thing which we know, and not in our ignorance. But it has not been, and cannot be shown, that in the existing world there is any thing inconsistent with the doctrine, that it was created, and is governed by God. It is readily acknowledged, that in the system of which we are a little part, mystery and inexplicableness are found every where, and in every thing, in the view of such minds as ours. At the same time, it is also certain, that nothing else can be rationally looked for in the works of Him, whose ways are higher than our ways as the Heavens are higher than the earth. The mysteries alleged, instead of being an objection against the doctrine, that the world was made by God, are a strong presumptive argument in its favour.

3dly. The direct proof of the divine agency in the formation and government of this very world, found in innumerable things which itself contains, is hitherto unanswered, and is plainly unanswerable. This, having its foundation in what we know, can never be affected in any manner by what we do not know; or, in other words, by the mere inexplicableness of the objects around us.

Universally, until we know thoroughly the nature, use, and end of the things, on which the objection is founded, it must be a mere and miserable presumption, that they have not such a nature, use, and end, as are worthy of God.

The Doctrines which Atheists have connected with these objections, and which are deserving of any serious attention, are the following:

I. That things have existed in an eternal series:

II. That their existence is Casual: and

III. That all distinct, or separate beings, owe their existence to the Powers and Operations of matter.

These I shall consider in the order specified.

I. It is asserted by Atheists, that there has been an Eternal Series of things.

The absurdity of this assertion may be shown in many ways. 1st. Each individual in a series is an unit. But every collection of units, however great, is with intuitive certainty, numerable; and therefore cannot be infinite.

2lly. Every individual in the series, (take for example, a series of men) had a beginning. But a collection of beings, cach of which had a beginning, must, however long the series, have also had a beginning. This likewise, is intuitively evident. Should it be said, that the first in each series had not a beginning, but was from everlasting; which is the only possible method of evading the answer already given; I reply, that, according to this supposition, the first in each series was uncaused and self-existent; and, containing in itself the principles of eternal existence, could never have ceased to be. At the same time, an endless multitude of finite self-existent beings must be admitted on this supposition, possessed in all instances of few and feeble active powers, and in most instances of none but

such as are merely passive. Thus, for example, there must have been an eternal Man, an eternal Lion, an eternal Eagle, an eternal Oak, an eternal Rose, eternal Grass; and in a word, as many eternal self-existent Beings, as there are kinds, and sorts of existences in the world: for no being of one kind can possibly produce, or bring into existence, a being of any other kind. Of course, there must have been one, eternal and self-existent, at the head of every existing series; and at the head of every serics of animated beings, an eternal self-existent pair. From these, also, the whole series must have sprung without any contrivance, and in most instances, without any consciousness. All this, with a train of absurdities following it, literally endless, must be admitted on this supposition. For what purpose must all this be admitted? Truly, to relieve us from the difficulty of admitting the existence of One self-existent being. At the same time, the existence of such a finite self-existent being is a mere hypothesis, without a shadow of support.

Beyond this, all such beings must have lived, as we do, through a succession of years, and their whole existence must be made up of parts, or divisions, succeeding each other. These parts are à collection of units; and are therefore numerable.

In

Should it be said, that saints and angels in heaven are immortal, and will therefore exist through an infinite duration; that this duration will also be made up of successive parts; and that, of course, there may be an infinite duration made of successive parts: I answer, that there is a total difference between these cases. the former, the supposed infinite duration is completed: in the latter, it will never be completed. It is true, that saints and angels will never cease to be: but it will never be true, that they have lived infinitely, or through an infinite duration. An endless addition of parts may be supposed; but an infinite sum of parts, which have actually had existence, is a self-contradiction.

3dly. It is justly observed by the learned and acute Dr. Bentley, that, in the supposed infinite series, as the number of individual men is alleged to be infinite; the number of their eyes must be twice, the number of their fingers ten times, and the number of the hairs on their heads many thousand times, as great as the number of men. What, then, must be the number of the hairs on the bodies of animals; of leaves on the trees; and of blades of grass on the earth? According to this supposition, then, there is an almost endless multitude of numbers, greater, and many of them incalculably, than an infinite number. To such palpable absurdities are we reduced by supposing an infinite succession.

4thly. It is also observed by the same excellent Writer, that all these generations of men were once present. One of the individuals, viz. the first, existed at an infinite distance from us. His son, who may be supposed to have been forty years younger, was either at an infinite, or at a finite distance from us. If at an infinite, then

the infinite distance of his father was forty years longer than the infinite distance of the son. If the son was at a finite distance from us, then forty years, added to a finite distance, will make it infinite.

It is unnecessary, that I should dwell any longer on this complication of folly.

The same arguments are, with the same force, applicable to all possible successions. Every succession is in its nature made up of parts, each of which has a beginning. Of course we see intuitively, that the whole has had a beginning.

The only subject, on which rests even a seeming obscurity in this respect, is what is called continued motion. Some persons have considered motion of this kind; such, for example, as that of the planets, as not being successive; because, when viewed in the gross, the successive parts were not separable by the human mind. Divide the circuit, as a wheel is divided by its cogs, or teeth; or fix upon a number of stars, by which the planet shall successively pass; and the delusion, occasioned by the continuity of the parts, will vanish in a moment. It will be seen of course, and with perfect distinctness, that motion, in all its forms, is as truly a succession of changes as successive thought, or successive being.

