all such acts and trusts, liveth : and tliougli tliey camiot avenge frauds, and injustice of men, he both can and will do it, 1 Thess. iv. 6. which, I think, is a weightier ground and reason to enforce duty upon men than the fear of ghosts. Besides, this is a case wherein all the living are concerned, all that die must commit a trust to them that survive ; and if frauds should be committed with impunity, who could safely repose confidence in another;. Qiiod tanget omnes^ fangi debet ah omnibus: that which is of general concernment, and becomes every man's interest, infers a general obligation upon all.
As for the letters of Elijah, it is a vanity to tliink they came post from heaven ; no, no, they were doubtless left behind him, out of due care to the government, and produced on that fit occasion.
Obj. 4. But xvhat need of a law to prohibit necromancy or consul- tation with the dead, if it loere not practicable ?
Sol I do not think the wicked art there prohibited enabled them to recal departed souls ; but it was a conversing with the devil who personated the dead, and therein a kind of homage was paid him to the dishonour of God ; or he might possibly raise the bodies of wicked men, and appear in them : bi*t I think the spirits of the dead return not, except as was before limited.
Obj. 5. But the matters they discover are found to be true, and the causes in ivhich they concern themselves are just ; real murders are detected by them, and real frauds and injuries corrected and recti/ied: but the devil being himself a liar, and deceiver, would never do it ; it is not his interest to discover or discourage such things.
Sol. Though it be not his interest merely to discover it, yet it is certainly his interest to precipitate wicked men, and hasten their ruin by the hand of Justice ; and he will speak the truth, and seem to own a righteous cause, to bring about his great design of ruining the souls and bodies of men. I will shut up with three cautions.
Caution 1. Strain not conscience to enrich posterity: be true to the trusts committed to you by the dead, or by the livings remem- bering, that though they be dead, and cannot avenge the wrongs yet the Lord lives, and will surely do it in a severer manner than they could, should thev appear in the most terrible and frightful forms to you : Besides, your own consciences will haunt you worse than a ghost. Be just and true therefore in all your promises and trusts, for God is the avenger.
Caution 9,. Finish your work for eternity before you die ; for as " the cloud iH consumed, and vanished away, so he that goeth *' down to the grave shall come up no more ; he shall return no " more to his house, neither shall his place know him any " more,'"' Job vii. 9, 10. Your souls will be fixed iu etenutji
A TREATISE OF THE SOL'L OF MAN* 83
soon after they are loosed from your bodies : when death comes, away you must go, willing or unwilling, ready or unready ; but no returning hither, how willmg soever.
Caution 3. Keep yourselves from that heathenish and accursed practice of consulting the devil about your absent or dead rela- tions ; a practice too common in sea-port towns, and of deep and heinous guilt before God : Isa. viii. 19. " And when they shall " say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and " unto wizards that peep and mutter ; should not a people seek " unto their God ? for the living to the dead ?
You need not call the devil twice ; that subtle and officious spirit draws the living into his net by such a bait as this : You meet your mortal enemy under the disguise of your dead friend.
Query 5. Whether the separated souls of the just in heaven have any converse or communication with each other ? and hozv that can be, seeing all the organs and instruments of speech and hearing are laid aside loith their bodies ;
It seems impossible that separated or unbodied spirits should converse together, seeing the instruments by which the thoughts are communicated from one to another, are perished in the grave. Suppose the tongue of a man to be cut out, his eyes and hands perished or made useless, whilst the soul remains in the body ; it may enjoy its own thoughts within itself, but it is impossible to sig- nify them to another by words or signs.
Or suppose a man in a deep sleep (wherein the senses are only bound for a little time) he may indeed exercise his own fancy in a pleasant dream, but another cannot understand how it is enter- tained ; but in death the senses are not bound, but extinguished.
Beside, wo must not think the felicity of the departed holy souls to consist in mutual converses one with another, but in the ineffable visions of God, and communion with him. To him who is omni-i scient, and understands their most inward thoughts, they can freely communicate them, and receive his, as well as pour forth their own love ; but to do it to their fellow-creatures, who see not as God doth, seems impossible.
Indeed it was never doubted, but after the resurrection they shall both know and talk with one another in a more excellent and perfect manner than now they do ; but till that time, the rea- sons above seem to persuade us, that all the converses above, are only betwixt God and them, which indeed is enough to make them happy ; and indeed, if this ability be allowed to separated souls, it seems to render the resurrection of their bodies needless ; for they are well enough without them. But certainly the spirits of just men are not mutes ; such an angust assembly of holy and excellent spirits, do not live together in their Father's house with*
84 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAN.
out mutual converse and fellowship with each other, as well as with God.
That acute and judicious divine, Mr. Joseph Symonds, in his epistle to his book, intituled, Sig'ht and Faith, expresseth himself about this matter thus : ' I often think (saith he) of the commu- ' nion of the spirits of men, which is certainly more than many ' are acquainted with ; though we act one upon another in our ' present state, by the help of sense ; yet we are ^vrought and de- ' signed to a more excellent .way. Angels, and the spirits of men ' made perfect, converse and trade in a mutual communication, ^ not without sense, but without such sense as ours. This, as ' eternal life, begins here, and is found in some degrees in this ' mortal state, though not in so visible appearances as to lie open ' to much observation.
' Angels, good and bad, do act upon our spirits, and our spirits ' hold converse with them, and with the Father of spirits, whieh ' may be discerned in secret parlies and discourses betwixt them
* and us ; much of this appears in David's psalms ; and there pas-
* seth not only an inward speech, but there are invisible approaches, ' entertainments, and touches, which Paul found when bound in the ' Spirit, and under the working of God, which wrought in him ^ mightily. Col. i. 29- It is also most certain, that our souls are