truth, of no small importance. In a former lecture, we have seen how the
doctrine of miracles stands forth completely vindicated by an appeal to
mathematical laws; how, in fact, they might have formed a part of the
original plan of the universe, when first it was conceived in the divine
mind, and how their occurrence may be as much the result of a fixed law as
the most common operations of nature; so that in this way all
improbability of their occurrence, on the ground that nature is constant,
is removed. These views are illustrated in that singular, yet original
work of Professor Babbage, called the "Ninth Bridgewater Treatise," a work
written, it is true, in part, under the influence of exasperated feelings,
but yet full of original and ingenious suggestions. But these views have
been so fully presented in the Lecture on Special and Miraculous
Providence, and in that upon the Telegraphic System of the Universe, that
they need not here be repeated.
Mathematics, also, aids our conceptions of truths of religion difficult or
impossible, from their nature, of being understood by finite beings. All
the attributes of the Deity, being infinite, are of this description. But
it seems to me that the contemplation of a mathematical series, either
increasing or decreasing, gives us the strongest apprehension of infinity
which we can attain. It puts into our hands a thread by which we can find
our way, as far as our powers will carry us, towards infinity. True, after
we have followed the series till the mind stops exhausted, we are no
nearer infinity than when we started; yet we do get most deeply impressed
with the unfathomableness of the abyss that separates the finite from the
infinite.
To many minds all statements of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity
appear so absurd and contradictory as to be incapable of belief. Yet let
it be stated to a man, for the first time, that two lines may approach
each other forever without meeting, and it must appear equally absurd. But
after you have demonstrated to him the properties of the hyperbola and its
asymptote, the apparent absurdity vanishes. So, when the theologian has
stated, that by the divine unity he means only a numerical unity,--in
other words, that there is but one Supreme Being, and that the three
persons of the Godhead are one in this sense, and three only in those
respects not inconsistent with this unity,--every philosophical mind,
whether it admits that the Scriptures teach this doctrine or not, must see
that there is no absurdity or contradiction in it. And thus it may happen,
that the solution of a man's difficulties on this subject may come from a
proposition of conic sections, as in fact we know to have been the case.
It is said, however, that mathematicians have been unusually prone to
scepticism concerning religious truth. If it be so, it probably originates
from the absurd attempt to apply mathematical reasoning to moral subjects;
or, rather, the devotees of this science often become so attached to its
demonstrations, that they will not admit any evidence of a less certain
character. They do not realize the total difference between moral and
mathematical reasonings, and absurdly endeavor to stretch religion on the
Procrustean bed of mathematics. No wonder they become sceptics. But the
fault is in themselves, not in this science, whose natural tendencies,
upon a pure and exalted mind, are favorable to religion, because its
principles illustrate religion.
There are several other sciences, whose earlier developments were supposed
for a time to be unfavorable to religion; and hence has originated a
ground of apprehension respecting science generally. When the Copernican
system of astronomy was introduced, it was thought impossible ever to
reconcile it to the plain declarations of Scripture; and hence at least
one venerable astronomer was obliged to recant that system upon his knees.
Similar fears of collision between science and revelation were excited
when chemistry announced that the main part of the earth has already been
oxidized, and, therefore, could not hereafter be literally burnt. Because
some physiologists have been materialists, it has been inferred that
physiology was favorable to materialism. But it is now found that they
were materialists in spite of physiology, rather than from a correct
interpretation of its facts.
Strong apprehensions have also been excited respecting phrenology and
mesmerism. And, indeed, in their present aspect, these sciences are
probably made to exert a more unfriendly influence upon vital religion
than any other. Those who profess to understand and teach them have been,
for the most part, decided opponents of special providence and special
grace, and many of them materialists. But this is not because there are
any special grounds for such opinions in phrenology or mesmerism. The
latter branch, indeed, affords such decided proofs of immaterialism, as to
have led several able materialists to change their views. Nor does
phrenology afford any stronger proof that law governs the natural world,
than do the other sciences. But when a man who is sceptical becomes deeply
interested in any branch of knowledge, and fancies himself to be an oracle
respecting it, he will torture its principles till they are made to give
testimony in favor of his previous sceptical views, although, in fact, the
tones are as unnatural as those of ventriloquism, and as deceptive. When
true philosophy shall at length determine what are the genuine principles
of phrenology and mesmerism, we can judge of their bearing upon religion;
but the history of other sciences shows us that we need have no fears of
any collision, when the whole subject is brought fairly into the daylight.
