inductive investigation, is there pre-eminently established as in its more peculiar sovereignty.

And it is in the very advance from what has been termed "the region of facts, to that of laws*," or in other words, from the region of unconnected observation and mystified speculation, into that of clear arrangement and luminous generalization, that we, in proportion, approach towards the worthy conception of the great Source of order, the eternal Cause of all the beauty and harmony of the earth and the heavens.

And the greater the advance made by scientific research in the reduction of the phenomena of the world under definite laws, so much the more firmly will the foundations of real religion be consolidated; or (to adopt the forcible words of a writert of the present day,) "Though the atoms of the universe may be weighed and measured, and every seeming accident shall be reduced to order and to rule, the reasons for adoring the Creator, and trusting in him, and obeying him, and for loving our neighbour as ourselves, will only be proportionally multiplied."

The combined powers of physical science, so far from being leagued in the vain attempt to expel the Sovereign of nature from his rightful dominion, on the contrary, are, in truth, firmly allied in the glorious

* Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 349.

+ Remarks on Demonstrative Reasoning, &c., by the Rev. E. Tagart, p. 127.

purpose of upholding the acknowledgment of his supremacy, and surrounding the throne of Omnipotence with the unceasing homage of the trophies they have achieved.

Natural science may be disparaged by some as the proud creation of human intellect, as beginning in presumption, and ending in irreligion, or at best, withdrawing us from what is spiritual to what is material. If, however, physical philosophy be human reason employed in investigating the material world, though the process may be of human origin, the subject-matter is not. Reason is but

art; but the

the instrument, and induction the materials are the universal creation. And if science be human, yet nature is divine; and the science of nature is but the rational evidence of God. But even intellect and science are his gifts, and the human mind his workmanship; when, therefore, we are able, by the exercise of these powers, to investigate his works, we are, ourselves, furnishing most recondite proofs of the fitness of his works one to another, and of the adaptation of the intellectual to the material order of things; and are but filling up an essential part in the universal harmony of his creation. When we devote our minds to the study of his works, we are but employing what He has bestowed, in his own service; we are but rendering back his own, it may be hoped "with increase."

If there be those who feel a disposition to undervalue inductive inquiry, (in the sense which we have

shown it essentially to bear,) who are inclined to disparage physical investigation, and declaim against the inferences of experience and analogy, and the presumption of reasonings grounded on the uniformity of natural causes; let such persons be persuaded to pause for a moment, and learn caution, by the consideration that in any censure cast upon such trains of inquiry, and such principles of rational speculation, they are, in fact, casting censure on the very elements of the great argument of natural theology. Let them recollect how intimately the one is wound up in the very texture of the other, and avoid the reproach not less of inconsistency than of ignorance, not less of irreligion than of folly, which must attach to those who, under the plea of defending religion, would thus sap the very foundation of its evidences.

SECTION IV.

THE RELATION OF NATURAL THEOLOGY, AND OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE, TO

REVELATION.

"Philosophia naturalis post verbum Dei, certissima superstitionis medicina est; eademque probatissimum fidei alimentum. Itaque, merito religioni donatur tanquam fidissima ancilla, cum altera voluntatem Dei, altera potestatem manifestat."

BACON.

"Cœlum enim materiatum et terram, qui in Verbo Dei quæsiverit, (de quo dictum est 'cœlum et terra pertransibunt, verbum autem meum non pertransibit,') is sanè transitoria inter æterna temerè persequitur. Quemadmodùm enim theologiam in philosophiâ quærere perinde est, ac si vivos quæras inter mortuos; ita contrà philosophiam in theologia quærere non aliud est, quam mortuos quærere inter vivos.”

BACON, (De Augm., ix.)

"He that takes away reason to make way for revelation, puts out the light of both; and does much the same as if we should persuade a man to put out his eyes the better to receive the light of an invisible star by a telescope." LOCKE, (Essay, iv. 19, 4.)

Introduction.

WE have thus far been examining the principles by which our study of external nature can alone be safely and conclusively carried on, so as to lead us, by sure stages of reasoning, to the sublime inferences of all-pervading design, of infinite wisdom and power; to the elevated and elevating apprehension of the

Divinity, in whom all those perfections centre, and from whom the entire order of nature emanates. We have seen that a primary persuasion of uniformity in nature is the guide to all our inductive investigations, and is universally confirmed by the appeal to experimental evidence, from which we ascend to laws and principles of successively higher generality and comprehensiveness. From such successive generalizations we arrive at the idea of secondary (or properly) physical causes; and from the contemplation of their uninterrupted order arises our conviction of universal design and intelligence in the adjustment of the natural creation: whence again our belief in the existence and perfections of the Creator or First Cause: the great source of that moral causation in which all physical causation originates. We have noticed the importance of keeping the order of this train of reasoning steadily in view; that is, if we would have our belief regulated by any rational principles. We have seen that it is absolutely essential to commence with purely physical investigation by the sole method of induction; and that any departure from this method, any reference to other grounds of belief, any attachment to preconceived notions, any appeal to the dictation of authority, are totally inadmissible, if we would preserve unbroken the course of rational evidence and deduction in this most important argument.

I have said "rational" proof, because (as has been already remarked,) there are many who dispa