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    all nature , in this sublunary system , would be thrown into confusion , and the heavens , with all their host , would appear to flee away . Now , the scientific student of Scripture alone can judiciously apply the canon to which I have adverted ; he

    alone can appreciate its utility in the interpretation of the sacred oracles ; for he knows the facts which the philosopher and the astronomer have ascertained to exist in the system of nature j from the want of which information , many divines , whose

    comments on Scripture have , in other respects , been judicious , have displayed their ignorance , and fallen into egregious blunders , when attempting to explain the first chapters of Genesis , and several parts of the book of Job , which have tended to bring discredit on the oracles of heaven . The

    late Mr . Fuller , in his remarks on the first chapter of the book of Genesis , after enumerating some of the uses of the stars , that they serve for signs and for seasons , &c t adds , that they had also been employed to guide men to the Saviour , referring to the meteor

    which guided the Eastern magi to Bethlehem ; a remark certainly unworthy of his judgment , and of the age in which he lived . Again , the researches of science have brought to view objects which

    lend to amplify our conceptions of the Divinity . Having already adverted somewhat to this topic , I shall here only remark , that , as Scripture informs us , in distinct and positive declarations , of the natural perfections of God , the discoveries of science

    afford a sensible proof and illustration of the scriptural propositions on this subject . As we derive all our knowledge from the impression which external objects make on the organs of sensation , we are so constituted , that

    abstract truths produce little impression or conviction on the mind , unless they be enforced or illustrated by an appeal to visible objects in the material world . While , therefore , the Scripture * declare that Jehovah is M only wise God , " and that •* He

    hath established the world by his wisdom ; " the Christian philosopher has brought to light innumerable instances and evidences of this attribute of Deity , which lie concealed from the superficial observer . He can not only

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    tell us , in certain vague terms , as is too frequently done , that the wisdom of God appears in every object , frdni a blade of grass to the stars of the firnianent 5 but he can point out and fix the mind upon the particular objects in which it is most strikingly apparent . He can state and describe the

    particular modes , circumstances , contexture , configurations , adaptations ,, structure , functions , relations and operations of those objects in which contrivance and design conspicuously appear , in the animal and the vegetable world , in the ocean , the

    atmosphere and the heavens ; till the mind , from a steady and minute contemplation of the object , is constrained to exclaim , " O the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God ! " While , again , the Scriptures declare ^ that

    " the Lord is omnipotent , of great power , and mighty in strength , " the Christian astronomer has brought to light the most magnificent and astonishing illustration of this perfection of Jehovah . He has descried bodies

    of such a prodigious size , that not only the stupendous masses of the Alps and the Andes , appear , in comparison , as so many atoms in the mighty void ; but even the whole terraqueous globe , with all its load of continents and islands and oceans , dwindles , on the survey , into an inconsiderable ball . He has ascertained

    that ten thousand times ten thousand of such , bodies are dispersed throughout the immeasurable regions of space . He has ascertained motions of such astonishing velocity as overpowers the imagination ; in bodies , several hundred times larger than this globe of ours , motions , which , were it possible to view them at the distance of a few

    hundred miles from the bodies thus impelled , would raise our admiration to its highest pitch , would overwhelm our imagination , and , in our present state , would produce an impression of awe , and even of terror , beyond the power of language to express . The earth contains a mass

    of matter equal in weight to at least 200 , 000 , 000 , 000 , 000 , 000 , 000 tons . To move this ponderous mass a single inch beyond its position , were it fixed in a quiescent state , would require a mechanical force almost beyond the power of numbers to express : how much more the force requisite to make

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    On the Connexion of Science with Religion and a future State . 485

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1818, page 485, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2479/page/13/