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(Ps. cxxvii. 4): concerning which, the ministers and stewards of the mystery of the kingdom must not be expected to discourse like physicians, any more than in speaking of their essential bases.

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→5: 6, Or admitting the existence of such a class as spiritual physicians, their proper or professional object will be immortality and eternity, rather than Health and Longevity. At least, it seems more their business, to shew what may be real health, or the health of the soul, and to point out its habitation, v. g. in the persons of the righteous, than to dwell on the physical ingredients which are required to make up that transient insubstantial kind here spoken of. For health with its shades, and disease its antithesis, may indeed be ascribed to the soul as well as to the body, and deemed a good moral, or objective, as well as a good subjective characteristic of the kingdom or subject; as in that affectionate salutation of St. John to his friend Gaius, "Beloved, I wish above all things, that thou mayest prosper and be in health; even as thy soul prospereth" (John, Ep. iii. 2).

But the health here understood, is particularly meant of the body, so far as the bodily health can be separated from the spiritual and intellectual: and it would seem from the forecited wish of St. John, as if such a separate health could really exist; indeed we often find, that it does. For though death with all its preparatory train of diseases came into the world by sin originally, and all our bodily sufferings may be ascribed to that single source, yet our emancipation from the stains and dominion of sin being begun in a state of mortality, it may and does happen, that the soul's health is often improving as that of the body declines: and, it may be, not only the rather, but also in a more rapid proportion.

It is also often supposed by elderly people (from their experience of others it may be presumed) that longevity is rather an indication of perverseness, and a short life of grace in the subject; because they seem to observe, that

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persons of a meek and amiable disposition are seldom either so long or so violently exposed to the trials of life as those of a more rugged temper; who, according to a vulgar but not insignificant phrase, have more of the evil principle in them. Therefore, they say sometimes of a comparatively innocent young person, He is too good to live; thinking, perhaps, from the usual cooperation which they imagine between Nature and Providence, that such amiable young persons being naturally more forward in the way to happiness than some older, may require a shorter preparation for it, and therefore be sooner removed to it. And if the Christian doctrine on this head do not allow in fact any such notion as that of one man being naturally endowed with more grace than another, whatever may be his share in life; it allows a preponderance of one quality over another in any personal combination, or less of any and every quality in one person than in another; as in some flowers there may be less colour than in others. Therefore, while all persons will have their proportion of innate evil, and evil enough no doubt to spoil their goodness, as any flower may have enough of blue, red, or yellow to prevent it from being white-yet the circumstance of there being less evil in some (children of slender stamina perhaps) than in others will have somewhat of the same effect in appearance, as if the subjects were born with less life and more grace. Hence a life naturally short is not always a proof of innate goodness, any more than one shortened by accident, or by course of justice, is always a proof of unusual depravity; whatever elderly people may think of the cooperation of Nature and Providence in that respect.

Compared with our essential health and ultimate good, it may be questioned, whether that good characteristic of the material class, that sunshine of the body so generally prized, be always a peculiarly good property; the rainy days being good for something as well as the bright, or sickness as well as health. At the same time health most

frequently is a personal advantage, therefore ought to be so reputed; and they who really "hope you are well", or wish you good health sincerely, may be thought to have some regard for your welfare. Yet it seems extraordinary, considering how much our welfare includes, and how many different advantages we need and are capable of, that our friends should attach all their concern, and direct all their inquiries to this kind of welfare only, as if there was no other; or, that their inquiries and concern should ever be so construed. For if the common salutation between friends expresses something more than a regard for each other's health, as it certainly might, nothing more appears to be generally understood between them; and not always so much, either.

