SECT. XXXIX. 8. GENERATION. 603 



himfelf from cold, is termed the final caufe ; the 

 conftru&ion of the hut is the remote effect ; the ac- 

 tion of the mufcular fibres of the man, is the prox- 

 imate effect ; the volition., or activity of deiire to 

 preferve himfelf from cold, is the proximate caufe; 

 and the pain of cold, which excited that defire, is 

 the remote caufe. 



6. This perpetual chain of caufes and effecls, 

 whofe firft link is rivetted to the throne of GOD, 

 divides itfelf into innumerable diverging branches, 

 which, like the nerves arifing from the brain, per- 

 meate the molt minute and moft remote extremities 

 of the fyftem, diffafing motion and fenfation to the 

 whole. As every caufe is fuperior in power to the 

 effect, which it has produced, fo our idea of the 

 power of the Almighty Creator becomes more ele- 

 vated and fublime, as we trace the operations of na- 

 ture from caufe to caufe, climbing up the links of 

 thefe chains of being, till We afcend to the Great 

 Source of all things, 



Hence the modern difcoveries in chemiflry and 

 in geology, by having traced the caufes of the com- 

 binations of bodies to remoter origins, as well as 

 thofe in aftronomy, which dignify the prefent age, 

 contribute to enlarge and amplify our ideas of the 

 power of the Great Firft Caufe. And had thofe 

 ancient philofophers, who contended that the world 

 was formed from atoms, afcribed their combinations 

 to certain immutable properties received from the 

 hand of the Creator, fuch as general gravitation, 

 chemical affinity, or animal appetency, inftead of 

 afcribing them to blind chance ; the doctrine of 

 atoms, as constituting or compoiing the material 

 world by the variety of their combinations, fo far 

 from leading the mind to atheifm, would ftrengthen 

 the demonftration of the exigence of a Deity, as the 

 firft caufe of all things ; becaufe the analogy re- 

 fulting from our perpetual experience of caufe and 



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