OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 25 



after all, words are but the arbitrary si^ns of ideas, and 

 have no value independent of those ideas, further than 

 what arises from congruity and harmony, the mind be- 

 ings dissatisfied when an idea is expressed by inade- 

 quate words, and the ear offended when their colloca- 

 tion is inharmonious. To account the mere knowledge 

 of words, therefore, as wisdom, is to mistake the cask 

 for the wine, and the casket for the gem. I s:iy all this 

 because knowledge in words is ouen extolled beyond 

 its just merits, and put for all wisdom, while know- 

 ledge of things, especially of the productions of na- 

 ture, is derided as if it were mere folly. We should 

 recollect that God hath condescended to instruct us by 

 both these ways, and therefore neither of them should 

 be depreciated. He hath set before us his word and 

 his world. The former is the great avenue to truth 

 and knowledge by the study of word-', and, as being the 

 immediate and authoritative revelation of his will, is 

 entitled to our principal attention ; the latter leads us 

 to the same conclusions, though less directh-, by the 

 study of things, which stands next in rank to that of 

 God's word, and before that of any work of man. And 

 whether we direct our eyes to the planets rolling in 

 their orbits, and endeavour to trace the laws by which 

 they are guided through the vast of space, whether we 

 analyse those powers and agents by which all the ope- 

 rations of nature are performed, or whether we con- 

 sider the various productions of this our globe, fi*om 

 the mighty cedar to the microscopic mucor — from the 

 giant elephant to the invisible mite, still we are study- 

 ing the works and wonders of our God. The book, to 

 whatever page we turn, is written by the finger of him 



