flow. To the right and left are the "lasting hills," whose woods supplied Tyre, in the height of its naval splendour, with the oaks of Bashan, upon which, in remoter times, the patriarch pitched his tent, and saw the sun set, and the day break over the mountains of Gilead.

THE HARMONY OF DIVINE OPERATION.

THERE is a perfect harmony between the existing facts of God's providential administration towards our world, and the representation given in the Scriptures of its condition as a fallen world;-how precisely the mingled state of suffering and enjoyment, of curse and blessing, which everywhere presents itself to the view of even the most superficial observer, corresponds with what we might, à priori, have anticipated, under the superintendence of a Being, who, though justly offended, still retained the benignity of his nature; the calamities and sufferings of mankind being the judicial visitations of his just displeasure against sin, while the variety and profusion of good enjoyed are the manifestations of lingering compassion for sinners,-the compassion of a Being, who "in wrath remembered mercy." While in this way the eternal principles of moral rectitude in Deity, the "light" and "love" of the Divine nature, are made apparent in His providential administration, there is a further harmony, no less beautiful and interesting, between this manifestation of them, and that still higher one, which it is the special purpose of revelation to make known. This harmony forms a delightful field of meditative contemplation; and, while it delights, it supplies conviction of most important truths, and especially of the identity of the God of providence

and the God of redemption,—of the God of nature and the God of revelation. The harmony of design and operation in the universe, is one of the arguments usually and satisfactorily urged in support of the great doctrine of the Divine Unity. In surveying and investigating the works of nature in all parts of the world, it is finely remarked by Dr. Paley,* “ We never get amongst such original or totally different modes of existence, as to indicate that we are come into the province of a different Creator, or under the direction of a different will. The same order of things attends us wherever we go." Now it has often occurred to me, that this mode of reasoning might be carried out a little further, on a principle similar to that on which Bishop Butler has constructed his admirable "Analogy." If the discovery, in every department of nature, of the same great principles of operation, satisfactorily proves the whole to have been the contrivance and the work of one Mind ;-if, in traversing the universe, we have everywhere the marks of identity in the creating and superintending Intellect, so as never to feel that we are come into the province of a different Creator, or under the direction of a different will;" let us take another step,-let us pass from nature and providence to revelation, and try whether we do not still trace marks of the same identity,-indications no less striking and satisfactory, that the discoveries of the Gospel come from the same Being who framed and governs the universe, and, especially, who conducts the providential administration of our own world. It is quite obvious, that there must be a har

66

* Nat. Theol. chap. xxv.

mony between the lessons of nature and providence, and the lessons of revelation. If they come from the same God, they cannot be at variance. If they relate to the procedure of the same God, the plans and acts ascribed to him in the latter, cannot fail to be in accordance with the principles of character which are shewn to belong to him by the former. The two volumes of discovery must, in this respect, correspond with each other. I am far from meaning that revelation is no more than an authoritative republication to mankind of the lessons of nature; -an hypothesis, than which it is not easy to imagine anything more unreasonable. But, even in those parts of the Divine administration which are peculiar to revelation, and which it is the special province and design of revelation to unfold, there must be nothing contrary to the intimations of the Divine character conveyed in nature and in providence.

It is in one point only that we can touch this interest-ing subject. I have no argument with the man, who can peruse the Bible without finding and acknowledging that its grand peculiarity is the discovery of a scheme of redemption and restoration for our fallen race. I enter not into any discussion of the means which this scheme unfolds for accomplishing the end ;—although I am sensible the consideration of them would materially aid the development of my present point. I simply ask, What are the lights in which the formation and execution of the purpose of saving man place the Divine character? The salvation itself, avowed in the real purpose of God, is a salvation from guilt and punishment, to pardon and life, and from the pollution and degradation of sin, to the beauty, and dignity, and felicity of holiness. The

points of view in which it most conspicuously sets forth the character of God are two,-his purity and his mercy. It affirms with equal emphasis, by practical manifestation, "God is light," and "God is love." Now this double view of the Divine character is precisely what we are taught respecting it by the true state of things in nature and in providence. There the Supreme Ruler appears, first, as hating sin; his hatred of it being attested in every form of suffering to which the world is subject: and secondly, as benevolent and beneficent to his creatures, even in the very midst of their trespasses, "kind unto the unthankful and to the evil," pouring down the showers of His blessing on the thankless soil, that yields Him nothing in return but briers and thorns. When, therefore, having found, in all the departments of nature, the indications of the Divine unity, we pass from these into the region of redemption, do we feel (to use the language of Paley) as if now we had come "into the province of a different Being, and under the direction of a different will"? No ;-no more than in passing from one department in creation to another. There is still one God. The God of redemption is the same as the God of creation and of providence. The volume of salvation reads us the very same lessons concerning him, as those that are read by us in the volume of nature,-only more clearly, and more impressively; lessons of his righteousness and of his mercy-of his light and of his love.

It is a beautiful image, by which Cudworth demonstrates, from the harmony of the universe, the necessary origination of the whole, in all its variety of parts, from one all-comprehensive mind :-" As he that hears