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mosthenes or Cicero. And to set these infinitely farther still above all human efforts of the kind, they are accompanied with predictions, often the most unlikely, and sometimes, to human apprehension, impossible to be fulfilled; and yet, at a great distance of time, most exactly verified by events. Again, to give these predictions credit when they were uttered, and to raise a well-grounded expectation of the accomplishment, innumerable miracles were wrought, to prove that almighty power ensured the dictates of infinite wisdom. The inquisitive reader no sooner wishes to know for what end or purpose this astonishing interposition of the Divine Being is asserted to have been given, than he finds that end repeatedly declared in the same book to be no other, than the reformation of mankind, and their real happiness. An end of less consequence, or of less connexion with infinite goodness, cannot be supposed. The man that knows himself, that is, how very incapable he is of reforming himself, or attaining to true happiness, by his own endeavours, must either believe in this interposition, and give his faith to this book; or maintain that he wants no help, and that God is neither willing nor able to help him. The man who says this, to be consistent with himself, should say, There is no God, no Being, who created and governs the world. If he does not go so far in words, the rest of mankind should beware of him, if they know him, for sure it is he will go farther in his actions.

143. It is very observable, that several of the classic authors are beholden for some of their finest sentiments to the Old Testament. Ovid, Virgil, Horace, are evidently traceable to this fountain. The fortior qui se, &c. of Horace is borrowed from Prov. xvi. 32. His divinæ particulum auræ, &c. from Gen. ii. 7. and his

Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,
Cum faber incertus scamnum facereve Priapum,
Malluit esse deum.

from Isa. xliv. 14-17. As to his word secundum, in the twelfth ode of his first book, the most elevated expression ever used by a Pagan writer, speaks the very language of the whole Old Testament, and is rather too much to have been taken from Homer's golden chain, wherewith his Cretan Jupiter seems to make a boastful approach to the sentiment. It is not to be expected, that classic plagiaries should acknowledge their thefts. Like the modern, they hoped not to be traced to books of little repute among

the Romans, books too which they were always ready to vilify, a common practice now-a-days among the borrowers, who, for a similar reason, use their utmost endeavours to stifle the credit of the writers they plunder. Thus have I myself been sometimes used, to my great comfort, as one who writes for religion rather than a name, and is glad to see his poor endeavours turned into common stock in hands more popular than his own. It never entered into the heads of the Roman poets, that the Old Testament should one day come to be read and studied by all the lite rary part of mankind.

144. Is man intended by his Maker for immortality? If he is, what is this life to him? It is certainly of no consequence to him, but as it fits him for immortal happiness, or misery. Taking the matter in this light, he is certainly a madman, who gives his attention chiefly to this life and the things of it. The accomplishment of his temporal schemes requires a world of thought and labour; which, after all, are a great deal more likely to miscarry than succeed. But if they do succeed, so as to raise him to wealth and power, is he happy? Or had it not been better for him to have been poor and powerless? If the afflictions that attend on his worldly exaltation have not convinced him of his mistake, and he be still fool enough to be pleased with his prosperity, his delusion must vanish at the near approach of a death, which must probably throw his too worldly mind, at least, into a total uncertainty about his condition in eternity. Now, though this man had risen to the condition of a Croesus, or a Cæsar, hath he not made a very little man of himself? These two men stand on record, the first for his captivity, and the second for his assassination. The Christian may, and therefore ought, to plan for somewhat higher and more permanent. Poor Croesus! Wretched Cæsar! As heathens, they ought, for they might, to have pursued a wiser and better scheme of life, as Solon and Atticus did. But, for a Christian, with heaven and eternity open to him, to scheme for a minute proportion of the riches possessed by the former, or for a paltry share of the power to which the latter attained, is exhibiting an example of greater contentment and humility than his religion requires of him. There is a species of riches, and also of power, infinitely exceeding all this world can raise us to, which may be arrived at, with absolute certainty, and with far less struggle, than the painted clouds and shadows pursued here below. The worst we can

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say of Alexander and Cæsar is, that their lives were founded on a mistake, and passed in the dark; but what can be said of a Christian, in broad day-light, eagerly pursuing what he knows to be trifles, in preference to somewhat, which he confesses to be of infinite moment, but that he is an idiot equally desperate and despicable? What a saint might he be, if he had any idea of the right avarice and ambition! Of both, God hath, in his mercy, given me an idea, and made me even a teacher of others; hath enabled me to distinguish between matters similar, and nearly equal in value, as between a shilling and a halfpenny. And yet (wretch that I have been !) I have in my actions often so demeaned myself, as if I preferred evil to good, and hell to heaven. I that have been a teacher of others, have not always been a fit teacher of myself. Reflecting on these things, I am struck with horror and astonishment at myself. I need not look abroad for wonders, for I am a wonder to myself. Heaven and earth can afford no greater to me, excepting one, which is the long-suffering patience and mercy of God, shewn to me through a long course of sins and provocations, wherewith I have, as it were, contended with divine goodness. I need not stand amazed, how it should come to pass, that matter should both attract and repel matter; that general attraction and magnetism should operate on the same piece of matter in opposite directions, and in one and the same line, at the same instant; how God should with certainty foresee our free elections; why he made the world so soon, and not sooner; how there can be in him a Trinity of Persons; how he joined the human nature to his own; or how he will raise the dead. All these things are too wonderful for my comprehension; and so is the display of wisdom, goodness, and power in the creation, in the redemption and sanctification of mankind, and in the infinite miracles, whether by, or against, the course of nature, which God hath wrought. The facts I clearly know, or firmly believe. My senses and my reason do not more convince me of my own existence, than the latter doth, of all these things, whether as matters of science or belief. Still I remain an unaccountable creature to myself. I sin, but am still indulged, ten thousand different ways, by the goodness of God my Master, to whom I am a most unworthy servant. I sin, yet still I am fed and clothed, have a flowery carpet spread under me, and an azure canopy stretched over me. I feel, I taste, I see, hear, and smell; but how, I know no more than the dog at my foot; nor do I in

