Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Sermon;
g lory of former ages , and , by the blessing of Divine Providence , they are still to be seen as the noblest ornaments of this ,,. . May they remain for ever!—May HE , for whom they are raised , preserve them against that modern savage fury of infidelity , which would overthrow all that is great and excellent in the world , it " God has any share in it : — from that furious g lare of p hilosophy , falsely so called , which promises liht and liberty , but vanishes into Egyptian darkness that
g may he , and unhappily is , felt in all nations of the civilized world . When we enter a grand sacred building something is felt which is too great for description . We are filled with a mixture of reverential awe and admiration when , at a single view , we survey the stile , the . magnitude , the proportion , the ornaments which are there to be seen . No production of human art gives more pleasure to the mind ;
and it is a pleasure that carries with it a degree of virtue ; for it is scarcely possible , while we see the place , to forget the Grand Architect to whose honour and service it is dedicated . When we examine a gothic strufture more accurately , it carries ns back to Paradise ( the first temple ) : —the close avenue in a grove of trees being imitatedas nearly as it can . bein the close aisle , where the branches
, , from two rows of p illars meet over head in an arched roof , which our great poet , Milton , has therefore very beautifully stiled the emboughed roof ; as if it were formed by the boughs of trees , for we may suppose the term to have- that reference . If the mind may be so much affected by the works of man , how
much greater must our admiration be when we contemplate the woncs of God ? all whose productions may be considered as buildings ; the buildings of infinite strength , embellished with infinite beauty , under the direction of infinite wisdom . The image is very proper , very fruitful , and very instructive . Under this idea , therefore , the works of God are considered in the text , — ' He that built all things is God . '
Of HIS various buildings , that which first occurs to us is the great fabric of the world ; the materials of which are put together in the most exact order , measure , and proportion . This is evident ; first , in the heavens , where we see the sun , moon , and stars placed in a spacious arch to g ive li g ht to the world below , and to regulate tim . es ancl seasons ; for which purpose they are conducted through an annual
course , the obliquity of which is fixed exactly to such an angle as produces all the vicissitudes of the year . Ihe motions of the sun and moon are alternate in their effects : when the sun recedes , the moon comes nearer . The . sun ' s winter is the moon ' s summer . When we have most of the sun , we require less of the moon , which , accordingly , at that time distributes her light to the southern regionsfrom which
, the sun is then most remote . All these wonderful changes are brought about by the single expedient of a course in the heavenly bodies oblique to the axis of the earth . The works of God differ from the works of man , as much in simplicity as in magnitude . If many ends are to be answered , we are obliged to introduce as many causes ; but in thc works of God many
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Sermon;
g lory of former ages , and , by the blessing of Divine Providence , they are still to be seen as the noblest ornaments of this ,,. . May they remain for ever!—May HE , for whom they are raised , preserve them against that modern savage fury of infidelity , which would overthrow all that is great and excellent in the world , it " God has any share in it : — from that furious g lare of p hilosophy , falsely so called , which promises liht and liberty , but vanishes into Egyptian darkness that
g may he , and unhappily is , felt in all nations of the civilized world . When we enter a grand sacred building something is felt which is too great for description . We are filled with a mixture of reverential awe and admiration when , at a single view , we survey the stile , the . magnitude , the proportion , the ornaments which are there to be seen . No production of human art gives more pleasure to the mind ;
and it is a pleasure that carries with it a degree of virtue ; for it is scarcely possible , while we see the place , to forget the Grand Architect to whose honour and service it is dedicated . When we examine a gothic strufture more accurately , it carries ns back to Paradise ( the first temple ) : —the close avenue in a grove of trees being imitatedas nearly as it can . bein the close aisle , where the branches
, , from two rows of p illars meet over head in an arched roof , which our great poet , Milton , has therefore very beautifully stiled the emboughed roof ; as if it were formed by the boughs of trees , for we may suppose the term to have- that reference . If the mind may be so much affected by the works of man , how
much greater must our admiration be when we contemplate the woncs of God ? all whose productions may be considered as buildings ; the buildings of infinite strength , embellished with infinite beauty , under the direction of infinite wisdom . The image is very proper , very fruitful , and very instructive . Under this idea , therefore , the works of God are considered in the text , — ' He that built all things is God . '
Of HIS various buildings , that which first occurs to us is the great fabric of the world ; the materials of which are put together in the most exact order , measure , and proportion . This is evident ; first , in the heavens , where we see the sun , moon , and stars placed in a spacious arch to g ive li g ht to the world below , and to regulate tim . es ancl seasons ; for which purpose they are conducted through an annual
course , the obliquity of which is fixed exactly to such an angle as produces all the vicissitudes of the year . Ihe motions of the sun and moon are alternate in their effects : when the sun recedes , the moon comes nearer . The . sun ' s winter is the moon ' s summer . When we have most of the sun , we require less of the moon , which , accordingly , at that time distributes her light to the southern regionsfrom which
, the sun is then most remote . All these wonderful changes are brought about by the single expedient of a course in the heavenly bodies oblique to the axis of the earth . The works of God differ from the works of man , as much in simplicity as in magnitude . If many ends are to be answered , we are obliged to introduce as many causes ; but in thc works of God many