have been brought up then under authority, and initiated in the elements of religion. You have been taught to acknowledge the existence and attributes of God; the relation of man to God; the law said to be written in man's heart;* the truth of Scripture; the natural state of man, a state of sin, that is transgression of God's law; the nature and extent of human responsibility; the existence of man in a future state; a judgment after death. These things, I say, you have received with child-like simplicity and docility upon the declarations of others. But now you are investigating the foundations of all belief; your mind has been turned to the appreciation of evidence: it will be therefore but a continuation of the same course of thought to inquire into the stability of your religion. When you shall have acknowledged such stability, you will have obtained a new illustration of principles which you have already been contemplating. Moreover the mat * Rom. ii. 15. See the Preface. Dugald Stewart speaks of the reverence due to "morality as the divine law, and to those essential principles of the human frame, which bear the manifest signature of the divine workmanship." Persius writes: Compositum jus fasque animo, sanctosque recessus ters proposed to you are of highest importance, and therefore worthy of most profound consideration. If you are convinced that what is alleged in regard to religion is true, your estimate of what is good and evil, and of the means proper to attain your ends, may and probably will be considerably modified; and thus again your religious meditations will aid you in the voyage on which you have embarked. But further, when you are convinced of the solidity of that basis on which rests your religious faith, fresh light (trust, we pray you, for a short time to mere authority) will probably burst upon your mind; and your difficulties in regard to other moral truths may be lessened or vanish." CHAPTER VII. RECOGNITION OF CERTAIN TRUTHS OF NATURAL RELIGION. So that our inquirer is now again reduced to a pause. He has been drawn aside, in what he may perhaps think the way of digression, to the consideration of questions, which in his outset he did not contemplate. The deep interest however of what is proposed, its natural connexion with his previous train of thought, and the hope of obtaining further knowledge in regard to matters which have already perplexed his mind, may probably move him to fresh meditation. "If the things alleged by teachers of religion, he may argue, are true, how certain it is that they are of immense importance not only to the world in general, but also personally and particularly to myself. While on the one hand religion holds out high privileges and advantages, and shews God as a friend and protector, on the other hand it denounces threatenings, and warns me against the attempts of a treacherous, invisible, and powerful adversary. What then are the evidences of religion? If it was in any way questionable to a man, whether he had or had not been appointed heir to an estate; or if he had ground for apprehension lest some grievous temporal calamity should befal him, some enemy oppress him; in either of these cases would he not make inquiry, if able so to do, in order that he might take measures for attainment or protection? In choosing the good, therefore, and rejecting the evil, I may not be content with the narrow range to which my thoughts have hitherto been confined: but it behoves me to consider the inferences which arise from the contemplation of my position with regard to God, no less than my relation to man : I must take into account the things of eternity as well as those of time." It is not necessary for our present purpose, to follow the inquirer into the details of evidence, which he now proceeds to investigate. Let us suppose that the proper books, Paley's Natural Theology, and others, are put into his hands. We may conceive him then, after some time and much scrutiny, to arrive at the certainty that God is that He is moreover such as He is represented to be, a Being of perfect truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence; that He is almighty and knows all things; that He created and still preserves, sustains, and governs the world; that again, man, having within him a natural approbation and love of truth, justice, benevolence, recognizes some things as essentially right and of good-desert, rejects others as wrong and of illdesert, and hereby shews the law of God written in his heart. Let the inquirer (I say) admit these things. An important investigation however still remains: the truth of Scripture is to be considered; and it may be well that as a preliminary he should again consider the weight of highly probable evidence. He now approaches this question in a state of mind better prepared than formerly, inasmuch as he appreciates things of which his ideas were once but indistinct, and is fully convinced of truths of which we shall presently see the bearing upon the matter in hand. |