Let. 24. Lord BoLkinGBROKE. 42²3

providence puts a force on the mechanical laws of nature, and on the freedom of the will in a multitude of inſtances; and that thoſe who maintain this doctrine ſuppoſe that the laws of gra- vitation muſt be ſometimes ſuſpended, ſometimes precipitated, in compliance with men's deſires, and the tottering edifice muſt be kept miraculouſly from fallinge.

Among the extraordinary interpofitions of divine providence, he reckons the metaphyſical or phyſfical influence of ſpirits, ** ſuggeſtions, ſilent communications, injections of ideas. Theſe e things, he declares, he cannot comprehend; and he com- * pares them to the altering or fuſpending the courſe of the « fun, or revolutions of the carth, in the phyfical ſyſtem. « And that all ſuch interpoſitions in the intellectual ſyſtem, *as fhould give thoughts and new diſpoſitions to the minds of «men, cannot be conceived without altering in every ſuch in- «« ſtance the natural progreſſion of the human underſtanding, «« and that freedom of the will which every man is conſcious e« that he has f.“ Our author has here let us know what he thinks of all revelations, inſpirations, or communications from God the Supreme Spirit, or from ſubordinate created ſpirits to the human mind; that he regards them as inconſiſtent with the læus of the intellectual ſyſtem, and the natural progrelſion&f the human underſtanding, or eſſential freedom of the will. But whence could he know enough of the laws of the intellectual fyſtem, to be able to pronouace that this is inconſiſtent with thoſe laws? That one man may ſuggeſt or communicate thoughts and ideas to another by words and language, and that there is nothing in this contrary to the nature and order of the underſtanding, or freedom of the will, is univerſally acknow- leged: and why then ſhould it be thought inconſiſtent with. theſe for God himſelf, or ſpiritual Beings ſuperior to man, to communicate thoughts and ideas to the human mind? The moſt natural way of working upon men as reaſonable creatures, and of influencing their actions in a way agreeable to the juſt or- der of their faculties, is by ſuggeſting proper thoughts or ideas to their minds, and our not being able particularly to explain how this is done is no juſt objection againſt it. This writer himſelf elſewhere, ſpeaking of hat extraordinary action of God. ußon the mind which the word Inſpiration is now uſed to denote, expreſly acknowleges, that“ it is no more incomprehenſible ¹than theordinary action of mind on body, or body on mind ².“ And indeed it cannot without the higheſt abſurdity be denied, that God can work upon the ſpirits of men by an immediate in-

& Vol. v. p. 4600.. Ibid, p. 414, 415. Vol. ill. p. 468.

fluence,