misled by the analogy of the divine, to human governments, conceiving that the administration of the Deity might, more honourably, be conducted by subordinate agents, elevated each local, and imaginary divinity to the throne of divine worship. But all mankind have ever acknowledged one Supreme God: and the multitude of subordinate officers, if they may be called such, which error had attached to him in his government, does not destroy the evidence of the principal and original sentiment that, God exists. Our object, at present, is to establish this single truth. And this truth is not destroyed by diversity of opinion, with regard to the mode of his administration, or the nature of his perfections. These ideas, requiring greater precision of thought, and a wider compass of reasoning, one man, or one nation, according to the advances which they have respectively made in the cultivation of science, may reasonably be supposed to have formed more just, or more inadequate conceptions of them than another.

The truth of the divine existence is confirmed, if such primary and palpable truths can receive additional confirmation, by the absurdity of the causes to which atheists have been obliged to resort in order to account for the origin of things. One of their first principles is, that matter is eternal, and, though senseless and inert, contains the essence of all order and motion. Another, that the intelligence, which evidently reigns in the universe, is the result of material organ

ization necessarily arising from its original and essential principles. And another still, not less extraordinary than either of the preceding, that, from the accidental collision of atoms, have been formed globes which, from some interior, and inexplicable impulse, have thrown themselves into orbits constructed with the most perfect mathematical exactness, and governed by laws which ensure undeviating constancy in their movements. From the same accidental collision, roots, and seeds have been generated, whence the whole vegetable world has been evolved, and yearly reproduced. At this age of philosophy, one would think that such principles must carry their own refutation in the very terms of their statement. Observe any mass, or congeries of matter, and let the plainest, or the most improved understanding decide, if any arrangement of atoms, according to any known laws of material action, could sublimate it; above all, could enable it to sublimate and organize itself, so as to produce sensation and reason. Or is it possible, that, if one lucky cast, or collision among infinite millions, should have formed an animal, or vegetable, it should have been so framed as to be capable of throwing from itself continually a similar assemblage of organized atoms, while not another cast, of the same kind, should ever succeed in forming a new body?

If an atheist ask us, why, since we admit the existence of a wise intelligent cause, only to exclude the ideas of disorder and chance from the world, do we see so many unseem

ly examples of both, in the structure of things, and in the revolutions of what we call providence? It is, I conceive, a sufficient answer, to deny the existence of either, and to challenge an antagonist to produce an instance.-For, what is chance?-Only a name to cover our ignorance of the cause of any event. Nothing can happen by accident in the government of an infinitely wise, and powerful being. All events depend upon a certain concatenation of causes. The cast of a die is as certainly governed by the laws of matter and motion, as the greater movements of the planets. Disorder in the works of nature exists only in the imperfection of our own understanding. This is certain, with regard to all the arrangements of nature, that, in proportion as her laws have been more clearly developed, and her operations more distinctly understood, those phenomena, which formerly were esteemed to be irregularities, are now discovered to be directed by the most wise, certain, and permanent laws. One conclusion will obtrude itself on every reflecting mind; that, since nature, as far as we can discern her operations, contains, even to our imperfect reason, the most obvious indications of intelligence, design, and goodness, if there be any parts of it, which we are unable to interpret, in perfect coincidence with the general system, this ought to be ascribed solely to the narrow sphere to which our intellectual vision is circumscribed. We cannot doubt, but that the same wisdom, which we perceive in that portion which we do comprehend, pervades all the works of the same author.

It has been frequently and justly remarked, that the universe is governed by general laws, which never change their operation according to the desires of men, or the convenience of particular parts of the system, and, therefore, they sometimes appear to be productive of partial and accidental ills. A tempest here, a drought there, a contagion, or an earthquake, may involve individuals in distress;--but the fixed and invariable laws of the physical world are among the greatest blessings to mankind. Among other benefits, they lay a foundation for the existence of the most useful sciences and arts, which could have no principles, on which to rest, in a providence of expedients, and accommodations to individual convenience. They serve to awaken inquiry, to exercise ingenuity, to encourage industry, to afford principles on which to ground a prudent foresight and precaution, and to promote the exercise of all the virtues which are assisted by the stability of nature. For a clear and luminous illustration of the utility of general laws, and for a judicious explanation, and justification of the apparent and partial ills which result from them, you will again have peculiar satisfaction in consulting Dr. Paley's work on natural theology.

II. OF THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITY.

The divine attributes, as discoverable by the powers of natural reason, will not require an extensive illustration; for, when once the existence of God is acknowledged, they re

commend themselves so obviously to the common sense of mankind, as to admit of little controversy, except with regard to those natural events which, in their first aspect, seem contrary to our apprehensions of his infinite goodness.

The attributes, then, of the Divine Mind may be arranged under two heads,-the natural, and the moral.-Under the former, are comprehended his spirituality, unity, eternity, omnipresence, power and wisdom;-under the latter, his holiness, justice, and goodness.

The spirituality of the divine nature is a property opposed to every form, or refinement of matter; and may be regarded as distinguishing the essence of the Supreme Mind, from that fine, but powerful influence, the result of the material organization of the universe, which some philosophers have substituted in the room of the Deity, and made the immediate cause of a universal necessity, or fate. It is opposed, likewise, to the opinion of those, who hold the Deity to be the soul of the world; that is, a certain power which, though intelligent, is still only a refinement of matter,—a kind of spirit, or gas thrown off from the infinite system of its motions, or its original fermentations.

All just philosophy has considered matter as essentially inert, and incapable of beginning motion. Spirit, as we learn from our own experience, possesses a self-motive pow