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    It move with a velocity one hundred and forty times swifter than a cannon ball , the actual rate of its motion in its course round the sun I But whatever degree of mechanical power would be requisite to produce such a

    stupendous effect , it would require a force five hundred times greater to impel the planet Jupiter in his actual course through the heavens ! The ideas of strength and power 9 implied in the impulsion of such enormous masses of matter through the

    illimitable tracts of space , are forced upon the mind with irresistible energy , far beyond what any abstract propositions can convey ; and constrain us to exelaim , ** Who is a strong Lord like ijnto tbee ? Thy right hand is become glorious in power ! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth ! " Mere abstract

    ideas of infinity , however sublime we may conceive them , generally fail in arresting the powers of the mind and impressing the heart ; our conceptions become vague and confused , and approximate to inanity , for want of a material vehicle to give them order , stability and expansion . But when the mind is overwhelmed with its

    conceptions , when it labours , as it were , to form some definite conceptions of an Infinite Being ; it here finds some tangible objects on which to fix , some material substratum for its thoughts to rest upon for a little ,

    while it attempts -to penetrate , in its excursions , into those distant regions which eye hath not seen , and to connect tfre whole of its mental survey with the energies of the King eternal , immortal and invisible .

    And shall such bold and lofty flights of the human mind , in order to amplify its conceptions of Deity , he cut short and confined within the range of vulgar apprehension , because a few declaimers , possessed of more zeal than knowledge , pronounce them comparative folly ? Does the mind of man stand in ito need of such views to

    assist and direct its contemplations of the Divinity ? Shall the cold hmid of superstition and enthusiasm he again stretched forth to interrupt the noble career of the human rsopl in its me-Beaches into the wonderful works otf

    God ? -Shall the great mass « f « £ tae Christian world * he prevented from expanding their ecmueptions , by * he study dfatieh august nbpocta , dbecanse

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    a few superficial preachers have expressed their fears lest the religion of Jesus should be injured by such contemplations ? Both Scripture and reason combine in declaring a negative . Since the word and the works

    of God are the emanations of the same Almighty Being , and since we are enjoined by the highest authority tp contemplate both , should we ever imagine that the study of the one can have any direct tendency to the

    prejudice of the other ? The affirmative would imply an aspersion of in consistency on the x&aracter of " the only wise God / ' and would impede the career of the human mind , in its progress towards perfection .

    If it be inquired , why such grand discoveries , if they serve as important auxiliaries to religion , were not revealed in the Scriptures ; it may fee shortly answered , that the powers of the human intellect were adequate for making those researches which have led to such discoveries , and , therefore , did not need a revelation for this

    purpose . And it was not the prominent object of uevejation to make known , through the medium of miracles and prophecy , those things which the unassisted powers of reason wer * adequate to explore . Should it be objected , as I have sometimes heard

    teachers of religion ^ wim pretended to learning , insinuate , that the professed discoveries of astronomy arc built upon mere hypothesis , and , at most , are only the results of probable conjecture , and , therefore , cannot be

    exhibited as demonstrated truths ; it may be shortly replied , that the grand views of the universe , which astronomy has opened np , are built upon the most accurate observations , and

    on the strictest demonstrations ; and that those religious instructors who doubt the fact , should apply with at tention to the study of the science , and learn to judge for themselves . For it is not to be doubted , that more

    time than is requisite for this purpose , ia ^ frequently spent in studies less initeressttng , and less appropriate to the business of religion . If / the studV of

    the JUatin language , and of EucUd-fc ^ Elements of ( Geometry , is cbeeyfully attended to , for thepurpose of qualifying trhemsftlves for 4 he office of Ctbris&ian teachers , twby nqt apply , wilh fthc taame vigour < of mind , to * the

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    486 On the Conne&Aon of Science with Religion and a future State .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1818, page 486, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2479/page/14/