It appears to me, that the first of these ideas affords a very defective conception of the operations of the Deity, and implies, that they are to be regarded in no higher point of view than the efforts of a human artist.

When a man sets about making a machine, he finds materials already provided that possess powers or energies in themselves, whose force he only directs and takes advantage of. The maker of a watch, of a clock, of an engine to move by water or by steam, only directs to a particular movement the powers of elasticity or of gravity, which Nature has already prepared and given him to work upon. When the machine is set a-going, he has nothing farther to do, for Nature does the rest.

But the cause of all things is in a very different situation. He can have no materials provided for him beforehand. Whatever energies are to be exerted, must begin, and continue to be exerted by himself. His own power is the source of all action. This being the case, wherever any power appears to be exerted, it must be regarded as exerted by him. Perhaps, indeed, it may be possible for him to confer upon beings whom he creates a kind of secondary power, by which they may become, in some respects, the secondary authors of events: But in every case, in which power or energy of any kind is exerted, and in which we have no proof that the Deity is producing it through the medium of created

Beings, we must regard him as immediately producing it himself. This is a truth which ought to be well attended to. There can be no mo tion without a mover, no action without an actor, no power exerted without a powerful being: But in the case of the elasticity of bodies; in the case of gravitation, or that energy by which all bodies rush towards each other; and in the case of that vigour by which plants and animals grow and live-the most wonderful powers are exerted. These powers must come from the Deity, who is the author of all action or exertion. He may exert or convey these powers by means of created beings or secondary natures; but there is no evidence that he does so. In the present state of human knowledge, therefore, the repulsive force of a spring, the energy by which a bit of lead presses towards the earth, or the power by which a small twig arises aloft and becomes a tree, ought, by every rule of sound reasoning, to be regarded as immediate operations of the Divine force, energy, or power. Were these events produced by intermediate powers or beings, the Deity would still be the original and primary cause of them; but, as the case actually stands, we have not the smallest reason to suspect that he does not by his own immediate power and interposition produce every event, and every change, and every effort that occurs in nature. The universe is not a piece of clock

work, which, when set a-going, runs on of itself. It is a great workshop, in which the mighty Artist is continually occupied in preparing new tools to supply the place of those that are carried away or worn out by service; or, it is a splendid, but unfinished painting, to which new figures are perpetually added, even while the hand of time is busied in blotting out those formerly delineated.

So far is it, therefore, from being difficult to prove that a powerful being conducts the affairs of this world, that the difficulty would seem to consist in removing for an instant from our thoughts the idea of his immediate presence and operation. But the variety, and at the same time the steadiness of his exertions, gives, to what is called the course of nature, such an appearance at once of wild hazard, and of dull mechanism, that we acquire a kind of confusion in our notions concerning it, which prevents our thinking much of its Author. Thus, by the very perfection of his skill and of his exertions, has the Deity contrived to conceal from vulgar apprehension the efforts of wisdom and of power which he is continually making within and around us. Thus is the terror prevented that might otherwise seize upon men, were they continually impressed by the overpowering consciousness of the Divine presence; and thus, also, do we avoid that frenzy of enthusiasm

which might inflame the human mind, were we alive at every moment to the clear conviction that we ourselves, and all the objects we perceive, are animated and filled by the power and inspiration of the Eternal.

The connection, therefore, that subsists between the Deity and the universe, is that of cause and effect. He is the active, operating, and immediate producer, or cause of all the obe jects and events that exist or occur around us. A stone is hard, because the particles of which it consists cling to each other by a strong at tractive force. This force is an effort of the divine energy constantly exerted. Water flows downwards, because its particles attract, and are attracted towards the centre of the earth; but this attraction is an exertion of the Divine power continually operating. This power is exerted by rule and measure; so that more compact substances descend with greater force, and bulky bodies are driven upwards. Thus, at every mo ment, by night and by day, during the lapse of ages, the silent energy of the Author of the uni verse is occupied in binding together every par ticle of the rocks of which the mountains and the solid globe of the earth are composed, and in pressing towards the ocean every single drop of water that flows in so many streams. When fire burns, it is because his present power is forming new combinations, and forcing aloft the

lighter substances, according to rules which he uniformly observes. Every blade of every plant that grows is an exertion of his energy; and every feeling, and every action of every animal on the earth, or in the waters, is an immediate effort of his power: So that, in truth, the universe is nothing else than a continued work or exhibition of Divine power constantly present and producing whatever exists.

The salutary obscurity, however, with which Divine providence has covered this important truth, has produced among mankind much ignorance of its reality. Because the mountains remain firm and stable, we find it impossible always to recollect, or even to conceive, that they are constantly bound and held together by the immediate operation of an intelligent Being. Because our actions are always the result of our own feelings or thoughts, we readily imagine that our actions are independently our own, and forget that they are exertions of that great ener gy which produces our feelings and our thoughts, and is the source of all the power and of all the action that the universe exhibits.

But reflecting men are seldom unwilling to acknowledge that external nature is exclusively and immediately produced by the Author of the universe. I shall, therefore, consider that point as sufficiently established without farther discus VOL. I. въ