II. Atheists assert, that the existence of things is Casual.

In this assertion the connexion between cause and effect, and the very existence of causation, are denied, so far as the production of being is concerned. All beings are supposed not to have been produced, or caused, but to have happened: their existence being supposed to be a mere contingency. Some, perhaps most of those, who have adopted this system, have, however, at the same time believed matter to be eternal. On this scheme of existence I observe in the

1st. place, that it is a mere hypothesis, unsupported by any evidence whatever. The doctrine of casual, or contingent existence, precludes all reasoning by its very nature. The very demand of a reason from him, who adopts it, is itself an absurdity; because he declares to you in the very nature of the doctrine, that neither the existence, nor the doctrine, admits of the application of any reason. Of course, the fact, that existence has happened in any case, is in its own nature capable of being evidenced only by testimony, and of this evidence it is in fact incapable, because no witness was ever present at such a contingency. The doctrine, therefore, stands on exactly the same ground with that of all other mere assumptions; such as, that the soul of man is blue, or triangular; that the inhabitants of Jupiter walk with their heads downward or that the Sun is a body of melted glass.

2dly. The abettors of this doctrine have, in their endeavours to form a system, founded on it, been driven, unavoidably, into a continued succession of absurdities.

Epicurus, the principal vender of this system, supposed, that in

numerable solid atoms existed from eternity in infinite space; that they were of different sizes and figures, and were all separated from each other; and that they were originally quiescent, or motionless. When it was objected, that they must, then, have remained for ever motionless; he invented for them a conatus ad motum; an endeavour, or tendency towards motion; which he declares to have been inherent in them eternally. When it was objected, that, unless they were moved eternally by this conatus, they could never have moved at all; he avoided this difficulty by determining, that they had moved from eternity, in parallel directions. It was objected again, that with this motion they would never have approached any nearer to each other. To escape this difficulty, he gave them a motion, in a small degree oblique. The cause of their motion he declares to be their weight; and their direction to be downward: not knowing, that there is no weight, where there is no attracting body; and that every direction towards the centre of the earth is downward. I will not pursue this mass of absurdities any farther; and will only observe, that those, who have followed him, have not rendered the system a whit better than they found it.

3dly. The actual state of things is a complete refutation of this doctrine.

Regularity is a direct and perfect proof of the absence of casualty in the formation of that, in which the regularity exists; and the whole system of things is, in its parts, and their union in a whole, one immense and multiform system of regularity.

The twenty-four letters of the alphabet, small as the number is, are proved arithmetically to be capable of more than six hundred thousand millions of billions, of different horizontal arrangements. Were they to be thrown up into the air, and to fall in any supposed order, the chances against their falling, a second time, in the same order, are at least as great a number, as that which has been specified; and just so many chances exist against their falling in any given position.

In the human frame there are probably more than a million of parts, greater and smaller; all of which we behold united in a perfect and most regular system. The relative horizontal positions only, of which these are capable, must be expressed by more than a million of arithmetical figures; their vertical and oblique posi tions must be expressed by several millions more; and all these combined, must be expressed by the multiplication of these immense sums with each other. The chances, therefore, against such an union of the parts of the human body, as actually exists, even after we suppose the several parts actually formed, would be such, as would be expressed by this aggregate of figures: a number, which all the human race, who have existed since the Mosaic date of the creation, would not have been able to count, had they busied themselves in no other employment, during their lives. In addi tion to this, the number of chances against the original formation

of these parts is immensely greater, than against the fact of their coming together. Nor are we yet at the end of the climax for we perfectly well know, that, if all the parts were actually and perfectly formed, they could neither put themselves together, nor be united by any human skill, or labour, however long employed. Beyond all this, if they were all formed, and all perfectly united, so as to constitute exactly, both within and without, a human frame; it would still be a mere corpse, without life or motion. Were we to admit, still further, that the frame, thus formed, might become possessed of life; it would yet be destitute of a soul, and therefore infinitely distant from the intelligent being, whom we call man.

All these difficulties must be surmounted, a second time, in order to the existence of mankind; one of each sex being originally, and absolutely, necessary to the existence of succeeding generations. In the same manner, the same process must be repeated, in order to the production of every kind of animals; and in most cases in order to the production of the kinds of trees, shrubs, and plants.

He, who can believe this system, can believe any thing; and his faith must undoubtedly be the nearest approximation to casualty, which has been hitherto recorded in the history of man.

The body of man is a system, made up of parts, wonderfully numerous and diversified, and still more wonderfully united and arranged. Every one of them is regularly found in all the bodies of men, in its own place; and that, the best place possible. The hair of the head, which, for aught that appears, might as naturally have grown on the face, grows only where it is needed to cover the cerebrum and cerebellum, so tender and vital, from the injuries of both heat and cold; and to become, at the same time, a beautiful ornament. The eyes are placed where only they are needed, or could be materially useful to direct the hands and the feet: the teeth, where alone they could serve their great purpose of mastication: the throat, immediately behind and beneath them, where alone it could answer its own purpose of receiving the food after it has been chewed, mixed with the saliva, and thus prepared for digestion: the stomach, beneath the throat, or more properly beneath the esophagus, to receive through it the food thus prepared, and render it useful to the preservation of life by digestion. In the same manner, the heart is situated in exactly that position, with respect to the lungs, and the greater arteries and veins, in which it communicates to them, and through them to the whole body, in the most advantageous manner, the blood, which is the great instrument of sustaining life. The Lungs, also, are in the same happy manner connected with the throat by the trachea, so as to receive, and decompose, the air on which we live, after it is admitted into the nostrils. The great bone of the Neck and Back, commonly called the Spine, is so formed, and placed, as to sustain the body in an erect posture; as to defend, in a manner indispensably necessary, the spinal marrow, so