place of probation, and the revelation of the gospel not at all in keeping with the revelation of nature. Are the great truths of natural religion written upon the heavens? Are the common maxims of temperance, and integrity, and benevolence, forced upon the attention of all? Instead, therefore, of finding, in the unobtrusive nature of the evidence and claims of Christianity, an argument against it, I find, in these very circumstances, an argument that it is from that God who has caused the light of natural religion, and even the light of science, to exist in the world under precisely the same conditions.

5. I observe, that Christianity is in harmony with the works of God, because it is a system of means.* It is asked, by some, if God wishes the holiness of men, why he does not make them holy at once; and that he should take a long course of means, to accomplish his wish, is objected to as derogatory both to his power and to his wisdom. But, surely, I need not say that all nature is a system of means that the end to be accomplished never is accomplished without the means, and that those means often require the lapse of ages before this end is obtained. No doubt God could create a tree at once in its full perfection; but, instead of this, he causes it to germinate from a little seed, and makes his sun shine upon it, and waters it with showers, and subjects it to the vicissitudes of the seasons, (during portions of which it seems to make no progress,) till, at length, it towers towards heaven, and defies the storms of ages. So the kingdom of heaven in the soul is like a grain of mustard-seed, which is

Butler's Analogy, part 2, chap. 4.

indeed the least of all seeds; but God causes it to spring up, and shines upon it with the light of his countenance, and waters it with the dews of his grace, till it becomes a plant bearing fruit in the garden of God. And yet those who believe that nature is of God, object to the gospel because of the very circumstances in which it harmonizes with his other works.

And here I mention a ground of misapprehension which is common to nature and to Christianity. A system of means implies the gradual development of a plan, and of course the plan must present very different aspects to those who view it in its different stages. There are some processes in nature that could not have been understood in the first periods of the world. Thus the periods and motions of some of the heavenly bodies were so obscure and complicated, that it required the observation and study of near six thousand years to understand and reduce them to system; and the eye of the philosopher who scanned those bodies before such observations could be made, must have remained unsatisfied and perplexed. He saw the light of the bodies, and walked in it; but he could not understand the philosophy and harmony of their motions. So it is with Christianity. While it gives freely the practical light which is necessary to our guidance, men have been very differently situated in regard to their opportunities of judging of its philosophy. Respecting this they have judged, and still judge, very differently, and probably none of them, in all points, correctly. They are not yet in the right position. Place a man in the sun, and he will be an astronomer at once. His position will enable him to see the motions of the planets just as they are. And Christianity speaks of just

such a point, in relation to itself and the moral government of God, where every man will hereafter be placed. It speaks of a "day of the restitution of all things." In the mean time, those who refuse to be governed by the practical light of Christianity, because they cannot understand certain points of its philosophy, pursue the same course as those philosophers who lived before the time of Newton would have done, if they had shut their eyes upon the light of the moon because they could not understand its motions.

6. I observe, that Christianity is analogous to the system of nature because it is a remedial system. When the body is diseased, when a limb is broken, when gangrene commences, nature does not certainly leave the man to perish. She has provided a remedial system; and if the proper remedies are applied in season, the man may be restored. Now, what this remedial system is in the course of nature, Christianity is in the moral government of God. It comes to us in the same way, not as to the whole, but as to the sick, and offers us assistance upon similar conditions. The man who is sick must have sufficient faith in the remedy to give it a fair trial, and so must he who would be benefited by Christianity. The remedial system of nature often requires the suffering of great present pain, that greater future pain may be avoided; and Christianity requires self-denials and sacrifices which are so difficult, that they are compared to the cutting off of a right hand, and the plucking out of a right eye. The remedial system of nature does not free the sick man at once from all the painful consequences

• Butler, part 2, chap. 3.

of his disease. He suffers, and, it may be, lingers long under it, in spite of the best remedies. So he who receives Christianity does not escape at once all the painful consequences of sin. He suffers and dies on account of it; but the remedy is sovereign, and through it he shall finally be delivered from sin altogether, and restored to perfect moral soundness. Nature makes no distinctions. The pains which she inflicts are as severe, and the remedies which she offers are as bitter, to one as to another. Christianity, also, is entirely impartial. All who receive it must receive it on the same humbling terms, and, upon all who will not receive it, it denounces the same fearful punishment. Under this head, therefore, we find a very close analogy between the mode of administration in nature and that which is revealed by Christianity.

7. I observe, that Christianity is analogous to the system of nature because it is a mediatorial system. In mentioning this, I do not intend to enter upon any controverted ground, for all admit that, through the sufferings and death of Christ, voluntarily undergone, we receive at least great temporal benefits; and what I contend for is, that, whether we confine his interposition and mediation to this low sense, or suppose it the sole ground of pardon, still the principle, as one of mediation, is not changed, and is in accordance with what constantly passes under our notice in the natural government of God. "The world," says Butler, "is a constitution, or system, whose parts have a mutual reference to each other; and there is a scheme of things gradually carrying on, called the course of nature, to the carrying on of which God has appoint

ed us in various ways to contribute. And when, in the daily course of natural providence, it is appointed that innocent people should suffer for the faults of the guilty, this is liable to the very same objection as the instance we are now considering. The infinitely greater importance of that appointment of Christianity, which is objected against, does not hinder, but it may be, as it plainly is, an appointment of the very same kind as that which the world affords us daily examples of." "Men, by their follies, run themselves into extreme distress and difficulties, which would be absolutely fatal to them were it not for the interposition and assistance of others. God commands, by the law of nature, that we afford them this assistance, in many cases where we cannot do it without very great pains, and labor, and suffering to ourselves. And we see in what variety of ways one person's sufferings contribute to the relief of another, and how this follows from the constitution and laws of nature which come under our notice; and, being familiarized to it, men are not shocked with it. So that the reason of their insisting upon objections of the foregoing kind against the satisfaction of Christ, is, either that they do not consider God's settled and uniform appointments as his appointments at all, or else they forget that vicarious punishment is an appointment of every day's experience." As therefore evils, and great evils, and such as we could not of ourselves avoid, are so often averted from us, in the providence of God, by the interposition of our fellowcreatures, so it is in perfect harmony with that providence to suppose that greater evils, otherwise unavoidable, might be averted by the interposition of the Son of God.