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in all its different faculties, as I have been here mention

ing.

SOME of the Rabbins tell us, that the cherubims are a fet of angels who know most, and the feraphims a fet of angels who love most. Whether this distinction be not altogether imaginary, I fhall not here examine; but it is highly probable, that among 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 ac_cording to those 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 faculties, and the respective miferies which shall be appropriated to each faculty in particular. But leaving this to the reflection 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 gladness may enter into the thoughts of man; how wonderfully a human fpirit is framed, to imbibe its proper fatisfactions, and taste the goodness of its Creator. We may therefore look into ourselves with rapture and amazement, and cannot fufficiently express 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 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 blifs. He would never have made fuch faculties in vain, and have endowed 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 conftitution of our minds, that he has adapted them to an infinite variety of pleafures and gratifications, which are not to be met with in this life. We fhould therefore at all times take care that we do not difappoint this his gracious purpose and intention towards us, and make those faculties which he formed as fo many qualifications for

O 2

happiness

happiness and rewards, to be the inftruments of pain and

punishment.

N° 601.

Friday, October 1.

"Ο άνθροπος ευεργετὸς πεφυκῶς.

Antonin. lib. 9.

Man is naturally beneficent.

HE following effay comes from an hand which has entertained my readers once before.

TH NOTWITHSTANDING

a narrow

contracted tem

per be that which obtains most in the world, we must not therefore conclude this to be the genuine cha-racteristic of mankind; because there are fome who delight in nothing fo much as in doing good, and receive more of their happiness at fecond hand, or by rebound from others, than by direct and immediate fenfation. Now though thefe heroic fouls are but few, and to appearance fo far advanced above the grovelling multitude, as if they were. of another order of beings, yet in reality their nature is the fame, moved by the fame fprings, and endowed with. all the fame effential qualities, only cleared, refined, and cultivated. Water is the fame fluid body in winter and in fummer; when it stands ftiffened in ice, as when it flows along in gentle streams, gladening a thoufand fields in its progrefs. It is a property of the heart of man to be diffufive; its kind wifhes fpread abroad over the face of the creation; and if there be thofe, as we may obferve too many of them, who are all wrapt up in their own dear felves, without any vifible concern for their fpecies, let us fuppofe that their good-nature is frozen, and by the prevailing force of fome contrary quality reftrained in its. operations. I fhall therefore endeavour to affign fome of the principal checks upon this generous propenfion of the human foul, which will enable us to judge whether, and by what method, this moft ufeful principle may be unfettered, and reftored to its native freedom of exercise.

THE firft and leading caufe is an unhappy complexion. of body. The Heathens, ignorant of the true fource

of

of moral evil, generally charged it on the obliquity of matter, which, being eternal and independent, was incapable of change in any of its properties, even by the Almighty mind, who, when he came to fafhion it into a world of beings, muft take it as he found it. This notion, as most others of theirs, is a compofition of truth and error. That matter is eternal, that from the first union of a foul to it, it perverted its inclinations, and that the ill influence it hath upon the mind is not to be corrected by God himself, are all very great errors, occafioned by a truth as evident, that the capacities and difpofitions of the foul depend, to a great degree, on the bodily temper. As there are fome fools, others are knaves, by conftitution; and particularly, it may be faid of many, that they are born with an illiberal caft of mind; the matter that compofes them is tenacious as birdlime, and a kind of cramp draws their hands and their hearts together, that they never care to open them, unless to grafp at more.. It is a melancholy lot this; but attended with one advantage above theirs, to whom it would be as painful to forbear good offices, as it is to these men to perform them; that whereas perfons naturally beneficent often mistake inftinct for virtue, by reafon of the difficulty of diftinguishing when one rules them, and when the other, men of the oppofite character may be more certain of the motive that predominates in every action. If they cannot confer a benefit with that eafe and franknefs which are neceffary to give it a grace. in the eye of the world, in requital, the real merit of what they do is enhanced by the oppofition they furmount in doing it. The ftrength of their virtue is feen in rifing against the weight of nature, and every time they have the refolution to discharge their duty, they make a facrifice of inclination to confcience, which is always too grateful to let its followers go without fuitable marks of its approbation. Perhaps the entire cure of this ill quality is no more poffible, than of fome diftempers that defcend by inheritance. However, a great deal may be done by a courfe of beneficence obftinately perfifted in; this, if any thing, being a likely way of eftablishing a moral habit, which fhall be fomewhat of a counterpoife to the force of mechanifm. Only it must be remembered, that we do not intermit, upon any pretence whatfoever, the custom of doing

