176 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



The existence and character of the Deity is, in 

 every view, the most interesting of all human 

 speculations. In none, however, is it more so, 

 than as it facilitates the belief of the fundamental 

 articles of Revelation. It is a sep to have it 

 proved, that there must be something in the 

 world more than what we see. It is a further 

 step to know, that, amongst the invisible things 

 of nature, there must be an intelligent mind, con- 

 cerned in its production, order, and support. 

 These points being assured to us by Natural 

 Theology, we may well leave to Revelation the 

 disclosure of many particulars, which our re- 

 searches cannot reach, respecting either the na- 

 ture of this Being as the original cause of all 

 things, or his character and designs as a moral 

 governor; and not only so, but the more full con- 

 firmation of otner particulars, of which, though 

 they do not lie altogether beyond our reasonings 

 and our probabilities, the certainty is by no means 

 equal to the importance. The true theist will be 

 the first to listen to any credible communication 

 of Divine knowledge. Nothing which he has 



by the author. The same being that fashioned the insect whose 

 existence is only discerned by a microscope, and gave that invisi- 

 ble speck a system of ducts and other organs to perform its vital 

 functions, created the enormous mass of the planet thirteen hun- 

 dred times larger than our earth, and launched it in its course 

 round the sun, — and the comet, wheeling with a velocity that 

 would carry it round our globe in less than two minutes of time, 

 and yet revolving through so prodigious a space that it takes near 

 six centuries to encircle the sun ! 



