was the effect of his exact conformity to the laws. But his difcourfe on the refurrection to the Corinthians, his harangue before Agrippa upon his own converfion, and the neceffity of that of others, are truly great, and may ⚫ ferve as full examples to thofe excellent rules for the fublime, which the best of critics have left us. The fum of all this difcourfe is, that our clergy have no farther to look for an example of the perfection they may arrive at, than to St Paul's harangues; that when he,. under ⚫ the want of feveral advantages of nature, (as he himself tells us), was heard, admired, and made a standard to fucceeding ages by the best judge of a different perfuafion in religion: I fay, our clergy may learn, that however inftructive their fermons are, they are capable of receiving a great addition; which St Paul has given • them a noble example of, and the Christian religion has furnished them with certain means of attaining to.. 6 N° 634. Friday, December 17. Ο ελαχίσων δήμων εγγισα θεῶν. Socrates apud Xen.⠀ The fewer our wants, the nearer we refemble the gods.s It Twas the common boast of the Heathen philofophers, that by the efficacy of their feveral doctrines, they made human nature refemble the divine. How much mif taken foever they might be in the feveral means they propofed for this end, it must be owned that the defign was great and glorious. The finest works of invention and imagination are of very little weight, when put in the 'balance with what refines and exalts the rational mind. Longinus excafes Homer very handfomely, when he fays the poet made his gods like men, that he might make his men appear like the gods: but it must be allowed that fe veral of the ancient philofophers acted, as Cicero wifhes Homer had done; they endeavoured rather to make ment like gods, than gods like men. ACCORDING to this general maxim in philofophy, fenie. of them have endeavoured to place men in fuch a state of pleafure, or indolence at least, as they vainly imagined the: happines Z3 happiness of the fupreme Being to confit in. On the other hand, the most virtuous fect of philofophers have created a chimerical wife man, whom they made exempt from paffion and pain, and thought it enough to pronounce him all-fufficient. THIS laft character, when divefted of the glare of human philofophy that furrounds it, fignifies no more, than that a good and wife man fhould fo arm himself with patience, as not to yield tamely to the violence of paffion and pain; that he should learn fo to fupprefs and contract his defires as to have few wants; and that he fhould cherish fo many virtues in his foul, as to have a perpetual fource of pleafure in himfelf. THE Chriftian religion requires, that, after having framed the best idea we are able of the divine nature, it fhould be our next care to conform ourfelves to it, as far as our imperfections will permit. I might mention feveral paffages in the facred writings on this head, to which I might add many maxims and wife fayings of moral authors among the Greeks and Romans. I SHALL only inftance a remarkable paffage to this purpofe, out of Julian's Cæfars. The emperor having reprefented all the Roman emperors with Alexander the Great, as paffing in review before the gods, and striving for the fuperiority, lets them all drop, excepting Alexander, Julius Cafar, Auguftus Cafar, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Confiantine. Each of thefe great heroes of antiquity lays in his claim for the upper place; and, in order to it, fets forth his actions after the most advantageous manner. But the gods, instead of being dazzled with the luftre of their actions, inquire, by Mercury, into the proper motive and governing principle that influenced them. throughout the whole feries of their lives and exploits. Alexander tells them, that his aim was to conquer; Julius Cæfar, that his was to gain the highest poft in his country; Auguftus, to govern well; Trajan, that his was the fame as that of Alexander, namely, to conquer. The queftion, at length, was put to Marcus Aurelius, who replied, with great modefty, That it had always been his care to imitate the gods.' This conduct feems to have gained him the most votes and beft place in the whole affembly. Marcus Aurelius being afterwards afked to ex plain himself, declares, that, by imitating the gods, he endeavoured to imitate them in the use of his understanding, and of all other faculties; and, in particular, that it was always his study to have as few wants as poffible in himfelf, and to do all the good he could to others. AMONG the many methods by which revealed religion has advanced morality, this is one, that it has given us a more juft and perfect idea of that Being whom every reafonable creature ought to imitate. The young man, in a Heathen comedy, might juftify his lewdnefs by the example of Jupiter; as, indeed, there was fcarce any crime that might not be countenanced by thofe notions of the deity which prevailed among the common people in the Heathen world. Revealed religion fets forth a proper object