Meditation is a duty to which the rational foul naturally prompts man. It was by contemplating the works of creation, that the heathens themselves came to the know

ledge of a God; because that which may

be known of God, is manifeft in them, "for God hath fhowed it unto them; for "the invisible things of him from the crea"tion of the world, are clearly feen, being understood by the things that are made,

even his eternal power and Godhead," Rom. i. 19, 20. If heathens made fo great a progress by reading in the volume of crea-, tion, at the dim light of nature, what ought Chriftians to do in the funfhine of divine revelation!

The royal Pfalmift, ftruck with beholding a few of the great out-lines of creation, even the celestial bodies, cries out with rapture and astonishment to the Lord, faying, "What

is man, that thou art mindful of him! "and the fon of man, that thou vifiteft

him!" Pfalm viii. 4. And well might he, in confideration of that infinite power, wifdom, greatnefs, and glory, that hung thofe immenfely ponderous luminaries in the midst of the vast expanfe of ether,

poised them so nicely, and bade them, to a punctilio, obferve their courfes, and still supports these vaft orbs in their stations. I fay, in confideration of that Almighty Being, who wrought out the heavens with his fingers, adorning them with stars, which in luftre, number, and magnitude, far furpafs the ken of the most acute aftronomer, and lighted up thefe wonderful lamps, or rather globes of fire, in the ftupendous arch

that a Being of fuch infinite wisdom, power, and glory, fhould condescend to take notice of fuch a little thing as man! yea, fuch a vile thing as man had made himself.

But O, what notice was it that Jehovah did take of him!" Hear, O heavens, and be aftonished, O earth!" it was not only to create him a holy and happy creature, nor, when he had fallen by his iniquity, ftill to continue to preserve him in being, and fupply him out of his bountiful hand with numberlefs temporal good things; but how fhall it be told for wonder and amazement! that fame God, who made the ftars, counteth their numbers, and calleth them all by their names; meafured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the

fpan, and comprehended the duft of the earth in a meafure; and weighed the mountains in fcales, and the hills in a ballance; before whofe face the earth and the heavens flee away, and in whofe prefence the highest feraphim in heaven veil their faces with their wings, Gen. i. 16. Pf. cxlvii. 4. Ifa. xl. 12. Rev. xx. 11. Ifa. vi. 2. fent his own eternal, only-begotten, and wellbeloved Son, one in effence with himself, into this world, to become an infant of days, to lead a forrowful life, and at length to bear all that infinite wrath, or equal to it, which the elect fhould have borne through all eternity, and die the fhameful, painful, accurfed death of the crofs for man; vile, finful man, his avowed enemy!

O, unfpeakable love! was ever love like this? Well might the royal Pfalmift ftand amazed at it, when he confidered, that that God, who wrought out the heavens with his fingers, made the moon and the stars, and all the hoft of heaven; fuftains all the planets with his hand, and fwaddled the ocean with thick darkness, fetting doors and bars, faying, Hitherto fhalt thou come, but no farther; and here fhall thy proud waves be ftayed: fhould

himself be wrapt in fwaddling cloathes, and laid in a manger; have his hands and feet nailed to the accurfed tree of the cross, groan, bleed, and die, for fuch a finful creature as man. If the king of Ifrael was loft in thought at viewing this afar off, what' ought we to be who live in gospel days! The works of nature naturally lead the contemplative mind up the ftream of creation to God the fountain-head. This they did to David, and fo fhould they do to us. All the works which we behold fhew forth his wisdom, power, and goodness. "The heavens declare the

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glory of God, and the firmament fheweth "his handy-work: day unto day uttereth fpeech, and night unto night fheweth "knowledge: there is no fpeech nor language where their voice is not heard: "their line is gone out through all the earth, "and their words to the end of the world." Pf. xix. 1. to 4.

Thefe, though in filence, preach a loud fermon in the ear of reafon; every planet declaring, as it revolves, it is made and fustained by an Almighty hand; while while every comet that blazeth with incredible swiftness through ether, proclaimeth, as it fhooteth

along, the arm that launched it is infinite; and all the conftellations fhew forth, as they fhine, the goodness, wifdom, power, and glory of their infinite Almighty maker. Nor are terrestrial things lefs filent in his praife. If we only caft our eyes around, and behold the furface of the globe, how may we be ftruck with wonder at the agreeable variety of objects which are prefented to our view? Not a mountain, rock, plain, vale, wood, river, or fea, but proclaimeth aloud its Maker's goodnefs, and is ftored with inhabitants, animate and inanimate, fuitable to its nature.

The mountains, being a repofitory for granite, metals, and minerals, which are fo indifpenfably neceffary for mechanical labours and medicine, are a display of the wisdom of the Creator; for if fuch had not been ftored up in the bowels of eminences, how fcarcely, if at all, could they be dug up? For, where could the miner find a defcent to carry off the water which deluged his work? And is it not from the hills we have our fprings, which, falling down their fides in rills, at the bottom are formed into rivers, which gliding gently along, are thereby ren