ESSAY 1X. 431 And as this sort of solution of difficulties is unphilosophical, so neither is it very hononrable for a divine to say concerning God our Creator, that the rules of natural motion which he bath esta- blished in the world, are not sufficient for the hourly and neces- sary purposes and effects of providence. Let us grant that the bodies of a fly or a mite, as well as an ox or an eagle, contain in them innumerablevessels and humours,tubes and strings through which animal life is diffused, and reigns therein a thousand regu- lar motions and surprising appearances : let us also allow that the formationof oneofthese animal enginesby two others, i.e. the pro- pagation oftheir species is incomparably the nicest and most sur- prising effect that thesecreatures ever perform : What then ? surely youwill not say, that their own sense or reason, or any conscious powers they may be endowed with, are sufficient for this purpose, orare capable of such productions : you will never grant it is owing to the skill of the parent - animals, that such swarms of wondrous young animals are propagated in successive ages : Why then may we not attribute to the all-wise God the glory of assuming them as his instruments into hisgrand scheme of provi- dence, and employing them according to the common laws of nature and motion, which he bath established each to produce his own image ? Why may not a God have such an all- pervading stretch of thought, as to supply the universe with inhabitants in a perpetual succession, by the rules which he at first ordained amongst them, rules which he stamped with his own authority ? And as he then pronounced them the laws of nature, so he con- tinues their agency by his divine and universal influence through all generations. Will you suppose that it derogates from the glory of Divine Providence, to represent thegreat engine of this visible world, as moving onward in its appointed course, without the continual interposure of his hand ? It is granted indeed, that his hand is ever active in preserving all the parts of matter in all their mo- tions according to these uniform laws : but I think it is rather derogatory to his infinite wisdom, to imagine that he could not make the vegetable and animal, as well as the inanimate world of such sort of workmanship, as might regularly move onward in this manner for five or six thousand years, without putting a new hand to it ten thousand times every hour : I say ten thousand times every hour; for there is not an hour nor a moment passes, wherein there are not many millions of animals actually forming in the southern or northern climates. He that can make a clock with a great variety of beauties and motions to go regularly a twelve-month together, is certain- ly a skilful artist ; but if he must put his own hand to assist those motions every hour, or else the engine will stand still, or the Wheels move at random, we conceive a much meaner opinion of
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