Body, and certain Senfations and Affections in the Soul, and the Senfes are adjusted and difpofed in fuch a Manner as is moft proper for the Ufe and Convenience of human Life. Man, confidered in this View, is one of the most admirable Compofitions in all Nature, nearly allied to the fpiritual and material World, and having both united in himself.

A fresh Scene of Wonders openeth to us, when we farther confider the Care that is taken for continuing the human Species, the remarkable Distinction between the Sexes, and their mutual Propenfions, and the admirable Provifion that is made for nourishing and bringing up their Offspring. To which may be added, the kind and focial Affections implanted in the human Heart, which tend to bind Men to one another, and fhew that they are naturally defigned and formed for Society, and for all the Offices of mutual Affiftance and Benevolence.

Whilft upon confidering these Things we are filled with Aftonishment at our own Frame, we cannot but be fenfible that it is in no Senfe owing to ourselves, fince we did not bring ourselves into Being. Nor was it owing to the Power and Skill of our Parents. They knew as little as we do how the curious Fa

bric of our Bodies was formed and fashioned, and the feveral Parts of which it confifteth disposed in fo excellent an Order. Much lefs were they the Authors and Contrivers of the Mind with its noble Faculties and Powers; nor did they appoint and establish the Laws of Union between both. They themselves came alfo into Being the fame Way that we did, and their Bodies and Souls were formed and united in the fame Manner, without their having any Part in it, or knowing how it was done. And the fame Thing must be faid of their Parents, and fo on to the firft Progenitors of the human Race, for to the firft Progenitors we must come at last, and they no more than their Dependants were the proper Authors or Contrivers of their own Frame. Nor could it be originally owing to a blind Chance or Neceflity. For what greater Abfurdity can there poffibly be, than to fuppofe that an unintelligent Chance or Neceffity could be able to produce thinking intelligent Beings? We must therefore rife in our Thoughts to a moft wife as well as powerful Agent or Caufe, who contrived the admirable human Frame, in which there are fuch evident Marks of Wisdom and Defign, who gave Exiftence to the first Parents of Mankind, from whom the reft

have proceeded, and who ftill prefideth over the Production of this Race of Beings, according to the Laws and Order which he himself hath established.

Again, If we carry our Views to the Brute Animals, we fee all around us a Variety of Beings that have Life and Senfation as well as we, but which plainly appear to be of an inferior Kind, not furnished with fuch noble intellectual Faculties, nor proper Subjects of moral Government, yet all of them endued with admirable Powers and Appetites, whereby they are enabled to diftinguish what is good and ufeful to them from what is hurtful and prejudicial, and are ftrongly and steadily inclined to purfue the one and to avoid the other. Innumerably various as they are, there is proper Food provided for each of them, for receiving and digesting of which, the Fabric of their Body and Difpofition of its Parts, is wonderfully difpofed. To which may be added, the strong Inclinations whereby they are carried to propagate their feveral Species, the Apparatus of Parts fitted for it, and the wife and powerful Inftincts whereby they are urged and directed to nourish and provide for their Young, and to take the properest Measures for that Purpose, and exercife a tender Care over them, whilst they stand

in need of that Care, and till they are able to fhift for themselves. Who can without Wonder take a View of the numberlefs Tribes of Infects and Reptiles, four-footed Beasts, and flying Fowl, each of them provided with proper Organs and Inftruments exactly alike in all the Individuals of the fame Species, which are wonderfully adapted to their feveral Motions, and to that Kind of Life for which they are plainly defigned? many of them of a furprifing Smallness, and yet in that fmall Bulk furnished with an amazing Multiplicity of Parts most nicely and curiously contrived. Others of them to be admired for their Largenefs and Strength, fome for their Agility and Swiftnefs, fome for the Beauty of their Colours, or for the Fineness and comely Proportion of their Shapes; others for their Boldness and Courage, or for their Sagacity and Cunning. All of them fubfervient to Man, and contributing to his Pleasure, Use, and Entertainment, in fuch various Ways, that there could fcarce be any tolerable living for us on Earth without them. It is ma

nifeft that they did not make themselves, nor did Man make them for his own Convenience, nor could they be the Effects of any blind undefigning Nature, but must owe their Existence to a fuperior intelli

gent

gent Caufe. are the Effects of human Art and Contrivance, plainly fhew Wisdom and active Intelligence in the Caufe that produced them; how much more muft this be acknowledged concerning the Brute Animals, the Mechanism of whofe Bodies is incomparably more curious than any Engines that were ever invented by Man, and who are endued with the wonderful Powers of Life, Self-motion, and Senfation, together with various Instincts, entirely diftinct from, ́ and vaftly fuperior to all the Powers of Mechanism, and the utmoft Efforts of human Art or Skill. They must therefore have proceeded from a Power and Wifdom that exceedeth our Comprehenfion. And upon comparing them with Man, to whom they are fubordinate, and whom they resemble in what regardeth the fenfitive Life, we are led to conclude that the fame most wise and powerful Being that made Man, did alfo make these inferior Animals, and gave them their several Powers and Inftincts, whereby they are fitted for the Enjoyment of that Life which was defigned them, and for being useful to Man, who is fitted by his Reafon for exercifing a Dominion over them, and was evidently intended to be the principal Inhabitant of this lower World.

For if thofe Engines that

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