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planets, exactly proportioned to their distances from the 

 sun: the admirable order of the several satellites, which 

 move round their respective planets ; the motion of the 

 comets equally regular and periodical, with tha't of the 

 other planetary bodies ; and lastly, the preservation of 

 the several planets and comets, from falling upon, or in- 

 terfering with each other? Certainly could argument 

 avail, Atheism would now be utterly ashamed to shew 

 its head, and forced to acknowledge, that it was an 

 eternal and almighty Being, it was God alone, who gave 

 to each of (lie celestial bodies, its proper magnitude and 

 measure of heat, its dueness of distance, and regula- 

 rity of motion : or in the language of the prophet, who 

 established the ivorld by his wisdom, and stretched out 

 the Heavens ly his understanding. 



If from the firmament we descend to the orb on which 

 we dwell, what a glorious proof have we of the divine 

 wisdom, in this intermediate expansion of the air, 

 which is so wonderfully contrived, to answer so many 

 important ends at once ! It receives and supports clouds, 

 to water the earth. It affords us winds, for health, for 

 pleasure, for a thousand conveniences : by its spring, it 

 ministers to the respiration of animals ; by its motion to 

 the conveyance of sounds; and by its transparency, to 

 the transmission of light, from one end of Heaven to the 

 other. Whose power made so thin and fluid an element, 

 a safe repository for thunder and lightning] By whose 

 command, and out of whose treasuries, are these dread- 

 ful, yet useful meteors sent forth, to purify the air, which 

 would otherwise stagnate, and consume the vapours 

 that would otherwise breed various diseases] By what 

 skilful hand are those immense quantities of water, 

 \\hich are continually drawn from the sea, by a natural 

 distillation made fresh, sent forth upon the wings of 

 the wind, into the most distant -countries, and distri- 

 buted in showers over the face of the earth ? 



Whose power and wisdom was it that hanged the 

 earth upon nothing, and gave it a spherical figure, the 

 most commodious which could be devised, both for the 



