Devonshire Adventurer,

CONDUCTED

BY

The Rev. George John Freeman, L. L. B.

No. III.

NOVEMBER 1, 1814.

Price Eighteen Pence.

Taviflock:

PRINTED BY JAMES CHAVE, HIGHER BACK-STREET.

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And Sold by Messrs. Trewman and Woolmer, Booksellers, Exeter: by Poole, Taunton; Haydon and Nettleton, Plymouth; Syle, Barnstaple; Fowler, Torrington; Martin, Launceston; Liddle, Bodmin, and by White, Cochrane, and Co. Fleet Street, and Murray, AlbemarleStreet, London.

1

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SECTION I.

To the Devonshire Adventurer.

Sir,

I SHALL proceed to speak of our depen

dencies on God, and our dependencies on each other.

On

Our dependencies on God seem to be easy of demonstration. From God we derive in particular life with all the wonderful and extensive powers it possesses. Him consequently we depend for its continuance, and to His will we are subject in respect to its termination.

Life combines two distinct powers. The first, a body, composed, organized and erected, originally from the earth, by the will and wisdom of the Creator. The second, the soul, or spirit, which actuates all the bodily members, and is the principle of its existence. The body is perishable, being formed from matter; the soul is imperishable, being a portion of the breath of the Divinity. One after death moulders into dust; the other returns to Him who breathed it. These two are the component agents in the construction of man, who is the sovereign creature. But his superiority was not bestowed for nothing. As a being, entrusted with a portion of the

Divine

Divine Spirit, he is accountable for his actions; the intent of his life present being to fit him for a condition which shall be future.

Life then appears to be a state of trial or probation. Now a state of trial implies somewhat that tempts, and somewhat that resists. This is evident in the constitution of man. The soul and body have distinct qualities. The body, material and corruptible, is the residence of all irregular appetites, and perishable desires, arising from the senses it possesses. The soul, which is immaterial and immortal, can possess only such attributes as are allied to the Divine nature: in this dwells the silent power of testifying to the actions, the quality of high and abstract love, and the sense of good and evil, which may be termed Reason. The trial of man therefore consists in strictly opposing one to the other; or if he can, in forming so judicious an union of all his qualities, that those of the soul may exercise a cheerful yet constant dominion over those of the body.

The great theatre of all our resolves is the mind. Here the spiritual and the corporeal powers intermingle, and reason is designed to be the umpire over them. Reason comprehends every successive image and idea that enters the mind, analyzes their moral good or evil, and concludes upon them. He who lives by the conclusions of this spiritual judge and monitor, will act virtuously, and fulfil the purpose for which he was created. But he whose

earthly nature predominates, will plunge into ignoble passions and bodily lusts, and will not be intitled to the approbation of his Creator. Thus the dignity or the debasement of man may be equally extreme.

Man

+ Vide, Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding.

Man therefore is dependent on God for the gift and continuance of his being; and also for the gift and continuance of the various faculties contained in his com pound nature. But when these faculties shall have arrived at maturity, he is dependent on himself in regard to their use and appropriation. Freedom of will and choice, of good and evil, are then his peculiar properties. God has not predetermined any part of his course.

Exclusive of the personal dependencies of man, are those which nature every where presents to his eye. The world is dependent on the will of the power by which it was created; and its dependence is therefore connected with that of man as an inhabitant. All things own a Master; for though nature is governed by fixed laws, and goes on according to an unvarying system, yet these laws and this system sprung originally from God, who is able by his will to subvert them. The seasons, the climates, the powers of vegetation, every species of existence, and all "the fair variety of things" derive their source from him. Man only is capable of appreciating all these. How grateful then should he be for this marked distinction above other animals of the creation, and for those superior powers which teach him to estimate the abundant blessings shed around him!

Our dependencies on each other are partly natural and partly acquired. Man on first coming into the world is a state of immediate and intire dependence. He is a mere machine, that requires to be guided by the hands of others. "Nothing, says Buffon, can give us a more striking idea of imbecillity than the condition of an infant recently born. It is an image of pain and misery. It seems, as if every succeeding moment would complete its doubtful existence; it can neither move nor support

itself;