dered pure and healthful: whereas if, otherwife, the furface of the globe had been level, they would have ftood flagnated, and proved rather prejudicial than helpful and nourishing to planets and animals.

Befides, do, not the mountains beautify the landscape, and keep the eye from being fatigued with fpace, and likewise constitute a proper temperature of the air? where the climate is cold, keeping the vallies warın; and in hot countries preferving a refreshing, cooling breeze, on their fummits, for the benefit and health of thofe who regale themfelves with it. Alfo from their tops they afford an agreeable profpect of the lowlands and enable to defery enemies at a distance in time of war, and fo timely to provide for fafety.

;

To this we may add, they are admirably adapted for the accommodation of wild fowls and beafts, and even ferpents, which otherwife would prove troublesome to man. There the adder and fnake in wanton curls can fport among the heath, and bask themselves amid the funny beams, without either much annoying man, or being annoyed by him:

"The high hills are a refuge for the wild

goats, and the rocks for the conics," PL civ. 18. Come we now to the vales, which are fo well adapted for culture and vegetation here again appears the goodness of God; for if all had been hills and mountains, how fatigued would man and beast have been in culturing them for their fuftenance? But, bleffed be the Lord, though, in confequence of the fall, he faid man fhould eat bread in the fweat of his face, he did not fay he should eat it in the blood thereof, which doubtlefs would oft have been the cafe if this had been the form of the globe.

Let us then adore his name for its commodious figure: and while we culture our valleys, admire his handy-works: for not a plant, herb, or flower, grows in them, but fheweth forth the wifdom and glory of their Maker. And feeing we cannot fully comprehend how a fingle pile of grafs begins to vegetate and ftrike forth its roots in the earth, let us lie low in the valley of humility, nor dare to arraign the divine decrees, but faying, with the father of the faithful," Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Gen. xviii, 25.

Next, the majestic appearance of the forefts fhould ftrike our minds with a due fense of that majefty and power which made and reared their lofty plants; and of that goodness which hath made them of fuch utility to man and beast. And as for the rivers, not to speak of what use they are for preserving and nourishing their finny inhabitants, which so plentifully furnish our tables; they are of abfolute neceffity for the fupport and nourishment of both animal and vegetable life.

In them, not only all men, but all the beasts of the earth, may freely quench their thirft which fheweth the boundless beneficence of our almighty Creator. Rivers are thereby fit emblems of the water of life, to which all the fons of Adam are invited to come and drink freely, without money, and without price. Ifa. lv. 1. Rev. xxi.

17.

It is wonderful, that all the rivers are exhaled in vapours from the fea by the heat of the fun; refined in the clouds, diftilled in gentle fhowers on the carth, and return thither again. Doth not the wisdom and

goodness of God appear greatly in this? For, if the vapours were not thus drawn forth from the deep, refined and difilled, we could neither have fresh water or rivers, and fo no life or vegetation on the earth. And, on the other hand, if those vapours did not return again to the ocean in rivers, the earth would foon be deluged, and become unfit for the habitation of man or beaft ;-nay, in process of time, become a fea itself, while the ocean became a dry land.

Let us then blefs the most high God for this wife difpofal of things; and, as we have our life and being from him, as the fhowers accomplish the end for which they are fent on the earth, and then again return to the fea; fo may we anfwer the end for which we are fent into the world, and at laft return, through the merits of Chrift, to God in heaven, the fountain of our being and happiness!

Turn we now to the ocean itfelf: what a world of waters are there! and what a water of wonders! In this great and wide fea are things creeping innumerable, both

finall and great beafts: There go the fhips; there is that leviathan, whom thou haft made to play therein, faith David, Pf. civ. 25, 26.

This heap of great waters would foon prove the death of all the inhabitants in the earth, as well as its own, was it not kept. from stagnating, and thereby putrifying, by the continual flux and reflux of the tide, every wave of which befpeaks the wifdom and power of its almighty Maker, while they lafh the fhore, and threaten to overwhelm the world. No fooner they reach the decreed place, than they begin to retreat with apparent reluctance, ftill renewing their hoftile attempts, and as often lofing ground; till at length, by an invifible power, they are entirely beat back to the main ocean.

If it were not for the feas, how could commerce be carried on with the different parts of the world? If all were dry land that would be next to impracticable; nor could the gofpel and civilization be spread through the globe. And may we not fee a manifeftation of divine wifdom in making every fea to have communication one with