CONCLUSION. 
295 
as well to one another, as to the elements of which their 
habitation is composed. Therefore one mind hath planned, 
or at least hath prescribed, a general plan for all these pro¬ 
ductions. One Being has been concerned in all. 
Under this stupendous Being we live. Our happiness, 
our existence, is in his hands. All we expect must come 
from him. Nor ought we to feel our situation insecure. 
In every nature, and in every portion of nature, which we 
can descry, we find attention bestowed upon even the mi¬ 
nutest parts. The hinges in the wings of an earwig , and 
the joints of its antennae, are as highly wrought, as if the 
Creator had nothing else to finish. We see no signs of 
diminution of care by multiplicity of objects, or of distrac¬ 
tion of thought by variety. We have no reason to fear, 
therefore, our being forgotten, or overlooked, or neglected. 
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 be¬ 
lief of the fundamental articles of Revelation. It is a step 
to have it proved, that there must be something in the world 
more than what we see. It is a farther step to know, that 
amongst the invisible things of nature, there must be an in¬ 
telligent mind, concerned in its production, order, and sup¬ 
port. These points being assured to us by Natural The- 
ology, we may well leave to Revelation the disclosure of 
many particulars, which our researches cannot reach, re¬ 
specting either the nature of this Being as the original cause 
of all things, or his character and designs as a moral gov¬ 
ernor; and not only so, but the more full confirmation of 
other particulars, of which, though they do not lie alto¬ 
gether 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 commu¬ 
nication of Divine knowledge. Nothing which he has 
learned from Natural Theology, will diminish his desire 
of farther instruction, or his disposition to receive it with 
humility and thankfulness. He wishes for light: he re¬ 
joices in light. His inward veneration of this great Being, 
will incline him to attend with the utmost seriousness, not 
only to all that can be discovered concerning him by re¬ 
searches into nature, but to all that is taught by a revela¬ 
tion, which gives reasonable proof of having proceeded 
from him. 
But above every other article of revealed religion, does 
the anterior belief of a Deity bear with the strongest force 
