SERMON III. THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD EXTENDING TO ALL NATURAL EVENTS. ISAIAH, xlv. 7. I form the light, and create darkness: 1 make peace and create evil: 1, the Lord, do all these things. THE providence of God expresses the concern which the Supreme Being takes in the events which come to pass through the created universe. This is a very interesting subject; and in discoursing upon it, I propose-First, to prove that all events are appointed by God, and are justly to be ascribed to him as their primary cause. I shall then inquire to what extent the agency of God is concerned in the production of all events. That all events are under the direction of divine Providence, and are justly to be ascribed to God as their proper and pri mary cause, is a truth supported by the clearest evidence. For God is the proper cause of all the powers which exist in nature, whether animate or inanimate, mechanical or voluntary. He assigned these several powers their respective spheres of action, and modelled their various combinations, certainly foreseeing the results which would eventually take place through the successions of an eternal duration. He therefore willed, appointed, or, as some chuse to express it, he decreed, that those events should, in all cases, come to pass, which he himself foresaw would be the natural and certain consequences of his own operations. To affirm the contrary would be absurd. Therefore, it is manifest that God is the PROPER and PRIMARY CAUSE of all events; of the least as well as of the greatest; of what we call EVIL, as well as of that which we denominate GOOD, agreeably to the language of the text I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things. I do not know any demonstration more clear and satisfactory than this. I cannot discover a single objection which can, with any plausibility, be urged against it. But as it involves conclusions of the highest importance, the argument deserves and requires a more distinct and detailed illustration. 1. All events depending upon mechanical powers, and what are usually styled the laws of nature, are to be traced up to God as their proper and primary cause! All that we know of matter is a combination of powers, acting according to certain stated rules and laws, by the mutual concurrence, opposition, or modifying influences of which, all those effects are produced to which we give the name of mechanical. Of these powers, whatever be their number, their diversity, or force, God is the proper and sole author. He disposed every particle in its original place; foreseeing in every instance the certain and necessary results of the powers which he communicated, and therefore unquestionably willing and ordaining those results; which, therefore, are as justly to be ascribed to God, as if, without having communicated any powers to inanimate substances, and without adhering to any fixed rules of operation, he should himself interpose directly and immediately, to bring the event to pass. The stupendous machinery of the universe is the work of God. "He rounded in his palm those spacious orbs, And bowled them flaming through the dark profound." He fixed the number of worlds and systems, and clusters of systems, with which the immensity of space is occupied, and, as it were, thronged. He measured out the vast expanse He divided it into convenient districts: He ranged the etherial systems: He filled the celestial orbs with light, and gave them their positions in the centres of their respective systems: He moulded the planets: He marked their dimensions: He adjusted their situations: He impressed their motions: He appointed the revolutions of their diurnal and annual course: He commanded the satellites to attend their respective primaries; and in the absence of the sun to cheer them with reflected light: He bridles the eccentricities of the comets, and arranges the laws of the various systems so as to produce effects the most beneficial to the inhabitants, by the mutual actions and influences of their component bodies, without any harsh interference or disastrous discord. Of the world in which we dwell he has adapted the form, the motions, the component parts, and the various productions, to the nature and exigencies of its numerous inhabitants: He communicated those active powers by which the earth revolves about the sun in its annual orbit, and impressed that obliquity upon its axis, which produces the grateful and useful vicissitudes of the seasons: He regulated its distance from the fountain of light and heat, in that proportion which insures the most agreeable and useful temperature, over the greatest extent of |