AN ESSAY. 473 or this earth or its moon should be first placed ; or whether any of them should have one particle of matter more or less in them, than they have, or this or that particle lie in anyother situation ? Whether this single atom of mould or clay should be part of the glebe at 'Taunton or York, or whether this grain of sand or peb- ble should be found on the shore of Deal or Dover, or on the coasts of Africa or the East Indies?* Whether this particle of water should belong to the Severn or the Thames, or should be flowing this moment in the Atlantic or the Mediterranean Sea; or whether this particle of air should be found in Essex, or Hertfordshire, or in America on this day, this hour, and this second of time ? On what particular branch such a bird should sit at such a minute, and what notes it should sing ; and how many leaves should grew on such a bough, and how many in- dentings on the edgeof every leaf ; how many colours should glow on the cheek of such a tulip, or yellow seeds lie in the bosom of a rose ; whether this particular human soul shouldbe united to a body born in Lapland or Russia, Britain or China ; or this child should be created for a tall stature or a dwarf, or be brought into the world in the seventh or seventeenth century ; whether this drop of rain should fall upon a ploughed field or a rock, or this bright sun-beam should light on me or my neigh- bour, on the earth or the moon i And perhaps ten thousand other things, and that of much greater importance in their con- sequences, may have no superior fitness or unfitness in them- selves, but are all equal and all indifferent. And here the will of God, by and of itself, as a free and sovereign power, deter- mines itself in its choice, and as it were makes it so far more agreeable and good to himself by his own choice and determina- tion, and he delights in his own will and purpose, and in the correspondentworks of his hands. XV. When God out of mere sovereignty and good pleasure hath determined by his will to chose and create one sort of world or system of things out of two or two thousand which perhaps were equally fit, or to make this or that sort of creatures in this world ; he then may be said to be led by the nature and relations of those things, and by consequential proper fitnesses which be- long to that system, or to those creatures, to determine those things of a natural or moral kind, which are proper for those creatures, or for that system. As for instance Supposing just such a world to be created as ours is, then perhaps consequently it must have such laws of motion : Or, if man be created ex- * I have dwelt too long perpaps on such minuteand inconsiderable instances ns these; but I did it partly to intimate how universally the great God is laid under necessary and minute limitations, if these things were not indifferent; and partly to give occasion to diffuse our thoughtsinto like instances in the animate, human, acrd angelic worlds, which perhaps are as little and indifferent In tqe eiteeáaof god, as these minute insousiderables are las our esteem.
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