and Causality; and all that they can accomplish is to infer his existence, and his qualities or attributes, from perceiving their manifestation. They have no data for inferring that He had an antecedent.

The argument now stated is objected to in a letter written to me by a deceased friend of great talents and attainments, on the following grounds:-"The argument of Design,” it is said, "is à posteriori. It is an argument of analogy. It ascends from the known to the unknown. The subjects of the analogy are the works of man, a watch, a code of laws, or any other human contrivance, on one hand: and the phenomena of Nature on the other. The former, the watch, &c. are known to have been designed by the human Designer, Man; the latter, the phenomena of Nature, are inferred analogically to have been designed by the Unknown, but sought, Designer, God. Well, it appears to me that an analogy to be good for demonstration, must be extensible, at least in its essence, equally to both of the terms of the analogy. Now, man, the known Designer, invents or designs by discovering laws external to and independent of himself, and then applying these laws to the sure production of effects which he desiderates. (Black discovers latent heat, Watt applies that discovery in a desiderated direction, and the steam-engine is brought to perfection.) Therefore, the Unknown Designer, who is inferred by this analogy, does, for all the analogy makes good, simply discover truth external to, and independent of Himself, and then applies that truth to the production of effects (the phenomena of Nature), which he desiderates. This is not God, the eternal, almighty, and every way infinite One, whose existence the argument professes to demonstrate."

The argument from reason maintained in the preceding pages, may no doubt fall short of this demonstration; but it appears to me that the Supernatural Designer does much more than, like man, invent or design by discovering laws external to, and independent of Himself. The bodies of the mammalia are composed of the chemical elements named on page 23; and out of these, the Unknown Designer has formed different organisms which manifest very different qualities. The tiger and the lamb, the horse and the owl, man and the ape, are all composed, so far as we have yet discovered, of these ten elements. We have found out many of the laws which the elements obey in entering into combinations, and are able to produce from them many admirable new results: but we have never been able to convert them, by any skill of our own, into organized beings; much less to make those specific combinations of them which constitute different organisms,

capable of manifesting different qualities. Even supposing Mr Cross to have produced by electricity the lowest species of organized being out of inorganic matter, still he could not give form and properties to that being at his will. It was at best a reproduction of a known organism. But the Unknown Designer appears to encounter no such difficulties. The ten elements, when wielded by Him, take every variety of Form, and manifest the most diverse qualities. Nay, He endows the structures with powers to be exerted contingently-powers which are ready to act when circumstances require their action, or to remain latent for ever. The blood of animals, for example, is possessed of the quality of repairing losses and injuries which may be sustained by their organisms, so that if a muscle is injured, it shall deposit muscular fibre, and if a bone is broken, it shall deposit osseous matter, in the places and quantities necessary to restore the parts to health and efficiency. But life may be passed without these parts sustaining any injury; and in this case the powers are never evoked into action. These phenomena indicate to Comparison and Causality that the Unknown Contriver possessed over the ten elements a command indescribably superior to that which we can wield.

Again, Man has in vain attempted to produce a perpetual motion; but the Supernatural Power appears to have found no difficulty in doing so. The revolution of the planets round the sun, and of the satellites round their principal planets, are examples in point. We comprehend the laws which govern these evolutions, and see uniformity and design manifested in them, but we cannot even conjecture how the planets were formed, and how their powers of motion were communicated to them. The only inference we can legitimately draw appears to me to be that intelligence and power produced these stupendous phenomena, and that the author of them is not a mere analogue of human power and intelligence, but that He deals with matter as its master. When we see things done with matter which man in vain attempts to accomplish, it seems a logical inference that the Unknown author of the things is not, like man, a mere worker on materials possessing properties which he cannot change, but one who, in a far higher degree, and to an extent unknown to us, commands their very essence, and applies them according to his will. We cannot discover limits to this power in the Unknown Designer, and hence we call him God.

This argument does not profess to demonstrate all the attributes of God; but only His existence, and such of His attributes as our limited faculties are capable of comprehending.

Our notions of the latter will be constantly augmented in number, and rise in sublimity in proportion to our advance in correct knowledge of their manifestations in nature. At present, we have scarcely started in our career of discovery of these, because, hitherto we have wanted the grand element necessary to comprehend God's mode of governing the most important departments of this world, viz.-knowledge of the means by which moral phenomena are produced and regulated.

