Law, in Cafes of Men's Properties, while in Criminal Cafes there is a Power of pardoning still lodged in the Crown.

NOTWITHSTANDING this, it is perhaps impoffible in a large Government to diftribute Rewards and Punishments ftrictly proportioned to the Merits of every Aftion. The Spartan Common-wealth was indeed wonderfully exact in this Particular; and I do not remember in all my Reading, to have met with fo nice an Example of Juftice as that recorded by Plutarch, with which I fhall close my Paper for this Day.

THE City of Sparta being unexpectedly attacked by a powerful Army of Thebans, was in very great Danger of falling into the Hands of their Enemies. The Citizens fuddenly gathering themselves into a Body, fought with a Refolution equal to the Neceffity of their Affairs, yet no one fo remarkably dift nguifhed himself on this Occafion to the Amazement of both Armies, as Ifadas the Son of Phoebidas, who was at that Time in the Bloom of his Youth, and very remarkable for the Comelinefs of his Perfon. He was coming out of the Bath when the Alarm was given, fo that he had not Time to put on his Cloaths, much less his Armour; however tranfported with a Defire to ferve his Country in fo great an Exigency, fnatching up a Spear in one Hand, and a Sword in the other, he flung himfelf into the thickeft Ranks of his Enemies. Nothing could withstand his Fury: In what Part foever he fought he put the Enemies to Flight without receiving a fingle Wound. Whether lays Plutarch, he was the particular Care of fome God, who rewarded his Valour that Day with an extraordinary Protection, or, that his Enemies, ftruck with the Unufualness of his Drefs and Beauty of his Shape, fuppofed him fomething more than Man, I fhall not determine.

THE Gallantry of this Action was judged fo great by the Spartans, that the Ephori, or chief Magiftrates, decreed he should be prefented with a Garland; but as VOL. VIII. C

foon

foon as they had done fo, fined him a thousand Drachmas' for going out to the Battle unarmed.

N° 565.

I

Friday, July 9.

·Deum namque ire per omnes

Terrafque, tractufque maris, cœlumque profundum.

Virg. Was Yesterday about Sun-fet walking in the open Fields 'till the Night infenfibly fell upon me.

I

at firft amused my felf with all the Richness and Variety of Colours, which appeared in the Weftera Parts of Heaven: In Proportion as they faded away and went out, feveral Stars and Planets appeared one after another, 'till the whole Firmament was in a Glow. The Blueness of the Ether was exceedingly heightened and enlivened by the Seafon of the Year, and by the Rays of all thofe Luminaries that paffed through it. The Galaxy appeared in its most beautiful White. To compleat the Scene, the full Moon refe at length in that clouded Majefty, which Milton takes Notice of, and opened to the Eye a new Pi&ure of Nature, which was more finely fhaded, and difpofed among fofter Lights, than that which the Sun had before difcovered to us.

AS I was furveying the Moon walking in her Brightness, and taking her Progrefs among the Conftellations, a Thought rofe in me which I believe very often perplexes and difturbs Men of ferious and contemplative Natures. David himself fell into it in that Reflection When I confider the Heavens the Work of thy Fingers, the Moon and the Stars which thou haft ordained; what is Man, that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of Man that thou regardest him! In the fame Manner, when I confidered that infinite Holt of Stars, or, to fpeak more Philofophically, of Suns, which were then

fhining

fhining upon me, with thofe innumerable Sets of Planets or Worlds, which were moving round their refpective Suns, when I ftill enlarged the Idea, and fuppofed another Heaven of Suns and Worlds rifing ftill above this which we difcovered, and thefe ftill enlightened by a fuperior Firmament of Luminaries, which are planted at fo great a Distance, that they may appear to the Inhabitants of the former as the Stars do to us; In fhort, whilft I purfued this Thought, I could not but reflect on that little infignificant Figure which I my felf bore amidst the Immensity of God's Works.

