PROOFS FROM THE LIGHT OF NATURE. 



jnorai perfection ; and the infinity of the Creator, 

 and the immensity of that universe over which he 

 presides, present a field in which it may for ever 

 expatiate, and an assemblage of objects on which 

 its powers may be incessantly exercised, with 

 out the most distant prospect of ever arriving at 

 a boundary to interrupt its intellectual career. 



As I cannot illustrate this topic in more beau 

 tiful and forcible language than has been already 

 done by a celebrated Essayist, I shall take the 

 liberty of quoting his words. &quot; How can it en 

 ter into the thoughts of man,&quot; says this elegant 

 writer, &quot; that the soul, which is capable of such 

 immense perfections, and of receiving new im 

 provements to all eternity, shall fall away into 

 nothing almost as soon as it is created ? Are 

 such abilities made for no purpose? A brute 

 arrives at a point of perfection which he can 

 never pass. In a few years he has all the en 

 dowments he is capable of; and weve he to live 

 ten thousand more, would be the same thing he 

 is at present. Were a human soul thus at a 

 stand in her accomplishments, were her faculties 

 to be full blown, and incapable of further enlarge 

 ments, I could imagine it might fall aw\v insen 

 sibly, and drop at once into a state of annihila 

 tion. But can we believe a thinking being, that 

 is in a perpetual progress of improvements, and 

 travelling on from perfection to perfection, after 

 having just looked abroad into the works of the 

 Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infi 

 nite goodness, wisdom and power, must perish in 

 her first setting out, and in the very beginning of 

 her inquiries ? 



&quot; A man, considered in his present state, 

 seems only sent into the world to propagate his 

 kind. He provides himself with a successor, 

 and immediately quits his post to make room for 

 him : 



Heir urges on his predecessor heir, 



Like wave impelling wave. 



He does not seem born to enjoy life, but to deli 

 ver it down to others. This is not surprising to 

 consider in animals, which are formed for our 

 use, and can finish their business in a short life. 

 The silk-worm, after having spun her task, lays 

 her eggs and dies. But a man can never have 

 taken in his full measure of knowledge, has riot 

 time to subdue his passions, esablish his soul in 

 virtue, and come up to the perfection of his na 

 ture, before he is hurried off the stage. Would 

 an infinitely wise Being make such glorious crea 

 tures for so mean a purpose ? Can he delight 

 in the production of such abortive intelligences, 

 such short-lived reasonable beings ? Would he 

 give us talents that are not to be exerted ? capa 

 cities that are never to be gratified ? How can 

 we find that wisdom, which shines through all his 

 works in the formation of man, without looking 

 on this world as a nursery for the next ? and be- 

 Jieving that the several generations of rational 

 creatures, which rise up and disappear in such 



quick successions, are only to receive their first 

 rudiments of existence here, and afterv-ards to 

 be transplanted into a more friendly climate, 

 where they may spread and flourish to all eternity 1 



&quot; There is not, in my opinion, a more plets 

 ing and triumphant consideration in religion than 

 this, of the perpetual progress which the soul 

 makes towards the perfection of its nature, with 

 out ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon 

 the soul as going on from strength to strength; 

 to consider that she is to shine for ever with new 

 accessions of glorv, and brighten to all eternity, 

 that she will be stilf adding virtue to virtue, and 

 knowledge to knowledge, carries in it something 

 wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is 

 natural to the mind of man. Nay, it must be a 

 prospect pleasing to God himself to see his crea 

 tion for ever beautifying in his eyes, and drawing 

 nearer to him by greater degrees of resemblance. 



&quot; Methinks this single consideration of the 

 progress of a finite spirit to perfection will be 

 sufficient to extinguish all envy in inferior na 

 tures, and all contempt in superior. That che 

 rubim, which now appears as a god to a human 

 soul, knows very well that the period will come 

 about in eternity, when the human soul shall be 

 as perfect as he himself now is : nay, when she 

 shall look down upon that degree of perfection as 

 much as she now falls short of it. It is true the 

 higher nature still advances, and by that means 

 preserves his distance and superiority in the scale 

 of being ; but he knows how high soever the sta 

 tion is, of which he stands possessed at present, 

 the inferior nature will at length mount up to it, 

 and shine forth in the same degree of glory. 



&quot; With what astonishment and veneration 

 may we look into our own souls, where there are 

 such hidden stores of virtue and knowledge, such 

 inexhausted sources of perfection ? We know 

 not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter 

 into the heart of man to conceive the glory that 

 will be always in reserve for him. The soul 

 considered with its Creator, is like one of those 

 mathematical lines that may draw nearer to an 

 other for all eternity without a possibility of 

 touching it : and can there be a thought so trans 

 porting, as to consider ourselves in these per 

 petual approaches to Him who is not cnly the 

 standard of perfection but of happiness!&quot;* 



SECTION V. 



ON THE UNLIMITED RANGE OF VIEW WHICH 

 IS OPENED TO THE HUMAN FACULTIES 

 THROUGHOUT THE IMMENSITY OF SPACE 

 AND OF DURATION. 



The unlimited range of view which is opened 

 to the human imagination throughout the immeo- 



Spectator, vol. 2. 



