Chap. 9; PHILOSOPHICAL DISCOVERIES. 3 Sj

6. The plain argument for the existence of the Deity, ob*-vious to all and carrying irresistible conviction with it, is fromthe evident contrivance and fitness of things for one another.,which we meet with throughout all parts of the universe.There is no need of nice or subtle reasonings in this matter :a manifest contrivance immediately suggests a contriver. Itstrikes us like a sensation ; and artful reasonings against it maypuzzle us, but it is without shaking our belief. No person,for example, tliat knows the principles of optics and the struc-ture of the eye, can believe thaj it was formed without skill inthat science; or that the ear was formed without the knowledgeof founds ; or that the male and female in animals were notformed for each other, and for continuing the species. Allour accounts of nature are full of instances of this kind. Theadmirable and beautiful structure of things for final causes,exalt our idea of the Contriver : the unity of design shews himto be One. The great motions in the system, performed withthe fame facility as the least, suggest his Almighty Pcwer ywhich gave motion to the earth and the celestial bodies, withequal eale as to the minutest particles. The fubtility of themotions and actions in the internal parts of bodies, shews thathis influence penetrates the inmost recesses of things, and thatHe is equally aBive and present every where. The simplicityof the laws that prevail in the world, the excellent dispositionof things, in order to obtain the best ends, and the beautywhich adorns the works of nature, far superior to any thing inart, suggest his consummate Wisdom. The usefulness of thewhole scheme, so well contrived for the intelligent beings thatenjoy it, with the internal disposition and moral structure ofthose beings themselves, shew his unbounded Goodness. Theseare the arguments which are sufficiently open to the views andcapacities of the unlearned, while at the fame time they acquirenew strength and lustre from the discoveries of the learned.

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