NATURAL THEOLOGY. 177 



learnt from Natural Theology will diminish his 

 desire of further instruction, or his disposition to 

 receive it with humility and thankfulness. He 

 wishes for light : he rejoices in light. His inward 

 veneration of this great Being will incline him to 

 attend with the utmost seriousness, not only to all 

 that can be discovered concerning him by re- 

 searches into nature, but to all that is taught by a 

 revelation which gives reasonable proof of having 

 proceeded from him. 



But, above every other article of revealed re- 

 ligion, does the anterior belief of a Deity bear with 

 the strongest force upon that grand point, which 

 gives indeed interest and importance to all the 

 rest — the resurrection of the human dead. The 

 thing might appear hopeless, did we not see a 

 power at work adequate to the effect, a power 

 under the guidance of an intelligent will, and a 

 power penetrating the inmost recesses of all sub- 

 stance. I am far from justifying the opinion of 

 those who " thought it a thing incredible that God 

 should raise the dead :" but I admit that it is first 

 necessary to be persuaded, that there is a God to 

 do so. This being thoroughly settled in our minds, 

 there seems to be nothing in this process (con- 

 cealed as we confess it to be) which need to shock 

 our belief. They who have taken up the opinion 

 that the acts of the human mind depend upon o?- 

 ganizatiojiy that the mind itself indeed consists in 

 organization, are supposed to find a greater diffi- 

 culty than others do in admitting a transition by 



