The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature

132

See Part II. ch. ii. (#II_CHAPTER_II)

133

P. 173 (#Page_173).

134

[The remainder of this chapter is a recapitulation of the whole argument from the beginning; and should be carefully conned.]

135

Part II. ch. vi. (#II_CHAPTER_VI)

136

P. 108 (#Page_108).

137

[There is a slight indication in this chapter that Butler falls into the old plan of settling the necessity of Christianity, before determining its truth. Paley discards this order of arrangement, in his very first sentence; and with good reason. The necessity of revelation is an abstraction; the proofs of it are patent facts. To hold in abeyance the credentials presented by Christianity, till we first satisfy ourselves that God could or would make any such announcements, is unphilosophical and irreverent. This chapter discusses the importance rather than the necessity of revelation; and so is a fitting commencement of the discussion. Every truth disclosed in revelation, over and above the truths which natural religion furnishes, proves the necessity of revelation, if we would know any thing of such truths. And it is such truths which constitute the very peculiarities of revelation, and teach the way of salvation, for the sinful and helpless.]

138

[No one can read the writings of the great sages of antiquity without a full and sad conviction that in relation to the character of God, the sinfulness of man, the future state, and the rules of living, those prime points on which we need knowledge, they were almost profoundly ignorant. See on this point, Leland’s Adv. and Necess.: Chalmers’ Nat. Theol.: McCosh’s Div. Gov.: Pascal’s Thoughts: Warburton’s Div. Legation.]

139

Invenis multos – propterea nolle fieri Christianos, quia quasi sufficiunt sibi de bona vita sua. Bene vivere opus est, ait. Quid mihi præcepturus est Christus? Ut bene vivam? Jam bene vivo. Quid mihi necessarius est Christus; nullum homicidium, nullum furtum, nullam rapinam facio, res alienas non concupisco, nullo adulterio contaminor? Nam inveniatur in vita mea aliquid quod reprehendatur, et qui reprehenderit faciat Christianum. Aug. in Psal. xxxi. [You find many who refuse to become Christians, because they feel sufficient of themselves to lead a good life. “We ought to live well.” says one. “What will Christ teach me? To live well? I do live well, what need then have I of Christ? I commit no murder, no theft, no robbery. I covet no man’s goods, and am polluted by no adultery. Let some one find in me any thing to censure, and he who can do so, may make me a Christian.”]

140

[The true mode of distinguishing a temporary, local, or individual command from such as are of universal and perpetual obligation, is well laid down by Wayland, Mor. Sci. ch. ix. sec. 2.]

141

[Natural religion shows us the danger of sin; but not the infinite danger of eternal retribution, and the hopelessness of restoration after death. And as to the efficacy of repentance, it rather opposes that doctrine than teaches it. At least it does not teach that repentance may be accepted, so as not only to cancel guilt, but restore to the favor of God.]

142

[“Christianity was left with Christians, to be transmitted, in like manner as the religion of nature had been left, with mankind in general. There was however this difference that by an institution of external religion with a standing ministry for instruction and discipline, it pleased God to unite Christiana into visible churches, and all along to preserve them over a great part of the world, and thus perpetuate a general publication of the Gospel.” Butler’s sermon before the Soc. for Prop. the Gospel. He goes on to show, in that discourse, that these churches, however corrupt any may become, are repositories for the written oracles of God, and so carry the antidote to their heresies.]

143

Rev. xxii. 11.

144

[“It is no real objection to this, though it may seem so at first sight, to say that since Christianity is a remedial system, designed to obviate those very evils which have been produced by the neglect and abuse of the light of nature, it ought not to be liable to the same perversions. Because – 1. Christianity is not designed primarily to remedy the defects of nature, but of an unnatural state of ruin into which men were brought by the Fall. And 2. It is remedial of the defects of nature in a great degree, by its giving additional advantages. 3. It might be impossible that it should be remedial in a greater degree than it is, without destroying man’s free agency; which would be to destroy its own end, the practice of virtue.” – Fitzgerald’s Notes.]

145

[Chalmers (Nat. Theol., b. v. ch. iv.) makes this very plain. He shows the ethics of natural religion to be one thing and its objects another. Natural religion discloses no Redeemer or Sanctifier; but it teaches how we should regard such a person, if there be one. It teaches love and conformity to such a being by the relation in which we of course stand to him. How we are to express that love and obedience it cannot teach.]

146

See The Nature, Obligation, and Efficacy, of the Christian Sacraments, &c., [by Waterland,] and Colliber of Revealed Religion, as there quoted.

147

[If Christianity were but “a republication of natural religion,” or as Tindall says, “as old as creation,” why do deists oppose it? It does indeed republish natural religion, but it adds stupendous truths beside. If it gave us no new light, no new motives, it would be but a tremendous curse, making us all the more responsible, and none the more instructed or secure.]

148

P. 94 (#FNanchor_44).

149

Ch. v. (#II_CHAPTER_V)

150

John iii. 5.

151

This is the distinction between moral and positive precepts considered respectively as such. But yet, since the latter have somewhat of a moral nature, we may see the reason of them, considered in this view. Moral and positive precepts are in some respects alike, in other respects different. So far as they are alike, we discern the reasons of both; so far as they are different, we discern the reasons of the former, but not of the latter. See p. 189 (#Page_189), &c.

152

[Without offering the least objection to what is here said of the comparative value of moral and positive institutions, it should not be overlooked that sometimes, obedience to a positive rite is more indicative of an obedient spirit, than obedience to a moral rule. The latter is urged by its intrinsic propriety, over and above the command, and appeals to several of our finer impulses. The former rests singly on our reverence for the will of God. There are many who would repel a temptation to steal, or to lie, who yet are insensible to the duty of baptism or the Lord’s supper.]

153

Matt. ix. 13, and xii. 7.

154

Hosea vi. 6.

155

See Matt. xii. 7.

156

See ch. iii. (#II_CHAPTER_III)