yet attempted, would soon be realized. Houses on neat and commodious plans, in airy situations, and furnished with every requisite accommodation, would be reared for the use of the peasant and mechanic; schools on spacious plans for the promotion of useful knowledge would be erected in every village and hamlet, and in every quarter of a city where they were found expedient; asylums would be built for the reception of the friendless poor, whether young or old; manufactories established for supplying employment to every class of labourers and artizans, and lecture-rooms prepared, furnished with requisite apparatus, to which they might resort for improvement in science. Roads would be cut in all convenient directions, diversified with rural decorations, hedge-rows, and shady bowers,-foot-paths, broad and smooth, would accompany them in all their windings, and gas-lamps, erected at every half-mile's distance, would variegate the rural scene and cheer the shades of night. Narrow lanes in cities would be either widened or their houses demolished; streets on broad and spacious plans would be built, the smoke of steam-engines consumed, nuisances removed, and cleanliness and comfort attended to in every arrangement. Cheerfulness and activity would everywhere prevail, and the idler, the vagrant, and the beggar would disappear from society. All these operations and improvements, and hundreds more, could easly be accomplished, were the minds of the great body of the community thoroughly enlightened and moralized, and every individual, whether rich or poor, who contributed to bring them into effect, would participate in the general enjoyment. And what an interesting picture would be presented to every benevolent mind, to behold the great body of mankind raised from astate of moral and physical degradation to the dignity of their rational natures, and to the enjoyment of the bounties of their Creator!-to behold the country diversified with the neat and cleanly dwellings of the industrious labourer,—the rural scene, during the day, adorned with seminaries, manufactories, asylums, stately edifices, gardens, fruitful fields and romantic bowers, and, during night, bespangled in all directions with variegated lamps, forming a counterpart, as it were, to the lights which adorn the canopy of heaven! Such are only a few specimens of the improvements which art, directed by science and morality, could easily accomplish. SECTION VI. On the Influence of Knowledge in promoting enlarged conceptions of the Character and Perfections of the Deity. ALL the works of God speak of their Author, in silent but emphatic language, and declare the glory of his perfections to all the inhabitants of the earth. But, although there is no speech nor language" where the voice of Deity is not heard, how gross are the conceptions generally entertained of the character of Him" in whom we live and move," and by whose superintending providence all events are directed! Among the greater number of pagan nations, the most absurd and grovelling notions are entertained respecting the Supreme Intelligence, and the nature of that worship which his perfections demand. have formed the most foolish and degrading representations of this august Being, and have "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image They made like to corruptible man, and to four-footed beasts and creeping things." Temples have been erected and filled with idols the most hideous and obscene; bulls and crocodiles, dogs and serpents, goats and lions have been exhibited to adumbrate the chasracter of the Ruler of the universe. The most cruel and unhallowed rites have been performed to procure his favour, and human victims sacrificed to appease his indignation. All such grovelling conceptions and vile abominations have their origin in the darkness which overspreads the human understanding, and the depraved passions which ignorance has a tendency to produce. Even in those countries where Revelation sheds its influence, and the knowledge of the true God is promulgated, how mean and contracted are the conceptions which the great bulk of the population entertain of the attributes of that incomprehensible Being whose presence pervades the immensity of space, who "metes out the heavens with a span, and superintends the affairs of ten thousand worlds! The views which many have acquired of the perfections of the Deity, do not rise much higher than those which we ought to entertain of the powers of an archangel, or of one of the seraphim; and some have been known, even in our own country, whose conceptions have been so abject and grovelling, as to represent to themselves "the King eternal, immortal, and invisible," under the idea of a "venerable old man." Even the more intelligent class of the community fall far short of the ideas they ought to form of the God of heaven, owing to the limited views they have been accustomed to take of the displays of his wisdom and benevolence, and the boundless range of his operations. We can acquire a knowledge of the Deity only by the visible effects he has produced, or the external manifestations he has given of himself to his creatures; for the Divine Essence must remain for ever inscrutable to finite minds. These manifestations are made in the Revelations contained in the Bible, and in the scene of the material universe around us. The moral perfections of God, such as his justice, mercy, and faithfulness, are more particularly delineated in his word; for, of these the system of nature can afford us only some slight hints and obscure intimations. His natural attributes, such as his immensity, omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness, are chiefly displayed in the works of creation; and to this source of information the inspired writers uniformly direct our attention, in order that we may acquire the most ample and impressive views of the grandeur of the Divinity, and the magnificence of his operations. "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 before 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.” The pointed interrogatories proposed to Job,* and the numerous exhortations in reference to this subject, contained in the book of Psalms and other parts * Job, ch. xxxviii. &c. of Scripture, plainly evince, that the character of God is to be contemplated through the medium of his visible works. In order to acquire a just and comprehensive 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 acquire only a partial and distorted view of the attributes of Jehovah. The Scriptures alone, without the medium of his works, cannot convey 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 Being, who created the universe, and by whom all things are upheld, we must, in the first place, apply ourselves, with profound humility and reverence, 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 ignorance and vulgar prejudice, or through the light which science has diffused over the wonders of creation? There can be no difficulty to any re |