extreme folly, is sadly evident. They live as absolute atheists, only refuse the title for fear of infamy, or punishment. It will therefore not be unseasonable to revive the natural notion of the Deity. Now to establish this truth no arguments are more convincing than what are level to all understandings. And those

are,

I. The visible frame of the world, and the numerous natures in it, all modelled by this supreme rule, the good of the whole. II. The usual and the extraordinary works of providence towards men according to the moral quality of their actions.

III. The evidences that prove the world had a beginning in time. IV. The universal sense of the Deity impressed on the minds of men.

1. The first reason is clear and intelligible to all: for it is the inseparable property of an intellectual agent to propound an end, to judge of the convenience between the means and it, and to contrive them in such a manner as to accomplish it. Now if we survey the universe, and all the beings it contains, their proportion, dependance and harmony, it will fully appear that antecedently to its existence, there was a perfect mind that designed it, and disposed the various parts in that exact order, that one beautiful world is composed of them. The * philosopher conjectured truly, who being shipwrecked on the Island of Rhodes, and come to the shore, spying some mathematical figures drawn on the sand, cried out with joy, Vestigia hominum video, I see the footsteps of men, and comforted his despairing companions, that they were not cast into a desert, or place of savages, but of men civil and wise, as he discovered by those impressions of their minds. And if we observe the frame of the world, the concatenation of the superior with the middle, and of the middle with the lower parts, whereby it is not an accidental aggregation of bodies, but an entire universe; if we consider the just disposing them conveniently to their nature and dignity, the inferior and less noble depending on the superior, and that so many contrary natures with that fidelity and league of mutual love embrace and assist each other, that every one working according to its peculiar quality, yet all unite their operations for one general end, the preservation and benefit of the whole, must we not strongly conclude that it is the work of a designing and most wise agent?

* Vitruv, Pref. 1. 6,

-Pulchrum pulcherrimus ipse

Mundum mente gerens, similique ab imagine formans.

BOET.

To make this more evident, I will produce some instances. The sun, of all celestial bodies the most excellent in beauty and usefulness, does in its situation, motion, effects, publish the glory of a most wise providence.

1. In its situation. The wisest providence could not design to place it better with respect to its dignity, or with respect to the celestial bodies, or the benefit of the lower world. For it is placed where the stars by reflecting his glorious light, as tributaries do homage to him their sovereign, the fountain of their beauty. It is in the midst of the planets, to enlighten them with his brightness, and enkindle them with his fire, and thereby derive to them such benign qualities and activities, that make them beneficial to mixed bodies. It is the heart of the world, wherein all the vital spirits are prepared, and it is so conveniently seated: as to transmit to all, even the most distant parts of that vast body, by perpetual irradiations, the most temperate, various and effectual influences, necessary for the production and preservation of innumerable species of beings in it. If the sun were raised to the stars, the earth for want of its quickening heat would lose its prolific virtue, and remain a carcass. The air would be filled with continual oppressing vapours, the sea would overflow the land. If it were as low as the moon, as dangerous effects would follow, the air would be inflamed by its excessive heat, the sea boiling, the rivers dried up, every mountain a Vesuvius or Ætna; the whole earth a barren mass of ashes, a desert of Arabia. in this due distance, it purifies the air, abates the superfluity of waters, temperately warms the earth, and keeps the elements in such degrees of power, as are requisite for the activity of mixed bodies depending on them. It cannot be in another place without the disorder and injury of universal nature.

But

Besides, there is a sensible proof of a wise director in its * motion, from whence so many and various effects proceed. The diurnal motion from east to west causes the day. The sun is the

Some modern philosophers have argued, that the earth is a planet: but whether the earth or the sun be the centre of the world, the structure of it is not less admirable, nor the commerce of its parts less regular, nor less con❤ vincing that a most wise author framed it.

first spring and great original of light, and by his presence discovers the beauties of the most of visible objects. From hence all the pleasant variety of colours, to which light is the soul that gives vivacity. Without it the world would be the sepulchre of itself, nothing but silence and solitude, horror and confusion. The light guides our journies, awakens and directs our industry, preserves mutual conversation. And the withdrawing of the sun from one hemisphere to another is as beneficial to the world by causing night. For that has peculiar advantages. Its darkness enlightens us to see the stars, and to understand their admirable order, aspects, influences; their conjunction, distances, opposition, from which proceed their different effects in all passive bodies. Now what can be more pleasant than the ornaments and diversities of these twins of time? Besides, by this distinction of the day and night there is a fit succession of labour and rest, of the works and thoughts of men; those proper to the day, active and clear; the other to the night, whose obscurity prevents the wandering of the mind through the senses; and silence favours its calm contemplations.

