he remarks, Behold the fowls of the air, for they fow not, neither do they reap, neither gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they ? In another place, he fays, Are not five Sparrows fold for two farthings? and not one of them is forgotten before God. Ye are of more value than many Sparrows d. In these instances his inference is drawn from this confideration, that if the meaner parts of the creation be not beneath the immediate and conftant care of the Creator, we may conclude, that beings who hold a fuperior rank must be proportionably greater objects of heavenly regard.

I fhall therefore, in the first place, endeavour to support the doctrine of a superintending first Caufe, in oppofition to those opinions which have a tendency to attribute all the order and beauty of the creation to fecond causes.

I fhall then fhew, that fecond causes are not: independent of the first, because they exhibit marks of fubordination; and that there are relations and analogies throughout nature, which prove that all effects proceed from one and the fame origin, and contribute to promote one grand and complete defign.

d-Luke xii. 6, 7.

Modern fceptics have attempted to refer the admirable contrivance of the Deity, for the preservation of all created matter, to voluntary ef forts of nature towards perfection, by gradual advance. But who does not perceive, that to attribute productive powers to fecond caufes is to render the final caufe of lefs importance; and if created matter can act by principles that are in themselves efficient and independent of the great Author of nature, then his care be comes lefs neceffary, and the doctrine of a particular providence, the first and the best ground of fupport under adverfity, is annihilated or weakened. The doctrine before us is a modification of the atomical fyftem. It fuppofes certain particles of matter to exist, endowed with peculiar propenfities, which, however fhapeless at firft, yet, by continued appetence and action, acquire organization and forms, though by an almost imperceptible process. It is admitted, that this change may be the work of indefinite ages, as these philofophers believe the world to be of a much longer date than revelation affures us, for they regard the wisdom which is from above with perfect indifference. They confider a fucceffion of thoufands of ages as favourable to their plan. They adopt the old opinion of the eternity of matter,

and of a circle of revolving years, in which all things fade and revive again and again. Having advanced the existence of prolific fibres, they suppose them by continual efforts and action to arrive at length to a state of being continually capable of further perfection. But it is abfurd to admit, that matter can become organized by volition. On the contrary, the volition and the power of action would rather naturally fucceed organization. True philofophy, with more pretenfions to credit, fhews us, that all created beings have come from the hands of their Maker exactly provided with fuch means of increase and preservation as he intended; and though by exercise those powers may be developed and expanded, yet that they can no more add of themfelves to their сараcities, than the fea can by its own efforts increase the quantity of its fluid; or matter, independent of fixed laws or the will of the Creator, augment its power of attraction. The advocates of this doctrine have confounded a principle of felf-prefervation with that of advancement or production. The Almighty, for inftance, has endowed the whole fyftem of nature with fome faculties of renovation or of reftitution, within prescribed limits, but has placed impaffable boundaries to the perfection

of his admirable works. In a mutable state of things, it is impoffible but that accident muft injure the most perfect; and to repair these probable or poffible injuries, nature is undeniably poffeffed of certain capabilities; but these are abfolutely limited. In the animal world we find provifions for fupply in cafe of injury or lofs. If in animals a bone be broken, nature is provided with matter to form a callous, which ferves to reunite and strengthen the injured part. An animal oil is constantly fupplied to lubricate the joints; and to restore the perpetual waste of the folids or the fluids there is a constant renovating principle. In the vegetable kingdom this principle is variously exhibited. Plants have other methods of increafe befide that of the feed. Some are increased by the feparation of the root, of the branches, or even buds; which then become new plants, and in this refemble the inferior tribes of animal life, such as the polypi. Some plants fend forth fuckers, by which they become multiplied; fome increase by their very leaves, or what may feem to be equivocally leaves or branches; but it is evident that no animal or vegetable genus, fince it came from the hands of its Maker, has increased the number of its parts or faculties. There

can be no truth more clearly established, than that God has fixed to all nature, as to the waves of the ocean, bounds which they never fhall pafs. That the works of the creation are governed by laws impreffed on them by the Almighty, and not by any partial faculties of their own, must be apparent from the great frugality, and the whole course of nature. Throughout the fyftem of created things there evidently appears one regular defign; and, however the Deity in his infinite wisdom may be pleased to make occafional deviations, yet these are still subservient to a general and uniform fimplicity.

Were matter capable of felf-organization, befides the deficiencies, which would inevitably be confiderable, unless it were poffeffed both of prefcience and fupreme power, there would be great incongruity and contrariety in the fe veral parts of the fame animal or vegetable. Animated forms could not be supported, because they would be defective in neceffary and indifpenfable organs; the process of vegetation would be interrupted in plants from a similar deficiency. Now, though there is much diverfity in the corporeal ftructure of animals, and great variety in the forms and habits of vegetables, yet these phenomena are all redu