diftinguishing: they make no Difference be- SERM. V.
tween him that ferveth God, and Him
that ferveth him not: But God doth For
no good Man, I believe, ever prayed con-
ftantly and affectionately to his Maker, with-
out having an Experience, that God has an-
fwered his Prayers at fome nice and critical
Conjuncture. If all Things happen accord-
ing to the Laws of Mechanifm, by a fixed
Chain of natural Caufes, without any Act
of a respective Providence, without any
Superintendency and Direction of Events;
then we live, to all Appearance, in a fa-
therlefs World, liable to a thousand Dan-
gers, Cafualties and Diftreffes, which no
Forefight can prevent, no Skill elude, no
Power fence off. It is an Impeachment of
God's Goodness to suppose, that as soon as
he has made any Man, he difmiffes him
immediately out of his Hands and abandons
him, without a Defign to answer his Pray-
ers, or take any farther Notice of Him in
his Paffage through this World, or to ac-
commodate the Dispensations of Providence
to his Wants and Deportment.

3dly, Instinct is a Proof, that Providence extends itself to every particular Brute; Instinct being the immediate Ener

gy

1

;

SERM. V.gy of the Deity acting upon each of the Brute Creation. For it operates, as foon as Animals are born: As foon as they make their Entrance upon, this new Scene, the World, they do not act as mere Strangers: They seem to be acquainted with the Food that is beneficial to them, and to shun what is dangerous. A defencelefs Brood, when Danger threatens, takes Shelter under the Wings of their Parent while another Brood, though hatched under the fame Fowl, runs to the Water, regardless of the affectionate Cries and tender Yearnings of their FofterMother, which would call them away from an Element, which it thinks deftructive to them. Now, what we call Instinct, cannot be the Refult of mere Matter and Motion: For undirected Matter and Motion cannot fhun Danger, and pursue what is advantageous. It cannot be the Effect of Reafon in the Creatures themselves: For Reafon is an Acquifition, and Men ripen into rational Beings by a progreffive Opening and Unfolding of the Mind. Reason is an improveable Faculty, in it's Nonage for feveral Years; and our Souls, as well as Bodies, come naked into the World and unfurnished. Inftinct must be then, as I

faid before, the divine Energy acting im-SERM. V
mediately upon the Animal Creation: It
must be his Power, who giveth Fodder to
the Cattle, and feedeth the young Ravens
that call upon him.

Befides, every Species of Brutes obferves a peculiar Track; They go on in a Line without deviating from it; Inftinct does that by one unvarying Method, which Reafon does by feveral; They observe the fame Plan in the Structure of their Nefts, even those, which had never seen one before: Whereas if they had Reason, they would vary as much in their Schemes, as we do; they would project new Plans and improve old ones. And whereas rational Creatures can correct the Reports of the Senfes, and over-rule their Solicitations ; Brutes are entirely governed by natural Impulfes, and by the Prompting of the fenfitive Appetites.

Now if Providence condefcends to regard every Individual in the Brute Creation so far, as to act constantly in it and upon it; fhall he not much more extend his Care to every particular Perfon in the rational World, and adapt his Difpenfations to the Neceffities of each fingle Perfon in it? Confider

the

SERM. V the Fowls of the Air; for they sow not, nei

ther do they reap, nor gather into Barns ; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: Are ye not much better than They? He, whofe overflowing Bounty has fupplied the Birds of the Air and the Beafts of the Field with whatever is fuitable to their Natures, will provide for Mankind in a Way fuited to the Condition of the rational Nature. He openeth his Hand and filleth all things living with Plenteousness: And fhall he not answer the various Occafions and Circumftances of Man, the Mafter-piece of the vifible Creation ?

4thly, Those who admit a general Providence, but deny a particular one, seem to forget that Generals are nothing but a Collection of Particulars; they are nothing but the Sum total of Individuals. And confequently as Generals include Particulars; a general Providence muft imply a particular one. If the Whole of worldly Affairs and Concerns be the universal Chain of Providence; then each Man's private Concerns are one Link of that Chain which is affixed to the Throne and directed by the unerring Hand of God. Whatever other Laws, by which the World is governed,

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there

there may be; the fupreme Law, to which SERM. V. all the reft must give Way, is the Intereft of the Whole: And the Intereft of the Whole cannot be promoted without a constant Regard to the Parts, of which the whole is compofed. Now if a fixed, determined and unchangeable Courfe of Nature could be made to correfpond to the various Interefts and Exigencies of free and mutable Agents; there would be no Occafion for any Interpofition of the Deity, who may have made Provifion for particular Cafes in his original Conftitution of Things. But if this be, as perhaps it is, impoffible, if many beneficial Events of the highest Importance may be brought about, and much needlefs Mifery fometimes prevented by a particular Direction of Matter, which cannot, of itself, change it's Line of Direction; it is derogatory, one would think, to God's Goodness to imagine, that He would, merely for the Sake of acting simply and uniformly, without any other End in View, make Mankind or any Part of Mankind undeservedly and unnecessarily unhappy or that He, who can order Matters fo, that his Footsteps shall not be known, fhould never go out of the common Road of his Providence to avert E

vil