Upon the whole, every part of science, which has been supposed, by the
fears of friends or malice of foes, to conflict with religion, has been
found, at length, when fully understood, to be in perfect harmony with its
principles, and even to illustrate them. It is high time, therefore, for
the friends of religion to cease fearing any injury to the cause of
religion from science; and high time, also, for the enemies of religion to
cease expecting any such collision.
In conclusion of this argument, we may safely challenge any one to point
out a single principle of science which does not in some way illustrate
the perfections of the Deity; and if he cannot, scientific truth may be
appropriately called religious truth, especially since such illustrations
are the highest use to which science can be applied. It is no drawback on
the argument because so few make this use of science, nor because some
attempt to array science against religion; for this only shows how men may
neglect the most important use to which science can be applied, or how
they can pervert the richest gifts.
I derive a second argument in support of the general position, that
scientific truth is religious truth, from the fact that _it will survive
the present world, and its examination become a part of the employments
and enjoyments of heaven_.
The Scriptures are, indeed, sparing in their details of the specific
employments of the heavenly world, except so far as worship and praise are
concerned. But that worship will undoubtedly be the spontaneous impulse of
the heart, (as it is in this world when acceptable,) in view of some
manifestations of the divine character. Accordingly, the first sentence of
the future song of Moses and the Lamb, as the saints stand with the harps
of God upon the sea of glass, is, _Great and marvellous are thy works,
Lord God Almighty._ The works of God, then, will be studied in the future
world; and what is that but the study of the sciences? It is, indeed, said
by the apostle, that _whether there be tongues, they shall cease_, [that
is, in a future world;] _whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish
away_; and hence it has sometimes been inferred that all the knowledge
which we acquire in this world will disappear with this world. But this
cannot be the meaning of the passage, for in a variety of places the Bible
represents both the righteous and wicked in another world as conscious of
what took place on earth; and, unless the nature of the mind be changed
at death, it is not possible to conceive that the knowledge we acquire
here should be lost. This passage may refer to one of those gifts of
inspiration peculiar to apostolic times, called by the sacred writer _the
word of knowledge_. But more probably he meant to teach that, so much
brighter and clearer will be the disclosures of another world, that most
of our present knowledge will be eclipsed and forgotten. But this does not
imply that our future knowledge will be essentially different in nature
from that which we acquire on earth. The grand difference is, that now _we
see through a glass darkly, but then face to face_.
We can, also, see why some branches of science cultivated on earth should
be very much modified in a future world. There are several, for instance,
dependent mainly upon the present organic constitution of nature; and of
such branches only the general principles can survive the destruction of
the existing framework of animals and plants. Take, for an example,
anatomy and physiology. We believe, indeed, that the new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness, will be material, and that the bodies of men will
also be material. But even though these bodies should be organized, we
learn from the Scriptures that this organization will be very different
from our present bodies. _They_, says Christ, _who shall be accounted
worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither
marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die any more; for they
are equal unto the angels._ Paul's vivid description of the future
spiritual body leaves the impression on the mind that it must be very
dissimilar to our present bodies. He does not attempt to define the
spiritual body, probably because we could not understand the definition,
since it would be so unlike any thing on earth. He represents it as
incorruptible, powerful, and glorious, entirely in contrast with our
present bodies, and declares that it is not flesh and blood, and that it
is not organized like our present bodies.
It seems, then, that we have no certain evidence that the future spiritual
body will be organized; and in a former lecture we have seen that it is
not necessary to suppose it endowed with organs. If not, it is obvious
that the sciences of anatomy and physiology can have no existence in a
future world, except in the memory. On the other hand, however, there are
some things in Paul's description of the future body that make it quite
probable that its organization will be much more exquisite than any thing
in existence on earth. He represents it as springing from our present
bodies as a germ from a seed; and this would seem to imply organization;
though we must not infer too much from a mere rhetorical similitude. But
he also represents the spiritual body as far transcending the natural body
in glory and in power; and, since the latter is fearfully and wonderfully
made, we know of nothing but the most exquisite organization that can give
the spiritual body such a superiority over the natural. Admitting that
such will be its structure, and, although the nomenclature of anatomy and
physiology, which is adapted to flesh and blood, shall pass away and be
forgotten, yet analogous sciences shall be substituted, based on facts and
principles far more interesting, and developing relations and harmonies
far more beautiful. It may be thought, indeed, that, so different will be
these sciences from any thing on earth, that there can be no common
principles and no link of connection. But the longer a man studies the
works of God, the more inclined will he be to regard the universe,
material and immaterial, as founded on eternal principles; as, in fact, a
transcript of the divine nature; and that all the changes in nature are
only new developments of unchanging fundamental laws, not the introduction
of new laws. Hence the philosopher would infer that in existing nature we
have the prototype of new heavens and a new earth; and although a future
condition of things may be as different from the present as the plant is
from the seed out of which it springs, still, as the seed contains the
embryo of a future plant, so the future world may, as it were, lie coiled
up in the present. If in these suggestions there is any truth, there may
be a germ in the anatomy and physiology of the present world, which shall
survive the destruction of the present economy, and unfold, in far higher
beauty and glory, in the more congenial climate of the new heavens and the
new earth. If so, the great principles of these sciences which are
acquired on earth, and which are so prolific in exhibitions of divine
skill, may not prove to be lost knowledge. They shall be recognized as
types of those far higher and richer developments of organization which
the spiritual body shall exhibit.
