84 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



theology, upon this foundation : — In every part 

 and place of the universe with which we are ac- 

 quainted, we perceive the exertion of a power, 

 which we believe, mediately or immediately, to 

 proceed from the Deity. For instance : in what 

 part or point of space, that has ever been explored, 

 do we not discover attraction? In what regions 

 do we not find light ? In what accessible portion 

 of our globe do we not meet with gravity, mag»- 

 netism, electricity: together with the properties 

 also and powers of organized substances, of vege- 

 table or of animated nature ? Nay, further, we 

 may ask. What kingdom is there of nature, what 

 corner ©f space, in which there is any thing that 

 can be examined by us, where we do not fall upon 

 contrivance and design ? The only reflection per- 

 haps which arises in our minds from this view of 

 the world around us is, that the laws of nature 

 everywhere prevail ; that they are uniform and 

 universal. But what do you mean by the laws of 

 nature, or by any law ? Effects are produced by 

 power, not by laws. A law cannot execute itself 

 A law refers as to an agent. Now an agency so 

 general, as that we cannot discover its absence, or 

 assign the place in which some effect of its con- 

 tinued energy is not found, may, in popular lan- 

 guage at least, and, perhaps, without much devia- 

 tion from philosophical strictness, be called univer- 

 sal : and, with not quite the same, but with no in- 

 considerable propriety, the person, or Being, in 

 whom that power resides, or from whom it is de- 



