antennæ, are as highly wrought, as if the Creator had had nothing else to finish. We fee no figns of diminution of care by multiplicity of objects, or of diftraction of thought by variety. We have no reason to fear, therefore, our being forgotten, or overlooked, or neglected. The existence and character of the Deity, is, in every view, the most interesting of all human fpeculations. In none, however, is it more fo, than as it facilitates the belief of the fundamental articles of Revelation. It is a ftep to have it proved, that there must be fomething in the world more than what we fee. It is a further step to know, that, amongst the invisible things of nature, there must be an intelligent mind, concerned in its production, order, and fupport. These points being affured to us by Natural Theology, we may well leave to Revelation the disclosure of many particulars, which our researches cannot reach, respecting either the nature of this Being as the original cause of all things, or his character and defigns as a moral governor; and not only fo, but the more full confirmation of other particulars, of which, though they do not lie altogether beyond our reafonings 2 P 2 ings and our probabilities, the certainty is by no means equal to the importance. The true Theift will be the firft to liften to any credible communication of divine knowledge. Nothing which he has learnt from Natural Theology, will diminish his defire of further inftruction, or his difpofition to receive it with humility and thankfulness. He wishes for light: he rejoices in light. His inward veneration of this great Being, will incline him to attend. with the utmost ferioufnefs, not only to all that can be discovered concerning him by refearches into nature, but to all that is taught by a revelation, which gives reasonable proof of having proceeded from him. Bur, above every other article of revealed religion, does the anterior belief of a Deity, bear with the ftrongeft force, upon that grand point, which gives indeed intereft and importance to all the reft-the refurrection of the human dead. The thing might appear hopelefs, did we not fee a power at work adequate to the effect, a power under the guidance of an intelligent will, and a power penetrating the inmoft receffes of all fubftance. I am far from juftifying the opinion of those, who "thought it a thing incredible that God fhould raile the dead;" but I admit that it is firft neceffary to be perfuaded, that there is a God to do fo. This being thoroughly fettled in our minds, there feems to be nothing in this procefs (concealed and myfterious as we confefs it to be,) which need to fhock our belief. They who have taken up the opinion, that the acts of the human mind depend upon organization, that the mind itself indeed confifts in organization, are fuppofed to find a greater difficulty than others do, in admitting a tranfition by death to a new ftate of fentient exiftence, because the old organization is apparently diffolved. But I do not see that any impracticability need be apprehended even by these; or that the change, even upon their hypothefis, is far removed from the analogy of fome other operations, which we know with certainty that the Deity is carrying on. In the ordinary derivation of plants and animals from one another, a particle, in many cafes, minuter than all affignable, all conceivable dimension; an aura, an effluvium, an infinitefimal; determines the organization of a future body does no lefs than fix, whether that which is about to be produced, fhall be a vegetable, a merely fentient, or a rational being; an an oak, a frog, or a philosopher; makes all thefe differences; gives to the future body its qualities, and nature, and fpecies. And this particle, from which fprings, and by which is determined a whole future nature, itfelf proceeds from, and owes its constitution to, a prior body: nevertheless, which is feen in plants moft decifively, the incepted organization, though formed within, and through, and by a preceding organization, is not corrupted by its corruption, or deftroyed by its diffolution; but, on the contrary, is sometimes extricated and developed by thofe very causes; furvives and comes into action, when the purpofe, for which it was prepared, requires its use. Now an economy which nature has adopted, when the purpose was to transfer an organization from one individual to another, may have fomething analogous to it, when the purpose is to tranfmit an organization from one ftate of being to another ftate: and they who found thought in organization, may see fomething in this analogy applicable to their difficulties; for, whatever can tranfmit a fimilarity of organization will anfwer their purpose, because, according even to their own theory, it may be the vehicle of consciousness, and because consciousness, sciousness, without doubt, carries identity and individuality along with it through all changes of form or of vifible qualities. In the moft general cafe, that, as we have faid, of the derivation of plants and animals from one another, the latent organization is either itself fimilar to the old organization, or has the power of communicating to new matter the old organic form. But it is not reftricted to this rule. There are other cafes, especially in the progress of infect life, in which the dormant organization does not much resemble that which incloses it, and ftill less suits with the fituation in which the inclosing body is placed, but fuits with a different fituation to which it is deftined. In the larva of the libellula, which lives conftantly, and has ftill long to live, under water, are defcried the wings of a fly, which two years afterwards is to mount into the air. Is there nothing in this analogy? It ferves at least to shew, that, even in the obfervable course of nature, organizations are formed one beneath another; and, amongst a thousand other inftances, it fhews completely, that the Deity can mold and fashion the parts of material nature, fo as to fulfill any purpose whatever which he is pleased to appoint. They |