I fall leave my reader to compare these eaftern fables with the notions of those two great philofophers whom I before mentioned; and fhall only, by way of application, defire him to confider how we may extend life beyond its natural dimenfions, by applying ourfelves diligently to the pursuits of knowledge.

The hours of a wife man are lengthened by his ideas, as thofe of a fool are by his paffions: the time of the one is long, because he does not know what to do with it; fo is that of the other, because he diftinguishes every moment of it with useful or amufing thoughts; or in other words, because the one is always wifhing it away, and the other always enjoying it.

How different is the view of paft life, in the man who is grown old in knowledge and wisdom, from that of him who is grown old in ignorance and folly? The latter is like the owner of a barren country, that fills his eye with the profpect of naked hills and plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental: the other beholds a beautiful and fpacious landskip, divided into delightful gardens, green meadows, fruitful fields, and can fcarce caft his eye on a fingle fpot of his poffeffions, that is not covered with fome beautiful plant or flower.

SPEC

SPECTATOR, N° 513.

A ferious Thought in Sickness, in a Letter from a Clergyman to the Spectator,

SIR,

THE

HE indifpofition which has long hung. upon me, is at laft grown to fuch a head, that it must quickly make an end of me, or of itself.

Among all the reflections which usually rife in the mind of a fick man, who has time and inclination to confider his approaching end, there is none more natural than that of his going to appear naked and unbodied before HIM who made him. When a man confiders, that as foon as the vital union is diffolved, he fhall fee that Supreme Being, whom he now contemplates at a distance, and only in his works; or, to speak more 'philofophically, when by fome faculty in the foul he fhall apprehend the Divine Being, and be more fenfible of his prefence, than we are now of the prefence of any object which the eye beholds, a man must be loft in careleffness and ftupidity, who is not alarmed at fuch a thought. Dr. Sherlock in his excellent treatife upon death, has reprefented, in very ftrong and lively colours, the ftate of the foul in its firft feparation

from

from the body, with regard to that invisible world which every where furrounds us, though we are not able to discover it thro' this groffer world of matter, which is accommodated to our fenfes in this life. His words are as follow:

That Death, which is our leaving this world, is nothing else but our putting off thefe bodies, teaches us, that it is only our union to thefe bodies, which intercepts the fight of the other world: The other world is not at fuch a distance from us, as we may imagine; the throne of God, indeed, is at a great remove from this earth, above the third heaven, where he difplays his glory to thofe blefed fpirits which encompass his throne; but as foon as we fep out of thefe bodies, we ftep into the other world, which is not fo properly another world, for there is the fame heaven and earth ftill) as a new state of life. To live in thefe bodies is to live in this world; to live out of them is to remove into the next: For while our fouls are confined to thefe bodies, and can look only through thefe material cafements, nothing but what is material can affect us; nay nothing but what is fo gross, that it can reflect light, and convey the Jhapes and colours of things with it to the eye: So that though within this visible world, there be a more glorious fcene of things than what appears

appears to us, we perceive nothing at all of it; for this veil of flesh, parts the visible and invifible world: But when we put off these bodies, new and furprizing wonders preSent themselves to our views; when these material spectacles are taken off, the foul, with its own naked eyes, fees what was invifible before: And then we are in the other world, when we can fee it, and converfe with it: Thus St. Paul tells us, That when we are at home in the body, we are abfent from the Lord; but when we are absent from the body, we are prefent with the Lord, 2 Cor. v. 6, 8. And methinks this is enough to cure us of our fondness for thefe bodies, unlefs we think it more defirable to be confined to a prifon, and to look through a grate all our lives, which gives us but a very narrow proSpect, and that none of the best neither, than to be fet at liberty to view all the glories of the world. What would we give now for the leaft glimpse of that invifible world, which the first step we take out of thefe bodies will prefent us with? There are fuch things as eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive: Death opens our eyes, enlarges our profpect, prefents us with a new and more glorious world, which we can never fee while we are fout up in flesh; which should

make

make us as willing to part with this veil, as to take the film off if our eyes, which hinders our fight.

As a thinking man cannot but be very much affected with the idea of his appear ing in the presence of that Being whom none can fee and live; he must be much more affected when he confiders that this Being whom he appears before, will examine all the actions of his paft life, and reward or punish him accordingly. I muft confefs that I think there is no scheme of religion, befides that of christianity, which can poffibly fupport the most virtuous per fon under this thought. Let a man's innocence be what it will, let his virtues rife to the highest pitch of perfection attainable in this life, there will be ftill in him fo many fecrets fins, fo many human frailties, fo many offences of ignorance, paffion and prejudice, fo many unguarded words and thoughts, and in fhort, fo many defects in his best actions, that, without the advantages of fuch an expiation and atonement as christianity has revealed to us, it is impoffible that he fhould be cleared before his Sovereign Judge, or that he should be able to ftand in his fight. Our holy religion fuggests to us the only means where

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