it; as whenever a man fhould ftep from a precipice, to prevent his breaking his bones, or being dafhed to pieces? If there were no general laws of nature, caufing the fame effects to follow from the fame previous circumftances, there would be no exercise for the wisdom and understanding of intelligent beings; and, confequently, we fhould not be in circumstances in which we could arrive at the proper perfection and happiness of our natures. If there were no general laws, we could not know what events to expect, or depend upon, in confequence of any thing we did. We could have none of that pleasure and fatisfaction that we now have in contemplating the courfe of nature, which might be one thing to-day, and another tomorrow; and as no man could lay a fcheme with a profpect of accomplishing it, we should foon become liftlefs and indifferent to every thing, and confequently unhappy.

It may be faid, that we might have been differently conftituted, fo as to have been happy in a world not governed by general laws, and not liable to partial evils. But there is no end of those fuppofitions, which, for any thing that we can tell, may be, in their own nature, impoffible. All that we can do, in thefe difficult fpeculations, is to confider the connections and tendencies of things as they now are; and if we fee reason to conclude that, ceteris manentibus, nothing could be changed

for

for the better, we may alfo conclude that the fyftem itself could not be changed for a better; fince the faine wifdom that has fo perfectly adapted the various parts of the fame scheme, fo as to make it productive of the moft happiness, may well be fupposed to have made choice of the scheme itself, as calculated to contain the moft happiness. Even divine power cannot produce impoffibilities; and for any thing that we know, it may be as naturally impoffible to execute any scheme free from the inconveniences, that we complain of in this, as that two and two should make more than four.

Upon the whole, the face of things is such as gives us abundant reafon to conclude, that God made every thing with a view to the happiness of his creatures and offspring. And we are confirmed in this fuppofition, from confidering the utter impoffibility of conceiving of any end that could be anfwered to himself in the mifery of his creatures; whereas the divine being may be conceived to rejoice in, and perhaps receive pleasure from the happiness of all around him. This, however, is the most honourable idea that we can form of any being; and can it be fuppofed that our maker would have conftituted us in fuch a manner, as that our natural ideas of perfection and excellence should not be applicable to the effential attributes of his own nature? Our natural approbation of love and benevolence is, therefore, a proof of the

divine benevolence, as it cannot be fuppofed that he fhould have made us to hate, and not to love himself.

That every part of fo complex a fyftem as this fhould be fo formed, as to conspire to promote this one great end, namely, the happiness of the creation, is a clear proof of the wisdom of God. The proper evidence of defign, or contrivance is fuch a fitness of means to gain any end, that the correfpondence between them cannot be fuppofed to be the refult of what we call accident, or chance. Now there are so many adaptations of one thing to another in the fyftem of nature, that the idea of chance is altogether excluded; infomuch, that there is reafon enough to conclude, that every thing has its proper ufe, by means of a defigned reference to fomething else; and' that nothing has been made, or is disposed of, but to answer a good and benevolent purpose. And the more clofely we infpect the works of God, the more exquifite art and contrivance do we difcover in them. This is acknowledged by all perfons who have made any part of nature their particular study, whether they have been of a religious turn of mind, or

not.

We fee the greatest wisdom in the diftribution. of light and heat to the different parts of the earth, by means of the revolution of the earth upon its axis, and its obliquity to the plane in which it

moves; so that every climate is not only habitable by men whofe conftitutions are adapted to it, but every part of the world may be vifited by the inhabitants of any other place, and there is no country which the fame perfon is not capable of accustoming himself to, and making tolerable, if not agreeable to him, in a reasonable space of time.

We fee the greatest wisdom in the variation of the seasons of the year in the fame place, in the provifion that is made for watering as well as warming the foil, fo as to prepare it for the growth of the various kinds of vegetables that derive their nourishment from it. The wifdom of God appears in adapting the conftitutions of vegetables and animals to the climates they were intended to inhabit, in giving all animals the proper means of providing their food, and the neceffary powers either of attacking others, or fecuring themselves by flight, or fome other method of evading the purfuit of their enemies. The carnivorous and voracious animals have a degree of strength and courage fuited to their occafions, whereby they are prompted to feize upon their prey, and are enabled to mafter and fecure it; and the weak have that degree of timidity, which keeps them attentive to every appearance of danger, and warns them to have recourfe to fome methods of fecuring themselves from it. We fee the greatest wisdom

in the provifion that is made in nature against the lofs or extinction of any fpecies of vegetables or animals, by their easy multiplication, according to the want there is of them. The most useful vegetables grow every where, without care or cultivation, as for example, the different kinds of grafs. Small and tame animals breed faft, whereas the large and carnivorous ones propagate very flowly, which keeps the demand on the one hand, and the confumption on the other, nearly equal.

The human body exhibits the clearest and the mot numerous marks of wisdom and contrivance, whereby each part receives its proper nourishment, and is fitted for its proper functions; all of which are admirably adapted to our real occafions in life. How conveniently are the organs of all our fenfes difpofed, how well fecured, and how excellently adapted to their proper uses; and how exceedingly ferviceable are all of them to us. We fee the wisdom of God both in what we call the instincts of brutes, and the reafon of man; each of thefe principles being exactly fitted to our feveral occafions.

We also see the wifdom of God in the natural fanctions of virtue in this world; fo that those perfons who addict themselves to vice and wickedness become miferable and wretched in the natural courfe of things, without any particular interpo