exposed to his view! How would his ima- | credit have assured us, that all attempts gination have hurried him on in the pursuit upon the affections, and strokes of oratory, of the mysteries of the incarnation! How were expressly forbidden, by the laws of would he have entered with the force of that country, in courts of judicature. His lightning, into the affections of his hearers, want of eloquence therefore here was the and fixed their attention, in spite of all the effect of his exact conformity to the laws; opposition of corrupt nature, upon those but his discourse on the resurrection to the glorious themes which his eloquence hath Corinthians, his harangue before Agrippa painted in such lively and lasting colours! upon his own conversion, and the necessity 'This advantage Christians have; and it of that of others, are truly great, and may was with no small pleasure I lately met serve as full examples to those excellent with a fragment of Longinus, which is pre-rules for the sublime, which the best of served as a testimony of that critic's judg-critics has left us. The sum of all this disment, at the beginning of a manuscript of course is, that our clergy have no farther to the New Testament in the Vatican library. look for an example of the perfection they After that author has numbered up the may arrive at, than to St. Paul's harangues; most celebrated orators among the Gre- that when he, under the want of several cians, he says, "add to these Paul of Tar- advantages of nature, as he himself tells us, sus, the patron of an opinion not yet fully was heard, admired, and made a standard proved." As a heathen, he condemns the to succeeding ages by the best judges of a Christian religion; and, as an impartial different persuasion in religion; I say, our critic, he judges in favour of the promoter clergy may learn that, however instructive and preacher of it. To me it seems that their sermons are, they are capable of rethe latter part of his judgment adds great ceiving a great addition: which St. Paul has weight to his opinion of St. Paul's abilities, given them a noble example of, and the since, under all the prejudice of opinions Christian religion has furnished them with directly opposite, he is constrained to ac- certain means of attaining to.' knowledge the merit of that apostle. And no doubt, such as Longinus describes St. Paul, such he appeared to the inhabitants of those countries which he visited and No. 634.] Friday, December 17, 1714.

blessed with those doctrines he was divinely commissioned to preach. Sacred story gives us, in one circumstance, a convincing proof of his eloquence, when the men of Lystra called him Mercury, "because he was the chief speaker ;" and would have paid divine worship to him, as to the god who invented and presided over eloquence. This one account of our apostle sets his character, considered as an orator only, above all the celebrated relations of the skill and influence of Demosthenes and his contemporaries. Their power in speaking was admired, but still it was thought human: their eloquence warmed and ravished the hearers, but still it was thought the voice of man, not the voice of God. What advantage then had St. Paul above those of Greece or Rome? I confess I can ascribe this excellence to nothing but the power of the doctrines he delivered, which may have still the same influence on the hearers; which have still the power, when preached by a skilful orator, to make us break out in the same expressions as the disciples who met our Saviour in their way to Emmaus made use of; "Did not our hearts burn within us when he talked to us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" I may be thought bold in my judgment, by some, but I must affirm, that no one orator has left us so visible marks and footsteps of his eloquence as our apostle. It may perhaps be wondered at, that in his reasonings upon idolatry at Athens, where eloquence was born and flourished, he confines himself to strict argument only; but my reader may "emember what many authors of the best

«Ο ελαχίστων δεόμενος είχιστα θεων.

Socrates apud Xen.

The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble the gods. IT was the common boast of the heathen philosophers, that by the efficacy of their several doctrines, they made human nature resemble the divine. How much mistaken soever they might be in the several means they proposed for this end, it must be owned that the design 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 excuses Homer very handsomely, when he says the poet made his gods like men, that he might make his men appear like the gods. But it must be allowed that several of the ancient philosophers acted as Cicero wishes Homer had done: they endeavoured rather to make men like gods, than gods like men.

According to this general maxim in philosophy, some of them have endeavoured to place men in such a state of pleasure, or indolence at least, as they vainly imagined the happiness of the Supreme Being to consist in. On the other hand, the most virtuous sect of philosophers have created a chimerical wise man, whom they made exempt from passion and pain, and thought it enough to pronounce him all-sufficient.

