ciently proftrate ourselves and fall down before our Maker, when we confider that ineffable goodness and wisdom which contrived this Existence for finite natures ? What must be the overflowings of that good-will, which prompted our Creator to adapt Existence to Beings, in whom it is not neceffary? Efpecially when we confider that he himfelf was before in the complete poffeffion of Exiftence, and of happiness, and in the full enjoyment of Eternity. What man can think of himfelf as called out and feparated from nothing, of his being made a conscious, a reasonable and happy creature, in fhort, of being taken in as a fharer of his Exiftence and a kind of partner in Eternity, without being fwallowed up in wonder, in praife, in adoration! It is indeed a thought too big for the mind of man, and rather to be entertained in the fecrecy of devotion, and in the filence of the foul, than to be expreffed by words. The Supreme Being has not given us powers or faculties fufficient to extol and magnify fuch unutterable goodness.

It is however fome comfort to us, that we fhall be always doing what we shall be never able to do, and that a work which cannot be finished, will however be the work of an eternity. SECT.

SECTION II.

The Power and Wifdom of GOD in the CREATION.

Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitæque volantum, Et quæ marmoreo fert monftra fub æquore pontus.

TH

Virg.

HOUGH there is a great deal of pleasure in contemplating the material world, by which I mean that fyftem of bodies into which Nature has fo curiously wrought the mass of dead matter, with the feveral relations which those bodies bear to one another; there is ftill, methinks, fomething more wonderful and furprifing in contemplations on the world of life, by which I mean all those animals with which every part of the univerfe is furnished. The material world is only the fhell of the universe The world of life are its inhabitants.

If we confider thofe parts of the material world which lie the nearest to us, and are therefore fubject to our obfervations and enquiries, it is amazing to confider the infinity of animals with which it is ftocked. Every part of matter is peopled: Every green leaf fwarms with inhabitants. There is fcarce a fingle humour in the body of a man, or of any other animal, in which our glaffes do not discover myriads of living creatures. The furface of animals is alfo covered with other animals, which are in the fame manner the basis of other animals, that live upon it; nay, we find in the most folid bodies, as in marble itself, innumerable cells and cavities that are crouded with fuch imperceptible inhabitants,

are too little for the naked eye to difcover. On the other hand, if we look into the more bulky parts of nature, we fee the feas, lakes and rivers teeming with numberless kinds of living creatures: We find every mountain and marsh, wildernefs and wood, plentifully stocked with birds and beafts, and every part of matter affording proper neceffaries and conveniencies for the livelihood of multitudes which inhabit it.

The

The author of the Plurality of Worlds draws a very good argument from this confideration, for the Peopling of every planet; as indeed it seems very probable from the analogy of reason, that if no part of matter which we are acquainted with, lies waste and useless, those great bodies which are at fuch a distance from us fhould not be defart and unpeopled, but rather that they fhould be furnished with Beings adapted to their respective fituations.

Existence is a bleffing to thofe Beings only which are endowed with perception, and is in a manner thrown away upon dead matter, any further than as it is fubfervient to Beings which are confcious of their existence. Accordingly we find, from the bodies which lie under our. obfervation, that matter is only made as the bafis and support of animals, and that there is no more of the. one, than what is neceffary for the existence of the other.

Infinite Goodnefs is of fo communicative a nature, that it feems to delight in the conferring of Existence upon every degree of perceptive Being. As this is a fpeculation which I have often purG 2 fued

fued with great pleasure to myself, I fhall enlarge farther upon it, by confidering that part of the fcale of Beings which comes within our knowledge.

There are some living creatures which are raised but just above dead matter. To mention only that fpecies of fhell-fish, which are formed in the fashion of a cone, that grow to the furface of feveral Rocks, and immediately die upon their being fevered from the place where they grow. There are many other creatures but one remove from thefe, which have no other fenfe befides that of feeling and tafte. Others have ftill an additional one of hearing; others of fmell, and others of fight. It is wonderful to obferve, by what a gradual progrefs the world of life advances through a prodigious variety of fpecies, before a creature is form'd that is complete in all its fenses; and even among thefe there is fuch a different degree of perfection in the fenfe which one animal enjoys beyond what appears in another, that though the fenfe in different animals be distinguished by the fame common denomination, it feems almoft of a different nature. If after this we look into the feveral inward perfec

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