God; this faith, trust, and willing obedience would have had no sufficient election, if the providence of God towards man was in all and every case whatever as clear and evident, as the lustre of that noble image of it when shining in his meridian glory: and therefore it seems perfectly agreeable to reason, that, at the same time there should be instances enough in the conduct of God towards his intellectual creatures to induce a firm and rational faith in his just providence, there should likewise appear in his decrees external instances of unrewarded virtue and prosperous wickedness, equally for the rea son before assigned, of trying the heart of man as to his faith and obedience, and, at the same time, to give it a preponderating bias in the belief and expectation of a future state of retribution; which, on this ground, is most rationally inferred and established in the mind of every man, who entertains just ideas respecting the justice and goodness of God. In fact, if the things of this world were constantly managed in one way only, and without variation, we should be apt to conclude, that the world was governed by the rigid laws of a fatal necessity; and, on the other side, if there were no rule observed, no

method in the dispensations of providence, we should be tempted to believe that chance entirely ruled the world. But when we observe, that in the management of the things of this world, though there is a general rule discernible, namely, that in the judgment of all unprejudiced and rational men, the natural tendency of virtue is to promote human happiness, and that of vice, misery; yet, as circumstances or the different situations of men may render necessary, there are occasional or even frequent deviations from this general rule likewise discernible: we have just reason therefore to conclude, upon the whole, that the world is under the direction of an almighty Agent, who governs it according to the determinations of his own unerring will. Providence in this manner frequently interweaving adversity with prosperity into the lot of the righteous, has doubtless in view the accomplishment both of their faith and obedience; for a continued train of prosperous events might be apt to inflate and improperly elevate their minds, as a continued series of adversity would be very likely in the same ratio to sink and depress them: whereas, that well known uncertainty and change in the events of human

life, which seems to proceed from and is often ascribed to chance, is thus equally favourable to induce in it faith and obedience, and to balance the mind and affections into an even, steady, and well poised temper and dependence on God. So that it is very clear and evident, that if there was an exact and uniform course of things in this our life of trial and probation, it would be a much stronger objection against the wisdom of God, than such occurrences as may have the appearance of proceeding from chance are against his providence; and to object against the providence of God for making use of a mode of government which we ig norantly ascribe to chance, is in reality to object against wisdom for acting most suitably to its own designs.

In an Essay written on the Unreasonableness of Scepticism, by the Author of this Treatise, his ideas are at large expressed on the subject of a particular providence, to which the reader is referred, without a recapitulation of the arguments therein adduced; nor will any endeavour be made to answer all the frivolous and silly objections, with which the vanity and folly of some men have presumed to charge the providence of God: but the

following objection having some appearance of reason, an attempt will be made to refute it.

From observing that vicious, cruel, and tyrannical men are often seated on thrones, and have it in their power thereby to oppress and render unhappy a large portion of the human race, some people have presumed to arraign the providence of God; but these persons do not appear to consider, that this cannot be prevented, whilst man is a free agent, without such a constant and immediate interposition on the part of God, as it may be inconsistent with his own dignity and pleasure to make. If the Deity had not given man reason and conscience in such full measure, as to shew him the absurdity and folly of tyranny and vice, and the beauty and expediency of virtue: if he had not in all ages appointed men to display the wisdom of every monarch's acting justly, mercifully, and piously; to the Jewish kings, his prophets; and to other kings, such men as Zoroaster, Confucius, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, and others: if the universal opinion of all mankind, high and low, rich and poor, was not, that a virtuous conduct is right, and a vicious and tyrannical one wrong, confirmed by the suggestion, intima

tion, and conclusion of every man's reason and conscience: if God Almighty has so interwoven this opinion into the human heart, that all mankind admit it as a truth: and if, with respect to the princes of Christendom, this opinion is so strengthened by the page of Revelation, that it can never be violated without conscious guilt: further, if this particular warning is given to princes, both in sacred and profane history, that the reigns of very bad kings have not in general been long, and that tyrants not only live but usually die miserably, and for the most part come to an untimely end; an assertion proved by the Roman history; for out of fifty-seven successive emperors, from Julius Cæsar to Augustulus, thirty-eight were murdered, only nineteen dying naturally: if God has thus fenced virtue and piety, and given such a preponderating bias in their favour, no man ought to think his goodness at all impeached by the vicious conduct of bad kings, or by the abuse of the great power with which they are invested. For, as before observed, without a constant miraculous interposition on the part of God, which it may not please him to adopt, being perhaps inconsistent with his own dignity, and with