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Untitled Article
dinner , and also had he not possessed the presence of mind to . apply the only possible remedy . Now when a train of circumstances so minute , apparently independent of each other , yet
operating as distinct causes , are every one of them essential to the production of a given effect , must we not conclude that not one of them happened by chance ? And am I not warranted in the firm belief that it
was the intention of a gracious Providence , by these means , at that time , to preserve my life ? So literally true , then , is the assertion of our Lord , that not a sparrow falleth . to the ground without our heavenly Father . But it may be asked , could not life
have been preserved in a much shorter way , by simply preventing the accident ? I answer , undoubtedly ; but let it be remembered , that the mercy would then have been wholly unperceived , and , consequently , that not
one of the salutary convictions would have been felt , which similar dangers , and similar deliverances , are intended to produce . Do they not teach us in language not to be mistaken , that we and our affairs are at all times in
the hands of God—that circumstances , apparently the most trivial , and arrangements the most minute , may be and often are employed as his agents , to take away life , or to restore it , even at the very moment when it is about to expire ?"
I dare not attempt to , eater into the detail of circumstances which force themselves upon my imagination , which are necessarily connected with the subject , and which Mrs . C . passes over in such general terms as to disguise their fallacy ; for the sake of
my opponents it were well they should be omitted . Let any person who has been accustomed to follow up the link of mental association , let him trace these " distinct causes every one of them essential to the production of
a given effect "—and he may be safely challenged to declare where he can stop . Let him penetrate but a step or two into this labyrinth , and . he may goon be glad to retrace his steps , and give up the pursuit- Our amiable author calculates , that the
circumstance was appointed to impress her mind with an extraordinary degree of gratitude for her preservation . Not to dwell upon the roundabout contri-
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vance for a purpose so little requisite , will such preternatural cases always produce the 3 ame effect ; , and if not , to what other intention will they be ascribed , or to what improvement will they tend ? And is she not assuming a degree of personal importance
rather unwarranted ? She had a heart , no doubt , susceptible of the warmest emotions of gratitude , which millions under the same circumstances would not have felt ; but what is the difference in the estimation of perfect wis , dom , between the highest state of
human refinement and its most humiliating imbecility ? They can be no other than equal in his parental regard ; and to suppose a being of infinite perfection to be swayed in his attentions to the improvement of his
creatures by such little , insignificant partialities , is sadly perverting all ideas of reason and propriety . We have no authority for the conclusion , and if we had , our limited comprehension could not trace the boundless
consequences . If this supposed interference is exercised occasionally , in behalf of some individuals , all mankind must be the subjects of its display , as varying circumstances may require ; and
this for evil as well as for good . For if one man ' s life is providentially preserved from the pistol of , a highwayman , how could the attack have been warded off unless it was first made ;
and how could this train of cause and effect have been produced , but by some secret impulse which should operate on the conduct of th , e plunderer ? So with respect to the treachery of Judas ; if his Master must be betrayed by his means , and if without this train of circumstances the designs
of Providence would not have been accomplished- —then the delinquency of the traitor becomes as necessary in the scale of events as the sufferings of the unoffending victim . Such must be the result of such opinions ; and hence it follows , that every event iu human life is preordained , and that we arc
all as much under th , e controul of circumstances as the fingers of a clock are subject to the internal movements . There still , however , remains this difference—in th § one case the universal laws of necessity are alleged as the operating causes ; and in the other every possible event must be regulated by the immediate volition and p lea-
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288 Remarks on a Particular PrpKidence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1823, page 288, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1784/page/32/
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