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foul of man, will raife up from time to time, fay they, every gratification which it is in the humour to be pleafed with. If we wish to be in groves or bowers, among running streams or falls of water, we fhall immediately find ourfelves in the midft of fuch a scene as we defire. If we would be entertained with mufic and the melody of founds, the confort arifes upon our wifh, and the whole region about us is filled with harmony. In short, every defire will be followed by fruition, and whatever a man's inclination directs him to, will be prefent with him. Nor is it material whether the Supreme Power creates in conformity to our wishes, or whether he only produces such a change in our imagination, as makes us believe ourfelves converfant among thofe fcenes which delight us. Our happiness will be the fame, whether it proceed from external objects, or from the impreffions of the Deity upon our own private fancies. This is the account which I have received from my learned friend. Notwithstanding this fyftem of belief be in general very chimerical and vifionary, there is fomething fublime in its manner of confidering the influence of a Divine Being on a human foul. It has alfo, like most other opinions of the heathen world upon thefe important points, it has, I fay, its foundation in truth, as it fuppofes the fouls of good men after this life to be in a state of perfect happiness, that in this ftate there will be no barren hopes, nor fruitless wishes, and that we fhall enjoy every thing we can defire. But the particular circumftances which I am most pleased with in this fcheme, and which arifes from a just reflexion upon human nature, is that variety of pleafures which it fuppofes the fouls of good men will be poffeffed of in another world. This I think highly probable, from the dictates both of reafon and revelation. The foul confifts of many faculties, as the understanding, and the will, with all the fenfes both outward and inward; or, to fpeak

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more philofophically, the foul can exert herself in many different ways of action. She can understand, will, imagine, fee, and hear, love, and discourse, and apply herself to many other the like exercises of different kinds and natures; but what is more to be confidered, the foul is capable of receiving a moft exquifite pleafure and fatisfaction from the exercise of any of thefe its powers, when they are gratified with their proper objects; fhe can be intirely happy by the fatisfaction of the memory, the fight, the hearing, or any other mode of perception. Every faculty is as a diftinct taste in the mind, and hath objects accommodated to its proper relish. Doctor Tillotson fomewhere fays, that he will not prefume to determine in what confifts the happiness of the bleft, becaufe God Almighty is capable of making the foul happy by ten thousand different ways. Befides thofe feveral avenues to pleasure which the foul is endued with in this life, it is not impoffible, according to the opinions of many eminent divines, but there may be new faculties in the fouls of good men made perfect, as well as new fenfes in their glorified bodies. This we are fure of, that there will be new objects offered to all those faculties which are effential to us..

We are likewife to take notice, that every particular faculty is capable of being employed on a very great variety of objects. The understanding, for example, may be happy in the contemplation of moral, natural, mathematical, and other kinds of truth. The memory likewife may turn itfelf to an infinite multitude of objects, especially when the foul shall have paffed through the fpace of many millions of years, and fhall reflect with pleasure on the days of eternity. Every other faculty may be confidered in the fame extent.

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We cannot queftion but that the happiness of a foul will be adequate to its nature, and that it is not endued with any faculties' which are to lie ufelefs

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and unemployed. The happiness is to be the hap pinefs of the whole man, and we may eafily conceive to ourfelves the happinefs of the foul, while any one of its faculties is in the fruition of its chief good. The happinefs may be of a more exalted nature in proportion as the faculty employed is fo; but as the whole foul acts in the exertion of any of its particular powers, the whole foul is happy in the pleasure which arifes from any of its particular acts. For notwithstanding, as has been before hinted, and as it has been taken notice of by one of the greatest modern philofophers, we divide the foul into feveral powers and faculties, there is no fuch divifion in the foul itself, fince it is the whole foul that remembers, underftands, wills, or imagines. Our manner of confidering the memory, understanding, will, imagination, and the like faculties, is for the better enabling us to exprefs ourfelves in fuch abftracted fubjects of fpeculation, not that there is any fuch divifion in the foul itfelf

