quantity or matter." This same doctrine may also be proved to their understandings, and almost to their senses, by some easier arguments in a more obvious manner. As the very opening and closing of a pair of compasses, will evidently prove that if the smallest supposed part of matter or quantity be put between the the points, there will be still less and less distances or quantities all the way between the legs, till you come to the head or joint; wherefore there is no such thing possible as the smallest quantity. But a little acquaintance with true philosophy and methematical learning would soon teach them, that there are no limits either as to the extension of space, or to the division of body, and would lead them to believe there are bodies amazingly great or small beyond their present imagination.

(2.) It is proper also to acquaint them with the circumference of our earth, which may be proved by very easy principles of geometry, geography, and astronomy, to be about twenty-four thousand miles round, as it has been actually found to have this dimension by mariners who have sailed round it. Then let them be taught that in every twenty-four hours, either the sun and stars must all move round this earth, or the earth must turn round upon its own axis. If the earth itself revolve thus, then each house or mountain near the equator must move at the rate of a thousand miles in an hour but if (as they generally suppose) the sun or stars move round the earth, then (the cir cumference of their several orbits or spheres being vastly greater than this earth) they must have a motion prodigiously swifter than a thousand miles an hour. Such a thought as this will by degrees enlarge their minds, and they will be taught, even upon their own principle of the diurnal revolutions of the heavens, to take in some of the vast dimensions of the heavenly bodies, their 'spaces and motions.

(3.) To this should be added the use of telescopes to help them to see the distant wonders in the skies; and microscopes which discover the minutest part of little animals, and reveal some of the finer and most curious works of nature. They should be acquainted also with some other noble inventions of modern philosophy, which have a great influence to enlarge the human understanding, of which I shall take occasion to speak more under the next head.

(1.) For the same purpose they may be invited to read those parts of Milton's admirable poem, entitled Paradise Lost, where he describes the armies and powers of angels, the wars and the senate of devils, the creation of this earth, together with the descriptions of heaven, hell, and paradise.

It must be granted that poesy often deals in these vast and sublime ideas. And even if the subject or matter of the poem doth not require such amazing and extensive thoughts, yet tropes

and figures' which are some of the main powers and beauties of poesy, do so gloriously exalt the matter as to give a sublime imagination its proper relish and delight.

So when a boar is chased in hunting,

His nostrils flames expire,

And his red eye-balls roll with living fire.

DRYDEN.

When Ulysses withholds and suppresses his resentment,

His wrath comprest

Recoiling, muter'd thunder in his breast.

POPE.

But especially where the subject is grand, the poet fails not

to represent it in all its grandeur.

So when the supremacy of a God is described,

He sees with equal eye, as God of all,

A Hero perish, or a sparrow fall:

Atoms or systems, into ruin hurl'd,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Port.

These sort of writings have a natural tendency "to enlarge the capacity of the mind, and make sublime ideas familiar to it." And instead of running always to the ancient heathen poesy, with this design, we may with equal if not superior advantage, apply ourselves to converse with some of the best of our modern poets, as well as with the writings of the prophets, and the poetical parts of the Bible, viz. the Book of Job and the Psalms, in which sacred authors we shall find sometimes more sublime ideas, more glorious descriptions, more elevated language, than the fondest critics have ever found in any of the heathen versifiers either of Greece or Rome; for the eastern writers use and allow much stronger figures and tropes than the western. Now there are many, and great, and sacred advantages to be derived from this sort of enlargement of the mind.

It will lead us into more exalted apprehensions of the great God our Creator than ever we had before. It will entertain our thoughts with holy wonder and amazement, while we contemplate that being who created these various works of surprising greatness, and surprising smallness; who has displayed most inconceivable wisdom in the contrivance of all the parts, powers and motions of these little animals invisible to the naked eye; who has manifested a most divine extent of knowledge, power and greatness, in forming, moving and managing the most extensive bulk of the heavenly bodies, and in surveying and comprehending all those unmeasurable spaces in which they move. Fancy with all her images is fatigued and overwhelmed in following the planetary worlds through such immense stages, such astonishing journies as these are, and resigns its place

to the pure intellect, which learns by degrees to take in such ideas as these and to adore its Creator with new and sublime devotion.

And not only are we taught to form juster ideas of the great God by these methods, but this enlargement of the mind carries us on to nobler conceptions of his intelligent creatures. The mind that deals only in vulgar and common ideas, is ready to imagine the nature and powers of man to come something too near to God his maker, because we do not see or sensibly converse with any beings superior to ourselves. But when the soul has obtained a greater amplitude of thought, it will not then immediately pronounce every thing to be God which is above man. It then learns to suppose there may be as many various ranks of beings in the invisible world in a constant gradation superior to us, as we ourselves are superior to all the ranks of being heneath us in this visible world; even though we descend downward far below the ant and the worm, the snail and the oyster, to the least and to the dullest animated atoms which are discovered to us by microscopes.

