things? why is it permitted, that wife and good men fhould be left often a prey to fo many miferies and diftreffes of life, -whilft the guilty and foolish triumph in their offences, and even the tabernacles of robbers profper?

To this it is anfwered,-that therefore there is a future ftate of rewards and punishments to take place after this life, wherein all thefe inequalities fhall be made even, where the circumstances of every man's cafe fhall be confidered, and where GOD fhall be juftified in all his ways, and every mouth fhall be stopt.

If this was not fo,-if the ungodly were to profper in the world, and have riches in poffeffion,-and no diftinction to be made hereafter,-to what purpose would it have been to have maintained our integrity?-Lo! then, indeed, fhould I have cleanfed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.

It is farther faid, and what is a more direct answer to the point, that when GOD created man, that he might make

him capable of receiving happinefs at his hands hereafter,-he endowed him with liberty and freedom of choice, without which he could not have been a creature accountable for his actions;

that it is merely from the bad ufe he makes of thefe gifts,-that all thofe inftances of irregularity do refult, upon which the complaint is here grounded, -which could no ways be prevented, but by the total fubverfion of human liberty-that fhould GoD make bare his arm, and interpofe on every injuf tice that is committed,-mankind might be faid to do what was right,-but, at the fame time, to lofe the merit of it, fince they would act, under force and neceffity, and not from the determinations of their own mind;-that, upon this fuppofition,-a man could with no more reafon expect to go to heaven for acts of temperance, juftice, and humanity, than for the ordinary impulfes of hunger and thirst, which nature directed -that GOD has dealt with man upon

better terms;-he has firft endowed him with liberty and free-will; he has fet life and death, good and evil, before him;-that he has given him faculties. to find out what will be the confequences of either way of acting, and then left him to take which courfe his reafon and direction fhall point out.

I fhall defift from enlarging any further upon either of the foregoing arguments in vindication of GOD's providence, which are urged fo often with fo much force and conviction, as to leave no room for a reafonable reply ;-fince the miferies which befal the good, and the feeming happiness of the wicked, could not be otherwife in fuch a free ftate and condition as this in which we are placed.

In all charges of this kind, we generally take two things for granted ;-ift, That in the inftances we give, we know certainly the good from the bad; and, 2dly, The refpective ftate of their enjoyments or fufferings.

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I shall therefore, in the remaining part my difcourfe, take up your time with a fhort inquiry into the difficulties of coming not only at the true characters of men, but likewife of knowing either the degrees of their real happinefs or mifery in this life.

The first of thefe will teach us candour in our judgments of others;-the fecond, to which I fhall confine myself, will teach us humility in our reafonings upon the of God.

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For though the miferies of the good, and the profperity of the wicked, are not in general to be denied ;-yet I fhall endeavour to fhew, that the particular inftances we are apt to produce, when we cry out in the words of the Pfalmift, Lo! these are the ungodly,-thefe fper, and are happy in the world;--I fay, I fhall endeavour to fhew, that we are fo ignorant of the articles of the charge,—and the evidence we go upon to make them good is fo lame and defective, as to be fufficient by itself to check all propensity to expoftulate with

GOD's providence, allowing there was no other way of clearing up the matter reconcileably to his attributes.

And, firft,-what certain and infallible marks have we of the goodness or badnefs of the bulk of mankind?

If we truft to fame and reports, -if they are good, how do we know but they may proceed from partial friendship. or flattery?-when bad, from envy or malice, from ill-natured furmifes and conftructions of things?-and, on both fides, from small matters aggrandized through mistake,--and sometimes through the unfkilful relation of even truth itfelf? From fome, or all of which caufes, it happens, that the characters of men, like the hiftories of the Egyptians, are to be received and read with caution; -they are generally dreffed out and diffigured with fo many dreams and fables, that every ordinary reader shall not be able to diftinguifh truth from falfehood. But allowing thefe reflections to be too fevere in this matter,that no fuch thing as envy ever leffened