to this account, how much, in the progress of his life, has been given up even to the leffer obligations of civility and good manners?-What reftraints they have laid him under? How large a portion of his time,-how much of his inclination and the plan of life he should most have wished, has from time to time been made a facrifice to his good-nature, and difinclination to give pain or disgust to others?

Whoever takes a view of the life of man in this glass wherein I have shewn it, will find it fo befet and hemmed in with obligations of one kind or other, as to leave little room to fufpect, that man can live to himself: and fo closely has our Creator linked us together (as well as all other parts of his works) for the preservation of that harmony in the frame and fyftem of things which his wisdom has at first established, -that we find this bond of mutual dependence, however relaxed, is too ftrong to be broke: and I believe, tha the most selfish men find it is fo, and that they can

not, in fact, live fo much to themfelves, as the narrownefs of their own hearts inclines them. If thefe reflections are just upon the moral relations in which we ftand to each other, let us close the examination with a fhort reflection upon the great relation in which we stand to GOD.

The firft and more natural thought on this fubject, which at one time or other will thrust itself upon every man's mind, is this,-That there is a God who made me, to whofe gift I owe all the powers and faculties of my foul, to whofe providence I owe all the bleflings of my life, and by whose permiffion it is that I exercife and enjoy them; that I am placed in this world as a creature of but a day, haftening to the place from whence I fhall not return-That I am accountable for my conduct and behaviour to this great and wifeft of Beings, before whofe judgment-feat I must finally appear, and receive the things done in my body,-whether they are good, or whether they are bad.

Can any one doubt but the most inconfiderate of men fometimes fit down coolly, and make fome fuch plain reflections as these upon their state and condition?-or, that after they have made them, can one imagine, they lofe all effect?-As little appearance as there is of religion in the world, there is a great deal of its influence felt in its affairs-nor can one fo root out the principles of it, but like nature they will return again, and give checks and interruptions to guilty purfuits. There are feasons, when the thoughts of a just GOD overlooking, and the terror of an after-reckoning, has made the most determined tremble, and stop short in the execution of a wicked purpose; and if we conceive that the worst of men lay some restraint upon upon themfelves from the weight of this principle, what fhall we think of the good and virtuous part of the world, who live under the perpetual influence of it,-who facrifice their appetites and paffions from a confcience of their duty to GOD; and confider him

as the object to whom they have dedicated their service, and make that the first principle, and ultimate end of all their actions?-How many real and unaffected inftances there are in the world of men thus governed, will not concern us fo much to enquire, as to take care that we are of the number: which may GOD grant for the fake of Jefus Chrift. Amen,

I returned and faw under the fun, that the race is not to the fwift, -no -nor the battle to the strong,-neither yet bread to the wife, nor yet riches to men of underftanding, nor yet favour to men of skill,-but time and chance happeneth to them all.

WHEN a man cafts a look upon this melancholy defcription of the world, and fees, contrary to all his gueffes and expectations, what different fates attend the lives of men,-how oft it happens in the world, that there is not even bread to the wife, nor riches to men of understanding, &c.he is apt to conclude with a figh upon it,-in the words, tho' not in the sense of the wife man, that time and chance happeneth to them all. That time and chance,apt seasons and fit conjunctures have the greatest sway, in the turns and disposals of men's fortunes. And that, as these