SERM. I.] NATURAL RELIGION, ITS USES AND DEFECTS. 5 ment would acquaint us with some new glories of the Creator. Let us consider but our own natures, our parts and powers ; what wonders are contained in every sense ? In the eye, what millions of objects are painted continually on one spot of that little ball, and trànsferred inward to the brain in all their distinct colours and shapes, and are beheld without confusion there ? What varieties of sounds and voices, language and harmony, are taken in and distinguished by the ear in its winding caverns ? How very various are the tastes and smells that we par-, take ofby the palate and the nostrils ? How happily con- trived is our sense of feeling,, not confined to one part, but diffused throughout the whole body, and to give speedy notice of every thing within us, or without us, that may hurt our frame ? What a wonderful instru ment is the- tongue, to convey our thoughts in ten thou- sand sounds to our fellow-creatures ? And what an ex- cellent Being is the principle of thought within us, even our souls or spirits, which can not only táke in and con verse about all the millions of objects, which our senses give us notice of it; but millions more of numbers and quantities and intellectual ideas which our senses cannot reach ? Now can all these be formed without infinite wisdom and skill ? I might demand of the sons of,atheism, in t:,e language of the Psalmist; Ps. xciv. 9, 10. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? .I e that formed the eye, shall he not see ? ,He that gives knowledge to man, shall he not know ?" He that made spirits, hath not he all the powers of a spirit in him, in a most transcendent manner and degree ? And as the wonders of contrivance in the works of God declare his depth of wisdom, so the difficulty of creating them out of nothing argues his almighty power. " When we survey the heavens the work of his hands, the moon and the stars which he hath created," Ps. viii. 3. what a glorious and powerful Beingmust that be, which formed these vast bodies at first, and which up- holds their stupendous frame ? What an almighty voice was necessary to call this whole universe, these heavens and earth, and seas, with all the hosts of them, out of nothing into being, and constrain them to obey the call ? Man can only change the shapes and qualities of things :_, B 3
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