41⁰ A Vieuw of tbe DEisTIcAL Writers. Let. 24.

wards taketh care of the creatures he hath made, or that he exerciſeth any inſpection over them, as a moral governor, or concerneth himſelf about their actions, and the events relating to them, is, with regard to all the purpoſes of religion, the ſame thing as not to acknowlege a God at all. It is one great excellency of the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Teſta- ment, that they every-where teach us to have a conſtant re- gard to the divine providence, as preſiding over the univerſal fyſtem, and all the orders of beings in it, and as in a particular manner exerciſing a continual care and inſpection towards man- kind, obſerving all their actions, and ordering and diſpoſing the events relating to them with ianfinite wiſdom, righteoufneſs, and goodneſs. But this doctrine of providence, which, one ſhould think, ought mightily to recommend the Scriptures to every good mind, ſeems to have been one principal ground of the prejudices which Lord Bolingbroke hath conceived againſt thoſe ſacred writings. It is true, that he frequently affecteth to ſhew a zeal for divine providence: he ſets up as an advocate for its proceedings againſt the divines, who, he pretends, join with the Atheiſts in miſrepreſenting and oppoſing it. But if his ſcheme be narrowly examined, it will appear that notwithſtand- ing his fair pretences, he doth not acknowlege a providence in that ſenſe in which it is moſt uſeful and neceſſary to believe it. He declares, that“ in aſferting the juſtice of providence, he «* has choſen rather to inſiſt on the moſt viſible and undeniable *courſe of a geperal providence, than to aſſume a diſpenſation *« of particular providences a.“ He obſerves, that“ the world is governed by laws, which the Creator impoſed on the phy- „„ fical and moral ſyſtems, when he willed them into exiſtence, and which mult be in force as long as they laſt; and any change in which would be a change in the ſyſtems them- se ſelves. Theſé laws are invariable, but they are general, and

* from this generality what we call contingencies ariſe b.“ The courſe of things rolls on through a vaſt variety of con-

²« tingent events; for ſuch they are to our apprehenſion; ac- ²*¹ cording to the firſt impreſſions of motion that were given it by the firft Mover, and under the direction of an univerſal ¹ providence c.“ As to the brute animals, they are left under the direcétion of inſtinct: and as to men, God has given « his human creatures the materials of phyſical and moral ² happineſs in the phyſical and moral conſtitution of things. 2 1 1

Vol. v. p. 414. d Ibid. p. 416.*2 Ibid. p. 379. and