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    Enay on Divhie Wisdom . 15

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    and therefore cduld ' not evince any wisdom either iti tftte discernment or in the option of the means . Assuming it then as a settled point , that wisdom is employed herein its genuine appropriate sense , and that the first question before us rivust be answered in the affirmative , wernay now pass on to tile discussion of the second , which , aftet whal has' been already bbserved , does not appear of difficult solution . If wisdom caqnot be ascribed to an agent on account of the production of an effect brought about without the intervention of means , or else by means tJiat have not with tile effect any donnettion independent on . his will ; and if wisdom be an attribute of the great Former of the universe , cpnspicuously displayed in his works ^ it then

    follows ^ it should seem by undeniable inference , that there exists , independently on his will , a connection between means and ends . That in the maintenance of the existence and order of nature , in the production and preservation of life , in the government of the material , animal , and moral worlds , he acts by means or which is but another word expressive of the same idea ) by laws , is surely too manifest to require proof ; and in these laws and contrivances do we not admire his wisdom , because we consider these to be in themselves well adapted

    to bring about the ends which we believe him to have in view ? Let us suppose that these ends might be accomplished by a mere volition . In that case will not the means cease to fre means ? Will they not be superfluous ? Will they not be beheld rather with the contempt excited by idle parade , than with the admiration called forth by the display of skill and intelligence ? If in an Eastern fiction one of the genii , though said to be able to raise a palace by a single word , were represented as forming materials and wot kin en , in order to erect some stately structure , who would not deride this as an absurd conceit ? Alphonso the Wise , king of Spain , who lived in an age when Ptolemy ' s system of astronomy was generally received , and who had the sagacity of perceiving it had

    not the stamp of divine wisdom , is reported to have said he could have given some good advice to the Maker of the universe , had he been consulted with respect to the motions of the heavenly bodies . In like manner , with respect to the notion entertained by numbers , that the Supreme Being can by a . mevejiat produce any effect he pleases , obvious is the remark , that , were this true , a simpler method of executing his will than that adopted by him might easily be suggested . Should any be of opinion , thai in the construction-of the universe the divine Architect has employed me . msj not as necessary instruments to work with , bnL in order that his intelligent creatures * niight by the contemplation of these means , and of" their seem-j

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1807, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2376/page/15/