NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



101 



it&ted is only one instance, out of many, which 

 might be adduced, of the extensive and beneficial 

 effects which may be produced, in future ages, 

 by the application of the discoveries of natural 

 science. 



2. A knowledge of natural philosophy enables 

 us to detect pretended miracles, and to discrimi 

 nate oetween those phenomena which are pro 

 duced by the powers of nature, and the supposed 

 effects of diabolical influence. It has been chiefly 

 owing to ignorance of the principles of natural 

 science, that mankind, in all ages, have been so 

 easily imposed upon by pretenders to supernatu 

 ral powers. It is owing to the same cause, that 

 superstitious notions and vain alarms have spread 

 their influence so extensively among the lower 

 ranks of the population of every country. The 

 pretended miracles by which Pagan and Popish 

 priests endeavour to support the authority of 

 their respective religious systems, and every spe 

 cies of degrading superstition, vanish into smoke, 

 when examined by the light of modern science ; 

 and there can be no question that an enlightened 

 missionary would, in many instances, find the 

 principles and the instruments of natural philo 

 sophy important auxiliaries in undermining the 

 fabric of heathen idolatry and priestcraft. They 

 tend to dissipate a thousand idle terrors which 

 haunt and agitate the human mind ; to detect a 

 thousand kinds of imposture by which it has 

 been held in cruel bondage , and to prevent the 

 perpetration of those deeds of cruelty which have 

 uniformly marked the reign of superstition.* 

 Had our forefathers connected a knowledge of 

 this subject with thev? &amp;gt;vjdy of the Scriptures, 

 they would not have Drought upon themselves 

 that indelible disgrace which now attaches to 

 their memories, on account of their having con 

 demned and burned at the stake hundreds of un 

 happy women, accused of crimes of which they 

 could not possibly have been guilty. In New- 

 England, towards the close of the 17th century, 

 the witchcraft phrensy rose so high, that the ex 

 ecution of witches became a calamity more 



Mr. Dfluglas, in his &quot; Hints on Missions,&quot; for 

 merly referred to, when speaking of the facilities 

 which Christians now possess for extensive mis 

 sionary exertions, suggests, that natural philosophy 

 might be an important auxiliary to Christian mis 

 sionaries. &quot; All the ancient war weapons of vic 

 tory, excepting 7niracles. are at their disposal ; and 

 new instruments of still greater potency, which the 

 science of tne latter days has been accumulating for 

 a universal revolution of the mind, are ready to be 

 brought into action, upon a scale of overpowering 

 magnitude. Even the single resource which is lost 

 may yet be recompensed by equivalents, and a sub 

 stitute, in many respects, may be found for miracles. 

 Tne first effect of a miracle is, to rouse the attention, 

 and to overawe opposing prejudices.- the second to 

 afford a proof of the religion of which it is a sealin^ 

 accompaniment. The first object might be g-ained 

 6y ttte nntan .l mag-ic of experimental p/Mnsnphi/ : 

 and ns to the second, the difference in the proof from 

 miracles lies rather in its being more circuitous 

 than in its being less conclusive at the present day 

 thai?, in the times of the apostles.&quot; 



dreadful than the sword or the pestilence. Not 

 only old women, but children of ten years, were 

 put to death ; young girls were stripped naked, 

 and the marks of witchcraft searched for upon 

 their bodies with the most indecent curiosity; 

 and those spots of the scurvy which age impress 

 es upon the bodies of old men, were taken for 

 evident signs of infernal power. So that igno 

 rance of the laws and phenomena of nature has 

 led even Christians to commit acts of injustico 

 and horrid cruelty. For, let it be remembered, 

 that it was Christian magistrates and ministers, 

 under a pretended zeal for the honour of God, 

 who sanctioned such cruel and unrighteous de 

 crees. This cunsideration, viewed in connexion 

 with many others, tends to show, that the Chris 

 tian revelation, considered abstractly by itself, 

 without a reference to the visible system of the 

 universe, is not sufficient for all the purposes for 

 which it was intended; as, on the other hand, 

 the study of the works of nature is not sufficient 

 of itself to lead the mind to the true knowledge 

 of God, without the aid of the discoveries de 

 rived from the sacred oracles. For, although the 

 Bible has been in the hands of Protestant Chris 

 tians ever since the reformation, yet it is only 

 since the light of modern science began to diffuse 

 its influence, that the superstitions of the dark 

 ages, and the vulgar notions respecting witch 

 craft, necromancy, and other species of infernal 

 agency, began to vanish, even from the minds of 

 Christian teachers ; as is evident from the writ 

 ings of many eminent divines who flourished dur 

 ing the 16th and 17th centuries. As the two 

 revelations which God has given us throw a mu 

 tual lustre on each other; the one must always 

 be considered as incomplete without the other. 

 Both are necessary in order &quot; to make the man 

 of God perfect,&quot; and to enable him to prosecute, 

 with intelligence and success, the great objects 

 of religion ; and the Christian minister who af 

 fects to despise the aids of science in the cause 

 of religion, has yet much to learn with respect to 

 some of the grand bearings of the Christian system. 

 3. The investigations of natural philosophy un 

 fold to us the incessant agency of God, and the 

 plans by which his wise and benevolent designs 

 in the system of nature are accomplished. From 

 the immeasurable globes of heaven, down to the 

 minutest atoms, we perceive a regular chain of 

 causes and effects, conspiring, in a thousand dif 

 ferent modes, to accomplish the purposes of in 

 finite wisdom and goodness. The operation of 

 central forces and of the law of gravitation on 

 the earth and in the heavens the hydrostatical 

 laws which regulate the pressure and the motion 

 of fluids the chymical properties of the atmos 

 phere, its undulatory, refractive, and reflective 

 powers the motion of the rays of light, arid the 

 infinite variety of effects they produce the pro 

 cess of evaporation- -the agencies of electricity 

 and galvanism the properties of the magnet, 



