LECTURE II.

ROMANS i. 20.

The invifible things of him from the creation of the world were clearly feen, being underflood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; fo that they are without excufe.

THESE words of St. Paul, as well as various other paffages of the Scriptures, affert the manifestations of an omniscient and omnipotent Creator in the phenomena of the natural world. The Apostle reprehends the errors of those speculative men, who, in the vanity of their imaginations, had loft fight of the most obvious truth, and had neglected to draw fuch inference from facts as could fcarcely even efcape the vulgar; profeffing themselves to be wife, they became fools: for even to the vulgar all created things muft appear to have their origin from a fupreme Being; because that which is known of God is manifeft in them, for God hath fhewed it unto them; because the invifible things of him from the creation of the

world are clearly feen, being underfood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. Before we can entertain any faith in the Christian revelation, it is necessary for us to poffefs a firm conviction of the doctrine of a particular providence, which constitutes the basis of revelation. It will therefore be requifite, in the following discourse, to fhew that the operation of God in the natural world is perpetual and uninterrupted; and we must so adjust the statement of facts, that it may be understood how far he employs second causes; how subfervient, and how extremely limited these are; and that they never ought to be mistaken for their Author, whofe vigilance is ever actively fuperintendant; by whom all things live, and move, and have their beinga; who made the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, with all their hofts; the earth, and all things that are therein, and who preferveth them all, and whom all the hofts of heaven worship,

The grand principle of religion is the being of a God, from which all our obligations and, our duties flow. But it is of the highest importance, as the ground of the Christian faith, that we should acquire, not only a conviction

a Acts xvii. 28.

of the being, but alfo of the particular providence of the Deity. We must believe that he is immediately concerned in the works of nature and of grace: for it has been the conftant aim of Deifts to leffen our confidence in the immediate interpofition of a God; and fince they have not dared to deny his being, they have laboured to reprefent him as an impaffive fpectator of all the affairs of the natural world. Suppofe the contrary; admit God to be anxious for the happiness and welfare of man, and all his works of creation; and all the systems and arguments of the sceptic lose their foundation. The doctrines of our bleffed Lord on this head are so express, that we cannot hefitate to place implicit confidence in the superintendence of a particular providence. For, not to infift on all his recommendations of faith and of prayer; his promises of grace, of spiritual aid, and of a divine Comforter; he tells us, that the very hairs of our head are all numbered; that not a Sparrow falls to the ground without our Father. And he grounds our truft in the Gospel promises on this principle. When he informs us, that we ought not to be over folicitous about temporal affairs,

he remarks, Behold the fowls of the air, for they fow not, neither do they reap, neither gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? In another place, he says, Are not five Sparrows fold for two farthings? and not one of them is forgotten before God. Ye are of more value than many Sparrows d. In these inftances his inference is drawn from this confideration, that if the meaner parts of the creation be not beneath the immediate and conftant care of the Creator, we may conclude, that beings who hold a fuperior rank must be proportionably greater objects of heavenly regard.

I fhall therefore, in the firft place, endeavour to fupport the doctrine of a fuperintending first Cause, in oppofition to thofe opinions which have a tendency to attribute all the order and beauty of the creation to second causes.

I fhall then fhew, that fecond caufes are not independent of the first, because they exhibit marks of fubordination; and that there are re'lations and analogies throughout nature, which prove that all effects proceed from one and the fame origin, and contribute to promote one grand and complete defign.

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d Li ke xii. 6; 7.