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will see that a just apprehension of it would have withheld them from their false and superficial theories, all of which are, in fact, founded on a consideration of man irrespective of his relations to God; and will find, on the other, that the nearer approximation of Cudworth, Clark, Butler, Price, and Stewart to a correct theory, is just in proportion to their nearer approach to the sight and recognition of the fact that the chief reasons of our obligations are in our relations to the Deity.

HORE METAPHYSICÆ.

No. I.-THE GROUND OF THE CONTINUED BEING OF
CREATED EXISTENCES.

Ir is characteristic of a great proportion of the standard treatises on mental philosophy, that they contemplate man irrespectively of his relations to the Deity, and accordingly either wholly omit, misrepresent, or at best but very imperfectly treat many of the most interesting questions respecting his being, character, and destiny. No just conception however, it is obvious, can be formed of his nature, his obligations, and his actions, without just views of his relations to the infinite being from whom he derives his existence; of the perpetual agency by which he is sustained; of the diversified and powerful causes whose influence he is continually experiencing; and that it is in the neglect or misapprehension of these, that many of the fatal errors which have disfigured the metaphysical systems of the last two centuries had their origin. In place of these false and cheerless aspects, as alien from the spirit of philosophy as they are from the doctrines of religion, I design to invite the reader's attention, in a series of articles, to some of the chief of these themes in their theological relations to man as the work of the Deity, contrived by his wisdom, created and upheld by his power, living in his presence, and subject perpetually, directly and mediately to his agency.

The first relation sustained by man, is his relation, as an

effect, to God as his cause; whose wisdom devised his nature, and fixed the measure of his faculties; whose fiat called him into existence.

That we are the work of God, is seen from the fact that we begin to exist, and are effects therefore; that we are not created by our fellow-creatures, as they consciously neither cause, nor are capable of causing, or comprehending our nature; that our nature is such as none but a being of infinite wisdom and power could contrive and cause; and that we are part of a boundless system of effects that exhibit, in all their elements, resistless proofs of having sprung from the same all-wise and almighty mind.

The next relation sustained by us, is that which subsists between us as dependent existences, and God as the continuer of our being.

That we are indebted to the direct and ceaseless agency of God for our continued existence, is seen from the same facts that demonstrate it to have been by him that we were called into being. The ground of our continued existence demonstrably either lies in ourselves, or in some exterior cause. To suppose that it lies in ourselves, is to suppose that we are self-existent, which is obviously not the fact. The cause of our continued being, therefore, lies wholly out of ourselves, and is no other than the infinite intelligence who at first gave us existence.

It will, perhaps, in dissent from this, be thought to be unnecessary to refer the continuance of our being, from one moment to another, to the agency of a cotemporaneous cause out of ourselves; and assumed that being brought into existence, we shall, as a matter of course, continue to be, unless driven back into nothingness by the direct act of the same almighty cause that created us. That, however, is, in so many words, to assume that our nature itself is the

reason of our present existence; and that is to contradict all proof that we were, at any former period, the effect of an almighty external cause. If our present existence is not the effect of an external cotemporaneous cause, then either it is not the effect of any cause whatever, or else its cause lies wholly in ourselves. To suppose that there is no ground or reason whatever of our present existence, is irrational. To suppose that the ground of our present being lies wholly in ourselves, or, which is the same, that our nature is the reason of our continued existence, is to suppose that we are now self-existent. It is to assume also that no necessity or propriety exists for supposing that at some former period, the reason of our existence was external to ourselves. If our nature itself is a sufficient explication of our present existence, on what ground can it be assumed or admitted that it was not at all previous periods of our being? If no external cause is now necessary to account for it, how can it be shown that such a cause is necessary to account for it at any former time?

There is no medium, therefore, between the doctrinetoo obviously false and absurd to gain a moment's credence that we are self-existent; and the doctrine, that our existence, through each successive moment, is the direct work of the same almighty intelligence that at first formed us.

God then is the sole and immediate cause of our present existence, in the same manner as he was of our first coming into being; that our nature in all its elements is now what it is, is the effect of his present omnipotent volition in the same manner as his will was the ground of its being what it was at the commencement of our existence. Were he for an instant to intermit that volition, we should during that period cease to be;-were he to withdraw from us his supporting hand, there is nothing in our nature or in any other

cause, that would prevent us from immediately reverting to our original nothingness. Such is the fact also with respect to all other created beings and objects. The cotemporaneous will of the Almighty is through every stage of it the sole cause of their existence.

This great truth, thus clearly discerned by reason, is also expressly asserted by revelation. The Scriptures teach us that "it is in him that we live, and move, and have our being," and not only exhibit all the causes that influence us, and the whole intelligent and material world as subject to his control, but assert likewise that "he upholdeth all things by the word of his power."

This cardinal fact of philosophy and religion has important relations.

1. Being thus through each successive moment the effects of his cotemporaneous agency; ourselves, the objects that surround us, the whole fabric of the universe, are continual proofs and tokens to us of the being, the presence, and the activity of the Deity. As it is because he is ever with us and exerting his infinite attributes, that we exist— our being itself, every fellow creature whom we behold, and every object that meets our eyes, is a signal of him; a proof of his immediate agency, as direct and palpable, as the clearest visible display of himself, as the most stupendous miracle could form. Thus regarded, they become invested with a delightful, with a sublime interest. Bespeaking on every hand his being, his boundless intelligence, his illimitable power, his ceaseless activity; they are at once so many symbols of his presence, and appeals to us to recognise, adore, and trust him.

2. The fact that the Most High thus upholdeth all things by the word of his power, is demonstrative of the universality of his knowledge.

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