entire approbation. It gives too limited an idea of God to suppose that he often sees occasion to interrupt those general laws which he has established. His superintending Providence indeed extends to the most trivial occurrences of life, not a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge, and the very hairs of our head are numbered, but there is no necessity for supposing that any events, excepting miracles, are under the direction of a different kind of Providence from that which ordinarily regulates the whole universe. Particular providences are not interruptions of the general laws of the Divine Economy; they are only applications of the same general Providence to particular instances. The laws which God has established for the government of his material creation, while they are sufficiently general to embrace the whole of his immeasurable dominions, and to regulate innumerable systems, are yet sufficiently particular to mould every drop of water, and to number every grain of sand. And just so is it in the moral world. The Providence of God in the government of his rational creatures proceeds by general laws which are universally applicable to particular instances. Nor would I by this illustration be understood to mean that the Providence which governs the material world is different from that which regulates the moral. These are only parts of the same great universal system, formed to

harmonize with one another, intended to co-operate in the production of the same mighty ends, and ordered in all things by the same Infinite Wisdom, in the prosecution of one vast design.

The notion of particular providences as interrupting the general laws of nature, seems to imply some defect in these general laws; - it would appear to infer that God finds them insufficient for the government of the universe, and is obliged to remedy their imperfections by occasional interpositions. But such defects and such imperfections can have no place in the eternal plans of God. In the governments of inferior beings there may be a necessity for occasionally deviating from the usual course, and interrupting the general plan of procedure. The wisest of men cannot form general plans of conduct so perfect as to be suited to every circumstance; a thousand unforeseen and unprovided for occurrences may take place, which will render it necessary to set aside for a time the ordinary rules. But can such be the case with the counsels of the Omniscient God? Do his laws require amendment, or can they be capable of improvement? Assuredly they cannot. They are as perfect as they are eternal.

The French philosopher Malebranche has started notions of providence, very different from those which are vulgarly entertained, but which seem no less objectionable. He conceives that nothing takes place by the intervention of secondary

causes, but that every thing is done by the immediate interposition of God. The volitions of agents have no power to produce action, God alone has power, and every movement of every agent in the world takes place by his immediate operation. That amiable philosopher was influenced by no irreverent or improper intention. But of his opinion we can only observe that it makes man the director and God the instrument, instead of man the instrument and God the Governor, and degrades the Supreme Being by the idea of his passive submission to be man's direct instrument in the perpetration of every enormity, and the gratification of every lust. That man may abuse a derived and delegated power is conceivable, but that he employs the Almighty in the working of numberless sins is a most atrocious supposition. Our only recourse, then, is in the natural and probable doctrine, that when the Supreme Being created the universe, he gave to each being or object certain powers to operate upon other beings or objects, and arranged it in such a manner, that it might produce such and such changes which he destined to take place. And thus what is called the course of Nature, and what is termed the course of Providence, are in reality the same. There are no interruptions of the general laws; every event, whether in the natural or moral world, takes place by the operation of regular causes.

But the intellectual and moral being the most important part of nature, and the moral being the health of the intellectual, its vital warmth, its perfect symmetry, its native hue and bloom of loveliness, we should therefore expect in the whole course of nature a moral design, and in various parts of it various moral lessens adapted to the circumstances of the creatures. Accordingly, whoever will humbly observe the course of Providence, will find in it an admirable adaptation to this end, and a most astonishing manifestation of the Divine wisdom in the government of his rational creatures. There he may truly behold both the goodness and the severity of God, not, indeed, dispensed as the expression of his absolute and final estimate of different men, but as the moral training best suited to them.

To each several good quality or combination of good qualities, is assigned a corresponding reward :- to persevering industry, slow but certain remuneration; to frugality, comfort; to well directed enterprise, achievement; to these three united, accumulating wealth; -to prudence, security; to wisdom, deference; to habitual veracity, confidence; to kindness, reciprocal attachment ; to genius, admiration; to virtue and integrity, the answer of a good conscience; to benevolence, the pleasurable emotions which attend its exercise, and the blessing of the poor and the unfortunate; to virtuous contentment, serenity of mind; to

humble unaffected piety and holiness, the approbation and love of God, support under the afflictions of life, and a peculiar sensibility of mind, which fits it for relishing all the best and loveliest emotions of human nature. On the opposite faults corresponding punishments attend. Thus pride produces self-sufficiency, - self-sufficiency produces rashness, -- rashness produces failure,— failure produces humiliation: overstrained severity towards others destroys their pity and leniency towards him who has manifested it, and the vicissitudes of life seldom fail to render these desirable: cruelty begets reciprocal dislike; unbecoming levity, contempt; profligate sensuality, disgust. But, it is argued, a well laid and judiciously conducted enterprise will succeed though it should be most iniquitous. - True: but it will not carry with it the peculiar reward of integrity. And a righteous man may be in indigence, but then he does not possess or does not exercise the qualities of which wealth is the reward. - - Ought he then to complain? No: unless he undervalue his own reward, he will never set peace of conscience in comparison with wealth, or think his own condition less happy than the other. No one can attain all, we ought therefore to seek the best and highest objects. The man who has devoted his heart, his soul, his life, to the mere amassing of wealth, and has attained his object, has got his reward, let him not look for more.