of these elements, we are involved in endlefs uncertainty. We can only fay, he who has appointed their different ufes in all ages, has rendered thote ufes infallible, by the impoffibility of either deftroying or increafing them.

Herein we read the characters of his power, which is invariably obeyed; of his wifdom, which has abundantly provided for every thing; and of his tender kindnefs toward man, for whom he has provided fervices equally various and infallible. It is an additional proof of his continual care of his creatures, that though every thing be compofed of fimple elements, all placed within our reach, yet no power is able to deftroy the leaft particle of them. Nothing but the fame caufe which was able to give them birth, can annihilate them, or change their nature. In truth, the defign and will of the Creator is the only physical caufe of the general economy of the world: the only phyfical cause of every organized body, every germen that flourishes in it; the only phyfical caufe of every minute elementary particle, which enters into the compofition of all.

We must not then expect ever to have a clear and full conception of effects, natures, and caufes. For where is the thing which we can fully conceive? We can no more comprehend either what body, in general is, or any particular body, fuppofe a mafs of clay, or a ball of lead, than what a fpirit, or what God is.

If we turn our eyes to the minuteft parts of animal life, we shall be lot in aftonifhment! and though every thing is alike easy to the Almighty, yet to us it is matter of the highest wonder, that in thofe fpecks of life, we find a greater number of members to be put in motion, more wheels and pullies to be kept going, and a greater variety of machinery, more elegance and workmanship (fo to fpeak) in the compofition, more beauty and ornament in the finishing, than are feen in the enormous bulk of the crocodile, the elephant, or the whale. Yea, they feem to be the effects of an art, as much more exquifite, as the movements of a watch are, than thofe of a coach or a waggon.

Hence we learn, that an atom to God is as a world, and a world but as an atom; just as to him, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years but as one day. Every fpecies likewise of these animalcule may ferve

to correct our pride, and fhew how inadequate our notions are, to the real nature of things. How extremely little can we pofiibly know, either of the largest or fmalleft part of the creation? We are furnished with organs capable of difcerning, to a certain degree of great or little only. All beyond is as far beyond the reach of our conceptions, as if it had never existed.

Proofs of a wife, a good, and powerful Being are indeed deducible from every thing around us : but the extremely great and the extremely fmall, feem to furnish us with thofe that are moft convincing. And perhaps, if duly confidered, the fabric of a world, and the fabric of a mite, may be found equally striking and conclufive.

Glaffes difcover to us numberless kinds of living creatures, quite indifcernible to the naked eye. And how many thousand kinds may there be, gradually decreasing in fize, which we cannot fee by any help whatever? Yet to all these we muft believe God has not only appointed the most wife means for prefervation and propagation, but has adorned them with beauty equal, at leaft, to any thing our eyes have seen.

In short, the world around us is the mighty volume wherein God has declared himself. Human languages and characters are different in different nations. And thofe of one nation are not understood by the reft. But the book of nature is written in an univerfal character, which every man may read in his own language. It confifts not of words, but things, which picture out the divine perfections. The firmament every where expanded, with all its ftarry hoft, declares the immenfity and magnificence, the power and wisdom of its Creator. Thunder, lightning, ftorms, earthquakes and volcanoes, fhew the terror of his wrath Seafonable rains, fun-fhine and harvest, denote his bounty and goodnefs, and demonstrate how he opens his hand, and fills all living things with plenteousness. The conftantly fucceeding generations of plants and animals, imply the eternity of their first caufe. Life, fubfifting in millions of different forms, thews the vast diffufion of his animating power, and death the infinite difproportion between him and every living thing.

Even the actions of animals are an eloquent and a pathetic language. Those that want the help of man have a thousand engaging ways, which, like the voice of God fpeaking to his heart, command him

to

to preferve and cherish them. In the mean time the motions or looks of thofe which might do him harm, ftrike him with terror, and warn him, either to fly from or arm himself against them. Thus it is, that every part of nature directs us to nature's God.

The reader will eafily excufe our con cluding this chapter alfo, with an extract from Mr. Hervey.

In all the animal world, we find no tribe, no individual neglected by its Creator. Even the ignoble creatures are most wifely circumftanced and most liberally accommodated,

They all generate in that particular feafon, which fupplies them with a flock of provifions, fufficient not only for themfelves, but for their increafing families, The sheep yean, when there is herbage to fill their udders, and create milk for their lambs. The birds hatch their young, when new born infects fwarm on every fide. So that the caterer, whether it be the male or the female parent, needs only to alight on the ground, or make a little excurfion into the air, and find a feaft ready dreffed for the mouths at home.

Their love to their offspring, while they are helpless, is invincibly ftrong: whereas the moment they are able to shift for themfelves it vanishes as though it had never been. The hen that marches at the head of her little brood, would fly at a mastiff in their defence; yet within a few weeks, fhe leaves them to the wide world, and does not even know them any more.

