THIRTEENTH WEEK-TUESDAY. GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT.-GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD BY A PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE. To grant that a God of infinite perfection exists, and called the universe into being, seems to be the conceding of the whole principle, on which our argument for a particular providence rests. The original Creator can, undoubtedly, interfere for the regulation of the worlds He has made. Let it be supposed, that attraction and repulsion, inertia and gravitation, light and life, are all delegated powers, and, in this respect, external to the Creator; they must, notwithstanding, be still subject to his control. The Eternal is omnipresent; why should He not be every where actively employed? It is difficult to conceive of the Divine mind as at any time quiescent; and still more difficult, to comprehend the idea of an independent delegation of his power. Besides, I know not what would be gained by the theory which excludes Him now from his works. He has, by the hypothesis, once interfered; why should He not interfere again? Shall not the God who thought fit to create a world, think fit also to govern it? If He has condescended to call a worm into existence, and provide for its enjoyment and happiness, and that of its species, for countless generations, is it a greater act of condescension to continue to watch over it? There is, therefore, no reason, à priori, for denying the particular providence of God; and the whole frame and constitution of the material and moral world favor the belief. It is impossible, one would think, to reflect on the evidences which, in the course of these volumes, have been adduced in a thousand different forms, of a Superintending Intelligence, ever active, ever beneficent, without acknowledging that the proof is complete. That proof is, indeed, more circumstantial and cumulative than simple and positive; but the circumstances are so numer IV. 32 X. ous, so direct, and so uniformly tending to one point, that nothing but the most perverse and prejudiced intellect can resist it. And why should we attempt to resist it? To a wellcultivated mind, most assuredly, it must afford a very high delight to be convinced, that all things are under the guidance of a Father-God. How gloomy and dismal would the universe appear, were we to regard it as a mere system of mechanical powers and chemical agents, without a presiding soul to direct them. In regarding the operation of these blind causes, our wonder might be excited, but there would be nothing to esteem, nothing to love; or, if we might still look back to the distant act of creation, the idea would be too vague, too remote, too darkly hid in the mists of interminable ages, to call forth any thing but a cold and feeble admiration. It is the sense of a present Deity which fills the heart with the deepest and purest emotion. When we trace His hand forming the elegant flower, and painting its blushing petals, or throwing the green carpet over the earth, or rearing the lofty forest, or spreading out the waters of the great deep, and prescribing the bounds which its proud waves cannot pass; when we see Him shining in the sun, and giving glory to his morning, mid-day, and evening rays, or drawing the curtain of night, and pouring around us the softened brightness of ten thousand sparkling worlds; when we hear Him whispering in the breeze, murmuring in the stream, or raising his awful voice in the rolling thunder, it is then that brute nature becomes animated, intelligent, and glorious; the seen is but an indication of the unseen; the inactive, of the active; the lifeless and unintellectual mass, of all that is excellent in power, and wisdom, and goodness. This sentiment is increased, when we attend to the operations of Providence in the animal creation, and remember that things without feeling, are only made and preserved for the use of those which possess it. We are now introduced to a system, not only full of wonder and beauty, but overflowing with love. The Eternal Parent every where appears, diffusing life and enjoyment. Every blade of the field, every leaf of the forest, every drop of water in the mighty ocean is instinct with sentient beings; and wherever there is sensation, there is. happiness, or a tendency towards it. If from microscopic animals we ascend the scale, and look through the various departments of the living creation, the same principle is there universally operating under interminable modifications. Myriads on myriads of animated beings breathe, and act, and enjoy; and all of them display the tender care of an ever-wise, everwatchful, ever-bountiful Providence. The various instincts of the tenants of the water, the earth, and the air; their adaptation to their divers and sometimes opposite circumstances; the admirable contrivances by which the external world is suited to their subsistence, their accommodation, the exercise of their bodily organs, and of their faculties of enjoyment,-all these are beheld with peculiar delight, when, in them, we not only