Imatges de pàgina
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respecting their own, forgetting that it is impossible to establish any analogy between that which is frail and finite, and that which is perfect and infinite. In pursuing subjects of this kind, it is necessary, as a first step, to divest the mind of every idea of that limitation and uncertainty which must attend all human operations. Infinity admits of no limitations and of no degrees,

every event within the range of time and space. Your correspondent asks, "what adequate idea can possibly be formed of such minute and incessant attention being necessary. to uphold the harmony and good order of the whole? The human mind is bewildered on the very threshold of the conjecture." And well it may be. But here he falls into the error which I have pointed out, conceiving of the I would here remark that the illus- Divine nature by the limited standtration of the two watches, which your ard of his own. Is it not presumpcorrespondent employs, is not fairly tuous to pronounce that such are not applicable to the subject. We con- the design and operations of Omnissider the one a more perfect piece cience? Surely it is most honourable of mechanism than the other, because to the Deity to extend and not to the attention of the artist is not di--narrow the sphere of his energy. rected from any other pursuit to Mr. L. justly observes, attend to it. But this does not apply to the operations of the Almighty. Could we conceive that infinite space, with all the creatures it containsy/were infinitely multiplied, still an infinite Being would be equally adequated to its support and guidance.be

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In the formation of the universe, the Deity must have had a certain design; and to accomplish this, he must necessarily have employed those means and those alone, which would best produce it. It is absurd to suppose that Infinite Wisdom would create beings without any object, or that Infinite Power would form such as did not in every respect answer their intended end. It follows, therefore, that every creature, and in like manner every event, contributes in its requisite share to the purposes of the Supreme Mind.

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"What is

the difference in the estimation of perfect wisdom, between the highest state of human refinement, and its most humiliating imbecility? They can be no other than equal in his parental regard," And where then are welto draw the line between the lowest of our own species, and all the successive gradations of created beings? Why should not the life of every sparrow be the object of the care and solicitude of its Maker? Why should not every worm of our gardens, and every gnat of the interminable desert, enjoy the regard of infinite benevolence?

According to the foregoing views, the doctrine of a particular Providence falls naturally to the ground. For as every event must have its proper end in the purposes of the Deity, none can possibly occur, without being requisite as a link in the great chain. However extraordinary therefore to human comprehension certain ordinations of Providence may appear, it is evident that they could

To a Being of unlimited knowledge and power, all events, whether pasto or future, must be equally present equally easy to effect the grandest and the most trivial to human comprehension alike requiring the exer-nothing reality have been otherwise. tion only of the Almighty will. Such events, nevertheless, though cerEvery portion of his creation, ani tain and necessary in themselves, are mate and inanimate, must be known to us perfectly contingent; and to to him, and occupy an equal share of a well-disposed mind, this view will his attentioning at AA wd #excite as much gratitude for unexSo far from shrinking from the pected mercies, as that which repreunavoidable conclusions which mustissents them as peculiar interpositions be admitted, before we can conceive of divine favour, d that the whole human race is under such minute superintendence," rea dily close in with othem, requiring only that the same principles should be extended to every creature, to

I know not, Sir, whether I shall have made my ideas as intelligible as I could desire. If what I have written should contribute to produce in any one a clearer and more uniform

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I tot of a Providence, [N adverting to the commonly regeneral and particular, (for generals are made up of particulars,) it may be observed first, that it is impossible in this case to prove a negative. The omnipresence and omniscience of the Deity being universally acknowledged, his superintending providence appears to be a necessary consequence; other wise, you must suppose universal presence conjoined with infinite inactivity, which notion seems a species of refined epicureanism. It is true that we know nothing of the manner of the Divine Omnipresence, but we prove the fact by the same arguments from which we prove his being. When philosophers represent the Deity as the soul of the world, as filling universal space, or as comprehending all things within himself, it is evident that these are very imperfect illustrations of a subject, to which no human language is adequate, because they are ideas borrowed from the qualities or properties of matter, which are not applicable to the Supreme Being, and whose peculiar and distinguishing characteristic it is, that he is an infinite Spirit. Perhaps the symbol of the ancient Egyptians in their hicroglyphics is, in this view, the best adapted to our present apprehensions. They represented the figure of an eye with a sceptre, as in a conspicuous part of the heavens, to denote the universal dominion and providence of the Almighty. As the eye of a man upon an extensive plain, and much more upon an eminence, can clearly discern a prodigious space, to every point of which he may be said to be in some

measure present; as the eye or ken of an angel may be easily conceived to extend much farther in its operation, and to take in a more prodigious scope, so the eye of the Almighty (speaking after the manner of men) pervades universal nature. It is immediately and intimately present in every point of space, and throughout every moment of duration. This sublime principle is inimitably set forth by the royal poet in Ps. exxxix., and in another place he observes, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." How then can he be supposed as inattentive to the works of his hands, to the laws of dained, or to the moral conduct of nature (so called) which he hath orhis rational offspring!

