NATURAL THEOLOGY. 157 



As moral agents we should experience a still 

 greater alteration ; of which more will be said 

 under the next article. 



Although, therefore, the Deity, who possesses 

 the power of winding and turning, as he pleases, 

 the course of causes which issue from himself, do 

 in fact interpose to alter or intercept effects which, 

 without such interposition, would have taken 

 place ; yet it is by no means incredible that his 

 Providence, which always rests upon final good, 

 may have made a reserve with respect to the mani- 

 festation of his interference, a part of the very 

 plan which he has appointed for our terrestrial ex- 

 istence, and a part conformable with, or in some 

 sort required by, other parts of the same plan. It 

 is at any rate evident, that a large and ample pro- 

 vince remains for the exercise of Providence 

 without its being naturally perceptible by us ; 

 because obscurity, when applied to the interrup- 

 tion of laws, bears a necessary proportion to the 

 imperfection of our knowledge when applied to 

 laws themselves, or rather to the effects which 

 these laws, under their various and incalcula- 

 ble combinations, would of their own accord pro- 

 duce. And if it be said, that the doctrine of 

 Divine Providence, by reason of the ambigu- 

 ity under which its exertions present themselves, 

 can be attended with no practical influence upon 

 our conduct; that, although we believe ever so 

 firmly that there is a Providence, we must pre- 

 pare, and provide, and act, as if there were none ; 

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