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trunk, and tlie branches of a tree ; the wax, the stamp, and 
the impression of a seal ; and the Elizabethan poet writes : — 
“ If in a three-square glasse, as thick as cleare, 
(Being but dark earth, though made diaphanall,) 
Beauties divine, that ravish, seme appeare, 
Making the soule with iov in trance to fall ; 
What then, my soule, shalt thou in heav’n behold, 
In that cleare mirror of the Trinity ? ” 
I claim, however, a deeper significancy and a higher stand- 
point for the foregoing. Illustrations they may be and are ; 
but beyond this, if “ reality and similarity of relation, and not 
actual resemblance, be what analogy denotes,” I submit them 
as so many physical or mental analogues of the revealed 
tripartite constitution of the Godhead ; the mute, but not less 
eloquent tribute of the seen to the unseen ; of created things 
and order to the revealed hypostases of Deity. Spectrum 
analysis by analogy , pronounces upon the presence or absence 
of certain known substances in the several heavenly bodies 
upon which that science has been employed; and, by analogy , 
I believe that Theology pronounces upon the particular being 
of God — an analogy not one iota less trustworthy, and of far 
longer and larger application. 
And now we reach our last division — -Experimental Theo- 
logy. Here we obviously quit both the material and purely 
mental, for the spiritual ; and here, therefore, we encounter in 
full force the objection of mere materialistic science to the im- 
portation of an element the existence of which it ignores, and 
too many of its advocates loudly deny. I therefore premise, 
in brief, one or two general considerations. What is experi- 
mental science but an operation, or series of operations, by 
which some unknown truth, or principle, or effect, is sought 
to be discovered, or, being discovered, is sought to be esta- 
blished ? In physical science, experiment is of the last 
importance ; and so it is whenever it is practicable. When 
applied to some branches, it certainly fails to supply the experi- 
mentum crucis ; yet, so far as it holds, its evidence is in all 
cases trustworthy. Now, I purpose to apply the method to 
Theology on this lower assumption ; not making it the crucial 
test, but a sound and valid supplemental branch. Again, if it 
be alleged that experiment applies only so far as the subject is 
cognizable by the senses — that, especially and emphatically, 
spiritual powers and operations are beyond its tests — I ask, is 
the evidence of the unaided senses always enough and con- 
clusive ? Do the eye, the ear, the touch never delude — and 
that, too, not tyros nor sciolists, but experienced and accredited 
