THE BIBLE, A KEY TO THE PHENOMENA OF THE NATURAL WORLD. The stupendous fabric of the universe, part of which we see, and part of which we ourselves are, cannot but become an object of earnest contemplation, to the inquisitive mind. The great majority of men, it is true, pass through life with, out reflection. Their intellectual powers are so little cultivated, and they are so much occupied with objects of sense, and in making provision for their immediate and pressing wants, that they never attempt to raise their minds to the contemplation of the wonderful works by which they are surrounded: but accustomed from infancy to behold these objects, they excite no surprise, and seldom call forth a single reflection. There have always been, however, among nations enjoying any degree of civilization, men of minds more cultivated than the rest, and more disposed to investigate the causes of those phenomena, which they continually beheld. These sages, when they looked upon the heavens and the earth, upon themselves and other organized and living beings, have been led to inquire, whence all these things? Have they always existed? or have they been produced? To those who have been conversant with the truth all their lives, it may seem, that it would have been an easy thing, for any rational mind to ascend, at once, from the creature to the invisible Creator: but we cannot readily conceive of the perplexity and darkness which surround the intellect of men, whom no ray of divine revelation has visited. The reasonings of such men are also impeded and perverted by prejudices, and erroneous opinions imbibed from their forefathers; and, not unfrequently, pride and other evil passions, influence speculative men to adopt extravagant opinions, for the sake of their paradoxical character, or because they are naturally grateful to the feelings of depraved nature. It is, therefore, not an unaccountable fact, that men, unenlightened by divine revelation, should have fallen into so many egregious errors, respecting the origin of the world and its inhabitants. A considerable number of those called philosophers, entertained the opinion, that the universe always existed as we now behold it. They observed, that, from age to age, the heavenly bodies move on in their orbits, undisturbed and unchanged; and that, on earth, the same changes of day and night, of winter and summer, of seed time and harvest, succeed each other, in regular order: and no other power being manifest to the senses but that which operates through all nature, they concluded, that the universe existed. without any cause of itself; and that it ever had existed, and ever would exist, as it now appears. Some, however, observing in all things, as they imagined, a tendency to dissolution, and perceiving in our globe evidences of a former destruction, adopted the opinion, that the universe contained in itself the principles of its own dissolution and regeneration;-that, after running through a period of unknown and inconceivable duration, it falls into a chaotic state, in which catastrophe all organized bodies are destroyed, and return to their simplest elements; but from this chaos, by degrees, springs up a new order of things, or a renewal of that which before existed; and thus, while they conceived the universe to be eternal, they imagined, that it is in a state of perpetual change, by a kind of circular progression, which has neither beginning nor end. Others of those called philosophers, who seem to have paid a more minute attention to the curious structure of organized bodies, were of opinion, that they must, by some means, have been formed or produced; but, not being able to rise to the conception of a Creator-or what is more probable, not liking to retain the idea of God in their minds they invented the hypothesis of the eternal existence of the elements of the universe, which, they supposed to consist of atoms, or indivisible bodies of all manner of shapes, and in perpetual motion among each other. These atoms, possessing various affinities, came together in every conceivable form of organized bodies, until, by degrees, and in a long process of time, the universe assumed its present aspect, and vegetables and animals, of every species, were produced by the fortuitous concourse of atoms. Such a hypothesis might seem too absurd to be seriously entertained by any rational mind, and yet we find among its abettors, men of high and cultivated intellect, among the ancients. It has, however, met with less favour among modern atheists, than the fore-mentioned theories; although, in point of absurdity, all systems of atheism may be said to stand on a perfect level; for no folly can be conceived greater, than that which says, "there is no God." The idea of the necessity of a cause, wherever we observe what we must consider an effect, is so deeply engrained in human nature, that most men have professed themselves dissatisfied with any system which assigned no cause, or no better cause than chance or necessity, for the existence of all things. Many have been led, therefore, to adopt the opinion, that the universe was God, believing, that whatever distinctness and variety there may seem to be in the world, there existed but one substance or being, of which the heavens and the earth, vegetables and animals, are only so many parts, or rather manifestations. This theory differs from the first mentioned, in this important respect, that it recognises a great first cause, which is God; but the difference, as to any useful end, is more in appearance, than in reality; for, according to this hypothesis, there is still nothing in existence, besides the universe itself. There is no free, sovereign, independent being, whom we should worship or obey; or in whom we can confide for help or safety. In fact, it differs from blank atheism in nothing, except that it gives the name of God to the universe 'of creatures; and thus we come to the horrible conclusion, that we and all other things are parts of God. Although this hypothesis had its advocates among the ancients, yet Benedict Spinoza has the credit of reducing it to a regular system, which he exhibited in the imposing form of mathematical demonstration. As this atheistical theory was published in an enlightened age, and in a Christian. country, it might have been expected, that it would attract but few admirers: and, indeed, the number of avowed disciples of Spinozism has been small; yet the same system, new-modelled but not improved, has become a favourite, with a large number of philosophers of the present day, on the continent of Europe, and especially in Germany, under the appropriate name of, Pantheism. And so great is the infatuation of some calling themselves Christians, that they have thought, that this disguised atheism, might be reconciled with Christianity. A system less absurd than any of the former was, that the world has an all pervading, active, and intelligent soul, which moved and directed all the operations of nature, as the human soul moves and governs the body. Near akin to this, was the opinion that the planets and stars, were all animated bodies, possessed of the power of moving themselves, and of intelligence sufficient to guide and regulate their own motions. Many students of the physical sciences, in our times, seem to have adopted a theory similar to that which gives a soul to |