shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

I am of opinion that it is our unquestioned duty to inquire after everything in our journey to the eternal habitation which God has permitted us to know, and thus to raise difficulties in the way of our just search into Divine discoveries, is to act like Solomon's sluggard, who saith, "There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets" (Prov. xxii. 13). That is, he sits down in his ignorance, repulsed with imaginary difficulties, without making one step in the search after the knowledge which he ought to dig for as for hid treasure.

Let us, then, be encouraged to our duty; let us boldly inquire after everything that God has permitted us to know. I grant that secret things belong to God, and I shall labour to keep my due distance; but I firmly believe that there are no secret things belonging to God, and which as such we are forbidden to inquire into, but what also are so preserved in secrecy that by all our inquiries we cannot arrive at the knowledge of them; and it is a most merciful, as well as wise dispensation, that we are only forbid inquiring after those things which we cannot know, and that all those things are effectually locked up from our knowledge which we are forbidden to inquire into. The case is better with us than it was with Adam. We have not the tree of knowledge first planted in our view, as it were tempting us with its beauty, and within our reach, and then a prohibition upon pain of death; but blessed be God, we may eat of all the trees in the garden, and all those of which we are not allowed to take are placed both out of our sight and out of our reach.

I am making way here to one of the trees of sacred knowledge, which, though it may grow in the thick

est of the wood, and be surrounded with some briars and thorns, so as to place it a little out of sight, yet I hope to prove that it is our duty to taste of it, and that the way to come at it is both practicable and plain.

But to waive the allegory, as I am entering into the nicest search of Divine things that perhaps the whole scheme of religion directs us to, it is absolutely necessary at our entrance, if possible, to remove every difficulty, explain every principle, and lay down every foundation so undeniably clear, that nothing may appear dark or mysterious in our first conceptions of things-no stumbling-block lie at the threshold, and the humble reader may 'meet with no repulse from his own apprehensions of not understanding what he is going to read.

Listening to the voice of Providence is my subject; I am willing to suppose, in the first place, that I am writing to those who acknowledge the two grand principles upon which all religion depends. 1. That there is a God, a first great moving cause of all things, an eternal Power, prior, and consequently superior, to all power and being. 2. That this eternal Power, which I call God, is the Creator and Governor of all things, viz., of heaven and earth.

To avoid needless distinctions concerning which of the persons in the Godhead are exercised in the creating power, and which in the governing power, I offer that glorious text, Psalm xxxiii. 6, as a repulse to all such cavilling inquiries, where the whole Trinity is plainly entitled to the whole creating work: "By the Word (God the Son) of the Lord (God the Father) were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath (God the Holy Ghost) of His mouth."

Having thus presupposed the belief of the being

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and the creating work of God, and declared that I am writing to such only who are ready to own they believe that God is, and that He created the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that in them is, I think I need not make any preamble to introduce the following propositions, viz.:

1. That this eternal God guides by His providence the whole world, which He has created by His power.

2. That this Providence manifests a particular care over and concern in the governing and directing man, the best and last created creature on earth.

Natural religion proves the first, revealed religion proves the last of these beyond contradiction. Natural religion intimates the necessity of a Providence guiding and governing the world, from the consequence of the wisdom, justice, prescience, and goodness of the Creator.

It would be absurd to conceive of God exerting infinite power to create a world, and not concerning His wisdom, which is His providence, in guiding the operations of Nature, so as to preserve the order of His creation, and the obedience and subordination of consequences and causes throughout the course of that nature, which is in part the inferior life of that creation.

Revealed religion has given such a light into the care and concern of this Providence, in an especial manner, in and over that part of the creation called man, that we must likewise deny principles if we enter into disputes about it.

For him the peace of the creation is preserved, the climates made habitable, the creatures subjected and made nourishing, all vegetative life made medicinal; so that indeed the whole creation seems to be entailed upon him as an inheritance, and given to him for a possession, subjected to his authority, and

governed by him as viceroy to the King of all the earth; the management of it is given to him as tenant to the great Proprietor, who is Lord of the manor, or Landlord of the soil. And it cannot be conceived, without great inconsistency of thought, that this world is left entirely to man's conduct, without the supervising influence and the secret direction of the Creator.

This I call Providence, to which I give the whole power of guiding and directing of the creation, and managing of it, by man who is His deputy or substitute, and even the guiding, influencing, and overruling man himself also.

Let critical annotators enter into specific distinctions of Providence, and its way of acting, as they please, and as the formalities of the schoolmen direct; the short description I shall give of it is this, that it is that operation of the power, wisdom, justice, and goodness of God by which He influences, governs, and directs not only the means, but the events, of all things which concern us in this world.

I say it is that operation, let them call it what they will, which acts thus; I am no way concerned to show how it acts, or why it acts thus and thus in particular; we are to reverence its sovereignty, as it is the finger of God Himself, who is the Sovereign Director; and we are to observe its motions, obey its dictates, and listen to its voice, as it is, and because it is, particularly employed for our advantage.

It would be a very proper and useful observation here, and might take up much of this work, to illustrate the goodness of Providence, in that it is, as I say, particularly employed for the advantage of mankind. But as this is not the main design, and will come in naturally in every part of the work I am upon, I refer it to the common inferences, which are to be drawn from the particulars, as I go on.

It is, indeed, the most rational foundation of the whole design before me; it is therefore that we should listen to the voice of Providence, because it is principally determined, and determines all other things, for our advantage.

But I return to the main subject the voice of Providence, the language or the meaning of Providence.

Nothing is more frequent than for us to mistake Providence, even in its most visible appearances; how easy, then, must it be to let its silent actings, which perhaps are the most pungent and significant, pass our observation.

I am aware of the error many fall into, who, determining the universal currency of events to Providence, and that not the minutest thing occurs in the course of life but by the particular destination of Heaven, by consequence entitle Providence to the efficiency of their own follies; as if a person presuming to smoke his pipe in a magazine of gunpowder should reproach Providence with blowing up the castle, for which indeed he ought to be hanged; or a man leaving his house or shop open in the night, should charge Providence with appointing him to be robbed, and the like. Nay, to carry it farther, every murderer or thief may allege Providence, that determines and directs everything, directed him to such wickedness; whereas Providence itself, notwithstanding the crimes of men, is actively concerned in no evil.

But I pass all these things; the subject I am treating upon is of another nature. The design here is to instruct us in some particular things relating to Providence and its government of men in the world, which it will be worth our while to observe, without inquiring how far it does or does not act in other methods.