really meant God? For it must be something different from the world, and something able to govern it.-Wooll. note p. 155.* The Jines, a religious sect of India, near Bombay, describe the great Deity, answering to the Brehm of the Bramins, as, All-wise, All-seeing, All-productive, All-happy, Without Name, Without Relation, Without Shape, Exempt from Ignorance, Mental Blindness, Name, Tribe, Love, and Weakness.-Graham's Journal, p. 66. * And in that sense Cicero evidently used the expression. -See 3 Locke 50, and 1 Burlemac. for still further proofs, if necessary. PROVIDENCE, AND ATTRIBUTES. Deorum providentia mundus administratur; iidemque consulunt rebus humanis; neque solum universis, verum etiam singulis.-Cic. de Divinat. lib. i. Etenim si est Deus, utique providens est ut Deus, nec aliter ei potest Divinitas attribui, nisi et præterita teneat, et præsentia sciat et futura prospiciat. Cum Deum esse confessum est el providentiam simul esse. Alterum enim sine altero nec esse prorsus.-Lactant. 729. There cannot but be eternal and necessary differences of different things one from another; and, from these necessary differences of things there cannot but arise a fitness or unfitness of the application of different things or different relations one to another; and infinite knowledge can no more fail to know, or infinite wisdom to choose, or infinite power to act, according to these eternal reasons and proportions of things, than knowledge can be ignorance, wisdom be folly, or power weakness; and consequently the justice and goodness of God are as certain and necessary as his wisdom and power: it follows, unavoidably, that he who denies the justice or goodness of God, or, which is all one, denies his exercise of these attributes in inspecting and regarding the moral actions of men, must also deny, either his wisdom or his power, or both.— Clarke, p. 164. God, who gives existence to the world, does also govern it by his Providence; the world is governed and not left to fluctuate fortuitously; there are laws by which natural causes act; the several phenomena in it regularly succeed, and, in general the constitution of things is preserved. There are rules observed in the production of herbs, trees, and the like. The several kinds of animals are furnished with faculties proper to direct and determine their actions, and are placed and provided for suitably to their respective natures and wants. Such laws and provisions can come originally from no other Being but from him who is the Author of Nature, since there is no other who is not himself part of the world, and whose own existence does not depend upon him. It is impossible for any thing, whose existence flows from such a Being, ever to grow so far out of his reach, or be so emancipated that the manner of its existence should not be regulated by him (nam etsi Deus illa nunc non facit, fecit ut fierent). The heavenly bodies keep their stations and go the same circuits by a certain law. Little bodies, or particles of the same kind, observe continually the same rules of attracting, repelling, &c. We are so far acquainted with the laws of gravitation and motion that we are able to calculate their effects and supply a defect of power in ourselves by mechanical powers. As to vegetables, we see how they are determined by certain methods prescribed to them. Each produced from its proper seed hath the same texture of fibres, is nourished by the same kind of juices out of the earth, digested and prepared by the same kind of vessels, &c. As to animals there are laws common to them with inanimate beings and vegetables. The individuals of the several kinds have the same general shape and members to be managed after the same manner: the same vessels with the same fluids, with the same glands for their separation and distribution, and are stimulated by the same appetites.-Wooll. Sparsim. 96. If the Gods do not at all regard or order human affairs (which yet it is the highest impiety to imagine), to what purpose are our sacrifices, our supplications, our oaths, and our other acts of worship, by which we suppose the divine powers to be ever present and conversant among us.—Mar. Anton. lib. vi. ch. 44, and cited by Puffend. 66, fo. Sin autem Dii neque possunt nos juvare, neque volunt, nec omnino curant, nec quid agamus, animadvertunt, nec est quod ab his ad hominum vitam permanere possit, quid est quod ullos Diis immortalibus cultus, honores, aut preces adhibeamus ?-Cic. There have been men in the world who have thought the Gods not in the least concerned about human affairs. Were this opinion admitted to be true there could be no such thing as piety, holiness, or religion amongst men; for to pay these regards to the divine nature is most agreeable to goodness and to purity, provided they take notice of our actions and are the authors of any benefits and advantages in our lives. But if the Gods are neither able or willing to help us, nor at all bestow their care and observation on our proceedings, and so derive no blessings, no favors on mankind, to what end is our worship, our honors, or our prayers-the tribute we now pay to the immortal beings? As no virtue can exist in hypocrisy and shew, so especially piety would be soon lost in that disguise, and then farewell to all holiness and all religion, which being once banished the world, what could follow but the misery of the utmost disorder and of universal confusion? And again, what piety can you owe to him from whom you have received no benefit? or, how can he claim |