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their beaks, they can peck such with ease; and if without claws, many of them which roost on the trees could not have done so, but must have been much exposed to the ravages of beasts during the night.

Those of them which are of the aquatic kind, are all provided with members answerable for gathering their food in the watery element such as are swimmers, being webfooted, and having their breasts and bellies strongly lined with downy feathers, close as scales, are thereby qualified for remaining long in the water, and defended from the injuries of its cold; and those which cannot swim, but wade, with long legs and necks, whereby they are enabled to hunt in the shallows for the finny tribe; some of them, too, such as the heron, having the middle claw on each foot toothed like a saw, can thereby more readily seize and hold their slippery prey. All which show the bounty and care of the indulgent Creator, who hath left none of his creatures destitute of suitable means for preserving life. But though these kinds find ample provision in the waters,

what becomes of those that live wholely on the land, which neither sow, nor gather into barns? Shall they starve? No for we are told our heavenly Father feedeth them. Matt. vi. 26.

Grudge not then, ye husbandmen, when the birds of the air descend upon your cultured fields, and peck a few of those innumerable grains, which your Creator and theirs hath so bountifully bestowed upon you; nor wish too keenly for their destruction; for perhaps they serve you more than all the injury they do. "This the inhabitants of New England experienced, when, after they had given a reward for destroying the purple 'jack-daws, the intent was almost effected at the cost of the inhabitants; who discovered, at length, that Providence had not "formed these seemingly destructive birds in "vain. Notwithstanding they caused such "havoc among the grain, they made ample

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recompence by clearing the ground of the "noxious worms with which it abounds. As "soon as the birds were destroyed, the rep"tiles had full leave to multiply, and the

"consequence was the total loss of the grass in 1749, when the New Englanders, too

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late repentants, were obliged to get their "hay from Pennsylvania, and even from 66 Great Britain*."

As for the beasts of the earth, no less conspicuous doth the wisdom and goodness of the Creator appear in them, whether we consider their numbers, uses, colours, or forms. That those quadrupeds which are of a ferocious kind should be few in number, and those which are gentle and docile, and of great utility to man, very numerous, is certainly a display of infinite wisdom and kind

ness.

The more we consider the latter, the greater reason we have to adore the Lord of all for his wise disposal of things.

Did the horse, that most beautiful of all the four-footed kind, the strength and courage of which is terrible in war; or the lusty

See Encyclopædia Britannica.

ox, which bellows in our fields, know properly what strength they are possessed of,---would the one, by means of a simple boy, be made to draw in the plough, and drudge in our carriages; or the other be driven or turned away by a little child? How wisely, then, hath our Creator apparently deprived them of this knowledge, or magnified man greatly in their eyes! otherwise, how would the labours of the husbandman be facilitated!

Is not the Creator's goodness, too, greatly manifested in the provision he hath made, both for the protection and subsistence of the inferior animals? Those of them which have the least means of defending themselves by offensive operations against the attacks of enemies, are either put more immediately under the care of man, such as the sheep, or enabled to elude the foe by agility and swiftness, such as the hare; while all of them are supplied with suitable food out of His everliberal hand. Let us then adore the bounteous Lord, since the highest angel in heaven is not above his controul, nor the meanest reptile on earth beneath his notice.

The fishes of the sea, likewise, have their share in proclaiming his wonderful works. Could we follow them in their excursions through the pathless deep, and behold their manœuvres, and the gambols of the leviathan, we might justly cry out, How wonderful are thy works, O Lord! And is it not a great manifestation of infinite counsel and wisdom, that those of the finny tribe which are of the greatest benefit to man, are most plenteous, and remain near the shores; whereas the others, like the voracious amongst the fowls, and the ferocious amongst the beasts, are, in general, more remote from the habitations of men?

Shall we next come home to ourselves, and take a view of man?

And what a wonderful creature is man! whether we consider the texture of his body, or the formation of his soul! What a curious structure is the body! consisting of various senses, parts, and members, admirably framed for performing all the functions of human life; nothing that could be awanting, and nothing

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