spe

To check such a presumption, it might be sufficient to consider how much the greatest sages of paganism miscarried in their culations on this most important subject. Some of them fell into the grossest atheism, as Democritus and Strato, and their followers, who vainly endeavoured to resolve all things into chance or necessity. Others were bewildered in a multiplicity of deities. And those who asserted one universal intelligent nature, generally supposed it to be nothing more than the soul of the world, or its nobler constituent part, and made it to consist of an exquisitely subtle matter, such as fire or æther. Even Anaxagoras and Plato, who soared much higher, seem to have had no proper idea of creation, but to have considered matter as an eternal and independent principle, out of which a divine mind (first introduced, as is said, by the former of these philosophers) made as

Thrice burl'd th' Omnipotent his thunder round,
And dash'd the pil'd-up mountains to the ground.

DRYDEN.

who are serious and earnest in their search after Him with whom they are most con→ cerned to be acquainted, and who, at the same time, are not without some tincture of general literature, that I would address the subsequent reflections; as it is to them only that they can be supposed to prove either useful or acceptable.

1

But before we proceed to the enquiry now before us, it is proper to apprize the reader, that it is not by dint of reason only, and by heaping one argument upon another, that we expect to climb to heaven, and there to pry into the divine nature and will; an attempt which, as it would bear some resemblance to that of the fabled giants of old, would be sure to resemble it in its issue:

Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam,

Scilicet, atque Ossæ frondosum involvere Olympum ; Ter pater extructos disjecit fulmine montes*.

VIRGIL.

* On Pelion, thrice to heave they all essay'd Ossa, and thrice on Ossa's tow'ring head To roll Olympus up with all his shade:

To check such a presumption, it might be sufficient to consider how much the greatest sages of paganism miscarried in their speculations on this most important subject. Some of them fell into the grossest atheism, as Democritus and Strato, and their fol lowers, who vainly endeavoured to resolve all things into chance or necessity. Others were bewildered in a multiplicity of deities. And those who asserted one universal intelligent nature, generally supposed it to be nothing more than the soul of the world, or its nobler constituent part, and made it to consist of an exquisitely subtle matter, such as fire or æther. Even Anaxagoras and Plato, who soared much higher, seem to have had no proper idea of creation, but to have considered matter as an eternal and independent principle, out of which a divine mind (first introduced, as is said, by the former of these philosophers) made as

Thrice hurl'd th' Omnipotent his thunder round,
And dash'd the pil'd-up mountains to the ground.

DRYDEN.

་

But if, instead of a vain reliance upon his own understanding, he looks to the light of revelation, he may be directed to such an interpretation of the works of creation and providence, as will lead him to just views of the Deity; particularly in the two-fold character he sustains towards man, of a righteous judge who will not forbear to take cognizance of his offences, and of a tender parent who is disposed to forgiveness, whenever it can be shown without an impeachment of his just authority. It is this complex character upon which I shall here insist; as we are much more concerned to enquire what God is to us, and and what we may expect at his hands, than to enter into any curious metaphysical disquisition of what he is in his own absolute being and perfections.

If then, in the manner above stated, divested of prejudice and guided by revealed light, we take a survey of sublunary nature, or of that system at the head of which we are placed, we shall find that it

has undergone a great change on account of human apostacy; that it lies under the frown of heaven; that its order and course is disturbed; and, in fine, that it has become a stage on which the Almighty no less displays his justice and his judgments, than his grace and his beneficence; on which his indignation against sin is no less conspicuous, than his compassionate regard to sinners.

Whichever way we direct our view, this mingled character now is recognised. It is recognised, when we see the hopes of the year intercepted by unseasonable frosts or blighting winds; or the joy of the reaper damped by sweeping rains, even when his sickle is in the harvest; when we see the earth teeming spontaneously with noxious plants, while those which are useful are not generally yielded without toil and culture; and emitting her poisonous steams along with her salutary exhalations; when we see the most fruitful regions infested with noisome beasts and insects, undermined by vol