Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- DISCOURSE I A SKETCH OF THE MODERN ASTRONOMY
- DISCOURSE II THE MODESTY OF TRUE SCIENCE
- DISCOURSE III ON THE EXTENT OF THE DIVINE CONDESCENSION
- DISCOURSE IV ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN'S MORAL HISTORY IN THE DISTANT PLACES OF CREATION
- DISCOURSE V ON THE SYMPATHY THAT IS FELT FOR MAN IN THE DISTANT PLACES OF CREATION
- DISCOURSE VI ON THE CONTEST FOR AN ASCENDENCY OVER MAN, AMONGST THE HIGHER ORDERS OF INTELLIGENCE
- DISCOURSE VII ON THE SLENDER INFLUENCE OF MERE TASTE AND SENSIBILITY, IN MATTERS OF RELIGION
- APPENDIX
DISCOURSE VI - ON THE CONTEST FOR AN ASCENDENCY OVER MAN, AMONGST THE HIGHER ORDERS OF INTELLIGENCE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- DISCOURSE I A SKETCH OF THE MODERN ASTRONOMY
- DISCOURSE II THE MODESTY OF TRUE SCIENCE
- DISCOURSE III ON THE EXTENT OF THE DIVINE CONDESCENSION
- DISCOURSE IV ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN'S MORAL HISTORY IN THE DISTANT PLACES OF CREATION
- DISCOURSE V ON THE SYMPATHY THAT IS FELT FOR MAN IN THE DISTANT PLACES OF CREATION
- DISCOURSE VI ON THE CONTEST FOR AN ASCENDENCY OVER MAN, AMONGST THE HIGHER ORDERS OF INTELLIGENCE
- DISCOURSE VII ON THE SLENDER INFLUENCE OF MERE TASTE AND SENSIBILITY, IN MATTERS OF RELIGION
- APPENDIX
Summary
“And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
—Col. ii. 15.Though these Astronomical Discourses be now drawing to a close, it is not because I feel that much more might not be said on the subject of them, both in the way of argument and of illustration. The whole of the Infidel difficulty proceeds upon the assumption, that the exclusive bearing of Christianity is upon the people of our earth; that this solitary planet is in no way implicated with the concerns of a wider dispensation; that the revelation we have of the dealings of God, in this district of his empire, does not suit and subordinate itself to a system of moral administration, as extended as is the whole of his monarchy. Or, in other words, because Infidels have not access to the whole truth, will they refuse a part of it, however well attested or well accredited it may be; because a mantle of deep obscurity rests on the government of God, when taken in all its eternity and all its entireness, will they shut their eyes against that allowance of light which has been made to pass downwards upon our world from time to time, through so many partial unfoldings; and till they are made to know the share which other planets have in these communications of mercy, will they turn them away from the actual message which has come to their own door, and will neither examine its credentials, nor be alarmed by its warnings, nor be won by the tenderness of its invitations.
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- A Series of Discourses on the Christian Revelation, Viewed in Connection with the Modern Astronomy , pp. 189 - 215Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1817