by supernatural revelation. In the case of those belonging to the former class, as they exist in nature, they may be traced in nature, whether originally obtained in the same way, or otherwise. If we suppose nature to have been intended as an independent organ of divine communication; yet it may consistently be supposed, that a miraculous unfolding of thetruths contained in nature, may havebeen necessary in the first instance to open the mind of man to a perception of those truths;-in like manner, as immediate oral instruction from the ministers of scripture truths appears to have been a necessary accompaniment of the word of God, in order to introduce the knowledge supernaturally revealed to the understanding of the future reader of scripture. "For natural religion", as Bishop Butler remarks," may be externally revealed by God, as the ignorant may be taught it by mankind, their fellowcreatures."* And it is, moreover, "to be remembered," according to another observation of this excellent author, "that how much soever the establishment of natural religion in the world, is owing to the scripture-revelation, this does not destroy the proof of religion from reason, any more than the proof of Euclid's Elements is destroyed, by a man's knowing or thinking, that he should never have seen the truth of the several propositions contained in it, nor had those propositions come into his thoughts, but for that mathematician.”* It requires certainly great caution, in the separate consideration of the two classes of theological truth, lest we transfer to the head of natural religion what belongs to the scriptures alone, and thus disparage the work of the Holy Spirit manifested in the oracles of inspiration. Perhaps the titles of some of the chapters in the first part of "The Analogy", as expressing more than is justly due to the revelation of nature, may lead to the supposition, that the * Id. p. 367. whole theological truth, as nakedly stated in them, is attributed to natural religion. But it is from the discussion of the different points indicated by these titles, that we must take our estimate of the extent of natural religion, so far as it is conceived to be intimated to us by the signs of nature: and there we find its pretensions stated with due moderation and reserve. As the scriptures are here considered as the storehouse of theological truths; so also the division of the system of nature into natural and moral, has been disregarded in reference to the present subject. Both natural and moral truths are considered here, indiscriminately, as parts of the great system of nature. Though, in another point of view, indeed, the natural system of the world is but a subordinate part of the moral, or the intellectual (as it is termed in the phraseology of Cudworth); since since every thing in the world is evidently intended to be the means of moral and intellectual im provement to a creature made capable of b perceiving in it this use. If we were inquiring, accordingly, into the moral evidence of the scripture-revelation, then it would be necessary to look at nature only as it presents a moral aspect,-collecting its facts, not simply as real existences, but as containing indications of right and wrong. But our object in this inquiry being, to observe in general WHATEVER IS, in that portion of God's creation which He has submitted to the ken of our present faculties, we are no further concerned with the moral qualities of the facts observed, than as they fall under the head of actual phenomena in the course and constitution of the world. And, consequently, in this point of view, the moral system of the universe is subordinate to the natural. |