Dr Vimont remarks, that we cannot fully comprehend God without being his equal; just as a dog cannot comprehend the human mind, in consequence of its utter want of several of the human faculties.

Hobbes, in his Treatise on Human Nature, has stated a somewhat similar view. "Forasmuch," says he, "as God Almighty is incomprehensible, it followeth that we can have no conception or image of the Deity; and, consequently, all his attributes signify our inability and defect of power to conceive anything concerning His nature, and not any conception of the same, except only this, That there is a God. Thus all that will consider may know that God is, though not what he is."

It has been objected, that although our intuitive perceptions, and also inferences drawn by Causality and Comparison may lead us to believe that God has existed, we see no evidence that he now exists. I reply that the manifestations of his agency, power, wisdom, and goodness, continue to be presented to us every moment, and that we have no data for concluding that the cause has ceased, while the effects continue.

The impossibility of the human faculties fully comprehending God has forced itself on some of the great minds who attempted to describe the Deity in Scripture. The definition of Him, as "I am," assumes that all is implied in the simple fact of his existence; and the question, "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ?" coincides with the views now suggested.

If these opinions of the limitation of human capacity in attempting to comprehend God be well founded, all discussions about the manner in which He exists must be futile, and to my mind they are highly irreverent. Locke defines a “person" to be "a thinking, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and considers itself as itself, the same thinking thing in different times and places." In this sense of the word our intellectual faculties lead us to assign a personal character to the Deity, although we can form no well-grounded notions concerning his form, his substance, his size, or his mode of living.

An article in the Edinburgh Review, generally ascribed to the Rev. Mr Sedgwick, expresses a similar view:

"What know we," says he, " of the God of nature (we speak only of natural means), except through the faculties He has given us, rightly employed on the materials around us? In this we rise to a conception of material inorganic laws, in beautiful harmony and adjustment; and they suggest to us the conception of infinite power and wisdom. In like manner we rise to a conception of organic laws-of means (often almost purely mechanical, as they seem to us, and their organic functions well comprehended) adapted to an end-and that end the well-being of a creature endowed with sensation and volition. Thus we rise to a conception both of Divine Power and Divine Goodness; and we are constrained to believe, not merely that all material law is subordinate to His will, but that He has also (in the way He allows us to see His works) so exhibited the attributes of His will, as to shew himself to the mind of man as a personal and superintending God, concentrating His will on every atom of the universe."

Many persons believe that we owe our knowledge of the existence of God to the Bible; but this is a mistake, for it commences with expressions which obviously assume His existence as a fact.

Instead of vainly attempting to define so sacred an object as God, and one so far transcending our power of comprehension, let us inquire into the manifestations of His Will presented to us in Nature; and first as to the means by which He appears to govern the world.

F

CHAPTER VI.

CAN WE TRACE DIVINE GOVERNMENT IN THE PHENOMENA OF THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL WORLDS? AND IF SO, BY WHAT MEANS IS IT MAINTAINED AND RENDERED EFFICIENT?

SECTION 1.-OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD.

ALL matter appears to exert force. The particles of the diamond cohere with so intense an energy, that it requires great mechanical power to separate them. The mountains seem inert, but they are constantly pressing downwards towards the centre of the earth. Water slumbering peacefully in the bosom of a lake, is exerting a pressure on the bottom and sides, and is in fact operating with a force similar to that which it manifests in rushing over the precipice. In the latter case, we perceive the force only because there is no counterbalancing resistance to arrest its action.

Farther, the forces of different substances act on each other, and produce important results. Oxygen acting on sulphur, in certain circumstances, combines with it and produces sulphuric acid, a highly corrosive liquid. Under the influence of heat, the same gas combines with carbon, and produces a gas destructive of animal life. If this reciprocal action of corporeal substances were indefinite and unlimited, the physical world, apparently, might lapse into confusion, chaos might come again, and the earth could afford no abiding place for animated beings. How is this result obviated? And by what means are order in the arrangements and regularity in the evolutions of matter preserved?

Each elementary substance manifests the tendency to undergo changes, and to act on other substances, only in certain ways and under certain conditions. The formation of crystals, and the cohesion of the particles of a liquid metal on cooling, are examples of the tendency of elements of the same kind to combine with each other in a specific manner; while the combination of different chemical elements, always in certain definite proportions, in constituting a new compound, is an example of the regulation of the powers of distinct substances in acting on each other. By investing the elements of matter with definite tendencies,