RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 253 



have already endeavoured to impress upon the 

 reader, of a wise and benevolent Creator of the 

 physical world. This we shall endeavour to do 

 in the present book. 



At the same time that men have thus learnt to 

 look upon God as their Governor and Judge, the 

 source of their support and reward, they have 

 also been led, not only to ascribe to him power 

 and skill, knowledge and goodness, but also to 

 attribute to him these qualities in a mode and 

 degree excluding all limit : to consider him as 

 almighty, allwise, of infinite knowledge and in- 

 exhaustible goodness ; every where present and 

 active, but incomprehensible by our minds, both 

 in the manner of his agency, and the degree of 

 his perfections. And this impression concerning 

 the Deity appears to be that which the mind 

 receives from all objects of contemplation and all 

 modes of advance towards truth. To this con- 

 ception it leaps with alacrity and joy, and in this 

 it acquiesces with tranquil satisfaction and grow- 

 ing confidence ; while any other view of the 

 nature of the Divine Power which formed and 

 sustained the world, is incoherent and untenable, 

 exposed to insurmountable objections and in- 

 tolerable incongruities. We shall endeavour to 

 show that the modes of employment of the 

 thoughts to which the well conducted study of 

 nature gives rise, do tend, in all their forms, to 

 produce or strengthen this impression on the 



