out of his hand, by his fociety with men of rank and letters, with whom he will pafs the greatest part of his time.

Let me obferve, in the first place, that company which is really good, is very rare,—and very shy : but you have furmounted this difficulty; and procured him the beft letters of recommendation to the most eminent and refpectable in every capital.

And I anfwer, that he will obtain all by them, which courtesy strictly stands obliged to pay on such occafions, but no more.

There is nothing in which we are so much deceived, as in the advantages propofed from our connexions and discourse with the literati, &c. in foreign parts; especially if the experiment is made before we are matured by years or study.

Converfation is a traffic; and if you enter into it, without fome stock of knowledge to balance the ac count perpetually betwixt you, the trade drops at once and this is the reason, however it may be boafted to the contrary, why travellers have fo little (efpecially good) converfation with natives,-owing to their fufpicion or perhaps conviction, that there is nothing to be extracted from the converfation of young itinerants, worth the trouble of their bad language or the interruption of their vifits.

The pain on these occafions is usually reciprocal; the confequence of which is, that the disappointed youth feeks an easier fociety: and as bad company is always ready and ever lying in wait,the career is foon finished; and the poor prodigal returns the fame object of pity, with the prodigal in the Gospel..

SERMON XXI.

National Mercies confidered *.

DEUTERONOMY VI. 20, 21.

And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean · the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? then shalt thou fay unto thy fon, We were Pharaoh's bondsmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

THESE are the words which Mofes left as a standing. anfwer for the children of Ifrael to give their pofterity, who in time to come might become ignorant, or unmindful of the many and great mercies which God had vouchfafed to their forefathers; all which had terminated in that one, of their deliverance out of bondage.

Though they were directed to speak in this manner, each man to his fon, yet one cannot fuppofe that the direction fhould be neceffary for the next generation, for the children of those who had been eye witneffes of God's providences: it does not feem likely that any of them should arrive at that age of

*On the inauguration of his prefent Majefty.

reafoning which would put them upon asking the fuppofed question, and not be, long before-hand, inftructed in the anfwer. Every parent would tell his child the hardships of his captivity, and the amazing particulars of his deliverance: the ftory was fo uncommon,-fo full of wonder, and withal, the recital of it would ever be a matter of such tranfport, it could not poffibly be kept a fecret :—the piety and gratitude of one generation, would anticipate the curiofity of another; their fons would learn the ftory with their language.

This probably might be the cafe with the firft or fecond race of people; but, in process of time, things might take a different turn; a long and undifturbed poffeffion of their liberties, might blunt the fenfe of those providences of GOD which had procured them, and set the remembrance of all his mercies at too great a distance from their hearts. After they had for fome years been eafed of every real burden, an excess of freedom might make them reftlefs under every imaginary one, and, amongst others, that of their religion; from thence they might feek occafion to inquire into the foundation and fitness of its ceremonies, its ftatutes and its judgments.

They might afk, what meant fo many commands, in matters which to them appeared indifferent in their own natures? What policy in ordaining them? and, What obligation could there lie upon reasonable creatures, to comply with a multitude of fuch unaccountable injunctions, fo unworthy the wisdom of GOD?

Hereafter poffibly, they might go further lengths;

a

and though their natural bent was generally towards superstition, yet some adventurers, as is ever the cafe, might fteer for the oppofite coaft, and, as they advanced, might difcover, that all religions, of what denominations or complexions foever, were alike :that the religion of their own country in particular, was a contrivance of the Priests and Levites,phantom dreffed out in a terrifying garb of their own making, to keep weak minds in fear that its rites. and ceremonies, and numberless injunctions, were fo many different wheels in the fame political engine, put in, no doubt, to amufe the ignorant, and keep them in such a state of darkness as clerical juggling requires.

That as for the moral part of it, though it was unexceptionable in itself,-yet it was a piece of intelligence they did not ftand in want of: men had natural reason always to have found it out, and wisdom to have practifed it, without Mofes's affift

ance.

Nay, poffibly, in process of time, they might ar-rive at greater improvements in religious controversy; -when they had given their fyftem of infidelity all the strength it could admit of from reason, they might begin to embellish it with some more fprightly conceits and turns of ridicule.

Some wanton Ifraelite, when he had eaten and was full, might give free scope and indulgence to this talent as arguments and fober reafoning failed, he might turn the edge of his wit against types and fymbols, and treat all the myfteries of his religion,.

and every thing that could be faid upon fo ferious a fubject, with raillery and mirth: he might give vent to a world of pleafantry upon many facred paffages of his law: he might banter the golden calf, or the brazen ferpent, with great courage,—and confound himself in the distinctions of clean and unclean beasts, by the defperate fallies of his wit against them.

He could but poffibly take one step further: when the land which flowed with milk and honey had quite worn out the impreffions of his yoke, and bleffings began to multiply upon his hands, he might draw this curious conclufion, that there was no Being who was the author and bestower of them, but that it was their own arm, and the mightiness of Ifraelitish ftrength, which had put them, and kept them, in poffeffion of fo much happiness.

that

O Mofes! How would thy meek and patient spirit have been put to the torture by fuch a return? If a propensity towards fuperftition in the Ifraelites, did once betray thee into fuch an excess of anger, thou threweft the two tables out of thy hands, which GOD had wrote, and carlefsly hazardedft the whok treasure of the world,-with what indignation and honest anguish wouldst thou have heard the fcoffings of thofe who denied the hand which brought them forth, and faid, Who is GoD, that we should obey his voice?—With what force and 'vivacity wouldít thou have reproached them with the history of their own nation that, if too free an enjoyment of God's bleffings, had made them forget to look back-ards,—it was neceffary to remind them, that their