externally, than the worm beneath our feet! What hidden beauties and excellencies most probably there are in nature, did we trace the productions of the Deity with that accuracy they deserve; what discoveries of virtues and uses, yet latent, might possibly be made?But be that as it may, let us not fail to remark (for it will kindle in us fervent defires to see him) what beauty and excellence, superlatively grand and charming, must there be in him, who is the original fountain, the source, the origin of all the beauty, goodness, and glory, manifeft in external nature! These are, as it were, the glimmering out-lines of his own confummate and inexhaustible perfections! How happy will they be, who shall contemplate him, as he is, and fee the king, in his brightness, every obstruction and intervening object for ever removed!

When a little insect is fraught with fuch elegance and utility, no thinking mind can fail gratefully to reflecton that inexhaustible bounty, wherewith the giver of all hath stored his creation. For that the Cochineal is an insect, naturalitts now feem generally agreed. It was heretofore supposed to be a vegetable production, a feed, or the excrefcence of a plant; but it is now acknowledged to be the female of an infect living upon the Opuntia, or Indian figs, on the juice of which it feeds. "This plant, which in New Spain is called the Nopal, is a species of the fig-tree; the leaves are thick, full of juice, and thorny. The inhabitants, who cultivate it, sweep from the leaves, at the approach of the rainy season, several little insects, that fuck the green plant. They preserve them in their own houses, and nourish them with the branches of the Nopal. When they are grown strong, and the rains are over, they put twelve or fourteen of them into

little panniers made of moss, or the down that covers the cocoa-nut. These panniers they place on the Nopal, and the Cochineal infects,. in a few days, give birth to an infinite number of young. The dams live but a short time after they lay their eggs, and are what may be called the first produce. The young forfake the panniers, and disperse themselves over all the ver dure of the Nopal, and thrive to that degree in the space of three months, as to be prolific in their turn The fecond brood are-permitted to live; but all their parents are swept off, carried home, and killed: the new offspring on the tree have also their young at the end of three or four months; but left they should all be destroyed in the rainy season, the inhabitants carry home their dams as well as their offspring, which is the third produce. A sufficient number of the young insects are preserved, to continue the species of the next year, and all the rest are killed in hot water, or ovens, or upon flat stones, on which the American women bake their bread. The infects that are destroyed in hot water are of a brown colour, inclining a little to red; those which are killed in the oven are of an ash complexion, and streaked like marble; and fuch of them as are cured on the stone are black, and seem burnt. Their infide is filled with a beau tiful red dust. These infects are sent to us dried, and half reduced to a powder, in which, without the help of a microscope, one may distinguish an oval body, scales, and paws, or little pieces of them bruised, and a small pointed trunk."

These infects are often, in the curing of them, not totally deprived of life, or at least they are impregnated with eggs, which the heat fometimes brings to life. For Sir Hans Sloane tells us, in his history of Jamaica, vol. II. p. 153. That a Buccanier

a Buccanier assured him, that once some of his comrades, joined with himself, had taken a prize: and there being in it much Cochineal, they lay on fome of the bags; and that (in consequence of their animal heat) it took life, and crept about. He mentions an instance of the same kind in another part of this work, and also tells us, that these infects are much coveted by the ants, the greatest enemies they have; to clear the shrubs from which, the cultivators of them make use of foxes tails, as Herrera informs us.

There are two forts of the Cochineal, we are told; the Martigne, which is esteemed the finest, and the wild, which is less valuable; the difference being occafioned only by the extraordinary care which is taken of the one, by supplying it with food of a proper kind; the other living wild, without the like care. This valuable commodity is brought from Mexico, and some other parts of South America; where the inhabitants find it so very advantageous an article of commerce, that they make plantations of the Opuntia, and regularly breed and manage their crops, sending such vast quantities of it to Europe, that it is computed there is no less than eight or nine hundred thousand weight annually imported from Spanish America; with us it pays no duty."

But we must not forget to remark, that this curious infect ferves to other uses than those of beauty and elegance: it is of great service to the human frame, and is applied constantly in phyfic, not only as a cordial, but as a kindly and effectual medicine in various diseases! Gracious Father of bounty, how kindly hast thou reached forth thy providential hand, and stored the earth with innumerable blessings, to alleviate thofe oppreffive diseases and maladies, under which human nature

labours! "The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth, and he that is wife," faith the son of Sirach, will not abhor them." The bark of a tree, the hard fubstance of an earth compacted ore, the body of a despicable insect, are all-powerful in his hands, who worketh according to his own will, and whose commanding word the most obstinate diseases instantly obey!

Every object in nature serves to evince a creating, and superintending Providence. No man can suppose the Cochineal infect endued with these virtues by chance. But as a further proof, that it was designed to the ends which we see it answers, we may remark, that the plant on which it feeds, exactly corresponds, if I may so say, to its nature; and seems as much formed for, and adapted to it, as the mulberry is to the silk-worm. These so manifestly indicate design, that no man can doubt it; for were we to find a watch, which we perceived noted the time exactly, but at length ceased to move; and were we afterwards to find the key of that watch, which, upon application, we perceived exactly fitted the aperture made for it, and by a proper circumvolution gave its motion again to the machine: We should not hesitate a moment to say, that there was a designing hand in all this, and that the key was certainly intended for the watch by the maker of it: Let us apply this reasoning to the Cochineal and its Opuntia, and we shall adore the wife Creator. Happy, unspeakably happy, in his providential regard: For if he thus hath taken care for the meanest insects, insects too ordained for, and subservient to the use of man, how much more will he take care of those, who, by a dutiful and filial obedience, endeavour to render themselves fit objects of his gracious concern?

