as beautiful in their feveral Orders, as necessary to the univerfal Harmony, as infinite Power and Wisdom could make them; if, by the fpecial Benediction of their Maker, they were to increase and multiply, and perpetuate their feveral Species, before Sin and Death entered into the World, how dare we pretend to reverfe this Bleffing, to correct infinite Wisdom, to alter the established Order of Things, and pronounce a Sentence of utter Extinction upon numberless Ranks and Orders of Beings, created by infinite Wisdom, to manifeft the Power and Goodness of their Maker, by miniftering to the Pleasure and Neceffities of Mankind, and contributing, in their proper Order, to the Beauty and Harmony of the universal System: Is not this pronouncing a Curse where God has pronounced a Bleffing? and, in Effect, declaring that infinite Wisdom and Power were idly employed in forming, fupporting, feeding, and bleffing numberless Species, Tribes, and Families of useless and unneceflary Beings? Is it not more reasonable, more confiftent with the Nature of God, and the Scripture, Account of the Creation, to fuppofe that the immaterial Forms, the incorruptible Effences of the whole Syftem, notwithstanding its present ruinous and deplorable Appearance under the Bondage of Corruption and Death, are immoveably fixed in their proper Rank and Order in the invifible World, according to the eternal archetypal Model in the Divine Mind, in and by which, as their efficient and exemplary Caufe, every Being in Heaven and Earth, from the moft exalted Seraph to the loweft Vegetable, was made, in which they now fubfift, and shall for ever fubfift, in a glorious Immortality?

.The

The Abfurdities that flow from the contrary Opinion, are a ftrong prefumptive Proof in Favour of ours. That all Creatures were the Productions of infinite Goodness, Wisdom, and Power, and could therefore be only created in order to be as perfectly happy as their Rank and State in Nature could admit, is as certain, as that an infinitely wife, and good, and powerful Being could not poffibly make any Creature only with an Intention to make them miferable; and yet we fee, at prefent, the whole Face of Nature covered as it were with Darkness, Confufion, and Deformity, a Scene of Sin and Folly, of Mifery and Sorrow, finking, as it were, under its own Weight, and groaning under the Bondage of Corruption: And dare we fay, or imagine, that this was the original primitive State of Things? Could Disorder and Confusion, Vanity and Mifery, proceed from the omnipotent Fountain of Order, Truth, and Love? Muft we not rather say, that we are in a preternatural State; that the Evils we fuffer are accidental, the fatal Confequence of the Tranfgreffion of our first Parents, feduced by the Temptation of an evil Spirit, to a Violation of all the Laws of Juftice, Truth, and Order? And can we imagine that this violent, this unnatural State, fhall laft for ever? Is this State of the whole Creation fo deplorably miferable, as to admit of no Remedy, no Hope of Deliverance? Shall the eternal Purposes of infinite Wisdom, Love, and Power be intirely defeated by the Malice of evil Spirits, and the Infirmities of frail Creatures? Is not this imputing too much to the Creature, and derogating from the infinite Wisdom, Goodness, and Power of the Creator? Is not this faying, in Effect, that the Almighty Creator,

the

the Father of Mercies, and the God of all Compaffions, whofe Mercies are over all his Works, is either unwilling, or unable, to effect the eternal Purposes of his infinite Love? That the Devil is more powerful to deftroy than God to fave? And, after all, what Difficulty is there in comprehending, or what poffible Danger in afferting, that all the inferior Creation, that fell with, and in, our first Parent, and fuffer for our Tranfgreffion, fhall at last be restored to their primitive Happiness, and be delivered from their prefent Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God? And why (as St. Paul fays to King Agrippa, Acts xxvi. 8.) should it be thought a thing incredible, that God fhould do this, efpecially as Reafon and Nature pronounce fuch a Renovation not only poffible, but probable, and Revelation declares it to be certain? As for the wonderous Works of the Lord (faith the wise Son of Sirach, Eccluf.xviii. 6.) there may nothing be taken from them, neither may any thing be put unto them, neither can the Ground of them be found out. Nothing can be added to their original Perfection, nor fhall any thing be able to deftroy it, neither can any human Underftanding comprehend their effential Ground and Root in the archetypal World, in which (notwithstanding any Violence or accidental Disorder in their present external Form) they stand immoveably fixed in their proper Rank and Order, in and through which they fhall, in God's due Time, be reftored to the Splendor and Dignity of their firft Creation.