"How fare ye?" "How do ye?" might certainly be applied to faring and doing in more respects than one: in respect of our foreign as well as of our domestic properties; in respect of the weal of our habitation, credit, fame, &c., which is our foreign health; as well as of the health of our body, its members and organs, which is our domestic weal. And it is here suggested as a matter for improvement, whether the salutation between friends might not be turned to some better account than that of bringing up a subject in the first instance that either is not noticed, or noticed to no purpose. The inquiry should imply by right (for it could not do more) every property and every defect within the reach of human counsel and assistance; and would not be unseasonable, if it stirred up also on either side a momentary recollection of passing circumstances that were not exactly of a nature to be communicated. If, however, we must confine our inquiries on saluting to a single object, others might be found, one should think, as interesting as bodily health. Some may think the object of peace as interesting: and these would be apt to ask their friends, as Joseph asked his brethren in Egypt, and people do still in that quarter, it appears, "of their peace" (Gen. xliii. 27).

Knowing the untoward humours of his brethren, Joseph's allusion was most likely to their outward peace, and especially towards each other: but there can be no reason, why the ancient mode of salutation, "Is it peace?" (Kings II. ix. 18) or "Peace be with you" (Pet. I. v. 14), might not also have some allusion to that internal quiet which, if well founded, is better than any outward peace or health, or other good subjective, and is also very likely to be attended with these inferior blessings wherever it may happen to abide; as the Psalmist observed, "The voice of joy and health is in the dwellings of the righteous" (Ps. cxviii. 15).

2, But joy, with its kindred properties, mirth, good humour, cheerfulness, and the like, belong rather to the second or sensitive division of the spiritual class of good subjective characteristics. And hence it may be seen how in our idea of this same sensitive division of spiritual constituents something more is implied than mere sensibility; sensibility denoting only a superior quantum of sensation, and not a superior quality of the same. Yet as any share of sensation is an advantage in the subject to which it has been assigned, an extraordinary quantum, or what we call Sensibility, must be an extraordinary advantage of course; and in whatever animal this advantage appears, it may be regarded as one indication of a superior nature, or of the presence of other excellent properties. For this of sensibility or rare sensation is certainly to be accounted as one such property, although it be the foundation of our most exquisite sufferings, as well as our sweetest enjoyments; exemplifying an awful species of power in our Almighty Judge, which, as it may be pushed to any extent either way by Omnipotence, and our demerits point to the suffering side, we may tremble at, if ever we reflect like men in their senses. It would be a source of the highest gratification to some malignant spirits, little considering what themselves are liable to, if they also in like manner could whet the feelings they design to wound. But for our comfort, the

Merciful Creator chooses to retain this awful privilege in his own possession; and "doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth" (Lam. iii. 33, 34). He does not give sensibility, to promote suffering, but to avert it, and promote enjoyment in every quarter in which the same may abound.

For sensibility is not of one kind only, but of several : and the very different notions attached to this particular characteristic may shew the difficulty of classing characteristics generally, according to their natural affinities; as the same single good characteristic will make three in this case, and three that are also referable to as many distinct bases or essentials occurring in their several classes or divisions of constituents above specified; as 1, sense in the spiritual-sensitive; 2, sympathy in the spiritual-appetitive; 3, apprehension or perception, in the pure intellectual. So that the said characteristic might have been applied to either class or division of essentials before mentioned, though the first is preferred as the simplest and most obvious, and the good sensitive characteristic or pleasant sensibility, consisting in the habitual sensation of what is called Pleasure or Enjoyment, is but a shade or degree of that now mentioned.

Pleasure, properly so called, is a rarified species of sense, and the fair offspring of appetite, or aversion by success, varying not only with the association in which it originates, as aforesaid, but also, we may presume, with the subject in which it is associated or felt, and producing different symptoms, as it accrues either from sensible or intellectual objects. Pleasure coming from either of these quarters, from one as well as the other, will still be pleasure in either case, and may be equally sweet and innocent. But there is a striking difference in form or symptom between the gentle thrill that a congenial figure inspires, and the rapturous enjoyment that is gathered from a congenial sentiment, or between the pleasure of the heart and brain; as wide a difference as there is between the

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