fupply for the most part the refreshing Streams of Brooks and Rivers with continual new Matter.

Now if fo many Men, so many Beasts, so many Birds, fo many Fishes, and fo many thousands of Trees and Plants, were made without Wisdom and Defign: Can any one fay, without the Contradiction of his Confcience, that the Winds, for want of which all of them would in a little time perish by the failure of their Suftenance, are thus made accidentally and without any determinate Purpose of our great Preferver? Would he ever dare to affert the fame of fo inconfiderable an Inftrument as even a Watering-Pot, wherewith we refresh the Plants and Flowers of our Gardens? And feeing that fuch a thing was adapted to convey a little Water from fome adjacent Well or Brook into a Garden, and there regularly to fprinkle the Parts thereof; would he dare to maintain, that even fuch a contemptible Veffel was made without any Defign of the Artificer? But if not, how can he expect to pass for a rational Creature, when he pretends to believe the fame of the Winds, those great Aquæducts and Watering-Pots of the whole Earth, and for that reafon the Prefervers of his own Life, and that of all other Creatures?

Thirdly, Now to pafs by the Obligations under which those Men lye, that make fuch great use of the Powers of the Winds to their Advantage and Pleafure both fo that where there are no Rivers to turn Mills, they can apply these Streams of Air to the fame Purpose: Can it be imagined, that the faid Winds are produced accidentally, when without their Affiftance the Inhabitants of the World could reap no Benefit from any of those Countries that are feparated from them by great Seas, nor enjoy any Communication therewith?

If fuch Powers of the Wind, (by which great and heavy Ships are convey'd fo fwiftly from one Cc4

Part

་

Part of the World to another; by which fuch great Machines can be moved as fhall fuffice, with the Care of a few Men, to drain and keep dry fo many Watry Lands, to faw and prepare fo much Wood for Building) could be bought or hired with Money; Can any one believe, that befides the Merchants, almost every Body in the World would not be ready to contribute their Share, and to pay their Quota, that they might likewife partake of the good Things of other Countries, and of the beneficial Effects of Ships and Mills? Now the most gracious Ruler and Preferver of all Things does hold this great and ufeful Power the Wind in continual Readiness for every Man that will embrace the Advantage of it, even for nothing, and without expecting any other Return than Thankfulness: And all this he vouchfafes to do, that he may difplay his Wonders even to his Enemies themselves, by a Matter that is invifible; infomuch, that if one had always liv'd in a place where the ufe of the Wind was never known, he could hardly be induced by the strongest Arguments to give any credit to fuch a strange and unconceivable thing.

And can then an Atheist fit down contented, when he not only refuses to acknowledge this Benefit (but even blafphemously denies with his Mouth the great Giver of all thofe things, and if it were poffible, wou'd moft ungratefully blot him out of his Heart alfo) which, by the Adminiftration of thefe Winds, happen to the Advantage of himself and all Mankind? Certainly, if the Winds were produced by no other Caufes than mere Chance, operating now this way and then another, fuch a Man ought to be in a continual Fear, that the Air would become fatal and peftilential, by ftagnating and putrifying, and the whole Earth a Wilderness for want of Rain, and that he himfelf and all Living Creatures would perifh by Hun

ger

ger and Thirft: And if the Winds were not bestowed upon Mankind as a Token of the Mercy of its Creator, might not he himself draw this Confequence, that he could not be able to escape the Power that exerts itself so terribly in the Winds, and at fome time or other he would moft juftly feel the Effects thereof, as a Punishment for these his Blafphemies? SECT. XXIII. The Trade Winds and Monfoons.

