blending of beauty with utility, which constitutes a striking A thousand movements scarce one object gain. Yet seems to second, too, some other use. But why should I specify. The whole natural world in its constitution and laws, its particular and aggregate, is a counterpart of the spiritual world. Every object in the former, is a kind of image or type of something in the latter. Nature is a preliminary dispensation, like the Mosaic, true and holy so far as it goes, insufficient by itself, imperfectly understood without a further revelation, but when thus understood, illustrating and confirming the Christian dispensation. The temple of nature, like Solomon's temple, is full of types and shadows of heavenly things, though the "candlestick" of Christianity must be lighted up in it, before they become distinctly visible. Have not the flowers a language, and the brutes a voice, to teach us the domestic, the social, the Christian virtues?† Read Pollok's description of nature's preaching. "The seasons came and went, and went and came, Read this, and much more of the like nature in the context, * The writer does not mean to countenance the mysticism of the Hutchinsonians, or the subtile speculations of the Platonists, but simply to present the external world in that intimate relation to the spiritual world, which it sustained in the mind of the sacred writers, who certainly saw everywhere marks of the divine presence, and emblems of heavenly things. Matt: 6: 26-30. Prov. 6: 6-8. 30: 24-28. Isa. 1: 3. and say, whether it is all poetry, or whether the objects of nature, and the events of providence do in truth teach us lessons of spiritual wisdom. Follow, above all, in the train of our Saviour, and as he utters his parables, and delivers his sermons, see all nature a picture-gallery filled with likenesses and sketches of heavenly things. Indeed it is a striking characteristic of all the sacred writers, that they find memorials, and types of God and heaven in every natural object and event; and the allegories, the similes, all the figurative language of the Bible, is a standing illustration of the analogies that pervade the realms of nature, providence and grace. Now I need not spend time in establishing the inference from these numerous and striking analogies, that the realms in which they prevail, have the same head. When we see similar laws administered in a similar manner, in different provinces, and the same characteristic features prevailing, with only those differences which diverse circumstances require, we infer that they are under the same government. The same striking and characteristic peculiarities of sentiment, style and imagery, prove the books in which they are found, to have the same author. When I apply these principles to the present subject of discussion, I am constrained to believe that nature, providence, and grace, are provinces governed by the same head, books written by the same great author. I would as soon believe that man administers the providential government of the world, as that he devised and established the church; and when I come to the conclusion that man made the heavens and the earth, then I may be ready to believe that unaided man was the author of the Bible. A few remarks, which are suggested by the foregoing discussion, but could not conveniently find a place in it, will close this protracted article. 1. Analogy affords us the best means of answering objections both against science and religion. The scientific man has few objections to urge against religion, which do not lie with equal force against nature and providence; and the religious man has few objections to urge against science, which if valid at all, would not be equally valid against religion. Press hence upon both the analogy, and if you do not convince, you will silence. Does the philosopher object to the theological doctrine of divine sovereignty? Show him, that the same doctrine is written on every page of nature and providence. Does the theologian charge with absurdity the prolonged processes and protracted periods of Geology? Point him to the fact, that his own science and his own sacred books disclose similar processes and periods. Does the skeptic scout the idea, that eternal life is suspended on so pusillanimous a trait as humility, and so involuntary a principle as faith? Show him, that the requirement of these virtues, so far from being arbitrary, accords with the nature of things, and that the knowledge and happiness of this life are suspended on the exercise of the same virtues. Does the Christian doubt, whether God would condescend to create myriads of infusories in a drop of water, or people a world with successive generations of irrational creatures? Remind him that God has condescended to provide for, and redeem a world of sinners," whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth, and who are accounted to him as less than nothing and vanity." Does the fatalist pretend, that his exertions for salvation are rendered fruitless by the immutable purposes and laws of God? Tell him, that he would not for a mornent stake any temporal good on the principle of that objection, though all temporal good is equally dependent on immutable laws and purposes. In like manner, we may answer almost every objection of the scholar against the Christian, of the Christian against the scholar, and of the man, that shows any common sense about any thing, against both the scholar and the Christian. He must either be a perfect model of consistency, or make no pretensions to it; in other words, he must be either an angel or a fool, whose errors cannot be corrected by analogy. If ministers would employ evangelical reasoning more, and abstract reasoning less, they would be more successful in conciliating practical and hurtful error. On the other hand, why need they forget, that analogy is not more truly a "powerful engine" than an impartial one, which if not applied by themselves to the correction of their own errors, will be wielded against them by others to their no small discredit, if not their utter discomfiture. 