SERM. Li NATURAL RELIGION, ITS MRS AND DERECTS. . 1. We may come to the knowledge of his existence, or that there is such a glorious Beingwho made all things. This is evident and certain, that nothing could make itself. It 'is impossible, that any thing which oncehad no being, should ever give being to itself; or that once upon a time it should of itself burst out of nothing, and begin tó be. Since therefore there is a world with mil- lions of beings in it, whichare born and die, it is certain there is some Being, who had no beginning, but had life in himself from all eternity, and who.gives.life' and being to all other things. ..This is the Being whomwe call God.. Of all the visible beings that we are acquainted with, man is the highest and,most noble ; but he is forced to confess he is not his own maker. By sending our thoughts and enquiries a 'little backwards, we find that we came into being but: a few years ago ; and we are daily convinced, that we perish and die.in long succes- sion. Our parents, or our ancestors, were no more able to make themselves than we are ; for most of them are dead, and the rest are going the way of all flesh : they cannot preserve our lives, nor their own ; and therefore it is plain, that though we borrowed life from them at first, yet they are not the original and self-sufficient authors of life, and being to themselves, or to us ; they are but in- struments in the hands of some superior first cause, some original and eternal Maker of us all. Or if some atheist should say, we must run up from son to father, and from father to grandfather, in endless generations, without a beginning, and without any first cause.; hanswer, that is impossible : for if ten thousand generations cannot subsist of themselves without depend - ance on something before them, neither can infinite or endless generations subsist of themselves without de- pendance. Suppose a chain of ten thousand links hung down from the sky, it could not support itself unless some mighty power upheld the first link : then it is cer- tain, a chain of ten thousand times ten thousand links, or an endless chain, could never support itself. As the_, chaingrows longer and heavier, the addition ofnew links can never make the chain more independent, or better support itself. There must be therefore some first bird, some first beast, some first man, from whom all these succeeding
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