THE CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION WITH HUMAN REASON

1·16.8 MB·English

by  N.A

The connishoney” of
Revedabion with Jmen Rosson

CONSISTENCY OF REVELATION

wrt

HUMAN REASON.

CHAPTER 1.

The sentimonte of Religion naterat 40 the fiWmax hvart—Thes
Natural Reason wnequal to the Tevestigation of remate Religious
Pruth——d Kevelation is therefore neccosary-—Thr aatheuticity
of ony preermed Revelation to be deterseined wpon according to
estrrnal tac saiernal Bekeltnce—-Chetetionity the only agate of
Relighous Belief which ie expported dy any mubstaatlat sookght
of pragf.

ALL modifications of religioys belief are, or at least
profers to be, sdtutions, so far as our means of
formation extend, of the apparent anomalids dis-
cernible in the worke of Divine Providence, As,
then, that religion can only be the true one which
really accorda with those,acknowledged facts in the
physical and moral unteae, which are establiched
by positive experiment; i necessarily follows, that
Be
2 eommarency or ezvaiation — [oxar,

ths true course for arriving at a correct system of
belief, ts that of studying our own nature carefully
and impartially under every possible aspect; of nscer-
‘taining Ste real aud most prominent wants, and of
determining which of the many theories offered to its
choice, most satiafactorily accounts for the numerous
perplexing circumstances which the most enrsory
survey cannot fail to recognize in the existing order
of nature. ‘The Christian dispensation will, we con-
ceive, be found upon enquiry, to be the one which
best—it would, in fact, bo no exaggeration to say,
which exelusively—answers to this test; and to shew
that it doca eo, will be the object of the following ob-
servations. The question thus proposed for discus-
sion is one of experiment, in the atrictest meaning of
the term ; the basis of the argument being not what a
speculative imagination might suppose the constitution
of the universe to have been, had God so willed it, bur
whatitactually and demonstrably is. The conclusion
at which, ofcourse, we hope to arrive, will be, that upon
that practical basis no cqtsiatent aystem of theological
bolief can bo erected, excepting that for the posses-
sion of which we are indebted to the Jewish and
Christian Scriptures, If those remote and mysterious
conclusions, which we derive from that Divino source,
are found strietly to barmonize in all their parts with
the facts previously established by the native facul-
ties of our minds, the probebility in favor of its pre-
a
x seer wuaw meaner 3

sumed authenticity ia at once established :—-if every
other possible attempt st explicstion i» found, upon
examination, either to mis-state the primary Graths of
the constitution of nature, ar to fail in socounting for
any of ita startlhig anomalies, the probability thus
assumed will amount ‘to little short of certainty.
Such is theposition which we trunt that the Christian
Htevelation’ wii be found to octupy, if impartially
examinvd, in the first place, as a aystem of doctrines
consistent with itself, and with the acknowledged
course of nature; and, vecondly, when contrasted
with those various theories which have, from time to
time, been urged by ingenious men in opposition to
it. ‘Tho question, wo repent, ia one of strict experi-
ment; and being such, we shall commence our ob-
servations by advancing such assertions only as pro-
bably no religionista of whatever denomination will
hesitate in admitting,

No one fact, then, connected with the circum-
stances of human nature would seem to bu more
completely established by experience than that con-
tained in ‘the Scriptural aphorism, that the heatt of
man is evil from his youth. ‘This evil tendency in
conspiewous, not merely in the gross vices and fero-
cious habits of the savage, or in the unsubdued pas-
sions of the comparntively ignorant members of more
civilized communities, but under every, the most
Hausible modification of society in its highest state of

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