parts together tyed, which time can diffipate, and force divide; for beings of this make can never die, whofe powers within themfelves, and their own effence lie.

Having thus refuted the gloomy tenets of materialifm, let us finish this Lecture with a different theme; let the confideration of the wonderful powers of the foul make us attempt a higher ftrain, an hymn of praife to the LORD OUR SAVIOUR, the joy of every foul, the defire of all nations. For if in the verdure of the fields, and the azure of the fky, the unlettered ruftic admire thy creative power, how blind must that man be, who, contemplating his living ftructure, and his moral frame, difcerns not thy forming hand! How various and complicated the machinery of the one, how extenfive and noble the powers of the other!

How fublime are all the faculties of the mind, thoughts that wing infinity; apprehenfions that reach through eternity; a fancy that creates ; an imagination that contains a univerfe; withes that a world hath not wherewithal to fatisfy; defires that know neither end nor bound! It is cndued by thee with divine prerogatives, invefted with fpiritual powers, and enabled to aspire ardently after the felicities of heaven.

Even while man purfues happiness here as his chief aim, thou bindeft felf-love into the focial direction; thou infufeft the generous principle, which makes him feel for forrows not his own; thy divine hand formed the connecting tye, and by fympathy linked man to man, that all might tend towards mutual affociation; thy wifdom has erected within him a throne for virtue; but thou hast not decked her with beauty only, but haft thrown around her the awful effulgence of divine authority; and yet thou haft left him a field open for free and generous action, in which, performing a

glorious

glorious courfe, he may attain the high reward by thee allotted; thou entertaineft him with all the glories of the material world, and enableft him to penetrate into the receffes of nature. It is thou that giveft to all bodies their forms and their motions, to all fpirits their reafon and their virtues ; it is from thee that every thing flows, it is in thee that every thing exifts, it is by thee that every thing lives, and to thee alone fhould all things be referred. We fee thee exifting in wifdom and in benevolence both fupreme. As fpots in the fun's bright orb, fo in the univerfal plan fcattered evils are loft in the blaze of fuperabundant goodness. Even by the research of human reason, weak as it is, thofe feeming evils continually diminish and fly away; and objects fuppofed fuperfluous or noxious affume a beneficial afpect. How much more to thine allpenetrating eye muft all appear excellent and fair! It must be fo, we cannot doubt; neither imperfection nor, malice dwell with thee; thou appointest as falutary what we lament as painful. Even the follies and vices of men adminifter to thy wife defigns; and as at the beginning of days, thou faweft, fo thou feeft, and pronounceft ftill, that every thing that thou haft made is good.

Now we fee through a glafs darkly, and know but in part, but the time cometh when we shall know even as we are known. We fhall then fee things in that facred uncreated light, which permits no error, which admits of no obfcurity. Then, O ALMIGHTY GOD, all that thou art now doing, all that thou haft done, will be found harmoniously beautiful, and divinely worthy of thee, it's great and facred LORD. Then will thy creation and government appear fublimely wife to the purified eye of man; and what now bewilders and perplexes us, what cannot now be comprehended by us, will

be seen in all it's unerring rectitude, will blaze forth upon us in the clearness of it's holy fplendor, and we shall join with angels and archangels in declaring that heaven and earth are full of thy glory.*

Lord Kaims.-Comyns's Sermons,

LECTURE

LECTURE XXVI.

ON MECHANICS.

ONE of the first arts men had occafion to prac

tife was that of MECHANICS; it was therefore ftudied in the earliest ages of the world. Poffeffing very little theory, what knowledge they acquired was more the refult of experience than reasoning, having neither any methods of working, nor inftruments to work with, but what they must first invent; their progrefs was flow, their performances rude and imperfect.

We hear therefore of no confiderable mechanical inventions for a long feries of ages; the first we find mentioned are in the book of Genefis; there we find that fhips were as old, even on the Mediterranean, as the days of Jacob. In the time of Saul, 1070 years before CHRIST, we find the Philistines bringing 30,000 chariots into the field; in 1030 before Chrift, Ammon built tall and long fhips with fails, on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; about 800 years before Christ, Uzziah made engines to be on the towers and on the bulwarks, to fhoot arrows and great stones.

Corn-mills were of early invention, for in Deuteronomy we find it was not lawful for any man to pledge the nether or the upper mill-ftone. In Jeremiah we read of the potter's wheel. The works of Archimedes, who lived about 200 years before Chrift, would alone afford fufficient matter for a volume; fome of his discoveries appear fo much above the reach of men, that many among the moderns have found it more eafy to doubt their existence than to imitate them. His name ftill occupies the foremost ranks in the fcience of mathematics. By mechanical knowledge, he

alone,

alone, for three fucceffive years, fupported the tottering towers of Syracufe, and baffled the attempts of the Romans. Marcellus admired the fuperior fcience of Archimedes: he inftructed the Romans to refpect his fafety, but the impatience of a foldier proved fatal to his life.

It is not eafy at this diftance of time to conceive the nature of their machines, or fay how they reared their bulky towers 150 feet in height, and 60 in circumference, with a battering ram at the bottom fufficient to beat down walls, with a drawbridge in the middle to be let down upon the wall of the attacked city; and at the top a body of men, who being placed above the befieged, harrailed them without danger.

It would be endlefs to enumerate the inftances of their mechanical abilities. Italy is filled with monuments, and the ruins of monuments, which aid us in comprehending the refources and genius of the ancient Romans. The ftones which are laid upon the tops of the pyramids of Egypt, each of which are as large as a fmall houfe, create even wonder in a modern mechanic, and teach him to reverence the fuperior arts of antiquity.

"Ignorant of the numerous arts which depend on mechanical knowledge, man would exift as in a defert, comfortlefs and unfocial, little fuperior in enjoyment to the lion and the tyger, but much their inferior in ftrength and fafety." Aided by these the fields are cultivated, the wilderness becomes a garden, ftrength is given to the fortrefs, and elegance to the palace; and man beholds himfelf far removed from those animals, to whom, while in a state of nature, he seems nearly allied.

But if the exertions of our mental powers in giving rife to the arts are thus worthy of attention, it is furely proper to devote a few minutes in furveying the works of the DIVINE MECHANIC; here,