are hereby defended against slanderers, and the vitious are often brought to deferved punishment. As we thus Judge with great probability of the moral conduct of mankind by analogy, and thereby difcover their real defigns; fo may we also, with great probability, judge of the divine will, from that beautiful and copious analogy discoverable in all his works.-The works of GoD are either natural or moral. Such things as are void of all freedom of choice in themselves, are called natural works; but fuch as are endued with reafon to judge, and a will to choose, are called moral: The former act neceffarily according to certain Laws affixed in their natures; the latter act freely, with regard to the divine Laws, howfoever the knowledge of them may be conveyed, and are therefore accountable for their behaviour. Now that which may lead us to the knowledge of many of the Laws of GOD, as rules of behaviour to free creatures, is Analogy: And this Analogy lies not only, between the feveral claffes of intelligent beings, or moral agents, but also between them and natural productions. We may not only argue from the fuppofed conduct of Angels, to convince men of the obligation to holinefs of life, and chearful obedience to the divine laws, as our Saviour has taught us, in commanding us to pray, that the will of God may be done upon Earth, as it is in Heaven; but we may argue by analogy from temporal concerns to fpiritual; from the known conduct of men in one cafe, to the obligation of a fimilar conduct in another; and even from the regularity of natural phænomena, to the nature of moral duties; and draw proofs of the divine will, from the analogy of his purposes in the material world, compared with thofe of the moral. It will be proper to give inftances of both these kinds of analogy. Firft, of the analogy between temporal and spiritual concerns. If men ufe their Understanding and Will in temporal temporal concerns, fo ought they in fpiritual; if they act in one cafe upon probabilities, attended with many objections, fo ought they in the other; if they even act in fome temporal Inftances against probability, upon account of fome great poffible emolument to arife from it; fo ought they in religious concerns, though they appear improbable: If men forego a prefent temporal advantage, for the fake of a greater future temporal benefit; fo fhould they forego all temporal advantages, for an eternal fpiritual reward, when that eternal reward cannot be obtained any other Way: If men are actually rewarded and punifhed in many inftances obfervable in the experience of the world, for particular virtues and vices; they should also believe, that the governor of the world will eternally reward, and punish, a total virtuous and a total vicious habit, in another state of things: If men own, that natural evils are propagated, and that the Grandchild, or later defcendant, does often fuffer, in mind, and body, for the vices of a Parent; why fhould not they own, that móral Stains may defcend too, and that all mankind may be tainted by the fin of their common parent? This is analogical reasoning, and must be allowed to be a proper foundation, whereon to eftablish fimilar truths, and oblige mankind either to give up all principle of action, founded upon Judg ment and election, or to act confiftently upon it, in all fimilar cafes. If we examine the reasoning which our Saviour made ufe of, we shall find most of it of this kind. When he has a mind to recommend fpiritual hufbandry, he does it by the parable of the fteward: When he recommends watchfulness in religion, he does it by the ftory of the ten virgins: When he means to be understood of fpiritual diftributions, he explains himself by temporal talents, and an earthly king: When he defigns to exhort to repentance, and to fhew the compaffion of our Heavenly Fa ther, ther, he does it by the parable of the prodigal fon returning to his father in a penitent state of mind. And in the fame manner, upon many other occafions, arguments from analogy are applied with infinite force. If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your father, which is in Heaven, give good gifts to them, that afk him? This kind of reafoning alfo holds between the material and fpiritual world, inftances of which fhall be given. Although matter be intirely diftinct from, and inferior to Spirit, being in itself inert, and incapable of action, yet very capable of being acted upon; the motions, the appearances, and va rious changes of the material fyftem, being the effect of fome intelligent Spirit, the mind and purposes of that Spirit may not improbably be gathered from them. Could we believe, as fome have done, that the planets were endued with intelligence, we could not but admire their wifdom: But fince we know, that they are void of all intelligence themfelves, and move by the direction of one infinite in telligence, our adoration is properly directed thi ther; and we analogically infer, that the author of order and regularity in the heavenly bodies, muft alfo love it, and therefore requires it, in moral be ings, whether angels or men.