Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

vile body, than to minifter to his understanding; and from the little fpot to which he is chained, he can frame but wandering gueflès concerning the innumerable worlds of light that encompass him, which, though in themfelves of a prodigious bignefs, do but just glimmer in the remote spaces of the heavens; and, when with a great deal of time and pains he hath laboured a little way up the fteep afcent of truth, and beholds with pity the grovelling multitude beneath, in a moment, his foot flides, and he tumbles down headlong into the grave.

Thinking on this, I am obliged to believe, in juftice to the Creator of the world, that there is another state when man fhall be better fituated for contemplation, or rather have it in his power to remove from object to object, and from world to world; and be accommodated with fenfes, and other helps, for making the quickest and most amazing difcoveries. How doth fuch a genius as Sir Ifaac Newton, from amidft the darkness that involves human understanding, break forth, and appear like one of another fpecies! The vast machine we inhabit, lies open to him; he seems not unacquainted with the general laws that govern it; and while, with the tranfport of a philofopher he beholds and admires the glorious work, he is capable of paying at once a more devout and more rational homage to his Maker. But, alas! how narrow is the profpect even of such a mind? and how obfcure to the compass that is taken in by the ken of an angel; or of a foul but newly escaped from its imprisonment in the body! For my part, I freely indulge my foul in the confidence of its future grandeur; it pleafes me to think that I who know fo fmall a portion of the works of the Creator, and with flow and painful steps creep up and down on the furface of this globe, fhall ere long fhoot away with the swiftnefs of imagination, trace out the

hidden fprings of nature's operations, be able to keep pace with the heavenly bodies in the rapidity of their career, be a fpectator of the long chain of events in the natural and moral worlds, vifit the feveral apartments of the creation, know how they are furnished, and how inhabited, comprehend the order, and meafure the magnitudes and diftances of thefe orbs, which to us feem difpofed without any regular defign, and fet all in the fame circle; obferve the dependence of the parts of each system, and (if our minds are big enough to grafp the theory) of the feveral fyftems upon one another, from whence refults the harmony of the universe, In eternity a great deal may be done of this kind. I find it of ufe to cherish this generous ambition; for, befides the fecret refreshment it diffufes thro' my foul, it engages me in an endeavour to improve my faculties, as well as to exercife them conformably to the rank I now hold among reasonable beings, and the hope I have of being once advanced to a more exalted station.

The other, and that the ultimate end of man, is the enjoyment of God, beyond which he cannot form a wish. Dim at beft are the conceptions we have of the Supreme Being, who, as it were, keeps his creatures in fufpenfe, neither difcovering, nor hiding himself; by which means the libertine hath a handle to diipute his exiftence, while the most are content to speak him fair, but, in their hearts, prefer every trifling fatisfaction to the favour of their Maker, and ridicule the good man for the fingu larity of his choice. Will there not a time come, when the free-thinker fhall fee his impious fchemcs overturned, and be made a convert to the truths he hates; when deluded mortals fhall be convinced of the folly of their purfaits, and the few wife who followed the guidance of heaven, and, fcorning the VOL. VIII. E e blandishments

blandifhments of fenfe and the fordid bribery of the world, aspired to a celestial abode, shall stand poffeffed of their utmost wish in the vifion of the Creator Here the mind heaves a thought now and then towards him, and hath fome tranfient glances of his prefence: When, in the inftant it thinks itself to have the fafteft hold, the object eludes its expectations, and it falls back tired and baffled to the ground. Doubtlefs there is fome more perfect way of converfing with heavenly beings. Are not fpirits capable of mutual intelligence, unless immerfed in bodies, or by their intervention? Muft fuperior natures depend on inferior for the main privilege of fociable beings, that of converting with, and knowing each other? What would they have done had matter never been created? I fuppofe, nor have lived in eternal folitude. As incorporeal fubftances are of a nobler order, fo be fure their manner of intercourfe is anfwerably more expedite and intimate. This method of communication, we call intellectual vifion, as fomewhat analogous to the fenfe of feeing, which is the medium of our acquaintance with this vifible world. And in fome fuch way can God make himself the object of immediate intuition to the bleffed; and as he can, it is not improbable that he will, always condefcending, in the circumftances of doing it, to the weakness and proportion of finite minds. His works but faintly reflect the image of his perfections; it is a fecond-hand knowledge: To have a juft idea of him, it may be neceffary that we fee him as he is. But what is that? It is fomething that never entered into the heart of man to conceive; yet, what we can easily conceive, will be a fountain of unfpeakable, of everlasting rapture. All created glories will fade and die away in his prefence. Perhaps it will be my happiness to com

pare

pare the world with the fair exemplar of it in the Divine mind; perhaps, to view the original plan of those wife defigns, that have been executing in a long fucceffion of ages. Thus employed in finding. out his works, and contemplating their author, how fhall I fall proftrate and adoring, my body fwallowed up in the immenfity of matter, my mind in the infinitude of his perfections!

[blocks in formation]

THE

IN DE X

то тНЕ

EIGHTH VOLUME.

A

ACTIONS, principles of, two in man, N. 588.

Adulterers, how punished by the primitive Christians, N. 579:

Aglaus, his story told by Cowley, N. 610.

Ambition, various kinds of it, N. 570. Laudable, 613.

Anacharfis, the Corinthian drunkard, a saying of his, N. 569.

Ancestry, how far honour is to be paid to it, N.

612.

Anfwers to feverai letters at once, N. 581, and 619. Antipathies, a letter about them, N. 609.

Anxieties, unneceffary, the evil of them, and the vanity of them, N. 615.

Applaufe and cenfure fhould not mislead us. N.

610.

Arafpus and Panthea, their story out of Xenophon, N. 564.

Ariftippus, his faying of content, N. 574.

Auguftus, his faying of mourning for the dead, N. 575.

B

BACON fitch, at Whichenovre in Staffordshire,

who are entitled to it, N. 607. Several demands for it, 608.

Bantam,

« PředchozíPokračovat »