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ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



tion, in order that we may acquire the most 

 ample and impressive views of the grandeur of 

 the Divinity, and the magnificence of his ope 

 rations. &quot; Lift up your eyes on high and behold ! 

 who hath created these orbs ? who bringeth forth 

 their host by number ? The everlasting God 

 the Lord, by the greatness of his might, for that 

 he is strong in power. He measureth the ocean 

 in the hollow of his hand, he comprehends the 

 dust of the earth in a measure, he weigheth the 

 mountains in scales, and hath stretched out the 

 heavens by his understanding. All nations be 

 fore him are as the drop of a bucket, and are 

 counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. 

 Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the glory, 

 and the majesty, for all that is in heaven and 

 earth is thine.&quot; The pointed interrogatories 

 proposed to Job,* and the numerous exhorta 

 tions in reference to this subject, contained in 

 the book of Psalms and other parts of Scripture, 

 plainly evince, that the character of God is to 

 be contemplated through the medium of his visi 

 ble works. In order to acquire a just and com 

 prehensive conception of the perfections of 

 Deity, we must contemplate his character as 

 displayed both in the system of Revelation and 

 in the system of nature, otherwise we can ac 

 quire only a partial and distorted view of the 

 attributes of Jehovah. The Scriptures alone, 

 without the medium of his works, cannot con 

 vey to us the most sublime conceptions of the 

 magnificence of his empire, and his eternal power 

 and Godhead; and the works of nature, without 

 the revelations of his word, leave us in profound 

 darkness with regard to the most interesting 

 parts of his character the plan of his moral 

 government, and the ultimate destination of man. 

 Would we, then, acquire the most sublime 

 and comprehensive views of that invisible Be 

 ing, vrho created the universe, and by whom all 

 things are upheld, we must, in the first place, 

 apply ourselves, with profound humility and 

 revereace, to the study of the Sacred oracles; 

 and, in the next place, direct our attention to the 

 material works of God as illustrative of his 

 Scriptural character, and of the declarations of 

 his word. And, since the sacred writers direct 

 our views to the operations of the Almighty 

 in the visible universe, in what manner are we 

 to contemplate these operations ? Are we to 

 view them in a careless, cursory manner, or 

 with fixed attention ? Are we to gaze on them 

 with the vacant stare of a savage, or with the 

 penetrating eye of a Christian philosopher? 

 Are we to view them through the mists of igno 

 rance and vulgar prejudice, or through the light 

 which science has diffused over the wonders of 

 creation ? There can be no difficulty to any 

 eflecting mind in determining which of these 

 modes pught to be adopted. The Scriptures 



Job. ch. xxxviii. &c. 



declare, that as &quot; the v orks of Jehovah are 

 great,&quot; they must be &quot; souglit out&quot; or thoroughly 

 investigated, &quot; by all those who have pleasure 

 therein ;&quot; and a threatening is denounced against 

 every one who &quot;disregards the works of the 

 Lord,&quot; and &quot;neglects to consider the operations 

 of his hand.&quot; 



Such declarations evidently imply, that we 

 ought to make the visible works of God the sub 

 ject of our serious study and investigation, and 

 exercise the rational powers he has given us for 

 this purpose ; otherwise we cannot expect to 

 derive from them a true and faithful exhibition of 

 his character and purposes. For, as the cha 

 racter of God is impressed upon his works, that 

 character cannot be distinctly traced unless those 

 works be viewed in their true light arid actual 

 relations not as they may appear to a rude and 

 inattentive spectator, but as they are actually 

 found to exist, when thoroughly examined by the 

 light of science and of revelation. For example, 

 a person unaccustomed to investigate the system 

 of nature imagines that the earth is ajixed mass 

 of land and water in the midst of creation, and 

 one of the largest bodies in nature, and, conse 

 quently, that the sun, moon, and stars, and the 

 whole material universe revolve around it every 

 twenty-four hours. Such a conception of the 

 material system might, indeed, convey to the 

 mind an astonishing idea of the power of the 

 Deity in causing such an immense number of 

 orbs to revolve around our world with so prodi 

 gious a velocity as behoved to take place, were 

 the earth in reality a quiescent body in the 

 centre of the universe. But it would give us a 

 most strange and distorted idea of his intelligence. 

 While it tended to magnify his omnipotence, it 

 would, in effect, deprive him of the attribute of 

 wisdom. For, in the first place, such a concep 

 tion would represent the Almighty as having de 

 vised a svstern of means altogether superfluous 

 and preposterous, in order to accomplish the end 

 intended ; for it is the characteristic of wisdom 

 to proportionate the means to the nature of the 

 design which is to be accomplished. The de 

 sign, in the case under consideration, is to pro 

 duce the alternate success-ion of day and night. 

 This can be effected by giving the earth itself a 

 rotation round its axis, as is the case in other 

 globes of much larger dimensions. But accord 

 ing to the conception to which we are now ad 

 verting, the whole material creation is considered 

 as daily revolving around this comparatively 

 little globe of earth, an idea altogether extrava 

 gant and absurd, and inconsistent with every 

 notion we ought to entertain of infinite wisdom. 

 In the next place, were the earth considered as 

 at rest, the motions of the planets would present 

 a series of looped curves without ary marks of 

 design, a scene of inextricable cui.fusion, and 

 the whole of the solar system would appear de 

 void of order and harmonv, and, conseouently, 



