SER M. manity to its juft value; though for very II. different purposes; the first, to excite re

ligious gratitude in others; the second, to encourage himself in an impious Natu

RALISM.

this

When the Religionist compares fmall Spot of earth to the whole of its System; and fees a number of primary and fecondary planets, habitations like his own, if he may judge by probable analogy, rolling round with it, and performing their various revolutions about one central fire, the common fource of light and warmth to all, He is abashed at the mean and diminished rank his own world bears in this folemn and august affembly.

When, by the aid of improved Aftronomy, he compares this fubaftral oeconómy with the fyftems of the fixed ftars; every one of which reigns a Sun, directing and influencing the revolutions of its attendant planets; and fees that, as the earth is but a point compared to the orb of faturn, fo the orb of faturn itself grows dimenfionless when compared to that vast extent of space which the ftellar-folar Systems poffefs and

оссиру,

оссиру, This Lord of the creation fhrinks SER M. fuddenly from his height, and mingles with II. the lowest croud of unheeded and undiftinguished Beings.

But when, by the further aids of science, he understands, that a new Hoft of Heaven, too remotely ftationed for the naked fight to draw out and review, hath been made to issue into day; each of which fhining strangers is the Leader of a troop of others, whose borrowed luftre, too weakly reflected, no affiftance of art can bring forward and that ftill, when fenfe ftops fhort, fcience pursues the great discovery, and reason carries on the progress through the mighty regions of boundless space; the fatigued imagination, tracing system after system, as they rise to light in endless succeffion, turns frightened back upon itself, and overwhelms the labouring mind with terror and aftonishment: whence, it never can difengage itself till it rifes on the wings of FAITH, which bear this humbled creature from himself, and place him before the throne of God; where he fees the mysteries of that Providence laid open, whofe care and bounty fo magnificently

4

SERM. cently provides for the meaneft of his crea

II. tures.

Thus piously affected is the Religionist with the facred horrors of this amazing scene; An univerfe ftretched out through the wide regions of fpace, and terminated on all fides by the depths of infinity.

But let us turn now to the Man of the world, whom this view of things, rather DEGRADES than HUMBLES. Calmly contemplative in the chair of falfe fcience, he derides the mistaken gratitude of the benighted Religionist; a gratitude rifing not on reason, but on pride. "For whether, fays he, we confider this earth, the manfion of evil, or man its wretched inhabitant, What madness is it to suppose, that fo fordid a corner, and fo forlorn an occupant, can be the centre of God's moral government? What but the lunacy of felf-love could make this fhortlived reptile, fhuffled hither as it were by Fate, and precariously fuftained by Fortune, imagine himself the diftinguished care, and the peculiar Favorite of Heaven? As well, fays he, might the blind

inhabi

inhabitants of an ant-hill, which chance SERM. had placed on the barren frontier of an ex- II. tended Empire, flatter themfelves with being the first object of their monarch's policy, who had unpeopled those mighty deferts only to afford room and safety for their bufy colonies. The moft, that reasoning pride can tempt us to prefume is, that we may not be excluded from that general providence, governing by laws MECHANICAL, and, once for all, impreffed on matter when it was firft harmonized into systems. But to make God the MORAL, that is, the clofe, the minute and immediate inspector into human actions, is degrading him from that high rank in which this philosophy of inlarged creation hath fo fitly placed him; and returning him to the people, travested to the mortal fize of local Godship: under which idea, the fuperftitious vulgar have been always inclined to regard the Maker and Governor of the World."

Thus widely diftant are the conclufions of the philofopher, from the fentiments of the religious man.

But who are the inlarged thinkers, and on which fide reafon declares, it is the

pur

II.

SER M. pofe of this difcourfe to inquire: Where, we truft, it will be found, that Man, notwithstanding the vast distance between him and his Creator, is indeed the fubject of God's MORAL government, just as instinct prompts him to hope, and religion directs him to believe.

I. If from the difference of intrinfic dignity, and native worth in the CREature, we can conclude aught concerning the proportioned degrees of nearnefs in which it ftands to its Creator, we fhall be forced to give the place of honour to MIND above MATTER.

We are dazzled with the pomp and fplendor of a vifible Creation: and the august forms of material things hinder us from difcerning the defpicable qualities of that substance out of which they are fafhioned. But view this substance well, and we shall find, that what philofophers call the INERTNESS of Matter, a quality effential to it, places it in the very lowest class of what we can conceive of Being. So that were it not for the virtue of ATTRACTION, a thing foreign and extrinfic to it,

Matter