PART II. 



ON THE CONNEXION OF SCIENCE WITH A FUTURE STATE. 



A GREAT outcry has frequently been made, 

 by many of those who wish to be considered 

 as pious persons, about the vanity of human 

 science. Certain divines in their writings, and 

 various descriptions of preachers in their pulpit 

 declamations, not unfrequently attempt to em 

 bellish their discourses, and to magnify the truths 

 of Scripture, by contrasting them with what 

 they are pleased to call &quot; the perishing treasures 

 of scientific knowledge.&quot; &quot; T e knowledge we 

 derive from the Scriptures,&quot; say they, &quot; is able 

 to make us wise unto salvation; all other know 

 ledge is but comparative folly. The knowledge 

 of Christ and him crucified will endure forever ; 

 but all human knowledge is transitory, and will 

 perish for ever when this world comes to an end. 

 Men weary themselves with diving into human 

 science, while all that results to them is vanity 

 and vexation of spirit. Men may become the 

 greatest philosophers, and have their understand 

 ings replenished with every kind of human 

 knowledge, and yet perish for ever. What have 

 we to do with the planets and the stars, and 

 whether they be peopled with inhabitants ? Our 

 ousiness is to attend to the salvation of our 

 souls.&quot; 



Now, although some of the above, and simi 

 lar assertions, when properly modified and ex 

 plained, may be admitted as true, the greater 

 part of them, along with hundreds of similar 

 expressions, are either ambiguous or false. But, 

 although they were all admitted as strictly true, 

 what, effect can the frequent reiteration of such 

 comparisons and contrasts have on the mass of 

 the people to whom they are addressed, who are 

 already too much disinclined to the pursuit of 

 general knowledge but to make them imagine, 

 that it is useless, and in some cases dangerous, 

 to prosecute any other kind of knowledge than 

 what is derived directly from the Scriptures? 

 And what is the knowledge which the great 

 majority of those who attend the public services 

 of religion have acquired of the contents of the 

 sacred oracles? It is too often, I fear, exceed 

 ingly vague, confused and superficial; owing, in 

 a great measure, to the want of those habits oi 

 mental exertion, which a moderate prosecution 

 of useful science would have induced. 



Such declamations as those to which I have 

 MOW adverted, obviously proceed from a very 

 imited sphb, ^ of information and a contracted 



range of thought. It is rather a melancholy re 

 flection, that any persons, particularly preachem 

 of the gospel, should endeavour to apologize for 

 their own ignorance by endeavouring to under 

 value what they acknowledge they never have ac 

 quired, and therefore, cannot be supposed to un 

 derstand and appreciate. For, although several 

 well-informed and judicious ministers of religion, 

 have been led, from the influence of custom, and 

 from copying the expressions of others, to use a 

 phraseology which has a tendency to detract from 

 the utility of scientific knowledge, yet it is ge 

 nerally the most ignorant, those whose reading 

 and observation have been confined within the 

 narrowest range, who are most forward in their 

 bold and vague declamations on this topic. We 

 never find, in any part of the Sacred Records, 

 such comparisons and contrasts as those to which 

 I allude. The inspired writers never attempt to 

 set the word of God in opposition to his works, 

 nor attempt to deter men from the study of the 

 wonders of his creation, on the ground that it is 

 of less importance than the study of his word. 

 On the contrary, they take every proper oppor 

 tunity of directing the attention to the mechan 

 ism and order, the magnificence and grandeur of 

 the visible world; and their devotional feelings 

 are kindled into rapture by such contemplations. 

 When the Psalmist had finished his survey of 

 the different departments of nature, as described 

 in the civ. Psalm, he broke out into the following 

 devotional strains : &quot; How manifold are thy 

 works, O Lord ! in wisdom hast thou made them 

 all : the earth is full of thy riches, so is the great 

 and wide sea. The glory* of the Lord shall 

 endure for ever, the Lord shall rejoice in all his 

 works. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I 

 live ; I will sing praises to my God while I have 

 my being.&quot; For the visible works of God dis 

 play the same essential attributes of Deity, and 

 of his superintending providence, as the revela 

 tions of his word ; and it is one great design of 

 that word to direct men to a rational and devout 

 contemplation of these works in which his glory 

 is so magnificently displayed. And, therefore, 

 to attempt to magnify the word of God by degra 

 ding his works, or to set the one in oppositioi) 

 to the other, is to attempt to set the Deity in op- 



That is, the display of the Divine perfections in 

 the material world, as the connexion of the passage 

 plainly intimates. 