WERE the Sun, which enlightens this Part of the Creation, with all the Hoft of Planetary Worlds that move about him, utterly extinguished and annihilated, they would not be mifs'd more than a Grain of Sand upon the Sea-fhore. The Space they poffefs is fo exceedingly little, in Comparison of the whole that it would fcarce make a Blank in the Creation. The Chafi would be imperceptible to an Eye, that could take in the whole Compafs of Nature, and pafs from one End of the Creation to the other, as it is poffible there may be fuch a Senfe in our felves hereafter, or in Creatures which are at prefent more exalted thar our felves. We fee inany Stars by the Help of Glaffes, which we do not difcover with our naked Eyes; and the finer our Telescopes are, the more ftill are our Difcoveries. Huygenius carries this Thought fo far, that he does not think it impoffible there may be Stars whofe Light is not yet travelled down to us, fince their first Creation. There is no Question but the Univerfe has certain Bounds fet to it; but when we confider that it is the Work of infinite Power, prompted by infinite Goodness, with an infinite Space to exert it felf in, how can our Imagination fet any Bounds to it?

TO return therefore to my firft Thought, I could not but look upon my felf with fecret Horror as a Being, that was not worth the finalleft Regard of one who had fo great a Work under his Care and Superinten

dency.

dency. I was afraid of being overlooked amidst the Immenfity of Nature, and loft among that infinite Variety of Creatures, which in all Probability fwarm through all these immeafurable Regions of Matter.

IN Order to recover my felt from this mortifying Thought I confidered that it took its Rife from thofe narrow Conceptions, which we are apt to entertain of the Divine Nature. We our felves cannot attend to many different Objects at the fame Time. If we are careful to inspect fome Things, we must of Course neglect others. This Imperfection which we obferve in our felves, is an Imperfection that cleaves in fome Degree to Creatures of the highest Capacities, as they are Creatures, that is, Beings of finite and limited Natures. The Prefence of every created Being is confined to a certain Measure of Space, and confequently his Obfervatior is ftinted to a certain Number of Objects. The Sphere in which we move, and act, and understand, is of a wider Circumference to one Creature than another, according as we rife one above another in the Scale of Existence. But the wideft of these our Spheres has its Circumference. When therefore we reflect on the Divine Nature, we are so used and accustomed to this Imperfection in our felves, that we cannot forbear in fome Measure afcribing it to him in whom there is no Shadow of Imperfection. Our Reason indeed affures us that his Attributes are infinite, but the Poornefs of our Conceptions is fuch, that it cannot forbear fetting Bounds to every Thing it contemplates, till our Reafon comes again to our Succour, and throws down all those little Prejudices which rife in us unawares, and are natural to the Mind of Man,

WE fhall therefore utterly extinguish this melancholy Thought, of our being overlooked by our Maker in the Multiplicity of his Works, and the Infinity of thofe Objects among which he seems to be inceffantly employed, if we confider, in the firft Place, that he is Omniprefent; and, in the fecond, that he is Ompifcient..

IF we confider him in his Omnipresence: His Being paffes through, actuates, and fupports the whole Frame of Nature. His Creation, and every Fart of it, is full of him. There is nothing he has made, that is either fo diftant, fo little, or fo inconfiderable, which he does not effentially inhabit. His Subftance is within the Substance of every Being, whether material, or immaterial, and as intimately present to it, as that Being is to it felf. It would be an Imperfection in him, were he able to remove out of one Place into another, or to withdraw himself from any Thing he has created, or from any Part of that Space which is diffufed and fpread abroad to Infinity. In short, to fpeak of him in the Language of the old Philofopher, he is a Being whofe Centre is every where, and his Circumference no where.

IN the fecond Place, he is Omnifcient as well as Omniprefent. His Omnifcience indeed neceffarily and naturally flows from his Omniprefence; he cannot but be confcious of every Motion that arifes in the whole material World, which he thus effentially pervades, and of every Thought that is ftirring in the intellectual World, to every Part of which he is thus intimately united. Several Moralifts have considered the Creation as the Temple of God, which he has built with his own Hands, and which is filled with his Prefence Others have confidered infinite Space as the Receptacle, or rather the Habitation of the Almighty: But the noblest and most exalted Way of confidering this infinite Space is that of Sir Ifaac Newton, who calls it the Senforium of the Godhead. Brutes and Men have their Senforiola, or little Senforiums, by which they apprehend the Piefence and perceive the Actions of a few Objects that lie contiguous to them. Their Knowledge and Obfervation turns within a very narrow Circle. But as God Almighty cannot but perceive and know every Thing in which he refides, Infinite Space gives Room to infinite Knowledge, and is, as it were, an Organ to Omniscience,