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A. M. 1, A. C. 4004; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, 5411. GEN. CH. 1. AND PART OF CH. 2.

(nor can there be more or less of pains, where all things are equally easy. But, in the mean time, how does it appear, that even, in human conception, the work of the third day, which consisted in draining the earth, and

bless and sanctify it,' this seems to imply, that God obliged himself to continue the work of the creation for six days, that showing himself (if I may so say) a divine example of weekly labour, and sabbatical rest, he might more effectually signify to mankind, what tri-stocking it with plants; or even of the fourth day, bute of duty he would require of them, viz., that one day in seven, abstaining from business and worldly labour, they should devote and consecrate it to his honour, and religious worship.

There is therefore no necessity of departing from the literal sense of the Scripture in this particular. The reiterated acts, and the different operations mentioned by Moses, ought indeed to be explained in such a manner, as is consistent with the infinite power, and perfect simplicity of the acts of God, and in such a manner, as may exclude all notions of weakness, weariness, or imperfection in him; but all this may be done without receding from a successive creation, which redounds so much to the glory of God, and affords the whole intelligent creation so fair a field for contemplation.

wherein the sun and moon, and other planets were made, was more difficult, than that of the first, which is accounted the simple production of light?

The compass of the chaos (as we supposed) took up the whole solar system, or that space, which Saturn circumscribes in his circulation round the sun; and if so, what a prodigious thing was it, to give motion to this vast unwieldy mass, and to direct that motion in some sort of regularity; in the general struggle and combustion, to unite things that were no ways akin, and to sort the promiscuous elements into their proper species; to give the properties of rest and gravitation to one kind, and of ascension and elasticity to another: to make some parts subside and settle themselves, not in one continued solid, but in several different centres, at proper distances from each other, and so lay the foundation for the planets; to make others aspire and mount on high, and having obtained their liberty by hard conflict, join together, as it were, by compact, and make up one body, which, by the tenuity of its parts, and rapidity of its motion, might produce light and heat, and so lay the foundation for the sun; to place this luminous body in a situation proper to influence the upper parts of the chaos, and to be the instrument of rarefaction, separation, and all the rest of the operations to ensue; to cause it, when thus placed, either to circulate round the whole planetary system, or to make the planetary globes to turn round it, in order to produce the vicissitudes of day and night, to do all this, and more than this, I say, as it is included in the single article of creating light, is enough to make the first day, wherein nature was utterly impotent, (as having motion then first impressed upon her,) a day of more labour and curious contrivance than any subsequent one could be, when nature was become more awake and active, and some assistance might possibly be expected from the instrumentality of second causes.

Some of the Jewish doctors are of opinion, that in the first day, when God created light, at the same time, he formed and compacted it into a sun; and that the sun is mentioned again on the fourth day, merely by way of repetition; while others maintain, that this light was a certain luminous body (not unlike that which conducted the children of Israel in the wilderness) that moved round the world, until the day wherein the sun was created. | But there is no occasion for such conjectures as these: every one knows, that darkness has, in all ages, been the chief idea which men have had of a chaos. Both poets and philosophers have made Nox, and Erebus, and Tartarus, the principal parts and ingredients of its description; and therefore it seems very agreeable to the reason of mankind, that the first remove from the chaos should be a tendency to light. But then by light (as it was produced the first day,) we must not understand the darting of rays from a luminous body, such as do now proceed from the sun, but those particles of matter only, which we call fire, (whose properties we know are light and heat,) which the Almighty produced, as a proper instrument for the preparation, and digestion of all other matter. For fire, being naturally a strong To excavate some parts of the earth, and raise others, and restless element, when once it was disentangled and in order to make the waters subside into proper chanset free, would not cease to move, and agitate from top nels, is thought a work not so comporting with the digto bottom, the whole heavy and confused mass, until the nity and majesty of God; and therefore some have purer and more shining parts of it being separted from thought that it possibly might have been effected by the the grosser, and so uniting together, (as things of the same causes that occasion earthquakes, that is, by subsame species naturally do,) did constitute that light, terraneous fires and flatuses. What incredible effects which, on the fourth day, was more compressed and the ascension of gunpowder has, we may see every day: consolidated, and so became the body of the sun. how it rends rocks, and blows up the most ponderous The author of the Book of Wisdom tells us indeed, and solid walls, towers, and edifices, so that its force is that God ordered all things in measure, and number, almost irresistible. And why then might not such a and weight; but we cannot from hence infer, that in the proportionable quantity of the like materials, set on fire six days, he was so nice and curious, as to weigh out together, raise up the mountains, (how great and weighty to himself in gold scales (as it were) his daily work by soever,) and the whole superficies of the earth above the grains and scruples. We indeed, who are finite crea-waters, and so make receptacles for them to run into. tures, may talk of the heat and burden of the day,' and,Thus we have a channel for the sea, even by the interin a weekly task, are forced to proportion the labour of each day to the present condition of our strength; but this is the case of human infirmity, and no way compatible to God. To omnipotence nothing can be laborious,

