pleasure. And it would be ftrange indeed if his advancement in knowledge of every kind should not facilitate his progress in the way of Godlinefs. He fees the works of God and the wonders of his love both in the natural and the intellectual world; he receives every moment additional proofs, how gracious the Lord is. The only danger will be, left he should feek for knowledge too wonderful and excellent and to which he cannot attain. In this ftate of weakness and imperfection the mental eye has limits which it cannot pafs, and hardly do we guefs aright the things that are before us, but the things of God can no man know. The abuses of reafon come naturally under our confideration The first and most notorious abuse is, when men arguing from the divine attributes endeavour to prove that no fyftem of thingscould have been framed with greater communications of good to all the creation. Where was it learnt that the Almighty might not have given angelick excellence to every being under the fun? He, who hath promised, as the reward of our piety, to make us happy to all eternity, could, if it had pleased pleased him, have placed us in that state at the very commencement of our exiftence. He,who hath made one man to differ from another in intellectual powers, almoft as much as fome are diftinguished from the brutes, could certainly have caufed that no fuch difference fhould exist. Even to inanimate matter he could have given life and all the enjoyments of life. He could have caufed those bleflings to flow in upon us fpontaneously, which are now the reward of labour, care and forefight, which are often witheld from us, and which were enjoyed in lefs abundance and with more interruption by thofe who have gone before us. The argument drawn from variety is inconclufive and frivolous: for though variety contribute to the gratification of the human mind, and though it cause the supply of our wants to increase our enjoyment, yet we must allow that intellectual endowments are the greatest display of divine goodness and wisdom; and that as the lefs is included in the greater, the formation of a rock or a reptile only exhibits a part of that power which has been more extenfively exerted in the formation of men and angels. The Philofopher discovers that thousand worlds worlds are around him, but knows not how those worlds are peopled-He sees in the planetary system a general provifion for inhabitants; but he knows not their mental or corporeal endowments. Shall he therefore with this fcanty intelligence endeavour to prove by his reason that every thing is in its highest ftate of perfection? And if he cannot prove it, the attempt is furely vain and prefumptuous, indicating a goodness of intention, but a want of judgment, calculated to raise doubt and perplexity rather than to remove them. What may be proved to a proper purpose is, that creatures in general poffefs those faculties and powers, which are suitable for the fphere in which they move. But he cannot tell why one animal fhould be the prey of another, nor why animals of the fame fpecies fhould have different degrees of excellence. If he do not always remember, that the Creator will not be accountable to man for the different portions of happiness bestowed upon different creatures, if he will not be content to wait in filent humility, till we shall no longer know in part, or rather from a part, and a very fmall part, he will fubject all our conceptions of an overruling Providence to fome ridicule which might be averted. The truth is, is, God hath created light and he hath created darkness in the intellectual as well as in the natural world, and will not fuffer the thing formed to fay to him that formed it, Why baft thou made me thus? It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. Our own efforts and our own merits are totally out of the question. To one he giveth five talents, to another two, to another one, and though the greatest trust be calculated to conftitute the greatest worldly happiness, yet when the whole is gratuitous, the receiver must be thankful, without murmuring or repining, without charging him foolishly, or vindicating him injudiciously. These obfervations, as far as they are well founded, will be of use when we read the origin of evil, with the industrious Commentator's annotations, wherein perhaps every solution of every difficulty will not be found altogether fatisfactory. Our idea of infinity is but a negative one. We are foon loft in the contemplation of thofe attributes which are exerted through all space, and far beyond the moft comprehensive thought. f Rom. ix. 20. g Ibid. ix. 17. Another Another abufe of reafon is, when we endeavour to state on what occafions and in what degree Providence interferes to controul the affairs of this world. We are only made acquainted with a general care and fuperintendance, except in fuch inftances as Revelation points out. That we ultimately owe every thing to the divine goodness, is a doctrine as indifputable as it is encouraging; and that many events are brought about by an invisible agency, when all human power was either infufficient or exerted for a contrary purpose, is and has been allowed by every good man as well as by every confcientious Christian: but of what is invifible it is needlefs to attempt a folution, such a one as can be established upon no folid principles, and which may eventually encourage fpiritual pride and uncharitableness. Our Saviour pointed out inftances in those who were the objects of Pilate's cruelty, and in those upon whom the tower in Siloam fell. Many more may be found in the darker ages of the Church, many ftill occur among the ignorant and the unlearned. It is not granted us to diftinguish in the mixed government of this world between punishments and chastisements. The credulity of the nation first occafioned those profane appeals to providence, which |