nary event. It is well known how the king of Spain, and others who were the enemies of that great princefs, to derogate from her glory, afcribed the ruin of their fleet, rather to the violence of forms and tempefts, than to the bravery of the English. Queen Elizabeth, inftead of looking upon this as a diminution of her honour, valued herself upon fuch a fignal favour of Providence, and accordingly in the reverfe of the medal above mentioned, has reprefented a fleet beaten by a tempeft, and falling foul upon one another, with that religious infcription, Aflavit Deus & diffipantur. He blew with his wind, and they were scattered.' It is remarked of a famous Grecian general, whose name I cannot at prefent recollect, and who had been a particular favourite of fortune, that upon recounting his victories among his friends, he added at the end of feveral great actions, And in this, fortune had no fhare. After which it is obferved in history, that he never profpered in any thing he undertook. As arrogance, and a conceitedness of our own abilities, are very fhocking and offenfive to men of fenfe and virtue, we may be fure they are highly displeasing to that Being who delights in an humble mind, and by feveral of his difpenfations feems purpofely to fhew us, that our own fchemes or prudence have no fhare in our advancements. Since on this fubject I have already advanced feveral quotations which have occurred to my memory, upon writing this paper, I will conclude it with a little Perfian fable. A drop of water fell out of a cloud into the fea, and finding itself loft in fuch an immenfity of fluid matter, broke out into the following reflection: Alas! what an infignificant creature am I in this prodigious ocean of waters; my existence is of no collcern to the univerfe, I am reduced to a kind of nothing, and am lefs than the leaft of the works of God. It fo happened that an Oyster, which lay in the neighbourhood of this drop, chanced to gape and fwallow it up in the midst of this its humble foliloquy. The The drop, fays the fable, lay a great while hardening in the fhell, till by degrees it was ripened into a pearl, which falling into the hands of a diver, after a long feries of adventures, is at prefent that famous pearl which is fixed on the top of the Persian diadem. Si fractus illabatur orbis. HOR. MAN, confidered in himmelf, is a very helpless and a very wretched being. He is fubject every moment to the greatest calamities and misfortunes. He is belet with dangers on all fides, and may become unhappy by numberless casualties, which he could not forefee, nor have prevented, had he forefeen them. It is our comfort, while we are obnoxious to so many accidents, that we are under the care of one who directs contingencies, and has in his hands, the management of every thing that is capable of annoying or of fending us; who knows the affiftance we ftand in need of, and is always ready to beftow it on those who ask it of him. The natural homage, which fuch a creature bears to fo infinitely wife and good a Being, is a firm reliance on him for the bleffings and conveniencies of life, and an habitual truft in him for deliverance out of all fuch dangers and difficulties as may befal us. The man, who always lives in this difpofition of mind, has not the fame dark and melancholy views of human nature, as he who confiders himself abstractedly from this relation to the Supreme Being. At the fame time that he reflects upon his own weakness, and imperfection, he comforts himself with the contemplation of thofe divine attributes, which are employed for his fafety and his welfare. He finds his want of forefight made up by the omnifcience of him who is his fupport. He is not fenfible of his own want of ftrength, when he knows that his helper is Almighty. In fhort, the perfon who has a firm trust on the Supreme Being, is powerful in his power, wife by his wifdom, happy by his happiness. He reaps the benefit of every divine attribute, tribute, and lofes his own infufficiency in the fulness of infinite perfection. To make our lives more eafy to us, we are commanded to put our truft in him, who is thus able to relieve and fuccour us; the divine goodness having made fuch a reliance a duty, notwithstanding we fhould have been miferable, had it been forbidden us. Among feveral motives, which might be made ufe of, to recommend this duty to us, I fhall only take notice of thofe that follow. The first and strongeft is, that we are promised, he will not fail those who put their trust in him. But without confidering, the fupernatural bleffing which accompanies this duty, we may obferve that it has a natural tendency to its own reward, or in other words, that this firm truft and confidence in the great difpofer of all things contributes very much to the getting clear of any affliction, or to the bearing it manfully. A perfon who believes he has his fuccour at hand and that he acts in fight of his friend, often exerts himfelf beyond his abilities, and does wonders that are not to be matched by one who is not animated with fuch a confidence of fuccefs. I could produce inftances from history, of generals, who out of a belief that they were under the protection of fome invifible affistant, did not only encourage their foldiers to do their utmost, but have acted themfelves beyond what they would have done had they not been inspired by such a belief. I might in the fame manner fhew how fuch a truft, in the affittance of an Almighty Being, naturally produces patience, hope, cheerfulness, and all other difpofitions of mind that alleviate thofe calamities which we are not able to remove. The practice of this virtue adminifters great comfort to the mind of man, in times of poverty and affliction, but most of all in the hour of death. When the foul is hovering in the laft moments of its feparation, when it is just entering on another ftate of existence, to converfe with fcenes, and objects, and companions that are altogether altogether new; what can fupport her under fuch tremblings of thought, fuch fear, fuch anxiety, fuch apprehenfions, but the cafting of all her cares upon him who first gave her being, who has conducted her through one ftage of it, and will be always with her, to guide and comfort her in her progrefs through eternity? David has very beautifully reprefented this fteady reliance on God Almighty, in his twenty-third pfalm, which is a kind of paftoral hymn, and filled with those allufions which are ufual in that kind of writing. As the poetry is very exquifite, I fhall prefent my reader with the following translation of it. I. The Lord my pasture shall prepare, When in the fultry glebe I faint, III. Tho' in the paths of death I tread, IV. Tho' in a bare and rugged way, With fudden greens and herbage crown'd, SECT. SECTION IV. The Worship of God Religentem effe oportet, Religiofum nefas. Incerti Auteris apud AUL-GELL. IT is of the laft importance to feafon the paffions of a child with devotion, which feldom dies in a mind that has received an early tincture of it. Though it may feem extinguished for a while by the cares of the world, the heats of youth, or the allurements of vice, it generally breaks out and discovers itfelf again, as foon as difcretion confideration, age, or misfortunes have brought the man to himself. The fire may be covered and overlaid, but cannot be entirely quenched and smothered. A ftate of temperance, sobriety and justice, without devotion, is a cold, lifelefs, infipid condition of virtue; and is rather to be ftiled philosophy than religion. Devotion opens the mind to great conceptions, and fills it with more fublime ideas than any that are to be met with in the most exalted fcience: and at the fame time warms and agitates the foul more than fenfual pleasure. It has been obferved by fome writers, that man is more diftinguished from the animal world by devotion than by reason, as several brute creatures difcover in their actions fomething like a faint glimmering of reafon, though they betray in no fingle circumftance of their be haviour any thing that bears the least affinity to devotion. It is certain, the propenfity of the mind to religious worship, the natural tendency of the foul to fly to fome fuperior being for fuccour in dangers and diftreffes, the gratitude to an invifible Superintendent which arifes in us upon receiving an extraordinary and unexpected good fortune, the acts of love and admiration with which the thoughts of men are fo wonderfully transported in meditaing upon the Divine Perfections, and the universal concurrence of all the nations under heaven, in the great article of adoration, plainly fhew that devotion or religious worfhip must be the effect of a tradition from fome first founder of mankind, or that it is conformable to the natural light of reason, or that it proceeds from an inftin& implanted |