NOTWITHSTANDING this, it is perhaps impoffible in a large Government to distribute Rewards and Punishments strictly proportioned to the Merits of every Action. The Spartan Commonwealth 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 diftinguifhed himself on this Occafion, to the Amazement of both Armies, as Ifadas the Son of Phobidas, who was at that time in the Bloom of his Youth, and very remarkable for the Comeliness 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 Clothes, much lefs 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 himself into the thickest Ranks of his Enemies. Nothing could with ftand his Fury: in what Part foever he fought he put the Enemies to Flight without receiving a single Wound. Whether, says 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 Unufualnefs 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 fhould be prefented with a Garland; but as foon as they had done fo, fined him a thousand Drachmas, for going out to the Battle unarmed.

N° 565.

Friday, July 9.

I

Deum namque ire per omnes

Terrafque, tractufque maris, cælumque 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 Richnefs and Variety of Colours, which appeared in the Western 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 Bluenefs 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 complete the Scene, the full Moon rofe at length in that clouded Majefty, which Milton takes notice of, and opened to the Eye a new Picture 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 Brightnefs 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 Reflexion, 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 regardeft him! In the fame Manner when I confidered that infinite Hoft of Stars, or, to fpeak more Philofophically, of Suns, which were then 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

N° 565. another Heaven of Suns and Worlds rifing ftill above this which we discovered, and thefe ftill enlightned 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 short, while I purfued this Thought, I could not but reflect on that little infignificant Figure which I my felf bore amidst the Immenfity 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 miffed 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 Chaẩm would be imperceptible to an Eye, that could take in the whole Compafs of Nature, and pass 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 than our felves. We see many 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 firft 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 fmalleft Regard of one who had fo great a Work under his Care and Superintendency. 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 immeasurable Regions of Matter.

IN

IN Order to recover my felf 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 Qbjects at the fame Time. If we are careful to infpect fome Things, we muft of Courfe neglect others. This Imperfection which we obferve in our felves, is an Imperfection that cleaves in fome Degree to Creatures of the higheft Capacities, as they are Creatures, that is, Beings of finite and limited Natures. The Prefence of every created Being is confined to a certain Meafure of Space, and confequently his Obfervation 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 Exiftence. But the wideft of these our Spheres has its Circumference. When therefore we reflect on the Divine Nature, we are fo ufed and accuftomed 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 Reafon indeed affures us that his Attributes are infinite, but the Poorness 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 thofe little Prejudices which rife in us unawares, and are natural to the Mind of Man.

WE fhall therefore utterly extinguifh 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 Omnifcient.

IF we confider him in his Omniprefence: His Being paffes through, actuates, and fupports the whole Frame of Nature. His Creation, and every Part 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

efentially inhabit. His Subftance is within the Subftance of every Being, whether material, or immaterial, and as intimately prefent 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 diffused and spread abroad to Infinity. In fhort, 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 Omniscient 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 confidered 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 nobleft and moft 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 Senjoriola, or little Senforiums, by which they apprehend the Prefence and perceive the Actions of a few Objects, that lie contiguous to them. Their Knowledge and Obfervation turn 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.

WERE the Soul feparate from the Body, and with one Glance of Thought fhould flart beyond the Bounds of the Creation, fhould it for Millions of Years continue its Progrefs through infinite Space with the fame Activity, it would ftill find it felf within the Embrace of its Creator, and encompaffed round with the Immenfity of the Godhead. While we are in the Body

6

he