decisions as to what is great or small? There is a world in the worm on which we tread, and yet our earth, the sun and planetary worlds, are but a point compared with

Orb above orb ascending without end!

Circle in circle without end enclosed!

The eye of the astronomer peers through immeasurable and uncomprehended space, and losing sight of earth, and its associate worlds, he exclaims in utter overwhelming. amazement,

Of worlds, that laugh at earth! Immensely great!
Immensely distant from each other's spheres,

What then the wond'rous space through which they roll?
At once it quite ingulphs all human thought:

"Tis comprehension's absolute defeat.

If then the agency of God extends to systems only, where shall it begin? And where shall it end? But how shall the whole system be preserved, if the different parts are neglected? The truth is the objection is altogether a rash one, and if it be carried out, and the principle be fully admitted, that individual beings are too low for God to notice, we must land in Atheism. For if it be beneath Him to preserve it is equally beneath Him to create. Let the objector who perhaps is not prepared to run with his objection to this extent, but who scoffs at the idea of God's care over the individual parts of his creation, tell us why He made a flea or even a philosopher. The whole force of the objection lies in this absurd assumption, that small things have a power to preserve themselves, and need no particular care and agency of God, but that great things have not.

It is rather singular that human pride should have betrayed itself so completely! The real secret, however, of all this opposition to God's intimate concern with the things of this world, is not, that these men have in reality

any greater reverence for the Divine Being, nor that they are more jealous of his honour than others, nor that they do design to exalt his character and excellence. Far from it; but because they do not "like to retain God in their knowledge." It is rather an unwelcome and painful thought that He is ever and every where present, "beholding both the evil and the good." Therefore they endeavour to impose on their own consciences, and persuade themselves, with the old Epicureans, that He has withdrawn from the earth, and left, with all his creatures, what is called a plastic nature, to regulate and preserve them. Thus, for ease of mind they take refuge in practical Atheism, and dignify it with the name of philosophy. "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God."2 "How doth God know, and is there knowledge with the Most High."3 The Psalmist will be found right, for whatever system men have devised, let them call it philosophy, or science, or rationalism, or what they choose, if they exclude the immediate cognizance, and care of God, from the affairs of this world, and deny any concurring co-operative agency on His part, giving efficiency to second causes, it will be found on a candid and careful examination to be mere folly. Common sense will discover absurdity marked and glaring, where the jaundiced eye of the Atheistical philosopher cannot detect it.

The idea does not seem to have entered the mind of these infidel philosophers, that there can be any particular providence, on the part of God, without a miracle or departing from the general laws of nature.

Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires,
Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?

On air or sea new motions be imprest,

Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?

When the torn mountain trembles from on high,

Shall gravitation cease if you go by?

1 Rom. i. 28.

2. Psalm xiv. 1.

3. Psalm lxxiii. 11.

Thus ignorantly asks the unbeliever! But let us askcannot God, previously, direct that the sage shall not require, nor be endangered by Etna's fires? Shall not his steps be so directed, as not to pass by the trembling mountain? The objection seems to take it for granted, that a particular providence is a providence in emergencies which may require the control or suspension of some established law. But there are no emergencies with providence. "He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." "The steps of a good man are all ordered of the Lord." "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish." What men may purpose in evil, God oft times means for good, as Joseph said to his brethren, "But as for you ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. "'4

The whole language of scripture teaches a steady and efficient care and agency, on the part of God, in the preservation of the world and its inhabitants. "Upholding all things by the word of His power." "By Him all things consist." "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." "In Him we live, move and have our being.' These may suffice, and they are so plain as to need no comment. The agency of God, and that continuously, in the support of all things, is a fact most clearly asserted in the sacred scriptures.

To God, in the person of the Spirit, we have already seen belongs the whole department of life, and it is therefore to His continuous agency, that we are to attribute the preservation of the vital functions and energies of all that lives. It was to this Spirit's agency that the Psalmist attributed his con3 Psalm, i. 6

1 Eph. i. 11. 4 Gen. 1. 20.

2 Psalm, xxxvii. 23.
5 Heb. i. 3.

6 Col. i. 17.

tinuous growth in his mother's womb, and all his subsequent existence. And it is directly in reference to this efficient ever operative agency that he speaks when he exclaims. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Let us then cease from useless inquiry. "Our life is hid with Christ in God." We need never expect to unravel the mysteries of His agency in its production or perpetuation, nor to understand its nature. How he operates and excites the different parts and faculties of our being, and preserves them in appropriate action it were folly for us to inquire. That His agency however is directly and continuously exerted in relation to those characteristic actions which constitute the phenomena of life, is a truth plainly taught in the word of God. There is nothing to sanction the idea, that his agency consists merely in ordaining the laws, which are to regulate those actions, or in creating an essence or principle per se, which is the immediate cause of the phe

nomena.

Here for a moment let us pause. We feel as if we owed the reader some apology for the train of remarks into which we have fallen. They are designed to prepare the way for an illustration of one of the most interesting facts developed in the plan of redemption, viz., the regeneration of a sinner. It is the important use we intend to make of them, that must be our apology for attempting to define life, and illustrate the definition of it. The highest authority has required us to "prove all things," and although such proof be not the reason of our faith, yet for

1 Psalm, cxxxix. 7-10.

2 Col. iii. 3,

full confirmation in the faith of an essential fact, and doctrine, we have allowed ourselves to take an extensive range in our investigation, being thoroughly persuaded that there will be nothing found, in the kingdom of grace, at war with the great and fundamental principles established in the constitution of nature; and that they who reject, and treat with ribaldry this important scriptural tenet, as being mysterious or absurd, act a most unphilosophical part, and shew that they know not of what they speak, nor whereof they affirm.

We cannot, however, dismiss the topic which has in this chapter engaged our attention without adverting to some salutary uses which in our daily walk may be made of it. If life, in all its varieties be the effect of the Spirit's agency; then let us beware how we attempt, with rash and impious hand, to draw aside the veil in which He has inwrapped the mystery of His operations. It has sometimes affected us with the greatest astonishment, to see how presumptuous and self-confident have been the philosophic inquirers who have looked into this subject. They have discovered a few ✓ phenomena of life merely, and ventured to proclaim, that they could unravel all its mysteries. If observation and experiment were conducted with a view to ascertain facts, it would be well; but it, when one or two circumstances of life are discovered, men proudly presume that they understand the whole subject, and lose sight of God the fountain of all life, they are greatly to be pitied. Thus to hear men talk of sensibility, and contractility, and irritability, and other phenomena of life, may both interest and profit; but we lose all confidence in the soundness of their judgment, when they undertake to tell us that these things are the mere effect of organization, and not dependent on the Spirit of God. They assign a cause totally inadequate to account for the effect. We object not to the minutest, and most curious scrutiny. Let us push our investigations as far as possible;