It 



Creation. It would cease to answer that end the very 

 moment it ceased to be what it is. By changing its 

 nature it would change its place, and that which it occu- 

 pied in the universal hierarchy ought still to be the re- 

 sidence of a being resembling it, otherwise harmony 

 would be destroyed. 



*Ih the assemblage of all the orders of relative perfec- 

 tions consist the absolute perfection of this whole, con- 

 cerning which God said, That it was good. 



This immense system of co-existent and successive 

 beings, is no less one in succession than in co-ordination^ 

 since the first link is connected with the last by the in- 

 termediate one. Present events may make way for the 

 most distant ones. The germ which expanded itself in 

 Sarah's womb was the preparatory cause of the existence 

 of a. great people, and the salvation of nations. 



3. The heavens declare the glory of God, arid the 

 'firmament sheweth his handy-work. That sublime ge- 

 nius, who expressed himself with such loftiness of senti- 

 ment, was nevertheless unapprized that the stars which 

 he contemplated were in reality suns.* He anticipated 

 the times, and first sung that majestic hymn which, 

 future and more enlightened ages should chaunt forth 

 io the praise of the Founder of worlds. 



This assemblage of vast bodies is divided into differ- 

 ent systems, the number of which perhaps exceeds the 

 grains of sand which the sea casts on its shores. 



Each system then has its centre, either a star or sun, 

 which shines with its own light, and round which revolve 

 various orders of opake globes, that reflect with greater 

 or less lustre the light they borrow from it, which ren- 

 ders them visible to us. 



These globes, which seern to wander among the 

 heavenly bodies, are those planets^ th6 principal of 



* Perhaps so. 

 VOL. IV. I) 



