crease our amazement by their numbers, the velocity of their motions, and the inconceivable extent of their circuits. It is still more enhanced by the union of these numerous worlds in one vast system, connected by a common centre, and revolving round that centre with a harmony, and splendour, worthy of a God.

But this system, great and wonderful as it is, is a mere speck, compared with the real extent of the Creation. Satisfactory evidence exists, that every star, which twinkles in the firmament, is no other than a Sun, a world of light, surrounded by its own attendant planets, formed into a system similar to ours. Fortyfive thousand such stars have been counted, by the aid of the Herschellian Telescope, in so small a part of the Heavens, that, supposing this part to be sown no thicker than the rest, the same Telescope would reach at least seventy-five millions in the whole sphere. By means of new improvements in the same optical instrument, they have been found to be numerous to a degree still more astonishing. Every one of these is, in my view, rationally concluded to be the Sun, and Centre, of a system of planetary and cometary worlds. Beyond this, I think it not at all improbable, that, were we transported to the most distant of the visible stars, we should find there a firmament expanding over our heads, studded in the same manner with stars innumerable. Nay, were we to repeat the same flight, and be again wafted through the same distance, it is not improbable, that we should behold a new repetition of the same sublimity and glory. In this manner immensity appears, in a sense, to be peopled with worlds innumerable, constituting the boundless empire of Jehovah. How amazing, then, must be the power and greatness of Him, who not only telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names, but with a word spoke them all into being.

2dly. The peculiar nature and splendour of many of these works strongly impress on our minds the greatness of creating power.

Of this nature are all those vast works in the Heavens, which I have mentioned under the last head. To single out one of them; how glorious a work is the Sun? Of what astonishing di

mensions? Of what wonderful attraction? Possessed of what su

preme, unchangeable, and apparently immortal glory? Of what perpetual, and incomprehensible influence on the world, which we inhabit? not only causing it to move around its orbit with inconceivable rapidity, but producing, over its extensive surface, warmth and beauty, life and activity, comfort and joy, in all the millions of beings, by which it is inhabited.

Magnificent, however, as this object is, one mind is a more wonderful, more important, more illustrious display of creating power, than the whole inanimate universe. Suns with all their greatness and glory are still without life, without consciousness, without enjoyment; incapable, in themselves, of action, knowledge, virtue, or voluntary usefulness. A mind, on the contrary, is possessed of all these exalted powers, and is capable of possessing all these sublime attributes. A mind can know, love, and glorify, its Creator; can be instamped with his image, and adorned with his beauty and loveliness; and can appear desirable and delightful to his eye. It can reflect, as a mirror, the glory of the Lord, (for so ought the passage* to be translated) and be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. It can love, and bless, its fellow-minds; be loved, and blessed, by them; and become an useful and honourable instrument of advancing endlessly the universal good of the intelligent kingdom. In all these glorious attainments it can advance with an unceasing progress throughout Eternity. In this progress, it can rise to the heights, where angels now dwell; and, passing those heights, can ascend higher, and higher, till, in the distant ages of endless being, it shall look down on the most exalted created excellence, which now exists, as the mere dawnings of infantine intelligence. Worlds and Suns were created for the use of minds; but minds were created for the use of God.

3dly. The same impressions are strongly made, when we regard God as the Author of life.

The communication of life is a creative act, entirely, and illustriously, superior to the mere communication of existence. In the wonderful power, manifested in this communication, the glory of God, in the character of the Creator, is pre-eminently displayed. Accordingly the living God, and the living Father; that is, the God, who has life, originally, and independently, in himself, and is the source of it to all living beings; are titles, chosen to unfold especially the glory of the Divine nature. In the same manner, also, our Saviour challenges this wonderful attribute to himself, as a direct and unquestionable proof of his divinity. As the Father, saith he, hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. In the same manner, it is elsewhere said, It is the Spirit, that quickeneth.

The possession of life confers on every thing, which is the subject of it, a distinction, by which it is raised at once above all inanimate matter. Even Vegetables, of which life is predicated in a figurative sense only, derive from it a total superiority to all those beings, which are found in the mineral Kingdom. Animal life, which is life in its humblest degree, raises the being, in whom it exists, totally above all those things, which are not animated, by making them, at once, objects on which the emotions of the soul may be employed, and subjects of pleasure or pain, happiness or misery. Of these great distinctions, every one knows, no part of the mineral or vegetable world is susceptible.

