AS I was, the other day, taking a so∣litary walk in St. Paul's, I indulged my thoughts in the pursuit of a certain analogy between the Fabrick and the Christian Church in the largest sense. The divine order and oeconomy of the one seemed to be emblematically set forth by the just, plain, and majestick architecture of the other. And as the one consists of a great variety of parts united in the same regular design, according to the truest art, and most exact proportion; so the other contains a decent subordination of members, various sacred institutions, su∣blime doctrines, and solid precepts of morality digested into the same design, Page  251 and with an admirable concurrence tend∣ing to one view, the happiness and ex∣altation of human nature.

In the midst of my contemplation I beheld a Fly upon one of the Pillars; and it straitway came into my head, that this same Fly was a Free-thinker. For it required some comprehension in the eye of the Spectator, to take in at one view the various parts of the building, in or∣der to observe their symmetry and de∣sign. But to the Fly, whose prospect was confined to a little part of one of the stones of a single pillar, the joint beauty of the whole, or the distinct use of its parts, were inconspicuous, and no∣thing could appear but small inequalities in the surface of the hewn stone, which in the view of that insect seemed so ma∣ny deformed rocks and precipices.

The thoughts of a Free-thinker are em∣ployed on certain minute particularities of Religion, the difficulty of a single text, or the unaccountableness of some step of Providence or point of doctrine to his narrow faculties, without com∣prehending the scope and design of Chri∣stianity, the perfection to which it rai∣seth human nature, the light it hath shed Page  252 abroad in the world, and the close con∣nexion it hath as well with the good of publick societies, as with that of parti∣cular persons.

This raised in me some reflections on that frame or disposition which is called largeness of mind, its necessity towards forming a true judgment of things, and where the Soul is not incurably stinted by nature, what are the likeliest methods to give it enlargement.

It is evident that Philosophy doth open and enlarge the mind, by the gene∣ral views to which men are habituated in that study, and by the contemplation of more numerous and distant objects, than fall within the sphere of mankind in the ordinary pursuits of life. Hence it comes to pass, that Philosophers judge of most things very differently from the vulgar. Some instances of this may be seen in the Theaetetus of Plato, where Socrates makes the following remarks, among o∣thers of the like nature.

As all parts and branches of Philoso∣phy, or speculative knowledge, are use∣ful in that respect, Astronomy is peculi∣arly adapted to remedy a little and nar∣row spirit. In that science there are good reasons assigned to prove the sun an hun∣dred thousand times bigger than our earth; and the distance of the stars so prodigious, that a Cannon-bullet conti∣nuing in its ordinary rapid motion, would not arrive from hence at the nearest of them, in the space of an hundred and fifty thousand years. These ideas won∣derfully dilate and expand the mind. There is something in the immensity of Page  254 this distance, that shocks and over∣whelms the imagination, it is too big for the grasp of a human intellect: Estates, Provinces, and Kingdoms vanish at its presence. It were to be wished a cer∣tain Prince, who hath encouraged the study of it in his subjects, had been him∣self a proficient in Astronomy. This might have shewed him how mean an ambition that was, which terminated in a small part of what is it self but a point, in respect of that part of the universe which lies within our view.

But the Christian Religion ennobleth and enlargeth the mind beyond any o∣ther profession or science whatsoever. Upon that scheme, while the earth, and the transient enjoyments of this life, shrink in the narrowest dimensions, and are accounted as the dust of a balance, the drop of a bucket, yea less than nothing, the intellectual world opens wider to our view: The perfections of the Deity, the nature and excellence of virtue, the dig∣nity of the human soul, are displayed in the largest characters. The mind of man seems to adapt it self to the different na∣ture of its objects; it is contracted and debased by being conversant in little and Page  255 low things, and feels a proportionable enlargement arising from the contem∣plation of these great and sublime ideas.

The greatness of things is compara∣tive; and this does not only hold, in re∣spect of extension, but likewise in respect of dignity, duration, and all kinds of perfection. Astronomy opens the mind, and alters our judgment, with regard to the magnitude of extended Beings; but Christianity produceth an universal great∣ness of Soul. Philosophy encreaseth our views in every respect, but Christianity extends them to a degree beyond the light of nature.

How mean must the most exalted Po∣tentate upon earth appear to that eye which takes in innumerable orders of blessed Spirits, differing in glory and perfection? How little must the amusements of sense, and the ordinary occupations of mortal men, seem to one who is engaged in so noble a pursuit, as the assimilation of himself to the Deity, which is the pro∣per employment of every Christian!

And the improvement which grows from habituating the mind to the com∣prehensive views of Religion must not be thought wholly to regard the under∣standing. Page  256 Nothing is of greater force to subdue the inordinate motions of the heart, and to regulate the will. Whe∣ther a man be actuated by his passions or his reason, these are first wrought up∣on by some object, which stirs the soul in proportion to its apparent dimensions. Hence irreligious men, whose short pro∣spects are filled with earth, and sense, and mortal life, are invited, by these mean ideas, to actions proportionably little and low. But a mind, whose views are en∣lightened and extended by Religion, is animated to nobler pursuits by more sub∣lime and remote objects.

There is not any instance of weakness in the Free-thinkers that raises my indig∣nation more, than their pretending to ri∣dicule Christians, as men of narrow un∣derstandings, and to pass themselves up∣on the world for persons of superior sense, and more enlarged views. But I leave it to any impartial man to judge which hath the nobler sentiments, which the greater views; he whose notions are stinted to a few miserable inlets of sense, or he whose sentiments are raised above the common taste by the anticipation of those delights which will satiate the soul, when the Page  257 whole capacity of her nature is branched out into new faculties? He who looks for nothing beyond this short span of du∣ration, or he whose aims are co-extended with the endless length of Eternity? He who derives his Spirit from the elements, or he who thinks it was inspired by the Almighty?