mathematics, where it is chiefly, if not entirely, the latter'. In theology, it has been observed, there is no mediate process of reason, by which the truths of religion can be deduced from the principle. It may, however, be properly said, that in divinity, we reason to the principle; but from grounds of a different nature, and in a method totally different from that we use in all the other sciences.

The supernatural principle, which is the ground of theologic reasoning, is not established on an induction of particular truths, by which it is made universal, and from which universality its doctrines are entitled to our faith :—but "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." In this sentence, the apostle has stated the principle itself, the testimony of God, and the means through which we receive it, viz. hearing; and has laid down the end or effect which it is calculated to produce, viz. the conviction of faith. The principle is a divine fact, to be proved from the various means by

1 See vol. i. part i. sect. 1.

2 Rom. x. 17.

us.

which it was confirmed, and is conveyed to These are the just grounds of theologic reasoning, and these can alone warrant and support a reasonable faith.

Reasoning therefore in theology, respects the means through which the light of revelation was established in the world, whereby the divine testimony was communicated and conveyed down to us in these distant ages. According to the method which it pursues, we shall take the Bible in our hand, which professes to contain this word of God, and trace its history through the intervening ages, and countries, and the persons of its editors, to the time, place, and persons, in which, and by whom it was originally written. This will prove its authenticity. From the proof of its authenticity, reason may proceed to evince its divine authority, by examining all those various tests and marks of a supernatural commission, which are every where inseparably interwoven with its contents; and which are called the external evidences of religion. This authority reason may further confirm, by examining the moral import of its comprehensive argument—the internal

evidence of its divinity. By these which are the means, reason will be conducted safely and logically to the infallible principle, the word or testimony of God, in which faith immediately finds her repose and end. It will then remain for reason only to interpret the meaning of that mysterious book in which they are recorded.—Or, reason may perform this sacred task, by pursuing the inverse of this order, ascending, through the internal and external evidences of this authority, to the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, and thus forming the conviction of our faith on the same firm and solid grounds.

In conducting reason down the descending line, the different grounds on which she argues, the different offices which she performs, or the method she pursues, our train of thought will be something like the following:

All truth is born of God, and as every dispensation of it, whether natural or revealed, proceeds from him, all its parts, however different they may be in kind, are consistent and correspondent members of one

perfect whole. Thus truth is evermore the way to truth; the less leading to the greater, the inferior to the superior, in a regular but sublime gradation. That the knowledge and certainty of one part, is the only right road to the knowledge and certainty of another, forms the cardinal and fundamental maxim of all sound logic. As, from first and intuitive principles of external and internal sense, human truths are derived of different kinds; so, by a sublimer effort, from these human truths, as new grounds or principles, reason ascends to those which are divine. Such is the grand connecting link between natural and supernatural knowledge, annexed to the footstool of God, from which depends that golden chain, by which, reason ascends from earth to heaven.

This method of conveying divine truths into the minds of men, by associating them with truths of which they were previously possessed, and these the most natural and familiar, was universally adopted by our Lord, who never stooped to the cumbrous formalities of a useless logic. Instead of defining or syllogizing, we find him perpetually

illustrating and explaining spiritual and heavenly things, by the analogy and similitude of those which are temporal and earthly. Of this conduct of our Divine Master and instructor, I shall here only adduce one example. It illustrates that divine authority on which the principle of theology is logically based, and thus lays down those fundamental grounds, from which we are enabled to reason in divinity. On proclaiming to the pharisees and scribes, that he was "the light of the world," and that whosoever followed him should not "walk in darkness, but have the light of life;" in proof of this spiritual and important truth, he does not run into speculative argument or metaphysical discussion, which his hearers could not possibly understand; but he appeals to a public fact, which experience and long usage had rendered familiar to their understanding :is written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true;" from this two-fold testimony, he directly argues to the similar truth of his divine commission: "I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father, who hath sent me, beareth witness of

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