chanism as this; for such a multiplicity of instruments, and fuch a variety of contrivances, as are here set in motion, to effect one single, and, to all appearance, very easy purpose, the pardon of a few wretched criminals? Why could not God have done this at once, by one decifive and gracious exertion of mercy and of power, by publishing, for inftance, an act of general indemnity and oblivion for past offences, on condition of fincere repentance and amendment of life? Is not this a plain, fimple, and natural manner of proceeding, and far more worthy of the wisdom and the majesty of the Supreme Being, than that intricate, operofe, and circuitous kind of process in the work of our Redemption, which the Gospel ascribes to him?

In answer to all these specious cavils, it might be fufficient to fay, "Who art thou, O

man, that repliest against God?" Shall the finner that is faved, fay to him that redeemed him, Why has thou redeemed me thus?" As "well might the thing formed, fay to him that "formed it, Why hast thou made me thus* ?" Objections of fuch a nature, and from fuch a

* Rom. ix. zo.

quarter,

quarter, prove nothing more, than that man is as prefumptuous as he is ignorant and weak.

That the method which God made use of to redeem man by the death of Chrift, is very dif ferent from that which a modern Philofopher would have made ufe of, may be very fafely admitted, without in the leaft impeaching either the propriety or the wisdom of that method. That God's proceedings are always infinitely wife, is moft certain; but he does not conduct himself on the principles of mere human wifdom. "His ways are not as our ways, "nor his thoughts as our thoughts." It is not always in man to perceive the fitness of thofe means which God makes ufe of to obtain his ends; though there can be no doubt but they are the fitteft that could have been imagined. Who could have fuppofed, that the way to exalt Jofeph to the highest pinnacle of worldly grandeur and profperity, was to fell him as a flave to a company of travel ling Ishmaelites *? What apparent proba

In this, and perhaps one or two other places, a few remarks from other authors have, I believe, (in the course of my reading many years ago) infenfibly mingled themselves with my own. But who thofe authors were, I cannot at this diftance of time diftinctly recollect.

bility was there, that Goliah, the great champion of the Philiftines, fhould fall by the hand of a ftripling, unufed to arms, and furnished only with a stone and a fling? How indignant was the mighty Syrian, Naaman, when he was told, that, in order to be cured of his leprofy, he must wash himself feven times in Jordan? He expected fomething very different from this. Behold, I thought," fays he, "that "the Man of God will furely come out to and ftand and call on the name of the "Lord his God, and ftrike his hand over

me, i

the place, and recover the leper. Are not "Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damafcus, "better than all the waters of Ifrael? May "I not wash in them, and be clean*?" So reafoned this wife man; and fo would any other wife man of modern times have reafoned on this occafion. But it proved in this, as it will in every other inftance, the foolishness "of God was wiser than men; and the weak"nefs of God was ftronger than men †." He washed in Jordan, and was clean.

Nay, even in the ordinary course of God's providence, what a number of things do we

* 2 Kings v. 11.

↑ 1 Cor. i. 25.

fee

fee conducted in a manner totally different from what one should naturally expect? To inftance only in that daily bread, which is the chief support of life. How comes it to pass, may the difputers of this world fay, that fo much trouble and pains are requifite to produce fo effential an article for our fuftenance as this? What occafion can there be, that it fhould go through fo tedious a procefs, fuch a long train of preparatory operations, before it becomes fit for ufe? How strange does it feem, that the grain, which is to be our food, fhould first of all be buried in the ground; there remain for fome time invifible and uselefs, and apparently dead §; then spring forth with fresh life, and in a new form; arrive, by

Apparently dead. The facred writers fay, that the grain actually dies and Voltaire, in his Queflions fur l'Encyclopediet, triumphs not a little in this fuppofed error. But a much better phyfiologift than Mr. Voltaire (I mean Mr. Bonet, of Geneva) affirms, that the pofition may be juftified as philofophically true. The exterior integument of the grain does moft certainly corrupt and die. It is the germ only, or principle of vegetation; which remains and lives. "L'Enveloppe du grain perit, & de fon "interieur fort une plante bien differente de cette enveloppe." Elai Analytique, &c. par Mr. Bonet, & Bibliotheque

des Sciences, 1771. Prem. part. p. 145.

* Cor. xv. 36.

Article Agriculture.

How

flow degrees, to a state of maturity, and afterwards employ a prodigious number of hands; undergo a great variety of changes, and affume many different appearances, before it can be manufactured into that folid fubftance, which affords fo much, ftrength and nourishment to man? Might not Providence have obtained the fame end by much more obvious and expeditious means? Might not our daily bread be rained down upon us at once from Heaven, like, the manna of the Ifraelites; or be made to vegetate on trees, as is the case in some parts of the southern hemifphere, where nature has left no other trouble to man but to gather his bread and eat it, whilft we are forced to labour after it through innumerable difficulties and delays? These questions are just as modest and as proper as thofe we are apt to ask concerning the mode of our Redemption. And as we find that Providence has not thought fit to humour our prejudices, and conform to our ideas, in the one cafe; why fhould we expect it in the other? We may, in both cafes, with equal truth and juftice, fay, "Where is "the wife? where is the fcribe? where is

VOL. II.

D

"the