(and it is the only rational hypothesis,) and the conclusion is irresistible, that benevolence must be equally engaged in sustaining, guiding, guarding, and perfecting his creation. I appeal to you, ye fathers and mothers. Did your interest in your children cease from the moment that they were ushered into life? Would you leave them, from that moment, to their fate? I appeal to that interest which you take in their growth, their fortunes, and their end, an interest which increases with their years, and their improvement. And is it to be supposed, that a care like this, which in man is esteemed an excellence, is not to be found in the great Parent of mankind? “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children," is it to be believed, that God has left the world unguarded and unobserved, and that his children are born and die he knows not how, and cares not when? Where is the architect who would leave a nice and curious machine, which was acknowledged to be an illustrious monument of his skill, to fall into disuse and decay in consequence of his neglect? And has God, the great mechanician, left the system, which he has so curiously composed, to the revolutions of unnumbered ages, undirected by one who can understand its complicated motions, preserve in place its innumerable parts, restore its irregularities, and guide its movements to the grand and glorious purpose for which alone it was constructed?

Thirdly. As I am adducing reasons rather than appealing to testimony, it is not my design, to bring forward the direct assertions of Scripture in favor of the doctrine of this discourse. But I cannot refuse myself this remark, that the single circumstance, that a revelation has ever been made to mankind, is an irresistible demonstration of a providence, whatever the character, the design, the reception,

or the fate of that revelation may be. It proves that the affairs of men are not overlooked; that God sometimes discerns the benevolent propriety of immediately interposing in the course of events; that the progress of man's character and improvement is not so unalterably fixed by what are called the laws of nature that it may not sometimes be accelerated by special assistance; and, if God's love has ever induced him to overstep what may be called the ordinary limits of his bounty, for the more certain and rapid felicity of his creatures, what may we not conclude respecting the final issue of his universal government of the world?

Again; if it can be shown, that a single prophecy has been fulfilled, the same conclusion is irresistible; for prediction implies the most intimate knowledge of characters and events, with all their connexions, bearings, and dependences; and, whether the prediction is made merely from a foresight of the event, or whether the event is afterwards determined and the circumstances arranged to accomplish the prediction, the conclusion is the same. Look, then, I pray you, at the series of prophecies which the Scriptures contain, and tell me, can you find nothing there which has been accomplished, nay, nothing which is, perhaps, even now accomplishing?

Lastly, let us come to the proof from fact. Look around upon creation, and observe the good order of the universe; powers nicely adjusted, systems accurately balanced, worlds rushing undisturbed, with astonishing and noiseless rapidity, through fields of immeasurable space, where nothing interferes, nothing stops, but all is inconceivably vast and harmonious, and answer me, what preserves this complex wonder of a world? Is it less neces

sary, that some power should continue, than that some power should have established it? Whence the regularity of summer and winter, seed-time and harvest? Is there no care in this? Whence the unfailing succession of the generations of men? Whence the ordinary regularity of their numbers, the progressive perfection of the species, the prodigious variety of the individuals, the curiously accommodated circumstances, characters, and stations of men in the world? Is there no providence in this?

But it is not in great operations that the intelligence, and, consequently, the providence of God is to be most clearly discerned. It is evident in a thousand minute and accurate adaptations of man's nature, and of every other creature's nature, to his place in the system.

If you ask why the birds were not placed in the sea, and the fishes in the air, I can give no answer but that such is the ordination of their Creator. They were made for the element in which they live; and you may say, if you please, that it was chance that produced this distribution, and believe it, if you can.

But the most easy proof of the providence of God in the visible works of his hands is found, I think, in the power of foresight and anticipation, with which man is endowed. We are enabled to look forward into futurity, to provide for what is to come, to form ardent expectations, and cherish reasonable hopes. If God, then, has given the power to a rational creature to make provision beyond the present moment, does it not prove irresistibly that the bestower of this faculty and this disposition possesses them in perfection himself, that he knows and is interested in what is to come, that he has provided beforehand for his creatures? And, if his providence extends, for a single

day, or a single hour, I ask why does it not for every day? why not for eternity? Is there any fallacy in this conclusion?

But, perhaps, the proof is more striking in the instincts. of animals, where the immediate provision of Heaven is to be seen without the aid of any intermediate intelligence. Whence, then, does the ant lay up in summer her winter's food? Do you suppose that she looks forward to that inclement season? Has she a spirit of prophecy? Or does God thus provide, without her knowledge, for her continued support? And if for her, your own hearts, my hearers, will draw the inference. It has been justly remarked, that this instinct is as indisputable an argument for divine providence as if God, by miraculous interposition, should annually send an angel to lay up in store for this industrious people a provision for their future wants.

I should delight, my hearers, to retrace, with you, the history of the world, and accumulate, with you, the proofs of God's providence. I should delight to follow, with you, the footsteps of a Divinity in the mighty revolutions of society, to show you the most important events springing from the most inconsiderable causes, and the ever progressive march of human affairs defeating the predictions of the wisest, and proving a great Controller. I would show you good arising unexpectedly from evil, the sure melioration of the world following the most desperate position of human affairs, and the designs of Providence abundantly developed. I would show you the dissolution of the mightiest empires terminating in the happiest results; wars, pestilence, and convulsions forwarding the kindest designs; the knowledge of God continually preserved and continually increasing under circumstances, in human estimation,

the most unfavorable. Especially might I dwell upon the peculiar situation of the Jews, and their miraculous dispersion, with the knowledge which they alone possessed; the fulness of the time in which the Messiah was born, with the extraordinary situation of the world, exactly what it should be, for the best dissemination of his religion.

Then, if more proofs were wanting, I would appeal to every individual's life; and the history of every pious, and, I may say, of every impious heart, would testify all things were of God.

From the explanations I have given, and from the course of my remarks, it must have appeared, that there is no foundation for the usual distinction between a general and a particular providence; for so intimate are the mutual dependences of animate and inanimate creation, that no providence can be general which includes not every individual being, and the same arguments, which prove that God takes notice of anything, prove that his providence extends equally to all.

It shall now be my object, to produce some practical reflections from this most interesting subject.

"For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things." How grand, then, is God! Christians, have you ever contemplated the wonderful magnificence of this Controller of the universe?" Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" The human mind, trying to form a conception vast enough to embrace the peculiar grandeur of God, feels the insufficiency of its powers, and finds, astonished, how narrow is its boasted capacity. We find, that, to understand his excellence by a