588 PROVINCES OF REASON AND REVELATION. 
that which has been conjured up by injudicious 
zeal or false philosophy, mistaking the ends of a 
divine revelation. ’ And again in another pas- 
sage of the same powerful discourse, after de- 
fining the proper objects for the exercise of the 
human understanding, his Lordship most justly 
observes, “ Under these limitations and cor- 
rections we may join in the praises which are 
lavished upon philosophy and science, and 
fearlessly go forth with their votaries into all the 
various paths of research, by which the mind of 
man pierces into the hidden treasures of nature; 
harmonizes its more conspicuous features, and 
removes the veil which to the ignorant or care- 
less observer, obscures the traces of God’s glory 
in the works of his hands.”* 
The disappointment which many minds expe- 
rience, at finding in the phenomena of the natural 
Hoild no indications of the will of God, respect- 
ing the moral conduct or future prospects of the 
human race, arises principally from an indistinct 
and mistaken view of the respective provinces of 
Reason and Revelation. 
By the exercise of our Reason, we discover 
abundant evidences of the Existence, and of 
some of the Attributes of a supreme Creator, 
and apprehend the operations of many of the 
second causes or instrumental agents, by which 
* Sermon at the opening of King’s College, Loudon, I83b 
pp. 19. 14. 