-When we obferve in the material world, that most things tend to effect natural good, and that there are plain marks of things having been once in another and a better ftate; we infer analogically the fame of moral beings And fince natural good and evil are only fo, with relation to fome beings which are capable of perceiving them, as fuch; hence it is reasonable to infer, that natural good and evil have been always the concomitants of moral good and evil; and that the latter were the occafion of the former! And further, fince every artift loves to exhibit to D view view, fuch works as are the effects of the beft of his skill, and a credit to the artificer; fo the divine author of the universe probably, at firft, fashioned things in a better order, than we at prefent find them: And the alteration of that order must not have been owing to any defect of care in the fupreme author, but to the perverseness of free creatures, who abufed their liberty. Hence alfo, when a man looks abroad into the natural evils of the world, and fees the waste of things by heat, or cold, drought or moisture, by inundations, hurricanes, and earthquakes; he should alfo look into himfelf, and inquire for the moral caufes of fuch things; which may lead him to many useful fentiments, neceffary to a found belief of that revelation, which gives us a fair account of the concomitancy of moral and natural evil; For man was at firft created upright, and the world was made beautiful for its inhabitant: He finned, and was then undeserving of fo noble a dwelling; therefore his habitation was rendered lefs comfortable, and the earth was made as productive of thorns and thiftles, as human nature was of immoralities. Mankind increased in Sin, fo as to deserve a total de→ struction, except one Family: Upon this they were deftroyed, and the whole furface of the earth was again altered by a general flood.The righteous family, which furvived, poffeffed a better earth, productive of fruits with lefs toil than the former, yet ftill fubject to many natural evils: Which earth fhall at laft be destroyed by fire, when the wicked fhall be doomed to eternal fire, and a more glorious earth fhall be made for the habitation of the righteous. Thus do moral and natural evils go hand in hand: As perfect morality, and a beautiful earth, began this order of things; fo fhall perfect morality, and a beautiful earth, end them. And thus may we argue analogically from natural good and evil, to to moral good and evil; and that in other inftan ces as well as this. We obferve all through nature a viciffitude, a decay or ceffation of natural powers, and a restora tion of them; a kind of death, and a revivifcence. Moft creatures have alternate times for fleep and waking, and moft countries have change of feafons; night fucceeds day, and day returns the cold feafon fucceeds the warm, and the warm returns The vegetables flourish; autumnal blasts strip them of their leaves, and ftop their growth, and all na tural functions feem to be at an end: The fpring, in its turn, rouses stupid nature, and all things bloom afresh: The reptile feafts upon the produce of nature during the plenty of Summer; in the Wins ter he becomes a Chryfalis, and lies in his hard cloathing like a coffin; till the vernal fun awakes him, or rather raifes him from a state of death: The birds, enjoying themselves one part of the year, lie buried in decayed trees, and antient walls, the rest of it, and come forth again in their seasons. Moft animals lie, as it were, intombed in their mo thers, and their birth is a rifing from death.-Shall all nature thus be fubject to this viciffitude of death, and a refurrection, and man alone be excepted? No: The analogy of things teaches us, that the human body fall rife again, and revelation affures us of it. If man's fleep be a little longer than that of his kindred creatures, fo fhall be the life, to which he rifes: They awake to fport for a season, he shall be raised to eternal pleasure. This argument from natural phænomena, for a refurrection of the body, appeared to St. Paul worth infifting upon; when, from the nature of vegetation in a grain of wheat, he argues very juftly to the nature of our bodily refurrection. Whereas moft feeds confist of two, and many of more lobes, it is peculiar to corn to have but one: And whereas the lobes of other feeds generally rife above the ground D 2 |