my reason to believe, that, in the natural world, the stated course of effects, whether as to men, or the other parts of the creation, was put under the influence of second causes, most of them inscrutable to human understanding, and probably to the angelic also. But angels and men are so left to the exercise of their freedom, as to be able, if they please, to do good or evil, without any compulsion either way from the power or operation of such second causes. On the contrary, these second causes are the instruments or powers, by which the will of a free being acts according to its choice. Man may abuse bis freedom, and the second causes, or circumstances wherein he is placed; but it cannot be supposed, that God, either in the original appointment of the second causes, or at the time the man is disposed to that abuse, should aid him in so doing, by any means, or in any sense of the word, since at that very time he forbids the abuse under the severest penalty, and aids his obedience with his Holy Spirit. Here is room sufficient, and a proper scene, for the interference of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, in the government of God's intelligent and free creatures; and here they are all exercised in such a manner as not to destroy, but aid our freedom, when a right choice of thought or action is to be enlivened, or carried into execution. If a man hath only common sense, he must have found himself to be but a very weak creature, assaulted by enemies too artful to be guarded against by one so little apt to be vigilant; too powerful to be resisted by one so ready to yield; so surrounded by dangers, evil accidents, sickness, storms by sea, fires at land, distractions, deaths, and perils among false brethren; in the midst of all this, how sweet a consolation can he administer to himself by his faith in the protecting hand of God, who careth for him, who is ever present with him, and is mighty to save him, by night when he is wrapped up in sleep, like a caterpillar in his nympha-state, and by day, when he mounts the dangerous stage of life, and takes the field against the host of hell, against a seducing world, against bis own corrupted and treacherous heart! Against the arrow that flieth by night, and the pestilence that destroyeth at noon-day! When he feels the earth shaking under him, and hears the volcano roaring near him, and the thunder tearing the oaks and rocks about him! Here, though he walk through the valley and shadow of death, he fears no evil,' for he knows that God is with him. His heart standing fast, trusting in the Lord.' Almighty goodness forbids

it to palpitate; or if it does, an heroic mixture of love and joy gives it more than half its agitations. The hand of God is not always visible in our deliverances, seldom indeed to the unthinking; but he that knows his own weakness, and how little it is that he can do to deliver himself on a thousand perilous occasions, will often, by the eye of faith, perceive that hand, which conceals itself from the fleshly organ, that gratitude may search for, and find its benefactor. How is God, who giveth and upbraideth not' by an ostentation of his goodness, pleased with this search! And how is the poor soul transported, when he hath found that God himself was at his side in the critical hour of danger, when all human, all created help, would have been useless? Nay, perhaps, when the poor soul was arrested in its eager pursuit of criminal pleasure, quickly to be avenged with infamy and destruction? This last sort of deliverance, though not always welcome, because it comes against the grain of a man's appetite, is surely the best and highest of all deliverances. When a man becomes a devil to himself, to be delivered from this worst of fiends by the persevering goodness of an angry God, exceeds every thing that even angelic understanding, or the highest rapture of gratitude can conceive. Every thing in the natural world goes on, as it were, in a regular machine. But the moral, consisting of angels and men, requires to be directed and governed. All creatures, free to do good, or evil, must be inspected and governed. They may do good, and be rewarded; they may do evil, and be punished. A master therefore they have to superintend their conduct, and to distribute to them according to their deeds. In this system the relative attributes of God, his justice and mercy, find an open course of exertion, wherein his Providence is ever concerned. And correction, restraint, relief, are always wanted, and always applied. The moral world is as well worth guiding as creating; and being fallible, if not guided it may go astray. And how it can, when once astray, be rectified, but by superior wisdom and goodness, is not conceivable. Redemption therefore and sanctification become necessary effects of infinite goodness, as long as moral freedom gives an open to transgression, and to a return from thence to obedience. As misery is connected with the former, and happiness with the latter, the call on mercy for grace and help must ever be made by the creature on its Maker, who will as assuredly hear and interpose, as we shall pray. Here is sufficient encouragement to depend on a particular Providence,

provided an humble sense of our weakness, a deep sorrow for our sins, and a faithful reliance on divine goodness, shall give the requisite force to our supplications. But what if these qualifying dispositions are unattainable by our best endeavours without aid from the same Providence? If this is the miserable case of man in his now fallen condition, as indeed it is, a particular Providence becomes as necessary to him in this first step towards his relief, as in any of the subsequent. Ere he goes for help, he must be enabled to go. Ere he can be humble, he must be humbled. Ere he can repent of his sins, he must feel the sting of sin and death. Ere he can stand fast in the faith, he must be enabled to stand; he must believe, that God is, and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,' and his providential assistance. What is man without God in the world? A poor forlorn creature, far less able to keep his place in it than the beast that perisheth; than the fly, that flutters about his nose; than the worm, that grovels in the dunghill. To be wise, he must derive from the fountain of wisdom. To be strong, he must draw from the source of strength. To be good and happy, he must have recourse to God, from whom alone there is a possibility of this attainment. But then the provident God is ever present with him; 'Christ, the way, the truth, and the life,' offers him that hand, which was nailed to the cross for him; and the Holy Spirit gives strength to walk in that way, kindles up that truth, and that light before him, and breathes in his soul that principle of eternal life whereby he is converted into a new and happy creature. Of all the instances of Providence, that of revelation, from first to last, whether we consider it as general or particular, is the most necessary, the most gracious, and the most manifest to the understanding of men. True light for a benighted world, and holy love for the wandering affections of our hearts, are here displayed, and enforced to the total reformation and eternal happiness of all who will receive them.

