500 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE LATE REV. DR CHALMERS. 



of human intellects. In the dedication of his Bridgewater Treatise to the BisHor 

 of London, he thus expressed his admiration : "I have derived greater aid from 

 the views and reasonings of Bishop Butlee, than I have been able to find besides 

 in the whole range of our existent authorship." On one occasion, when some 

 person present was animadverting upon the wealth of the Church of England, and 

 gave, as an example of its over-abundance, the revenues of the See of Durham, the 

 Doctor exclaimed, with characteristic eagerness, " Sir, if aU that has been re- 

 ceived for the Bishopi'ic of Durham since the foundation of the See, were set down 

 as payment for Butler's Analogy, I should esteem it a cheap purchase." We are 

 not to consider his admiration of Butler's works as proceeding from the same- 

 ness or resemblance of their mode of reasoning, but rather from the difference. 

 Butler excogitated masses of profound thought, and left them nearly as raw ma- 

 terial, costly indeed, but not elaborated for use, except for the purpose of furnishing 

 him with examples of amdogy between natural and revealed theology. Chalmers 

 found, in this storehouse, abundant substance for practical application to the busi- 

 ness and improvement of life. He polished and carved, and adjusted the stone 

 which he had dug from the quarry. And thus, both as an able quarryman, and 

 as an accomplished dresser, he has erected graceful, durable, and useful edifices 

 for mankind. His method of exhibiting truths, in so many and in such attractive 

 positions, has deeply impressed the minds of thousands, not only of those who 

 were amongst his stated hearers as pupils, but amongst readers of his works ge- 

 nerally. Although Dr Chaljiers' mode of treating his subjects was such as I 

 have described, and though his usual mode of handling was to exhibit one great 

 and leading topic, illustrated and enforced with all the profusion and imagery of 

 a rich fancy and a powerful imagination, we should, at the same time, observe 

 that the method is frequently applied with great ability, and with great effect in 

 liringing forward two ideas where one is required to check or modify an exclusive 

 attention to the other. Thus, for instance, in his Sermons, though he dwells upon 

 the doctrine of the corruption of human nature, and the utter insufficiency of all 

 mere natural efforts to merit the Divine favour, and to claim a reward at God's 

 liand, he runs, as it were, parallel with this great truth another truth, equally im- 

 portant and equally authoritative, viz., that virtue in itself is beautiful, that the 

 generous affections and good feelings must not be undervalued or depreciated, 

 but are, in fact, deskable and estimable in their own place and their own charac- 

 ter, and require only the right motives to render them acceptable. I know no 

 writer who has more successfully elaborated this important subject. He has shewn 

 the harmony and consistency of the two doctrines. He has upheld and vindicated 

 the dignity and the loveliness of virtue. He has cut away all ground of merit and of 

 liuman dessert before God. In the same manner, as a predestinarian, he has ably 

 and powerfully (in some instances sternly) put forward the proofs of God's pre- 

 science and omnipotence over all his works ; but, in conjunction with that great 

 truth, he has upheld, with unflinching fidelity, the necessity of human exertion, 