This last character, when divested of the glare of human philosophy that surrounds it, signifies no more than that a good and wise man should so arm himself with patience, as not to yield tamely to the violence of passion and pain; that he should learn so to suppress and contract his desires as to

nave few wants; and that he should cherish | son and goodness, the only things wherein so many virtues in his soul as to have a per- we can imitate the Supreme Being. In the petual source of pleasure in himself. next life we meet with nothing to excite The Christian religion requires that, after our inclinations that doth not deserve them. having framed the best idea we are able of I shall therefore dismiss my reader with the divine nature, it should be our next care this maxim, viz. Our happiness in this to conform ourselves to it as far as our im-world proceeds from the suppression of our perfections will permit. I might mention desires, but in the next world from the several passages in the sacred writings on gratification of them.' this head, to which I might add many maxims and wise sayings of moral authors among the Greeks and Romans.

No. 635.] Monday, December 20, 1714.

Sentio te sedem hominum ac domum contende

quæ si tibi parva (ut est) ita videtur hæc curirsta seeper spectato; illa humana contemnito.

THE following essay comes from the in genious author of the letter upon novelty, printed in a late Spectator: the notions are drawn from the Platonic way of thinking: but, as they contribute to raise the mind, and may inspire noble sentiments of our own future grandeur and happiness, I think it well deserves to be presented to the public.

I shall only instance a remarkable passage, to this purpose, out of Julian's Cæsars. That emperor having represented all the Roman emperors, with Alexander the Great, as passing in review before the gods, and striving for the superiority, lets them of men; which if it appears as little to you as it meals I perceive you contemplate the seat and habitazion all drop, excepting Alexander, Julius Cæ-is, fix your eyes perpetually upon heavenly objects, and sar, Augustus Cæsar, Trajan, Marcus Au- despise earthly. relius, and Constantine. Each of these great heroes of antiquity lays in his claim for the upper place; and, in order to it, sets forth his actions after the most advantageous manner. But the gods, instead of being dazzled with the lustre of their actions, inquire by Mercury into the proper motive and governing principle that influenced them throughout the whole series of their lives and exploits. Alexander tells them, that his aim was to conquer; Julius Cæsar, that his was to gain the highest post in his country; Augustus, to govern well; Trajan, that his was the same as that of Alexander, namely, to conquer. The question, at length, was put to Marcus Aurelius, who replied, with great modesty, that it had always been his care to imitate the gods. This conduct seems to have gained him the most votes and best place in the whole assembly. Marcus Aurelius, being afterwards asked to explain 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 possible in himself, 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 just and perfect idea of that Being whom every reasonable creature ought to imitate. The young man, in a heathen comedy, might justify his lewdness by the example of Jupiter; as, indeed, there was scarce any crime that might not be countenanced by those notions of the deity which prevailed among the common people in the heathen world. Revealed religion sets forth a proper object for imitation, in that Being who is the pattern, as well as the source, of all spiritual perfection.

|

If 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 existing in his eternal idea, was then as beautiful as now it is drawn forth into being; and in the immense abyss of his essence are contained far brighter scenes than will be ever set forth to view; it being impossible that the great Author of nature should bound his own power by giving existence to a system of creatures so 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 endless 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 same ease.

This thought hath made some imagine (what it must be confessed is not impossible,) that the unfathomed space is ever teeming with new births, the younger stil inheriting greater perfection than the elder. But as this doth not fall within my present view, I shall content myself with taking notice, that the consideration now mentreŭ proves undeniably, that the ideal worlds in the divine understanding yield a prospect incomparably more ample, various, and delightful, than any created world can do: While we remain in this life, we are sub-and that, therefore, as it is not to be supject to innumerable temptations, which, if posed that God should make a world listened to, will make us deviate from rea-merely of inanimate matter, however diver sified, or inhabited only by creatures of te

Spanheim, Les Cesars de l'Empereur Julien, 4to,

1728

↑ No. 62.

globe, shall ere long shoot away with the swiftness of imagination, trace out the hidden springs of nature's operations, be able to keep pace with the heavenly bodies in the rapidity of their career, be a spectator of the long chain of events in the natural and moral worlds, visit the several apart

furnished and how inhabited, comprehend the order, and measure the magnitudes and distances of those orbs, which to us seem disposed without any regular design, and set all in the same circle; observe the dependence of the parts of each system, and (if our minds are big enough to grasp the theory) of the several systems upon one another, from whence results the harmony of the universe. In eternity, a great deal may be done of this kind. I find it of use to cherish this generous ambition; for, besides the secret refreshment it diffuses through my soul, it engages me in an endeavour to improve my faculties, as well as to exercise 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.

