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'mong Angels and Archangels, after having made a propitiation for the fins of mankind.

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With how much skill must the throne of God be erected? With what glorious defigns is that 'habitation beautified, which is contrived and built by him who infpired Hiram with wifdom? How great must be the majefty of that place, wherethe whole art of creation has been employed, and where God has chofen to shew himself in the moft magnificent manner? What must be the architecture of infinite power under the direction of infinite wisdom? Afpirit cannot but be tranfported after an ineffable manner with the fight of thofe objects, which were made to affect him by ⚫ that Being who knows the inward frame of a foul, and how to pleafe and ravish it in all its moft fecret powers and faculties. It is to this majestic prefence of God, we may apply thofe beautiful expreffions in holy writ: Behold even to ⚫ the moon, and it shineth nct; yea the ftars are not pure in his fight. The light of the fun, and all the glories of the world in which we live, are • but as weak and fickly glimmerings, or rather darkness itself, in comparifon of thofe fplendours which encompass the throne of God.

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As the glory of this place is tranfcendent beyond imagination, fo probably is the extent of it. There is light behind light, and glory within glory. How far that space may reach, in which God thus appears in perfect majefty, we cannot poffibly conceive. Though it is not infinite, it may be indefinite; and though not immeafurable in itself, it may be fo with regard to any create eye or imagination. If he has made thefe lower ⚫ regions of matter fo inconceivably wide and magnificent for the habitation of mortal and perifhable beings, how great may we fuppofe the courts of his houfe to be, where he makes his refidence in a more especial manner, and difplays himVOL. VIII.

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felf in the fulness of his glory, among an innumerable company of angels, and fpirits of juft men made perfect ?

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This is certain, that our imaginations cannot be raised too high, when we think on a place where omnipotence and omniscience have fo fignally exerted themfelves, because that they are able to produce a fcene infinitely more great and glorious than what we are able to imagine. It is not impoffible but at the confummation of all things, thefe outward apartments of nature, which are now fuited to thofe beings who inhabit them, may be taken in and added to that glorious place of which I am here speaking; and by that means made a proper habitation for beings who are exempt from mortality, and cleared of their imperfections: For fo the Scripture feems to intimate, when it speaks of new heavens and of a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

I have only confidered this glorious place with regard to the fight and imagination, though it is highly probable that our other fenfes may here likewife enjoy their highest gratifications. There is nothing which more ravishes and transports the foul, than harmony; and we have great reafon to believe, from the defcriptions of this place in holy fcripture, that this is one of the entertainments of it. And if the foul of man can be fo 'wonderfully affected with thofe ftrains of mufic, ' which human art is capable of producing, how 'much more will it be raised and elevated by those, in which is exerted the whole power of harmony! The fenfes are faculties of the human foul, tho' they cannot be employed, during this our vital union, without proper inftruments in the body. Why therefore fhould we exclude the fatisfaction of thefe faculties, which we find by experience are inlets of great pleasure to the foul, from among thofe entertainments which are to make

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up our happinefs hereafter? Why fhould we fuppofe that our hearing and feeing will not be gratified with those objects which are most agreeable to them, and which they cannot meet with in these lower regions of nature; objects, which • neither eye hath feen nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive! I knew a man in Christ (says St. Paul speaking of himself) * above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell: God knoweth) fuch a one caught up to the third 'heaven. And I knew fuch a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) how that he was caught up into paradife, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not posible for a man to utter. By this is meant that what he heard was fo infinitely different from any thing which he had heard in this world, that it was im poffible to exprefs it in fuch words, as might convey a notion of it to his hearers.

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It is very natural for us to take delight in enquiries concerning any foreign country, where we are fome time or other to make our abode; and as we all hope to be admitted into this glorious place, it is both a laudable and ufeful curiofity, to get what informations we can of it, while we 'make use of revelation for our guide. When thefe everlasting doors fhall be open to us, we may be fure that the pleafures and beauties of this place will infinitely tranfcend our prefent hopes and expectations, and that the glorious appearance of the throne of God will rife infinitely beyond whatever we are able to conceive of it. We might here entertain ourselves with many other fpeculations on this fubject, from thofe feveral hints which we find of it in the Holy Scriptures; as whether there may not be different manfions and apartments of glory, to beings of ⚫ different natures; whether as they excel one anoK2 ther

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ther in perfection, they are not admitted nearer to the throne of the Almighty, and enjoy greater manifestations of his prefence; whether there are not folemn times and occafions, when all the multitude of heaven celebrate the prefence of their Maker in more extraordinary forms of praife and adoration; as Adam, though he had continued in a state of innocence, would, in the opinion of our divines, have kept holy the Sabbath Day, in a more particular manner than any other of the feven.. Thefe, and the like fpeculations, we may very innocently indulge, fo long as we make ufe of them to infpire us with a defire of becoming inhabitants of this delightful place.

I have in this, and in two foregoing letters, treated on the moft ferious fubject that can employ the mind of man, the Omniprefence of the Deity; a fubject which, if poffible, fhould never depart from our meditations. We have confidered the Divine Being, as he inhabits infinitude, as he dwells among his works, as he is prefent to the inind of man, and as he difcovers himself in a more glorious manner among the regions of • the bleft. Such a confideration fhould be kept awake in us at all times, and in all places, and poffefs our minds with a perpetual awe and reverence. It fhould be interwoven with all our thoughts and perceptions, and become one with the confcioufnefs of our own being. It is not to be reflected on in the coldnefs of philofophy, but ought to fink us into the loweft proftration before him, who is fo aftonishingly great, wonderful, and holy.'

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MONDAY,

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No 581.

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MONDAY, AUGUST 16.

I

Sunt bona, funt quædam mediocria, funt mala plura
Que legis
MART. Epig. xvii. 1. 1.

Some good, more bad, fome neither one nor t'other.

AM at prefent fitting with a heap of letters before me, which I have received under the character of SPECTATOR; I have complaints from lovers, fchemes from projectors, fcandal from ladies, congratulations, compliments, and advice in abundance.

I have not been thus long an author, to be infenfible of the natural fondness every perfon must have for their own productions; and I begin to think I have treated my correfpondents a little too uncivilly in ftringing them all together on a file, and ✨ letting them lie fo long unregarded. I fhall therefore, for the future, think myself at least obliged to take notice of fuch letters as I receive, and may poffibly do it at the end of every month.

In the mean time, I intend my prefent paper as a fhort answer to most of those which have been already fent me..

The public however is not to expect I should let : them into all my fecrets; and though I appear abftrufe to most people, it is fufficient if I am underftood by my particular correfpondents.

My well-wifher Van Nath is very arch, but not quite enough fo to appear in print.

Philadelphus will, in a little time, fee his query fully answered, by a treatife which is now in the prefs.

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It was very improper at that time to comply with Mr. G..

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