all its productions, and of the atmosphere which engirdles it, is influenced by laws which the all-wise and all-powerful Creator hath instituted.* And all the order and beauty and perfection, everywhere conspicuous throughout this earth, and throughout the universe, is the result of the neverceasing working of these laws, which men call the 'laws of nature. Everything man sees or hears, everything that his hand touches or his foot treads on, is entirely under the influence of all-pervading law; the air he breathes, the water he drinks, the fire which so variously serves him, the wind which seems so free and unconstrained,-law rules over all; so that as to his very home, he lives and moves and has his being in an element of law.

§ From thus observing the character of his dwelling place, we come naturally enough to enquire concerning Himself; and we find that, in all his conditions, he too is the subject of law which he never can violate with impunity.

We have referred to the law of gravitation, and how the admirable order of the universe is beautifully secured by means of it but if any man shall lose his balance when standing on the summit of a tower, he will fall to the ground by the same law. In which case we never regret the operation of the law, nor wish it should be suspended, but only regret the ignorance or carelessness of the unhappy man, who lies in excruciating agony, the victim of his own imprudence. The advantages we derive from fire would fill volumes; it is as indispensable to our well-being as the air is to our being. Yet what calamities have arisen when the laws of heat have been disregarded. If a playful child or a venerable parent has approached too near, the whole person has been involved in flames, and a lingering death of torture has been the result: what numbers have been burned in their beds, and how intense the agony that many have suffered from fire. Yet we never wish that fire would cease to burn; we never murmur at its qualities, which only demand that we should be attentive. So with water, which is absolutely indispensable to life, how often

*Or, to prevent misapprehensions, He by whom all things consist, works in one uniform and undeviating method: whatever may result, certain sequences always follow certain antecedents; and this whether we observe matter or mind. And to this undeviating uniformity of plan is not badly given the name of law, because of its absolute inviolability.

has it destroyed life, when its requirements have been disregarded.

It would be easy, but superfluous, to multiply illustrations. What has been adduced may suffice to show one fact, for the sake of which the present course has been adopted, viz. That God, having settled a system of laws, the observance of which produces perfect order, leaves the painful consequences of neglecting or violating them to take full effect, without any interposition to prevent. By perfect conformity to all the laws which regulate the outward world, and which govern our own organized bodies, we should possess perfect physical good, in exemption from all physical evil, and possession of all physical enjoyment: except indeed as the results of this outward regard to law might be neutralized or vitiated by disregard to the higher laws of a more important economy, as the intellectual, the moral and spiritual. With this qualification-indispensable because the physical is only a part of one intimately blended whole-the remark holds good; and thus our welfare is, so to speak, made to depend on our conformity to the various laws which God hath so admirably instituted. The language of nature correctly interpreted is, Obey and be happy -Neglect and suffer.

A moment's attention ought, however, to be drawn to one very obvious feature of the system; viz. That interposition to prevent the evils which necessarily arise from the violation of these laws of nature, forms no part of God's plan. You have nothing but law; beautiful, exquisitively beautiful in itself, and in the perfect order and harmony which it is competent to secure; yet at the same time painful in its consequences when violated: but man is completely shut up to law, as to all his relation to the external world, and as to all his own organization. He is rewarded, as one may say, for his observance of these laws, and punished for the neglect.*

A superficial observer, indeed, might wish that God had introduced some plan for preventing, or else immediately remedying, the evils which arise when any of the laws of nature are violated. But as this is not the case, so also we can perceive some evils which would necessarily ensue were such interference the rule. Men would then, as a

*Butler's Analogy, part I. chap. II.

matter of course, be inattentive and negligent; and if no harm could possibly result, whatever a man did or neglected to do, there would be a positive premium held out to indolence and carelessness and every kind of gratification. Indeed evils of a frightful character, and whose name would be legion, must unavoidably ensue, if God were always to interpose to prevent ill consequences resulting from violation of the laws he hath so wisely stamped on every part of nature. In fact, greater harm would be done, even according to our present imperfect apprehension, by preventing, than by not preventing. So that it is wise and good to allow law to work out its own results; wiser and better than it would be to interpose.*

We may now leave the path we have been pursuing, and follow another, still seeking to know the true relationship God sustains to his creatures. But so far as we have gone, we think we see evidence that the character of God would be quite as fairly represented by the title, governor or ruler, as that of father. One thing however is plain; that if we call him the universal father, he is quite as correctly designated the universal ruler; seeing he governs, and that by general laws, which very laws by their own operation, which is of his appointment, reward the obedient and punish those who disregard them. Nor, whatever we call him, are the evils which grow out of the violation of natural laws, any drawback to his goodness; for since greater evils would follow the prevention by immediate interposition, it would not be either wise or good to interpose: and thus, notwithstanding what obtains, the goodness of God stands unimpeachable.

