will be any such periods of celestial jubilee in heaven, when the Sun of Righteousness shall shine with a more glorious beam than ordinary; for it will be ever meridian and unclouded: nor, we conceive, will the light of the countenance of Him who never changes be lifted up at any time with more enchanting radiance than at another upon the congregation of saints and angels. We well know whence our author has derived these conceptions: indeed he cannot help giving us some of the passages in the seraphic Milton, where "While God spake, ambrosial fragance fill'd All heaven, and in the blessed spirits elect sweet As from bless'd voices uttering joy: heav'n rung With jubilee, and loud Hosannas fill'd We will now present our readers with some of the passages which we do not regard as open to the exception we have just noticed, and which we hold in high estimation. In the following our author is remarking the improved capacity of the soul in the heavenly state, and the exercise of its enlarged affections. "Truths, which we only arrive at now by dint of long and patient exertion may then burst intuitively on the mind, and be among the plain and simple principles on which we build a lofty superstructure of heavenly knowledge. Subjects now encumbered with difficulty, and which, instead of raising admiration and love, rather tend to perplex and disturb the mind in its present state of imperfection, may then appear clearly intelligible, and calculated even beyond others to display the perfections of the Divine nature. And those dispensations which even now exhibit the attributes of God to our mind with such glory as to awaken unmingled adoration and gratitude and love, and are a kind of refuge and repose to the soul after considering the more mysterious appointments, will then shine forth, arrayed with a splendour far more divine, and kindle in our bosoms still deeper feelings of rapture and affection. In short, our discoveries of moral beauty in the character and conduct of God, as the great original of all perfection, and in the character shine in his rays and reflect his brightness, and conduct of those glorified natures who will be infinitely more numerous and extensive, and our moral sensibility infinitely more fine and exquisite. The advanced Christian may assist his conceptions here, by calling to mind those favoured moments, when, in considering some peculiar interposition of the Divine mercy and love, his soul has been penetrated and warmed with sublime and exquisite sentiments of wonder and gratitude and filial affection; elevating and expanding his heart beyond its ordinary measure of feeling and delight, and becoming too full and animating for the present frail condition of humanity permanently to indulge and sustain. "But after the most favourable periods of spiritual illumination and Christian feeling, even though we were caught up, like St. Paul, to the third heaven, and were indulged with an abundance of revelation, not possible to be communicated to our fellow-men; it might be asked, What is all this compared to those heavenly emotions which we shall experience when our condition is so elevated, and our nature so when our powers of vision will be suited ennobled, that we can see God and live;' to the splendours of Jehovah's throne; when the elements of our glorified nature will vibrate and respond like the harp of Memnon, but with no earthly or fabulous harmony, to the morning light of his divine irradiations; and our souls be capable of maintaining a genuine, deep, and pure tide of ever-flowing and divine affection ?" Joyce, pp. 142—144. We cannot separate this passage from the interesting view given of the heavenly inhabitants.— "Those among our fellow-creatures who have investigated the philosophy of nature, with minds rightly disposed, have had their notions of the perfections of God greatly elevated and improved, and their feelings of adoration and love proportionably exalted and purified. Now, it is a very reasonable supposition that one, among the infinite variety of delightful employments which will exercise the powers of glorified spirits, will be in contemplating the wonders of the new heavens and the new earth, to trace out and explore from their more obvious effects, the abstruser causes which lead them link by link up to the creating and sustaining power of God. But, oh! how greatly will the astronomy of angels transcend the astronomy of men, and how immense will be the range of their philosophy compared with ours! In these celestial investigations, what sublime impressions must be made on the angelic mind, at every step, of the power, and wisdom, and incomprehensible goodness, and love of their heavenly Father! What new materials must they find by every effort of their exalted powers, exercised on so glorious a subject, for the improvement and perpetuation of their love and gratitude to God! 666 "We shall join the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. A provision is made for the more exalted exercise of our affection in heaven, not only in the sublime splendours of the new heavens and the new earth, which more gloriously display the perfections of God, but in the society to which we shall be introduced. In the celestial intelligences we shall not behold the faint and obscure image of God, such as is discerned in the most advanced Christians on earth; but the bright and faithful