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 dispositions, as being inherently pleasant or painful; _thirdly_, by the _natural consequences_ of our actions, which indicate a sure connection between moral and physical evil; and, _fourthly_, by the _moral atmosphere_ in which we are placed, as being members of a community in which the distinction between right and wrong is universally acknowledged, and applied in the way of approbation or censure. By such proofs, the Providence of God may be shown to be a scheme both of _natural_ and _moral_ government,--two aspects of the same system which are _equally real_, yet _widely different_. But the distinction between the two, although founded on a real and radical difference, is not such as to imply that they have no relation to each