bold! the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small duft of the balance: all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing before him; they are counted to bim less than nothing and vanity. Ifa. xl. 22. Survey the greatnefs of his works, call to view the number of the stars fcattered through all the vaft regions of space, remember that all these are probably vast habitable bodies, the refidence of myriads of happy beings discharging the Divine Will in different places and order, and drinking happinefs from the univerfal fountain of good, in proportion to their various capacities ; call this to mind, and then say, what is the whole race of man, numerous as they appear to us, upon comparison with this immenfe, this ftupendous profpect?-They are as nothing before it ; they are less than nothing and vanity. Were they univerfally blotted from the book of life, their lofs were not to be found; the happiness of the creation would

would not be diminished; the lofs would be as the drop of a bucket; the ocean of happiness would be equally abundant, equally immense.

AND if this would be the cafe, upon the dreadful fuppofition of our total extinction; if, on the contrary, the fame good Being is conftantly alfo exerting his mercies among the fons of men, if he, by all the various methods of moral discipline, is conducting the greater part of them to glory, and fuffers those only to perish, whom no difcipline, no inftruction, no affiftance can reclaim, and whose punishment must be neceffary for the welfare of the whole; what reafon have we to expoftulate with the Almighty, or difpute the rectitude of his dealings? Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? fhall the thing formed fay to him that formed it, why haft thou made me thus? Rom. ix. 20.

LET us now,

thefe reflexions,

under the force of

run over the ufual

F 4

confo

confolations of the finner; and we fhall find them wretchedly trifling, frivolous, and delufive. Muft the Almighty spare, because our compaffion prompts us to with it? If compaffion were the only rule of Divine government, no creature could be miferable. His love far exceeds the poor selfish sympathy of human affection. Thou comeft far fhort, fays he in Efdras, that thou shouldest be able to love my creature more than I. But human happiness depends on other confiderations. But does not punishment fuppofe anger and vengeance; an idea, inconfiftent with the perfection of the Divine mind? It is not anger, but a teady regard to the general interests of the spiritual creation.-May he not, after a long series of ages of fuffering, admit them then to happiness? None but the impenitent will fuffer; and there is reason to apprehend from what we know of the progrefs of fin, that it is too poffible for wicked creatures to be hardened

into an incurable impenitence.-Why may he not annihilate them, and put an end to their being and fufferings together? The interefts of virtue require that wickedness fhould be punished, and the reasons, that render it neceffary at all, may continue as long as heaven subsists. -Why should he create beings, who, he muft foresee, would make an improper ufe of their liberty? This is to afk, why he made the world at all; for if man was to be created at all, it was neceffary he should be left in the hands of his own counfel.-But will it not ra ther be an abatement than addition to the felicity of the bleffed, to fee their poor fellow creatures, whom they have feen and known and converfed with here on earth, hung up, as it were, to be fpectacles of mifery and monuments of vengeance? All earthly relations will ceafe with the grave; the only diftinction afterwards will be good and bad, and there will be no more communion

between

between these than between light and darkness. The fympathy we feel here is a blind instinct, embracing good and bad, just as they happen to be connected to us in the relations of life. The bad parent, the profligate child or brother are endeared to us on other accounts independent of their moral character. But when this mixt imperfect scene is over and all earthly connexions cease together with it; the employment and happiness of our affections will lie in contemplating the Divine perfections and works, and cultivating the intercourfe and communion of innocent fpirits.

BUT if we must judge from natural instincts, there is one, which cannot deceive us ; I mean, that fecret dread and horror of futurity, which nothing but the groffeft ftupidity or corruption can extinguish. There is no paffion in nature, without its correfpondent object. Have we an instinct of compaffion? We are connected here in a social state, which requires