54 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



tion of another priorbeing (which property is some- 

 times called self-sufficiency, and sometimes self- 

 comprehension,) appertains to the Deity, as his 

 essential distinction, and removes his nature from 

 that of all things which w^e see : w^hich conside- 

 ration contains the answer to a question that has 

 sometimes been asked, namely. Why, since some- 

 thing or other must have existed from eternity, 

 may not the present universe be that something? 

 The contrivance perceived in it proves that to be 

 impossible. Nothing contrived can, in a strict and • 

 proper sense, be eternal, forasmuch as the con- 

 triver must have existed before the contrivance. 



Wherever we see marks of contrivance, we are 

 led for its cause to an intelligent author. And 

 this transition of the understanding is founded 

 upon uniform experience. We see intelligence 

 constantly contriving ; that is, we see intelligence 

 constantly producing effects, marked and distin- 

 guished by certain properties ; not certain parti- 

 cular properties, but by a kind and class of proper- 

 ties, such as relation to an end, relation of parts to 

 one another, and to a common purpose. We see, 

 wherever we are witnesses to the actual formation 

 of things, nothing except intelligence producing 

 effects so marked and distinguished. Furnished 

 with this experience, we view the productions of 

 nature. We observe them also marked and dis- 

 tinguished in the same manner. We wish to ac- 

 count for their origin. Our experience suggests a 

 cause perfectly adequate to this account. No 



