thereof would be highly inflamed by the confi dence which his guest had repofed in him. The fon intimated that he thought it cruel ufage to be made subject to the penalties of a bond, for which he had received no pecuniary confideration; and which he had entered into, upon no other motive, than the preservation of his father from the refentment of his creditors. The parent bewailed their complicated misfortunes; but perfifted in fuffering the utmost extremities, rather than embrue their hands in blood. When the young fellow noticed, that his arguments made no impreffion, he then artfully enumerated the fore afflictions which his youngest brother endured in Flanders, from cold, penury, and toil. Nor did he fail to infinuate, that now an occafion prefented itself of fuccouring the wretched youth, who was daily furrounded with famine, disease, and death. The pitiable father burst into a torrent of tears, and haftily faid, "Whatever we are ❝to do, let us do it immediately."

Thus the poor lacerated heart, although it had refolutely maintained its ground against the piercing folicitations of want, the approaching terrors of a prison, and the importunate clamours of an undone child, nevertheless fell a fudden facrifice to the inordinate tranfports of parental affection.

ON

ON THE THIRTEENTH PSALM

Quid purè tranquillet.

HOR.

A

LTHOUGH many and various are the pursuits of mankind after happiness, yet the greatest felicity is a constant sense of the divine favour. The pleasures which arife to the mind from a pre-eminence of birth, station, and fortune are of a foreign and extrinfic nature. Hence we daily see multitudes poffeffed of these benefits, who are utter ftrangers to folid and permanent fatisfactions. But the good man, however deftitute of thofe incidental advantages, hath nevertheless an inexhauftible fource of comfort within himself. When he quits the crowd, and descends into his breaft, he is fure of meeting with the beft of company there-God, and his own heart: while the consciousness of his integrity, and the approbation of his Maker, furnish him with a perpetual feaft.

Here, methinks, we cannot but pause a while, to reflect with gratitude upon the beneficence of our Creator, who hath thus, as it were, annihilated all invidious diftinctions among mankind; and either hath placed the defcendants of Adam

It

upon a level in point of happinefs, or lodged the means thereof within the reach of every man. is not in the power of every individual to be rich and great in the world; but it is much in the power of every individual to attain a happinefs infinitely fuperior to the joys which wealth and grandeur can beftow. Wherefore, let not the poor cottager complain, that all his labour is expended upon procuring to himself nothing more than the mere neceffaries of life. Such flender acquifitions are truly valuable and weighty, upon condition that he improves his existence to thofe purposes for which it was graciously given to him. If the indigent part of the fpecies did but carefully confider, that to be good is to be happy; and that virtue and religion are accommodated to every fituation and capacity, they would fee abundant cause for thankfulness, even amid thofe fcenes of fervitude and toil, which now, perhaps, occafion envy, difcontent, and murmur.

That frequent intercourfes with the Supreme Being conftitute the utmost happiness of man, is a propofition which ftands in no need of proof from philofophical inquiries, refined argumentations, and laboured inferences. A very restricted underftanding can comprehend this important truth. An arrant peafant, without previous information, is fully aware of the vaft emoluments which ac

crue

crue from an intimacy with an earthly monarch. What then must be those exalted privileges, which redound from the favour and friendship of the Almighty Sovereign of the univerfe!

But I fhall close this fubject with the opinion of the royal Pfalmift upon it; who difcovers the high sense he entertained of the divine presence, by that bitterness, with which he bewails the interruption of it *.

ON THE FORTY-SECOND PSALM

Quo te cœleftis Sapientia duceret, ires.

I'

HOR.

Na late paper I obferved, that the highest

happiness of intellectual creatures confifted in a perpetual intercourfe with Almighty God. But, to prevent mistakes, it may be incumbent upon us to enquire, what is the genuine test and proof of this divine communion. Our bleffed Saviour hath refolved this important question"Ye are my disciples, if ye do whatsoever I com"mand you." And again, " If a man love me, " he will keep my word, and my father will love "him, and we will come and make our abode "with him." Whence it follows, that if our

*See a verfion of the 13th Pfalm, inferted among the Poetry, in vol. i. p. 113.

actions

actions be not suitable to the laws of God, all our pretences, warmth, and tranfports, are no better than the artifices of hypocrify, the impofitions of fanaticism, or the delufions of the grand enemy of mankind.

On the other hand, we are not to be difcouraged at incidental abfences, and dejections of fpirits, when we are engaged in facred duties.

Man is a compofition of foul and body; and, during their union here, the former will be often interrupted in her religious performances by the difeafes and imperfections of her affociate.

Inattention, languors, and dejections, many times proceed from a temporary indisposition of the animal œconomy. A relaxation of the nervous fyftem, an inequality in the circulation of the blood, and more especially a depravity of the juices (as the phyficians term it) will have a powerful and furprising influence upon the mental faculties. I fpeak this in pity to multitudes; because I daily fee pious and worthy persons afficting themselves beyond measure, through the ignorance of this weighty truth. Befides, they would do well to recollect thofe gracious allowances, which our compaffionate Saviour hath made upon record, for the omiffions, frailties, and defaults of human nature. Even his difciples, who accompanied him into the garden the night

preceding