II. exactly adapted to the exigences and na- DISC. ture of each; all these circumstances excite our admiration, and we know in fact that fuch provifion is made for every animal from the lowest to the higheft; but nothing in the world appears competent to produce effects fo wife and beneficent. If we look to the heavens, we are struck with the splendour of the fun, moon, and ftars: we can calculate the motions of the planets, foretel many phoenomena which will happen in our fyftem, and thence establish observations highly useful to man. But whence the fun derives its heat and light, and why the planets defcribe their orbits in a particular line, we know not from any power in them felf-originate. To the Almighty word, which first called into being every part of creation, to the divine will, which firft decreed that every particle of inanimate and animate, irrational and rational matter, fhould be endued with certain peculiar properties, we 3" In caufarum corporearum inveftigatione occupati, " ineluctabiles offendimus difficultates, quia nullas re II. DIS C. we muft afcribe the modes and effences operating around us in a manner fo wonderful. "Canft thou by searching find out "God, canft thou find out the Almighty "unto perfection? It is as high as heaven, "what canft thou do; deeper than hell, "what canft thou know? The measure thereof "is longer than the earth, and broader than "the feat." It is God that ordains the laws of nature; why thofe laws are ordained after this or that particular manner we know not, otherwise than that they are founded in wifdom infinite. Into God's wisdom and omnipotence we muft, with all humility, refolve the original principles on which every fyftem in the universe is conducted, 4 Job, xi. 7, 8, 9. "gulas, aut certiora indicia huc ufque habemus, ex quibus "à phænomenis incipiendo, nos totam feriem caufarum abfque hiatu confiderâffe, et a primâ ad ultimam indagando et ratiocinando perveniffe verè fcimus: quando " ad ultimam, quæ à folâ Dei potentiâ pendet, perven"iffemus, connexionem claram inter caufam et divinam " potentiam non intelligeremus: quia nunquam quomodo Deus, qui eft fpiritus infinitus, in corpora operatur, ab animo humano concipi poterit. "Verùm Deus inftrumenta, quibus univerfum immediatè regit, tam denfis involvit noftri respectu ingenii tenebris, II. conducted, and forbear prefumptuous and DIS C. vain enquiry into the divine counfels, which from the mind of man will ever be hidden. That the world, and all things therein, are made as they are by God's appointment, fhould, and indeed muft fatisfy us in all our investigations into primary causes: why He fo made them, and wherefore fuch an appointment, it becomes us not to ask, it concerns us not to know; it is the lot and infirmity of man to be ignorant. From the ftate of ignorance, in which as men we must ever remain, with respect to the divine appointments in the natural world, we fhould conclude that we must be ignorant of God's counsels in the spiritual "tenebris, ut Philofophi ea eruere et extricare nequeant ; ❝ ideò ubivis extemplo limites fcientiæ, invenimus: ita "increfcit noftra veneratio in Deum, atque infinitis paffibus ab eo, qui eft fons et origo omnium effectuum, "caufarum, et potentiarum, nos diftare advertimus et "confitemur: ita animum revelatis in facrâ fcripturâ "ultro fubmittimus, eamque licèt plurima fupra hominum "captum pofita complectatur, devoti veneramur." MUSSCHENBROEK's Introductio ad Philofo DISC. world. If the reafons, which moved the II. Almighty to create the works of nature in their prefent form, be not known to us, it were arrogance to expect that the reafons, on which the scheme of man's redemption is founded, fhould be fully revealed to us. It is enough, in the natural world, that God has decreed certain laws, by which all things are directed the remote caufes, on which thefe laws are decreed, we enquire not: and it should be enough in the work of grace, that God has decreed a certain mode, by which man may be raised from his fallen ftate; the remote causes, on which this particular mode is decreed, we are neither concerned to enquire, nor competent to explain. It is the will of God, that the natural fun fhould give light to the eyes of men; the fact is fo, and we take it as fuch: the will of God is also, that revelation fhould enlighten the minds of men; the fact is fo, and as fuch we are bound to admit it. But in that fondness for their own conceits, which obftructs the progrefs of right knowledge, men have first formed Each II. formed to themselves an idea how they DISC. would difclofe a revelation; and having previously settled it in their minds, that no other method can be fo proper as that which their own fancy fuggefts, they are not duly influenced by the gofpel-difpenfation. "The "Jews (fays St. Paul) require a sign, and "the Greeks feek after wildom "." had been prejudiced by notions preconceived; and inftead of receiving the doctrines of the Apostle in the manner he preached them, they would have him fubftitute fome other system, such as might correfpond with the different opinions they had feverally framed. But what is the conduct of St. Paul? He perfifts in delivering fimple truths, without gratifying the unreasonable demand of the Jews on the one hand, and without entering into fubtile and refined arguments with the Greeks on the other. He preached" Chrift crucified; Chrift the of God, and the wifdom of God." That Chrift died for our fins, according "to the Scriptures; that he was buried, "power § 1 Cor. i. 22. 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. "and |