AGENCY OF THE DEITY. 365 



(Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, 

 p. 37.) " We would no way be understood to 

 deny the constant exercise of His direct power 

 in maintaining the system of nature ; or the ulti- 

 mate emanation, of every energy which material 

 agents exert, from his immediate will, acting in 

 conformity with his own laws." And the Bishop 

 of London, in a note to his " Sermon on the duty 

 of combining religious instruction with intel- 

 lectual culture," observes, " the student in na- 

 tural philosophy will find rest from all those 

 perplexities which are occasioned by the ob- 

 scurity of causation, in the supposition, which 

 although it was discredited by the patronage of 

 Malebranche and the Cartesians, has been 

 adopted by Clarke and Dugald Stewart, and 

 which is by far the most simple and sublime 

 account of the matter ; that all the events which 

 are continually taking place in the different 

 parts of the material universe, are the immediate 

 effects of the divine agency." 



