gious Fire; and keeps alive, from Age to Age, fuch an enormous Mafs of Flame!-Let us attend our philofophic Guides, and we shall be brought acquainted with Speculations, more inlarged and more amazing.

THIS Sun, with all its attendant Planets, is but a very little Part of the grand Machine of the Universe. Every Star, though in Appearance, no bigger than the Diamond, that glitters. upon a Lady's Ring; is really a vaft Globe, like the Sun in Size, and in Glory; no lefs fpacious, no less luminous, than the radiant Source of our Day. So that every Star is, not barely a World, but the Centre of a magnificent Syftem; has a Retinue of Worlds, irradiated by its Beams, and revolving round its attractive Influence. All which are loft, to our Sight, in unmeasurable Wilds of Ether. That the Stars appear like fo many diminutive, and fcarce diftinguishable Points, is owing to their immenfe and inconceivable Distance. Immenfe and inconceivable indeed it is; fince a Ball, fhot from the loaded Cannon, and flying with unabated Rapidity, must travel, at this impetuous Rate, almost seven hundred thousand Years*, before it could reach the nearest of thofe twinkling Luminaries.

CAN any Thing be more wonderful, than thefe Obfervations? Yes; There are Truths

*See Religious Philofopher, p. 819.

far

far more ftupendo us; there are Scenes, far more extenfive. As there is no End of the Almighty Maker's Greatnefs; fo no Imagination can fet Limits to his creating Hand.-Could you foar beyond the Moon, and pass through all the planetary Choir: could you wing your Way to the highest apparent Star, and take your Stand on one of those loftieft Pinacles of Heaven: you would, there, fee other Skies expanded; another Sun, diftributing his inexhauftible Beams by Day: other Stars, that gild the Horrors of the alternate Night: and other *, perhaps nobler Systems, established; established, in unknown Profufion, through the boundlefs Dimensions of Space.-Nor does the Dominion of the univerfal Sovereign terminate there. Even at the End of this vaft Tour, you would find yourself advanced no farther, than the Suburbs of Creation; arrived only at the Frontiers of the great JEHOVAH's Kingdom t. AND

* See Afro-Theology, Book II. Chap. II.—Where the Author, having affigned various Reafons to fupport this Theory of our modern Aftronomers, adds Befides

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the fore-mentioned ftrong Probabilities, we have this "farther Recommendation of fuch an Account of the Univerfe, that it is far more magnificent and worthy "of the infinite Creator, than any other of the narrower Schemes.'

Job, after a most beautiful Differtation, on the mighty Works of GOD; as they are diftributed through

univerfal

AND do they tell me; That the Sun, the Moon, and all the Planets, are but a little Part of HIS Works? How great, then, are his Signs! And how mighty are his Wonders *!And if fo, what is the CREATOR Himself! How far exalted above all Praife! Who is fo high; that he looks down on the highest of thefe dazling Spheres, and fees even the Summit of Creation in a Vale: fo great, that this prodigious Extent of Space, is but a Point in his Prefence; and all this Confluence of Worlds, as the lightest Atom, that fluctuates in Air, and sports in the meridian Ray†. VOL. II.

M

THOU

univerfal Nature, from the Heights of Heaven, to the very Depths of Hell; clofes the magnificent Account with this Acknowledgment; Lo! thefe are Parts of his Ways. Or, as the original Word more literally fignifies; and may, I think, be more elegantly rendered; These are only the Skirts, the very outermoft Borders of his Works. No more than a fmall Preface to the immenfe Volume of the Creation.-From an Hebrew Word rendered Extremitates, I cannot forbear thinking, on the extreme and very attenuated Fibres of the Root, when compared with the whole Substance of the Trunk; or on the exquifitely fmall Size of the capillary Veffels, when compared with the whole Structure of the Body. Jobxxvi. 14. * Dan. iv. 3.

+ This puts me in mind of a very fine Remark on a fcriptural Beauty; and a folid Correction of the common Translation; made by that learned, fagacious, and devout Expofitor Vitringa -Ifa. xl. 15. We find it written of the Supreme Being, That he taketh up the fles

as

THOU most fublime and incomprehensibly glorious GoD, how am I overwhelmed with Awe! How funk into the lowest Proftration of Mind! When I confider thy " excellent Great"nefs," and my own utter Infignificancy! And have I, exceffively mean as I am, have ĺ entertained any conceited Apprehenfions of myself? Have I felt the leaft Elatement of Thought, in the Prefence of fo majestic and adorable a Being? How fhould this wound me with Sorrow, and cover me with Confufion?-O my GOD, was I poffeffed of all the high Perfections, which accomplish and adorn the Angels of Light; amidst all these noble Endowments, I

would

as a very little Thing. Which, our Critic obferves, is neither anfwerable to the Import of the Original, nor confonant to the Structure of the Difcourfe. The Prophet had no Intention to inform Mankind, what the Almighty could do, with regard to the Iflands, if he pleased to exert uncontroulable Power. His Design was to fhew, how infignificant, or rather what mere Nothings they are, in his Efteem, and before his Majefty.-The Islands, fays he, though fo Spacious, as to afford Room for the Erection of Kingdoms, and the Abode of Nations; though fo ftrong, as to withstand, for many Thousands of Years, the raging and reiterated Affaults of the whole watery World; are yet, before the adored JEHOVAH, fmall as the minutest Grain, which the Eye can fcarce difcern; light as the feathered Moth, which the leaft Breath hurries away like a Tempeft. Infulæ funt ut leve quid, quod avolat. The deep-rooted lands are as the volatile Atom, which, by the gentleft Undulations of the Air, is wafted to and fro in perpetual Agitation.

would fall down in the deepest Abafement at thy Feet. Loft in the infinitely fuperior Blaze of thy uncreated Glories; I would confefs myself, to be Nothing; to be less than Nothing, and Vanity.--How much more ought I to maintain the most unfeigned Humiliation, before thy Divine Majefty; who am not only Duft and Ashes, but a Compound of Ignorance, Imperfection, and Depravity!

WHILE, beholding this vaft Expanfe, I learn my own extreme Meannefs; I would alfo difcover the abject Littleness of all terreftrial Things. What is the Earth, with all her oftentatious Scenes, compared with this aftonishingly grand Furniture of the Skies? What, but a dim Speck, hardly perceivable in the Map of the Universe? It is observed, by a very judicious Writer. That if the Sun himself, which enlightens this Part of the Creation, was cxtinguished; and all the Host of planetary Worlds, which move about him, were annihilated; they would not be miffed, by an Eye that can take in the whole Compass of Nature, any more than a Grain of Sand upon the Sea Shore. The Bulk of which they consist, and the Space which they occupy, is fo exceedingly little in comparison of the Whole; that their Lofs would fcarce leave a Blank, in the Immenfity of God's Works.-If then, not our M 2 Globe

Spect. Vol. VIII. No. 565.