SECT. IV.] THE HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. 415 this peculiar instance of divine wisdom demands an adoring thought ? Thus intuition or immediate sight in a creature, does not utterly exclude and forbid the use of reason. I reply again, can it ever be imagined, that being re- leased from the body, we shall possess in one moment, and retain through every moment of eternity, all the innumerable ranks, and orders, and numbers of propo- sitions, truths and duties, that may be derived in a long succession of ages by the use of our reasoning powers ? But this leads me to the second argument, viz. 2. The weakness and narrowness of human under- standings in their best estate, seems to make it necessary that knowledge should be progressive. Continual improvement in knowledge and delight among the spirits of the just made perfect, is necessary for the samè reason that proved their variety of enter- . tainments and pleasures, viz. because creatures cannot take in all the vast, the infinite variety of conceptions in the full brightness and perfection of them at once, of which they are capable in a sweet succession.. Can we ever persuade ourselves, that all the endless train of thoughts, and ideas, and scenes, of joy that shall ever pass through the mind of a saint through the long ages of eternity, should be crouded into every single mind, the first moment of its entrance into those happy regions? And is a human mind capacious enough to receive, and strong enough to retain such an infinite multitude of ideas for ever ? Or, is this the manner of God's working among his intellectual creatures? Surely God knows our frame, and pours in light and glory as we are able to bear it. Such a bright confusion of notions, images and transports, would probably: overwhelm the most exalted spitit, and drown all the noble faculties of the mind at once. As if a man who was born blind, should be healed in an instant, and should open his eyes first against the full blaze of the noon -day sun ; this would so tumultuaté the spirits, and confound the organs of sight, as to reduce the man back again to his first blind- ness, and perhaps might render him incurable for ever. S. This argument will be much strengthened, if we do but take ashort view of the vast and incomprehensible variety of objects that may be proposed to our minds in
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