Rational life is an attribute, of importance and distinction far higher still; and is the most wonderful display of the divine energy, which the Universe contains. Indeed, it is in a sense the end, for which all things else were created, and without which there is no probability, that they would ever have been. In exact accordance with the views, which I have expressed on this subject, we find a peculiar attention rendered to it by God, in the creation of Man. Other things had been called into being, antecedently to this event; and Man, as the most important of all terrestrial beings, and the end, for which they were made, was reserved to be the closing work. The World, his magnificent habitation, was finished, before the Tenant was formed, by whom it was to be occupied. Then God held a solemn consultation on this new and interesting work, and said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness. This

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consultation, holden by the Persons of the Godhead on the subject of communicating rational life, plainly and affectingly declares it to be a higher and more noble object of divine power, than all those which had preceded. From this pre-eminent importance it arises, that the termination of it, usually denominated annihilation, is in the view of the mind, invested with intense gloom, and the deepest horror; and that immortality, or the endless continuance of rational life, is an object always encircled with radiance, and regarded with exultation and rapture.

4thly. The manner, in which the Scriptures exhibit the work of Creation as being performed, most forcibly impresses on our minds the greatness of Creating power.

The greatness of power is discerned not only in the magnitude of the effects which it produces; but in the ease, also, with which they are produced. In this we are led rationally and indeed irresistibly, to discern, that the whole of the power possessed is not exerted; and that other and greater effects would, of course, spring from superior efforts, of which the same power is obviously capable. When God created the Heavens and the Earth, he said, Let there be light: Let there be a Firmament: Let the waters be gathered into one place; and Let the dry land appear. All these and other similar commands were exactly, and instantaneously, obeyed. In a moment, Light invested the world; the firmament arched above it; the waters rolled backward into their bed; the dry land heaved; and the mountains lifted their heads towards Heaven. The World with all its furniture and inhabitants, the Heavens with all their magnificence, arose out of nothing, at a command. How superior to all finite comprehension must be the power of Him, who spake, and this stupendous work

was done.

II. The Omnipotence of God is divinely displayed in the Government of all things.

The existence, and attributes, which God has given to all beings, He only can continue. He only holds together the innumerable atoms, which compose the innumerable material forms, found in the Universe; the plants and trees, the hills and mountains, the rivers and oceans. His power is the only bond, by which worlds are bound; or by which they are united in the

planetary systems. This Union, this continuance of their being, is both an effect, and a proof, of the same energy, from which they were all originally derived. The same energy upholds all their attributes, and conducts all their operations.

These beings are endless in their multitude, immensely distant in times and places, wonderful often in their greatness and importance, and to finite minds innumerable in their diversities. All, also, are parts of one vast and perfect whole; to the perfection of which, each, in its appointed place and time, is indispensably necessary. What a power must that be, which, at one and the same moment, works in every vegetable and animal system in this great world; which upholds, quickens, and invigorates, every mind; which, at the same moment, also, acts in the same efficacious manner in every part of the solar system, and of all the other systems which compose the Universe? What must be the power of Him, who sends abroad, every moment, immense oceans of light from the Sun, and innumerable such oceans from the Stars; who holds all worlds in the hollow of his hand, retains them exactly in their places, and rolls them through the fields of Ether with unceasing, most rapid, and at the same time perfectly harmonious motions; and who, thus accomplishing every purpose for which they were made, prevents the least disturbance, error, or imperfection.

III. The Omnipotence of God is strongly impressed on our minds by the consideration, that it is unaltered and undecaying.

These mighty exertions have been already made through many thousand years: still they are perfectly made. They are made without intermission, rest, or relaxation. From century to century the energy operates night and day; and operates now with the same force and effect, as at the beginning. Every where it is seen; and is seen every where to be the same. is, therefore, wholly unspent; and plainly incapable of being spent, or diminished.

It

In this wonderful fact is exhibited unanswerable proof of that sublime declaration of the Prophet; Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the Everlasting God, JEHOVAH, the Creator of the ends of the Earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? VOL. I.

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