On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ginally foreseen and provided for before time commenced his course , is certainly a grand , a striking , and an elevated thought . But it
seems to me that the confidence which such a belief is fitted to inspire , will be still further animated and enlivened , if we add
to this , that the execution of the original design , is in the hands of the same great and wise Being ; that in every appearance of external nature we behold the
immediate exertion of his power , that in the very thoughts of our minds we may contemplate the operations of that infinite wisdom which vvorketh in us both to will
and to do that which is good . Nor can this doctrine be justly represented as liable to the same objections with the common popular notions of Providence , according to which the usual course of
nature is sometimes suspended in order to reward the good or punish the guilty by annexing to their actions consequences which would not naturally have attended them . Although we consider the
energy of the Divine Being as immediately concerned in every occurrence , yet we have every reason to believe that those general laws according to which his operations proceed are uniform and
invariable . Experience convinces us that this is so , and a little reflection will suggest to us abundance of reasons to prove that it is wisely so directed . The Author of nature , by a fiat of his
omnipotent word , might , doubtless , cause any event or change to take place without the intervention of means , and by interrupting the regular train and order of things , might produce an effect at once , which is now produced slowly and by
Untitled Article
degrees ; but in this case it is evident that his creatures would be deprived of all uniform and consistent principles of conduct . Experience would then be no guide either in theory or practice ; from
what has been , we should be utterly incapable of forming any conjecture what will be , and all confidence either in one another , in our Creator , or even in
ourselves , would be entirely at an end . If actions and dispositions were at any time separated from their natural and proper consequences , so as to prevent us from forming any estimate ot the pro * , bable result of our own conduct
or that of others ^ that moral discipline which the events of life are at present fitted to administer , and of which this world is so evi . dentlv intended to be the scene .
would be greatly impeded , if not altogether prevented . Hence it is not difficult for us even with aur present limited capacities to
perceive , that although it is doubtless possible that Almighty power might have accomplished various objects more exp . editiously than by the gradual and often inscrutable processes which are actually employed ; yer , if this were done in a manner inconsistent with that
regular and uniform course of events which is necessary to constitute this world a state of trial and improvement to rational and
moral creatures , an object of essential importance would be sacrificed for the sake of an advantage comparatively trifling . And if the methods of Divine Providence in this gradual developement be attended by some effects which to our bounded view seem evil , and which , relatively to us , are for the present , abso-
Untitled Article
Essay on the different Views of Providence . 463
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1814, page 463, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2443/page/15/
-