REL!QUI E JUVENILES: MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS; IN PROSE AND VERSE, On Natural, Moral, and Divine Subjects; Written chiefly in younger years. Et jucunda simula idonea dicere Vitæ. Hoa. I. Searching after God. SINCE we find in ourselves that we think and reason, we fear and hope, and by an act of our will we can put this body of ours into various forms of Motion, we may boldly pronounce that We are, and that We live ; for we are conscious of active power, and life, and being. But where is the hand that made us, and that gave us this life and power ? We know that we did not make ourselves in time past, because we cannot promise ourselves a minute of time to come : We feel no power within to preserve ourselves a moment, nor to rescue or withhold this being or this life of ours from the sudden demands of death. It is evident yet farther, that we did not give ourselves these wondrous properties and powers which we possess ; for though we are sensible of many deficiencies and imperfections, yet neither the most perfect nor most defective amongst us can add to our present self the least new power or property. While we are all surrounded with wants which we cannot supply, and exposed to death, which we cannot avoid, it is a ridiculous pretence to be our own makers. We conclude then with assurance, that we are the work of some more powerful and superior hand ; but how we came first into being, we know not : The manner of our original existence is hid from us in darkness : We are neither conscious of our crea- tion, nor of the power which created us. He made us, but he hid himself from our eyes and our ears, and all the searches of sense. He has sent us to dwell in this visible world, amidst an endless variety of images, figures and colours, which force them- selves upon our senses ; but he for ever disclaims al Image, colour and figure himself. He bath set us who are infer" this task in these regions of mortal flesh, to search and'; eel after him, if haply we may find the supreme, the infinite and eternal Vol.. ix. X
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