298 CONCLUSION. 



ent degree of influence, from what a mere assent to any 

 verbal proposition which can be formed concerning the ex- 

 istence of the Deity, at least that merely complying assent 

 with which those about us are satisfied, and with which we 

 are too apt to apt to satisfy ourselves, will or can produce 

 upon the thoughts. More especially may this ditference 

 be perceived, in the degree of admiration and of awe, with 

 which the Divinity is regarded, when represented to the 

 understanding by its own remarks, its own reflections, and 

 its own reasonings compared with what is excited by any 

 language that can be used by others. The works of nature 

 want only to be contemplated. When contemplated, they 

 have every thing in them which can astonish by their great- 

 ness ; for, of the vast scale of operation, through which our 

 discoveries carry us, at one end we see an intelligent Pow- 

 er arranging planetary systems, fixing, for instance, the 

 trajectory of Saturn, or constructing a ring of two hundred 

 thousand miles diameter, to surround his body, and be sus- 

 pended like a magnificent arch over the heads of his inhab- 

 itants; and, at the other, bending a hooked tooth, concert- 

 ing and providing an appropriate mechanism, for the clasp- 

 ing and reclasping of the filaments of the feather of the hum- 

 ming bird. We have proof, not only of both these works 

 proceeding from an intelligent agent, but of their proceed- 

 ing from the same agent : for, in the first place, we can 

 trace an identity of plan, a connexion of system, from Sat- 

 urn to our own globe ; and when arrived upon our globe, 

 we can, in the second place, pursue the connexion through 

 all the organized, especially the animated, bodies which it 

 supports. We can observe marks of a comm^on relation, 

 as well to one another, as to the elements of which their 

 habitation is composed. Therefore one mind hath planned, 

 or at least hath prescribed a general plan for all these pro- 

 ductions. One Being has been concerned in all. 



Under this stupendous Being we live. Our happiness, 

 our existence, is in his hands. All we expect must come 

 from him. Nor ought we to feel our situation insecure. 

 In every nature, and in every portion of nature, which we 

 can descry, we find attention bestowed upon even the mi- 

 nutest parts. The hinges in the wings of an eancig, and 

 the joints of its antennce, are as highly wrouglit, as if the 

 Creator had nothing else to finish. We see no signs of 

 diminution of care by multiplicity of objects, or of distrac- 



