propriety, in whatever situation it shall please divine Providence to place us, we shall consider as being our principal concern; as that which alone can make us truly happy in this life, and solace us with the hopes of immortality.

Nothing can be more evident, than that men, as well as whatever else has life, are weak and dependent creatures, that neither gave existence to themselves, nor can preserve it by any power of their own; and, therefore, we must certainly be indebted for this existence to some superior and more powerful cause. And this superior cause must either be itself the first cause, which is the notion of God, or else, by the same argument as before, must be derived from him, and lead us, consequently, to the knowledge of him. But this argument, which is called the argument à priori, with the various deductions from it, is too abstruse for the generality of readers. That admirable metaphysician and divine, Dr. Clarke, in his Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, has managed this argument with the greatest per spicuity and force of reasoning, by a series of propositions mutually connected and dependent, and forming a complete and unanswerable argu ment in proof both of the being and attributes of the Deity.

But there is another argument, called the argument of à posteriori, which is more generally obvious, and which carries irresistible conviction. This argument is deduced from the frame of the universe, and the traces of evident contrivance, and fitness of things for each other, that occur through all the parts of it. These conspire to prove, that the material world, which in its nature is originated and dependent, could not have been the effect of chance or necessity, but of intelligence

VOL. I.

D

With thee in shady solitudes I walk,
With thee in busy crowded cities talk;
In ev'ry creature own thy forming power,
In each event thy providence adore.
Thy hopes shall animate my drooping soul,
Thy precepts guide me, and thy fear contr
Thus shall I rest, unmoved by all alarms,
Secure within the temple of thine arms;
From anxious cares, from gloomy terrors fro
And feel myself omnipotent in thee.

Then, when the last, the closing hour drawTM
And earth recedes before my swimming eye
Teach me to quit this transitory scene
With decent triumph and a look serene;
Teach me to fix my ardent hopes on high,
And, having lived to thee, in thee to die.

But to the bulk of mankind, immersed cares of business, or the pursuits of pleasur veneration of the Divine Being, this confide. his goodness, and acquiescence in his dispens so far from being habitual, seldom forms the ject of even a momentary meditation; alti there is scarcely an object in the creation, minute and insignificant it may seem, that not demonstrate the existence of a God,

Who, high in glory, and in might serene,
Sees and moves all, Himself unmoved, unseen.

BROOM

I shall here lay before my readers a few ar ments to prove this important and most essen truth: I say, most essential truth, because, wi we are once effectually convinced of this, a due tention to the nature and circumstances of this li as it respects another, cannot fail to inspire temper of habitual devotion, and lead us to rega obedience to ' the will of God' as the great ai joyful business of our lives; while every thing els in these sublunary scenes, will appear, compara tively of no moment. To conduct ourselves wit

situation it shall please lace us, we shall consider concern; as that which happy in this life, and sta

be more evident, Watever else has life Matures, that neithe

can preserve

We therefore, we
Netis existence to
And

da te itself the firs
God or else, b
the derived

to the know

and design. The beautiful, harmonious, and beneficial arrangement of the various bodies which compose the material system; their mutual dependence, and subserviency; the regularity of their motions, and the aptitude of these motions for producing the most beneficial effects; and many phenomena resulting from their relation, magnitude, situation, and use; afford unquestionable evidences of the creating power and wise disposal of an intelligent and almighty Agent. The power of gravity, by which the celestial bodies persevere in their revolutions, deserves particular consideration. This power penetrates to the centres of the sun and planets, without any diminution of its virtue, and is extended to immense distances, regularly decreasing, and producing the most sensible and important effects. Its action is proportioned to the quantity of solid matter in bodies, and therefore seems to surpass mere mechanism. But, however various the phenomena which depend on this power, and may be explained by it, no mechanical principles can account for its effects; much less, could it have produced, at the beginning, the regular situation of the orbs, and the present disposition of things. Gravity could not have determined the planets to move, from west to east, in orbits nearly circular, almost in the same plane; nor could this power have projected the comets with all the variety of their directions. If we suppose the matter of the system to be accumulated in the centre by its gravity, no mechanical principles, with the assistance of this power, could separate the huge and unwieldy mass into such parts as the sun and planets; and, after carrying them to their different distances, project them in their several directions, preserving still the quality of action and re-action, or the state of the centre of

gravity of the system'. Such an exquisite struc ture of things could arise from the contrivance and powerful influences only of an intelligent, free, and omnipotent Agent. The same powers, therefore, which, at present, govern the material universe, and conduct its various motions, are very different from those which were necessary to have produced it from nothing, or to have disposed it in the admirable form in which it now proceeds.

But I should far exceed the limits of this paper, if confining my observation to the earth, our own habitation, I were to enumerate only the principal traces of design and wisdom, as well as goodness, which are discernible in its figure and constituent parts, in its diurnal and annual motion, in the position of its axis with regard to its orbit, in the benefit which it derives from the light and heat of the sun, and the alternate vicissitude of the seasons; in the atmosphere which surrounds it; and in the different species and varieties of vegetables and animals with which it is replenished. No one can survey the vegetable productions of the earth, so various, beautiful, and useful; nor the gradations of animal life, in such a variety of species, all preserved distinct, and propagated by a settled law; each fitted to its own element, provided with proper food, and with instincts and organs suited to its rank and situation, and especially with the powers of sensation and self-emotion, and all more immediately or remotely subservient to the government and use of man, without admiring the skill and design of the original Founder. But these are more signally manifested in the structure of the human frame, and in the noble powers and capacities of the human mind; more especially in the moral principles and faculties, which are a dis

See No. XI. on Gravity,