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ignorance as degrades them below the s ER M. rank of rational beings; or abandoned to be the prey of cruel oppreffion and tyranny. When we look to the state of individuals around us, we hear the lamentations of the unhappy on every hand. We meet with weeping parents, and mourning friends. We behold the young cut off in the flower of their days, and the aged left defolate in the midst of forrows. The ufeful and virtuous are swept away, and the worthlefs left to flourish. The lives of the best men are often filled with difcouragements and disappointed hopes. Merit languishes in neglected folitude; and vanity and prefumption gain the admiration of the world. From the fcourge of calumny, and from the hand of violence, the injured look up to God as the Avenger of their caufe; but often they look up vain. He is a God that hideth himself. He dwelleth, as to them, in the fecret place of darkness; or, if he dwelleth in light,

in

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SER M. light, it is in light to which no man can approach. Refignation may feal up their lips; but in filence they drop the tear, and mourn while they adore.

SUCH, it must not be diffembled, are the difficulties which encounter us when we attempt to trace the present ways of God. At the fame time, upon reflection, we may be satisfied that causes can be affigned for things appearing in this unfavourable light; and that there is no reason to be surprised at the divine conduct being mysterious at present.

The monarchy of the universe is a great and complicated fyftem. It comprehends numberless generations of men, who are brought forth to act their parts for purposes unknown to us. It includes two worlds at once; the world that now is, and which is only a small portion of existence; and a world that is to come, which endures for eternity. To us, no more than the beginnings of things are visible. We fee only fome broken parts

of

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of a great whole. We trace but a few SER M. links of that chain of being, which, by fecret connections, binds together the present and the future. Such knowledge is afforded us as is fufficient for supplying the exigencies and wants of our present state; but it does no more. Peeping abroad from a dark corner of the universe, we attempt in vain to explore the counfels that govern the world. It is an attempt to found an unfathomable deep with a fcanty line; and with a feeble wing to afcend above the ftars. In any complicated work, even of human art, it is found neceffary to be acquainted with the defign of the whole, in order to judge of the fitness of its parts, In a scheme fo complex as the administration of the world, where all the parts refer to one another, and where what is feen is often fubordinate to what is invifible, how is it poffible but our judgments muft be often erroneous, and our complaints ill founded? If a peasant or a còttager be incapable of judging of the go

vernment

SER M.vernment of a mighty empire, is it fur

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prifing that we should be at lofs concerning the conduct of the Almighty towards his creatures? What I do thou knoweft not now.

BUT, on this argument ftill more can be faid for our fatisfaction. We are to obferve, that complete information refpecting the ways of God, not only was not to be expected here; but, moreover, that it would have been hurtful, if granted to us in our present ftate. It would have proved inconfiftent with that ftate; with the actions which we have to perform in it, and the duties we have to fulfil. It would indeed have overthrown the whole defign of our being placed in this world. We are placed here under the trial of our virtue. Ignorance of the events that are ordained to befal us, ignorance of the plans and the decrees of heaven, enter neceffarily into a state of trial. In order to exercife both our intellectual and moral powers, and to carry them forward to

our

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improvement, we must be left to find S ER M. our way in the midst of difficulties and doubts, of hardships, and fufferings. We must be taught to act our part with conftancy, though the reward of our conftancy be diftant. We must learn to bear with patience whatever our Creator judges proper to lay upon us, though we fee not the reason of the hardships he inflicts. If we were let into the secret of the whole plan of Providence; if the justice of Heaven were, in every step of its procedure, made manifest to our view, man would no longer be the creature he now is, nor would his present ftate answer any purpose of discipline or trial.

Mystery and darkness, therefore, must of neceffity now take place in the course of things. Our prefent state can be no other than a state of twilight or dawn, where dubious forms shall often prefent themselves to us, and where we fhall find ourselves in a middle condition between complete light and total darkness. Had we enjoyed no evidence of a just Judge