but in any enlightened country, or even unenlightened, have they ever succeeded, except with a very few? and those few for the most part are such characters, as are either so wrong-headed, so immoral, or so uncharitable and illiberal, that men of information and virtue have no desire to associate with them, and in general justly despise them.

When we observe the glories of God's creation, our minds are so forcibly struck with the conviction of the infinite power and wisdom of God, from the display of that power and wisdom exhibited in the animal, mineral, vegetable, and solar systems, that contemplation on these attributes, though it vibrates the soul in the noblest and most delightful manner, can scarcely be said to increase that conviction. But the goodness of God, though equally infinite with his power, being not so ostensibly displayed, requires a close and attentive contemplation, before we can have a true idea of it. His goodness, in many instances, is like some of his works; those stars, for example, which, unless viewed by a telescope, are never seen: contemplation is in this respect to the mind, what the telescope is to the eye, and without it we shall never have more than a very im

perfect notion of the goodness of God. With the reader's permission, I will illustrate what I mean by an example. The fruits of the field, such as wheat, barley, &c. respectively grow ripe at once, because it is for the evident advantage and interest of man they should do so; and it would be a dreadful evil if they did not: whilst the fruits and flowers of a garden ripen in succession, and the fruit even on any one tree does not ripen at once, there being often an interval of ten days or a fortnight between the ripening of the first and last peach or nectarine on the same tree, because these delicious fruits were clearly and unequivocally intended for a continued pleasure and gratification to man ; and this gracious intention on the part of God would have been in great measure frustrated, if these fruits of the garden had grown ripe all at once, like those of the field. Is not the goodness of God evidently exhibited in this instance? Nevertheless, I have never heard it remarked either in conversation, or seen it noticed in any book, though it may have often been observed in both; as indeed it is one so plain and obvious, that a child might have remarked it. But yet as I have

not known it instanced, I mention it to prove, that unless we accustom our minds frequently to contemplate the goodness of God, and take a sincere pleasure in that contemplation, we shall never appreciate it as we ought to do; and the most obvious instances of it may and will escape our observation.

Here I might exceedingly enrich this volume, by extracting from Dr. Nieuwentyt's Religious Philosopher, or Right Use of con

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templating the Works of the Creator;" "Derham's Physico and Astro Theology;'

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Ray on the Wisdom of God in the Crea"tion;" and "Dr. Paley's Natural Theology;" many delightful instances of the goodness of God displayed in the glories of his creation in general, and exhibited in favour of the human species in particular: but I forbear to do so, rather recommending to the reader the entire perusal of these excellent books, as they well deserve it, from the interesting and entertaining knowledge they communicate, and from the pious endeavour which evidently prevailed in the minds of those who wrote them, to honour their Maker, to express the noble acts of the Lord, and

to shew forth his praise in the best manner they were able*.

* I have likewise foreborne, in the peculiarities enumerated in the second proposition, respecting the doctrines and actions of our blessed Saviour, to introduce any of those inserted in the late Mr. Soame Jennings's excellent "View of the Internal "Evidence of the Christian Religion," as this practice makes one book the mere echo of another book; a practice of which every reader has a just right to complain.

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THE CONCLUSION.

OF all those subjects whose contemplation either does, or has, or ever will engage the attention of the human mind, the most delightful I apprehend to be that of God's goodness. It is mentioned by Mr. Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, that the Brahmins consider an holy absorption of mind as the perfection of human happiness: nor is this by any means a chimerical idea; for when a rational being, in health and spirits, walking in his garden, contemplates the goodness of God towards him, and considers what he was, that he was originally only as the earth on which he treads, insensible, unconscious, inanimate matter; and contrasts that state with what he is, a being created in the image of God, only a little lower than the angels, and endued not merely with a corporal frame and a sensitive soul, but with a mind capable of appreciating, in a very sublime and lofty manner, the attributes of the Deity, and of considering him as a God of infinite wisdom, infinite power, and infinite goodness; and that he acts from a conjunction of these