usual with GOD, so carefully to conceal himself, and to hide the agency of his Providence behind second causes; as to render that very often undiscernable and undistinguishable from these." Which wisdom of conduct, and gentleness of operation, (not less efficacious, because gentle and invisible,) instead of exciting the admiration they deserve; have, on the contrary, given occasion to the setting up of that unreal idol of the brain, called chance. Whereas, to use the lovely lines of our great moral poet,

All Nature is but Art unknown to thee;

All Chance, Direction which thou canst not see.

tants of the earth. And GoD conducteth what men call chance. Nothing, nothing comes to pass through a blind and undiscerning fatality. If accidents happen, they happen according to the exact foreknowledge, and conformably to the determinate counsels of eternal wisdom. The Lord, with whom are the issues of death, signs the warrant, and gives the high commission. The seemingly fortuitous disaster, is only the agent, or instrument, appointed to execute the supreme DECREE. When the king of Israel was mortally wounded, it seemed to be a casual shot.-A certain man drew a bow at a venture, (1 Kings xxii. 34.) At a venture, as he thought. But his hand was strengthened by an omnipotent aid; and the shaft levelled by an unerring eye. So that what we term CASUALTY, is really PROVIDENCE; accomplishing deliberate designs, but concealing its own interposition.How comforting this reflection! Admirably adapted to sooth the throbbing anguish of the mourners, and compose their spirits into a quiet submission! Excellently suited to dissipate the fears of godly survivors; and create a calm intrepidity, even amidst innumerable perils !"-Hervey's Medita ons, vol. 1. p. 27, 28.

Words are only so far valuable, as they are the vehicles of meaning. And meaning, or ideas, derive their whole value from their having some foundation in reason, reality, and fact. Was I, therefore, to be concerned in drawing up an Expurgatory Index to language, I would, without mercy, cashier and proscribe such words as chance, fortune, luck, casualty, contingency, and mishap. Nor unjustly-For they are Voces, and præterea nihil. Mere terms without ideas. Absolute expletives, which import nothing. Unmeaning cyphers, either proudly invented to hide man's ignorance of real causes, or sacrilegiously designed to rob the Deity of the honours due to his wisdom, providence, and power.

Reason and Revelation are perfect unisons, in assuring us, that GOD is the supreme, independent first cause; of whom, all secondary and inferior causes are no more than the effects. Else, proper originality and absolute wisdom, unlimited supremacy and almighty power, cease to be attributes of Deity.-I remember to have heard an interesting anecdote of King William and Bishop Burnet. The Arminian prelate affected to wonder "how a person, of his Majesty's piety and good sense, could so rootedly believe the doctrine of absolute predestination." The Royal Calvinist replied-Did I not believe absolute predestination, I could not believe a providence. For, it would be most absurd to suppose that a Being of infinite wisdom would act without a plan: for which plan, predestination is only another name.

What, indeed, is predestination, but God's determinate plan of action? and what is providence, but the evolution of that plan? In his decree, God resolved within himself what he would do, and what he would permit to be done: By his providence, this effective and permissive will passes into external act, and has its positive accomplishment. So that the purpose of God, as it were, draws the out-lines, and providence lays on the colours. What that designed, this completes what that ordained, this executes. Predestination is analogous to the mind and intention; providence, to the hand and agency of the artificer. Hence, we are told, that God worketh [there's his providence] all things, after the counsel of his own will [there's his decree,] Eph. i. 11. And again, he DоTH according to his wILL, in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand [i. e. his will, and the execution of it, are irresistible,] nor say unto him, what dost thou? i. e. his purpose and providence are sovereign, and for which he will not be accountable to his creatures. Dan. iv. 35.

According, therefore, to the Scripture representation, Providence neither acts vaguely and at random, like a blind archer, who shoots uncertainly in the dark, as well as he can; nor yet pro re nata, or as the unforeseen exigence of affairs may require: like some blundering statesman, who plunges (it may be) his country and himself into difficulties, and then is forced to un

ravel his cobweb, and reverse his plan of operations, as the best remedy for those disasters, which the court-spider had not the wisdom to foresee. But shall we say this of GOD? It were blasphemy. He that dwelleth in heaven, laugheth all these miserable after-thoughts to scorn. GOD, who can neither be over-reached, nor overpowered, has all these wretched post-expedients in derision. He is incapable of mistake. He knows no levity of will. He cannot be surprised with any unforeseen inconveniences. His throne is in heaven, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Whatever, therefore, comes to pass, comes to pass as a part of the original plan: and is the offspring of that prolific series of causes and effects, which owes its birth to the ordaining and permissive will of HIM, in whom we all live, and are moved,* and have our being. Providence, in time, is the hand that delivers God's purpose, of those beings and events, with which that purpose was pregnant from everlasting. The doctrine of equivocal generation is not more absurd in philosophy, than the doctrine of unpredestinated events is in theology.

Thus, the long train of things is, though

A mighty maze, yet not without a plan.

God's sovereign will is the first link; his unalterable decree is the second; and his all active providence the third, in the great chain of causes.

* Kuspela. Acts xvii. 28.

What his will determined, that his decree established, and his providence either mediately or immediately effects. His will was the adorable spring of all, his decree marked out the channel, and his providence directs the stream.

"If so," it may be objected, "It will follow, that whatever is, is right." Consequences cannot be helped. No doubt, GoD, who does nothing in vain; who cannot do any thing to no purpose, and still less to a bad one; who both acts and permits with design; and who weighs the paths of men, has, in the unfathomable abyss of his counsel, very important (though to us secret) reasons, for permitting the entrance of moral evil, and for suffering both* moral and natural evil still to reign over so great a part of the creation. Unsearchable are his judgments [xguala, decrees] and his ways [the methods and dispensations of his providence] past finding out. Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor? For, or him, and THROUGH him, and to him, are all things. Rom. ii. 33, 34, 36. As to myself, I can, through grace, most heartily adopt the maxim of Bengelius, Non plus sumere, non minus accipere :† I neither wish to know more

* Grotius himself is forced to own, "Quæ vero permittuntur Scelera, non carent interim suo Fructu," i. e. even the crimes which God permits the perpetration of, are not without their good consequences. (De Veritat. Rel. 1. 1. sect. 19.) A bold saying this! But the sayer was an Arminian: and therefore we hear no outcry on the occasion.

† Ordo Temporum, cap. viii. p. 302.