'Patrick's Commentary on the passage.
'Nicholls' Conference, v. 1.
a Wis. xi. 20.

Ps. civ. 6, 7, 8.

a This we may conceive to have been effected by some particles of fire still left in the bowels of the earth, whereby such nitrosulphurous vapours were kindled, as made an earthquake, which both lifted up the earth, and also made receptacles for the waters to run into. Patrick's Commentary.

B

A. M. 1. A. C. 4004; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, 5411, GEN. CH. 1. AND PART OF CH. 2.

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vention of second causes; nor are we destitute of good | Creator's wisdom in contriving, and mercy in preserving authority to patronize this notion; for, after that the all his works! Psalmist had said, the waters stood above the mountains,' immediately he subjoins, at thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder (an earthquake, we know, is but a subterraneous thunder) they hasted away, and went down to the valley beneath, even unto the place which thou hadst appointed to them.'

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St Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, makes all mankind (as certainly our first parent literally was) clay in the hands of the potter, and thereupon he asks this question; Nay but, O man, who art thou, that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou formed me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?' It but badly becomes us therefore to inquire into the reason that might induce God to make the man and the woman at different times, and of different materials; and it is an impertinent, as well as impious banter, to pretend to be so frugal of his pains. What if God, willing to show a pleasing variety in his works, condescended to have the matter, whereof the woman was formed, pass twice through his hands, in order to soften the temper, and meliorate the composition? Some peculiar qualities, remarkable in the female sex, might perhaps justify this supposition: but the true reason, as I take it, is couched in these words of Adam, 5 This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man: therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.'

However this be, it is probable, and (if our hypothesis 1be right) it is certain, that on the fourth day, the sun, moon, and planets, were pretty well advanced in their formation. The luminous matter extracted from the chaos on the first day, being a little more condensed, and put into a proper orb, became the sun, and the planets had all along been working off, in the same degrees of progression with the earth; so that the labour of this day could not be so disproportionably great as is imagined. It is true indeed, the Scripture tells us, that God on this day, not only made the sun and the moon, but that he made the stars also; and, considering the almost infinite number of these heavenly bodies, (which we may discern with our eyes, and much more with glasses,) we cannot but say, that a computation of this kind would swell the work of the fourth day to a prodigious disproportion: but then we are to observe, that our English translation has interpolated the words, he made,' which are not in the original; for the simple Since God was determined, then, to form the woman version of the Hebrew is this-and God made two out of some part of the man's body, and might probably great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the have a mystical meaning in so doing; to have taken her lesser light to rule the night and the stars;' which last (like the poet's Minerva) out of the head, might have words and the stars' are not to be referred to the word entitled her to a superiority which he never intended for 'made' in the beginning of the verse, but to the word her; to have made her of any inferior, or more dishon'rule,' which immediately goes before them; and so this ourable part, would not have agreed with that equality sentence, the lesser light to rule the night, and the to which she was appointed; and therefore he took her stars:' will only denote the peculiar usefulness and pre-out of the man's side, to denote the obligations to the dominancy of the moon above all other stars or planets, in respect of this earth of ours; in which sense it may not improperly be styled (as some of the most polite authors are known to call it) the ruler of the night,' and 'a queen,' or 'goddess,' as it were, among the stars. With regard to us, therefore, who are the inhabitants of the earth, the moon, though certainly an opaque body, may not be improperly called a great light;' since, by reason of its proximity, it communicates more light, (not of its own indeed, but what it borrows from the sun,) and is of more use and benefit to us than all the other planets put together. Nor must we forget (what indeed deserves a peculiar observation) that the moon, by its constant deviations towards the poles, affords a stronger and more lasting light to the inhabitants of those forlorn regions, whose long and tedious nights are of some days', nay, of some months' continuance, than if its motion were truly circular, and the rays it reflects consequently more oblique. A mighty comfort and refreshment this to them, and a singular instance of the great