Seeing then that the foul has many different faculties, or, in other words, many different ways of acting; that it can be intenfely pleafed or made happy by all thefe different faculties, or ways of acting; that it may be endued with feveral latent faculties, which it is not at prefent in a condition to exert; that we cannot believe the foul is endu ed with any faculty which is of no ufe to it; that whenever any one of thefe faculties is tranfcendently pleased, the foul is in a state of happinefs; and, in the last place, confidering that the happiness of another world is to be the happiness of the whole man; who can queftion but that there is an infinite variety in thofe pleafures we are speaking of; and that this fulness of joy will be made up of all those pleasures which the nature of the foul is capable of receiving.

We fhall be the more confirmed in this doctrine, if we obferve the nature of variety, with regard to

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the mind of man. The foul does not care to be always in the fame bent. The faculties relieve one another by turns, and receive an additional pleasure from the novelty of thofe objects about which they are converfant.

Revelation likewife very much confirms this notion, under the different views which it gives us of our future happiness. In the description of the throne of God, it reprefents to us all thofe objects which are able to gratify the fenfes and imagination : In very many places it intimates to us, all the happiness which the understanding can poffibly receive in that ftate, where all things fhall be revealed to us, and we shall know, even as we are known; the raptures of devotion, of Divine Love, the pleafure of converfing with our bleffed Saviour, with an innumerable hoft of angels, and with the fpirits of juft men made perfect, are likewife revealed to us in feveral parts of the holy writings. There are alfo mentioned thofe hierarchies or governments, in which the bleft shall be ranged one above ano ther, and in which we may be fure a great part of our happiness will likewife confift; for it will not be there as in this world, where every one is aiming at power and superiority; but, on the contrary, every one will find that station the most proper for him in which he is placed, and will probably think that he could not have been so happy in any other ftation. Thefe, and many other particulars, are marked in Divine Revelation, as the feveral ingredients of our happiness in heaven, which all imply fuch a variety of joys, and fuch a gratification of the foul in all its different faculties, as I have been here mentioning.

Some of the Rabbins tell us, that the cherubims are a fet of angels who know moft, and the feraphims a fet of angels who love moft. Whether

this diftinction be not altogether imaginary, I fhall not here examine but it is highly probable,

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mong the fpirits of good men, there may be fome who will be more pleased with the employment of one faculty than of another, and this perhaps according to thofe innocent and virtuous habits or inclinations which have here taken the deepest root.

I might here apply this confideration to the fpirits of wicked men, with relation to the pain which they fhall fuffer in every one of their facul ties, and the respective miferies which fhall be appropriated to each faculty in particular, But leaving this to the reflexion of my readers I fhall conclude, with obferving how we ought to be thankful. to our great Creator, and rejoice in the being which he has bestowed upon us, for having made the foul fufceptible of pleasure by fo many different ways. We fee by what a variety of paffages joy and gladnefs may enter into the thoughts of man; how wonderfully a human spirit is framed, to imbibe its proper fatisfactions, and tafte the goodness of its Creator. We may therefore look into ourselves with rapture and amazement, and cannot sufficiently exprefs our gratitude to him, who has encompaffed us with fuch a profufion of bleffings, and opened in us so many capacities of enjoying them.

There cannot be a ftronger argument that God has defigned us for a state of future happiness, and i for that heaven which he has revealed to us, than that he has thus naturally qualified the foul for it, and made it a being capable of receiving fo much ✨ blefs. He would never have made fuch faculties in vain, and have endued us with powers that were not to be exerted on fuch objects as are fuited to them. It is very manifeft, by the inward frame and constitution of our minds, that he has adapted them to an infinite variety of pleasures and gratifications, which are not to be met with in this life. We fhould therefore at all times take care that we do not disappoint this his gracious purpose and intention towards us, and make thofe faculties which

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