. thy noble nature (o).-But let me still urge it. it. Confider, I fay, O my soul, that thou art an immortal fpirit. Thy body dies; but thou, thou must live • for ever, and thine eternity will take its tincture from the manner of thy behaviour, and the habits thou contractest, during this, thy fhort co-partnership with • flesh and blood. O! do nothing now, but what thou mayeft with pleasure look back upon a million of ages hence. For know, O my foul, that thy felfconsciousness, and reflecting faculties will not leave thee with thy body; but will follow thee after death, and be the inftrument of unfpeakable pleasure or torment to thee in that separate state of existence *.' 2 (2) In order to a full acquaintance with ourfelves, we muft endeavour to know not only what we are, but what we fhall be. And (0) Major fum et ad majora natus, quam quod fim corporis mancipium. Quod equidem non aliter afpicio quam vinculum libertati meæ circumdatum, Sen. Ep. 66. I am too noble, and of too high a birth (faith that excellent moralift) to be a flave to my body; which I look upon only as a chain thrown upon the liberty of my foul. * As it is not the defign of this treatise to enter into a nice and philofophical difquifition concern ing And O what different creatures fhall we foon be, from what we now are! Let us look forwards then, and frequently glance our thoughts towards death; though they cannot penetrate the darkness of that paffage, or reach the ftate behind it. That lies veiled from the eyes of our mind; and the great GOD hath not thought fit to throw fo much light upon it, as to fatisfy the anxious and inquifitive defires the foul hath to know it. However, let us make the best use we can of that little light which Scripture and reafon have let in upon this dark and important fubject. 6 Compose thy thoughts, O my foul, and imagine how it will fare with thee, ⚫ when thou goest a naked, unimbodied fpirit, into a world, an unknown world of fpirits, with all thy felf-consciousness about thee, where no material object shall strike thine eye; and where thy dear partner and companion ing the nature of the human foul, but to awaken men's attention to the inward operations and affections of it, (which is by far the moft neceffary part of felf-knowledge) fo they who would be. more particularly informed concerning its nature and original, and the various opinions of the antients about it, may confult Nemef. de Nat. Hom. cap. 1. and a treatise called The Government of the Thoughts, chap. 1. and Chambers's Cyclopædia, under the word SOUL companion the body cannot come nigh thee. But where without it thou wilt be fenfible of the most noble fatisfactions, or the most exquifite pains. Imbarked in death, thy paffage will be dark; and the shore, on ⚫ which it will land thee, altogether strange ⚫ and unknown. It doth not yet appear what we fhall be (p).' 6 That (p) Thou must expire, my foul, ordain'd to range Thro' unexperienc'd fcenes, the myft'ries strange; • Dark the event, and difmal the exchange. • But when compell'd to leave this house of clay, And to an unknown fomewhere wing thy way; • When time shall be eternity, and thou ⚫ Shalt be thou know'ft not what, nor where, nor how, Trembling and pale, what wilt thou fee or do? Amazing state!-No wonder that we dread The thoughts of death, or faces of the dead. His black retinue forely ftrikes our mind; 'Sickness and pain before, and darkness all behind. Some courteous ghost, the secret then reveal; 'Tell us what you have felt, and we must feel, 'You warn us of approaching death, and why 'Will you not teach us what it is to die? 'But having fhot the gulph, you love to view Succeeding fpirits plung'd along like you; Nor lend a friendly hand to guide them through. When dire difeafe fhall cut, or age untie • With That revelation, which God hath been pleased to make of his will to mankind, was defigned rather to fit us for future happiness, and direct our way to it, than to open to us the particular glories of it; or distinctly to fhew us what it is. This it hath left still very much a mystery; to check our too curious enquiries into the nature of it, and to bend our thoughts more intently to that which is of greater moment, viz. an habitual preparation for it. And what that is, we cannot be ignorant, if we believe either our Bible or our reafon; for both these affure us, that that which maketh us like to God, is the only thing that can fit us for the enjoyment of Him.--Here then let us hold. Let our great concern be, to be holy as he is holy. And then, then only, are we fure to enjoy him, in whofe light we fhall fee light. And be the future state of exiftence what it will, we shall some way be happy there; and much more happy than we can now conceive; tho' in what particular manner we know not, because God hath not revealed it. CHAP. . With fear and hope fhe throbs, then curious tries Some strange hereafter, and fome hidden fkies.' Norris. СНА Р. III. The feveral Relations wherein we ftand to GOD, to CHRIST, and our Fellow-Crea II. tures. SELE ELF-KNOWLEDGE requires us to be well acquainted with the various relations in which we ftand to other beings, and the feveral duties that refult from thofe relations. And, (1.) Our first and principal concern is to confider the relation wherein we ftand to Him who gave us being. We are the creatures of his hand, and the objects of his care: His Power upholds the being his Goodness gave us: His Bounty accommodates us with the bleffings of this life, and his Grace provides for us the happiness of a better.---Nor are we merely his creatures, but his rational and intelligent creatures. It is the dignity of our natures, that we are capable of knowing and enjoying him that made us. And as the rational creatures of GOD, there are two relations especially that we bear to him; the frequent confideration of which is abfolutely neceffary to a right felf-knowledge. For as our Creator, he is our King and Father. And as his creatures, we are the fubjects of his kingdom, and the children of his family. (1.) We |