a

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strictest friendship and society: to beget the strongest love and sympathy between him and her, as parts of the same whole; and to recommend marriage to all mankind, as founded in nature, and as the re-union of man and woman.

It is an easy matter to be sceptical; but small reason, I think, there is to wonder, why no mention is made in this place of the inspiration of the woman's soul. What

Rom. ix. 20, 21.

5 Gen. ii. 23, 24.
b Milton has given us a very curious description of Eve's
qualifications, both in body and mind.

Though well I understand, in the prime end
Of nature, her th' inferior in the mind,
And inward faculties, which most excel;
In outward also her resembling less

His image, who made both, and less expressing
The character of that dominion giv'n
O'er other creatures; yet when I approach
Her loveliness, so absolute she seems,
So in herself complete, so well to know
Her own, that what she wills to do, or say,
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.
All higher knowledge in her presence falls
Degraded, wisdom in discourse with her
Loses discountenanc'd, and like folly shows.
Authority and reason on her wait.

As one intended first, but after made
Occasionally; and, to consummate all,
Greatness of mind, and nobleness their seat
Build in her loveliest, and create an awe
About her, as a guard angelic plac'd.

c Arius Montanus, renders the Hebrew word virago, in the margin virissa, that is, she-man.

A. M. 1. A. C. 4004; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, 5411, GEN. CH. 1. AND PART OF CH. 2.

in a thousand years from one ear to another; that the heavens were propped up by the mountain Koff; that the stars were firebrands, thrown against the devils when they invaded heaven, and that the earth stands upon the top of a great cow's horn; that this cow stands upon a white stone, this stone upon a mountain, and this mountain upon God knows what; with many more absurdities of the like nature.

the historian means here, is only to represent a peculiar | Paradise, and a great pen, wherewith God wrote his circumstance in the woman's composition, viz. her decrees: that this throne was carried about upon angels' assumption from the man's side: and therefore what re-necks, whose heads were so big, that birds could not fly lates to the creation of her soul must be presumed to go before, and is indeed signified in the preface God makes before he begins the work; It is not good that man should be alone, I will make him an help-meet for him,' that is, of the same essential qualities with himself. For we cannot conceive of what great comfort this woman would have been to Adam, had she not been endowed with a rational part, capable of conversing with him; had she not had, I say, the same understanding, will, and affections, though perhaps in a lower degree, and with some accommodation to the weakness of her sex, in order to recommend her beauty, and to endear that soft-trifling are they, in comparison of what we read in the ness wherein (as I hinted before) she had certainly the pre-eminence.