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doing good, in regard, if there be the leaft ceffation, nature will watch the opportunity to return, and in a fhort time to recover the ground it was fo long in quitting: for there is this difference between mental habits, and fuch as have their foundation in the body; that these last are in their nature more forcible and violent, and, to gain upon us, need only not to be oppofed; whereas the former must be continually reinforced with fresh fupplies, or they will languish and die away. And this fuggests the reason why good habits, in general, require longer time for their fettlement than bad; and yet are fooner difplaced; the reafon is, that vicious habits (as drunkenness for instance) produce a change in the body, which the others not doing, muft be maintained the fame way they are acquired, by the mere dint of induftry, refolution, and vigilance.

ANOTHER thing which fufpends the operations of benevolence, is the love of the world; proceeding from a falfe notion men have taken up, that an abundance of the world is an effential ingredient into the happinefs of life. Worldly things are of fuch a quality as to leffen upon dividing, fo that the more partners there are, the lefs must fall to every man's private fhare. The confequence of this is, that they look upon one another with an evil eye, each imagining all the reft to be imbarked in an interest, that cannot take place but to his prejudice. Hence are those cager competitions for wealth or power; hence one man's fuccefs becomes another's difappointment; and, like pretenders to the fame miftrefs, they can seldom have common charity for their rivals. Not that they are naturally difpofed to quarrel and fall out, but it is natural for a man to prefer himfelf to all others, and to fecure his own intereft first. If that which men efteem their happiness were, like the light, the fame fufficient and unconfined good, whether ten thousand enjoy the benefit of it, or but one, we fhould fee mens good-will, and kind endeavours, would be as univerfal.

Homo qui erranti comiter monftrat viam,
Quafi lumen de fuo lumine accendat, facit,
Nihilominus ipfi luceat, cum illi accenderit.

To direct a wanderer in the right way, is to light an

other

other man's candle by one's own, which lofes none of its light by what the other gains.

But, unluckily, mankind agree in making choice of objects, which inevitably engage them in perpetual differences. Learn therefore, like a wife man, the true estimate of things. Defire not more of the world than is necessary to accommodate you in paffing through it, look upon every thing beyond, not as ufelefs only, but burdenfome. Place not your quiet in things which you cannot have without putting others befide them, and thereby making them your enemies, and which, when attained, will give you more trouble to keep, than fatisfaction in the enjoyment. Virtue is a good of a nobler kind; it grows by communication, and fo little resembles earthly riches, that the more hands it is lodged in, the greater is every man's particular stock. So, by propagating and mingling their fires, not only all the lights of a branch together caft a more extenfive brightnefs, but each fingle light burns with a ftronger flame. And, laftly, take this along with you, that if wealth be an inftrument of pleasure, the greatest pleasure it can put into your power, is that of doing good. It is worth confidering, that the organs of fenfe act within a narrow compass, and the appetites will foon fay they have enough: which of the two therefore is the happier man? He, who confining all his regard to the gratification of his own appetites, is capable but of fhort fits of pleasure? or the man, who, reckoning himfelf a fharer in the fatisfactions of others, especially those which come to them by his means, enlarges the fphere of his happiness?

.

THE last enemy to benevolence I fhall mention, is uneafinefs of any kind. A guilty, or a discontented mind, a mind ruffled by ill fortune, difconcerted by its own paffions, foured by neglect, or fretting at difappointments, hath not leisure to attend to the neceffity or reasonablenefs of a kindness desired, nor a taste for those pleasures which wait on beneficence, which demand a calm and unpolluted heart to relish them. The most miferable of all beings is the most envious; as, on the other hand, the most communicative is the happieft. And if you are in search of the feat of perfect love and friendship, you will not find it

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