And this, Madam, opens to us a new Scene of Wonder and Love, worthy the moft ferious Attention of a rational and religious Mind, that there fhall be an univerfal Reftitution of all that fell by Adam's Tranf

greffion;

greffion; when all that was loft in the first Adam fhall be renewed in the Second; that there fhall be new Heavens and a new Earth, which fhall be the Habitation of Righteousness, God has plainly and abundantly promifed, by the Mouth of all his holy Prophets, fince the World began, Acts iii. 19, 20, 21. Ifa. lxv. 17. lxvi. 22. 2 Pet. iii. 13. 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. Rev. xxi. 1. And if the whole material World shall be restored to its primitive Perfection; if there fhould be a Renovation of the Face of the Earth, Pfal. civ. 30. there must be of Confequence a Renovation of all its feminal Powers, of all the various Productions of Fruits, Flowers, Animals, and all the different Inhabitants of the feveral Regions of Nature. All the Difcord of Elements, all the Malignity of the Creatures, fhall intirely cease, and be done away. All Nature shall put off the Corruption, Deformity, Darkness, and Confufion of their prefent State, and be reftored to the Purity, Splendor, and Beauty of their firft Creation. I fuppofe you will reply, and fay, as many eminent Writers have done before you, that all those Paffages of Scripture which speak of an intire Renovation and Reftitution of all Things, of new Heavens and a new Earth, are not to be understood literally, that they are only metaphorical Expreffions, to reprefent the mighty Change that was to be introduced into the moral World by the preaching of the Gofpel; that the prophetic Style and oriental Languages abounded with bold Metaphors, which could not posfibly be understood in a literal Sense, as when not only Birds and Beafts, but even the vegetable and inanimate Parts of the Creation are called upon to bless and praise their Maker, and to rejoice in his Mercy,

of

of which we have many Inftances in the Book of Pfalms, and the Prophecies of the Old Teftament. Thus particularly, Pfal. cxlvi, we find, Mountains and all Hills, fruitful Trees and all Cedars, Beafts and all Cattle, Worms and feathered Fowls, are called upon to join with the grand Chorus of Men and Angels, of all the Powers of Heaven and Earth, in the Praises of their Almighty Creator. And Ifai. lv. 12. The Mountains and the Hills fhall break forth before you into finging, and all the Trees of the Field fhall clap their Hands. So, Pf. civ. 21. The young Lions roaring after their Prey, are represented in the Form of Supplicants, feeking their Meat from God. So again, Pf. cxlvii. 9. the Cry of young Ravens is represented as calling upon God for their daily Bread, He feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him. That thefe Expreffions are properly metaphorical, is eafily granted; but that they are justly and properly founded in the real Nature of Things, cannot be denied, or may be easily proved.Let it be granted, that all thofe pompous Ideas, and magnificent Descriptions which the Scriptures give us of the Redemption of the World, and Renovation of Nature, have a primary and immediate Regard to the human Nature, which cannot be denied; yet, that it does not, and cannot, terminate there, fo as to exclude the other Parts of the Creation, is, from the Analogy of Reafon, equally certain. When we confider that the whole Syftem of Nature were Partakers of the original Happiness, were included in the univerfal Benediction, that every Part of the animal and vegetable World, according to their feveral Capacities, received, through our first Parents, fuch divine Communications of Life, Light, and Glory, as were ne

ceffary