inaBivity of Matter, &c. 18 l

thy cause to answer this universal effeSl? Yesperhaps ; dead matter, universal chance, uni-versal necessity, something that acts wifelyand powerfully universally, without eitherwisdom or power. These are less worthycauses, but they are contradictory ones. Per-haps infinity of power may be puzzled,straitned, perplexed; perhaps it cannot reachto infinitely little things; things below a cer-tain greatness ? But is this universal effect sounworthy? Whose is the matter of the vilestinsect? By whose laws, whose wisdom was

it formed ?- But really (fay you) this is

very terrible! Is the power of God confta?itlyso near me? Doth he know so intimately everything I do? Why ? If he be infinite, wherecan we lurk? What other thing,what otherbeing besides this infinite one could preserveus, and perform the various actions on whichour life depends ? Is it so terrible to be pre-served a thousand different ways? We are ra-tional; if we act as such, what have we tofear ? He is infinitely rational, and cannotbut love the works of reason.—In all thesequestions, the men who scorn to be deter-mined by any thing but the force of reason,Will determine, and chuse their own side.

N 3 XXVI,