LECT. to be fecond to the publication of the Gospel at least, there is no event in philofophy or literature that comes near

to it.

In this element we live and move; and, perhaps, fo far as our frame is mechanical, we are moved by it. When excited to action, it turns into a confuming fire, which no fubftance can exclude, no force can refift. The matter of lightning, which feems to break out partially and accidentally, is now found to be conftitutional and univerfal in the system of Nature: fo that the heavens, which, according to the language of the fcripture, are to melt with fervent beat, want no foreign matter to convert them into fire. What is called phlogiston can rise in a moment from a ftate of quiefcence to a ftate of inflammation; and it difcovers itfelf in many bodies where we should little expect to find it. The earth and the works that are therein carry within them the feeds of their own deftruction; and may be burnt up by that element which

now

now refides within them, and is only LECT. waiting for the word from its Creator.

Upon the whole then, philofophy, fo far as the term fignifies a knowledge of God's wisdom and power in the natural creation, which is the beft fenfe of the word; this philofophy, I fay, is so far from being adverse to true religion, that with all the common evidences of Chriftianity in reserve, we may venture to meet the philofopher upon his own ground: we have nothing to fear from the testimony of Nature: we appeal to it: we call upon every man of science to compare the gofpel which God hath revealed with the world which God hath created; under an affurance, that he will find the latter to be a key unto the former, as our noble philofopher hath well afferted. We have ventured to try this comparison upon the general plan of Chriftianity, and we fee how it answers,

And if Nature anfwers to Christianity,

it

LECT. it contradicts Deifm: and that religion cannot be called natural which is contradicted by the light reflected upon our understandings from natural things. The Socinian is nearly in the fame fituation with the Deist: and they may both join together in calling upon Nature, from morning until night, as the Priests of Baal called upon their Deity; but there will be none to answer; and philofophy muft put out one of his eyes before it can admit their doctrines. In fhort, take any religion but the Chriftian, and bring it to this teft, by comparing it with the ftate of Nature, and it will be found deftitute and defencelefs. But the doctrines of our faith are attefted by the whole na-' tural world. Wherever we turn our eyes, to the heaven or to the earth, to the fea or the land, to men or to beafts, to animals or to plants, there we are reminded of them. They are recorded in a language. which hath never been confounded; they are written in a text which fhall never be corrupted.

The

The Creation of God is the School of LECT. Christians, if they use it aright. What is commonly called the World, confifts of the forms, manners, diverfions, pursuits, and profpects, of human fociety. But this is an artificial world, of man's making; the subject of his ftudy, the object of his ambition. The natural world, of God's making, is full of wonder and instruction; it is open to all, it is common to all. Here there can be no envy, no party, no competition; for no for no man will have the lefs for what his neighbour poffeffes. The world, in this sense, may be enjoyed without fraud or violence. The student in his folitary walk, the husbandman at his labour, the faint at his prayers, may have as much as they can defire, and have nothing to repent of: for they will thus draw nearer to God, because they will fee farther into his truth, wisdom, and goodness.

Some have expreffed their aftonishment at the choice of hermits and men of retirement, as people who have fled from all the enjoyments of life; and configned

them

LECT. themselves to melancholy and misery. They

are out of the world; it is true; but they are only out of that artificial world of man's making, in which fo many are hastening to disappointment and ruin: but they are ftill in that other better world of contemplation and devotion, which affords them all the pleasures and improvements of the mind, and is preparatory to a state of uninterrupted felicity.

Let us then, finally, give thanks to him, who to the light of his gospel hath added this light of nature, and opened the wonderful volume of the creation before us, for the confirmation of his truth, and the illumination of his people; that we may thence know and fee the certainty of those things wherein we have been inftructed. As all his works are for our good, let it be our study and our wifdom to turn them all to his glory.

FINI S.