l64 MAN'S PRIMITIVE STATE 



escape from this conclusion — at least none for rational 

 thinkers. 



We need, however, feel no anxiety on this account 

 as to the validity of catholic doctrine. But we do 

 need to realize that no defence of the doctrine of man's 

 primitive state will appear , adequate and convincing 

 junder the existing conditions of thought which does 

 I'not estabHsh in men's minds a rational place in the 

 ' sequence of things for original righteousness. Can 

 this requirement be met ? It certainly cannot be met 

 /on the philosophical basis of naturalism. But natural- 

 ism is not science; and a failure to fulfil its demands 

 signifies nothing to those who attend to the real teach- 

 ings of science. Proper requirements can be met by 

 j vindicating a larger and truer conception of continuity 

 /than naturalism permits men to attain. This is the 

 method that I intend to pursue. 



I start with the indisputable premise that the con- 

 tinuity with which we ought to be called upon to reckon 

 is the continuity of all things taken together. '' Order 

 is Heaven's first law," and that law controls every- 

 thing. The sequences of the universe constitute 

 moments in the working out of one divine plan; 

 but the factors which operate and co-operate in the 

 drama are more various and, in determinative par- 

 ticulars, higher than those which can either be de- 

 scribed by the terms or be discovered by the methods 

 of physical science. What is called the physical order ^ 

 does not of itself constitute the whole order of things; 

 nor are its developments and continuities so independ- ' 



