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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

of

by

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 Being

must

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