the voice of Jesus of Nazareth? And conversely, does not his repeated declaration, that the care of his Father in heaven extends even to the minutest objects and events, for "the very hairs of your head are all numbered," render the natural proofs of this doctrine more cogent and acceptable? Natural and Revealed Religion, then, mutually depend upon and strengthen each other.

But the latter adds something to our knowledge; besides clearing up the prospect, it widens the view., It dissipates the darkness which the natural eye cannot penetrate; for it opens the portals of the tomb, and exposes to mortal vision the endless life that lies beyond. Two things are necessary for right conduct,

to know what our duty is, and to be persuaded to act in conformity to it. The former is fully provided for by the present constitution of things. The law is written upon the heart in characters that we cannot mistake, and its authority is proclaimed in the depths of our consciousness by a voice to which we must listen. Still, obedience is voluntary, temptations abound, and the appetites which stir this mortal frame, with the passions that keep the spirit in activity, wage a fearful war with the requisitions of conscience. We need helps to obedience; the inducements to right conduct must be strengthened by a fuller view of the consequences of sin. Transgression, indeed, brings its own bitter fruits along with it even in this world; but our existence here is but a span, and the soul which has disregarded the authority of the law may be indifferent also to its terrors, if our life is to terminate at the grave. But open the view beyond it, and let sin be seen bearing its own burden through an endless futurity, and even the most frivolous and the most perverse will be induced to pause and reflect. Nothing is revealed in this respect for the mere gratification of a vain curiosity. We know not how we shall be employed, with what bodies we shall be clothed, or how far the relations in which we stand to each other in this life will be preserved. But we do know, since we have received assurance of it from Him who spake as never man spake, that the same righteous God presides over both states of being, and will

administer that which is to come upon the same principles of justice, mercy, and love, which appear in his government of this world's affairs. Then, to our eyes, the scheme of his providence, which is but imperfectly seen and understood here, shall be visible as a whole, and we shall know even as we are known.

LECTURE XII.

THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE OF A REVEALED RELIGION.

THE relation of Natural to Revealed Religion was the subject of my last Lecture. I endeavoured to show, that the latter was not a mere republication of the former; for, besides adding to it the certain knowledge of a future life, a fact of greater interest to human beings than any other truth whatever, the being of a God alone excepted, it first announced those great doctrines which are now included under the title of Natural Religion, and which human reason is competent to prove, though it was not competent to discover. What now seems to us both obvious and demonstrable has often baffled the ingenuity and research of enlightened nations for centuries, before it was first made known or generally recognized as a principle in science or a rule in conduct. Natural Religion coincides, as far as it goes, with the doctrines of Revelation; it comprises that portion - far the larger portion of these doctrines which is susceptible of proof from the light of reason and nature, without appealing to the authority of the Author of the revelation. Instead of Natural Religion, then, it ought to be called the natural evidence, or proof from the light of nature, of the greater part of Revealed Religion. The instance of mathematical science is enough to show, that truths of great comprehensiveness and importance, which are necessary or demonstrable, which, in fact, are reducible to identical propositions, may still be so recondite and difficult of discovery, that the finest minds may be successively employed for

ages in laborious study before they can be ascertained and established. And even now, these truths are taught to the learner; that is, they are revealed to him as antecedent discoveries, and he is not left slowly to grope his own way towards them in the painful path of original investigation. When once revealed, the school-boy can demonstrate them.

Applying these general remarks to our particular subject, I remarked that polytheism is natural religion; that is, polytheism is the first and natural product of the religious sentiment and the unenlightened intellect. Reason shows that this is the probable result; history proves that it was the actual result. The doctrine of the existence of one God, the Creator and righteous Governor of heaven and earth, first had place in the religious system of the Jews, a people so peculiar in character, so inferior in intellectual power and cultivation to the nations which surrounded them, and which were sunk in polytheism and idolatry, that their belief in monotheism is inexplicable, unless we admit the truth of their history, which declares that it was the fruit of revelation. The contrast between the Decalogue and the Psalms, on the one hand, and the poems of Homer and Hesiod, with the sculptured gods of Egypt and India, on the other, is so glaring and marvellous, that no hypothesis but that of a special interposition of God in the affairs of the Jews will solve the mystery. The Jews were emphatically a God-guided people; their character, their opinions, their history, their present condition, are inexplicable facts, when not viewed in their religious aspect, and with the eye of faith. They are, in some sort, the living witnesses of the miracles that are recorded of their nation. They were always children in matters of faith, -wayward and stubborn children, They discovered

too, slow to learn and quick to forget. nothing for themselves; they were not given to speculation, either in philosophy, theology, or ethics. But the vital features of their religion have stood the test of three thousand years; and they triumph still, for they belong to Christianity. And the bulk of mankind are still, what the Jews were, children in matters of faith. They are not capable of working out for themselves a

scheme of Natural Religion; with them, the choice lies between Revealed Religion, skepticism, and idolatry.

There is no antecedent presumption against Christianity, then, on the ground that a revelation is not needed. Reasoning upon the nature of the case shows, what is also demonstrated by the history of mankind, that without miraculous interposition and special instruction, the human race, even under the most favorable circumstances, gives itself up to false doctrines, false gods, corrupt morals, and a sinful and unhappy life. The antecedent presumption, therefore, runs the other way; it is in favor of a revelation. If the Deity is infinitely benevolent, we must expect that he will interpose to rescue man from degradation and sin, — to put him upon the right path, and then leave him to follow it or not, at his own good pleasure. It is no more incredible, that what are called the laws of nature should be interrupted for the instruction of man, than that they should be first established and generally maintained for his instruction. The latter we have proved to be the case by irrefragable arguments drawn from the light of nature; we look, then, with equal confidence, for the former supposition to be realized. If the Deity is always present in the material universe, vivifying, guiding, and moving all, we look also for his constant presence in his moral creation, to warn, to teach, and to govern mankind. And as the history of the brute earth, through its geological epochs, shows that the preserving agency, though uniform, is not mechanical or blind in its operation, but that one mode of action is, after long intervals, substituted for another, the continuance of animal and vegetable species in the natural way being interrupted after a given time, the old species destroyed, and new races, new orders of being, introduced, so we must expect that the history of man, or the annals of the moral universe, will show similar periodic exertions of Divine power and wisdom, the old mode of action, after a certain period, giving place to a new one, and the ancient dispensation being replaced by another, which, for this later time and for the altered circumstances of the case, is a more perfect manifestation of Divine holiness and love.