Wesley Corpus

6. It may likewise admit of a doubt, whether our senses will exist, when the organs of sense are destroyed. Is it not probable, that those of the lower kind will cease -- the feeling, the smell, the taste -- as they have a more immediate reference to the body, and are chiefly, if not wholly, intended for the preservation of it But will not some kind of sight remain, although the eye be closed in death And will there not be something in the soul equivalent to the present sense of hearing Nay, is it not probable, that these will not only exist in the separate state, but exist in a far greater degree, in a more eminent manner, than now, when the soul, disentangled from its clay, is no longer "a dying sparkle in a cloudy place;" when it no longer "looks through 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 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 entrusted 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;