deur, will as foon add a cubit to a man's ftature, as1 to his happiness.

This will fuggeft: to us how little a way we have gone towards the proof of any man's happiness,in barely faying,-Lo! this man profpers in the world, and this man has riches in poffeffion.

When a man has got much above us, we take itfor granted—that he fees fome glorious prospects, and feels fome mighty pleafures from his height;whereas could we get up to himit is great odds whether we fhould find any thing to make us to lerable 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 with he was well down again upon the level. To calculate, there-fore, the happiness of mankind by their ftations and honours, is the most deceitful of all rules.-Great, no doubt, is the happiness which a moderate fortune, and moderate defires, with a conscioufnefs of virtue, will fecure a man.-Many are the filent pleasures of the honest peasant, who rifes cheerfully to his labour. Look into his dwelling,-where the fcene of every man's happinefs chiefly lies; 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 stomach; the one had more luxury,more able phyficians to attend and fet him to rights the

other more health and foundnefs in his bones, and lefs occafion for their help;that, after these two .articles betwixt them were balanced,in all other things they stood 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 share in all the beauties and real benefits of nature.-Thefe hints may be fuf ficient to how, 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 knowledge, as will teach us candour in our determinations upon

each other.

But the main purport of this difcourfe, is, to teach us humility in our reafonings upon the ways of the Almighty.

That things are dealt unequally in this world, is one of the ftrongft natural arguments for a future ftate, and therefore is not to be overthrown: nevertheless, I am perfuaded the charge is far from being as great as at firft 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 otherwise,that the happiness and profperity of bad men were as great as our ge

neral 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 conclufion is,that it is one inftance more, out of many others, of our ignorance.Why should this, or any other religious difficulty he cannot.com. prehend,why should it alarm him more than ten thousand other difficulties, which every day elude his moft exact and attentive fearch? Does not the meanest flower in the field, or the smallest blade of grafs, baffle the understanding of the most penetrating mind?—Can the deepeft inquiries after nature tell us, upon what particular fize and motion of parts, the various colours and tastes of vegetables depend; why one fhrub is laxative,-another reftringent ;-why arfenic or hellebore fhould lay wafte this noble. frame of ours, or opium lock up all the inroads to our fenfes, and plunder us in fò merciless a manner, of reafon and understanding ?Nay, have not the most obvious things that come in our way, dark fides, which the quickest 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 wouldft correct the measures of the Almighty, go then, take a full view of thyself in this glass ;— confider thy own faculties,how narrow and imperfect; how much they are chequered with truth and falsehood; how little arrives at thy know

edge, and how darkly and confusedly thou difcerneft even that little, as in a glass :-confider the beginnings and endings of things, the greatest and the fmallest, how they all confpire to baffle thee;-and which way ever thou profecuteft thy inquiries, -what fresh fubjects of amazement, and what fresh reasons to believe there are more yet behind, which thou canft never comprehend.Confider

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thefe 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 ?—It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? It is deeper than bell, how canft thou know it?

Could we but fee the myfterious workings of Providence, and were we able to comprehend the whole plan of his infinite wifdom and goodnefs which poffibly may be the cafe in the final confummation of all things;—thofe events, which we are now fo perplexed to account for, would probably exalt and magnify his wifdom, and make us cry out with the Apostle, in that rapturous exclamation,O! the depth of the riches both of the goodness and wisdom of God!-how unfearchable are his ways, and his paths past finding out!

Now, to God, &c.

SERMON XLV.

The Ingratitude of Ifrael.

For fo it was

[2 KINGS XVII. 7.

that the children of Ifrael had finned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt.

THE words of the text account for the cause of a fad calamity, which is related, in the foregoing verfes, to have befallen a great number of Ifraelites, who were surprised in the capital city of Samaria, by Hofea King of Affyria, and cruelly carried away by him out of their own country, and placed on the defolate frontiers of Hala, and in Haber by the river *Gozan, and in the city of the Medes, and there confined to end their days in forrow and captivity. Upon which the facred hiftoria, instead of accounting for fo fad an event merely from political fprings and caufes,fuch, for inftance, as the fuperior ftrength and policy of the enemy, or an unfeafonable provocation given,or that proper measures of defence were neglected;-he traces it up, in one