44 



glide through the limpid streams, and run heedlessly 

 into the fisher's net, for the entertainment of men I 

 The great and wide sea is a very avvful and stupendous 



work of God, WJio*p VianH -' ~ . : * ^ L _ u . ^ w 

 \\iin sucn exactness ? A little more or less motion in the 



fluid mass would disorder all mature, and a small in- 

 crease of a tide, might ruin whole kingdoms. Who 

 then was so wise as to take exact measures of-tho.se im- 

 mense bodies, and who so strong es to rule at pleasure 

 the rage of that furious element? He who hath- placed 

 the sand for the bound of these, ly a perpetual decree 

 that it cann&t pass. So that though the ivaves. therc.qf 

 toss themselves, they cannot prevail, though they roar 

 they cannot pass over it. 



If, from the world ifself, we turn our eyes more par- 

 ticularly on man, whom it hath pleased the Lord of all 

 to appoint for its principal inhabitant, no understanding 

 surely can be so low, no hear stupid and insensible, 

 as not plainly to see that notu^g but infinite wisdom 

 could in so wonderful a manner hava fashioned his 

 <body, and breathed into it a re^sonabh; soul, whereby 

 he teachtth us more than the beasts of the JIM, and 

 maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven. 



Should any of us see a lump of clay rise immediately 

 from the ground into the complete figure of a man, full 

 of beauty and symmetry, and endowed with all the 

 pow r ers and faculties which we perceive in ourselves, yea, 

 and that in a more eminent degree of perfection than 

 any of the present children of men ; should we pre- 

 sently after observe him perform all the offices of life, 

 sense and reason ; move as gracefully, talk as eloquently, 

 reason as justly, and discharge every branch of duty 

 with as as much accuracy as the most accomplished 

 man breathing, how great must be our astonishment ! 

 No\v this was the very case in that moment when God 

 created man upon the earth. 



But to impress this in a more lively manner upon the 



