deny miracles; and yet you fay what has been fince, may be again: Now if there was a miracle once, there may be one again; if fo, then there may be fuch a thing as revealed religion, for that is but miraculous: But if there cannot be a miracle again, that is an argument there never was one, and of courfe denies the works of Creation; for it must have been a miracle to have fpoken a world into existence, and to have formed intelligent beings-Therefore, if there never was a miracle, then there never was fuch a thing as Creation: Confequently the works of nature do not speak forth a Divine Being, for his hand never formed them; but they argue, that matter is eternal, and that . all things come by nature-for it is evident, that if nought had been once, nought had been now; for nothing cannot put forth the act of power and beget fömething; yet it is felf-evident that fomething does exift; therefore, fomething muft have exifted eternally.

Then

faith reafon, if all things come by nature, then nature is eternal, and when fortaing from its primitive chaos, into its prefent pofition, by congelation,

brought forth mankind, beafls and ve

like
the mushroom growing up without feed,
or the mofs growing on the, tree; and
are kept on the ftage by tranfmigration,
like the caterpillar, tranfmigrating or
turning into a beautiful butterfly; or
the muck-worm into a horn-bug. Thus
nature affumes one form or ihape for a
while, then laying that afide, takes up
another. In confirmation of this idea,
it appears, that one race of animals or
beings goes from the flage, and another
comes on the carpet; For instance, the
bones of a certain animal, found in dif-
ferent parts of the continent of Ameri-
ca, demonftrates there was fuch a race of
beings once, called the Mammoth, which
as far as we know, are now extinct:
And the Heflian fly, which was difcov-
cred a few years fince, near where the
Helian troops encamped, and from
thence took its name, fuppofed to have
bees brought by them from Helia-
and fince this infect has greatly fpread
over New-England, and deflroys the
wheat; I have made much enquiry,
but cannot learn that it is found in the
country from whence the Hellians came:

getables fpontaneously
with ve

From this, one may infer and argue, that it is an animal, come on the stage within late years, as it appears fome other infects have done. In further confirmation of this idea, and which ftands opposed to the account given by the bible," that all animals were drowned, except thofe with Noah in the Ark," we find that although it is natural for us to conclude, that all animals would generate and be found on that part where the Ark refted, yet the Racoon is peculiar to America: This then is a new fpecies of animal, and we may fay the account cannot be admitted that all other parts were drowned: But again in confirmation of revolutions in nature we perceive, that even if fcripture be true, once Giants did exift; but they are now extin&t. On frict examination, it appears that earth and shells congealed, form marble-and wood when put into certain lakes of water, becomes one. The turf bogs in Ireland, which are found on the tops of the highest mountains, or in the vallies, miles in length and breadth, icores of feet deep, evidently appear to have been vegetables washed to

gether by fome awful deluge; whole trees, with ancient artificial materials, being found many feet below the furface. I likewife was informed of a fpring in that country, by putting bars or fheets of iron therein, they would be converted into copper.

On my way from Georgia, I could but obferve great quantities of fhells, which to me appear to belong to the oyfter, fome hundreds of miles from any falt or brackish water, and it is quite improbable they could have been brought by human art, confidering the vaft quantities found in the Savannahs or Pirarahs to Tombigby, and thence to the Natchez country, and in the Chickafaw nation. It evidently appears likewife, that this weftern country was once inhabited by a warlike informed people, who had the ufe of mechanical inftruments; and there are evident marks of antiquity.confifling of artificial mounts) and fortifications, &c. pronounced by the curious, who have examined them, to have been deferted long before the difcovery of America by Columbus.One of thofe mounts, a few miles above the Natchez, covers about fix acres of

ground, forty feet above the common level, on which ftands another forty feet high, making in all eighty feet.Great numbers of thefe artificial mounts, fortifications and beds of afhes, are to be found, extending from the western parts of Georgia, to the Miffiffippi, and then northward with the waters of faid river, to Lake Erie, &c. all which denote it once was a populous, and fince is a forfaken country; which neither hiftory nor tradition hath given us any information of. Therefore it appears, that greater revolutions have taken place in this terraqueous globe, than many imagine; and herefrom we might fuppofe, that the earth hath ftood longer than the fix thousand years calculated from fcripture-and with the Chinese affent to their boafted ancient hiftories, &c.

Thus I fhall be an Atheift inflead of a Deift, but I cannot be the one nor the other according to reafon-for if there be no God, nature depends on chance, and this earth would be like a well fringed inftrument, without a fkilful hand to play upon it; or a well rigged veffel, without mariners to steer her;