358 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



thus expresses himself in his "Confession of 

 Faith:" "I believe that notwithstanding God 

 hath rested and ceased from creating since the 

 first Sabbath, yet, nevertheless, he doth accom- 

 plish and fulfil his divine will in all things, great 

 and small, singular and general, as fully and 

 exactly by providence, as he could by miracle 

 and new creation, though his working be not 

 immediate and direct, but by compass; not 

 violating Nature, which is his own law upon the 

 creature." 



And one of our own time, whom we can no 

 longer hesitate to place among the worthiest dis- 

 ciples of the school of Bacon, conveys the same 

 thought in the following passage : " The Divine 

 Author of the universe cannot be supposed to 

 have laid down particular laws, enumerating all 

 individual contingencies, which his materials 

 have understood and obey this would be to 

 attribute to him the imperfections of human le- 

 gislation ; but rather, by creating them endued 

 with certain fixed qualities and powers, he has 

 impressed them in their origin with the spirit, 

 not the letter of his law, and made all their sub- 

 sequent combinations and relations inevitable 

 consequences of this first impression."* 



2. This, which thus appears to be the mode 

 of the Deity's operation in the material world, 



* Herschel on the Study ot Nat. Phil, Art. 27. 



