another, the Dead Sea and Cafpian excepted; fo that trading can be freely expedited and carried on through the world. A lefs heap of waters would not so well anfwer this end, and more were unneceffary.

Should not then that power, wisdom, and goodness, which created that vehicle of commerce, and made and discovered the power of the loadstone, by which means navigation is arrived at fuch perfection, draw forth our affections to our bountiful Creator? And do not the different fpecies of animals, which inhabit air, earth, and water, all proclaim the wifdom and goodness of their and our almighty Lord?

The fowls, deftined to fly in the open firmament of heaven, are all provided with wings and tails of convenient lengths, which ferve as oars and rudders, to fteer their bodies through the aerial ocean: while their beautiful, gloffy plumage, fupports them aloft with ease, and fheweth forth to every intelligent being, that their Creator must be glorious, good, and wife, feeing he hath decked them with fuch graceful pinions,

and otherwife qualified them for performing the functions of animal life.

How admirably are they fuited with bills! whereas, if their mouths had been large, and in their heads as quadrupeds are, how could they then have taken up fmall particles of grain from the earth, or digged infects out of the mould? whereas now, by their beaks, they can peck fuch with ease; and if without claws, many of them which rooft on the trees could not have done fo, but must have been much exposed to the ravages of quadrupeds during the night.

Those of them which are of the aquatic kind are all provided with members anfwerable for gathering their food in the watery element: fuch as are swimmers, being webfooted, and having their breafts and bellies ftrongly lined with downy feathers, close as fcales, are thereby qualified for remaining long in the water, and defended from the injuries of its cold; and those which cannot fwim, but wade, with long legs and necks, whereby they are enabled to hunt in the fhallows for the finny tribe; some of them too, fuch as the heron, having the middle.

CREATION.

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claw on each foot toothed like a faw, can thereby more readily feize and hold their flippery prey. All which fhow the bounty and care of the indulgent Creator, who hath left none of his creatures deftitute of fuitable means for preferving life. But though these kinds find ample provifion in the waters, what becomes of thofe that live wholely on the land, which neither fow nor gather into barns? Shall they ftarve? No: for we are told our heavenly Father feedeth them. Mat vi. 26.

Grudge not, then, ye husbandmen, when the birds of the air defcend upon your cultured fields, and peck a few of these innumerable grains, which your Creator and theirs hath bountifully beftowed upon you; nor wish too keenly for their destruction; for, perhaps, they ferve 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 al"moft effected, at the cost of the inhabi

tants; who difcovered, at length, that "Providence had not formed thefe feemingly deftructive birds in vain. Notwith

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CREATION.

ftanding they caufed fuch havock among "the grain, they made ample recompence

66

by clearing the ground of the noxious (C worms with which it abounds. As foon as the birds were deftroyed, the reptiles " had full leave to multiply, and the confequence was the total lofs of the grass in 66 1749, when the New Englanders, too late repentants, were obliged to get their hay "from Pennsylvania, and even from Great "Britain *."

As for the beafts of the earth, no lefs confpicuous doth the wifdom and goodness of the Creator appear in them, whether we confider their numbers, ufes, colours, or forms. That thofe 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 kindnefs.

The more we confider the latter, the greater reafon we have to adore the Lord of all for his wife difpofal of things.

*See Encyclopædia Britannica.

Did the horfe, that most beautiful of all the four-footed kind, the strength and courage of which is terrible in war; or the lufty ox, which bellows in our fields, know properly what ftrength they are poffeffed of,—would the one, by means of a fimple boy, be made to draw in the plough, and drudge in our carriages, or the other driven or turned away by a little child? How wifely, then, hath our Creator apparently deprived them of this knowledge, or magnified man greatly in their eyes! otherwife, how would the labours of the hufbandman be facilitated?

Is not the Creator's goodness, too, greatly manifested in the provifion he hath made, both for the protection and fubfiftence of the inferior animals? Thofe of them which have the least means of defending themfelves by offenfive operations, against the attacks of enemies, are either put more immediately under the care of man, fuch as the fheep, or enabled to elude the foe by agility and fwiftnefs, fuch as the hare; while all of them are supplied with food fuitable for them, out of His ever-liberal hand. Let us then adore the bounteous Lord, fince the

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