IT muft indeed be allowed, That if there be any thing in the World that thefe miferable Philofophers may, with an Appearance of Truth, pretend to be Accidental, it is the Wind, efpecially after the manner that it moves and blows in these Countries; infomuch, that it even gives a Handle to that Proverb, by which, if one would exprefs in the strongest manner the Inconftancy and Fickleness of another, we fay, he is as Changeable as the Wind. But to convince them, that even the Winds are far from being governed by a mere and variable Chance; let them enquire into the Experiments of Sea-faring People; and they will fee (and if GoD be gracious enough to them, they will likewife be convinced) that the Providence of the great Governour has bound thefe Winds, which feem to us to come from all Corners of the World with so much Irregularity and Uncertainty, by as fixed and determinate Laws, as ever any Clock or Watch made by its Artificer.

But not to speak any thing more in Confirmation of what we have now faid concerning those Land and Sea Winds, which vibrating like the Pendulum, of a Clock, do every four and twenty Hours blow backwards and forwards upon certain Coasts, without which many Countries would not be able to fubfift, nor many Voyages be made fafely and conveniently; there are befides the changeable Winds that govern in our, and otherParts of the World,two

principal

principal and well known Kinds of regular Winds: One of which does the whole Year round obferve in a manner one and the fame Courfe, always blowing from the fame Quarter, without any Obfervation of any Return, or of any contrary Wind; and these are named by Mariners and Geographers, Paffage or Trade Winds. Thofe of the Second Sort are fuch as they call by the Name of Monfoons or Moufoons (in Latin Mctiones) and thefe blow one half Year from one Corner, and then another half Year from that Quarter of the Heavens directly oppofite.

Without thefe Trade-Winds, how could they fail upon the great Ocean? How could there hardly any Ship arrive at the East Indies? Since at fome Degrees North of the Equinoctial you meet with a South-East or Trade-Wind, which, being in a manner directly contrary, does perpetually reign there; and as near as a Ship can fail against or bear up to the Wind, as they term it, drives it upon the Coast of America and to the Abrolhos; and whereas they endeavour to fteer their Coast Eastward, they are obliged to make away fo far to the Weft, that they may get out of the Reach of thefe Trade-Winds. Being come fo far, they are brought by changeable Winds to the Cape of Good-Hope: From whence failing into the 38th, 39th, and 40th Degree of Southern Latitude, they meet with another Trade-Wind, which blowing almoft contrary to the former, and to the Northward of the Weft (for which reafon it is called the Westerly Trade-Wind) carries the Ship to the Journeys End; and that too with fo great a Force fometimes, that according to the Obfervations which a very curious Mariner communicated to me out of his Journal, his Ship was driven by this Wind above 50 Leagues to the Eaftward in the space of 24 Hours. And when the Ships return from the Eaft-Indies, the first South

Eaft

Eaft Trade-Wind is again ferviceable to them, to
carry them fome Degrees North of the Line.

SECT. XXIV. Convictions from the foregoing
Obfervations.

I HAVE often confider'd with myself the great Advantages that accrue to the Dutch from their Travelling in Trek-Schuits, or Boats drawn with one or more Horfes; by which they can in a manner, throughout the whole Country, compute exactly the Time required to pass from one Place to another, let the Distance be what it will.

Will now any Atheist, how obdurate so ever he may be, dare to maintain, that those who alone enjoy the Conveniency thereof, are not the leaft obliged to the Prudence and Forefight of their Governours for it; who have been pleased to appoint the fame for the Publick Good, in order to render the Correfpondence of one City with another the moft Cheap and Convenient to the Inhabitants? And that thofe have moft Truth on their Side, who affirm, that it is by mere Chance, or at least, without any View or Defign, that at every time, and as often as it is required, fresh Horfes are at hand to draw the faid Boats?

Now if we were to use no other Arguments; might not this Conftancy in fuch uncertain and variable Motions as are thofe of the Winds, convince every reasonable Perfon, that the Creator and Ruler of all Things, has thereby propofed to himself certain principal Ends and Purposes? For if variable Winds and Calms fhould indifferently reign in all Parts of the Ocean, what Computation could be made of bringing a Voyage to any fort of Conclufion? And how many unhappy Seamen being. detained in thefe long Voyages by Calms or contrary Winds, would run the Risk of perifhing with Hunger and Thirst.

Let