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from his height;-whereas, could we get up to him,—it is great odds whether we should find any thing to make us tolerable amends for the pains and trouble of climbing up fo high.-Nothing, perhaps, but more dangers and more troubles ftill ;-and fuch a giddinefs of head befides, as to make a wife man wish he was well down again upon the level.—To calculate, therefore, the happiness of mankind by their stations and honours, is the most deceitful of all rules;— great, no doubt, is the happiness which a moderate fortune, and moderate defires, with a consciousness of virtue, will secure a man.-Many are the filent pleafures of the honest peasant, who rises chearfully to his labour:-look into his dwelling,— where the scene of every man's happiness chiefly lays; he has the fame domestic endearments,—as much joy and comfort in his children,—and as flattering hopes of their doing well,-to enliven his hours and glad his heart, as you could conceive in the most affluent station. And I make no doubt, in general, but if the true account of his joys and fufferings were to be balanced with those of

his betters,--that the upfhot would prove to be little more than this,--that the rich man had the more meat, but the poor man the better ftomach;-the one had more luxury,— more phyficians to attend and fet him to rights; the other, more health and foundness in his bones, and lefs occafion for their help; -that, after thefe two articles betwixt them were balanced,-in all other things they flood upon a level;--that the fun fhines as warm,

the air blows as fresh, and the earth breathes as fragrant, upon the one as the other;—and that they have an equal fhare in all the beauties and real benefits of nature.-Thefe hints may be fufficient to fhew what I propofed from them, the difficulties which attend us in judging truly either of the happiness or the misery of the bulk of mankind,-the evidence being ftill more defective in this cafe (as the matter of fact is hard to come at)-than even in that of judging of their true characters; of both which, in general, we have fuch imperfect knowlege, as will teach us candour in our determinations upon each other.

But the main purport of this discourse, is

to teach us humility in our reasonings upon the ways of the Almighty.

That things are dealt unequally in this world, is one of the strongest natural arguments for a future ftate,-and therefore is not to be overthrown: nevertheless, I am perfuaded the charge is as far from being as great as at first fight it may appear;—or if it is,—that our views of things are fo narrow and confined, that it is not in our power to make it good.

But fuppofe it otherwife,-that the happinefs and prosperity of bad men were as great as our general complaints make them; and, what is not the cafe,-that we were not able to clear up the matter, or anfwer it reconcileably with God's juftice and providence,-what fhall we infer?- Why, the most becoming conclufiou is,-that it is one inftance more, out of many others, of our ignorance :-why fhould this, or any other religious difficulty he cannot comprehend,-why fhould it alarm him more than ten thousand other difficulties which every day clude his most exact and attentive fearch?-Does not the meaneft flower

in the field, or the fmalleft blade of grafs, baffle the understanding of the most penerating mind? Can the deepest enquirers after nature tell us, upon what particular size and motion of parts the various colours and tastes of vegetables depend;-why one shrub is laxative, -another reftringent ;-why arfenic or hellebore fhould lay waste this noble frame of ours, -or opium lock up all the inroads to our fenfés, and plunder us in fo merciless a manner of reafon and understanding?-Nay, have not the most obvious things that come in our way dark fides, which the quickeft fight cannot penetrate into; and do not the clearest and moft exalted understandings find themselves puzzled, and at a lofs, in every particle of matter?

Go then,-proud man!-and when thy head turns giddy with opinions of thy own wisdom, that thou wouldst correct the meafures of the Almighty,-go then,-take a full view of thyself in this glafs;-confider thy own faculties, how narrow and imperfect;how much they are checquered with truth and falfehood;- how little arrives at thy

knowlege, and how darkly and confufedly thou discernest even that little as in a glass :confider the beginnings and ends of things, the greatest and the fmalleft, how they all confpire to baffle thee;-and which way ever thou profecuteft thy enquiries,-what fresh fubjects of amazement,-and what fresh reafons to believe there are more yet behind which thou canst never comprehend.-Confider,these are but part of his ways;—how little a portion is heard of him? Canft thou, by fearching, find out God?-wouldst thou know the Almighty to perfection?-'Tis as high as heaven, What canft thou do?-'tis deeper than hell, how canst thou know it?

Could we but fee the mysterious workings of providence, and were we able to comprehend the whole plan of his infinite wisdom and goodness, which poffibly may be the cafe in the final confummation of all things;-thofe events, which we are now so perplexed to account for, would probably exalt and magnify his wisdom, and make us cry out with the Apostle, in that rapturous exclamation,-O!

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