Parts of Africk. Upon his converfing with feveral in that Country, he tells me that their Notion of Heaven or of a future State of Happiness is this, That every thing we there wish for will immediately prefent it self to us. We find, fay they, our Souls are of such a Nature that they require Variety, and are not capable of being always delighted with the fame Objects. The Supreme Being, therefore, in compliance with this Tafte of Happiness which he has planted in the Soul of Man, will raife up from time to time, fay they, every Gratification which it is in the Humour to be pleased with. If we wish to be in Groves or Bowers, among running Streams or Falls of Water, we fhall immediately find our felves in the midst of such a Scene as we defire If we would be entertained with Mufick and the Melody of Sounds, the Confort rifes upon our Wish, and the whole Region about us is filled with Harmony. In short, every Defire will be followed by Fruition, and whatever a Man's Inclination directs him to will be prefent with him. Nor is it material whether the Supreme Power creates in Conformity to our Wishes, or whether he only produces fuch a Change in our Imagination, as makes us believe our felves converfant among thofe Scenes which delight us. Our Happiness will be the fame, whether it proceed from external Objects, or from the Impreffions of the Deity upon our own private Fancies. This is the Account which I have received from my learned Friend. Notwithflanding this System of Belief be in general very chimerical and vifionary, there is fomething fublime in its manner of confidering the Influence of a Divine Being on a Humane Soul. It has alfo, like most other Opinions of the Heathen World upon these important Points, it has, I fay, its Foundation in Truth, as it fuppofes the Souls of good Men after this Life to be in a State of perfect Happiness, that in this State there will be no barren Hopes, nor fruitlefs Wishes, and that we fhall enjoy every thing we can defire. But the particular Circumftance which I am moft pleas'd with in this Scheme, and which arifes from a juft Reflexion upon Humane Nature, is that Variety of Pleafures which it fuppofes VOL. VIII. H

the

No 606. the Souls of good Men will be poffeffed of in another World. This I think highly probable, from the Dictates both of Reafon and Revelation. The Soul confifts of many Faculties, as the Understanding, and the Will, with all the Senfes both outward and inward; or, to fpeak more Philofophically, the Soul can exert herself in many different Ways of Action. She can understand, will, imagine, fee, and hear, love, and difcourfe, and apply herself to many other the like Exercises of different Kinds and Natures; but what is more to be confidered, the Soul is capable of receiving a moft exquifite Pleafure and Satisfaction from the Exercife of any of thefe its Powers, when they are gratified with their proper Objects; fhe can be intirely happy by the Satiffaction of the Memory, the Sight, the Hearing, or any other Mode of Perception. Every Faculty is as a diftinct Tafte in the Mind, and hath Objects accommodated to its proper Relish. Doctor Tillotson fomewhere fays that he will not prefume to determine in what confifts the Happinefs of the Bleft, because God Almighty is capable of making the Soul happy by Ten thousand different Ways. Befides thofe feveral Avenues to Pleafure which the Soul is endowed with in this Life; it is not impoffible, according to the Opinions of many eminent Divines, but there may be new Faculties in the Souls of good Men made perfect, as well as new Senses in their glorified Bodies. This we are fure of, that there will be new Objects offer'd to all thofe Faculties which are effential to us.

WE are likewife to take notice that every particular Faculty is capable of being employed on a very great Variety of Objects. The Understanding, for Example, may be happy in the Contemplation of Moral, Natural, Mathematical, and other kinds of Truth. The Memory likewife may turn itself to an infinite multitude of Objects, especially when the Soul fhall have pafs'd through the Space of many Millions of Years, and shall reflect with Pleasure on the Days of Eternity. Every other Faculty may be confider'd in the fame Extent.

WE cannot queftion but that the Happiness of a Soul will be adequate to its Nature, and that it is not endowed

dowed with any Faculties which are to lie useless and unemploy'd. The Happiness is to be the Happiness of the whole Man, and we may eafily conceive to our felves the Happiness of the Soul, while any one of its Faculties is in the Fruition of its chief Good. The Happinefs may be of a more exalted Nature in Proportion as the Faculty employ'd is fo, but as the whole Soul acts in the Exertion of any of its particular Powers, the whole Soul is happy in the Pleasure which arifes from any of its particular Acts. For notwithstanding, as has been before hinted, and as it has been taken notice of by one of the greatest modern Philofophers, we divide the Soul into feveral Powers and Faculties, there is no fuch Divifion in the Soul it felf, fince it is the whole Soul that remembers, understands, wills, or imagines. Our manner of confidering the Memory, Understanding, Will, Imagination, and the like Faculties, is for the better enabling us to exprefs our felves in fuch abstracted Subjects of Speculation, not that there is any fuch Division in the Soul it felf.

