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administered in the best manner , unless the Divine Providence extend to all beings and events , however trivial and inconsiderable they may some of them appear to us .
Our reasoning , on the whole , stands thus . The Divine Being can direct the most minute affairs and events : he will do what is best : but it is best , that all affairs , as well the less as the
more important , should be directed ; and therefore he both can and will , that is , lie actually does , appoint and determine the smallest things and most inconsiderable events .
Upon the whole , then , we conclude , that from God all things proceed , and by him all things are governed . Nothing is left out of the scheme of his providence . Whatever we meet with in the world , whatever company or accommodations we find , whatever we do or suffer , makes a
part of the divine order . God grant that , as all things proceed from him , we may refer all things to him ; and receive both the blessings and afflictions of life with becoming piety and veneration ; reinexnbering whence they come , and for what end they were designed . CESTRIENSIS POSTHUMUS .
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5 ^ 4 On Mr . Luckcock ' s Remarks on Providence .
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Bristol , Sir , June , 1823 . AGREE with the views of your I correspondent Mr . Luckcock , in his remarks on a Particular Providence ,
( pp . 286—292 , ) so far as they respect the tendency of that doctrine to confine our ideas of the moral government of the Deity , and the pernicious consequences it is calculated to produce on the dispositions and conduct of those who entertain it . But I
cannot accord in his observations relating to the universality of the Divine administration ; and it is in the hope of placing this subject in a juster light , that I am induced to
intrude the following remarks upon your notice . In so doing let me not be thought to undervalue the spirit of practical utility and benevolent intention which distinguish Mr . L . ' s communication .
I am not more desirous than your correspondent , of ** entering the boundless and thorny field of controversy , respecting fate , predestination ,
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free will and philosophical iiecessity ; " but I may be allowed to state that the views which I wish to lav before you are in my own ca 9 e derived from a full and I trust practical belief of the latter doctrine . I do
not , however , conceive that such a belief is by any means necessary to their reception . " He who advocates the plainest and most intelligible hypothesis , is best co-operating with the Deity in teaching mankind their
various duties and their future expectations . " Such I believe to be the tendency of the opinions which I entertain . They appear to me calculated beyond any others , to illustrate the condition and circumstances of
man , and the moral government of God . That the Supreme Being , the Creator of the universe , is infinite in power and in knowledge , will be generally admitted ; and it follows that he must , from the beginning , have
known and consequently willed , every event which should take place in his creation throughout eternity . Respecting the system on which he regulates its concerns , there are various opinions . It is maintained by some that he did at the first impress upon
the universe certain laws , by which all its motions and changes , natural and moral , are continually regulated , and then left it to pursue its course , independently of his own immediate controul . Others suppose that the more important concerns of the world are under the Divine direction ,
but that the general current of events is left to form its own channel , receiving at times such impulses as suit the views of Almighty Wisdom . There are those again who believe that every part of the creation is under thp constant direction of the Deity , by whom the whole is maintained and
regulated , and whose influence is felt alike throughout every instant of time , and every corner of the universe . What Mr . L . ' s view is , I cannot exactly discover , but the last he decidedly opposes . Yet It is this which alone appears to ipe consistent with what we know of the Almighty , and with what we observe around . us .
Mankind too generally found their conceptions of the Divine nature , upon what knowledge they possess
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1823, page 514, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1788/page/18/
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