as schools, have no great value. It is not the reftraints they impose on our liberty; it is not the toilsome application they at one time induce and at another compel us to exert ; not the chastisement they bestow on the negligent scholar, for his punishment and correction, that make them defirable. It is only the good confequences of thefe hard restraints, of this laborious affiduity, of this grievous chaftening: only the useful knowledge, the better difpofitions, the good habitudes, we thereby acquire, that confer its whole value on whatever we do and fuffer there. So alfo fickneffes, misfortunes, loffes of goods and honours, loffes of patrons and friends, the failure of plans and undertakings, poverty, humiliations, perfecutions, and whatever else oppreffes and afflicts mankind, have only fo far any real worth, as by their means we become wiser and better and happier. Hence it naturally follows fecondly, that they acquire this value only by the ufe we make of them. Not every man to whom medicine is administered, or who voluntarily takes it of himself, will thereby be healed. There must be vital powers yet remaining in him; he must not purposely hinder and diminish the effects of the medicine he has taken; he must do or abftain from many things, which at other times he need not do or abftain from, and fo frame his whole conduct as is befitting his prefent condition. Not every one who frequents the schools, and allows himself to be instructed Q 2 ftructed or is forced to be taught, will learn what they are adapted to teach. Many a one will leave them as ignorant and unqualified, probably more corrupted and vicious, than he was before. It is only the attentive, the ftudious, the obedient fcholar, who willingly imbibes inftruction and profits by difcipline, that returns from them enriched with the treasures of wisdom, and blesses the man that entered him there. If we would have afflictions and tribulations to be of real value to us; we must ufe them aright: we must account them just what they are; muft confider them in their dependency on God and his will; muft reflect upon them, view them on their moral fide, attend to the defign of them, and demean ourselves in all respects according to our fituation, as it is altered by them. In fhort, afflictions and tribulations have often no more than a comparative value, only inafmuch as they fnatch us from the dangers of an uninterrupted profperity, and teach us what that could never inform us of, or lead us to a point of wifdom and virtue to which profperity could never conduct us. On this principle, they are not neceffary to all men in the fame kind and to the fame degree. There are children who may be educated by careffes alone; there are others that require a harfher difcipline. The former have a tender and fufceptible heart; feel the whole value of every kindness fhewn to them; think nobly; and find no duty, no facrifice, too painful whereby they may testify testify their gratitude to their benefactors, their friends, their tutors and conductors: the latter fort are obftinate, headstrong, selfish; are far less tractable, much harder to be governed, and therefore require to be more forcibly agitated, require to be often severely chaftifed, before they can be brought to fubmiffion and obedience. So likewife there are men of generous and noble fouls, whom profperity neither fascinates nor hardens, neither feducing them into folly, nor plunging them in vice; who find, in every benefit they receive from the hand of the Almighty, fresh incitement to juftice, and fresh impufe to beneficence; and who, thoroughly impreffed with the love of God and man, require no other motives to make the best, the most generally useful application of all that they are and have. But poffibly there may be a much greater proportion of fuch as know not how to bear uninterrupted fuccefs, who by it would encounter the risk of lofing all fenfe of obligation and virtue, all fentiment of religion, all the feelings of humanity, and fall by little and little into the most abandoned profligacy: and, if these perfons are fnatched from this danger by afflictions and tribulations ; if by their means every deadened fentiment to what is beautiful and good be restored to motion; then certainly muft afflictions and tribulations be to them of far greater value than the moft flourishing profperity, ftructed or is forced to be taught, will learn what they are adapted to teach. Many a one will leave them as ignorant and unqualified, probably more corrupted and vicious, than he was before. It is only the attentive, the ftudious, the obedient fcholar, who willingly imbibes inftruction and profits by discipline, that returns from them enriched with the treasures of wifdom, and bleffes the man that entered him there. If we would have afflictions and tribulations to be of real value to us; we must ufe them aright: we must account them just what they are; must confider them in their dependency on God and his will; muft reflect upon them, view them on their moral fide, attend to the defign of them, and demean ourselves in all respects according to our fituation, as it is altered by them. In fhort, afflictions and tribulations have often no more than a comparative value, only inafmuch as they fnatch us from the dangers of an uninterrupted profperity, and teach us what that could never inform us of, or lead us to a point of wif dom and virtue to which profperity could never conduct us. On this principle, they are not neceffary to all men in the fame kind and to the fame degree. There are children who may be educated by careffes alone; there are others that require a harfher difcipline. The former have a tender and fufceptible heart; feel the whole value of every kindness fhewn to them; think nobly; and find no duty, no facrifice, too painful whereby they may testify testify their gratitude to their benefactors, their friends, their tutors and conductors: the latter fort are obftinate, headftrong, selfish; are far lefs tractable, much harder to be governed, and therefore require to be more forcibly agitated, require to be often severely chaftifed, before they can be brought to fubmiffion and obedience. So likewise there are men of generous and noble fouls, whom prosperity neither fascinates nor hardens, neither feducing them into folly, nor plunging them in vice; who find, in every benefit they receive from the hand of the Almighty, fresh incitement to juftice, and fresh impufe to beneficence; and who, thoroughly impreffed with the love of God and man, require no other motives to make the best, the most generally useful application of all that they are and have. But poffibly there may be a much greater proportion of fuch as know not how to bear uninterrupted fuccefs, who by it would encounter the risk of lofing all fenfe of obligation and virtue, all fentiment of religion, all the feelings of humanity, and fall by little and little into the most abandoned profligacy.: and, if thefe perfons are fnatched from this danger by afflictions and tribulations; if by their means every deadened fentiment to what is beautiful and good be reftored to motion; then certainly muft afflictions and tribulations be to them of far greater value than the most flourishing profperity. |