it be to suppose that one being formed the earth, another the plants, another the fowls, and others the land and fea animals belonging to it; fince they are all intimately related to, and connected with, each other, and in fact are only parts of one whole. If we carry our views farther, we fhall fee the reasonableness of concluding that the earth and the moon, the fun and the planetary system, nay the fyftems of funs, and every thing comprised in the whole univerfe, had but one and the fame author; fince the fame law of gravitation, and probably many other laws, connect them all.

Farther, as no intelligent being does any thing without fome view, or design, we must conclude that every thing in nature has its specific and proper uses; that nothing was formed in vain; the most inconfiderable article, as it may appear to us, being as effential to the whole as the larger and more prominent parts. And as the laws of nature must be intimately known to the Author of them, he must foresee every thing that can come to pass, and must have planned every thing that

comes

comes to pass from the beginning, fo that nothing can ever oppofe his defign. This is what we call the doctrine of an univerfal and particular Providence, or the adaptation of all things, and of all events, to the defigns of that great Being who planned, and who prefides over, the whole. This is a truth no lefs clear and indubitable, than it is fublime, and confounding to our understandings.

I frequently read the writings of your atheistical philofophers, that I may clearly understand, and enter into, your views and feelings. I wish you would do the fame with respect to our writings. In your endeavours to exclude the idea of a designing cause from the univerfe, I perceive much embarraffment and contradiction, when you would fubftitute the term Nature for that of God. You are ftruck with the manifeft wonders of nature, and look no farther. I fee the fame wonders, but they lead me to revere the great Author of nature, that mind which comprehends the whole. You fee nothing in nature but effects. I revere the cause. What you

afcribe

afcribe to a blind undefigning principle, fomething that bears no analogy to what we call mind, or perfon, I ascribe to a proper intelligent Being, a Being, whom I confider, and am happy in confidering, as ever present with me, and attentive to me, and to all things; who brought me into being for the most benevolent purposes, and who will conduct me through all the stages of it. You fee nothing around you but fomething to gaze at. I look beyond all this, to a Being, or a person, that I can speak to, the object of my gratitude, my attachment, and my confidence.

you

Acknowledge then, that whatever elfe may think of my fentiments, they make me happier than yours can poffibly make you; especially when it is added, that, in my ideas, the prefent life is by no means the whole, nay, but the very infancy of my existence, and that the great Being who made me, and who has placed me in a school of difcipline here, will not leave me in the grave, but produce me again, in circumstances much more favourable than the prefent.

Here,

Here, I am fenfible, you will smile again; but attend to what I fhall obferve on this fub

ject in my next Letters.

I am, &c.

LETTER IV.

Of the Evidence of the Miracles performed in Attestation of the Jewish and Chriftian Religion.

GENTLEMEN,

ADMITTING the being of a God, and

his conftant Providence, you ask me what evidence I have of a future ftate. I answer (and I beg you will not revolt at my language, but have the patience to hear me out) the express declaration of God himself, that he will raise men from the dead at a future period, and that he will then render unto them according to their works; and you cannot doubt the power of the Author of nature to do this.

If

you afk me the evidence of this, which I know you will think a ftrange affertion, I

anfwer,

anfwer, that this has been declared by men who were commiffioned by God for the purpofe, and who proved their miffion from him by fuch works as God only, the Author of nature, could perform, viz. real miracles, an evidence of a power that could controul the laws of nature.

Again, the proof that fuch miracles have been wrought is fuch teftimony as cannot be denied without admitting ftill greater miracles, viz. that numbers of persons, the best qualified to judge of them, and who had no motive to impose upon others, attest their reality. Since, to fuppofe that all those perfons were either deceived themfelves, or concurred in a scheme to impofe upon others, would be more evidently contrary to the known courfe of nature refpecting mankind (who we must take for granted have been the fame in all ages) than the reality of the miracles which they atteft; this, when all the circumstances of the cafe are attentively confidered, being a more manifeft violation of the established laws of nature, than the other, and for no rational end.

For