We have not yet referred to scripture, we have merely looked on the world around us, and glanced at the manner in which God manages it. And to the thoughtful mind which has been perplexed, and possibly distressed, as some of the statements of revelation, this school of natural religion may prove not uninstructive; as also to those unhappy individuals who have ventured to reject or neglect the bible as a revelation from God. For if this should be found evidently, in all its parts, constructed in harmony with all that is observable in nature; and if some of the statements of scripture which have been the most cavilled at, as incon

* Analogy, part I. chap. VII.

sistent with the character of God, are in perfect keeping with all the facts that fill the world; then assuredly the volume of revelation is entitled to the profoundest attention of the hitherto sceptical, nor should the unwelcomeness of some of its declarations be allowed to prejudice the mind, seeing that in reality they belong even to a correct system of natural religion.

§ We are now then in a better condition, having glanced at some of those indisputable facts which are open to every man's observation, to enquire what saith the scripture; and every one that is intelligently acquainted with both natural and revealed religion will be struck with the admirable agreement; as, indeed, how should it be otherwise? The doctrine of scripture, in reference to man's moral and spiritual being, harmonizes perfectly with the doctrine of nature touching his physical welfare; and in like manner reveals God as governing by fixed and general laws, which observed secure happiness, or if set at nought bring misery and ruin. So that evidently there is a strong presumption that the author of revelation and the author of the book of nature are one. In reading the two, we find on every page traces of identity of authorship; we are in two provinces of the same empire; or, in two concentric circles, the scriptures being the inner one; or, nature forms the outer court, but revelation is the oracle of the inner sanctuary.

Let us take the Mosaic account of the position in which man was originally placed. And we need not enter into any proof that the narrative is to be taken literally, since every attempt to reduce it to an allegory, or mythos, has utterly failed. Look then at the first parents of the human race. The pleasant condition in which they were placed, their own personal endowments, the comprehensive grant made to them, the blessing which was pronounced upon them,— all prove the bountiful goodness of their Creator; we might indeed say Father, looking thus far only, and omitting other circumstances. But perfectly kind as was the arrangement, there is yet one feature behind which presents God as sustaining another relation. Listen to the law laid down amid the beauties of Eden; 'Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.'

Let it be supposed a father, if you will, that placed man in such a garden of delight, making him so ample a grant, and conferring on him dominion over all the creatures. Dwell on these and other circumstances connected with the original condition of man; and consider them as they really are, so many tokens of the munificent love of God, who formed and endowed man as none but a God of love would have done. Suppose it then the language of an indulgent father, 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;' and let it be deemed only the language of a wise father, forbidding what would be injurious, when he continues, Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.' But can any one deem the concluding part of the sentence to be the language of one whose sole relationship is that of a father, 'In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die! Let everything around them, and everything in their own organization and circumstances, be held to proclaim the parental goodness of their beneficent Creator; and most assuredly we have no desire to weaken the impression which the mind receives, but rather delight ourselves to visit the happy groves of Eden, and there reclining beside its crystal stream to veceive into the full heart the inerradicable conviction that God is love. But still we feel constrained to ask whether, in the terrific . threatening by which the prohibition was righteously enforced, we are not compelled to admit the existence of another than the paternal element. Does there not seem to be a modification of this, and the adoption of a tone scarcely consistent with the idea of mere paternity? True indeed a father rules; he may enact laws for his children, and may punish disobedience; but to threaten them with Death, to consign them to blank despair,-to doom them to final and hopeless ruin!-this makes us pause; and listening to the awful sentence pronounced, we feel constrained to admit the existence of another element, namely the rectoral; while we can but deem this even to preponderate in the terrible decision, Dying thou shalt die!

And when in an evil hour the law was disregarded, and the authority of the lawgiver set at nought, and the first sin had stained the virgin earth, and man had begun to experience some of the consequences of disobedience, in the misgivings he felt, and the upbraidings of conscience, and the promptings of fear, so that he dreaded to meet his