165. It is one character of an honest man, that he walks upright, and in so doing, it may be his too, that he is a prudent man, and sees the way before him, so that it is easy for him to go forward to his purpose on a straight and visible line of life. The cunning man, another name for a mixture of knave and fool, crouches, dodges observation, and moves always on a curve. His neighbours, if somewhat acquainted with him, have no defence against him but suspicion, for they can seldom guess where

he is going, or what he is about.

He doubles on the scent of

their suspicions, like a hare and fox in one, now turning to the right, and then to the left; and, if possible, always in the night. An honest man is the worst huntsman for this sort of beast; 'but for such as thus turn aside to their crooked ways,' the Psalmist says, 'the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.' He sees their ways, and shall lead them forth from coverture, with the more open workers of iniquity, robbers, murderers, &c. to a shameful exposure, and to such punishments as shall force them to wish they had been only fools. Happy is folly, when she can get leave to walk alone. There is somewhat like safety in her simplicity, till she comes under the guidance of cunning, which always takes up with her, when she can find her; but, in the end, is betrayed, and even outwitted, by the silly companion.

166. It is natural, I believe, for old men, no longer able to act, to become advisers and projectors, as unwilling to be wholly useless. I ask not to stand in a better light with my countrymen; nay, I leave them to ascribe my project, briefly delivered in these papers, for the improvement of physic, to vanity, rather than benevolence, as I do the following, for a purpose much more easily attainable, and of superior utility. According to the present unhappy mode of life, a gentleman of considerable fortune, generally passes more than one half of his time in the capital, a slave to vanity, luxury, and fashion, to which not a few adopt the vices of drinking and gaming. These produce debts and distress in the midst of splendour; and hence again the oppression of a poor working tenantry on their estates. Were I not afraid that wisdom might excite a degree of distaste, I would say, that I am going to point out a much wiser and happier scheme of life to these gentlemen, and that easily producible in their own minds, and on their own estates, without going to the Indies for its materials. If a gentleman of fortune, suppose from five hundred pounds to five thousand pounds a year, would make it a rule to live two-thirds of his time at his country-seat, he would breathe wholesome air, enjoy the benefit of healthful exercise; and living close to nature, would, in vigour and cheerfulness, give himself the best chance to protract life to a good old age, so as to see his well-educated children comfortably settled in the world; welleducated, I say, because brought up at a distance from the sink of vanity, fashion, and every vice. His power of providing reasonable fortunes for them might, in this situation, be most com

modiously consulted. Besides, reasonable portions would to them be greater, than five times as much to young people, otherwise habituated. Here it is, that a gentleman, made consequential by his fortune, on a grand-jury, and by a commission of the peace, might suppress all those hideous vices, drunkenness, quarrelling, murdering, pilfering, cheating, to which the lower classes of mankind are so shockingly addicted. And here it is, that by his countenance and example, he might encourage the religious, the sober, the industrious, in such a manner, as to reduce the neighbourhood round him, to a great distance, into a happy degree of regularity and civilization. His own tenants would reap the benefits of this improvement more early and amply than others less under his influence; from whence plenty and contentment among them, and rents better paid to him, perhaps larger too in time, would naturally result. But to aid this secondary view, my system goes a little farther. If this worthy gentleman, from cultivating mankind, would set himself to improve the soil too of his estate, which he might still more easily effect; a new and beautiful world would soon spread itself round him. My project for this is obvious. Let him set apart three or four acres in his demesne of the most different kinds of soil, especially the worst, for experiments. His own ingenuity, aided by a few well chosen books of husbandry, may be most agreeably employed on, here and there, a square perch of ground, in mixing soils of the most different kinds; trying new, and cheap kinds of manure, or compost; with proper ploughs working the sides of steep hills into. spiral ridges; and adapting all sorts of seeds, though somewhat at random, to his several little spots, prepared by new or old, but rather new modes of culture, he may, in the summer and autumn months, be able to judge how his experiments have succeeded, provided he hath taken care to fix a short stake in every little patch of ground, with a number, corresponding to his book, wherein, at the same number, an entry hath been specifically made of all the particulars in his culture of that patch, and of the seed assigned to it. A trifling expense will pay for these trials, and afford him infinite entertainment. Now supposing but one out of four of his experiments should succeed to his wish, that one exhibited to two or three farmers, occupying a considerable quantity of ground, nearly the same with that in its natural state whereon the experiment hath been made, and the mode of culture in the book referred to, so much useful ground is gained, as it were off the sea, and added