therefore, must be as much more fo, in higher objects, as they are of greater value. To this purpose in a great measure is the reasoning we find in Matt. vi. 28, &c. Why take ye thought for rayment? Confider the lillies of the field how they grow. They toil not, neither do they Spin; and yet, I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of thefe. Wherefore, if God fo clothe the grafs of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is caft into the oven; Shall be not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 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 not ye much better than they?

There is not indeed any thing which has a much greater tendency to give relief to a mind earneftly wishing to be fatisfied of a wife fuperintendency of all that befalls it, than to contemplate the curious organization of any flower or

herb

herb of the field, and the attention bestowed on even its outward figure; and then to confider whether it is probable, that the Being who fo wonderfully wrought fuch a fubftance, can neglect any intelligent creature, or be inattentive to any circumftance of his existence; whether he who has with perfect exactness adjusted the parts of dead matter to one another in the moft trifling plant, must not be proportionably exact in what is of infinitely greater moment, the adjustment of pleasure and pain to a human foul. Or, let such a perfon fix his thoughts on the ftructure of his body, and confider, whether it is credible that he who has fo fearfully made this, and difplayed fuch unspeakable wisdom in adjufting and regulating every particle of matter that compofes it; has not difplayed proportionable

wisdom in the ftructure of his mind, or is not proportionably careful in adapting events to its cafe, and in regulating whatever it feels, To fay no more.

=

If

unerring

unerring wisdom fhews itself in the direction and government of corporeal nature, and all its parts are ordered in number, weight, and measure, fo that the more we know of it, the more we are forced to admire ît; if its meaneft works are finifhed with complete accuracy, and the whole fyftem appears harmonious and grand in the highest poffible degree; what harmony, what wisdom and goodness may we well reckon upon in the government of the intellectual world? What care and accuracy in difpofing the lots of the individuals of it? How grand must be its plan, and how perfect its order?

SECT. III,

Of the manner in which Providence is

W

administered.

HAT has been hitherto faid contains a brief view of the principal arguments for the doctrine of a righteous and all wife Providence. My defign in this fection is to offer a few obfervations relating to the mode of adminiftring it.

I have frequently in the preceding fections spoken on the fuppofition, that a perfect direction of events is brought about by the Divine influence, immedi ately and constantly exerted every where for that purpose. It must however be remembered that this is a which all are not agreed.

point about Many wife

and

and good men are ftrongly prejudiced against the fuppofition, that there have been any interpofitions of Divine Power fince the creation in directing affairs, as implying an impotence, unfkilfulness, and operofenefs unworthy of infinite wisdom. They, therefore, chufe to conceive of the laws and order of the material world, as having been at first adjusted in exact correspondence to what should happen in the moral world, and the whole scheme including all events as originally defigned and laid in the best manner, and now continually going on to open and unfold itself agreeably to the Divine idea, without any occafion for any interpofitions. -As far as fuch maintain the fame perfect direction of affairs in confequence of an original eftablishment, as is commonly fuppofed to be brought about by conftant influences, they maintain all that we have reason to be anxious about on the prefent fubject. And this, indeed, I fhould imagine, it must be impoffible for any one who has

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