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SERMON II.

PROV. XV. 3°

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

IN my introductory discourse, I laid before

you such proofs of that first article of all religion, the being of a God, as I thought the plaineft to be understood, fittest to convince, and the easiest to be remembered; I proceed now one step farther in the design which I then propofed, and fhall endeavour to fhew, that God is not an inactive, incurious and negligent being, that he is not one who concerns himself no longer with the creatures he has formed, and that he does not leave mankind and the government of the world to chance and accident, or to meer human conduct and direction.

VOL. I.

And

And unless this great truth can be made out clearly, it is to no purpose, at least to no useful purpose, that we believe there is a God. If we are not fully perfuaded that he prefides over and governs all his works, that his eyes are in every place, as the wife king in the text expreffes it, and particularly that he regards the actions of men, beholding the evil and the good, all the foundations of religion are at once undermined and overthrown there is no ground for prayer to the Supreme Being, none for praise and thanksgiving, none for any part of fpiritual worship. A being, however excellent in himself, however worthy to be adored on account of his having created us, is no neceffary object of our worship, if he overlooks all our religious homage, and confines all his attention and obfervation within himself.

But most certainly he not only beholds how all things pass here below; but acts an overruling part in them, guiding and directing the whole: He often interpofes in the principal and important actions of mankind, steering the helm of kingdoms and other governments: and he fometimes interests himself fo far as to act in the affairs of private men; he always fuftains

fuftains and upholds by his immediate power, the frame of the universe or the courfe of nature, and supports the several parts of this great piece of divine workmanship so that nothing happens without either his direction, or at least without his permiffion.

All those particulars might easily be proved and made out for clear truths by many paffages of holy fcripture. Indeed the whole scripture is plainly built upon this article, because it contains one perpetual account of the divine Providence interesting itself in the affairs of men from the creation of the world down to the fulness of time, when the gofpel was preached and published: but the method, in which I have engaged myself at present, requires that I fhould forbear to bring any proofs from the fcriptures, till their divine authority be fully eftablished; which will be the work of fome fubfequent discourses.

My present business is to fhew from reafon only and the light of nature, that it is certain, or at leaft highly probable, that there is a divine Providence exercised over the world: And becaufe the word providence is at two different times used in two different fenfes, it may be proper

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proper to observe, that fometimes it fignifies only God's obferving and taking notice of things done here on earth; though at other times it is used in a much larger fenfe, and by faying that there is a providence, we mean that God interposes and takes a directing part in the course of nature and in the actions of his creatures.

I fhall therefore undertake at present to prove,

Firft, That God fees and takes notice of all things done here earth. And, upon

Secondly, that he is not merely a spectator, but concerns himself immediately in them, exercifing what divines call an actual providence in the world.

In proof of the first of these propofitions, viz. That God fees, obferves, and takes notice of all that paffes here on earth among us, it may be faid, that this feems to be a nececeffary confequence of God's having created the world: for the reason, which the royal pfalmist asfigns, will always be a fubftantial one, though the perfon affigning it should not be an inspired teacher, as he was: He that planted the ear, fhall he not hear? He that formed the eye, fhall

be

be not fee? To be fure, thofe perfections, which are in the creatures, are in the Creator in a more eminent, in an infinite degree. None may deny then, that God can make a full and intimate furvey of every part of his own works. And if he can, there are strong reasons to conclude, that he does: for why fhould he create at first what was not worthy of his regard afterwards? What he created, he created good and perfect in its kind. Mofes, in his account of the creation, tells us, that God faw every thing that he had made, and behold it was good. I do not make use of Moses' authority for proof of this. Reafon tells it us as plainly as Mofes, that an infinitely wife and powerful being could not fet about any work and not finish it to that degree of excellency, of which its nature was capable. Now, this being admitted, we must suppose the world when made, as worthy of God's regard, as when it was making: And he who will allow it to be a piece of divine workmanship, must be perverse indeed, if he will not allow that it is an object fit to employ the divine care and attention.

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