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flow and painful fteps creep up and down on the furface of this globe, fhali ere long fhoot away with the fwiftness of imagination, trace out the hidden fprings of nature's operations, 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 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; obferve the dependence of the parts of each fyftem, and (if our minds are big enough to grafp the theory) of the feveral fyftems 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 diffufes through my foul, it gages 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.

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THE other, and that the ultimate end of man, is the enjoyment of God, beyond which he cannot form a wish." Dim at beft are the conceptions we have of the fupreme Being, who, as it were, keeps his creatures in fufpenfe, neither difcovering, nor hiding himfelf; by which means the Libertine hath a handle to difpute his existence, while the most are 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 a time come, when the Freethinker fhall fee his impious fchemes overturned, and be made a convert to the truths he hates; when deluded mortals fhall be convinced of the folly of their purfuits, 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, fhall ftand poffeffed of their utmoft with 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 itfelf to have the fafteft hold, the object cludes its expectations, and it falls back tired

and

and baffled to the ground. Doubtlefs there is fome more perfect way of converfing with heavenly beings. Are not fpirits capable of mutual intelligence, unlefs immerfed in bodies, or by their intervention? Muft fuperior natures depend on inferior for the main privilege of fociable beings, that of converfing with, 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 sure, their manner of intercourfe is anfwerably more expidite 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, it is not improbable that he will, always condefcending, in the circumftances of doing it, to the weaknefs and proportion of finite minds. His works but faintly reflect the image of his perfections; it is a fecond-hand knowledge: to have a just idea of him, it may be neceflary that we fee him as he is. But what is that? It is fomething that never entered into the heart of man to conceive; yet, what we can easily conceive, will be a fountain of unfpeakable, of everlafting rapture. All created glories will fade and die away in his presence. Perhaps it will be my happinefs to compare the world with the fair exemplar of it in the divine mind; perhaps, to view the original plan of those wife defigns that have been executing in a long fucceffion of ages. Thus employed in finding out his works, and contemplating their author, how fhall I fall proftrate and adoring, my body fwallowed up in the immenfity of matter, my mind in the infinitude of his perfections?

THE

THE

IND E E X.

A

CTIONS, principles of, two in man, No 588.

ACTIONS,, pushed by the primitive Chri

ftians, No 579.

Aglaus, his ftory told by Cowley, No 610.

Ambition, various kinds of it, No 570. Laudable, 613. Anacharfis, the Corinthian drunkard, a faying of his, No 569.

Ancestry, how far honour is to be paid to it, No 612. Anfwers to feveral letters at once, No 581. and 619. Antipathies, a letter about them, No 609.

Anxieties, unneceffary, the evil of them, and the vanity. of them, NO 615.

Applaufe and cenfure fhould not mislead us, NO 610. Arafpas and Panthea, their story out of Xenophon, No 564.

Ariftippus, his faying of content, NO 574.

Auguftus, his faying of mourning for the dead, No 575.

B

B Acon-flitch, at Whichenovre in Staffordshire, who

are intitled to it, N° 607. Several demands for it,

608.

Bantam, ambaffador of, his letter to his mafter about the English, NO 557.

Baxter, what a bleffing he had, No 598.

Benevolence treated of, NO 601.

Beneficence, the pleasure of it, No 588. A difcourfe of it, 601.

Bion, his faying of a greedy fearch after happiness, No 574. Blank, his letter to the Spectator about his family, No 563.

Bonofus, the drunken Briton, a faying of him, after he had hanged himself, N° 569.

Burlesque authors, the delight of ordinary readers, No 616. and 625.

Burlesque humour, No 616.

Bufy world, No 624.

Cacoethes,

C

CAccethes, or itch of writing, an epidemical distemper, No 582.

Calamities, whimsical ones, No 558.

Calumny, the great offence of it, NO 594. Rules against
it by the fathers of la Trape, ib.
Cafes in love answered, NO 614.
Cato, an inftance of his probity,

NO 557.

Cave of Trophonius, feveral people put into it to be mended, No 599.

Genfure and applause should not mislead us, No 610.
Chancery-court, why erected, No 564.

Chastity, how prized by the Heathens, NO 579.
Cherubims, what the Rabbins fay they are, NO 600.
Chit-chat club's letter to the Spectator, No 560.
Christianity, the only fyftem that can produce content,
No 574. How much above philofophy, No 634.
Cleanlinefs, the praise of it, NO 631.

Clergymen, the vanity of fome in wearing fcarves, No 609. Coach (ftage) its company, NO 631.

Content, how defcribed by a Roficrufian, No 574. The virtue of it, ib.

Country-gentlemen, advice to them about fpending their time, NO 583. Memoirs of the life of one, 622. Cowley (Mr) his defcription of heaven, No 59o. His. ftory of Aglaus, 610. His ambition, 613.

Crazy, a man thought fo by reading Milton aloud, N° 577. Critics, modern ones, fome'errors of theirs about plays,

NO 592.

Cyrus, how he tried a young lord's virtue, N° 564.

D'

D

Ifcretion abfolutely neceffary in a good hufband, No 607. Diftempers, difficult to change them for the better, No 599. Divine nature, our narrow conceptions of it, No 565. Its omniprefence and omnifcience, ib.

Dreams, a difcourfe of them, NO 593. and 597. Several extravagant ones, ib. Of Trophonius's cave, 599. Drunkard, a character of one, NO 569. Is a monster, ib. Drunkenness, the ill effects of it, N° 569. What Seneca and Publius Syrus faid of it, ib.

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Dryden (Mr) his tranflation of lapis's care of Æneas, out

VOL. VIII.

A a

of

of Virgil, No 572. Of Eneas's ships being turned into goddeffes, No 589. His cock's fpeech to dame Partlet, No 621.

Dumb conjurer's letter to the Spectator, No 560.

E

EDgar, (king), an amour of his, No 605.

Egotifm, the vanity of it condemned, NO 562. A young fellow very guilty of it, ib.

Egyptians, tormented with the plague of darknefs, No 615. Eloquence of beggars, No 613.

English, a character of them by a great preacher, No 557. by the Bantam ambaffador, ib. A diftemper they are very much afflicted with, NO 582.

Epiftolary poetry, the two kinds of ftiles, No 618. Erratum, a fad one committed in printing the Bible, NO 579.

Eternity, an effay upon it, NO 590. Part is to come, 628. Speech in Cato on it, translated into Latin, ib.

F

Aces; every man fhould be pleafed with his own,
NO 559.

FA

Fadlallah, his ftory out of the Perfian tales, NO 578.
Family-madness in pedigrees, No 612.

Fancy, her character, No 558. Her calamities, ib.
Favours, ladies, not to be boasted of, No 611.

Fear, how neceffary it is to fubdue it, N° 615.
Fellow of a college, a wife faying of one about pofterity,
No 583.

Flattery, how grateful, No 621.

Fontenelle, his faying of the ambitious and covetous,
No 576.
Freethinkers put

into Trophonius's cave, No 599.

Fritilla's dream, NO 597.

Funnell (Will) the toper, his character, No 569. Futurity, the strong inclination man has to know it, No 604. A weakness, ib. The mifery of knowing it, ib.

G

Genealogy, a letter about it, N° 612.

Gladio's dream, No 597.

Ged, a contemplation of his omniprefence and omnifcience, No 565. He cannot be abfent from us, ib. Confiderations on his ubiquity, NO 571.

Grotto,

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