representation or reflection of the Divine glories will beam upon the purified soul from every individual of that blessed and innumerable company. Nor, as in the human character, will a closer inspection of their principles and proceedings betray any blemish or inconsistency; but, on the contrary, will bring to light new excellencies and graces to enhance the affection which a first interview awakens. "The least in the kingdom of heaven will be free from all imperfection, and will bear in his character a true impression of the communicable excellencies which belong to the Divine nature. To whatever quarter we shall direct our view in that blessed state, we shall find abundant materials for our holy regard. In each celestial being will shine forth a radiance of derived perfections, which must enchant and enrapture every kindred intelligence, and fill him with all the exquisite emotions of a pure and divine affection. But one star differeth from another star in glory. There are gradations of rank in the hierarchies of heaven; and the various orders of the celestial society rise one above another in the splendour of their derived glories, and reflect with brighter and brighter rays the holy light which they receive from God. There we shall behold the cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, the noble army of martyrs, the goodly fel lowship of the Prophets, the glorious company of the Apostles, and all the members of the mystical body of Christ, shining in their several spheres with various radiance and all the varieties of excellence calculated to awaken and cherish in our minds a subordinate affection towards them, and a supreme love to God. What an intercourse of affection must prevail among that holy and blissful assembly! How perfect and instantaneous must be the confidence and love reposed by stranger angels and spirits in each other, on their first interview or shortest acquaintance! How must that confidence and love be confirmed and enhanced, as, in the course of their heavenly services, the divine virtues of all are more and more called into exercise, and more clearly manifested to those around! What efforts of disinterestedness and holy ambition of serving each other! How infinitely distant are they from low aims, and from all selfish and exclusive considerations of their own happiness and advancement! How pure, unreserved, and universal their devotedness to God! How ardent and single the desire to promote his glory! What sublime and noble purposes! What harmony of feeling! What unity of design! What holy resolution and undeviating perseverance in all their celestial plans and ope rations! And all these exercises of hea venly virtue are exhibited to purified and ennobled spirits, capable of appreciating their worth and discerning their inherent and native beauty." Joyce, pp. 147–151. The manner in which our author makes all these preliminary remarks bear upon his great conclusion namely, the tendency of love to God to produce an increase of joy in heaven-we regard as peculiarly convincing; and although our extracts have been copious, we must find a place for the following. "The pleasures of the sensualist are necessarily short-lived. At best they are only enjoyed by fits and starts, and by excess they become absolutely satiating and loathsome. He contracts a fastidiousness which renders all the bounties of nature unpalatable. He wears out the very organs of sensation by which his pleasures are attained. In the very fabric of our animal nature there is a delicacy of texture which, while it is suited for the present operations of a rational spirit, cannot endure the rude and rough sensations of an irrational one. There is, moreover, some thing so selfish in the pleasures of the sensualist, that they ever have been condemned and rejected by those who have had but a slight regard for the happiness of others, and have seen that man is not born for himself alone. "Now, the enjoyment derived from the exercise of affection is liberal and benevolent, and, I might add, divine. It springs from the very principle which leads us to do good.. It comes to our hearts as it were collaterally and unsought, while we pursue the happiness of others. The joy of affection is not like the pleasures of sense, which separate our interests more and more from those of our kind, contrary to the purpose of nature and the order of Providence, and diametrically opposite to the spirit and letter of the Gospel; but it binds us more firmly to one another, and blends together, and throws into one common stock, all our peculiar and personal qualities and privileges, for the general advantage, multiplying them a thousand fold by disinterested and mutual participation; and acquiring an immense gain by the benevolent traffic; a gain, which, though we are too generous to seek it with the selfish spirit of a monopolist, we may without any impeachment of our liberality receive and enjoy." Joyce, pp. 169–171. The same superiority in the delights conferred by affection above those awakened by sensuality, is then traced in reference to avarice and ambition-passions of an equally selfish and antisocial nature, and which, as they seek the advancement of the individual only, and not the society to which that individual may belong, are also not less disqualified for the communication of that blissful delight which arises from benevolence and