476 STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF HUMAN REASON. while others, and that a far greater number, shall from age to age want this favour of God, becausethey are destined to be born and live in places where such propositions and duties were never revealed, where they are not known, and are very hard or im- possible to be found out, and for that reason they are not likely to believe and practise them ? What can more represent God as an arbitrary and partial being, than thus to suppose that he scarce vouchsafes to bring the means of happiness within the reach of to great a partof his creatures, while he has given it so plentifully to others ? PITH. This speech of "yours, Sir, will require an answer at large; as,d I am glad you give me occasion to speak my thoughts freely on this subject. When you use the words par- tiality and prejudice, you seem to consider God as a Governor and a Judge, distributing rewards or punishments to his crea- tures partially, and not exactly according to their former be- haviour ; and in this respect, I must affirm, God beholds all men equally, and acts without prejudice or partiality in his retri- bution of the righteous and the wicked : In this sense, God is no respecter of persons ; the master and the servant, the prince and the subject, the learned and the ignorant, shall receive a recom- pence according to their works. But when we speak of God as an original proprietor and possessor of his own blessings, he may freely distribute his favours in a greater or less degree amongst his creatures, as he pleases, without any charge ofpre- judice or partiality. And this is sufficiently visible in the whole of hisprovidence,' and that among the brutal creation as well as the rational. Are there not many of the birds, and thebeasts of the earth, and fishes of the sea, that in their several portions of sensitive good or evil, ease or pain, are greatly distinguishedfrom each other, ,merely by the hand of their Creator ? Here is one flock of sheep frighted and worried daily, and some of them miserably torn to death, and destroyed, and the rest of them wounded or maimed by a wolf or a bear, while other flocks grow up, perhaps, for several years, enjoying the plentiful pasture that the earth provides for them. Here is one nest of doves plundered by a hawk, and drenched in blood, while twenty of their neighbours breed up their young in all security. Here is a brood of young wild turkeys, hatched in a later or more unkind- ly season, crippled with the cold, and languishing out their lives under lingering infirmities, while others that were brought into life a Month or two sooner, enjoy all the blessings suited to their nature, and continue in this enjoyment, perhaps for several years. What is this difference to be imputed to, but the will of Providence? A thousand such sort of accidents happen not only to birds and beasts, to fishes, and every kind of brute animals, but to
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