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But let us afk, by whose appointment DIS C. has it fo befallen us, that this fhould be the place of our nativity? The choice of fituation, in which we would act our part on the globe, was clearly not given to us, nor were the fathers that begat us enabled to fix on the spot where they would be born. God alone could ordain for our ancestors, could ordain for us, that in this particular quarter of the world we should appear to fulfil the feveral purposes for which we are created. To God therefore should our thanks be given, that our existence had its origin amidst numberless local advantages; and when our hearts swell with a natural, and furely pardonable, exultation in the name of our country, let them alfo be warmed with gratitude towards the Lord, by whofe destination we belong to this country.

For the due prefervation of that order, without which the chief ends of human fociety could not be anfwered; (fince without order, neither property nor person could be fecure, as neither political, nor moral,

DISC. moral, nor religious advantages could be XII. derived from the lawless affemblage of

ungoverned multitudes;) for the due prefervation of that order, it is the Divine appointment, evidently manifefted in the constitution and history of man through all ages, that in every kingdom, not abfolutely barbarian, there should be * inequality of condition. That there fhould be high and low, rich and poor, in the fame fociety, is a decree of the Almighty fixed and uniform, as that there should be young and old; difparity of circumftances is eftablished by God's will on grounds as immoveable, and on reafons as wife, as disparity of age. To repine under an arrangement which never can be altered fo long as there fubfifts the fame relation between caufes and effects which is now ordained, to murmur that we cannot all have the fame opulence, or power, or dignity, were a folly as culpable, and a diffatisfaction as unreasonable, as it would be to complain that the heavens did not al* See Ariftot. Περι Πολιτ. 7. 8.

ways

ways fhed upon us the genial influence of DISC. warm funs and ferene fkies. Our wisdom

and duty is to acquiefce in the general law of distinct ranks, in which man is formed to experience the greatest degree of happiness.

But fubmiffion of this kind to an univerfal appointment, by no means precludes the fair, juft, and honeft endeavours of individuals, to amend the condition, and rife from the rank in which they are born. Industry in our calling, whatever it may be, is another law of our nature forcibly binding as refignation. Both are to be taken together: the talents which are given us must be diligently exerted; but the effect of fuch exertion must be left to the difpofal of that over-ruling power which nothing human can poffibly control. in the course of our labours we meet with profperity, we have abundant caufe to be thankful; thankful to friends, who have given us fupport, but more thankful to God, by whom thofe friends were raised up for us. Yet the language of the world is after another mode. We are loud in

If

XII.

commend

DISC. commending our own application; we XII. estimate our services at a high value; we talk of our forefight, our conjectures, our calculations; we exult in what we term a lucky chance, a fortunate accident.

Humility and piety forbid self-arrogance, and direct the thinking mind to fomething higher than an issue merely fortuitous. They impel us indeed to omit no fingle circumftance, by which the duty of our ftation may be zealously and confcientiously difcharged; but then, in every happy event, they prompt us to recollect, that from God came the powers which have enabled us to conceive prudent meafures, from God came the fuccefs in which our enterprises have terminated; when therefore we would glory in our temporal concerns, we fhould glory in the Lord by whofe Providence both the means and the end have been difpensed to us!

That which entitles man to diftinguished fuperiority over the brute creation, is the faculty of reafon. In the ufe of powers merely animal, man is confeffedly inferior

to

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to many beasts of the field. But God, in DISC. having given him a mind capable of reafon, has imparted that which is the foundation of man's dominion over creatures irrational, that which is the fpring of all his neceffary, useful, and ornamental arts, that which improves, adorns, and exalts his nature, above every species inhabiting this globe *, that which discovers to him the existence of an Almighty Being, who alone formed the univerfe, that which points out to him the duties of gratitude and obedience towards the Father of all men, and Maker of all things!

The degrees in which the faculty of reafon fhews itself either more strongly or faintly, depend on an infinite variety of caufes not at our own command. Difference in the proportion of those abilities which we call natural, and are altogether the immediate gifts of God, difference in education, difference in practice, difference in country, difference in climate; all these

* See Xenophon's Memorabilia, lib. i. c. 4. § 13.

circum