If the God of Ifrael infpired Bezaleel and Aholiah with wifdom and knowledge in all manner of workmanship, the God of nature has not been wanting, in his inftructions to the fowls of the air. The skill with which they erect their houses, and adjust their apartments is inimitable. The caution with which they hide their abodes from the fearching eye, or intruding hand, is admirable. No general, though fruitful in expedients, could build fo commodious a lodgement. Give the moft celebrated artificer the fame materials, which these weak and unexperienced creatures ufe. Let a Jones or a Demoivre have only fome rude ftones or ugly flicks, a few bits of dirt or fcraps of hair, a lock of wool, or a coarfe fprig of mofs: and what works could they produce? We extol the commander, who knows how to take advantage of the ground; who by every

circumstance embarraffes the forces of his enemy, and advances the fuccefs of his own. Does not this praife belong to the feathered leaders? Who fix their penfile camp, on the dangerous branches that wave aloft in the air, or dance over the ftream? By this means the vernal gales rock their cradle, and the murmuring waters lull the young, while both concur to terrify their enemies, and keep them at a diftance. Some hide their little houshold from view, amidft the fhelter of intangled furze. Others remove it from discovery, in the centre of a thorny thicket. And by one ftratagem or another they are generally as fecure, as if they intrenched themselves in the earth.

If the fwan has large fweeping wings, and a copious stock of feathers, to spread over his callow young, the wren makes up by contrivance what is wanting in her bulk. Small as fhe is, she will be obliged to nurfe up a very numerous iffue. Therefore with furprifing judgment the defigns, and with wonderful diligence finishes her neft. It is a neat oval, bottomed and vaulted over with a regular concave: within made foft with down, without thatched with mofs, only a small aperture left for her entrance. By this means the enlivening heat of her body is greatly encreased during the time of incubation. And her young no fooner burft the shell, than they find themselves fcreened from the annoyance of the weather, and còmfortably repofed, till they gather ftrength in the warmth of a bagnio.

Perhaps we have been accustomed to look upon infects, as so many rude scraps of creation, but if we examine them with attention, they will appear fome of the moft polished pieces of divine workmanfhip. Many of them are decked with the richeft finery. Their eyes are an affemblage of microfcopes: the common fly, for inftance, who, furrounded with enemies, has neither ftrength to refift, nor a place of retreat to fecure herself. For this reafon fhe has need to be very vigilant, and always upon her guard. But her head is fo fixed that it cannot turn to see what paffes, either behind or around her. Providence therefore has given her, not barely a

retinue, but more than a legion of eyes: infomuch that a fingle fly is fuppofed to be miftrefs of no lefs than eight thousand. By the help of this truly amazing apparatus, the fees on every fide, with the

utmoft

atmoft eafe and speed, though without any motion of the eye, or flection of the neck. The dress of infects is a vesture of refplendent colours fet with an arrangement of the brightest gems. Their wings are the finest expanfion imaginable, compared to which lawn is as coarfe as fack-cloth. The cafes, which enclose their wings, glitter with the fineft varnish, are fcooped into ornamental flutings, are ftudded with radiant spots, or pinked with elegant holes. Not one but is endued with weapons to feize their prey, and dexterity to escape their foe, to dispatch the bufinefs of their flation, and enjoy the pleasure of their condition.

What if the elephant is diftinguished by his huge probofcis? The ufe of this is answered in these his meaneft relations, by their curious feelers, remarkable, if not for their enormous fize, yet for their ready flexion and quick fenfibility. By thefe they explore their way in the darkeft road: by these they difcover and avoid, whatever might defile their neat apparel, or endanger their tender lives.

Every one admires the majestic horfe. With how rapid career does he bound along the plain! Yet the grafs-hopper fprings forward with a bound abundantly more impetuous. The ant too, in proportion to his fize, excels him both in fwiftness and ftrength and will climb precipices, which the most courageous courfer dares not attempt to fcale. If the fnail moves more flowly, the has however no need to go the fame way twice over: because whenever fhe departs, wherever the removes, he is always at home.

The eagle, it is true, is privileged with pinions that out-ftrip the wind. Yet neither is that poor outcaft, the grovelling mole, difregarded by Divine Providence. Becaufe fhe is to dig her cell in the earth, her paws ferve for a pick-axe and fpade. Her eye is funk deep into its focket, that it may not be hurt by her rugged fituation. And as it needs very little light, fhe has no reason to complain of her dark abode. So that her fubterranean habitation, which fome might call a dungeon, yields her all the fafety of a fortified castle, and all the delights of a decorated grot.

