ft unaccounted for, in the case of Man, and that no attempt is made to
explain or to account for anything that is properly _moral_ in the
government of God.

* * * * *

On a review of these speculations, it is important to bear in mind that
the existence of natural laws is not necessarily exclusive of a
superintending Providence. Their operation, on the contrary, may afford
some of the strongest proofs of its reality. For, whether considered as
a scheme of _provision_ or as a system of _government_, Divine
Providence rests on a strong body of natural evidence. In the one
aspect, it upholds and preserves all things; in the other, it controls
and overrules all things for the accomplishment of the Divine will.
Considered as a scheme of government, it is either _natural_ or _moral_.
To the former, all created beings without exception are subject; to the
latter, only some orders of being,--such, namely, as are intelligent,
voluntary, and responsible agents. In the case of man, constituted as he
is, the Physical, Organic, Intellectual, and Moral laws are all
combined; and he is subject, therefore, both to a _natural_ government,
which is common to him with all other material and organized beings, and
also to a _moral_ government, which is peculiar to himself as a free and
accountable agent. The _natural_ government of God extends to all his
creatures, and includes man considered simply as one of them; and its
reality is proved, first, by the _laws_ to which all created things are
subject, and which they have no power to alter or resist; secondly, by
the _final causes_ or beneficial ends which are obviously contemplated
in the arrangements of Nature, and the great purposes which are actually
served by them; and, thirdly, by the _necessary dependence_ of all
created things on the will of Him to whom they owe alike the
commencement and the continuance of their being. But the natural
government of God, which extends to _all_ His creatures, does not
exhaust or complete the doctrine of His Providence: it includes also a
scheme of _moral_ government, adapted to the nature, and designed for
the regulation, of His intelligent, voluntary, and responsible subjects.
And the reality of a moral government may be proved, _first_, by the
_moral faculty_, which is a constituent part of human nature, and which
makes man "a law to himself;" _secondly_, by the _essential nature_ of
virtuous and vicious disposition