with this, his organs, in their prefent ftructure, are rather fitted to ferve the neceffities of a vile body, than to minifter to his understanding; and from the little spot to which he is chained, he can frame but wandering gueffes concerning the innumerable worlds of light that encompass him, which, tho' 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 steep afcent of truth, and beholds with pity the groveling 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 discoveries. How doth fuch a genius as Sir Ifaac Newton, from amidit the darkness that involves human understanding,

standing, break forth, and appear like one of another species! The vaft 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 fuch a mind? and how obfcure 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 foul in the confidence of its future grandeur; it pleases me to think that I who know fo fmall a portion of the works of the Creator, and with flow and painful fteps creep up and down on the furface of this globe, fhall ere long shoot away with the fwiftnefs of imagination, trace out the hidden fprings of nature's operation, 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

how inhabited, comprehend the order and measure the magnitudes, and diftances of thofe orbs, which to us feem difpofed without any regular defign, and fet all in the fame circle; observe the dependence of the parts of each system, and (if our minds are big enough to grafp the theory) of the feveral systems upon one another, from whence refults the harmony of the univerfe. 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 diffuses through my foul, 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.

The other, and that the ultimate end of man, is the enjoyment of God, beyond which we cannot form a wish. Dim at beft are the conceptions we have of the Supreme Being, who, as it were, keeps his creatures in fufpence, neither difcovering, nor hiding himfelf; by which means the Libertine hath a handle to difpute his Existence, while the most are

con

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 fingularity of his choice. Will there not Will there not a time come, when the Free-thinker fhall fee his impious schemes overturned, and be made a convert to the truths he hates; when deluded mortals fhall be convinced of the folly of their pursuits, and the few wife who followed the guidance of heaven, and, fcorning the blandifhments of fenfe and the fordid bribery of the world, afpired to a celeftial abode, shall stand poffeffed of their utmost wifh 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 fastest 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 Spirits capable of mutual intelligence, unless immerfed in bodies, or by their intervention? Muft fuperior natures depend on inferior for the main privilege of focial Beings, that of converf

ing with them, and knowing each other? What would they have done, had matter never been created? I fuppofe, not have lived in eternal folitude. As incorporeal fubftances are of a nobler order, fo be fure, their manner of intercourse 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, 'tis not improbable that he will, always condefcending, in the circumstances of doing it, to the weakness and proportion of finite minds. His works but faintly reflect the image of his Perfections, 'tis 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? 'Tis fomething, that never entered into the heart of man to conceive; yet, what we can easily conceive, will be a fountain of unspeakable, of everlafting rapture. All created glories will fade and die away in his Prefence. Perhaps it will be my hap