These are some accounts of the world's creation, which nations of great sagacity in other respects have at least pretended to believe. But alas! how sordid and

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book of Genesis, where every thing is easy and natural, comporting with God's majesty, and not repugnant to the principles of philosophy? Nay, where every thing agrees with the positions of the greatest men in the Heathen world, the sentiments of their wisest philosophers, and the descriptions of their most renowned poets. So that were we to judge of Moses at the bar of reason, merely as an historian; had we none of those supernatural proofs of the divinity of his writings, which set them above the sphere of all human composition; had

Such is the history which Moses gives us of the origin of the world, and the production of mankind: and if we should now compare it with what we meet with in other nations recorded of these great events, we shall soon perceive, that it is the only rational and philosophical account extant; which, considering the low ebb that learning was at in the Jewish nation, is no small argument of its divine revelation. What a wretched account was that of the Egyptians, (from whence the Epicureans borrowed their hypothesis,) that the world was made by his vicegerent: that, surprised at this news, the Earth desired chance, and mankind grew out of the earth like pum-Gabriel to represent her fears to God, that this creature, whom kins? What strange stories does the Grecian theology tell us of Ouranos and Ge, Jupiter and Saturn; and what sad work do their ancient writers make, when they come to form men and women out of projected stones? How unaccountably does the Phenician historian make a dark and windy air the principle of the universe; all intelligent creatures to be formed alike in the shape of an egg, and both male and female awakened into life by a great thunder-clap? The Chinese are accounted a wise people, and yet the articles of their creed are such as these-That one Tayn, who lived in heaven, and was famous for his wisdom, disposed the parts of the world into the order we find them; that he created out of nothing the first man Panson, and his wife Pansone; that this Panson, by a power from Tayn, created another man called Tanhom, who was a great naturalist, and thirteen men more, by whom the world was peopled, till, after a while, the sky fell upon the earth, and destroyed them all; but that the wise Tayn afterwards created another man, called Lotziram, who had two horns, and an odoriferous body, and from whom proceeded several men and women, who stocked the world with the present inhabitants. But, of all others, the Mahometan account is the most ridiculous; for it tells us, that the first things which were created, were the Throne of God, a Adam,

'Gen. ii. 18.

he was going to make in this manner, would one day rebel against him, and draw down his curse upon her: that Gabriel returned, and made report to God of the Earth's remonstrances; but God resolving to execute his design despatched Michael, and afterwards Asraphel, with the same commission: that these two angels returned in like manner to report the Earth's excuses and absolute refusal to contribute to this work; whereupon he deputed Azrael, who, without saying any thing to the Earth took carried it to a place in Arabia, between Mecca and Taief: that an handful out of each of the seven different layers or beds, and after the angels had mixed and kneaded the earth which Azrael brought, God, with his own hand, formed out of it an human statue, and having left it in the same place for some time to dry, not long after communicating his spirit, or enlivening breath, infused life and understanding into it, and clothing it in a wonderful dress, suitable to its dignity, commanded the angels to fall prostrate before it, which Eblis (by whom they mean Lucifer) refusing to do, was immediately driven out of paradise. N. B. The difference of the earth employed in the formation of Adam, is of great service to the Mahometans in explaining the different colours and qualities of mankind who are derived from it, some of whom are white, others black, others tawny, yellow, olive-coloured, and red; some of one humour, inclination, and complexion, and others of a quite different.-Calmet's Dictionary on the word Adam,

studied the causes of nature's works, asserts that the world is the b Thales, whom the Greeks suppose to be the first who deeply work of God, and that God of all things is the most ancient sincə he had no beginning. Pythagoras said, that as often as he contemplated the fabric and beauty of this world, he seemed to hear that word of God, by which it was commanded to be. Plato thought that God did not form the world out of matter eternal and coeval with himself, but that he made it out of nothing, and

So the original word means, and so the vulgar Latin has according to his good pleasure, he also believed, that man was translated it.

