to conversion; 4. Unforeseen events leading to unforeseen connections; 5. That cast of the wheel which brings poor sinners to heaven. Improvement:-(1) Mark God's providence-general, particular, or miraculous; (2) Admire God's providence; (3) Trust it; (4) Obey it.
Superintendence of Providence.
Unseen, that rules the illimitable world,
That guides its motions, from the brightest star
To the least dust of this sin-tainted mould;
While man, who madly deems himself the lord
Of all, is nought but weakness, and dependence.
This sacred truth, by sure experience taught,
Thou must have learnt, when wandering all alone;
Each bird, each insect, flitting through the sky,
Was more sufficient for itself than thou.
18-22. (18) departed," moved again, as if ascending. "It row quite leaves the house itself, and settles upon the cherubim which stood in the court adjoining it, v. 3." (19) wheels.. them, ch. i. 19, 26. (20) knew.. cherubims, i.e. now I recognised that this strange living creature represented the cherubim that guarded the glory, in the holy of holies. (21) hands, ch. i. 8. (22) saw.. Chebar, as narrated in ch. i. Order of Providence.—
See through this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progressive life may go !
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Nature's ethereal, human angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee;
From thee to nothing.-On superior powers
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroyed;
From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth, or ten-thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And if each system in gradation roll,
Alike essential to the amazing whole,
The least confusion, but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole, must fall.
Let earth, unbalanced, from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature tremble to the throne of God.
All this dread order break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm !-oh, madness! pride! impiety!
What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread,
Or hand to toil, aspired to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear, repined
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?'
Nothing but omniscience can
outdo the know-
ledge of angels;
a knowledge that
dives into all the
recesses of nature
and spies out all
the secret work-
ings of second
causes by a cer-
tain and imme-
diate view; wh.
the quickest hur
man intellect
pursues by
tedious medita-
tion, dubious
conjectures,short
experiments, and
perhaps after all
is forced to sit
down in igno-
rance and dis-
satisfaction."-
Dr. South.
b Pope.
