wisdom, saith Solomon, hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. When he prepared the heavens, says Wisdom itself, speaking by the Voice of the same writer, I was there; when he set a compass on the face of the deep.

To us, whose views are enlarged, and rectified, by the modern astronomy, this subject is presented with an importance, which it could not have assumed in the mind of the ancients. To them, the size, proportions, distances, and uses, of the heavenly bodies were in a great measure unknown; and, where this was not the fact, were so partially known, as to leave the mind in many respects perplexed and lost. With our superior advantages, we discern the Sun to be a vast, luminous world, astonishingly greater than all the others united, which compose the solar system. All these we behold arranged around this glorious world as their common centre. To them the Sun communicates motion, light, regularity, and harmony; and to their inhabitants, life, and the means of sustaining it; food, raiment, warmth, and activity; and their consequences, usefulness, and enjoyment. This amazing scene of wonders, we have the most satisfactory reason to believe, is in a sense endlessly repeated in the stellary systems, diffused throughout the boundless expansion; and repeated with a similar display of divine wisdom in their regularity, harmony, and beauty. Even an Atheist must be compelled to confess, that in this scene there is a perfect and glorious accomplishment of just such things, as, in the view of the human mind, appear to be suited to the most perfect operations of the most perfect wisdom.

In the revolution of the Seasons, intimately connected with this subject, we behold an inferior, but still a splendid, display of the same magnificence; and an exhibition, not less affecting, of the same glorious attribute. From the present position of the earth, are derived, in the different parts of its annual circuit, Summer and Winter, Seed-time and Harvest. It cannot be necessary for me to attempt a detail of the various methods, in which the divine Hand provides, through the instrumentality of the seasons, for the supply of our wants, the relief of our distresses, and the uninterrupted succession of our enjoyments. A child needs not to be informed, that all creatures wait upon God, VOL. I.

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that he may give them their meat in due season; and that he opens his hand, and satisfies the wants of every living thing.

Nearly allied to the revolution of the Seasons, is that, by which the world enjoys the vicissitude of day and night. The diurnal rotation of the earth, connected with the position of its axis, furnishes to all its parts an equal enjoyment of these two great affections of our globe; just as its annual revolution, connected with the same position, distributes the seasons, alternately, in a regular succession, over all the regions from the equator to the poles. By the day, man is enabled to pursue successfully all the business of life; and by the night is, at the necessary and most proper intervals, furnished with seasons of refreshment and rest. It ought to be remarked, that by means of the refrangibility of light, and the refractive power of the atmosphere, a portion of day is added to us every morning and every evening; and the light of the Sun conveyed to us, and withdrawn from us, in that gradual manner, which, while it is eminently beautiful and delightful, is at the same time the only manner, in which it could be comfortable, or perhaps tolerable, to our eyes.

A philosopher has made it an argument of the wisdom of God, and in my view justly, that the earth is clothed in green; a colour eminently easy, refreshing, and delightful to the eye.

In the provision made for the wants of men and animals, there are innumerable, as well as wonderful proofs of the Wisdom of God. The means, by which an ample supply for all these wants is continually furnished, were they not the objects of our daily inspection, and thus rendered so familiar, as to be in a great measure unregarded, would awaken in our minds, not approbation merely, but amazement. A single plant produces yearly a great number of seeds; so many, as to furnish, in the ordinary course of providence, abundant assurance, that that kind of plant shall be continued throughout the successive ages of the world. As a further security, these seeds are, to a great extent at least, and in all probability universally, incorruptible, when lodged below the depth, within which vegetation springs; notwithstanding they are so easily dissoluble above that limit. By the latter circumstance, an easy, certain, and abundant vegetation is secured by the former, seeds are treasured in the earth for long

periods of time; whence by deep plowing, digging, and other means, they are brought again within the region of vegetation, and spring in the same manner, as fresh seeds. I have been satisfactorily informed of the vegetation of seeds, which had in this manner been certainly kept in the earth no less than two hundred years. The diffusion of these seeds over the face of the earth is accomplished by means, which are perhaps still more wonderful. Such seeds, as are heavy, and immoveable by more obvious means; such, for instance, as the stones and seeds of fruits; are commonly swallowed both by birds and beasts, and conveyed in their stomachs whithersoever they rove; and are ultimately planted, not only in the neighbouring fields, and countries, but also in more distant regions. Others, of considerable weight, are lodged permanently in a large and light husk; which, together with the seed contained in it, is easily separated, after the seed has become ripe, and blown by the wind over extensive tracts. Others, still, are winged, and feathered, in such a manner, as to be easily wafted in the breeze, and spread through all the surrounding country. A young gentleman, once in my presence examining a seed of a particular kind of grass, and finding a beautiful feather thus adhering to it, was so struck with this contrivance for the dispersion of such seeds over the earth, that he exclaimed, "The man must be a brute, who does not believe in the existence of God."

