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in favor of doctrines even the most generally acknowledged, (supposing them to be true,) viz. ftability and impreffion. Occafions will arife to try the firmness of our most habitual opinions. And, upon these occafions, it is a matter of incalculable ufe to feel our foundation; to find a fupport in argument for what we had taken up upon authority. In the prefent cafe, the arguments upon which the conclufion refts, are exactly fuch, as a truth of "They univerfal concern ought to reft upon. are fufficiently open to the views and capacities of the unlearned, at the fame time that they acquire new ftrength and luftre from the discoveries of the learned." If they had been altogether abftrufe and recondite, they would not have found their way to the understandings of the mass of mankind; if they had been merely popular, they might have wanted folidity.

But, fecondly, what is gained by research in the stability of our conclufion, is alfo gained from it in impreffion. Phyficians tell us, that there is a great deal of difference between taking a medicine, and the medicine getting into the conftitution. A difference not unlike which, obtains with refpect to those great

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moral propofitions, which ought to form the directing principles of human conduct. It is one thing to affent to a propofition of this fort; another, and a very different thing, to have properly imbibed its influence. I take the cafe to be this. Perhaps almost every man living, has a particular train of thought, into which his mind falls, when at leifure from the impreffions and ideas that occafionally excite it perhaps alfo, the train of thought here spoken of, more than any other thing, determines the character. It is of the utmost confequence, therefore, that this property of our constitution be well regulated. Now it is by frequent or continued meditation upon a subject, by placing a fubject in different points of view, by induction of particulars, by variety of examples, by applying principles to the solution of phænomena, by dwelling upon proofs and confequences, that mental exercise is drawn into any particular channel. It is by these means, at least, that we have any power over it. The train of spontaneous thought, and the choice of that train, may be directed to different ends, and may appear to be more or lefs judiciously fixed, according to the purpose, in refpect of which we confider

it: but, in a moral view, I fhall not, I believe, be contradicted when I fay, that, if one train of thinking be more defirable than another, it is that which regards the phænomena of na ture with a conftant reference to a fupreme intelligent Author. To have made this the ruling, the habitual fentiment of our minds, is to have laid the foundation of every thing which is religious. The world from thenceforth becomes a temple, and life itself one con tinued act of adoration. The change is no lefs than this, that, whereas formerly God was feldom in our thoughts, we can now scarcely look upon any thing without perceiving its relation to him. Every organized natural body, in the provifions which it contains for its fuftentation and propagation, teftifies a care on the part of the Creator exprefsly directed to these purposes. We are on all fides surrounded by fuch bodies; examined in their parts, wonderfully curious; compared with one another, no lefs wonderfully diverfified. So that the mind, as well as the eye, may either expatiate in variety and multitude, or fix itself down to the investigation of particular divifions of the fcience. And in either cafe it will rife up from its occupation, poffeffed

feffed by the subject, in a very different manner, and with a very different degree of influence, from what a mere affent to any verbal propofition which can be formed concerning the existence of the Deity, at least that merely complying affent with which those about us are satisfied, and with which we are too apt to fatisfy ourselves, can or will produce upon the thoughts. More especially may this difference be perceived, in the degree of admiration and of awe, with which the Divinity is regarded, when reprefented to the understanding by its own remarks, its own reflections, and its own reasonings, compared with what is excited by any language that can be used by others. The works of nature want only to be contemplated. When contemplated, they have every thing in them which can aftonish by their greatness: for, of the vast fcale of operation, through which our difcoveries carry us, at one end we fee an intelligent Power arranging planetary fyftems, fixing, for instance, the trajectory of Saturn, or constructing a ring of a hundred thousand miles diameter, to furround his body, and be fufpended like a magnificent arch over the heads of his inhabitants; and, at the other, bending

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bending a hooked tooth, concerting and providing an appropriate mechanism, for the clasping and reclasping of the filaments of the feather of a humming bird. We have proof, not only of both these works proceeding from an intelligent agent, but of their proceeding from the fame agent: for, in the first place, we can trace an identity of plan, a connection of fyftem, from Saturn to our own globe; and when arrived upon our globe, we can, in the fecond place, purfue the connection through all the organized, especially the animated, bodies, which it fupports. We can observe marks of a common relation, as well to one another, as to the elements of which their habitation is compofed. Therefore one mind hath planned, or at least hath prescribed a general plan for, all these productions. One Being has been concerned in all.

Under this ftupendous Being we live. Our happiness, our exiftence, is in his hands. All we expect must come from him. Nor ought we to feel our fituation infecure. In every nature, and in every portion of nature, which we can defcry, we find attention bestowed upon even the minuteft parts. The hinges in the wings of an earwig, and the joints of its antennæ,

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