Meditation is a duty to which the rational foul naturally prompts man. It was by contemplating the works of creation, that the heathens themselves came to the knowledge of a God; " because that which may "be known of God, is manifest in them, "for God hath showed it unto them; for "the invisible things of him from the crea"tion of the world, are clearly feen, being "understood by the things that are made,

even his eternal power and Godhead," Rom. i. 19, 20. If heathens made fo great a progress by reading in the volume of creation, at the dim light of nature, what ought Christians to do in the funshine of divine revelation!

The royal Pfalmist, struck with beholding a few of the great out-lines of creation, even the celestial bodies, cries out with rapture and astonishment to the Lord, saying, "What " is man, that thou art mindful of him! "and the fon of man, that thou visiteft "him!" Pfalm viii. 4. And well might he, in confideration of that infinite power, wisdom, greatness, and glory, that hung those immenfely ponderous luminaries in the midst of the vast expanfe of ether,

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poifed them fo nicely, and bade them, to a punctilio, observe their courses, and still fupports these vast orbs in their stations. I fay, in confideration of that Almighty Being, who wrought out the heavens with his fingers, adorning them with stars, which in luftre, number, and magnitude, far furpass the ken of the most acute aftronomer, and lighted up these wonderful lamps, or rather globes of fire, in the stupendous arch -that a Being of fuch infinite wisdom, - power, and glory, should condescend to take notice of fuch a little thing as man! yea, fuch a vile thing as man had made himself.

But O, what notice was it that Jehovah did take of him! "Hear, O heavens, and be aftonished, O earth!" it was not only to create him a holy and happy creature, nor, when he had fallen by his iniquity, still to continue to preferve him in being, and fupply him out of his bountiful hand with numberless temporal good things; but how shall it be told for wonder and amazement! that fame God, who made the stars, counteth their numbers, and calleth them all by their names; mcafured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the fpan, and comprehended the duft of the earth in a measure; and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a ballance; before whose face the earth and the heavens flee away, and in whose prefence the highest feraphim in heaven veil their faces with their wings, Gen. i. 16. Pf. cxlvii. 4. Ifa. xl. 12. Rev. xx. II. Ifa. vi. 2. fent his own eternal, only-begotten, and wellbeloved Son, one in effence with himself, into this world, to become an infant of days, to lead a forrowful life, and at length to bear all that infinite wrath, or equal to it, which the elect should have borne through all eternity, and die the shameful, painful, accursed death of the cross for man; vile, finful man, his avowed enemy!

O, unspeakable love! was ever love like this? Well might the royal Pfalmist stand amazed at it, when he confidered, that that God, who wrought out the heavens with his fingers, made the moon and the stars, and all the host of heaven; fuftains all the planets with his hand, and fwaddled the ocean with thick darknefs, fetting doors and bars, faying, Hitherto shaltthoucome, but no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed: should

himself be wrapt in swaddling cloathes, and laid in a manger; have his hands and feet nailed to the accurfed tree of the cross, groan, bleed, and die, for fuch a finful creature as man. If the king of Ifrael was loft in thought at viewing this afar off, what ought we to be who live in gofpel days! The works of nature naturally lead the contemplative mind up the stream of creation to God the fountain-head. This they did to David, and fo should they do to us. All the works which we behold fhew forth his wifdom, power, and goodness. "The heavens declare the

glory of God, and the firmament sheweth "his handy-work: day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge: there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard: " their line is gone out through all the earth, " and their words to the end of the world." Pf. xix. 1. to 4.

Thefe, though in filence, preach a loud fermon in the ear of reafon; every planet declaring, as it revolves, it is made and fustained by an Almighty hand; while every comet that blazeth with incredible fwiftness through ether, proclaimeth, as it shooteth along, the arm that launched it is infinite; and all the constellations shew forth, as they shine, the goodness, wisdom, power, and glory of their infinite Almighty maker. Nor are terreftrial things less filent in his praise. If we only caft our eyes around, and behold the furface of the globe, how may we be ftruck with wonder at the agreeable variety of objects which are presented to our view? Not a mountain, rock, plain, vale, wood, river, or fea, but proclaimeth aloud its Maker's goodness, and is stored with inhabitants, animate and inanimate, fuitable to its nature.

The mountains, being a repofitory for granite, metals, and minerals, which are so indifpenfably necessary for mechanical labours and medicine, are a display of the wisdom of the Creator; for if fuch had not been stored up in the bowels of eminences, how scarcely, if at all, could they be dug up? For, where could the miner find a defcent to carry off the water which deluged his work? And is it not from the hills we have our springs, which, falling down their fides in rills, at the bottom are formed into rivers, which gliding gently along, are thereby ren