It may be still more difficult to show that such a science as botany will
have a place in the new earth; simply because we have no certain knowledge
of the existence of vegetation there. We can infer nothing on this subject
from the figurative representations of the new Jerusalem in Revelation,
since the drapery is all derived from this world. But, on the general
principle already stated, that the universe constitutes but one vast and
harmonious system, and all the economies upon it, past, present, and
future, are only different developments of eternal principles, this
consideration, I say, should make us hesitate before we infer the
annihilation of the vast vegetable kingdom upon the destruction of the
present economy of the world. And it does give us an aspect of extreme
barrenness and cheerlessness to think of the new earth entirely swept of
every thing analogous to the existing foliage, flowers, and fruits. We
have attempted to show, however, in another place, that the spiritual body
may be of such a nature that it might exist in a temperature so high, or
so low, as to prevent the existence of such organic natures as now exist.
But how easy for the Deity to create such natures as are adapted to
extremes of temperature as wide as we now are acquainted with; and that,
too, on the same type as existing nature; so that the new earth, while yet
an incandescent, glowing ocean, might teem with animals and plants,
organized on the same general principles as those of the present earth!
But there is another supposition. I have endeavored to show that change
ever has been, and probably ever will be, one of the grand means by which
mind is introduced to higher spheres of enjoyment; and even though the new
earth at first should be destitute of organic natures, both animal and
vegetable, they might be introduced in successive and more perfect
economies, as a means of increased happiness, especially to rational
natures. These are, indeed, only conjectures; but the balance of
probabilities seems to me to incline the mind to the belief that there may
be a botany as well as zoology in the future world, far transcending their
prototypes on earth.
Among the things that we may be certain will pass away with the present
world is the mode of communicating our ideas by language. This the apostle
expressly declares when he says, _Whether there be tongues_, [that is,
languages,] _they shall cease._ Now, the acquisition of languages, and the
right use of language, or rhetoric and oratory, constitute a large part of
what men call learning on earth. And the question is, whether there are
any principles on which these branches of knowledge are based that will
become the elements of new and higher modes of communicating thought in a
future world. These branches are, indeed, rather to be regarded as arts
than sciences. Language is the drapery for clothing our thoughts, and,
unless we have thoughts to clothe, it becomes useless; and rhetoric and
oratory merely show us how to arrange that drapery in the most attractive
and impressive style. But there is such a thing as the philosophy of
language and the philosophy of rhetoric, whose principles are derived
chiefly from moral and intellectual philosophy. And these, we have reason
to believe, are eternal. Different as will be the mode of communicating
thoughts hereafter from the present, we shall find the same philosophical
principles lying at its foundation. Hence we may expect that there will be
a celestial language, a celestial rhetoric, and a celestial oratory, in
whose beauty and splendor those of earth will be forgotten.
I now proceed briefly to consider those sciences which, having little
connection with material organization, we may more confidently maintain
will have an existence on the new earth.
It will be hardly necessary to spend much time in proving that
intellectual philosophy will be one of the subjects of investigation in a
future world. For it would be strange if the noblest part of God's
workmanship, for which materialism was created, should cease to be an
object of inquiry in that world where alone it can be investigated with
much success. When we consider that the whole train of mental phenomena is
constantly passing under the mind's own observation, and that a vast
amount of time and talent has been devoted to the subject ever since man
began to philosophize,--that is, for more than two thousand years,--it
would seem as if psychology ere this must have attained the precision and
certainty of mathematics. But how different is the fact! I speak not of a
want of agreement in opinion on subordinate points, for these minor
diversities must be expected in any science not strictly demonstrative.