And the constant revolution of day and night in the space of twenty-four hours, is of great benefit. If they should continue six entire months together, as under the poles, though their space would be equal in the compass of the year as now, yet with public disadvantage. The shining of the sun without intermission, would be very hurtful to the earth, and to its inhabitants. And its long absence would cause equal mischiefs by contrary qualities. For the nature of man and other living creatures cannot subsist long in travail, without repairing their decays by rest. Now the succession of day and night in that space, fitly tempers their labour and repose. After the toilsome service of the day, the sun retires behind the earth, and the night procures a truce from business, unbends the world, and invites to rest in its deep silence and tranquillity. And by sleep, when the animal operations cease, the spirits that were much consumed in the service of the senses, are renewed, and united, in assistance to the vital faculties; the body is restored, and at the springing day made fresh and active for new labour. So that the wisdom of the Creator is as visible in the manner of this dispensation, as the thing itself. And it is an observable point of providence in ordering the length and shortness of days and nights for the good of the several parts of the

.

world. Under the equinoctial line, the earth being parched by the direct beams of the sun, the nights are regularly twelve hours through the year, fresh and moist to remedy that inconvenience. On the contrary, in the northern parts, where there is a fainter reflection of its beams, the days are very long, that the sun may supply by its continuance, what is defective in its vigour, to ripen the fruits of the earth. no paljugoi

The annual course of the sun between the north and south, discovers also the high and admirable wisdom of God. For all the benefits that nature receives, depend on his unerring constant motion through the same circle declining and oblique, with respect to the poles of the world. It is not possible that more can be done with less. From hence proceed the difference of climates, the inequality of days and nights, the variety of seasons, the diverse mixtures of the first qualities, the universal instruments of natural productions. In the spring it is in conjunction with the pleiades, to cause sweet showers, that are as milk to nourish the new-born tender plants, that hang at the breasts of the earth. In the summer it is joined with the dog-star, to redouble its force, for the production of fruits necessary to the support of living creatures. And winter, that in appearance is the death of nature, yet is of admirable use for the good of the universe. The earth is cleansed, moistened and prepared, so that our hopes of the succeeding year depend on the frosts and snows of winter.

If the sun in its diurnal and annual motion were so swift that the year were completed in six months, and the day and night in twelve hours, the fruits of the earth would want a necessary space to ripen. If on the contrary it were so slow, as double the time were spent in its return, the harvest but once gathered in the twenty-four months, could not suffice for the nourishment of living

creatures.

It is also a considerable effect of providence, that the sensible world does not suddenly pass from the highest degrees of heat to the extremity of cold, nor from this to that, but so gradually that the passage is not only tolerable, but pleasant. Immediate extremes are very dangerous to nature. To prevent that inconvenience, the spring interposes between the winter and summer, by its gentle heat disposing living bodies for the excess of summer. And autumn of a middle quality prepares them for the rigour of * Obliquitatem ejus intellexisse, est rerum fores aperuisse. Plin.

winter; that they may pass from one to another without violent alteration.

To attribute these revolutions, so just and uniform to chance, is the perfection of folly: for chance, as a cause that works without design, has no constancy nor order in its effects. If a die be thrown an hundred times, the fall is contingent, and rarely happens to be twice together on the same square. Now the alternate returns of day and night are perpetual in all the regions of the universe. And though neither the one nor the other begin nor end their course twice together in the same point; so that their motion appears confused; yet it is so just, that at the finishing of the year they are found to have taken precisely as many paces the one as the other. In the amiable war between them, though one of the two always gets, and the other loses the hours, yet in the end they retire equal, and the vicissitudes of seasons with an inviolable tenor succeed one another. Who ever saw the various scenes of a theatre move by hazard in those just spaces of time, as to represent palaces or woods, rocks and seas, as the subject of the actors required? And can the lower world four times in the circle of the year change appearance, and alter the seasons so conveniently to the use of nature, and no powerful mind direct that great work? Frequent discoveries of an end orderly pursued, must be attributed to a judicious agent.

The psalmist guided not only by inspiration but reason, declares, "The day is thine, the night also is thine, thou madest the summer and winter." But this I shall have occasion to touch on afterward.

* Φανερὸν ἐδε τέρε τά τῶν αἰτία ἡ τύχη, λέγεται,-Arist