philofopher, but may fay to him, as Diogenes did to Alexander, "Only please to ftand out of my funfhine."

*Intelligence is manifefted two ways, either by means fupplied to anfwer the end we conceive to have been had in view, though we do not difcern the method by which they were prepared; or else by the contrivance apparent in productions, though we do not fee what end they answer: the former more particularly give us the difplay of providence, the latter of the wifdom wherewith it is adminiftered.

If you faw a house stored with furniture, utenfils, and victuals; the gardens planted with herbs and fruit trees; the grounds ftocked with cows, horfes, deer, and poultry, all in a manner fitted for the entertainment and convenience of a family; you would certainly conclude, there was fome mafter who had taken care to provide for the ufes whereto they were refpectively proper. Or if an ignorant perfon went into a room, where among fcales, weights, compaffes, rules, and other things of common ufe, he fhould find quadrants, theodolets, armillary fpheres, planetariums, tellurians, &c. &c. of whofe ufe, as well as of the figures upon them, he was entirely ignorant; yet he would know without being told, that they were the works of fome artificer proceeding with fkill and contrivance, and who made them for purpofes worthy the care with which they were finished.

In this manner we conftantly reafon upon common occations, and there wants only a proper attention to lead us into the like train of thinking upon the phenomena of visible nature. For there you may perceive ample provifion made in vast variety for the numerous family of Adam; corn, fruit,

Tucker's Light of Nature, vol. 3, part 1, page 192.

fruit, herbs, cattle and fowl, for our fuftenance; wool, flax, and cotton, for our cloathing; drugs and fimples for our relief; air for our breathing; timber, ftone, lime, and brick-earth, for our habitation; wood and coal for our firing; beafts of burden for our affiftance; winds to purify our atmosphere, to refresh our heats, and waft us from fhore to fhore; variety of climates and foils to bear us a produce of every kind; dews and rains to make them yield us their increase. The fea, that original fource of water, fo neceffary to us for many ufes, ferveslikewife to affociate diftant nations by opening the communication of commerce. The fun diffufes his warmth and light to cherish us. The diftant ftars guide us over the boundlefs ocean, and the inhofpitable defert; extend the fields of fcience to an immenfity of fpace, and turn the rugged brow of night into a chearful scene of contemplation.

Even within the narrow compass of our own bodies, we carry about no inconfiderable ftores, without which we could not receive benefit from

thofe around us. We have engines of digeftion and fecretion, fprings and channels of circulation, limbs for inftruments of action, bones for our fupport and protection, organs of fpeech for our mutual intercourfe. What a multitude of veffels, glands, and ducts, to concoct and diftribute our aliment! What artificial ftructure and excellent difpofition of mufcles and joints to ferve for inftruments of action! What amazing nicety in the organs of fenfe! The eye with her humours and coats mathematically arranged, and duly proportioned one among the other; the ear in winding modulating the vibrations of air into founds; the nerves in imperceptible threads running every where through the fleshy parts, yet returning their without impediment from the fu A ex

tremities of our limbs! And all this complicated machine, containing an infinitude of multiform works, is bound up in a fmall compafs, yet with fuch ftupendous fkill, that they do not interfere with each other's operations, nor fall into difcord upon our motions!

We have appetite to ftimulate, fenses to inform, the faculties of comparing, diftinguishing, judging to enlighten, and reafon to direct us. In the capacity of our fenfes and affections, we have fources of pleafure, enjoyment, and innocent mirth.

In the multitude of the objects of creation, we find a provifion made and fuited to our various organs, taftes, and faculties, a fund for bodily fupport, fubjects for intellectual inquiries and mental gratification. "Which fhall we admire moft, the multitude of our organs, their finifhed form and faultlefs order, or the power which the mind exercifes over them? Ten thousand veins are put into her hands, and yet the manages and conducts them all without the leaft perplexity or irregularity, with a promptitude, a confiftency, that nothing elfe can equal; touching every fpring of the human machine with the moft mafterly fkill, though the knows nothing of the nature of her inftrument, or the procefs of her operation.

If you turn your eyes upon the vegetable tribes, you perceive them, in countlefs multitudes of trees, fhrubs, weeds, moffes, &c. each growing, fpreading, and flourishing, by laws adapted to it's own kind; and all worked with fuch exactness and nicety of art, as the greatest human ingenuity could not imitate; their fap veffels curioufly woven within the ftem, and difperfed among the roots and branches; their leaves wrought finer than needle-work. The fineft works of the loom and the needle, when examined with a microscope, apbear fo rude and coarfe, that a favage might be afhamed

afhamed to wear them: but when the work of God is brought to the fame teft, we fee how fibres, too minute for the naked eye, are composed of others ftill more minute; and these again of others; till the primordial threads, or first principle of the texture, are utterly undifcernable; while the whole fubftance presents a celeftial radiance in it's colouring, as if it were intended for the cloathing of an angel.

Yet are thefe wonders of the vegetable world furpaffed by thofe of the animal, whofe frame contains a more complicated machinery, capable of more admirable play: for befides the engines of growth and nutriment analagous in both, the animal is furnished with organs of fenfation, and inftruments of activity. What a richness of invention is difplayed in the variety of their forms, and the diverfity of their cloathing.-Nor can we help remarking thofe furprifing inftincts that feverally guide them to their harbours, their foods, their ways of breeding and prefervation, inftruct them to build their neft, to make their comb, to fpin their webs, and provide for the future without knowledge of their wants.

Nor must we omit the ufes and qualities affigned to animals, that we can turn commodiously to our advantage; we have not to feek our wool from the fierce lion, nor want the untameable tyger to plow our grounds; but the ox, the horfe, and the fheep, have docility and manageableness given them for their characteristics. Creatures faleable in the market are more prolific than thofe of the favage kind. Poultry and rabbits keep within their accustomed purlieus; but nobody knows where to find the coarse-grained heron, or the worthlefs cuckoo.

Sermons, vol. 2, p. 63.

O Lord,

O Lord, how manifold are thy works; in wifdom haft thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches! All creatures wait upon thee, that thou mayeft give them their meat in due feafon. When thou giveft it them they gather it, and when thou openeft thine hand they are filled with good. How great and beautiful is this idea! The hand of man fcatters food to the few creatures that are about him; but when the hand of God is opened, a world is fed and fatisfied.*

Endless are the inftances which might be here brought forwards as evidences of a fuperintending providence. I fhall however only mention another inftance, namely, that of adapting caufes, acting blindly through a long feries of operation, yet acting with fuch wonderful exactnefs, that things are brought into the fame admirable order, as if each had been acted on immediately by an intelligent hand. This inftance is of fuch importance, fo heightens our idea of the contrivance of the Almighty, and at the fame time fo effectually overturns many of the objections of minute philofophers, that I thall endeavour to place it before you in a ftrong and clear light.

Every one is fenfible that there is much contrivance and art in a common watch; not that he thinks that there is any fkill or understanding in the parts thereof, combining to point out the hour and minute; for he knows that all their movements follow neceffarily from the number of the teeth, their fituation, &c. and that the numbers must have been calculated, the form given to the teeth, &c. &c. by fome fkilful artift. Now fuppofe him carried down into a mine, where he found an engine that collected the metallic particles from their

Rev. W. Jones's Sermons, vol. 2, p. 104.

ores,