96 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



ety of species, the complexity of structure, the 

 success, in so many cases, and felicity of the re- 

 sult, we can never reflect without the profoundest 

 adoration, upon the character of that Being from 

 whom all these things have proceeded : we cannot 

 help acknowledging what an exertion of benevo- 

 lence creation was ; of a benevolence how minute 

 in its care, how vast in its comprehension ! 



When we appeal to the parts and faculties of 

 animals, and to the limbs and senses of animals in 

 particular, we state, I conceive, the proper medium 

 of proof for the conclusion which we wish to es- 

 tablish. I will not say, that the insensible parts 

 of nature are made solely for the sensitive parts : 

 but this I say, that, when we consider the benevo- 

 lence of the Deity, we can only consider it in re- 

 lation to sensitive being. Without this reference, 

 or referred to any thing else, the attribute has no 

 object ; the term has no meaning. Dead matter 

 is nothing. The parts, therefore, especially the 

 limbs and senses, of animals, although they consti- 

 tute, in mass, and quantity, a small portion of the 

 material creation, yet, since they alone are instru- 

 ments of perception, they compose what may be 

 called the whole of visible nature, estimated with 

 a view to the disposition of its Author. Conse- 

 quently, it is in these that we are to seek his cha- 

 racter. It is by these that we are to prove tliat the 

 world was made wiih a benevolent design. 



Nor is the design abortive. It is a happy 

 world after all. The air, the earth, the water 