love; and this unfitness is increased by the restlessness and dissatisfaction which ever accompany all their acquisitions. The love of science is not regarded as open to the same exceptions, because the love of God on earth is often connected with an ardent pursuit of the sublimest truths in philosophy, as well as religion; and in heaven it necessarily implies, in every glorified nature, a vast comprehension and most numerous and extensive attainments in celestial knowledge. So far as the pursuit of knowledge is governed by ChrisCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 259. tian principles, and directed to religious ends, we see nothing in it irreconcileable with the love of God: but in this, as in all other things, it is the motive that sanctifies or defiles the act; and while we believe that some of the highest elevations in science may be attained, and that not merely of human science, but even of the histories and discoveries and doctrines of the Bible, by men whose "hearts untravelled" still "fondly cling" to earth, we yet see nothing that is not accordant with the will of God, and with the love of God as forming the joy of the heavenly state, in that favourite senti ment of an excellent man, long to know more of God, and his works and ways, and of all things connected with this scene of his operations." I We think our author has made good the conclusions in this part of his work, that the exercise of affection is accompanied with a genuine and uncloying delight; and that a provision is made in heaven for the purest and most exalted exercise of affection, by the improvement of our own natures, by the glorious objects with which we shall be surrounded, by the intelligences with whom we shall be united in celestial intercourse, and, above all, by our admission to a nearer view and contemplation of the Divine Essence, and to an ineffable and filial union with the Parent and Author of all good. "In truth, the provision which is made for the exercise of affection above, is at the same time a provision made for the enjoyment of happiness; for affection and delight in heaven are inseparably blended will the joy. As the love which glorified together. As the affection improves, so spirits exercise approximates towards the love which God displays to them, so will their bliss approximate towards his ineffable and supreme felicity. Every consideration which shews us the copious sources of our regard in heaven, may with equal effect be applied to demonstrate the rich abundance of our celestial delight. Whatemployment, whatever reciprocation of ever lofty consideration, whatever divme heavenly amity between glorified spirits, 3 N whatever new and magnificent blessings imparted or promised by the Fountain of all good, will awaken, as we have before seen, fresh exercises of affection; each and all must at the same time open new springs of divine delight in the soul. Here we have the well of water springing up unto everlasting life; water which whoso drinketh shall never thirst;' 'the flood which maketh glad the city of God;' the rivers of pleasures which flow at God's right hand for evermore.'" pp. 130, 181. In commenting on the errors of pagan philosophy, we think our author might have derived much from the consideration, that amidst all the speculations of Varro, that great master of Roman theology, no light breaks in upon the soul to guide its hopes to a future state; no discovery of immortality; no expectation of bliss, or even of existence beyond the grave. St. Augustine, in his treatise De Civ. Dei, has quoted largely the fragment of Varro, from which our knowledge of his system is obtained; and our author has given briefly the multiplied divisions of the heathen opinions on the supreme felicity of man, and their restoration to a few simple principles as suggested by that in genious philosopher. Their number was extended by him to two hundred and eighty-eight; but St. Augustine adds, "in hac totâ serie, pulcherrimæ ac subtillissimæ distributionis et distinctionis, vitam æternam frustra quæri et sperari, facillime apparet." (Civ. Dei, lib. vi. c. 3.) Here then was a most important superiority of the revelation of holy Scripture in the discovery of that which was so long, and so painfully, but so fruitlessly sought, the true felicity of man, the promise of a life to come; a promise most powerfully operative in the production of that hallowed principle which is the subject of our author's inquiry. We regret we cannot do more than cursorily allude to the remainder of this part of his work. In the attempt which is afterwards made, in the fifth chapter, to affix a religious interpretation on the de finitions of Aristotle, we discover much that is fanciful and unwarranted: but if our author has for a moment failed in this chapter, he has completely retrieved himself in that which follows; and we regard his examination of the hypotheses of the Platonists, in their celebrated doctrine of moral beauty, as particularly skilful. The writings of Platonics have justly been regarded as an unfair standard of comparison, since their superiority and clearness are very distinctly attributable to an access to the very sources which are contended exclusively to have carried the great doctrine to its highest perfection. But the excel lence of these last appears indisputable, by the side of even the sublimest sentiments of the prince