Even the fpider, though abhorred by man, is the care of all-fuftaining heaven. She is to fupport herfelf by trepanning the wandering fly. Suitably to her employ, the has bags of glutinous moisture,

From this fhe fpins a clammy thread, and weaves it into a tenacious net. This fhe fpreads in the most opportune place. But knowing her appearance would deter him from approaching, the then retires out of fight. Yet the conftantly keeps within distance; so as to receive immediate intelligence when any thing falls into her toils, ready to fpring out in the very inftant. And it is obfervable, when winter chills the air, and no more infects rove through it, knowing her labour would be in vain, fhe leaves her stand, and discontinues her work.

I must not forget the inhabitants of the hive. The bees fubfilt as a regular community. And their indulgent Creator has given them all implements neceffary either for building their combs, or compofing their honey. They have each a portable veffel, in which they bring home their collected fweets: and they have the most commodious ftore-houses, wherein they depofit them. They readily diftinguish every plant, which affords materials for their bufinefs and are complete practitioners in the arts of feparation and refinement.. They are aware that the vernal bloom and fummer fun continue but for a season. Therefore they improve to the utmost every fhining hour, and lay up a stock fufficient to fupply the whole itate, till their flowery harvet returns.

If the mafter of this lower creation is ennobled with the powers of reafon, the meaneft claffes of fenfitive beings, are endued with the faculty of inftinct: a fagacity which is neither derived from obfervation, nor waits the finifning of experience: which without a tutor teaches them all neceflary skill, and enables them without a pattern to perform every needful operation. And what is more remarkable, it never misleads them, either into erroneous principles, or pernicious practices: nor ever fails them in the most nice and difficult of their undertakings.

Let us ftep into another element, and juft vifit the watery world. There is not one among the innumerable myriads, that swim the boundlefs ocean, but is watched over by the fovereign eye, and fupported by his Almighty hand. He has condefcended even to beautify them. He has given the most exact proportion to their hape, the gayeft colours to their skin, and a polished furface to their scales. The eyes of fome are furrounded with a scarlet

circle:

circle: the back of others diversified with crimson ftains. View them when they glance along the ftream, or when they are fresh from their native brine, the filver is not more bright, nor the rainbow more glowing than their vivid, gloffy hues.

But as they have neither hands nor feet, how can they help themfelves, or efcape their enemies? By the beneficial, as well as ornamental furniture of fins. These when expanded, like mafts above, and ballafts below, poife their floating bodies, and keep them fteadily upright. They are likewife greatly affifted by the flexibility and vigorous activity of their tails: with which they fhoot through the paths of the fea, fwifter than a veffel with all its fails. But we are loft in wonder at the exquifite contrivance and delicate formation of their gills: by which they are accommodated, even in that dense medium, with the benefits of refpiration! A piece of mechanifm this, indulged to the meanest of the fry yet infinitely farpaffing, in the finenets of its ftructure and operation, whatever is curious in the works of art, or commodious in the palaces of princes.

6. Obfervations on the difference between things natural and artificial.

If we examine the finest needle by the microscope, the point of it appears about a quarter of an inch broad, and its figure neither round nor flat, but irregular and unequal. And the furface, however fmooth and bright it may feem to the naked eye, is then feen full of raggednefs, holes, and fcratches, like an iron bar from the forge. But examine in the fame manner the fting of a bee, and it appears to have in every part a polish molt amazingly beautiful, without the leaft flaw, or inequality, and ends in a point too fine to be difcerned by any glafs whatever: and yet this is only the outward fheath of far more exquifite inftruments.

A fmall piece of the finest lawn, from the diflance and holes between its threads, appears like a lattice or hurdle. And the threads themselves feem coarfer than the yarn wherewith ropes are made for anchors. Fine Bruffels lace will look as if it were made of a thick, rough, uneven hair-line, intwisted or clotted together in a very aukward and unartful manner. But a filkworm's web on the nicest examination appears perfectly fimooth and fhining, and as much finer than any spiniter in the world

can make, as the fmalleft twine is than the thickest cable. A pod of this filk winds into nine hundred and thirty yards. And as it is two threads twifted together all the length, fo it really contains one thousand eight hundred and fixty; and yet weighs but two grains and an half. What an exquifite fineness! and yet this is nothing to the filk that iffued from the worm's mouth when newly hatched.

The fmallest dot which can be made with a pen, appears through a glass, a vast irregular spot, rough, jagged, and uneven about all its edges. The finest writing (fuch as the Lord's Prayer in the compafs of a filver penny) feems as fhapeless and uncouth as if wrote in Runic characters. But the fpecks of moths, beetles, flies, and other infects, are moft accurately circular÷ and all the lines and marks about them are drawn to the utmost poffibility of exa&tnefs.

