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N° 27.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10.

Πανία αλληλοις επιπλέκεται, και ἡ συνδεσις ιεςα. ΑNTONINUS PIUS.

All things are double, one against another; and God has made nothing imperfect. ECCLESIASTICUS, chap. xlii. ver. 24.

IT is fo long fince the fubject of Religion has

made its appearance in the LOOKER-on, that it may furely come boldly forward after such an interval, and challenge the attention of the gayeft of my readers. I have promised to prefent it in its livelieft drefs; fo that none of my fair disciples may blush at its homeliness, and so that it may decently enter the drawing-room of a Duchefs, or the levee of a Prince. I have before ́obferved, that for the fake of the loose form of the argument, and the variety of difcuffion it admitted, I have chofen to confider those analogies on which religion grounds its apology, and those beautiful refemblances, in the scheme of life and conftitution of Nature, to the course of Revelation, which develope and vindicate the glorious confiftency of our Maker's appointments, and the steadfast unity of his plans and counfels. In the progress of my lucubrations on this fubject, I fhall keep in view the conduct

of

of a book which has ever been my delight fince reading and reflecting have been my occupationI mean the mighty performance of Bishop Butler, to whose work if I could turn the attention of any ferious mind, my labours would be indeed recompensed.

That I may likewife lay my account fometimes to arreft a volatile and vagrant fpirit, that is spending itself in defultory pursuits, and give it a steady direction, I fhall intersperse my matter with anecdote and digreffion, as I fee opportunities; and while the main body of the argument marches onward under the conduct of the victorious Prelate, I fhall follow him up with my light-armed troops, fcouring the country, beating about for forage, and watching the motions of the enemy.

It is but justice that I fhould dedicate a little portion of this Paper to the confideration of a work to which it is so much indebted.

I know but few books, on any fubject, or in any language, that are not somewhat objectionable on the score of bulk and prolixity. Profit, vanity,

dotage,

dotage, habit, and facility, all help to perfuade an author to fwell out his publication as far as it will bear. But, in truth, the strength, the confiftency, the form, and the vivacity of an argument, lofe as much by the general propenfity to accumulate around it fuperfluous matter, as the muscular vigour of our bodies under the oppreffion of corpulency, and the weight of years. It is, however, the nature of probable evidence, of which the substance of this excellent volume confifts, to owe a principal part of its ftrength to an accumulation of inftances; and, according to the well-known principle in hydrostatics, the more its furface is enlarged, the greater will be the number of the columns on which it preffes, and confequently the greater its fupport. On this ground, the feeming repetitions of Bishop Butler stand excused to the fenfible part of his readers; fince it is the preffing concurrence and uniform bearing of its probabilities, that carries prefumptive testimony to the very confines of demonstration.

This elegant kind of reafoning in defence of Revelation, doubtless did not originate with the excellent author of this book. The correfpondence

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between the natural and moral difpenfations of God, has always been occurring to the studious and contemplative. Our great countryman was the first who prefented these analogies under one view, and digefted them into a regular and uniform plan of defence in behalf of our holy religion. An argument fo beautiful, and fo fertile, in favour of fo univerfal a caufe, could not but fuggeft itself to the most enlightened of the ancients; but as their notions of nature's laws were very far from the truth, the chain of analogy foon fell fhort; and every attempt to pursue the comparison to any length, foon perished in folecism and error. grand and boundless an investigation was referved for maturer and happier times, in which our Creator is pleased yet a little more to unveil his goodnefs, and yet a little further to draw afide the curtain from the fanctuary of his wifdom. Neither good fenfe nor difcretion have dictated the arguments which fome objectors have opposed to this reafoning from analogy in behalf of religion. To thofe whofe belief is implicitly grounded on the bafis of fcriptural authority, it holds out at least an innocent and delightful contemplation. While the ftrong pillar of their faith stands immovably firm,

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it cannot displease them to fee its beauties and proportions unfolded, and the rich order of its capital emerge from the mifts which furround it. To thofe who require external confiftency and connexion in the objects of their faith, it affords an evidence fatisfactory and confoling; while it impofes filence on those arrogant claimants who are fatisfied with nothing less than a clear and rational view of the whole internal conftitution and plan of God's Revelation, by forcing a conviction upon them, that their lives are paffed in the fame blindness and ignorance with respect to the things of this world, which they yet must acknowledge to exist, and to owe their origin and their order to the wifdom of God. The objections, therefore, which are founded on the incomprehenfibility of Revelation, should, in common justice, be first tried against the objects of our daily experience here they are overthrown by the evidence of our fenfes, and the obftinacy of facts: here we are conftrained to bow down the pride of our understandings; to acknowledge effects, without comprehending their caufes; to admit truths which we cannot explain; and to reft our reasonings on data that will ever disappoint our researches, while our views are bounded by mortality.

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