The most necessary and useful things are also, with the most perfect wisdom, generally diffused; while those, which are less interesting to human happiness, are more rare and solitary. Food, raiment, drink, and fuel, are spread every where. Gold and gems, wines and spices, are found only in particular places. Wheat and grass, the most useful of all vegetables, grow in more soils and climates than any other. Water and air exist throughout the world; and are placed beyond the controul of man. Could any one of our race command either of these elements, he would possess an absolute dominion over every inhabitant of those regions, to which this command extended. Animals, useful for food, or other important purposes of man, are multiplied easily to any extent. Fish, which furnish so considerable a part of human sustenance, multiply, in a sense, endlessly.

Other

animals, of inferior use, are by various causes limited to a very moderate increase. The clothing of animals changes with the change of climate. When removed to a cold latitude, it becomes thick, soft, and warm; when to a hot latitude, it becomes thin, coarse, and cool. Without these changes, the animals thus removed would be unable to live.

Both the body and mind of man are astonishing exhibitions of wisdom, and that in ten thousand different ways. As I have dwelt on this subject, for a purpose somewhat different, in a former discourse; and as it is so often insisted on by others; I shall dismiss it with only two or three observations. The eye, says Nicholson, were all other arguments for the existence of God unknown, or lost, would remain an unanswerable proof of the wisdom of God. The self-restoring power of our bodies, when diseased, or wounded, is among the most extraordinary evidences of this attribute.

2dly. I shall now mention some other exhibitions of the Wisdom of God, less frequently insisted on than those already spe cified.

A wonderful exhibition of this nature is found, in the first place, in the accomplishment of many ends by few and simple means. The great principle of gravitation, for example, unites, and holds together, the corpuscles, which constitute worlds combines in one vast union the worlds which compose a system; generates the motions of the planets, and comets, round the Sun, and of their satellites round the planets; and governs, universally, their regularity and harmony; levels the surface of the ocean, and prevents it from overflowing the land; produces, as one cause at least, the ascent of vapour, and the descent of rain; gives birth to the continuance of all bodies on the surface of the earth; regulates the motions of animals, and of mankind, together with all mechanical powers and operations; and thus extends a governing, necessary, and most useful, influence over all worlds, and all their inhabitants. The mean, here, is one; the ends are innumerable and the influence of the mean is every where necessary, and all that is necessary.

Water in the ocean, is the great store-house of vapour. Hence are formed mists and clouds; which, beside presenting the eye

with innumerable, ever-varying, and delightful prospects; sheltering, in intense heats, the bodies of men and animals from the blaze of the Sun; pointing out various approaching changes of weather; and thus warning mankind both on the land, and on the sea, of approaching danger, or announcing the arrival of safety; become the sources of rain, dews, hail, and snow, and the origin of fountains, brooks, lakes, and rivers. By these, the earth is watered, enriched, and beautified; and man supplied with food and drink, with raiment and fuel. By these, also, all animals are supplied with sustenance and enjoyment. Water, also, is not only the general nourishment, but the chief component part of all vegetables, and a principal one of all animal bodies. At the same time, it moves innumerable machines of different kinds, abridges in a wonderful degree the labour of man; and performs a vast variety of important purposes, which without it would be impossible. In the ocean it is, moreover, a menstruum, in which salt, being dissolved, is raised to the surface, and thereby crystalizing becomes a part of the food of men and animals, without which their sustenance would be uncomfortable and precarious, if not impossible. Water is also an indispensable material in a vast multitude of chemical, medical, œconomical, and other artificial processes; and has in this way wonderfully enlarged, and is still in this way daily enlarging, the comfort, and the knowledge, of mankind. Finally, it is the basis of all navigation; and thus the chief medium of the commerce, and of the geographical and natural, as well as much other knowledge, possessed by men.

The same doctrine might be extensively illustrated by the almost innumerable purposes, of which fire, air, and light, are the means; as well as by a great multitude of other subjects. Generally, it may be observed, that the few elements, to which all material substances have been already reduced, constitute all the bodies, and are the causes of all the immensely numerous operations, which exist in the material world; and, in their combination, and their efficacy, gloriously display the wisdom, and the goodness, of their Creator.

2dly. The unceasing and universal Variety, introduced into the works of Creation and Providence, is a strong exemplification of the Wisdom of the Creator.