from the heathen writers. The fatyrist Juvenal, for inftance, has recommended the belief of a divine Providence, and reliance upon it as the beft means to difpel the fears, and reprefs the anxiety of mankind.

Receive my counfel, and fecurely move,
Intrust thy fortune to the Powers above:
Leave them to manage for thee, and to grant
What their unerring wifdom fees the want:
In goodness as in greatnefs they excel,

Ah! that we lov'd ourfelves but half fo well!
DRYDEN'S Juvenal, Sat. X.

But what in a pagan writer could be only conjecture, or at moft probability, with respect to the discovery of this doctrine, in a Christian affumes the fubftance of certainty, derived from the greateft and beft authority; and the affurance of Scripture is no lefs confolatory than true.

"Behold the fowls of the air, for they fow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add

one

one cubit unto his ftature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Confider the lilies of the field, how they grow-they toil not, neither do they fpin; and yet I fay unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of thefe. Wherefore if God fo clothe the grafs, which to-day is, and to-morrow is caft into the oven, shall he not much more clothe

faith?"

you, oh ye of little

I fhall only fuggeft to you, in a few words, fome of the principal advantages to be derived from a firm perfuafion of the truth of this doctrine.

It convinces us of the folly, or rather the fin, of that exceffive folicitude, which many perfons fhow for the good things of this world-particularly for its riches--a folicitude which deprives them of the enjoyments they can command, and makes them querulous and wretched, even when in poffeffion of the means of comfort.

It is a great fource of confolation in times

of

of difficulty and diftrefs: What though the evils of life prefs hard upon me, and I am furrounded by dangers; what though the ftorm impends, the thunders roll, and the. lightnings flafh, I will remain firm and unfhaken at my post; for I have an Almighty Protector, whofe eye can penetrate the darknefs of the ftorm, who will enable me either to bear its violence with fortitude, or will present to me some method of escaping it.

Supported by this belief, the poor man fmiles in his clay-built cottage. He is convinced, that the Almighty is his friend; and that he marks his diftreffes; and although for the trial of his virtues many comforts are denied him in this world, he looks forward with certain hope to that heaven, where want and hardship will be no more.

To the rich man it cannot fail to be falutary; it abates his pride, and awes him into refpect for the rights of others; it induces him to condefcend to men of low eftate, from the conviction, that he has a Mafter in heaven,

6

heaven, who is above all, who views all his actions, and will call him to give an account of his stewardship.

And if we have a firm perfuafion of it, my Emily, we may rife in the morning to purfue our daily occupations, and retire to reft at night with equal compofure; affured, that we are fuperintended by a Guardian, who "neither flumbers nor fleeps," and whofe inceffant vigilance is our beft fecurity.

LET

A

LETTER III.

From the fame to the fame.

ON CHRISTIAN CHARITY.

You tell me, that your friend Lady S made a merit of giving money to a beggar upon a public road, and you very properly doubt, whether fuch an act can be rightly deemed an act of genuine charity. If the thought that it conftituted the whole duty of charity, the had certainly a very imperfect notion of the fubject. She might yield to the impulse of those generous feelings, which showed the goodness of her heart, but I wish you to confider, that as Chriftians we ought to act from principle, as well as fenfibility,

and