1 Bleft Jefus, what delicious fare! HYMN V. On the Kingdom of Chrift. Rev. xi. 15. I ET the feventh angel found on high; The angry nations fret and-rore, Now must the rifing dead appear; On a Future State, and the Mystery of Divine Providence. SPECTATOR, N° 237. T is very reasonable to believe, that part of the pleasure which happy minds. fhall enjoy in a future ftate, will arife from an enlarged contemplation of the divine wisdom in the government of the world, and a discovery of the fecret and amazing fteps of providence, from the beginning to the end of time. Nothing feems to be an entertainment more adapted to the nature of man, if we confider that curiofity is one of the strongest and most lafting appetites implanted in us, and that admiration is one of our most pleafing paffions; and what a perpetual fucceffion of enjoyments, will be afforded to both thefe, in a scene fo large and various as fhall then be laid open to our view in the fociety of fuperior fpirits, who perhaps will join with us in fo delightful a profpect! It is not impoffible, on the contrary, that part of the punishment of fuch as are excluded from blifs, may confift not only in their being denied this privilege, but in having their appetites at the fame time vaftly increafed, without fatisfaction afforded to them. In thefe, the vain pursuit of knowledge E any knowledge fhall, perhaps, add to their infelicity, and bewilder them into labyrinths of error, darkness, diftraction and uncer tainty of every thing but their own evil ftate. Milton has thus reprefented the fallen angels reafoning together in a kind of refpite from their torments, and creating to themselves a new difquiet amidst their very amusements; he could not properly have described the sports of condemned fpirits, without that caft of horror and melancholy he has fo judiciously mingled with them. Others apart fate on a hill retired, In our prefent condition, which is a middle ftate, our minds are, as it were, chequered with truth and falfhood; and as our faculties are narrow and our views imperfect, it is impoffible but our curiosity must meet with many repulfes. The business of mankind in this life being rather to act than to know, their portion of knowledge is dealt to them accordingly. From hence it is, that the reafon of the inquifitive has fo long been exercifed with difficulties, in accounting for the promifcuous diftribution of good and evil to the virtuous and the wicked in this world. from hence come all thofe pathetical complaints of fo many tragical events, which happen to the wife and the good; and of fuch furprizing profperity, which is often the reward of the guilty and the foolish; that reafon is fometimes puzzled, and at a lofs what to pronounce upon fo myfterious a difpenfation. Plato expreffes his abhorrence of fome fables of the poets, which feem to reflect on the gods as the authors of injustice; and lays it down as a principle, that whatever is permited to befall a juft man, whether poverty, fickness, or any of those things which feems to be evils, fhall either in life or death conduce to his good. My reader will obferve how agreeable this maxim is to what we find delivered by a greater authority (Rom. viii. 28.) Seneca has written a difcourfe purpofely on this fubject, in which he takes pains, after the doctrine of the Stoicks, to fhew, that adverfity is not in itfelf an evil; and mentions a noble saying of Demetrius, that nothing would be more unhappy than a man who had never known affliction. He compares profperity to the indulgence of a fond mother to a child, which E 2 . which often proves his ruin; but the affection of the divine being to that of a wife father, who would have his fons exercised with labour, difappointment, and pain, that they may gather ftrength, and improve their fortitude. On this occafion the philofopher rifes into that celebrated fentiment, that there is not on earth a fpectacle more worthy the regard of a creator intent on his works, than a brave man fuperior to his fufferings; to which he adds, that it muft be a pleafure to Jupiter himself to look down from heaven, and fee Cato amidst the ruins of his country preferving his integrity. This thought will appear yet more reafonable, if we confider human life as a state of probation, and adverfity as the poft of honour in it, affigned often to the best and moft felect fpirits. But what I would chiefly infift on here, is, that we are not at prefent in a proper fituation to judge of the counfels by which providence acts, fince but little arrives at our knowledge, and even that little we difcern imperfectly; or according to the elegant figure in holy writ, We fee but in part and as in a glass darkly. It is to be confidered, that providence in its OEconomy regards the whole fyftem of time and things togetlier, fo that we cannot difcover the beautiful |