2. It is very important, that the teacher of religion, and quite desirable, that the private Christian, should be a student of nature and an observer of providence. Besides silencing objectors and confirming his own faith, he would thus find fresh light and beauty shed upon the truths of religion. Nature and salvation are parallel columns in God's universal harmony, and VOL. XII. No. 31. 6 providence is a divine commentary upon them both. Should they not be studied together? Coleridge somewhere remarks, that he admired Shakspeare's wisdom and power on a first perusal in his youth, and on reading him a second time after years of study and improvement, Shakspeare's wisdom and power appeared to have increased quite as much as his own. This remark is far more applicable to God's works, than to those of any mortal. The more wisdom and power we bring to the study of them, the more we discover in them. Each increase of the magnifying power of the telescope, is attended with a corresponding accession to the extent, beauty, and grandeur of the visible universe. Every improvement of the microscope discloses new beings, new wonders, new and more delicate strokes of a divine artist. The observer's mental vision, too is improved, not to reach the full height, nor penetrate the whole depth, nor range all the compass of nature's mysteries, but while he solves one of these mysteries, to discover more than one, which he leaves unsolved. So that the Philosopher, who now looks out upon the divine works from the highest vantage ground, with the most acute and profound mind and the most perfect helps to his ocular and mental vision, may well feel, as did the immortal Newton, that he has scarcely glanced along the shore, and discovered a few beautiful shells; while before him spreads the unexplored and illimitable ocean of truth. The Bible is also boundless in the compass of its truths, exhaustless in its treasures and beauties. Its contents seem to enlarge in extent, and magnify in importance, and increase in variety and interest in precise proportion to the progress of society, and the improvement of the individual reader. So that the Christian, who knows the most, not only sees the most to admire in what he has read, but expects to find the most, that is new and admirable in his future study of the sacred volume; and so far from ever feeling that he has comprehended its whole scope, or exhausted all its riches, he will be ready to exclaim, "it is high as heaven, what canst thou do; it is deeper than hell, what canst thou know; the measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea." Now if knowledge of every sort is a help to the acquisition of further knowledge, (and it is, for every truth stands more or * I give only the substance of the remark from memory. less related to every other truth,) a portion of the knowledge of one class of God's works, will help us to acquire a knowledge of another class. Familiarity with one of Shakspeare's dramatic pieces helps to understand and appreciate another. The student, who has mastered one production of a classic author, will master another production of the same author at once more easily and more perfectly. Why should not this principle apply to the different productions of the Divine mind? Has it not been so in the past study of the Divine works? It was the knowledge and influence of the Bible, that gave the first impulse and the first clue to the discovery in natural science; and fresh discoveries in natural science are ever impelling and guiding in the study of the Bible, explaining many particular passages, and correcting in general wrong modes of inquiry. What new grandeur and glory pervade the universe, when viewed in the light of the Bible, as created, pervaded and controlled by one Omnipotent, omniscient, Almighty and all-wise Spirit! Others may prefer the theogonies and cosmogonies of pagan Greece and Rome, and sigh for the hills, the fountains and the groves, the muses, the Naiads, and the Nymphs of those classic lands, but, and, "Sion hill Delights me more, and Siloa's brook, that flowed "The heavenly muse, that on the sacred top That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed, Rose out of Chaos; And chiefly that Great Spirit, who doth prefer Before all temples the upright heart and pure." Hence is to be drawn the inspiration of " adventrous song Things unattempted yet in prose or verse." The classics contain exquisite poetry, but the Bible surpasses them in exquisite poetry, I had almost said as much as in pure morality and sound philosophy. Nature is grand and beautiful and instinct with life, as pourtrayed on the classic page. But |