Of thofe attributes of the divine being which the confideration of his works leads us to afcribe to him.

TH

HAT God is immaterial, eternal, and immutable, follows neceffarily, as we have seen, from his being uncaufed; but if we confider the effects of which he is the cause, or, in other words, the works of which he is the author, we shall be led to afcribe to him other attributes, particularly thofe of power, wifdom, and goodnefs; and confequently all the attributes which are neceffarily connected with, or flow from them.

If we call a being powerful, when he is able to produce great effects, or to accomplish great works, we cannot avoid afcribing this attribute to God, as the author of every thing that we behold; and when

we

we confider the apparent greatnefs, variety, and extent of the works of God, in the whole frame of nature; as in the fun, moon, and ftars; in the earth which we inhabit, and in the vegetables and animals which it contains, together with the powers of reafon and understanding poffefsed by man, we cannot fuppose any effect to which the divine power is not equal and therefore we are authorised to say that it is infinite, or capable of producing any thing, that is not in its own nature impoffible; fo that whatever purposes the divine being forms, he is always able to

execute.

The defigns of fuch a being as this, who cannot be controlled in the execution of any of his purpofes, would be very obvious to us if we could comprehend his works, or fee the iffue of them; but this we cannot do with respect to the works of God, which are both incomprehenfible by our finite understandings, and alfo are not yet compleated; for as far as they are fub

ject

ject to our infpection, they are evidently in a progress to fomething more perfect. Yet from the fubordinate parts of this great machine of the universe, which we can in fome measure understand, and which are compleated; and alfo from the manifeft tendency of things, we may safely conclude, that the great design of the divine being, in all the works of his hands, was to produce happiness.

That the world is in a state of improvement is very evident in the human fpecies, which is the most distinguished part of it. Knowledge, and a variety of improve ments depending upon knowledge (all of which are directly or indirectly fubfervient to happiness) have been increafing from the time of our earliest acquaintance with history to the present; and in the last century this progrefs has been amazingly rapid. By means of increafing commerce, the valuable productions of the earth become more equally distributed, and by improvements in agriculture they are con

tinually

1

tinually multiplied, to the great advantage of the whole family of mankind.

It is partly in confequence of this improvement of the human fpecies, as we may call it, that the earth itself is in a ftate of improvement, the cultivated parts continually gaining ground on the uncultivated ones; by which means, befides many other advantages, even the inclemencies of the weather are, in fome meafure, leffened, and the world becomes a more healthy and pleasurable abode for its most important inhabitants. If things proceed as they have done in these respects, the earth will become a paradise, compared to what it was formerly, or with what it is at present.

It is a confiderable evidence of the goodness of God, that the inanimate parts of nature, as the furface of the earth, the air, water, falts, minerals, &c. are adapted to answer the purposes of vegetable and animal life, which abounds

every

every where; and the former of thefe is. evidently fubfervient to the latter; all the vegetables that we are acquainted with either directly contributing to the support of animal life, or being, in some other way, useful to it; and all animals are furnished with a variety of appetites and powers, which continually prompt them to feek, and enable them to enjoy fome kind of happiness.

It seems to be an evident argument that the author of all things intended the animal creation to be happy, that, when their powers are in their full strength, and exercise, they are always happy; health and enjoyment having a natural and neceffary connection through the whole fyftem of nature; whereas it can hardly be imagined, but that a malevolent being, or one who should have made creatures with a design to make them miserable, would have conftituted them so, that when any creature was the most perfect, it would have been the most unhappy.

It