Our fineft miniature paintings appear before a microfcope, as mere daubings, plaiftered on with a trowel. Our smootheft polishings are shown to be mere roughness, full of gaps and flaws. Thus do the works of art fink, upon an accurate examination. On the contrary, the nearer we examine the works of nature, even in the least and meaneft of her productions, the more we are convinced, nothing is to be found there but beauty and perfection. View the numberlefs fpecies of infects, what exactnefs and fymmetry fhall we find in ali their organs! What a prefufion of colouring, azure, green, verniilion; what fringe and embroidery on every part! How high the finishing, how inimitable the polish we every where behold! Yea, view the animalculæ, invifible to the naked eye, those breathing atoms fo fmall, they are almost all workmanship: in them too we discover the fame multiplicity of parts, diverfity of figures, and variety of motions, as in the largest animals. How amazingly curious muft the internal ftructure of thefe creatures be! how minute the bones, joints, mufcles, and tendons! how exquiitely delicate the veins, arteries, nerves! what multitudes of veffels and circulations must be contained in this narrow compafs! and yet all have fufficient room for their feveral offices, without interfering with each other!

The fame regularity and beauty is found in vegetables. Every flaik, bud, flower, and feed, displays a figure, a pro

portion,

portion, an harmony, beyond the reach of art. There is not a weed whofe every leaf does not fhew a multiplicity of pores and veffels curiously difpofed for the conveyance of juices, to fupport and nourish it, and which is not adorned with innumerable graces to embellish it.

But fome may ask, to what purpofe has nature bestowed fo much expence on fo infignificant creatures? I answer, this very thing proves they are not fo infignificant, as we fondly fuppofe. This beauty is given them either for their own fake, that they themselves may be delighted with it, or for ours, that we may obferve in them the amazing power and goodness of the Creator. If the former, they are of confequence in the account of their Maker, and therefore deferve our regard. If the latter, then it is certainly our duty to take notice of, and admire them.

In fhort, the whole universe is a picture, in which are difplayed the perfections of the Deity. It hews not only his existence, but his unity, his power, his wisdom, his independence, his goodnefs. His unity appears in the harmony we cannot but fee in all the parts of nature; in that one fimple end to which they are directed, and the conformity of all the means thereto. On every fide, we difcern either fimple elements or compound bodies, which have all different actions and offices. What the fire inflames, the water quenches: what one wind freezes, another thaws. But thefe and a thousand other operations, fo feemingly repugnant to each other, do nevertheless all concur, in a wonderful manner, to produce one effect. And all are so neceflary to the main defign, that were the agency of any one destroyed, an interruption of the order and harmony of the creation muft immediately enfue.

Suppofe, for inftance, the wind to be taken away, and all fociety is in the utmoft diforder. Navigation is at a ftand, and all our commerce with foreign nations deftroyed. On the other hand the vapours railed from the fea would remain fufpended, juft where they rose. Confequently we fhould be deprived of that ufeful covering the clouds, which now fcreens us from the fcorching heat: yea, and of the fruitful rains. So our land, would be parched up, the fruits of the earth wither, animals die, through hunger and thirst, and all nature languifh and

droop. All the parts of nature therefore were conftituted for the affiftance of each other, and all undeniably prove the unity of their Omnifcient Creator.

His power appears in the whole frame of creation, and his wifdom in every part of it. His independence is pointed out in the inexhaustible variety of beafts, birds, fishes and infects: and his goodness, in taking care of every one of these, opening his hand, and filling all things living with plenteousness.

Every thing is calculated by Divine Wifdom, to make us wifer and better. And this is the fubftance of true philofophy. We cannot know much. In vain does our fhallow reafon attempt to fathom the myfteries of nature, and to pry into the fecrets of the Almighty. His ways are past finding out. The eye of a little worm is a fubject capable of exhaufting all our boasted fpeculations. But we may love much. And herein we may be affifted by contemplating the wonders of his creation. Indeed he feems to have laid the higheft claim to this tribute of our love, by the care he has taken to manifeft his goodness in the most confpicuous manner, while at the fame time he has concealed from us the most curious particulars, with regard to the effences and structure of his works. And to this our ignorance it is owing, that we fancy fo many things to be ufelefs in the creation. But a deep fenfe of his goodness will fatisfy all our doubts, and refolve all our fcruples.

§ 7. Confiderations on the Nature of Man.

Near 6000 years are elapfed fince the creation. At first there were only two human beings. When the flood came upon the earth, which was 1656 years from the beginning of time, these two had increased, according to a moderate computation, to the number of 10,737,418,249 perfons. From Noah and his family are fprung the prefent race of men, and are generally fuppofed to be only about 358,000,000 perfons.

If we proceed from the number to the nature of reasonable beings, we shall find much of the wisdom and goodness of God displayed in the structure of the human body, as well as in the all-directing mind,

Let us begin with the lefs adorned, but more folid parts, thofe which fupport, and which contain the reft. Fift, you have a