us to frame any adequate conceptions of it...

In the firft revelation which he makes of his own Being, he entitles himself, I am that I am; and when Mofes defires to know what Name he fhall give him in his embaffy to Pharaoh, he bids him fay that I am hath fent you. Our great Creator, by this revelation of himself, does in a manner exclude every thing elfe from a real Exiftence, and diftinguishes himself from his creatures, as the only Being which truly and really exifts. The ancient Platonick notion, which was drawn from speculations of eternity, wonderfully agrees with this revelation which God has made of himfelf. There is nothing, fay they, which in reality exifts, whofe Exiftence, as we call it, is pieced up of paft, present and to come. Such a flitting and fucceffive Exiftence is rather a fhadow of Existence, and fomething which is like it, than Existence it felf. He only properly exifts whose Exiftence is intirely prefent; that is, in other words, who exifts in the most perfect manner, and in fuch a manner, as we have no idea of.

I fhall conclude this fpeculation with one useful inference. How can we fuffi

ciently

ciently proftrate our felves and fall down before our Maker, when we confider that ineffable goodness and wisdom which contrived this Existence for finite natures? What must be the overflowings of that good-will, which prompted our Creator to adapt Existence to Beings, in whom it is not neceffary? Efpecially when we confider that he himself was before in the complete poffeffion of Existence and of Happiness, and in the full enjoyment of Eternity. What Man can think of himself as called out and feparated from nothing, of his being made a conscious, -a reasonable and a happy creature, in fhort, of being taken in as a fharer of his Existence and a kind of partner in Eternity, without being fwallowed up in wonder, in praise, in adoration! It is indeed a thought too big for the mind of man, and rather to be entertained in the fecrecy of devotion, and in the filence of the foul, than to be expreffed by words. The Supreme Being has not given us powers or faculties fufficient to extol and magnify fuch unutterable goodness.

It is however fome comfort to us, that we fhall be always doing what we shall be never able to do, and that a work which cannot be finished, will however be the work of an Eternity. SECT.

SECT. II.

The Power and Wisdom of GOD in the CREATION.

Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitaque volantum, quæ marmoreo fert monftra fub æquore pontus.

Et

T

Virg.

HOUGH there is a great deal of pleasure in contemplating the material world, by which I mean that fyftem of bodies into which Nature has fo curiously wrought the mass of dead matter, with the feveral relations. which those bodies bear to one another; there is ftill, methinks, fomething more wonderful and furprizing in contemplations on the world of life, by which I mean all thofe animals with which eve ry part of the universe is furnished. The material world is only the fhell of the univerfe: The world of Life are its in-, habitants.

If we confider thofe parts of the material world which lie the nearest to us, and are therefore fubject to our obfervations and enquiries, it is amazing to confider the infinity of animals with which it is ftocked. Every part of matter is peopled: Every green leaf fwarms with Inhabitants. There is fcarce a fingle hu mour in the body of a man, or of any other animal, in which our glaffes do not discover myriads of living creatures. The furface of animals is also covered with other animals, which are in the fame manner the basis of other animals, that live upon it; nay, we find in the most folid bodies, as in marble itself, innumerable cells and cavities that are crouded with fuch imperceptible inhabitants, as are too little for the naked eye to difcover. On the other hand, if we look into the more bulky parts of nature, we fee the feas, lakes and rivers teeming with numberless kinds of living creatures: We find every mountain and marfh, wil derness and wood, plentifully stocked with birds and beafts, and every part of matter affording proper neceffaries and conveniencies for the livelihood of multitudes which inhabit it.

The

The author of the Plurality of Worlds draws a very good argument from this confideration, for the Peopling of every planet; as indeed it feems very probable from the analogy of reafon, that if no part of matter, which we are acquainted with, lies wafte and useless, those great bodies which are at fuch a distance from us fhould not be defart and unpeopled, but rather that they fhould be furnished with Beings adapted to their respective fituations.

Existence is a bleffing to thofe Beings only which are endowed with perception, and is in a manner thrown away upon dead matter, any further than as it is fubfervient to Beings which are conscious of their Existence. Accordingly we find, from the bodies which lie under our obfervation, that matter is only made as the bafis and support of animals, and that there is no more of the one, than what is neceflary for the Existence of the other.

Infinite Goodness is of fo communicative a nature, that it feems to delight in the conferring of Existence upon every degree of perceptive Being. As this is a fpeculation, which I have often purG 2 fued