MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 381 wonderful machine as this, it would have been sold for thousands of gold and silver, it would have been valued at the price of royal treasures, and thought fit only for the cabinet of the greatest princes. The destruction of such a rare piece of work- manship would have been an uncompensable loss among men ; but it is the work Of God, and here are thousands of these ele- gant structures demolished, and cast out to the dunghill, without any concern or injury to God or man. Glorious indeed, and all divine, is the magnificence of the great Creator ! With what a profusion doth he pour out the riches of his art, even amongst the meaner parts of the creation ! lie makes yearly millions of these animals without labour, and he can part with millions out of his kingdom without loss. Yet these are not superfluous or useless beings in the domi- nions of God. There was a. time when he raised an army of them, and sent them upon a great expedition, to drive the na- tions of the Canaanites and their kings out of their own land, when he would plant his beloved Israel there; Ex. xxiii. 28. Jos. xxiv. 12. Thus he knows how to employ them, when and where he pleases : But he gives leave to every man to destroy their nests and their armies, wheresoever they become a nuisance to him ; for if lie want them himself, he can summon them from the most distant parts of the world, and they shall come at his first call. " 11e can hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of Egypt, and the bee that is in the land of Assyria ;" Is. vii. 18. and they shall range themselves under his banner to execute his dreadful commission. Or if the whole'creation does not afford legions of them sufficient for his purpose, he, who could animate the dust of the earth into lice; Ex. viii. 16. can command all the sands of the sea into swarms of hornets ; or he can call mil- lions out of nothing into being with a word, all dressed in their proper livery, and armed with their stings to carry on his war. What can be wanting to that God who has all the untreated and unknown world of possibles within the reach of his voice ? Rom. iv. 17. " He calleih the things that are not, .as though they were." XXXIV.Citafrons and inscriptions. ANCIENT custom and modern fashion are two sovereign tyrants, who bear almost an universal sway over the practices of mankind. They are directly opposite to each other, and they share the empire of the world between them. The learned and the mighty, as well as the poor and the 'foolish obey their dictates without further enquiry, and submit tti their authority, without reserve and without reason. Why did the Persians worship the fire, and the Chinese the souls of their ancestors ? Why do the Papists say their prayers VOL. Ix. A A
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