CHRI

1

THOUGHTS

ON THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

onyfius the tyrant what God was, defired a day's time to confider of it before he made his reply. When the day was expired, he defired two days; and afterwards, instead of returning his answer, demanded still double time to confider of it. This great poet and philosopher, the more he contemplated the nature of the Deity, found that he waded but the more out of his depth; and that he lost himself in the thought, instead of finding an end of it.

If we consider the idea which wise men, by the light of reason, have framed of the Divine Being, it amounts to this: That he has in him all the perfection of a spiritual nature; and since we have no notion of any kind of spiritual perfection but what we discover in our own fouls, we join infinitude to each kind of these perfections, and what is a faculty in an human foul, becomes an attribute in God. We exist in place and time, the divine heing fills the immensity of space with his presence, and inhabits eternity. We are possessed of a little power and a little knowledge, the Divine Being is almighty and omniscient. In short, by adding infinity to any kind of perfection we enjoy, and by joining all these different kinds of perfections in one being, we form our idea of the great Sovereign of nature.

Though every one who thinks must have made this obfervation, we shall produce Mr. Locke's authority to the fame purpose, out of his essay on human understanding. If we examine the idea we have of the incomprehenfible Su

preme Being, we shall find, that we come by it the same way; and that the complex ideas we have both of God and separate spirits, are made up of the fimple ideas we receive from reflection: v. g. having from what we experience in ourselves, got the ideas of existence and duration, of knowledge and power, of pleasure and happiness, and of several other qualities and powers, which it is better to have, than to be without when would frame an idea the most suitable we can to the Supreme Being, we enlarge every one of these with our idea of infinity; and so putting them together, make our complex idea of God'

we

are

It is not impossible that there may be many kinds of spiritual perfection, besides those which lodged in an human foul: but it is impoffible that we should have ideas of any kinds of perfection, except those of which we have fome small rays and short imperfect strokes in ourselves. It would be therefore a very high prefumption to determine whether the Supreme Being has not many more attributes than thofe which enter into our conceptions of him. This is certain, that if there be any kind of spiritual perfection which is not marked.out in an human foul, it belongs in its fulness to the divine

nature.

Eminent philosophers have imagined, that the foul, in her separate state, may have new faculties springing up in her, which she is not capable of exerting during her present union with the body; and whether these faculties may not correspond with other attributes in the divine nature, and open to us hereafter new matter of wonder and adoration, we are altogether ignorant. This, we ought to ac. quiefco quiesce in, that the Sovereign Being, the great author of nature, has in him all possible perfection, as well in kind as in degree; to speak according to our methods of conceiving; and when we have raised our notion of this infinite being as high as it is possible for the mind of man to go, it will fall infinitely short of what he really is. There is no end of his greatness: the most exalted creature he has made, is only capable of adoring it, none but himself can comprehend it.

The advice of the son of Sirach is very just and sublime in this light. " By his word all things confift. We may speak much, and yet come short: wherefore in fum, he is all. How shall we be able to magnify him? For he is great above all his works. The Lord is terrible and very great; and marvellous in his power. When you glorify the Lord, exalt him as much as you can; for even yet will he far exceed. And when you exalt him,. put forth all your strength, and be not weary; for you can never go far enough. Who hath seen him, that he might tell us? and who can magnify him as he is ? There are yet hid greater things than these be, for we have seen but a few of his works."

We here have only confidered the Supreme Being by the light of reafon and philofophy. If we would fee, him in all the wonders of his mercy we must have recourse to revelation, which represents him to us, not only as infinitely great and glorious, but as infinitely good and just in his dispensations towards man. But as this is a theory which falls under every one's confideration, though indeed it can never be sufficiently confidered, we shall only take notice of that habitual worship and veneration which we ought to pay to this almighty be ing. We should often refresh our minds with the thought of him, and annihilate ourselves before

him, in the contemplation of our own worthlessness, and of his tranfcendent excellency and perfection. This would imprint in our minds fuch a conftant and uninterrupted awe and veneration, which is, in reality, a kind of inceffant prayer, and reasonable humiliation of the foul before him who made it.

This would effectually kill in us all the little feeds of pride, vanity, and self-conceit, which are apt to shoot up in the minds of fuch whose thoughts turn more on those comparative advantages which they enjoy over some of their fellow. creatures, than on that infinite di. stance which is placed between them and the fupreme model of all perfection. It would likewise quicken our defires and endeavours of uniting ourselves to him by all the acts of religion and virtue.

Such an habitual homage to the Supreme Being would, in a particular manner, banith from among us that prevailing impiety of ufing his name on the most trivial occa frons:

Mr. Boyle, that great philo sopher, had the profoundest veneration for the God of heaven and earth. The very name of God was never mentioned by him without a pause and a visible stop in his difcourse; in which, one that knew him, most particularly, above twenty-years, has faid, that he was so exact, that he does not remember to obferved him once to fail in it.

Every one knows the veneration which was paid by the Jews to a name fo great, wonderful and holy. They would not let it enter even into their religious discourses. What can we then think of those who make use of so tremendous a name in the ordinary expressions of their anger, mirth, and most impertinent passions? Of those who admit it into the most familiar questions and affertions, ludicrous phrafes and works of humour ? not to mention those who vio