ANALOGIES MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL. 293 



evidently unsound, as appears from this consideration 

 alone, — that, as every induction is relative to the 

 circumstances under which it is made, and as analogy 

 is only a substitute for induction, so also must 

 analogy express, or at least imply, that relation to 

 the altered circumstances which would have been 

 expressed, had the conclusion been directly obtained 

 by induction. And whether we are able to state 

 exactly the effect which these new circumstances 

 may produce, or can only allow for it by an implied 

 reference to them, the conclusion is equally logical, 

 since in either case we do not proceed beyond the 

 limits of the premises. It remains, however, to 

 ascertain whether the allowances which we make 

 for the peculiarities of each mode of divine instruc- 

 tion, in tracing out by analysis the common prin- 

 ciples into which they are ultimately resolvable, may 

 be identified with those variations in the facts of 

 each system, which might be anticipated in reason- 

 ing by analogy concerning the truths of Scripture, 

 from the data furnished by experience. For this is 

 necessary, in order to show that the facts of nature, 

 and the doctrines of Scripture, are really analogous 

 to each other. If the difference between a scriptural 

 truth, and its counterpart in the system of nature, 

 were greater or less than such as might be attributed 

 to the difference of circumstances, the scriptural 

 truth could not, in such a case, be regarded as a 

 conclusion from experience, nor could the Christian 

 religion be established as philosophically true.* 

 (203.) " While analogy is the happy instrument of 



* Hampden, p. 56. 



u 3 



