130 



THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



%ct that thousands of rational beings have been 

 iwept from existence, in a manner so horrible 

 md tremendous, seems plainly to indicate, that 

 .hey belonged to a race of apostate intelligences, 

 who had violated the commands of their Crea 

 tor. Such visitations are quite accordant to the 

 idea of man being in the condition of a trans 

 gressor; but, if he were an innocent creature, 

 they would be altogether unaccountable, as hap 

 pening under the government of a Being of un 

 bounded benevolence. 



4. The phenomena of thunder-storms, tem 

 pests, and hurricanes, and the ravages they 

 produce, are also presumptive proofs that man is 

 a depraved intelligence. In that season of the 

 year when Nature is arrayed in her most beau 

 tiful attire, and the whole terrestrial landscape 

 tends to inspire the mind with cheerfulness 

 suddenly a sable cloud emerges from the hori 

 zon the sky assumes a baleful aspect a dismal 

 gloom envelopes the face of nature the light 

 nings flash from one end of the horizon to another 

 the thunders roll with awful majesty along the 

 verge of heaven, till at length they burst over 

 head in tremendous explosions. The sturdy 

 oak is shattered and despoiled of its foliage; 

 rocks are rent into shivers ; and the grazing 

 herds are struck into a lifeless group. Even 

 man is not exempted from danger in the midst 

 of this appalling scene. For hundreds in every 

 age have fallen victims either to the direct stroke 

 of the lightning, or to the concussions and con 

 flagrations with which it has been attended. In 

 tropical countries, the phenomena of thunder 

 storms are more dreadful and appalling, than in 

 our temperate climate. The thunder frequently 

 continues for days and weeks in almost one in 

 cessant roar ; tho rains are poured down in tor 

 rents ; and the flashes of lightning follow each 

 other in so rapid a succession, that the whole 

 atmosphere and the surrounding hills seem to be 

 in a blaze. In some instances, the most dread 

 ful effects have been produced by the bursting of 

 an electrical cloud. In 1772, a bright cloud 

 was observed at midnight to cover a mountain 

 in the island of Java ; it emitted globes of fire 

 so luminous, that the night became as clear as 

 day. Its effects were astonishing. Every thing 

 was destroyed for 7 leagues round ; houses were 

 demolished ; plantations buried in the earth ; 

 and 2140 people lost their lives, besides 1500 

 head of cattle, and a vast number of horses and 

 other animals. Ency. Brit. Art. Cloud. 



Is it not reasonable, then, to conclude, that 

 such awful phenomena as storms, volcanoes, and 

 earthquakes, are so many occasional indications 

 of the frown of an offended Creator upon a race 

 of transgressors, in order to arouse them to a 

 sense of their aposiacy from the God of heaven ? 

 We cannot conceive that such physical opera 

 tions, accompanied by so many terrific and 

 destructive effects, are at all compatible with the 



idea that man is at present in a paradisaical 

 state, and possessed of that moral purity in 

 which he was created. Such appalling displays 

 of almighty power are in complete unison with 

 the idea, that man is a transgressor, and that the 

 present dispensations of God are a mixture of 

 mercy and of judgment ; but if he belong to an 

 innocent race of moral intelligences, they appear 

 quite anomalous, and are altogether inexplicable^ 

 on the supposition, that a Being of infinite be 

 nevolence and rectitude directs the operations 

 of the physical and moral world ; more espe 

 cially when we consider the admirable care which 

 is displayed in the construction of animal bodies, 

 in order to prevent pain, and to produce plea 

 surable sensations. When man was first brought 

 into existence, his thoughts and affections, we 

 must suppose, were in unison with the will of 

 his Creator; his mind was serene and unruf 

 fled ; and, consequently, no foreboding appre 

 hensions of danger would, in such a state, take 

 possession of his breast. But after he had 

 swerved from the path of primeval rectitude, 

 and especially after the deluge had swept away 

 the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, the 

 constitution of the earth and the atmosphere 

 seems to have % undergone a mighty change, cor 

 responding to the degraded state into which he 

 had fallen ; so that those very elements which 

 may have formerly ministered to his enjoyment 

 by being formed into different combinations 

 now conspire to produce terror and destruction. 



The same important conclusion might have 

 been deduced, from a consideration of the im 

 mense deserts of marshes and barren sands which 

 are dispersed over the globe the vast and fright 

 ful regions of ice around the poles the position 

 of the mineral strata, and the vast disproportion 

 which the extent of the dry land bears to the ex 

 panse of the ocean all which circumstances, 

 and many others, in conjunction with the facts 

 above stated, conspire to show, that man no 

 longer stands in the rank of a pure intelligence ; 

 and that his habitation corresponds, in some de 

 gree, to his state of moral degradation. By over 

 looking this consideration, St. Pierre and other 

 naturalists have found themselves much at a loss, 

 when attempting to vindicate the wisdom and 

 equity of Providence, in the physical disorders 

 which exist in the present constitution of our 

 globe. The circumstance, that man is a fallen 

 creature, appears the only clue to guide us in un 

 ravelling the mysteries of Providence, and to 

 enable us to perceive the harmony and consistency 

 of the divine operations in the system of nature; 

 and no other consideration will fully account for 

 the disorders which exist in the present economy 

 of our world. 



But it is a most consoling consideration, that, 

 amidst a!I the physical evils which abound, the 

 benevolence and mercy of God are admirably 

 blended with the indications of his displeasure. 



