426 A View of tbe DelsTICAT. Writers. Let. 24.

But he urgeth, that it is of no uſe to acknowlege particular interpoſitions of divine providenge, fince they cannot be diſtin- guiſhed from events that happen in the courfe of God's general providence. The effects,“ ſaich he,“ that are aſſumed of par- * ticular providences, are either falſe or undiſtinguiſhable from c« thoſe of a general providence, and become particular by no- thing more than the application which vain ſaperſtition or ce pious fraud makes of them°.“ And he obſerves, that this holds with reſpect to the caſe not only of particular perſons, but of collective bodies." Their circumſtances are ſo nearly ee alike, and they return ſo often to be equally objects of theſe ¹* ſuppoſed providences, that no man will dare to determine ee where theſe providences have been, or fhould have been **wemployed, and where not F.“ It appears then, that though he fometimes ſeems to acknowlege the care of divine provi- dence as extending to collective bodies, though not to indivi- duals, yet in reality he does not admit that providence inter- poſes with regard to the one more than the otber; or that in either caſe we can juſtly aſcribe any of the events that befall men, whether individually or collectively confidered, to divine pro- vidence; ſince we cannot diſcern or diſtinguiſh in what events providence has been employed, and in What not. But the truth is, we need not be put to the difficulty of thus diſtin- guiſhing, if we believe that providence is really concerned in them all. It over-ruleth both the affairs and events relating to nations and to particular perſons, diſpoſing and governing them in the fitteſt manner, according to what ſeemeth moſt fit to his infinite wiſdom, to which all circumſtances are perfectly known. And even where the events ſeem contrary, proſperous to one nation or particular perſon, adverſe to another, providence is d0 be regarded in both. For we can never err in judging that all events whatſoever are under the wiſe direction and ſuperin- tendency of a fovereign providence, though when we under- take to aſſign the particular reafons of God's providential dil- penſations, we may eaſily be miſtaken.

Our author farther objecteth againſt the doctrine of a parti- cular providence, that it ſuppoſes all mankind to be under an univerſal theocracy like the Fewiſp; and he obſerves, that even in that caſe it would not have the effect to engage men to virtue, or deter them from vice and wickedneſs, any more than it did the eus a. But he here confoundeth things that are of diſtinct

Phe heathens, and all mankind in all ages,

/ Vol. v. p. 420. See alſo p. 450. Ibid. p. 460.

A Ibid p. 430.

confideration,

*

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