rable are we poor Worms, creeping upon this little little Earth, if compared thereto; even Ifa.xl.17. as Nothing, yea less than Nothing, and Vanity! And here we have plainly lost our selves in the amazing Length and Breadth, and Height of the Grand System, and of that Power, Wisdom and Goodness, which shines forth in every Branch thereof; those chiefly excepted which depend on the Actions of Free-Creatures, and the manner of their Treatment by that Providence which discovers it self in the whole Universe ; the Rules of whose Conduct are not yet laid fully open to our present Curiosity, but are rather referved for the last and noblest Scene of our Duration hereafter. Nor is this to be fo much wondred at, if we confider that the most beautiful, and orderly, and wifely contrived System of this visible World it self, which we have been just reviewing, tho' it has all along, fince the beginning of the World, afforded many and noble Indications of that Divine Power Wisdom, and Goodness to all Mankind, yet have the entire Secrets of that Contrivance, with that univerfal Power of Gravitation, by which the whole Machine has all along been upheld, lain in a manner hid through all past Ages, and is but just now discovered to us. Nay, the very best System of the Heavens, which the Astronomers long had, is reported to have appeared to Alphonfus. One of them so aukward, abfurd and difagreeable, that he was not able to restrain his Tongue from a kind of Blafphemy against its Author; meerly because the Grand Mysteries of the whole Machine, by the Knowledge of which all those seeming Disorders are now entirely vanished,

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nished, was not at that time discovered to Mankind, but was referved for these later, and on that Account happier Ages of the World.

And now, Good Readers, having made this Review of the entire Universe, let us, in Agreement with the rest of my Design, turn our Eyes from the Works to the Workman; from the Effects to the Cause; from the Creatures to the Creator; from these Glorious, these Divine Works of Nature, to the more Glorious and more Divine Author of Nature, the great God, lefsfed for ever. For as it is excellently observ'd in the Book of Wisdom, Surely vain are all Men by Nature who are ignorant of God; and could not, out of the good Things that are feen, know him that is; ueither by confidering the Works did they arknowledge the Workmaster.

xiii. 1.

For by the Greatness and Beauty of the Creatures proportionably the Maker of them is feen. v. And if there be any Deductions of Human Reason which are easier and more obvious than the rest, it is this Way of Arguing, which we have already used, from the House to the Architect; from the Clock to the Clock-maker; from the Ship to the Shipbuilder; and from a noble, large well-contrivd, and well-proportion'd, and most beautiful House, or Clock, or Ship, to the excellent Architect, the skilful Clockmaker, the fagacious Shipbuilder; this is such clear, natural, obvious, fure Reasoning, that we even at first make use of it in Childhood, and find it as clear, natural, obvious, and sure in our elder Age; without occafion for a Tutorto instruct us in it at first, or for a Logician to improve us in it afterward. And thall we reject that

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that way of Reasoning, in the most eminent of all Instances, which we are not able to avoid making in the smalleft? Shall the comparatively few, trifling, imperfect Contrivances of every small Machine here (which yet only applies the Powers of Nature to particular Purposes,) be universally, without Hesitation, allowed to prove a fubtile, a shrewd, and a wife Contriver thereof? And yet, shall the numberless, the important, and the most compleat Contrivances which furround us every where in this Universe, from the immenfly great Body of a Sun, to the as prodigioufly small Bodies of fome Animalcula, be afcrib'd to Fate, to Chance, to any Thing imaginable, befides the great Creator and Contriver of all Things himself'; to whom yet from the earliest to the latest Records of Mankind, as we have seen, the Wisest and Best have ever freely and unanimously ascribed them? But why do I speak of the Wifest and Best only in this Cafe? As if the rest of Mankind have generally had other Notions. No, the whole Race of Mankind, abating a very few, little better either for Ignorance, or Vice, or both, than Monsters, have still from one Generation to another drawn the very fame Conclusions and Truths in their Minds; tho they have not all made equal Application of those Conclufions and Truths to their Practice. In witness whereof, I might alledge the Conceffions of not a few such bad Men; but shall chuse only to instance in the late famous Earl of Rochefter, wholong wanted, not fo much Abili-. ties to discover, as Goodness to make use of fuch Arguments. This Person therefore, as I have been informed, having been one Night deeply engag'd in Atheistical and Blafphemous Difcourse among

mong his Companions, as he too frequently was, after a while happen'd to have occafion to step abroad where the Sky, being very clear, presented him with a glorious Profpect of no small Part of that beautiful World which we have been more diftinctly defcribing. Upon the View of which he was overheard to say, What a Dog am I, thus to blaspheme Him that made me and all this beautiful World! I do not at present recollect from whom I had this Account; tho the Thing it felf was too remarkable to be forgotten. But whether any Mistake might be made in the Circumstances of this Story or not, 'tis unquestionable that such must frequently be the natural Reflections of a confidering Mind, in these Circumstances; whose Impressions nothing can entirely supersede. As for my self, I must freely own, that as I had from my Childhood ever learned from the Works of God to acknowledge and worship Him that made them; and as I improv'd in Anatomy, in Aftronomy, in Natural Philofophy, I saw that this first Im pression or Voice of Nature was still more and more confirm'd and established by farther Enquiries; so that when, in my younger Days, I had with great Difficulty and Pains, attained to the Knowledge of the true System of the World, and of Sir Ifaac Newton's wonderful Discoveries thereto relating, I was not only fully convinc'd, but deeply and surprizingly affected with the Consequences of this Nature; I was fatisfy'd that they were evident Demonstrations of Natu ral, and noble Attestations to Revealed Religion. In which Principles the farther Improvements I have still made, or fucceeding Discoveries of others have still presented to me, the more fure and

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and certain have those Principles appeared ; and the more fure and certain have those Consequences seem'd; tho' it must be confefs'd that the Deepness of the Surprize and Impression, as in * all the like Cafes, can never be so sensible and affecting, as it was upon the first Knowledge of fuch amazing Truths, and momentous Corollaries from them. And I cannot but heartily wish, for the common Good of all the Scepticks and Unbelievers of this Age, that I could imprint in their Minds all that real Evidence for Natural and for Reveal'd Religion that now is, or during my past Enquiries has been upon my own Mind thereto relating: And that their Temper of Mind were such as that this Evidence might afford thein as great Satisfaction as it has my felf. For then I am sure they would not wonder at my warm and zealous Endeavours, even at the Hazard of all I have in this World, for the Restoration of true Religion, for the refcuing the Wicked out of their dangerous State, and for the bringing as many as possible to that future Happiness; which is the grand Design of Religion, and the ultimate Felicity of Mankind. But tho' this entire Communication of the Evidence that is, or has been in my own Mind, for the Certainty of Natural Religion, and of the Jewish and Christian Institutions, be in its own Nature impossible; yet I hope I may have leave here to address my felf to all, especially to the Scepticks and Unbelievers of our Age; to do what I am able for them in this momentous Concern; and to lay before them, as briefly and feriously as I can, a confiderable Number of those Arguments which have the greatest Weight with me, as to the hardest Part

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