higher an order than brutes, so the end for which he designed his reasonable offspring in the contemplation of his works, the enjoyment of himself, and in both to be happy; having, to this purpose, endowed them with correspondent faculties and desires. He can have no greater pleasure from a bare review of his works than from a sur-ments of the creation, know how they are vey of his own ideas; but we may be assured that he is well pleased in the satisfaction derived to beings capable of it, and for whose entertainment he hath erected this immense theatre. Is not this more than an intimation of our immortality? Man, who, when considered as on his probation for a happy existence 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 composition in the whole creation. He hath capacities to lodge a much greater variety of knowledge than he will be ever master of, and an unsatisfied curiosity to tread the secret paths of nature and providence: but, with this, his organs, in their present structure, are rather fitted to serve the necessities of a vile body, than to minister to his understanding; and, from the little spot to which he is chained, he can frame but wandering guesses concerning the innumerable worlds of light that encompass him; which, though in themselves of a prodigious bigness, 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 steep ascent of truth, and beholds with pity the grovelling multitude beneath, in a moment his foot slides, and he tumbles down headlong into the grave.

The other, and that the ultimate end of man, is the enjoyment of God, beyond which he cannot form a wish. Dim at best are the conceptions we have of the Supreme Being, who, as it were, keeps his creatures in suspense, neither discovering nor hiding himself; by which means, the libertine hath a handle to dispute his existence, while the most are content to speak him fair, but in their hearts prefer every trifling satisfaction to the favour of their Maker, and ridicule the good man for the singularity of his Thinking on this, I am obliged to believe, choice. Will there not a time come, when in justice to the Creator of the world, that the free-thinker shall see his impious there is another state when man shall be schemes overturned, and be made a conbetter situated for contemplation, or rather vert to the truths he hates? when deluded have it in his power to remove from object mortals shall be convinced of the folly of to object, and from world to world; and be their pursuits; and the few wise who folaccommodated with senses, and other helps, lowed the guidance of Heaven, and, scornfor making the quickest and most amazing ing the blandishments of sense, and the discoveries. How does such a genius as sordid bribery of the world, aspired to a Sir Isaac Newton, from amidst the dark-celestial abode, shall stand possessed of ness that involves human understanding, break forth, and appear like one of another species! The vast machine we inhabit lies open to him; he seems not unacquainted with the general laws that govern it, and while with the transport of a philosopher 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 such a mind! And how obscure to the compass that is taken in by the ken of an angel, or of a soul but newly escaped from its imprisonment in the body! For my part, I freely indulge my soul in the confidence of its future grandeur; it pleases me to think that I, who know so small a portion of the works of the Creator, and with slow and painful steps creep up and down on the surface of this VOL. II.

55

their utmost wish in the vision of the Creator? Here the mind heaves a thought now and then towards him, and hath some transient glances of his presence: when in the instant it thinks itself to have the fastest hold, the object eludes its expectations, and it falls back tired and baffled to the ground. Doubtless there is some more perfect way of conversing with heavenly beings. Are not spirits capable of mutual intelligence, unless immersed in bodies, or by their intervention? Must superior natures depend on inferior for the main privilege of social beings, that of conversing with and knowing each other? What would they have done had matter never been created? I suppose, not have lived in eternal solitude. As incorporeal substances are of a nobler order, so, be sure, their manner of intercourse is answerably more expedite and intimate. This

method of communication we call intellec-1 heart of man to conceive; yet, what we can tual vision, as something analogous to the easily conceive, will be a fountain of msense of seeing, which is the medium of our speakable and everlasting rapture. Al acquaintance with this visible world. And created glories will fade and die away in his in some such way can God make himself presence. Perhaps it will be my hasathe object of immediate intuition to the ness to compare the world with the fair blessed; and as he can, it is not improbable exemplar of it in the Divine Mind; perthat he will, always condescending, in the haps, to view the original plan of those circumstances of doing it, to the weakness wise designs that have been executing a and proportion of finite minds. His works long succession of ages. Thus empi ved but faintly reflect the image of his perfec-in finding out his works, and contemplating tions: it is a second-hand knowledge: to have a just idea of him, it may be necessary to see him as he is. But what is that? It is something that never entered into the

their Author, how shall I fall prostrate and adoring, my body swallowed up in the i mensity of matter, my mind in the infnetude of his perfections!

THE END.

INDEX.

• 305

It deforms beauty, and turns wit into absurdity 38
The original of it.

Found in the wise man as well as the coxcomb 38
The way to get clear of it
The misfortune of it
Described

Affliction and sorrow not always expressed by