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    Untitled Article

    tinued labour to direct and maintain it in the performance of its operations ? Why is it considered as desirable among men to effect an object with the least possible

    degree of personal exertion ? Evi . dently because our knowledge is imperfect ; because our powers are limited ; because our attention cannot always be kept on the stretch . In order therefore to effect our

    purposes in their gi'eatest possible extent , it is necessary for us to economise our force ; and to regulate matters so ( hat as much of the labour as possible may be thrown upon material or irrational agents ;

    by which * means our thoughts are not continually distracted by the necessity of paying a minute and persevering attention to a variety of objects at the same time . Such an adaptation therefore of means to ends as may tend to effect this

    in the greatest degree , and to produce the most advantageous direction of our limited force , is a mark of human wisdom ; but as it is not necessary , so it could not be considered as a mark of wisdom in a

    being of infinite power and knowledge . He has no occasion to economise force , who is the author and sovereign controuler of all force . He can require no artificial contrivances to relieve him from , the fatigue of constant

    exertion , who sees every thing , knows every thing , and is every where present . It is not therefore necessary , in order to the perfection of wisdom which we ascribe to the

    framerof the universe , that it should be so constructed as to go of itself without any further superintendence , or that the various second causes which we suppose to be in action should continue to produce their effects independently of his support and guidance .

    Untitled Article

    But it may perhaps be doubted whether there is not a fallacy in this view of Divine Providence which excludes the idea of his immediate interference in . the regulation of events duringtheir actual

    course , arising from the ambiguous or improper language which we make use of in speaking upon these subjects . It is said , that the Creator , when the great plan was

    originally laid out , bestowed upon each of his creatures those properties by which they are all fitted to act upon each other ; fixed each being in its place , determined all the relations which it should bear

    to every being around it , and established those laws by which all its changes and motions are regulated through the whole term of its existence . These general principles , according to which the whole frame

    of nature is regulated , and which we have every reason for believing to be constant and invariable , we call the laws of nature ; thus we have the law of gravitation , the laws of motion , the law of association . Now what is this but a

    figurative , metaphorical way of speaking , derived from a supposed analogy to human governments , which cannot be altogether correct when applied to the divine , and therefore ought not to be taken literally ? Is there really a code of laws promulgated by the divine Legislator , by which all secondary

    causes are bound , and to which they all , animate and inanimate , intelligent and senseless , are expected to render obedience ? Are these masses of inanimate matter

    which we see around us , and which we axe taught to believe have a separate independent existence , this sun with his attendant planets , the various principles of electricity , magnetism , light , gravity , inertia ,

    Untitled Article

    460 Essay on the different Views of Providence

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1814, page 460, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2443/page/12/