very defective; and therefore we fuppofe that this addition to its perfection will not be wanting. But not to lay more weight upon this argument than it will bear, I observe that the point seems self-evident: consciousnefs conftitutes identity; now, as I, the fame individual who live at present in this vale of trial, am hereafter to enjoy, (if by God's mercy I may enjoy) the bleffings of futurity; it follows, that I must be conscious of myself; which I cannot be without being conscious of the several relations I bore upon earth; and therefore it is impoffible to fuppofe, but that I muft know feveral perfons and connections who shall make up the affembly of the faints, at least such of them as were known to me upon earth. I cannot lofe my consciousness, for, if I lose that, I lose my identity.

The fcriptures too conftantly represent the future ftate as a ftate of mutual knowledge; for they tell us, that we fhall converse with, that we fhall fit down with, and in confequence shall know Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the reft of the patriarchs and apoftles. Now, if we fhall know thefe, is it not more than probable that we shall also know those with whom we have been united in the deareft bonds

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of friendship and concord upon earth? There is a very fine remark of David's, which is univerfally admired, because it is univerfally felt; which he made when he lost the son of his guilt by Bathsheba, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. Cold and poor comfort is this, if the royal mourner meant only that he should follow the child to the grave, and there intermingle his neglected ashes with him. It certainly must have a fublimer, a nobler import; the sense of mankind is a comment upon it; every thinking man that hears or repeats it, receives it as a cordial to his foul, informing him, that friends are not loft, but separated a while; and that we fhall go to them, to see them, to know them, to enjoy their friendship improved by all the purity of heaven.

I grant it is a rule laid down by divines, to found no doctrines upon parabolic texts-; but methinks they may be properly introduced, and tend very greatly to confirm opinions which have ftrong reasons and much probability to urge.

Dives, in mifery, is reprefented as perfectly knowing not Lazarus only, but Abraham alfo. And it has been concluded, from the scene of this parable, that it is likely not only that the happinefs of the bleffed will be increased by their focial intercourfe with each other; but also,

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that the mifery of the condemned will be fearfully augmented, from their fight and knowledge of thofe happy realms and happy beings, from each of which they are eternally fecluded. And is not this, faid my friend, an invincible objection to the doctrine of mutual knowledge; can it bé poffible, oh, can it be poffible, that you or I should rest in confummate joy; while peradventure those who were dearer to us than ourselves, our most affectionate parents, our tenderly beloved wives, our dearest children, our much valued friends are fuffering unrefpited, unpitied, unrelieved in the dolorous regions of uttermoft woe !" There is, I grant you, faid I, a difficult knot to unloofe in what you have objected; but I think the objection may be, in fome measure, obviated, by remarking, in the first place, that it is an infallible truth, heaven will be a place of perfect and uninterrupted fruition; all tears fball there be wiped away from all eyes for ever, and of neceffity there will not be found any thing there to damp the full enjoyment of our pleafures. In the next place, as all corporeal pasfions, fo all the ties and relations which are ne-' ceffary not only to the well-being, but to the continuance of a mortal fociety will ceafe and be diffolved. We shall be as the angels of God, our fouls filled with the unutterable love of the fupreme, and our highest affections engaged by the VOL. II.

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adorable perfections of the ever bleffed Three. --And fo completely fatisfied fhall we be in the fruition of God's love, that we shall thankfully confefs the juftice of all his decifions; and feel thofe utterly unworthy our love, who are found unworthy of his" "You spoke something of the Pagans, faid Mr. Stephens; had they any idea of this opinion?" "It is certain, replied I, that whatever conceptions they had of a future ftate, the belief of mutual knowledge ever make a part of it. This is too well known to be denied, read Cicero's Treatife de fenectute, and you will find, that one of the strongest confolations, which the good old man derives to himself, is from the hope of fhortly converfing again in the fhades of Elyfium, with those friends, whom he fo much valued and esteemed upon earth." "Well, faid Mr. Stephens, I think we may fum up the matter in Dr. Young's words,

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"Be good and let heaven answer for the reft."

One step farther, my dear friend, faid I, this opinion fhould certainly carry us. Is there a probability that we fhall meet and know each other again in the future world, which certainly will improve our blifs? Then, let it be our zealous endeavours to love that religion, and to practice that virtue, which will bring us to God, and

unite us, infeparably unite us, to thofe happy and perfected fouls; with whom we have been united in the tendereft bonds of the best affection below.

NUMBER XLVI.

Quot bomines, tot fententia!

EW men are fatisfied with their deftina

Ftion in

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tion in life; they difcern inconveniences and evils in their own ftations and employments, to which they conceive no other is fub`ject, and, in the difquietude of their hearts, prefer every attachment to their own.

The foldier worn with toil, with grief oppreft,
Laments his lot, and calls the merchant bleft;
When billows roar, and stormy winds arise,
The foldier's life is beft, the merchant cries.
Wak'd by his client, e'er the dawn appears,
A peafant's life, the barrister prefers.
Fully to prove how all mankind admire,
Lots differing from their own, would W- tire.

But how much foever this may be the cafe, with the occupations to which men are neceffarily and often involuntarily bound, we find it

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