CHAPTER II. 



CONTAINING A CURSORY VIEW OF SOME OP THE SCIENCES WHICH ARE RELATED 

 TO RELIGION AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. 



THEOLOGY has generally been viewed as a 

 study of a very limited range : and, hence, when 

 it has been admitted into the circle of the sciences, 

 a much smaller space has been allotted for its dis 

 cussion, than has been devoted to almost any 

 other department of human knowledge. When 

 considered, however, in its most extensive sense, 

 in its relations to the Divine Being to his past 

 and present dispens ations towards the human race 

 to the presf nt circumstances and the future 

 destiny of mar- and to the physical and moral 

 condition of all the sentient and intelligent beings 

 of which we have any intimation it ought to be 

 viewed as the most varied and comprehensive of 

 all the sciences ; as embracing, within its exten 

 sive grasp, all the other departments of useful 

 knowledge, both human and divine. As it has 

 God for its object, it must include a knowledge 

 of the universe he has formed of the movements 

 which are continually going on throughout the 

 wide extent of his empire, in so far as they lie 

 open to our inspection of the attributes which 

 appear to be displayed in all his operations of 

 the moral laws he has framed for the regulation 

 of holy intelligences of the merciful arrange 

 ments he has made for the restoration of fallen 

 man of the plans by which the knowledge of his 

 will is to be circulated and extended in the world 

 in which we live of the means by which truth, 

 and moral purity, and order, are to be promoted 

 among our apostate race, in order to their resto 

 ration to the happiness they have lost together 

 with all those diversified ramifications of know- 

 iedge, which have either a more remote or a 

 more immediate bearing on the grand object now 

 specified. Like the lines which proceed from 

 the circumference to the centre of an immense 

 circle all the moral* arts and sciences which 

 have been invented by men every department 

 of human knowledge, however far it may, at first 

 sight, appear to be removed from religion may 

 be considered as having a direct bearing on The 

 ology, as the grand central point, and as having a 

 certain tendency to promote its important objects. 



It is much to be regretted, that Theology has 

 so seldom been contemplated in this point of 

 view and that the sciences have been considered 



The epithet moral Is here used in its application 

 to arts, because there are certain arts which must 

 be considered as having an immoral tendency such 

 as the art of war, the art of boxing, of gambling, 

 &c. and which, therefore, cannot have a direct ten- 

 dency to promote the objects tf religion 



rather as so many independent branches of sect*, 

 lar knowledge, than as subservient to the elucida 

 tion of the facts and doctrines of religion and to th 

 accomplishment of its benevolent designs. Hence, 

 it has happened that Philosophy and Religion, 

 instead of marching hand in hand to the portals of 

 immortality, have frequently set themselves in 

 hostile array ; and combats have ensued equally 

 injurious to the interests of both parties. The 

 Philosopher has occasionally been disposed to 

 investigate the economy of nature, without a refer 

 ence to the attributes of that Almighty Being who 

 presides over its movements, as if the universe 

 were a self-moving and independent machine; 

 and has not unfrequently taken occasion, from 

 certain obscure and insulated facts, to throw out 

 insinuations hostile to the truth and the charac 

 ter of the Christian Revelation. The Theolo 

 gian, on the other hand, in the heat of his intem 

 perate zeal against the infidel philosopher, has un 

 guardedly been led to declaim against the study 

 of science, as if it were unfriendly to religion 

 has, in effect, set the works of God in opposition 

 to his word has confounded the foolish theories 

 of speculative minds with the rational study of the 

 works of Deity and has thus prevented the mass 

 of mankind from expanding their minds, by the 

 contemplation of the beauties and sublimities of 

 nature. 



It is now high time that a complete reconcilia 

 tion were effected between these contending par 

 ties. Religion ought never to disdain to derive 

 her supports and illustrations from the researches 

 of science ; for the investigations of philoso 

 phy into the economy of Nature, from whatever 

 motives they may be undertaken, are nothing 

 else than an inquiry into the plans and opera 

 tions of the Eternal Mind. And Philosophy 

 ought always to consider it as her highest honour, 

 to walk as an handmaid in the train of that reli 

 gion which points out the path to the regions of 

 eternal bliss. By their mutual aid, and the sub 

 serviency of the one to the other, the moral end 

 intellectual improvement of man will be promot 

 ed, and the benevolent purposes of God, in the 

 kingdom of providence, gradually accomplished. 

 But when set in opposition to each other, the 

 human mind is bewildered and retarded in its 

 progress, and the Deity is apt to be considered 

 as set in opposition to himself as proclaiming 

 one system of doctrines from the economy of re 

 velation, and another, and an opposite system, 

 from the economy of nature. But if the Chria- 



