195 



NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



ALL natural reason and feeling, and all controversies 

 regarding the Deity, however disguised by words, in- 

 volve two distinct views, viz., that which regards him 

 as everywhere and at all times present, and acting in 

 all events ; and secondly, that which regards him as 

 personally or undividedly apart from those great laws 

 of universal nature which he primarily designed and 

 rendered active by his power. 



But here, as in many other matters beyond our 

 senses and reason, what are apparent opposites closely 

 approach each other. 1 The Deity, present and acting 

 throughout aH nature, becomes in effect the general 

 law. The general law, regarded in the sense of a fixed 

 and perpetual operation, usurps the place of the 

 Creator. The approximation here expresses the diffi- 

 culty, ever found, of escaping some form of pantheism, 

 when seeking to scale this high problem by reason 

 alone. Scrutinise severally the orthodox terms of 

 Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence, and 

 you feel yourself brought to the edge of the abyss 

 denoted by this single word. Oriental philosophy, and 

 that of the classical ages, came upon pantheism by the 



1 ' Les extremities se touchent, et se re"unissent a force de s'etre 

 e'loigne'es, et se retrouvent en Dieu et en Dieu seuleinent,' PASCAL. 



o 2 



