texture of his plants to the wants of his living creatures, fo that each fpecies has it's proper food, it's nefts and places of harbour, finding ufes in that which to others is unferviceable.

HE ranged the elements in fuch order, as to carry on what we call the courfe of nature; to pro- . duce minerals and fofiils below, vapours, clouds, dews, and rains above; to iniinuate themfelves into the feed, to make it germinate; into the plant, to make it bear fruits and feeds again; into the foetus, to bring it to maturity; and into the perfect animal, caufing it to fructify and renew the fpecies. He gave various inftincts to brutes, and appetites to man, urging both to effect purposes they do not think of themselves.

HE allotted the feveral provinces to the causes of destruction, as well as thofe of formation and preservation; HE maketh the ftorins his minifters, directing them what to overthrow and what to fpare; HE commanded the earthquakes how far to lay wafte and where to ftop, the lightning whom to ftrike and whom to pafs over. Blight, famine, and peftilence have their limits and directions, in what quarters, and to what extent to spread their havoc; and all this is performed by the intervention of fecond caufes, fo accurately arranged, fo wonderfully contrived, and exactly adjusted, as never to disturb that order and that fucceffion he has established.

Nor is the CREATOR'S wifdom lefs confpicuous in the moral than the natural world; he has left much in the power of free agents, and many things to their choice and management, yet he directs their choice by fuch unseen springs as leads them to execute his purposes; he has diftributed various conftitutions, talents, endowments, paffions, and defires among men, fo that fome are fitted as well

in

in inclination as in ability for every office wanted in fociety; and thus all the conveniences depending on human induftry are fupplied.

Commerce, agriculture, and the mechanic arts, want not hands to carry them on; nor policy, learning, and fcience, able heads to'improve them; the jarring interefts and oppofite views of private perfons ferve to ballance each other, and are made to produce order by their proper commixture, out of that which feparately would tend to confufion. Hɛ knows how and when to raife up peculiar characters that may found or overthrow empires, and erect new kingdoms upon the ruins of the old; HE provides for the establishment, the fecurity, and general welfare of nations and individuals; nor are his cares confined to this fublunary stage, for there is every reafon to conclude that we are here preparing for another state of existence; and we may reasonably prefume, that there is a connection of interefts between the vifible and invifible world, to adjust which requires a more ftupendous wifdom than any thing falling under our notice can exhibit, though that is enough to excite our wonder, and exceed our comprehenfion.

GOD is indeed incomprehenfible in all his attributes; and if we endeavour, with the fcanty line of human reafon, to fathom the depths of omnifcience or omnipotence, we fhall be loft in darknefs, and overwhelmed with difficulties. You may, however, fix your eye upon a profpect clearly difcernible to the mental eye; GOD performing by fecond caufes all the mighty works you fee performed, and able to perform whatever we can comprehend as poffible to be executed.*

You can confider him as giving exiftence to fubftances, folidity to matter, perceptivity to fpirit,

Tucker's Light of Nature,

and

and understanding to man; limiting the ocean, spreading out the earth as a garment, and stretching forth the vaft expanfe of heaven; rolling the planets in their orbits, fixing the golden fun, and appointing the stars their flations; caufing gravitation between large bodies, cohesion between fmall; fupplying us with air to breathe, water to drink, clothes to put on, and innumerable objects all around to employ and entertain us; commanding the iffues of life and death, and having the future condition of fpirits at his difpofal. The contemplation of thefe and a multitude of other things that a little thought will eafily fuggeft to you, prove that HIS preferving providence, HIS animating fpirit, and efficacious influence, is univerfally exerted; will give you the fullest idea of omnipotence we are capable of attaining, and convince you, that it is from the LORD alone that men and angels derive all their prefent powers and future hopes, and that in him they live, and move, and have their being.

"ETERNAL AND SUPREME LORD, all nature is the work of thy hands, and is created into a temple in which thy glory is difplayed! Here things. vifible and invifible are as thou commandeft, are just what thou biddeft! To this bleffed power we muft all apply for help; every thing that fuftains you, all that comforts you, from whatever fecret cause it may feem to come, proceeds from heaven. The riches of the wealthy are alike the gift of God, with the narrow morfel that fupports the beggar at your gate. Things animate and inanimate, rich and poor, men on earth, and angels in heaven, are all fupported by divine goodncfs; HE Openeth his hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousnefs.

"Thus on every fide you find a scene unfolding that is replete with life, energy, and use; a

2

univerfe

univerfe of progreffive relations, from which inferior beings may derive leffons of admiration and humility; in which fuperior intelligences difcover ftill more aftonishing figns of art and magnificence; and on which, pleased with his own work, GoD looks down with the parental regard of love and complacence."*

OF MOTION. †

We are led, by an instinctive principle of the mind, to confider every change which we obferve in the state of things, as an effect, indicating the existence, characterizing the kind, and determining the degree of it's caufe.

The kind and the degree of the cause are therefore inferred from the obferved kind and degree of the change, which we confider as it's effect.

The appearances of the material world exhibited in the changes of motion which we obferve, are called MECHANICAL APPEARANCES; and the causes to which we ascribe them, are called mechanical caufes.

The general object of MECHANICs is the principles and effects of motion, and the equilibrium, which it investigates in order to understand the mechanical appearances of the universe, and apply the effects of motion to the improvements of the arts, and the general purposes of life.

Motion is change of place: change is a generic idea including many fpecies; motion, as a fenfible idea, is a fpecies of that genus. Motion is one fpecies of change, but there are alfo many

others.

* Comyns's Sermons.

Change

+ Profeffor Robinfon's Outlines of Mechanical Philofophy.

Change is therefore a neceffary part of the definition of motion, it marks the genus of the thing defined. Motion is a change; but as there are many fpecies of change, which of thofe fpecies is motion? The anfwer is, change of place. This marks the fpecies, and diftinguithes it from change of colour, figure, &c.

We cannot conceive of any actual motion, without combining together these three ideas, a being which moves, a place in which that being is, and the change of that place.

In motion is therefore fuppofed the fucceffive prefence of the thing moved in different parts of Space; therefore in our ideas of motion are involved the ideas of SPACE and TIME.

In treating of motion we have therefore to confider, 1. The power or force which causes the motion. 2. The fubftance moved. 3. The space paffed over by the moving body. 4. The time or duration of the motion.

Space is the place of every existence; it is diftinguished into abfolute and relative, or place and fituation.

We do not perceive the abfolute place of any object. A perfon in the cabin of a fhip does not think that the table changes it's place, if it remains faftened to the fame part of the deck.

We acquire our notion of time by means of a fucceffion of events.

Time is unbounded, continuous, unchangeable in the order of it's parts, homogeneous, and indefinitely divifible.

There is fo great an analogy between the affections of time and Space, that in moft languages the fame words are used to exprefs the affections of both. Hence it is that time may be expreffed by lines, and measured by motion.

The boundaries between the fucceffive portion

of