*See Cumberland's Sanchoniatho.

a As to the formation of Adam's body, Mahometans tell us many strange circumstances, viz., That after God, by long continned rains, had prepared the slime of the earth, out of which he was to form it, he sent the angel Gabriel, and commanded him, of seven layers of earth, to take out of each an handful: that upon Gabriel's coming to the Earth, he told her, that God had determined to extract that out of her bowels, whereof he proposed to make man, who was to be sovereign over all, and

not only made by God, but that he was made after the image of God, and had a spirit akin and like to his Maker. Among the Latin poets, Virgil speaks after the same mode, when he introduces Silenus singing how the tender ball of earth grew out of the compressed seeds or ingredients of all things; and Ovid, too, when he tells of the birth of heaven and earth, and of man being formed after the image of God; while among the Greeks, Hesiod, in his Theogony, has celebrated, in most melodious lines, the formation of all things quite according to the doctrine of Moses. Huetius' Inquiries.

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A. M. 1. A. C. 4004; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, 5411. GEN. CH. 1. AND PART OF CH. 2. his works none of that manifest advantage of antiquity | aside; that it should turn at a certain determinate point, above all others we ever yet saw; and were we not and not go forward in a space where there is nothing to allowed to presume, that his living near the time which obstruct it; that it should traverse the same path back he makes the era of the world's creation, gave him great again in the same constant and regular pace, to bring assistances in point of tradition; were we, I say, to on the seasons by gradual advances: that the moon wave all this that might be alleged in his behalf; yet should supply the office of the sun, and appear at set the very manner of his treating the subject gives him a times, to illuminate the air, and give a vicarious light, preference above all others. Nor can we, without when its brother is gone to carry the day to the other admiration, see a person who had none of the systems hemisphere; that it should procure, or at least regulate before him which we now so much value, giving us a the fluxes and refluxes of the sea, whereby the water is clearer idea of things, in the way of an easy narrative, kept in constant motion, and so preserved from putrethan any philosopher, with all his hard words and new-faction, and accommodated to man's manifold conveniinvented terms, has yet been able to do; and, in the compass of two short chapters, comprising all that has been advanced with reason, even from his own time to this very day.

CHAP. IV.-The wisdom of God in the works of the Creation.

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ences, besides the business of fishing, and the use of navigation: in a word, that the rest of the planets, and all the innumerable host of heavenly bodies should perform their courses and revolutions, with so much certainty and exactness, as never once to fail, but, for almost this 6000 years, come constantly about in the same period, to the hundredth part of a minute; this is such a clear and incontestable proof of a divine architect, and of that counsel and wisdom wherewith he rules and directs the universe, as made the Roman philosopher, with good reason, conclude, "That whoever imagines, that the wonderful order, and incredible constancy of the heavenly bodies, and their motions (whereupon the preservation and welfare of all things do depend) is not

THOUGH the author of the Pentateuch never once attempts to prove the being of a God, as taking it all along for a thing undeniable; yet it may not be improper for us, in this place, to take a cursory view of the works of the creation, (as far at least as they come un-governed by an intelligent being, himself is destitute of der the Mosaic account,) in order to show the existence, the wisdom, the greatness, and the goodness of their almighty Maker.

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Let us then cast our eyes up to the firmament, where the rich handy-work of God presents itself to our sight, and ask ourselves some such questions as these. What power built, over our heads, this vast and magnificent | arch, and spread out the heavens like a curtain?' Who garnished these heavens with such a variety of shining objects, a thousand, and ten thousand times ten thousand different stars, new suns, new moons, new worlds, in comparison of which this earth of ours is but a point, all regular in their motions, and swimming in their liquid ether? Who painted the clouds with such a variety of colours, and in such diversity of shades and figures, as is not in the power of the finest pencil to emulate? Who formed the sun of such a determinate size, and placed it at such a convenient distance, as not to annoy, but only refresh us, and nourish the ground with its kindly warmth? If it were larger, it would set the earth on fire; if less, it would leave it frozen: if it were nearer us, we should be scorched to death; if farther from us, we should not be able to live for want of heat: who then hath made it so commodious 'a tabernacle (I speak with the Scriptures, and according to the common notion) out of which it cometh forth,' every morning, like a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant, to run his course?' For so many ages past, it never failed rising at its appointed time, nor once missed sending out the dawn to proclaim its approach: but at whose voice does it arise, and by whose hand is it directed in its diurnal and annual course, to give us the blessed vicissitudes of the day and night, and the regular succession of different seasons? That it should always proceed in the same straight path, and never once be known to step

