MSS. of Benjamin Franklin [pp. 293-296]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
VoL. 11. RICHMOND, APRIL, 1836. No. V.
T. W. WHITE, PROPRIETOR. FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM.
MSS. OF BENJ. FRANKLIN.
A LECTURE
On the Providence of God in the Government of the World.
When I consider my own weakness and the discerning judgment of those who are to be my audience, I
cannot help blaming myself considerably for this rash
undertaking of mine, being a thing I am altogether unpracticed in and very much unqualified for; but I am
especially discouraged when I reflect that you are all
my intimate pot companions, who have heard me say a
thousand silly things in conversation, and therefore have
not that laudable partiality and veneration for whatever
I shall deliver that good people commonly have for their
spiritual guides; that you have no reverence for my
habit nor for the sanctity of my countenance; that you
do not believe me inspired or divinely assisted, and
therefore will think yourselves at liberty to assert or
dissert, approve or disapprove of any thing I advance,
canvassing and sifting it as the private opinion of one
of your acquaintance. These are great disadvantages
and discouragements, but I am entered and must proceed, humbly requesting your patience and attention.
I propose at this time to discourse on the subject of
our last conversation, the Providence of God in the government of the world. It might be judged an affront
to your understandings should I go about to prove this
first principle, the existence of a Deity, and that he is
the Creator of the Universe, for that would suppose you
ignorant of what all mankind in all ages have agreed in.
I shall therefore proceed to observe that he must be a
being of infinite wisdom, as appears in his admirable
order and disposition of things, whether we consider the
heavenly bodies, the stars and planets and their wonderful regular motions, or this earth compounded of such
an excellent mixture of all the elements; or the admirable structure of animate bodies of such infinite variety,
and yet every one adapted to its nature and the way of
life it is to be placed in, whether on earth, in the air, or
in the water, and so exactly that the highest and most
exquisite human reason cannot find a fault and say this
would have been better so, or in such a manner, which
whoever considers attentively and thoroughly will be
astonished and swallowed up in admiration.
* It is with great pleasure that we are enabled, through the
kindness of a friend in Philadelphia, to lay before our readers
an Essay, never yetpublished, from the pen of Benjamin Franklin. It is copied from the original MS. of Franklin himself, and
is not to be found in any edition of his works. The Letters which
succeed the Essay are also copied from the original MS., but were
first published in the Doctor's Weekly Pennsylvania Gazette,
which was commenced in 1727. The Epistle from Anthony
Afterwit appeared in No. 189-that from Celia Single in No. 191.
Although these Letters are to be found in the file of the Gazette
at the Franklin Library in Philadelphia, still they are not in
either the 1809 or the 1835 edition of the writer's works. We
therefore make no apology for publishing them in the Messen
geri
That the Deity is a being of great goodness, appears
in his giving life to so many creatures each of which
acknowledge it a benefit, by their unwillingness to leave
it; in his providing plentiful sustenance for them all,
and making those things that are most useful, most common and easy to be had; such as water, necessary for
almost every creature to drink; air, without which few
could subsist; the inexpressible benefits of light and
sunshine to almost all animals in general; and to men
the most useful vegetable such as corn, the most useful
of metals as iron &c. the most useful animals as horses,
oxen and sheep he has made easiest to raise or procure
in quantity or numbers; each of which particulars, if
considered seriously and carefully, would fill us with the
highest love and affection.
That he is a being of infinite power appears in his
being able to form and compound such vast masses of
matter, as this earth and the sun and innumerable stars
and planets, and give them such prodigious motion, and
yet so to govern them in their greatest velocity as that
they shall not fly out of their appointed bounds, nor
dash one against another for their mutual destruction.
But'tis easy to conceive his power, when Ve are convinced of his infinite knowledge and wisdom; for if
weak and foolish creatures as we are by knowing the
nature of a few things can produce such wonderful
effects; such as for instance, by knowing the nature
only of nitre and sea salt mixed we can make a water
which will dissolve the hardest iron, and by adding otne
ingredient more can make another water which willdissolve gold, and make the most solid bodies fluid, and by
knowing the nature of saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal,
those mean ingredients mixed, we can shake the air in
the most terrible manner, destroy ships, houses and men
at a distance, and in an instant, overthrow cities, and
rend rocks into a thousand pieces, and level the highest
mountains; what power must he possess who not only
knows the nature of every thing in the universe, but
can make things of new natures with the greatest ease
and at his pleasure?
Agreeing then that the world was at first made by a
being of infinite wisdom, goodness and power, which
being we call God, the state of things existing at this
time must be in one of these four following manners
viz.
1. Either he unchangeably decreed and appointed
every thing that comes to pass, and left nothing to the
course of nature, nor allowed any creature free agency.
2. Without decreeing any thing he left all to general
nature and the events of free agency in his creatures
which he never alters or interrupts; or,
3. He decreed some things unchangeably, and left
others to general nature and the events of firee agency
which also he never alters or interrupts; or,
4. He sometimes interferes by his particular providence and sets aside the effects which would otherwise
have been produced by any of the above causes.
I shall endeavor to show the first three suppositions
to be inconsistent with the common light of reason, and
VOL. II.-38
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