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are cultivated with a constant reference to the great Creator, and when through them we endeavour to habituate our minds to the contemplation of his power and goodness,-may we not trust, with a better hope, that such a study may be productive of advantages, which shall not thus desert us at the hour of death?

I will now conclude with the words in which the great Newton sums up his celebrated Scholium generale at the end of his immortal Principia. Atque hæc de Deo, de quo utique ex Phænomenis disserere ad Philosophiam Naturalem pertinet."

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PART III.

ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY, AND ON THE PECULIAR EVIDENCES AND DOCTRINAL CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION.

THE preliminary consideration of the natural evidences to the existence of an intelligent Creator of the universe, as deducible from the innumerable marks of design impressed on the works of creation, has been properly followed up in the plan sketched for your lectures, by the examination of the argument drawn from the analogy of religion, natural and revealed, to the constitution and course of nature; a subject, as is well known, identified, as it were, with the name of that distinguished author who first handled it fully and satisfactorily; a name which, in this place, should, I think, be peculiarly cherished, as that of the ablest Prelate who has presided over the See of Bristol. In the progress of the course, this work will be regularly perused by the present class.

A slight sketch will be sufficient to show the general tenor of Butler's reasoning. He first prepares his ground by pointing out, in the general constitution of the circumstances amid which we are placed, the traces and indications of a natural government of his creatures by the Deity; the further marks of a moral character belonging to his government; the presumptions hence arising of a future state, in which that moral government shall be extended and perfected; and the suit

ableness of our present state, as a stage of probation, to educate and discipline and prepare our souls for another and advanced scale of being,-are then exhibited. Having thus laid the foundation, he proceeds to the necessity and importance of Revelation, as a clear and authoritative republication of the truths of Natural Religion, which before were obscured by doubt, and destitute of any adequate sanction; and still more as an original communication of truths not discoverable by natural reason; of the alienation of our state by nature; and of the dispensation for the recovery of lost man, by the atonement effected by the Son of God, and by the renewing influences of the Spirit of God, he shows that we cannot doubt that the doctrines of such a Revelation (if there be sufficient evidence that such has been vouchsafed) must impose upon us duties no less obligatory than those most clearly pointed out by the light of nature. He then proceeds to show, that the difficulties which Christianity presents,-such as arise from its partial and limited diffusion*, and

* Butler's answer to the objection against Revelation, drawn from its want of universality, where he alludes to the analogous cases in God's natural government of the world, in which we often see his gifts bestowed with the same apparent partiality, will, I think, derive a peculiarly appropriate additional illustration, if we compare the manner in which he has been pleased to impart the knowledge of the remedies which are curative of the physical disorders to which our corporeal frames are subject, with the manner in which he hath regu lated his communication of the religious remedial dispensations applicable to the spiritual disorders of our moral constitutions; in each case (and I do not think we can select any two cases more properly analogous) such knowledge hath been imparted gradually, progressively and partially. How

the supposed deficiency of its proof,-are objections which might be urged with equal force against all that we are most clearly assured of in God's natural government of the universe; that the page of Nature is a page of mystery, no less than that of Revelation, and that the presumptions from analogy are, throughout, rather favourable than hostile to the Christian scheme, whether considered in its doctrines or its evidences. Especially he argues, that what he justly considers as the fundamental truth of the particular system of Christianity, the appointment of a Mediator, and the redemption of the world by him; far as they transcend the discoveries of natural reason, are

long and widely had fevers afflicted the human race, while yet one remote nation alone possessed the invaluable specific contained in the bark of the Peruvian Cinchona, which was hid from the far greater portion of mankind till less than four centuries ago; and even when at length made known, how imperfect and inefficient was its application until very recently chemistry has taught us how to extract in a separate state the specific constituent in which the febrifuge principle resides, a discovery which has already so far mitigated the symptoms of disease, that districts before almost uninhabitable from the effects of malaria, are acquiring the happy character of a new salubriousness. How long had the inhabitants of the lovely Alpine valleys suffered from one of the most cruel deformities, before the efficacy of iodine was discovered? How many children fell premature victims to variolar disease before inoculation mitigated, and subsequently vaccination almost promises to expel this pest of infancy? Now, in all these cases, it must either be contended on the one hand, that neither the remedial or preventive virtues of these specifics, nor the faculties which enabled men to discover them, were the gift of a moral governor of the world, because they have been thus partially distributed; or on the other, it must be allowed that similar objections against Christianity as a divine revelation have no validity.

yet in no manner inconsistent with them. To abridge these arguments exhibited in the original with remarkable condensation of reasoning, would now be alike superfluous and injurious, as I trust you will shortly examine for yourselves the details of that admirable original. I can only hope that my own views, when my present survey shall conduct our glance over any of the particular topics thus alluded to, may be found imbued with some portion of the spirit derived from this source. And it shall, in the first place, be my endeavour in this spirit (although without servile plagiarism) to point out the just line of connecting argument by which we may advance from the Natural Evidences of Theology, which it was the business of my former Address to exhibit to you, to the consideration of the peculiar evidences and doctrinal character of the Christian Revelation,-the subject to which I have next to call your attention.

We have already seen that all nature implies design, that the constitution of every thing which the universe contains is exactly adjusted and adapted to its situation, and to the relations which intervene between itself and surrounding objects. We have seen, I say, that this physical adjustment of things is universal and complete; but are we not bound on every principle of analogy to extend this argument from design still further? for surely we cannot reasonably limit it to a partial application. If, for example, there should be in existence any beings of a mixed nature, possessing intellectual and moral, as well as physical constitutions; on what possible ground of reason can we persuade ourselves that the principle of adjust

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