sistibly led to the conclusion, that these magnificent works are the production of a designing mind: that He who "made the earth by his power," hath "established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding."

k Jer. li. 15. x. 12.

LECTURE III.

THE WISDOM OF GOD DISPLAYED IN THE HEAVENS

AND UPON THE EARTH.

Psalm XIX. 1—6.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

When we direct our eyes to the celestial regions, and behold the magnificent scene pre

sented to our view: when we consider the bright stars of heaven as what they really are, masses of stupendous magnitude existing in space to which we can assign no limits; we are necessarily led to acknowledge the power of Him who formed them. And when, by further observation, we detect the accurate laws by which the motions of the bodies in our own

system are regulated, and the obviously wise ends to which they are subservient; we are brought to the conclusion that these heavens are the work, not only of infinite power, but of a designing intelligence.

We have already referred to the law of gravity and its consequences as affording proofs of design in conjunction with benevolence. But there are numerous other circumstances, more or less closely connected with astronomy, which enforce the same truth.

1. We may first notice how nicely the vicissitudes of the seasons and the alternation of day and night, are fitted for sustaining the living creatures and fruits of this earth. Seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, cease not; and, were they to cease, the earth would soon become a desert. A small periodical alteration, in the length of the day, and the temperature of the seasons, is found to be not only tolerable, but most conducive to the comfort of our existence. But any material change, much more the suspension of this alternate variation, would speedily be followed by inevitable and total destruction of every living creature, and of every plant that grows. Now we are not at all apt to think of this. The very greatness, the universality of the benefit makes us forgetful of it. Man goes

forth to his work and to his labour upon the earth, and expects with anxiety the hour when evening shall have put a period to his toils. Night comes on, and affords a season of general quiet; allowing precisely the degree of time necessary to recruit his strength, and to restore the face of nature to its original freshness. He that now sows, sows in the confident hope that the seed will spring up, and produce first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear: that the rain from heaven will descend to water it, and the warmth of the summer sun will bring its fruit to maturity: that he will in the autumn put in the sickle, and lay up the produce in his garner as a provision for the winter, which he expects to ensue. But few know, and of those who know fewer still consider, that this delightful change and this confident expectation are parts of an analogy connecting the globe which we inhabit with the system in which it is placed.

The earth, self balanced on her axle, glides on with the other planets in her appointed course through the regions of space, with a rapidity almost inconceivable though unobserved; like some rich vessel, originally launched by the Creator's hand, freighted with all the productions of its various climes, and affording to them all an agreeable and necessary

vicissitude of light and darkness, of heat and cold. That a night of very long duration would be intolerable, and soon destroy both animals and organized beings on the face of the earth, is manifest. And they who have experienced the uninterrupted light of a polar day bear witness to the harassing feelings arising from its continuance, for a time much exceeding the ordinary duration of a day.

2. The planet upon which we live is composed of matter under three principal modifications, solid, fluid, and aerial. Such a distribution is found to be most necessary for the existence of the different beings which are placed upon its surface: but the arrangement depends upon a variety of circumstances, in all of which there is room for choice within certain limits.

The first condition, which may be mentioned, is a certain equable temperature. The variations which take place in different parts of the world, and at different seasons, are not so great as those which may be artificially produced; and far less than those which any considerable alteration of the place occupied by the earth in the solar system would probably occasion. Now, if no alteration be supposed in the other bodies of which the globe is composed, the fluid state, in which the element of water