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then we had better say so at once, or at least carry this signification in our thoughts, though we clothe it in some different form of words. So, in like manner, when we assert that it is nature, or that it is the force of nature, that covers the earth with verdure, makes trees and plants push out their leaves with renewed vigour as the season of every year returns, we should say that it is God who does this-that it is the power of God which causes these effects; for if the word Nature, in these expressions, does not mean God himself, what does it mean? What other different sense can be given it, to be intelligible? To say that God does one thing or causes another, is speaking what we can understand; because God is an actual efficient being. There is a real agent for the operation, a real cause for a real effect. But when we talk of nature as the cause or doer of any thing, when, in truth, there is no such being as nature at all, distinct and separate from God himself, it is to set up a new word or name, or at least a mere imaginary existence, as the actual worker and performer of natural productions. In some other expressions, the absurdity, when the expressions come to be examined, is more flagrant. By way of accounting for any beautiful or curious appearance, which we observe amongst the varieties with which the earth is covered, we say it is the nature of the plant, or the nature of the soil? What nature? The nature of the plant. What is this? If it stands for any thing, it stands for the law, and order, and power of God, according to which

he carries on the increase and restitution of the plant : so that we should in truth and propriety say, when we would give a reason (if it can be called a reason) for the curious construction and beautiful formation of a plant or animal, instead of saying it belongs to the nature of such a plant or animal, that it is the method in which God has contrived, and according to which he made and still preserves it. Nature is nothing—is no real being--has no reality or existence. It is God who is all in all. The word nature, when we use it, unless it means the power of God, means nothing. We should therefore accustom ourselves to say nothing but what is the plain truth, that God does make or produce all things, instead of saying that nature does either the one or the other. Or if we conform to customary and established ways of speaking, we should carefully bear in mind that what we call nature is in truth God-that it is he whom we mean that he alone, is the agent in all these things—and that nature is only the method by which he chooses to act and operate amongst us.

But, lastly, another circumstance, which takes off our attention from the works of God, is their regularity. All these, we see, proceed in a regular manner: day and night succeed one another-the sun rises and sets at its own stated time and placethe sea ebbs and flows as it has done before-the seasons, and the changes which belong to them, come round in their stated order; this, I say, takes off the mind from remarking that they are effected at all,

or that there must be necessarily some great being at work to bring them to pass. Should we see a miracle, the sun, for instance, to stand still, or the tide cease to flow, we should not doubt but that there was a power and cause from which to produce it; but it does not strike us, what yet is very certain, that there is an equal necessity for a power and a cause for carrying on the course of things. "Since the fathers fell asleep, all things (we are apt, as Saint Peter observes, to say) continue the same from the beginning of the world ;" but does this less prove the hand of a master, because they go on truly and exactly? Because God is pleased, in his general operations, to act regularly, shall we think that he does not act at all? especially when that very regularity is one great perfection of his works. How would husbandry be carried on, if the seasons were not regular, and to be depended upon beforehand? How could the navigation of the sea be managed if its tides were not constant? This circumstance shows, therefore, infinite wisdom; but it does not show the less power, or any less certainty of that power having been exerted. Without a cause, without a contriver, without a maker, without a power to produce these things, they could no more come to pass regularly than they could irregularly. The sun could no more rise or set in a certain course than in an uncertain one.

To sum up the whole. There cannot be a more sure proof that a house must have had a builder, or a watch a maker, than there is that the world had a

Creator; and this proof is neither more nor less valid, because that Creator, like many of the great powers of the universe, of whose existence we are nevertheless convinced, is invisible to our eyes; nor yet because we have fallen into a way of attributing things to nature which, at the best, means nothing, instead of regarding things as the operations of God; nor, lastly, because the general works of the Deity, instead of surprising us by strange and unnatural appearances, for the most part proceed in a constant and regular order.

XXVII.

UNITY OF GOD.

MARK XII. 29.

Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord.

We have been so much accustomed to think and speak of one God, as the maker and governor of the universe, and to hear all use the same language, and express the same persuasion about the matter, that we are not easily brought to suspect that the notions of mankind upon the subject were ever different from what they are whereas in truth, before the reception of Christianity in the world, the people of almost every country, the Jews excepted, maintained that there existed a great number and variety of gods, dwelling together in heaven, and governing the world amongst them; endowed with different powers and dispositions; exercising different offices, and presiding over different events; sometimes carrying on the affairs of the universe, as it were, in conjunction, and sometimes striving and contending with one another about them. This was the ancient belief of a great part of the world; and although many are now brought to the same opinion upon the subject, namely--that

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