But it is asked, Which manifests the greatest skill, a watch occasionally to be wound up, or one endowed with a perpetual motion? When the latter curiosity shall have been produced, we may possibly answer this question. In the mean time we shall observe, that though the material universe is governed in general by fixed laws, we cannot deny to its great Author the power of departing from or suspending those laws upon particular occasions. It is upon this principle that we believe in the miracles of the Jewish and Christian dispensations. And with respect to what are called the laws of nature, or the general economy of the Almighty in the government of the universe, it may perhaps be questioned without irreverence, whether Omnipotence itself can so impress inert matter, (which, however modified and organized, is matter still,) as to proceed in one uniform course for thousands of years without any material deviations or irregularities. Dr. S. Clarke ranks this idea only among the possibilities, for it is allowed by all divines, rational and irrational, (the casuists of the Romish church excepted,) that the Divine power is not to be considered as extending to palpable absurdities and contradictions, or to natural impossibilities, or rather that such things are not proper objects of power, and therefore not to be predicated of the Divine. Now, the mundane system, though calculated for a much longer duration than any

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framed by human art, is still a ma-
chine evidently dependent upon a
variety of causes, and incapable as it
should seem of going on continually
of itself, or on the supposition of the
withdrawment (so to speak) of the
original contriver. When a man makes
a machine, if a good workman, he
proceeds upon certain principles which
never fail him, and his work remains
(barring accidents) as long as its na-
ture and construction will admit, but
when we view the great machine of
the universe, we can only judge of it
from its effects, and know very little.
of the causes of those effects. Abbé
La Pluche has clearly shewn that
when philosophers talk of attraction
and repulsion, gravity and continuity,
they use words without ideas, and
can justly reason only as to matters
of fact and experience. What is co-
hesion? We can give no account
why those immense masses of granite
constituting Waterloo Bridge, which
appear to the eye as an infinite num-
ber of molecules glued together,
should remain stationary and be
likely so to remain for ages, rather
than be every moment in danger of
separating and crumbling into dust,
further than that the Almighty will
have it so. And the planets might
surely as easily be kept in their orbits
by the instrumentality of invisible
vortices, as by the centrifugal and
centripetal forces. And why does not
the attraction at the centre of the
earth, which they say extends to the
moon, level all the hills and moun-
tains, and render it as simply round
as the globes on which its surface is
portrayed? Nature, it is to be feared,
would prove but a clumsy manager
if all were left to her own discretion:
witness those parts of the world which
are committed in a great measure to
human management and controul. In
the capacious but dismal and neglect-
ed forests of the torrid zone, we
read that the increase of vegetation,
the accumulation of ages, is so im-
mense and so impenetrable as to defy
all human art to render them habita-
ble: hence they are the resort only
of savage beasts and deadly serpents,
the very air is rendered baleful and
pestiferous, and the sandy desart of
the Arab, seated in his tent, surround-
ed by his tribe and accompanied by

his faithful camel, becomes a far more desirable residence.

"Nature does rough-hew and design,

Leaves art to polish and refine.'

Now, if from these considerations we ascend to the upper regions, and reflect that any material deviation of the planets from their orbits, as they revolve through the unfathomable depths of æther, would involve the wreck of the whole system, men of plain understandings will draw a rational conclusion.

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Mr. Luckcock relates a story from Mrs. Cappe, and also gives us one of his own, both of which he represents in a ludicrous light. But there is in reality nothing ludicrous in such events; and every good man that has experienced eminent and seasonable deliverances, (and who has not experienced them?) will generally ascribe them to the superintendency, and in some remarkable cases, to the interposition of Providence in his behalf; nor in such cases, can the most ardent expressions of gratitude to the Deity ever be justly deemed " a purpose little required;" but, on the contrary, a debt of interminable obligation, and, like the principle from which it flows, "still paying, still to owe!" Doubtless, a man should be grateful for his crosses as well as for his comforts, when they have been instrumental in promoting his moral and religious improvement.

