Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

dentals, in relation to each other. That they should bestow their sort of honour, and often their authority and dominion, as some do their alms, on strangers whom they know nothing about, withholding it at the same time from a neighbour of whom they know nothing amiss; which is a great deal to know for a neighbour. Our Saviour himself, the chief minister of merit, has noted this curious management of the property, observing, that "a prophet hath no honour in his own country" (John iv. 44) So that where a man should seem most likely to be known, there he will be in general the least likely to be esteemed, unless he have the address to make himself a greater stranger at home than his superiority makes him, like Pythagoras and others. People ought not however to think lightly of an eminent individual, merely because he has had the misfortune to be born and brought up among them for by the same token, a man should be accounted no better than his father's sheep. It is also remarkable, that notwithstanding this propensity of his kindred and acquaintance to undervalue such an individual while he is alive and at home, these too will do him justice, and more than justice perhaps, when he shall have departed either for another country, or for another world. And how they come to do it is, by separating themselves from us in one instance, and uniting with us in the other. For though we be many in our own house, town, or country, out of them we shall yet be one. And the same principle of self-love which operates thus in one sphere will operate the same in all; even so far sometimes as to reconcile two of a trade in their external relations.

§ 2. We feel the elevation of properties from incidentals to Constituents in the kingdom more sensibly, on considering their characteristic, than on considering their essential type, as that strikes us immediately, but this only on comparison. Yet we must not expect all men to be of one mind in this respect either: for many will prefer, as before observed, some of the good incidentals just mentioned

to any good of constituents in either department; i. e. either in the material, spiritual or intellectual. If it be, however, because they do not find constituents so tractable as incidentals, that the latter are preferred, those constituents will not be altogether so ungrateful as they may imagine in some cases.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

1. If any class of constituents might be naturally inca pable of a good return, one should expect to find it in the material: and as our Saviour asks, " Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature ?” (Mat. vi. 27) so one would think it might be asked with equal propriety, Who by taking thought can add so much as one good characteristic to his person?

[ocr errors]

1, Who, for example, can really add to his own personal Beauty by any attention that he may possibly bestow on it? Perhaps, on considering, we should find, that a man has more influence over this characteristic than over the characteristics of stature and of height particularly. Indirectly, it is true a man, that is the thinking man, may influence or govern his exterior, which is the material man in both respects; v. g. in respect both of beauty and stature, by prudence and discretion, in supplying it with necessaries and regulating the use of them. But when we talk of beauty, we do not merely mean a smooth skin and comely features; but a certain outward expression, indicative of something particularly estimable and pleasant within. Therefore, supposing that indication to be regulated by that something within; attention to this something may serve somewhat to the improvement of that indication. "Wisdom makes a man's face to shine" (Eccl. viii. 1), and to shine every differently from the common gloss of health, which is produced by good cheer on a subject that has not been over-fed. By prudence, with the blessing from above, may be had" wine that maketh glad the heart of man; and oil to make him of a cheerful countenance" (Ps. civ. 15) but by wisdom and divine grace, a man shall have the air of honesty; whereby not only his face is made to

shine or look beautiful, but "the boldness of his face shall be changed" (Eccl. viii. 1): which would be a great improvement for some who are bold on other accounts.

Wisdom or righteousness is the foundation of grace and beauty in every production, whether of nature or art; but in an intelligent creature, both the foundation and superstructure: and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of righteousness to every intelligent creature, as the righteousness of that creature is of all the grace in him. Or it may be said, that grace is the foundation of grace; or grace within, of the grace without; and by one "of whose fulness have all we received, and grace for grace" (John i. 16): as it is written, "Out of Sion hath God appeared in perfect beauty" (Ps. 1. 1); and as it was said once by an eminent ecclesiastic* of our countrymen before they had the polish of perfect freedom, “They would not be Angles (or English) but angels, if they were Christians."

As far, therefore, as beauty admits of demonstration, the beauty of righteousness may be demonstrated and if there was not something particularly attractive in its appearance, the property would not be so amiable as it is, even in the eyes of unprincipled seducers, with the devil at their head; who will be at double costs and pains to entrap a righteous man, to what they would bestow for an epicene or half strain. And, what is more creditable to the exterior of righteousness; the righteous themselves are in love with it, as well as with its substance or effects: there is in its whole exterior an idea of loveliness that one knows not how to describe, nor yet to conceive either, without a pattern. Christian poets have dwelt on the beauty of our first parents: and with reason; for if only the fragments of righteousness, as we have them sometimes, are beautiful, how much more must the image have been so before it was broken in Paradise! The ancient heathens had likewise some of them, a very strong idea of * Gregory the Great.

abstract beauty, or of the beauty of properties; like justice, temperance, fortitude, and other particulars, as well as of the general property or element of righteousness, which some of them worshipped under the name of virtue; but they had no idea of the same beauty restored, concreted and visibly expressed in form and feature. Their conception of personal beauty was not so high as it is generally supposed, being either purely material; or if moral, only of an inferior description. Their persons were all statues, or little more: of featured intellect, or intellectual features, they had hardly any conception; of the BEAUTY OF HOLINESS, none. So that to them, and even now to the children of this world, who are all heathens in fact, the beauty of Christian perfection exhibited in "a man of sorrows" would seem preposterous.

2, If, however, this be desirable, v. g. that a man should carry a good countenance among his fellow mortals upon earth for the short time that he has to be with them, how much more is such a countenance to be desired for futurity? Who would not like to shine among the heavenly host for ever? And if such a Transformation be desirable, the way to it is plain; being, in short, that to which St. Paul exhorts the brethren at Rome. "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, (says he) by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God" (Rom. xii. 1).

2. But if in this offering the subject be material, the action will belong, as usual, to another class of constituents, being objectively related to that of which we are now to consider the good subjective characteristics. For we are now to consider the good subjective characteristics of the spiritual class dividing again into four others; the motive, the sensitive, the appetitive, and the aversive, answerable to their essential bases, as before explained, and exhibiting various good properties, or properties so accounted in each division.

1, Of these may be mentioned, first in the motive class, -1:2, Such properties as Strength and Agility: which are both from God, as much as many superior endowments; but, like these, capable of great improvement by art and exercise. Therefore, it will be as much the duty of a Christian to guard and improve those two advantages of strength and agility, as it is to employ them for his own good, and for the good of the community according to the will of the All-bountiful Donor.

If one might venture to draw a comparison between these two good characteristics, the advantage or preference would generally be given, perhaps, to strength for performance. But in cases of dangerous opposition, or persecution, the agility of a Christian will serve him better than his strength; as flight with him is more becoming than fight, if he may be free to choose. For it is our divine Master's rule and commandment, founded in excellent policy, the diffusion of life and immortality by the gospel, that when persecuted in one city, we should flee into another (Mat. x. 23). Therefore, as Christians are bound generally to consult their safety by flight, when free from particular engagements to the contrary; and running is then even more creditable for them than standing the brunt, it seems an important article of education for Christians to learn running betimes; and not only running, but such honest evasion too as it may become them to employ sometimes rather than to withstand, or endeavour to withstand, an overwhelming tide of persecution. Among personal endowments for a Christian, swiftness for flight may be as important, however, at least, as strength for resistance; both being, as before observed, equally and originally the gift of God his Creator and Redeemer. So are

[ocr errors]

-3: 4, Vivacity, Fertility, and every other species of health, with length of days, their usual accompaniment; it is all "an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord"

« ПредишнаНапред »