Even astronomy abounds with them. But metaphysical philosophers have not
yet been able to settle fundamental principles. They are not yet agreed as
to the existence of many of the most familiar and important intellectual
powers and principles of action. The systems of Locke and Hume,
constructed with great ability, were overthrown by Reid; Stewart differed
much from Reid; and Dr. Thomas Brown has powerfully attacked the fabric
erected by Stewart. And lastly, the phrenologists, with no mean ability,
have endeavored to show that all these philosophers are heaven-wide of the
truth, because they have so much neglected the influence of the material
organs on the mental powers. Now, this diversity of result, arrived at by
men of such profound abilities, shows that there are peculiar difficulties
in the study of mind, originating, probably, in the fact that, in this
world, we never see the operation of mind apart from a gross material
organization. But in another state, where no organization will exist, or
one far better adapted to mental operations, we may hope for such a
clarification of the mental eye that the laws of mind will assume the
precision and certainty of mathematics, and the relations between mind and
matter, now so obscure, be fully developed. Then, I doubt not, the
principles of mental science will furnish a more splendid illustration of
the divine perfections than any which can now be derived from the material
world.
Will any one believe that the principles of moral science and mathematics
will be altered or annihilated by the conflagration of the globe? We
believe them no more dependent upon the external universe than is the
divine existence. God exists by a necessity of nature, and these
principles have the same unchanging and eternal origin. If so, no changes
in the material world can affect them. So far as we understand them here,
we shall find them true hereafter; and we shall doubtless find that our
present knowledge is but the mere twilight of that bright day which will
there pour its full light upon these subjects. Mathematical and moral
truths, which we now suppose to be general laws, we shalt then find to be,
in many cases, only the ramifications of principles far wider, which we
cannot now discover, and which we could not comprehend were they open to
inspection. And we shall also find that moral laws are as certain and
demonstrable as those of mathematics; and that they form the adamantine
chain which holds together the spiritual world, and gives it symmetry and
beauty, as mathematics links together the material universe.
Among men who understand biblical interpretation, and also the principles
of science, the belief in the annihilation of the material universe at the
close of man's probationary state is fast disappearing, and the more
scriptural, philosophical, and animating doctrine is embraced, that there
will be only a change of form and condition of our earth and its
atmosphere, and that the matter of the universe will survive, and
successively assume new and more beautiful forms, it may be eternally. If
so, all those physical sciences, which do not depend upon organic
structure, will form subjects of investigation in the heavenly world.
There will be the heavenly bodies, governed by the same laws as at
present, and offering a noble field for examination. Nor will the heavenly
inhabitants need, as on earth, visual organs and optical instruments,
which, at best, afford us only glimpses of the material universe. For
there, if we rightly conjecture, will they possess the power of learning,
with almost intuitive certainty and intuitive rapidity, the character and
movements of the most distant worlds. Nay, it may be that they can pass
from world to world with the velocity of light, and thus become better
acquainted with their more intimate condition. Thus will the astronomy of
the celestial world surpass, beyond conception, that science which even
now is regarded as unequalled for its sublimity.
We cannot be sure through what material medium the mind will act in a
future world. But the manner in which we know heat, light, and electricity
to be transmitted, makes it not impossible that the same or a similar
medium may be the vehicle through which thought shall be hereafter
transmitted. If so, we can easily understand how the mind will be able to
penetrate into the most recondite nature of bodies, and learn the mode in
which they act upon one another; for the curious medium which conveys
light and heat does penetrate all bodies, whether they be solid or
gaseous, cold or hot. Hence we may learn at a glance, in a future world,
more of the internal constitution of bodies, and of their mutual action,
than a whole life on earth, spent in the study of chemistry, will unfold.
Then, too, shall we doubtless find chemical laws operating on a scale of
grandeur and extent, limited only by the material universe.
Universally diffused as light, heat, and electricity are, and diligently
as their phenomena have been studied, yet what mystery hangs over their
nature and operations! They seem to be too subtile, and to approximate too
nearly to immaterial substances, to be apprehended by our beclouded
intellects. When, therefore, our means of perception shall be vastly
improved, as we have reason to believe they will be in eternity, these
will become noble themes for examination. For who can doubt that agents so
ethereal in their nature, and apparently indestructible, and even
unchanged by any means with which we are acquainted, will survive the
final catastrophe of our world? Probably, indeed, we are allowed to catch
only glimpses of their nature and operations on earth, so that we may
safely anticipate an immense expansion of the electricity and optics which
will form a part of the science of heaven.