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PREFACE.

THE Hulsean Lectures contained in the present Volume were not written so much with the view of defending Revealed Religion from objections said to be drawn from modern Science, as to shew that Revealed Religion and the Scheme of Nature, physical and social, are in correlation the one to the other, and form the continuity of one Divine plan. After reviewing the vast and unexpected results of modern investigations, they seem to me to be just so many contributions to the indirect evidences of the Christian Faith; the lines of discovery all converging to one point, and indicating that the God of Nature and He Who is revealed as God in the Old and the New Testament, are one and the same.

For instance, the deposition of the Coal-fields in ages past, practically formed one long continuous prophecy of the advent of an intelligent being who, in the fullness of time, was to receive the command, 'Subdue the Earth.' Then again the curious formation of many of the marbles, and gems, and minerals, was surely the prolepsis, or the prophecy,

of a being endued with an acute apprehension of the glory and the beauty of colour and of form. Moreover, the relations of all nature, animated and inorganic, and the observable yet complicated motions of the heavenly bodies, are all correlated to the marvellous intellectual faculties of Man, who is placed in their midst, and is to render them subservient to his necessities, his convenience, or his enjoyment. I have pointed out how the very existence of such faculties is a prophecy of their immortality.

Nevertheless, from the time of Galileo to the present day, devout and well informed men, perhaps even the majority of devout men, have been troubled more or less with the apprehension, that physical enquiries are not friendly to those religious convictions which they not unreasonably hold dearer than life itself. In the following Lectures, I have not entered upon the cause or causes of these ill founded apprehensions, but I have endeavoured to shew from the very nature of the case, how groundless they are, and ever must be.

And this I have endeavoured to do, not by building up an imaginary or theoretical state of things, but by urging that we may see from the sacred records themselves, how the Divine Method actually adopted has been, to reveal to man only so much of the nature and will of God, as His creatures at the time could bear; and, even under

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this limitation, to reveal such things only, as were beyond the reach of man's faculties to discover for himself. Principles of Relativity and of Economy of Action, appear to have governed the Divine procedure in the Revelations contained in the Sacred books; they are up to, and not beyond, the capacity of the recipient, and never exceed the necessities of the case. The same principles also are very observable in the teachings and miracles of Christ.

These things being so, that is to say, these principles of Relativity and Economy of Action being true principles actually carried out; moreover the Divine Revelation of the Gospel having actually superseded the Revelation of the Mosaic Economy, itself equally Divine; it appears to me that both the Theologian and the Investigator of Nature, are, at the least, quite as much detached from the Revelation given to the Patriarchs, as they assuredly are detached from the Revelation of the Mosaic Dispensation. Viewed in this light, the Revelations of the Science of the day, afforded by the righteous use of God's natural gifts, can no more come into collision with the Science (if there be such) in the patriarchal revelations, than the Gospel can come into collision with the Mosaic Economy. In each dispensation, the old things have passed away; each was perfect in its own relativity; each had its own divine beneficent work to do; but that work is done.

There is a continuity in the relativity of these Divine revelations.

And this I think is a fair and reasonable reply to any objections which may be drawn from the presumed incompatibility of the Mosaic Cosmogony with the disclosures of modern knowledge. I think it is sufficient to remove those apprehensions on the score of religion, felt by many devout persons, and of which I have already spoken; and, what is more important still, I think the consideration of Relativity and of Economy of the Divine Action, completely detach Theology and Science from each other, each leaving the other free to pursue the investigations proper to itself, not only without latent fear of mutual contradiction, but with the conviction that the truths of each center in Him, and will one day be seen to center in Him, Who is the Truth itself.

If I shall have succeeded in convincing other minds as I have convinced my own, that there is no necessary bond between the Science of modern times and the Science of the Patriarchal Dispensation, then I might reasonably be excused from adding more. There are however many devout persons who will still ask, Is it true that the Revelations in the Mosaic Cosmogony are not in accordance with modern knowledge? The proper and sufficient reply, appears to me to be this: How could you expect them to be wholly accordant? The Divine

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