for imitation, in that Being who is the pattern, as well as the fource, of all fpiritual perfection. WHILE We remain in this life, we are fubject to innumerable temptations, which, if liftened to, will make us deviate from reafon and goodnefs, the only things wherein we can imitate the fupreme Being. In the next life we meet with nothing to excite our inclinations that doth not deferve them. I thall therefore difmifs my reader with this maxim, viz. Our happiness in this world proceeds from the fuppreffion of our defires, but in the next world from the gratification of them.' N° 635. Monday, December 20. Sentio te fedem hominum ac domum contemplari; quæ fi I perceive you contemplate the feat and habitation of men; which if it appears as little to you as it really is, fix your eyes perpetually upon heavenly objects, and defpife earthly. T HE following effay comes from the ingenious author of the letter upon novelty, printed in a late Spectator: the notions are drawn from the Platonic way of of thinking; but as they contribute to raise the mind, and may infpire noble fentiments of our own future grandeur and happiness, I think it well deferves to be prefented to the public. IF F the universe be the creature of an intelligent mind, this mind could have no immediate regard to himself in producing it. He needed not to make trial of his omnipotence, to be informed what effects were within its reach the world as exifting in his eternal idea was then as beautiful as now it is drawn forth into being; and in the immenfe abyfs of his effence are contained far brighter fcenes than will be ever fet forth to view; it being impoffible that the great Author of nature should bound his own power by giving existence to a fyftem of creatures fo perfect, that he cannot improve upon it by any other exertions of his almighty will. Between finite and infinite there is an unmeasured interval, not to be filled up in endlefs ages; for which reason, the most excellent of all God's works must be equally short of what his power is able to produce as the most imperfect, and may be exceeded with the fame ease. THIS thought hath made fome imagine, (what, it must be confeffed, is not impoffible) that the unfathomed space is ever teeming with new births, the younger ftill inheriting a greater perfection than the elder. But as this doth not fall within my prefent view, I fhall content myself with taking notice, that the confideration now mentioned proves undeniably, that the ideal worlds in the divine understanding yield a profpect incomparably more ample, various, and delightful, than any created world can do: and that therefore as it is not to be fuppofed that God fhould make a world merely of inanimate matter, however diverfified or inhabited only by creatures of no higher an order than brutes; fo the end for which he defigned his reafonableoffspring is the contemplation of his works, the enjoyment. of himfelf, and in both to be happy; having, to this purpofe, endowed them with correfpondent faculties and defires. He can have no greater pleafure from a bare review of his works than from the furvey of his own ideas. but we may be affured that he is well pleafed in the fatif. -faction derived to beings capable of it, and, for whofe en tertainment. tertainment, he hath erected this immenfe theatre. Is not this more than an intimation of our immortality? Man, who when confidered as on his probation for a happy exiftence hereafter, is the most remarkable instance of divine wisdom, if we cut him off from all relation to eternity, is the most wonderful and unaccountable compofition in the whole creation. He hath capacities to lodge a much greater variety of knowledge than he will be ever mafter of, and an unfatisfied curiofity to tread the fecret paths of nature and providence: but, with this, his organs, in their prefent ftructure, are rather fitted to serve the neceffities of a vile body, than to minifter to his understanding; and from the little fpot to which he is chained, he can frame but wandering gueffes concerning the innumerable worlds of light that encompafs him, which, though in themselves 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 groveling multitude beneath, in a moment his foot slides, and he tumbles down headlong into the grave. THINKING on this, I am obliged to believe, in justice to the Creator of the world, that there is another ftate when man shall 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 Six Ifaac Newton, from amidst the darknefs that involves human understanding, break forth, and appear like one of another fpecies? The vaft machine we inhabit, lies open to him; he feems not unacquainted with the general laws that govern it; and while with the transport 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 prospect even of fuch a mind? and how obfcure to the compafs that is taken in by the ken of an angel; or of a foul but newly escaped from its imprifonment 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 To small a portion of the works of the Creator, and with flow |