By this means we shall be able to suppose what prodigious power angels, whether good or bad, must be furnished with, and prodigious knowledge in order to oversee the realms of Persia, and Græcia of old, or if any such superintend the affairs of Great Britain, France, Ireland, Germany, &c. in our days; what power and speed is necessary to destroy one hundred eighty-five thousand armed men in one night in the Assyrian camp of Sennacherib, and all the first-born in the land of Egypt in another, both which are attributed to an angel,

By these steps we shall ascend to form more just ideas of the knowledge and grandeur, the power and glory of the Man Jesus Christ, who is intimately united to God, and is one with him. Doubtless he is furnished with superior powers to all the angels in heaven, because he is employed in superior work, and appointed to be the sovereign Lord of all the visible and invisible worlds. It is his human nature, in which the Godhead dwells bodily, that is advanced to these honours and to this empire; and perhaps there is little or nothing in the government of the kingdoms of nature, and grace, but what is transacted by the man Jesus, inhabited by the divine power and wisdom, and employed as a medium or conscious instrument of this extensive gubernation,

II. I proceed now to consider the next thing wherein the capacity or amplitude of the mind consists, and that is, when the mind is free to receive new and strange ideas and propositions upon just evidence without any great surprise or aversion. Those who confine themselves within the circle of their own hereditary ideas and opinions, and who never give themselves

leave so much as to examine or believe any thing beside the dictates of their own family or sect, or party, are justly charged with a narrowness of soul. Let us survey some instances of this imperfection, and then direct to the cure of it.

(1.) Persons who have been bred up all their days within the smoke of their father's chimney, or within the limits of their native town or village, are surprised at every new sight that appears, when they travel a few miles from home. The ploughman stands amazed at the shops, the trade, the crouds of people, the magnificent buildings, the pomp and riches and equipage of the court and city, and would hardly believe what was told him before he saw it. On the other hand, the cockney travelling into the country is surprised at many actions of the quadruped and winged animals in the field, and at many common practices of rural affairs. If either of these happen to hear an account of the familiar and daily customs of foreign countries, they pronounce them at once indecent and ridiculous; so narrow are their understandings, and their thoughts so confined, that they know not how to believe any thing wise or proper, besides what they have been taught to practise.

This narrowness of mind should be cured by hearing and reading the accounts of different parts of the world, and the histories of past ages, and of nations and countries distant from our own, especially the more polite parts of mankind. Nothing tends in this respect so much to enlarge the mind, as travelling, that is, making a visit to other towns, cities or countries, besides those in which we were born and educated and where our condition of life does not grant us this privilege, we must endeavour to supply the want of it by books.

(2.) It is the same narrowness of mind that awakens the surprise and aversion of some persons, when they hear of doctrines and schemes in human affairs or in religion quite different from what they have embraced. Perhaps they have been trained up from their infancy in one set of notions, and their thoughts have been confined to one single tract both in the civil or religious life, without ever hearing or knowing what other opinions are current among mankind; or at least they have seen all other notions besides their own, represented in a false and malignant light, whereupon they judge and condemn at once every sentiment but what their own party receives, and they think it a piece of justice and truth to lay heavy censures upon the practice of every different sect in christianity or politics. They have so rooted themselves in the opinions of their party, that they cannot bear an objection with patience, nor can they bear a vindication, or so much as an apology for any set of principles beside their own; all the rest is nonsense or heresy, folly or blasphemy.

This defect also is to be relieved by "free conversation with persons of different sentiments;" this will teach us to bear with patience a defence of opinions contrary to our own. If we are scholars, we should also read the objections against our own tenets, and view the principles of other parties, as they are represented in their own authors, and not merely in the citations of those who would confute them. We should take an honest and unbiassed survey of the force of reasoning on all sides, and bring all to the test of unprejudiced reason and divine revelation. Note, This is not to be done in a rash and self-sufficient manner; but with a humble dependence on divine wisdom and grace while we walk among snares and dangers.

By such a free converse with persons of different sects (especially those who differ only in particular forms of Christianity, but agree in the great and necessary doctrines of it) we shall find that there are persons of good sense and virtue, persons of piety and worth, persons of much candour and goodness, who belong to different parties, and have imbibed sentiments opposite to each other. This will soften the roughness of an unpolished soul, and enlarge the avenues of our charity towards others, and incline us to receive them into all the degrees of unity and affection which the word of God requires.

(3.) I might borrow further illustrations both of this freedom and this aversion to receive new truths from modern astronomy and natural philosophy. How much is the vulgar part of the world surprised at the talk of the diurnal and annual revolutions of the earth? They have ever been taught by their senses and their neighbours, to imagine the earth stands fixed in the centre of the universe, and that the sun with all the planets and the fixed stars are whirled round this little globe once in twenty-four hours; not considering that such a diurnal motion, by reason of the distance of some of those heavenly bodies, must be almost infinitely swifter and more inconceivable than any which the modern astronomers attribute to them. Tell these persons that the sun is fixed in the centre, that the earth, with all the planets, roll round the sun in their several periods, and that the moon rolls round the earth in a lesser circle, while together with the earth she is carried round the sun; they cannot admit a syllable of this new and strange doctrine, and they pronounce it utterly contrary to all sense and reason.

Acquaint them that there are four moons also perpetually rolling round the planet Jupiter, and carried along with him in his periodical circuit round the sun, which little moons were never known till the year 1610, when Galileo discovered them by his telescope; inform them that Saturn has five moons of the same kind attending him; and that the body of that planet is encompassed with a broad flat circular ring, distant from the