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understanding. For shall we, when we see an artificial engine, a sphere, a dial, for instance, acknowledge at first sight, that it is the work of art and understanding; and yet, when we behold the heavens, moved and whirled about with an incredible velocity, most constantly finishing their anniversary vicissitudes, make any doubt, that these are the performances, not only of reason, but of a certain excellent and divine reason?"

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And if Tully, from the very imperfect knowledge of astronomy, which his time afforded, could be so confident, that the heavenly bodies were framed, and moved by a wise and understanding mind, as to declare, that, in his opinion, whosoever asserted the contrary, was himself destitute of understanding; what would he have said, had he been acquainted with the modern discoveries of astronomy; the immense greatness of the world, that part of it (I mean) which falls under our observation; the exquisite regularity of the motions of all the planets, without any deviation or confusion; the inexpressible nicety of adjustment in the primary velocity of the earth's annual motion; the wonderful proportion of its diurnal motion about its own centre, for the distinction of light and darkness; the exact accommodation of the densities of the planets to their distances from the sun: the admirable order, number, and usefulness of the several satellites, which move about the respective planets; the motion of the comets, which are now found to be as regular and periodical, as that of other planetary bodies; and, lastly, the preservation of the several systems, and of the several planets and comets in the same system, from falling upon each other: what, I say, would Tully, that great master of reason, have thought and said, if these, and other newly discovered instances of the inexpressible accuracy and wisdom of the works

3 Ray's Wisdom of God in the Creation.
Tully on the Nature of the Gods.

5 Clarke's Demonstration of a God.

A. M. 1. A C. 4004; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, 5411. GEN. CH. 1. AND PART OF CHI. 2.

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of God, had been observed and considered in his days? | largeness of the camel, and the smallness of the insect, Certainly atheism, which even then was unable to with- are equal demonstrations of an infinite wisdom and stand the arguments drawn from this topic, must now, power. Nay, the smaller the creature is, the more upon the additional strength of these later observations, amazing is the workmanship; and when in a little mite, be utterly ashamed to show its head, and forced to ac- we do (by the help of glasses) see limbs perfectly well knowledge, that it was an eternal and almighty Being, organized, a head, a body, legs, and feet, all distinct, God alone, who gave these celestial bodies their proper and as well proportioned for their size, as those of the mensuration and temperature of heat, their dueness of vastest elephants; and consider withal, that, in every distance, and regularity of motion, or, in the phrase of part of this living atom, there are muscles, nerves, the prophet, who established the world by his wisdom, veins, arteries, and blood; and in that blood ramous and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.' particles and humours; and in those humours, some If, from the firmament, we descend to the orb whereon drops that are composed of other minute particles: we live, what a glorious proof of the divine wisdom do when we consider all this, I say, can we help being lost we meet with in this intermediate expansion of the air, in wonder and astonishment, or refrain crying out, with which is so wonderfully contrived, as, at one and the the blessed apostle, "O the depth of the riches both of same time, to support clouds for rain, and to afford the wisdom, and knowledge of God! how unsearchable winds for health and traffic; to be proper for the breath are his works, and his ways of' creation and providence of animals by its spring, for causing sounds by its mo- past finding out!' tion, and for conveying light by its transparency? But whose power was it, that made so thin and fluid an element, the safe repository of thunder and lightning, of winds and tempests? By whose command, and out of whose treasuries, are these meteors sent forth to purify the air, which would otherwise stagnate, and consume the vapours, which would otherwise annoy us? And by what skilful hand is the 2 water, which is drawn from the sea, by a natural distillation made fresh, and bottled up, as it were, in the clouds, to be sent upon the wings of the wind' into different countries, and, in a manner, equally dispersed, and distributed, over the face of the earth, in gentle showers?