recognise an intelligent Creator, but a never-failing, unperplexed, unwearying Preserver, Governor, and Benefactor,-to sum up all in one word, a Parent-God. But if it be pleasing and edifying to view the lower creation in this light, what shall we say when we turn to Him who is the only image of Divine intelligence, in this sublunary sphere. The same Being who governs the physical, governs also the moral world. He who imparted to the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, feelings, propensities, desires, and affections, has imparted the same to man, but for a far nobler purpose. He has bestowed on him the principle of reason, to modify, regulate, and guide these faculties; He has gifted him with an immortal soul, to be trained in the school of his providence for the world of spirits. How sublime and ennobling the occupation, to learn his will by investigating his works, and to mark his perfections employed in opening and exercising, in enlarging and strengthening, the mental powers of his intelligent but wayward crea ture. "See only," says Lord Brougham," in what contemplations the wisest of men end their most sublime inquiries. Mark where it is that a Newton finally reposes, after He piercing the thickest veil that envelopes Nature, grasping and arresting in their course the most subtile of her elements, and the swiftest; traversing the regions of boundless space; exploring worlds beyond the solar ray; giving out the law which binds the universe in eternal order. rests, as by an inevitable necessity, upon the contemplation of the great First Cause, and holds it his highest glory to have made the evidence of his existence, and the dispensations of his power and of his wisdom, better understood by men. 99* "What delight," adds this eloquent author in another place, " can be more elevating, more truly worthy of a rational creature's enjoyment, than to feel, wherever we tread the paths of scientific inquiry, new evidence springing up around our footsteps,-new traces of Divine intelligence and power meeting our eye! We are never alone; at least, like the old Roman, we are never less alone than in our solitude. We walk with the Deity we commune with the great First Cause, who sustains every instant what the word of his power made." But there is an employment unspeakably more sublime and ennobling still. What we read but darkly in the book of Nature, is traced as with a sunbeam in the book of Revelation. There the Eternal displays his character in all its majesty and beauty,-in all its terrors and in all its grace. How astonishing is the light which the Gospel of Christ throws at once on the Divine perfections, and on the past history and the future fate of man! us wonder and adore. Let us tremble and repent. us love and obey. Let Let But while it seems impossible, that any rightly-constituted mind can resist the evidence of a present Deity, in all the works of nature; and while revelation pours a light, at once clear, lovely, and glorious, on the Divine perfections, as exhibited in the operations of his providence and grace; neither natural nor revealed religion affords, or can afford, much insight into his essential prop * Brougham's Discourse on Natural Theology,' p. 194. erties. That He is an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable spirit, all enlightened philosophy, as well as inspired truth, undoubtedly teaches; but when we attempt to penetrate deeper, all is darkness and mystery. We know nothing of the essence even of created things, and how shall we hope to comprehend the essence of the uncreated? THIRTEENTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY. BE GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT.-CONTRAST TWEEN SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED LIFE IN RELATION TO THE ARTS. THE history of the arts, is in truth the history of a particular department in the operations of Divine providence. The progress of society, which we have been considering, is the result of that peculiar discipline which the Creator, by means of the general and particular laws He has impressed on nature, exercises over the human race; and, before bringing these volumes to a close, it seems desirable to revert to the ground we have passed, that we may, at a single glance, take a survey of this wonderful and complicated scheme. To do this advantageously, we must look at man himself, and trace the progress he has made. We can best accomplish this in the manner already adopted, not by following his actual history, but by contrasting man with man, as we see him existing in various situations, and under different circumstances. We may safely take for granted that the original features of the human mind are essentially the same. If any tribe, therefore, is found to be materially different from another, it must be owing to the peculiar training which each undergoes, to the impressions which have been made on their minds by culture, and by the pressure of circumstances and events. Take an infant of one of the savage tribes of Australia or North America, and, separating him from his people, edu |