him capable of receiving happiness 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 these 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 fubversion of human liberty;-that fhould GOD make bare his arm, and interpofe on every injuftice that is committed,-mankind might be faid to do what was right,-but, at the fame time, to lose 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 impulses 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 fur ther upon either of the foregoing arguments in vindication of GoD's providence, which are urged fo often with fa much force and conviction, as to leave no room for a reasonable reply;-fince the miferies which befal the good, and the feeming happiness of the wicked, could not be otherwife in fuch a free state and condition as this in which we are placed.

In all charges of this kind, we generally take two things for granted;-1st, That in the inftances we give, we know certainly the good from the bad; and, 2dly, The respective state of their enjoyments or fufferings.

I fhall therefore, in the remaining part of my discourse, 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 misery in this life.

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

upon the ways

For though the miferies of the good, and the prosperity of the wicked, are not in general to be denied ;-yet I shall endeavour to fhew, that the particular instances we are apt to produce, when we cry out in the words of the Pfalmift, Lo! thefe are the ungodly,-these profper, 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 trust 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 fmall matters aggrandized through mistake,—and fometimes 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 diftinguish truth from falfehood. But allowing these reflections to be too fevere in this matter,that no fuch thing as envy ever leffened

a man's character, or malice blackened it ;-yet the characters of men are not easily penetrated, as they depend often upon the retired, unfeen parts of a man's life.-The best and truest piety is most secret, and the worst of actions, for different reafons, will be fo too.Some men are modeft, and feem to take pains to hide their virtues; and, from a natural distance and referve in their tempers, fcarce fuffer their good qua lities to be known:-others, on the contrary, put in practice a thoufand little arts to counterfeit virtues which they have not, -the better to conceal thofe vices which they really have ;-and this under fair fhows of fanctity, good-nature, generosity, or fome virtue or other, too fpecious to be feen through,-too amiable and difinterested to be fufpected.-These hints may be fufficient to fhew how hard it is to come at the matter of fact:-but one may go a step further, and fay, that even that, in many cafes, could, we come to the knowledge of it, is not fufficient by itself to pronounce a man. either good or bad.-There are num

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