PSALMIST AND THE PEOPHETS. 28 a 



still vibrating under the concave of immensity; and the 

 science of final causes becomes the noblest of man's 

 terrestrial pursuits. This is the method of the book 

 of Job and the Psalms of David, in both of which the 

 Divine Majesty is tacitly understood as being, of 

 course, the Jehovah, or one independent reality, and 

 His attributes are only illuminated by the con- 

 templation of His handiworks. ' Praise ye the Lord 

 from the heavens. Praise ye Him, sun and moon : 

 praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye 

 heavens of heavens, and ye waters above the heavens. 

 Let them praise the name of the Lord ; for He com- 

 manded, and they were created.'* In reality this is the 

 history of every man's process of thought, with whom 

 the argument a posteriori has seemed to himself to 

 have been potential. Not the argument of design, but 

 the argument of design together with unconscious faith 

 in Godhood, has taught men in all ages to behold the 

 Creator in His works. In fine, the same must be said 

 of the natural theologians themselves. They have 

 failed to analyze their own process of conviction for 

 one thing ; they have been unable to see through their 

 false argument, considered as a mere analytical argu- 

 ment, for another ; and then they have always taken 

 the existence of the world without for granted, while 

 they have tried to prove the Being of God forsooth, 



* " Canst thou by searching find out God ?" (Job xi. 7). 



" Through faith we understand that the worlds were formed by the 

 word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things 

 which do appear " (Heb. xi. 3). 



' ' For every house is builded by some man ; but he that built all 

 tilings is God " (Heb. iii. 4). 



"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made ; and all the host 

 of them by the breath of his mouth " (Psalm xxxvi. 6). 



" For this they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of God, 

 the heavens were of old " (2 Peter iii. 5). 