SEEING then that the Soul has many different Faculties, or, in other Words, many different Ways of acting; that it can be intenfely pleas'd, or made happy by all these different Faculties, or Ways of acting; that it may be endow'd with feveral latent Faculties, which it is not at prefent in a Condition to exert; that we cannot believe the Soul is endow'd with any Faculty which is of no Ufe to it, that whenever any one of thefe Faculties is tranfcendently pleased, the Soul is in a State of Happinefs; and in the laft Place, confidering that the Happiness of another World is to be the Happinefs of the whole Man; who can question but that there is an infinite Variety in thofe Pleasures we are speaking of; and that this Fulnefs of Joy will be made up of all thofe Pleasures which the Nature of the Soul is capable of receiving.

WE thall be the more confirmed in this Doctrine, if we observe the Nature of Variety, with regard to the Mind of Man. The Soul does not care to be always in the fame bent. The Faculties relieve one another by Turns, and receive an additional Pleasure from

the Novelty of thofe Objects about which they are converfant.

REVELATION likewife very much confirms this Notion, under the different Views which it gives us of our future Happiness. In the Defcription of the Throne of God, it reprefents to us all thofe Objects which are able to gratify the Senfes and Imagination: In very many Places it intimates to us all the Happinefs which the Understanding can poffibly receive in that State, where all Things fhall be revealed to us, and we shall know, even as we are known; the Raptures of Devotion, of Divine Love, the Pleafure of converfing with our Bleffed Saviour, with an innumerable Hoft of Angels, and with the Spirits of Juft Men made perfect, are likewife revealed to us in feveral Parts of the Holy Writings. There are alfo mentioned thofe Hierarchies or Governments, in which the Bleft fhall be ranged one above another, and in which we may be fure a great Part of our Happinefs will likewife confift; for it will not be there as in this World, where every one is aiming at Power and Superiority; but on the contrary, every one will find that Station the most proper for him in which he is placed, and will probably think that he could not have been fo happy in any other Station. These, and many other Particulars, are marked in Divine Revelation, as the feveral Ingredients of our Happiness in Heaven, which all imply fuch a Variety of Joys, and fuch a Gratification of the Soul in all its different Faculties, as I have been here mentioning.

SOME of the Rabbins tell us, that the Cherubims are a Set of Angels who know moft, and the Seraphims a Set of Angels who love moft. Whether this Diftinction be not altoge her imaginary, I fhall not here examine; but it is highly probable, that among the Spirits of good Men, there may be fome who will be more pleased with the Employment of one Faculty than of another, and this perhaps according to thofe innocent and virtuous Habits or Inclinations which have here taken the deepest Root.

I might here apply this Confideration to the Spirits of wicked Men, with r. tion to the Pain which they

fhall

fhall fuffer in every one of their Faculties, and the respective Miseries which fhall be appropriated to each Faculty in particular. But leaving this to the Reflexion of my Readers, I fhall conclude, with obferving how we ought to be thankful to our great Creator, and rejoice in the Being which he has beltowed upon us, for having made the Soul fufceptible of Pleasure by fo many different Ways. We fee by what a Variety of Paffages, Joy and Gladness may enter into the Thoughts of Man; how wonderfully a Humane Spirit is framed, to imbibe its proper Satisfactions, and tafte the Goodness of its Creator. We may therefore look into our felves with Rapture and Amazement, and cannot fufficiently express our Gratitude to him, who has encompaffed us with fuch a Profufion of Bleffings, and opened in us fo Capacities of enjoying them.

many

THERE cannot be a ftronger Argument that God has defigned us for a State of future Happinefs, and for that Heaven which he has revealed to us, than that he has thus naturally qualified the Soul for it, and made it a Being capable of receiving fo much Blifs. He would never have made fuch Faculties in vain, and have endowed us with Powers that were not to be exerted on fuch, Objects as are fuited to them. It is very manifeft, by the inward Frame and Conftitution of our Minds, that he has adapted them to an infinite Variety of Pleasures and Gratifications, which are not to be met with in this Life. We fhould therefore at all times take care that we do not disappoint this his gracious Purpofe and Intention towards us, and make thofe Faculties which he formed as fo many Qualifications for Happiness and Rewards, to be the Inftruments of Pain and Punishment.