of the Grecian moralists. Independently of the unrestrained language in which these are often conveyed, we do not find the founder of the Academy ever able, or ever indeed intending, to conduct his disciple further than to an abstract admiration and love of moral beauty. Though he speaks of the ineffable loveliness of God, its original source and essence, yet he represents thefeeling and animation as all on the side of man. InScripture, the prominent idea is, "God is love." In Plato, it is man who is delighted and rapt with the view, as of some object of natural beauty, presented to the eye for the purpose of being simply gazed on and admired: and oh! how useless is this for the great and trying necessities of a corrupt and hardened creature, like man, lost to moral and spiritual perfections, "dead in trespasses and sins." Take the case of a man enslaved by his appetites and passions: we mean not the grossest, that is not necessary to our case, but the more refined, the more passable, the more common in the daily experience of the world. "Haste now, philosopher, and set him free. Charm the deaf serpent wisely. Make him hear Of rectitude and moral fitness: moral truth How lovely, and the moral sense how sure "Ah tinkling cymbal! and high-sound- Smitten in vain! Such music will not charm Th' eclipse that intercepts truth's hea venly beam*." No: there must be a far different view of the character and perfections of God. There must be one that shall make him feel that God is towards him, guilty and wretched as he is,a compassionate loving Father, who "waits to be gracious;" who has proved himself such by that amazing proof and expenditure of mercy, the gift of his Son; and who, when he has thereby reconciled the sinner to himself, will condescend to an intimate communion and endearing intercourse with him, supplying his wants, promoting and confirming his happiness with parental vigilance and love, and by his spontaneous and conscious irradiations and communications of sacred influence to the faculties, bringing them into a nearer resemblance to his own glorious perfections. If we find, then, in the Jewish writings communications of this kind, how convincing is the evidence of the superiority of Revelation! We cannot resist the inclination we feel to give part of our author's conclusion, as we regard this as a very important auxiliary to the numerous and accredited sources of testimony already in our possession of the verities of Revelation.- "What escaped the acutest and most active minds on earth, we find was known to those who were represented as the most inert and the most incapable. The By the way, what a beautiful allusion is contained in these lines, describing the fruitless effort of false philosophy, to the ignorant customs of those barbarous tribes, of whom we read in the works of some of our travellers, who, when the sun is darkened by an eclipse, bring forth their pans most frightful noise, to drive away the dreaded monster who, they think, is devouring the heavenly orb. and kettles and drums, and continue the principle which seemed to require a per spicacity which could look without confusion through the entanglements and perplexities of the most extended and comprehensive argumentation, is simply announced as from an oracle by the least philosophical people of the world. The doctrine which is founded upon the justest views and noblest apprehensions of the perfections of God, and the properties of the promised glories of the next; which man, of the condition of this world, and seems to demand a grasp of mind sufficient to embrace at once the most varied, the most momentous, and the most complicated interests of earth and heaven, of time and eternity; which was so high that the strongest human minds, acting in combination, stimulated to unwearied exertion and extolled by the universal voice of mankind, as pre-eminent and unequalled, were not able to attain to any thing more than a feeble and remote approximation, or faint resemblance to it ;-this doctrine is found to be in the possession of a despised and ignorant community, unknown in the annals of science, and pointed at in mockery as the most stupid of mankind. Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, of nations and schools of science, could Lycurgus, and Solon, and other founders only imperfectly legislate, and obscurely philosophize, for their several classes and communities very circumscribed in place, and temporary in duration; but Moses produces and publishes at once the grand and ultimate principle of legislative wisdom, and of the highest philosophy, not merely applicable to his own people, but to all mankind, and through every age, nay, not only suited to the inhabitants of the earth, but to the spirits of the blest in heaven; and not only for time, but through eternity." Joyce, pp. 244, 245. Our remarks on the first of the two volumes now lying before us have extended themselves so much beyond the limits we at first proposed for this article, that we feel an apology is due to Mr. Burder for the contracted notice which we shall now be obliged to take of his interesting volume. It contains twelve lectures on the various pleasures to which religion introduces its disciples. Our motive for uniting the two works in one review was, that it appeared to us that, as the one was intended to explain the sacred and fundamental principle of |