t a great machine, that was wound up at the
beginning, and has continued to run on ever since, without aid or
direction from its artificer. As well might we conceive of the body of a
man moving about, and performing all its appropriate functions, without
the principle of life, or the indwelling of an immortal soul. The
universe is not lifeless or soulless. It is informed by God's spirit,
pervaded by his power, moved by his wisdom, directed by his beneficence,
controlled by his justice.

"Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet."

The harmony of physical and moral laws is not a mere fancy, nor a forced
analogy; they are both expressions of the same will, manifestations of
the same spirit.

The objection, that it is beneath the dignity of the Almighty--[Greek:
autourgein hapanta]--to put his hand to every thing--is founded on a
false analogy, as is seen by the form in which Aristotle states it. "If
it befit not the state and majesty of Xerxes, the great king of Persia,
that he should stoop to do all the meanest offices himself, much less
can this be thought suitable for God." The two cases do not correspond
in the very feature essential to the argument. An earthly potentate,
unable to execute with his own hand all the affairs of which he has
control, is obliged to delegate the larger portion of them to his
servants; selecting the lightest part for himself, he gratifies his
pride by calling it also the noblest, though the distinction is
factitious, there being no real difference, in point of honor or
dignity, between them. Omnipotence needs no minister, and is not
exhausted or wearied by the cares of a universe. Power in action is more
truly sublime than power in repose; and surely it is not derogatory to
divine energy to sustain and continue that which it was certainly not
beneath divine wisdom to create and appoint. Rightly considered, to
guide the falling of a leaf from a tree is an office as worthy of
omnipotence, as the creation of a world. "Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your
Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

Equally lame is the oft-repeated comparison of the universe to a machine
of man's device, which is considered the more perfect the less mending
or interposition it requires. A machine is a labor-saving contrivance,
fitted to supply the weakness and deficiencie