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includes in the first Place our Delighting in the Fulness of his infinite Perfection, and in thofe incomparable Attributes and Excellencies which render him the worthy Object of the highest Love, Efteem, and Admiration of all reafonable Beings. Several of these Perfections and Attributes were diftinctly confidered, and it was fhewn that the Contemplation and Belief of those glorious Perfections of the Deity, and a Senfe of the fpecial Intereft which good Men have in them, muft needs furnish a pure and noble Satisfaction and Joy to welldifpofed Minds.

I now proceed to obferve, that our delighting in God does alfo include our taking Pleasure in his wonderful Works, as exhibiting the Displays of his Glory. And indeed this is nearly connected with the former: For to delight in God's Works, in the Sense which we are now to confider it, is really to delight in his Perfections as fhining forth in his marvellous Works. But it may be of ufe to treat of this Matter diftinctly, and thefe Words of the Pfalmift are very appofite to this Purpose: The Works of the Lord are great, fought out of all them that have Pleafure therein. It is here given as the Character of truly good and religious Perfons, that they have Pleasure in

the

the Works of God: They feek them out, they make them the chofen Subject of their Contemplations and diligent Researches, not merely to gratify a fpeculative Curiosity, but that they may be thereby led to love, to reverence, to admire and celebrate the glorious Author.

The Works of the Lord may for the greater Diftin&tnefs be diftributed under three Heads, each of which, duly confidered and improved, will minifter juft Ground of delighting in him; the Works of Creation, of Providence, and of Redemption.

First, We should delight in God's Works of Creation, i. e. we should delight in contemplating the Discoveries of Glory as fhining forth in the Creation of the World, and the various Orders of Beings in it. The Glory of the Lord, faith the Pfalmift, fhall endure for ever: The Lord fhall rejoice in bis Works. He is reprefented as taking a Divine Satisfaction and Complacency in the Works which he hath made, the Contrivances of his own Wisdom, and the Production of his Power and Goodnefs; and, if we could take a comprehensive View of the great Syftem of Nature, and behold all the Parts of it in their mutual Connections and Dependencies, in their various Relations to one another and to the Whole, what a ravishing

vishing and aftonishing Scene would open to us! It is at beft but a little Portion we now know of the Works of God; and yet ever the partial and imperfect Views which we have of thefe Things furnish a noble Entertainment to a pious Mind. How delightful is it to furvey, as far as we are able the feveral Parts of the Creation, and then to afcend above them all to the fupreme univerfal Cause, crying out with a devout Admiration, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive Glory, and Honour, and Power; for thu haft created all Things, and for thý Pleafure they are, and were created. Rev.

iv. II.

Let us look back in our Thoughts to that Point of the immenfe Duration when this material World was formed, and here' let us reprefent to our Minds a vaft univerfal Void, and then behold the grand and ftupendous Fabric rifing at the all-powerful Word of God out Non-existence into Being, and into the beautiful Order in which we now fee it; the more we confider this, the more we fhall be swallowed up in Aftonishment: For, though it doth not imply a Contradiction to caufe Things to exift which had no Exiftence before, yet this is what we can form no Idea of, who are only accustomed to behold Things made

out

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out of pre-exiftent Materials. And therefore we should, when we reflect on this, turn all our Thoughts into Reverence and Admiration of that incomprehenfible Being, who only Spake, and it was done, Pf. xxxiii. 9. He commanded, and they were created. Pl cxlviii. 5.

The more to affect our Minds let us take a general View of the Greatness and vast Extent, of the Number and Variety, of the admirable Order and wife Contrivance of the Works of Creation.

First, Let us take a View of the Greatnefs and vaft Extent of God's Works of Creation. To them may be justly applied thofe Words of the Pfalmift, The Works of the Lord are great. Many of the Works of Nature, which are really the Works of God, even in this lower World, have å Grandeur in them which strikes us with Astonishment. Such are the lofty Mountains that seem to scale the Sky, thofe ftupendous Heaps of Stone which in many Parts of the Earth rife and fpread to an amazing Height and Bulk, and are stretched out in Length through many Regions; and yet how fmall and inconfiderable are thefe compared with the whole Earth, this, huge and ponderous Globe, which contains fuch a prodigious Mafs and Quantity of Matter! But, if we pursue our Inquiries VOL. III. E

farther,

farther, and compare this terraqueous Globe with the other Parts of this wide-extended System, it may not unfitly be likened to a small round Ball hanging scarce difcernible amidst the unmeasurable Spaces that furround it. To thofe Beings which are placed in very diftant Parts of the Univerfe it appeareth at beft no bigger than the Planets do to us; and probably there are many fo far removed from our Earth, as not to be capable of difcerning it at all; fo that they cannot know by their own Obfervation, that there is fuch a Spot in the Creation. The fixed Stars that twinkle in our View, and which appear to us like fo many minute glittering Spangles in the Firmament, are, by the Confent of the ableft Aftronomers, Bodies of wonderous Bulk, much exceeding this earthly Globe in Magnitude. And how great the Number of them is none can tell: For the Stars that come within our View are but a Part, and perhaps a fmall Part, of those that are difperfed throughout the vaft Expanie. Many of the heavenly Orbs, which cannot be difcerned by the naked Eye, have in thefe latter Times been difcovered by the Help of Telescopes; and there are probably many more which are removed at fo immenfe a Distance, that no human Eye on Earth, though aided

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