power? We see it in the immensity of his
creation.

Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable
order by which the incomprehensible whole is governed.

Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance
with which he fills the earth.

Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding
that abundance even from the unthankful.

Do we want to contemplate his will, so far as it respects man? The
goodness he shows to all is a lesson for our conduct to each other.

In fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not the book called the
Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the Scripture called the
Creation.

_II.--THEOLOGY AND RELIGION_

As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a compound made
up chiefly of manism with but little Deism, and is near to Atheism as
twilight is to darkness.

That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the whole circle
of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the study of
the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in his works, and
is the true theology.

As to the theology that is now studied in its place, it is the study of
human opinions and of human fancies concerning God. It is not the study
of God Himself in the works that He has made, but in the works or
writings that man has made; and it is not among the least of the
mischiefs that the Christian system has done to the world that it has
abandoned the original and beautiful system of theology, like a
beautiful innocent, to distress and reproach, to make room for the bag
of superstition.

It is an inconsistency, scarcely possible to be credited, that anything
should exist under the name of a religion that held it to be irreligious
to study and contemplate the structure of the universe that God had
made. But the fact is too well established to be denied. The event that
served more than any other to break the first link in the long chain of
despotic ignorance is that known by the name of the Reformation by
Luther. From that time, though it does not appear to have made part of
the intention of Luther, or of these who are called Reformers, the
sciences began to revive, and liberality, their natural associate, began
to appear. This was the only public good the Reformation did; for with
respect to religious good it might as well not have taken place. The
mythology still continued the same; and the multiplic