5. Our expectations should never he high. Often even a capital prize has done more ill than good to the receiver. The provision of kind providence is better for our children than any sum; and there is a blessing on that which is got with honest industry.

6. If, after waiting some time, and expecting a little sum to help us out of some pressing strait, we only get a blank, yet, let us still consider, that Providence is neither exhausted nor nonplussed; and that though this, and that, and the other scheme fail, he never fails his people.

I shall next give a caution or two..

1. If a prize is drawn, (1.) Talk not of good luck, but acknowledge Providence, for nothing comes by chance. (2.) Be rather humble than high-minded, more afraid of hurt to your soul, than assured of advantage to your state. (3.) Infer not from your good success that you are the favourites of heaven, for

no man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before him." (4.) Implore the blessing of heaven to come along with it to you and yours. Without this how many have suffered very much by the sudden accumulation of wealth? They have been taken out of their proper sphere, turn giddy-headed, and squander away what they possessed, till, with shame and anguish of mind, they sink to that station from whence they arose, or lower. (5.) Do not think much of what heaven thinks so little of, for often riches are bestowed on the basest of men, and are employed to the worst of purposes; they can procure no quiet to a wounded conscience, cannot avail a person tossing on a death-bed, a sinner trembling before the judgment-seat, or an immortal soul through eternity. (6.) Keep a memorandum of your resolutions,

both as to the frame of your mind, and your bounty towards pious and charitable uses, which often read over, and never depart from.

2. If a blank or a trifle is drawn, (1.) Acquiesce cheerf y. You may be in the wrong in attempting to be rich in such a manner. But, should conscience acquit you, still give God the honour of his sovereignty, who does whatever he pleases, and gives no account of his ways. Give him also the honour of his wisdom, who knows best what is best for you, and do not prescribe to Omnisciency himself. (2.) Consider, that often those children do best that have no large sums from their parents. Now, it is often more for our children than for ourselves that we seek riches; yet, how often have the riches of the parent been a means to ruin the character, the morals, and the very constitution of their children !

But now, to compare earthly with heavenly things. -can we be so happy in the mere expectation of a prize, where we may be readily disappointed, and not exult in the heavenly treasures, which can never deceive us? Can we find such pangs of joy in a prize of 20,000l. which we may spend to a farthing, and must leave behind us, and yet our hearts not beat with rapturous joy at the heavenly gift, at the pearl of great price, being eternally our own? If a little of this world place us in such easy circumstances in life, how enriching the treasures of glory! Let me accept only, and the bank of bliss will bestow, not the trifling sum of a few thousands, but durable riches and righteousness. There is no blank here to stab our expectation, and sadden our countenance; no, but a. kingdom and a crown, endless bliss, and endless glo-ry.. The greatest sum now cannot prevent me from

becoming a bankrupt; but, instead of spending my celestial stores, they cannot so much as be counted or told; but a few figures will contain all the sums that were ever lost or gained in every state-lottery, in every land. How poor the richest mortal! how rich the meanest saint! Earthly things only please an earthly appetite, but here the joys of paradise, the bliss of angels, and all the perfections of God, feast and ravish for ever.

Had this lottery no blank, how numerous would the adventurers be! but the heavenly liberality has no blank, none shall be disappointed, but have prizes large as wish, and boundless as desire.

Here, if a person gets a prize, or a share in a capital prize, it is the most that he can expect; but those who will accept of the heavenly bounty, shall have every enriching prize (not for the short period of sixty, eighty, or an hundred years ;) he shall have pardon of sin, peace with God, growth in grace, joy in believing; in a word, heaven, and all the joys of paradise; endless life, and all the glories of eternity; and God and his infinite fulness, world without end.

MEDITATION CXLIV.

ON THE WORKS OF CREATION.

Jan. 20, 1790.

BEFORE I enter on this meditation, I premise a few things: 1. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the best, the noblest of all knowledge. 2. Many a pious soul has gone, and many may go to heaven, that knows but little of the theory of the star

ry firmament. things is merely indifferent with respect to the concerns of salvation. 4. As our salvation depends nothing upon such a knowledge, we can expect no account thereof in revelation. 5. By way of analogy, however, comparing that part of creation which we know not with that part which we know, I have as firm a belief of these things, as of any thing else that comes not within scripture-authority, mathematical demonstration, or historical narrative. 6. Great philosophers, surveying the works of creation, may have their heads full of shining knowledge, and yet at last arrive at the darkness of eternal night.

3. The belief or disbelief of these

Every thing is full of God. How is our earth replenished, air and seas crowded with inhabitants ! Every blade is covered with life, and every liquid abounds with animalculæ ; so that we have an endless field for admiration, gratitude, and wonder, on our terraqueous globe.

But why should we think our earth the only planet in our system that is peopled? If we are not so near the sun as some of the other planets, we are attended by a moon, while some that are more distant still have four or five moons, and are of tremendous magnitude, compared to our globe. Why, then, should one primary planet only of seven, and it neither the least nor the largest, neither the nearest to the sun, nor the most distant from him, be inhabited, and all the rest desolate and empty? Philosophy can give no reason, and revelation does give none. Now, to a mind that would admire the glory of the Creator, what a noble prospect is our system! So many worlds of intelligent creatures, living on his providence, and paying him the tribute of praise! the philosophers in every

planet inferring, that the rest must be inhabited as well as theirs, and with growing wonder adoring the supreme Creator of all!

Moreover, at immense distances on every hand, beyond all the planets of our system, we see a great many fixed stars with our naked eye, and, by the help of telescopes, millions more; and the better the glasses are, still more distant and starry firmaments, rich treasures of creating power, are brought into view, and astonish every beholder. How vast the survey may still grow, as glasses may be further and further improved, I shall not dare to conjecture.— Let us, then, suppose their present number, as is by some supposed, to be seventy millions, and that every star is a sun, as big and as bright at least as our sun. As our sun, which is but a star to them, is the centre of a system, and affords light and heat to all the planets that roll round him; so these globes, which are no more than stars to us, are suns to their own systems. That never a planet in any of these systems has been seen, or can be seen, is no argument against their existence, since some of the planets in our own system have escaped every astronomer till of late; and who can tell but that more worlds still, in some future period, may be found to belong to our system? And, considering that they are at such a vast distance, that a sun appears but a star, how can planets, that shine with a reflected light be seen?— Now, if we suppose every system, like ours, to have seven primary planets, what an immensity of worlds this! Four hundred and ninety millions of worlds, all inhabited with rational creatures! And if, again, we suppose the inhabitants of every planet to be as numerous as in our earth, here calculation is baffled,