quire, sensible that it would be in vain. I go on to enjoy, and am sometinies thankful, but, I fear, never grateful. What! Not grateful, O my soul! Whither then art thou going, upward or downward? Think, think, O my soul! Death and eternity are before thee, and near at hand. Turn thee, for why wilt thou die, and, after preaching to others, become a castaway thyself?" Blessed be thou, O my God, and blessed be thy Holy Spirit, for I am awake, but that is almost all. O most gracious Being, who perfectly knowest me, help me; and if it be thy blessed will, help others through me, in order to prove that salvation wrought by so weak an instrument, is the work of Thee alone. I have not thus expressed myself merely by way of confession, a matter of little concern to any one who may happen to read this, but that some, not unacquainted with my failings, may know my contrition; that the goodness of God may be magnified, as well as tried, by my offences; and that other members of Christ's body, as if by consent of parts, being struck by my acknowledgments, may feel somewhat of a like nature in themselves. It is no balsam to the wounds in my conscience, that many other men may have reason, as well as I, to lament the inconsistency of their practice, on some occasions, with the soundness of their principles; but it may be of some use to them to know, that I am neither impenitent, nor without hope of pardon. At any rate, if all men have sinned,' though some more, some less grievously, than I have done; my humiliation and confession do not make me more guilty than I am, nor expose me to any other sort of reflections, than others are forced to make on themselves. This, as I have just now intimated, although no comfort to me, ought at least to shelter me from the shower of stones, which the affectedly righteous might be preparing for the head of a fellow-sinner. It was, and still is, the opinion of the Jews, and of many among the professors of Christianity, that the devil is able to work miracles. Nothing certainly can be more absurd, than thus to give the attribute of Almighty to a fallen spirit. God only can work a miracle, whether with, or without the instrumentality of a creature. But that which in the works of the devil approaches nearest to a miracle, is that which I have taken notice of, namely, his prevailing with a man possessed of reason and all his senses, to prefer evil to good, and hell to heaven; to turn his back on God and happiness, and to pursue with vehemence the service of an evil spirit, and misery eternal. A miracle is somewhat done, by almighty power against

the otherwise uncontrollable course of nature. And sin, in one acquainted with Christianity, and believing in the truth of its principles, is somewhat done in violation of those principles, and directly against every dictate of sense and reason. This is a wonder though not a miracle, for this is aided by corrupted nature; whereas a miracle is done against that very nature, which God himself hath established in his works of creation. The evil spirit having, through an abuse of our moral freedom, seduced and corrupted our nature, finds it now an easier task to blind our reason, to baffle our senses, and to lead us, by worldly profit, carnal pleasure, and mistaken ambition, into misery and infamy. This is giving a very poor account of ourselves, and making a still worse apology for our misconduct; but it is all that can be said in tracing the dreadful phenomenon to its source; yet, after all, did we not, with all our might, assist our enemy in this his scheme of imposition on us, he could make no great progress therein, so that the sinner may claim to himself more than one half of this seeming miracle. No power of hell could overthrow him, did he not, by efforts of his own, labour to fling himself down the precipice; were he not a seducer and devil to himself.

145. Bodies of all sorts are easily brought into contact, and fluids in particular intimately mixed. In like manner, to speak by analogy, spiritual substances may become coincident, act on or with one another, and separate again. A generic sameness in these latter, notwithstanding specific differences, may make it much easier for them to coexist and sympathize, than for spirit and matter, howsoever organized, to do the like. Yet we know, that in ourselves a soul and body are so united, as to act together, and to enjoy or suffer, as if they were but one being. Nay, the souls of two human beings, though both embodied, and kept, as it were, at some distance, find it easy to act on each other by looks, language, and good or evil offices. We have so many experiments to prove this, that it becomes ridiculous to doubt whether spirit and spirit may not perceive, and communicate with each other by intuition. They do it in man, though specifically different. In him the angelic and animal soul so subsist and act together, as if but one and the same. In him therefore the subsistence at ouce of more souls than two is possible; and the conjunction of soul with soul, seems to be infinitely more natural than of soul with body. Hence it is that the admission of

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