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Whose power and wisdom was it, that 'hanged the earth upon nothing,' and gave it a spherical figure, the most commodious that could be devised, both for the consistency of its parts, and the velocity of its motion? That weighed the mountains in scales,' and 'the hills in a balance,' and disposed of them in their most proper places for fruitfulness and health? That diversified the climates of the earth into such an agreeable variety, that, at the farthest distance, each one has its proper seasons, day and night, winter and summer? That clothed the face of it with plants and flowers, so exquisitely adorned with various and inimitable beauties, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of them?' That placed the plant in the seed (as the young is in the womb of animals) in such elegant complications, as afford at once both a pleasing and astonishing spectacle? That painted and perfumed the flowers, gave them the sweet odours which they diffuse in the air for our delight, and, with one and the same water, dyed them into different colours, the scarlet, the purple, the carnation, surpassing the imitation, as well as comprehension of mankind? That has replenished it with such an infinite variety of living creatures, so like, and at the same time so unlike to each other, that of the innumerable particulars wherein each creature differs from all others, every one is known to have its peculiar beauty, and singular use? Some walk, some creep, some fly, some swim; but every one has members and organs fitted to its peculiar motions. In a word, the pride of the horse, and the feathers of the peacock, the

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But there is another thing in animals, both terrestrial and aqueous, no less wonderful than their frame; and that is their natural instinct. In compliance with the common forms of speech I call it so; but in reality, it is the providential direction of them, by an all-wise, and all-powerful mind. For what else has infused into birds the art of building their nests, either hard or soft, according to the constitution of their young? What else makes them keep so constantly in their nests, while they are hatching their young, as if they knew the philosophy of their own warmth, and its aptness for animation? What else moves the swallow, upon the approach of winter, to fly to a more temperate climate, as if it understood the celestial signs, the influence of the stars, and the change of seasons? What else causes the salmon, every year, to ascend from the sea up a river, some four or five hundred miles perhaps, only to cast its spawn, and secure it in banks of sand, until the young be hatched, or excluded, and then return to the sea again? How these creatures, when they have been wandering, a long time, in the wide ocean, should again find out, and repair to the mouth of the same rivers, seems to me very strange, and hardly accountable, without having recourse either to some impression given

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Ray's Wisdom of God.

a "Where has nature disposed so many senses, as in a gnat?" (says Pliny in his Natural History, when considering the body and taste, and smell? where hath she generated that angry and of that insect,) "Where hath nature planted its organs of sight, shrill voice? and with what cunning adjointed its wings, lengthened its legs in front, and arranged that hungry cavity like a belly so greedy of blood, especially human? with what skill hath she pointed its sting for pricking the skin? and, hath she made it so as to serve a double purpose, being sharpalthough its slenderness be so great as to render it invisible, yet ened in point for penetrating the skin, and at the same time hollowed out for sucking up the blood?" And if Pliny made so many queries concerning the body of a gnat, (which, by his in all likelihood, have done, had he seen the bodies of these aniown confession, is none of the least of insects,) what would he, malcula, which are discernible by glasses, to the number of ten, twenty, or thirty thousand in a drop of pepper-water, not larger than a grain of millet? And if these creatures be so very small, what must we think of their muscles, and other parts? Certain it is, that the mechanism, by which nature performs the

muscular motion, is exceedingly minute and curious, and to the performance of every muscular motion, in greater animals at least, there are not fewer distinct parts concerned, than many millions of millions, and these visible through a microscope.— Ray's Wisdom of God in the Creation.

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