WISDOM OF THE DEITY. 



51 



benign influences of the rains and dews, and a 

 thousand other movements which produce so 

 many salutary and beneficial effects, would be 

 completely deranged. Hence we find that in all 

 the planetary bodies on which observations can 

 conveniently be made, a rotatory motion actually 

 exists, in the secondary, as well as in the pri 

 mary planets, and even in the sun himself, the 

 centre, and the mover of the whole : in which ar 

 rangement of the Almighty Creator, the evidences 

 of wisdom and design are strikingly apparent. 



This amazing scene of Divine workmanship 

 and skill,which the planetary system exhibits, we 

 nave reason to believe, is multiplied, and diversi 

 fied, to an indefinite extent, throughout all the other 

 systems of creation, displaying to the intelligences 

 of every region, &quot; the manifold wisdom of God. 

 For there can be no question, that ewery star 

 we now behold, either by the naked eye, or by 

 the help of a telescope, is the centre of a system 

 of planetary worlds, where the agency of God, 

 and his unsearchable wisdom, may be endlessly 

 varied, and, perhaps, more strikingly displayed 

 than even in the system to which we belong. 

 These vast globes of light could never have been 

 designed merely to shed a few glimmering rays 

 on our far-distant world ; for the t.en- thousandth 

 part of them has never yet been seen by the in 

 habitants of the earth, since the Mosaic creation, 

 except by a few astronomers of the past and the 

 present age ; and the light of many of them, in 

 all probability, has never yet reached us ; and 

 perhaps never will, till the period of &quot; the con 

 summation of all terrestrial things.&quot; They were 

 not made in vain ; for such a supposition would 

 oe inconsistent with every idea we can form of 

 rhe attributes of a Being of infinite perfection. 

 They were not intended merely to diversify the 

 voids of infinite space with a useless splendour, 

 which has no relation to intellectual natures ; foi 

 this would give us a most distorted and inconsist 

 ent idea of the character of Him who is &quot; the 

 only-wise God ;&quot; and we are told,by an authority 

 which cannot be questioned, that &quot; by his wis 

 dom he made the heavens, and stretched them 

 out by his understanding.&quot; The only rational 

 conclusion, therefore, which can be deduced, is 

 that they are destined to distribute illumination 

 and splendour, vivifying influence, and happiness, 

 among incalculable numbers of intelligent beings, 

 of various degrees of physical, moral, and intel 

 lectual excellence. And, wherever the Creator 

 has exerted his Almighty energies in the produc 

 tion of sensitive and intellectual natures, we may 

 rest assured, that there also his infinite wisdom 

 ind intelligence, in an endless variety of arrange 

 ments, contrivances, and adaptations, are unceas 

 ingly displayed. 



But, after all, whatever evidences of contri 

 vance and design the celestial globes may ex 

 hibit, it is not in the heavens that the most 

 striking displays of Divine wisdom can be traced 



by the inhabitants of our world. It is only a 

 few general relations and adaptations that can be 

 distinctly perceived among the orbs of the firma 

 ment ; though, in so far as we are able to trace 

 the purposes which they subserve, the marks 

 of beauty, order, and design are uniformly ap 

 parent. But we are placed at too great a dis 

 tance from the orbs of heaven, to be able to 

 investigate the particular arrangements which 

 enter into the physical and moral economy of 

 thf celestial worlds. Were we transported to 

 the surface of the planet Jupiter, and had an 

 opportunity of surveying, at leisure, the regions 

 of that vast globe, and the tribes of sensitive 

 and intellectual existence which compose its po 

 pulation of contemplating the relations of its 

 moons to the pleasure and comfort of its inha 

 bitants the constitution of its atmosphere as to 

 its reflective and refractive powers, in producing 

 a degree of illumination to compensate for the 

 great distance of that planet from the sun its 

 adaptation to the functions of animal life the 

 construction of the visual organs of its inha 

 bitants, and the degree of sensibility they pos 

 sess corresponding to the quantity of light re 

 ceived from the sun the temperature of the 

 surface and atmosphere of this globe correspond 

 ing to its distance from the central source of 

 heat, and to the physical constitution of sensitive 

 beings in short, could we investigate the re 

 lations which inanimate nature, in all its va 

 rieties and sublimities,, bears to the necessities 

 and the happiness of the animated existences 

 that traverse its different regions, we should, 

 doubtless, behold a scene of Divine Wisdom and 

 intelligence, far more admirable and astonishing 

 that even that which is exhibited in our sublu 

 nary world. But since it is impossible for us 

 to investigate the economy of other worlds, while 

 we are chained down to this terrestrial sphere, 

 we must direct our attention to those arrange 

 ments and contrivances in the constitution of our 

 own globe, which lie open to our particular in 

 spection, in order to perceive more distinctly 

 the benevolent designs of Him &quot; in whom we 

 live and move, and have our being.&quot; And here 

 an attentive observer will find, in almost every 

 object, when minutely examined, a display of 

 goodness and intelligence, which will constrain 

 him to exclaim, &quot; Oh the depth of the riches both 

 of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.&quot; 



Wisdom, considered as consisting in con 

 trivance, or the selection of the most proper 

 means in order to accomplish an important end, 

 may be exemplified and illustrated in a variety 

 of familiar objects in the scene of nature. 



The earth on which we tread was evidently 

 intended by the Creator to support man and other 

 animals, along with their habitations, and to fur 

 nish those vegetable productions which are ne 

 cessary for their subsistence; and, accordingly, 

 he has given it that exact degree of consistency 