Some years ago, a merchant was about to engage in a foreign concern, and with this view had embarked the greater part of his property; when the ship was under sailing orders, as he was going on board he fell down and broke his leg, and of course remained on shore: in a short time the vessel was cast away, the cargo and all the crew lost. He soon, however, recovered his health and was gradually restored to prosperity. What are we to make of this? Mr. Luckcock no doubt will say, it was a singular coincidence of circumstances.

Then, as to the general doctrine of Divine influence or suggestion: objections seem to have arisen from mistakes or misrepresentations, confounding it with the miraculous gifts of the Spirit in the apostolic age, and which ceased soon after. But both

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reason and revelation seem to point out a general assistance of the Deity in particular cases. Deo juvante; Divina afflatu; Nil sine Jove; Jovis, omnia plena," were heathen maxims, which appear almost to be discarded by some modern Christians. But these influences are suasory and not compulsory, and therefore neither miraculous nor supernatural, for the mind of man may be regarded as a curious machine, consisting of various springs and movements, which in a certain degre act of themselves, though under the will and judgment of the individual; for we cannot while awake avoid thinking of some-sible interference in his behalf, and as thing, but then we may generally a favourable answer to his prayers. direct our thoughts according to our Prayer itself is founded in the belief choice, and the mind is excited to of a Providence; for to what end do action by moral motives, 92080 and not by physical efficients. God is the great master of this machine; he originally furnished it with all its powers and capacities, and can easily diminish or stimulate and in

their exercise when he pleases precepts inculcate the doctrine, not

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A person sets out for a walk, but with no particular view, and at length feels a slight inclination to go into a certain district: when there, he saves a child from being run over; or, perhaps, sees a fire breaking out, is the first to give the alarm, and happily succeeds in preventing farther mischief. A pious man, under circumstances of unavoidable distress, applies to a friend, though with great doubts and hesitation, to lend him a certain our correspondent quotes Soloтоп, All things come alike to all," sum of money. He supplicates the and thinks to put us off with the Deity, that if it be consistent with the literal sense. Writers of the New plans of his providence, (for a Chris- Light" should be the last persons in tian is not to pray for any temporal the world in capping texts, and supblessing absolutely, except for his posing a literal sense, when such a daily bread,) his suit may succeed. sense is absurd, and contrary to fact; At length he receives an answer fully especially when they are continually equal to his wishes. Who shall decide attacking the Calvinists upon this. here, whether in the former case, the Score. We all know that this is an determination was formed by a mere elliptical mode of speech very common act of the will, without any particular motive, or by a secret suggestion, veolens od bag engi acting, not by chains and ropes, but by an unperceived inducement; and

with the sacred "All of 1992 Birmingham,

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HAVE given all the attention in my power to the statement in the Repository by Mr. Turner, (pp. 399405,) in reply to my observations on a Particular Providence, as connected with the Memoirs of Mrs. Cappe, (pp. 163-167), without being able to perceive that I have singularly misconceived" the doctrine, as it is maintained by the excellent person who is the subject of these remarks; and, of course, I cannot admit that my reasoning is founded on a false and gratuitous assumption." I do not mean to assert that the opinions entertained by Mrs. C. may not have been similar to those of Mr. T., but I request my readers will bestow a glance upon my quotation from the Memoirs, and form their own opinion as to which of the two disputants assumes the most. I take the passage as I find it, without any reference to what I suppose may have been her more extended opinions: and it certainly appears to my apprehension, that if there be any meaning in language, any ideas that words can express with something like the perspicuity of correct and definite precision, she has accomplished what she intended in communicating her sentiments. culty in finding words and expressions that shall not be liable to objections. No language can supply an exact picture of the mind and feelings; and we must make a suitable allowance for imperfections, to which no person could be insensible who ever took up his pen to reason on any abstract subject; and more especially on this which is so entirely ideal, and out of the reach of demonstration. Mrs. C., for instance, uses the words happened and accidentally, not because she considered them as philosophically correct; but because there will inevitably subsist a discrepancy between the nice distinctions the mind perceives, and those of which oral or written speech is incapable. When we have made the nearest approaches we can, so as to render ourselves intelligible to each other, we should be satisfied, and not look for perfection where we shall never attain it. I, therefore, shall lay never no stress upon these or similar expressions in her statement, nor at

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