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THE

SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD,

CONDUCTED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

"THE FEAR OF THE LORD, THAT IS WISDOM."

No. 90.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1837.

ON THE COMMON PHRASE,
"THE LAWS OF NATURE."
No. III.

BY THE REV. W. M. HETHERINGTON, A.M.,
Minister of Torphichen.

In our former papers on this subject, we endeavoured to show, that the laws of nature were none other than the laws of God; or rather, the every-where present power of God, working in accordance with his wise and holy will; and that this was the only meaning which these terms could convey, if accurately understood, whether as physical or organic laws. This view being admitted, it manifestly follows, that there may be expected to be many points of evident resemblance, many striking analogies, between the laws of nature and the truths of the Bible,-that is, between the will of God in creation, and the will of God in revelation. These resemblances have often been remarked, and almost as often distorted and abused by the opponents of revelation. "Revelation," say its sophistical opponents, "tells us nothing which nature does not, or might not, tell us; it is therefore unnecessary and if unnecessary, its very claims to be revelation prove it to be untrue, because God does nothing unnecessarily." Such were the arguments employed by philosophical infidels in a former age; and the similarity of the process of reasoning carried on by some in our own days, must be abundantly evident, though as yet they have not ventured to state the result so plainly. Yet these analogies might be admitted to their utmost legitimate extent, and even traced farther than the worshippers of the laws of nature are accustomed to trace them; and shown, nevertheless, to lead to conclusions exactly the reverse of those held by deistical writers,-shown to lend the utmost support even to the peculiar doctrines of revelation, which their limited range and inferior value were able to lend.

Before attempting to show how this might be done, one preliminary remark must be made. The laws of nature would of course operate with the same fixedness of aim and regularity of order, whether their operations were perceived by men or not; but if not perceived, they could convey VOL. II.

PRICE 1d.

no intelligence to man respecting the will of the Author of nature. The information which they do convey, therefore, must actually depend more upon the clearness and soundness of the perceptive faculties and reasoning powers in the mind of him who surveys them, than upon the essential wisdom inherent in these modifications of the divine creative and preserving mind. If, therefore, we had no other guide than what we can learn of the laws of nature, it might follow, that we should never accurately understand those laws, and so never obtain a guide at all. The laws of nature cannot explain themselves; much less can they explain the truths, which are the laws, of revelation. The laws of nature may, indeed, serve to illustrate revelation,-inasmuch as there must be a resemblance, in some respects, between the laws of nature and those of revelation, because both are manifestations of the divine mind; but revelation alone can both approve itself, and explain the laws of nature. The one may be the type, the other is the antitype; the one may indicate, the other reveals. The only true mode to be pursued, therefore, is to view the laws of nature in the clear light of revelation, not revelation through the distorting dimness of nature. It is scarcely necessary to add, that this by no means involves the consequence of checking a legitimate exercise of reason in studying natural science, lest it should seem to controvert our preconceived notions respecting what religious truth would, in certain cases, require. Nature and revelation never contradict each other, though they may sometimes seem to do so, when the dictates of either, or of both, are misunderstood, and though nature is often arrested by anomalies which she cannot explain, and mysteries which she cannot fathom, and must at all times fall immeasurably beneath those pure and untroubled regions of the upper heavens, where revelation chiefly soars, in the enjoyment of light uncreated and full of glory.

It is very usual, for example, for a certain class of sentimentalists, to look around them on the fair face of nature, and beholding there innumerable proofs of surpassing goodness and bounty, they draw the conclusion, that it is not possible to believe, that a God of such boundless goodness, as his works prove him to be, can permit his

Why

of nature; and observation might tell them that
men are very far from complying constantly with
the dictates of those laws which they most dis-
tinctly understand. It is not difficult, often, to
show a man what it is both his interest and his
duty to do, but it is a very different matter, in-
deed, to persuade him to yield obedience.
is not man's obedience to even the laws of nature
commensurate with his knowledge of them, as it
should be, were the system to which we are ad-
verting true? To this question these philosophers
of somewhat larger grasp of mind can give no
satisfactory answer, in accordance with their own
theories; so that the whole value of their labours
consists in the destruction of the more flimsy
theories of the sentimentalists, while they are them-
selves left in difficulties altogether inexplicable,
without recourse being had to the aid of revelation.

The truth is, that the anomalies of nature are altogether inexplicable, except by revelation. All nature obeys its laws unerringly; and hence the natural argument, proving the universal government of an all-wise, all-powerful, and unchanging God. Man alone errs. Why? In consequence of possessing a free will? But that will, however free, might surely have acted right freely, as well as wrong. Can nature explain this anomaly? Perhaps man errs in consequence of not knowing the laws of nature. Do the brutes know these laws? No; yet they err not. Does man constantly keep those which he does know? Far, very far the reverse. The system of our philo

favoured creature, man, to fall into utter and everlasting misery, on account of certain trivial transgressions, as they tenderly term them. In this plausible sophism they confide; and on their assumed confidence in the mercy of God, they build their hopes of everlasting happiness. Why will men so miserably deceive themselves? Why will these philosophical, or amiable, or romantic worshippers of nature, not mingle a little reason in their admiration, so that, when they talk of "looking through nature up to nature's God," they may obtain a more accurate view of his entire character, instead of dwelling exclusively on certain favourite attributes, and thus at last ferming a god-like unto themselves, and idolizing an imaginary deity of their own? The God of nature has indeed stamped proofs of his benevolence upon all the workmanship of his hands; and all the laws of nature, as they are called, are productive of good and happiness so far as they are properly and regularly obeyed. But do our amiable admirers of nature find that any of her laws can be violated with impunity? On the contrary, is not every such violation followed certainly, and often instantaneously, by a suitable punishment? What law of nature is more general, or productive of more good, than the law of gravitation? Let a man violate it, by casting himself from a precipice, and he is immediately punished by death or dreadful bruises. Food and drink are provided for our sustenance, and a very benevolent law of nature has rendered them as pleasurable as they are necessary; but let this law be violated by ex-sophers can give us no assistance here; but revecess in either, and the most painful, and even fatal lation can. It tells us that man has a moral punishment will speedily avenge the violation. nature, and by moral laws alone can he be adeFrom even the laws of benevolent nature, then, if quately governed. He has violated these moral rightly understood, men might learn, that it is not laws, and he suffers,-suffers in the moral anarchy possible to violate any of the laws of nature; that into which his being is cast, by the revolt of his is, of the laws of God, physical, mental, or moral, animal appetites and passions against the suprewithout exposing themselves to sure and adequate macy of his moral attributes and religious principunishment; and consequently, that the notion of a ples; by the consequent degeneracy and degradation God of infinite mercy alone, by whom punishment of the condition into which he has sunk; and by will not be rigidly inflicted to all its due extent, is the physical evils to which he is now especially nothing better than a brain-sick fancy, entertained exposed, owing to the subjection under which he to their own grievous delusion, by a set of purblind now lies to his material and animal nature, theregazers upon half-seen nature,-dreaming philoso- fore to merely physical laws, and to the physical phists, who, never seeing more than half the truth, maladies which avenge their violation. Accordcannot accurately be said ever to have seen it at all. ing to this the scriptural view, the very physical There are, however, other men of the philoso- sufferings which afflict man have their origin in phic cast, who, seeing deeper than the sentimen- his violation of those moral and divine laws to talist, recognise a retributive, or self-avenging which his spiritual being owed supreme religious power in the laws of nature, closely resembling obedience. His original nature and condition was what revelation asserts respecting the laws of not subject to laws merely physical and organic, God, but, instead of regarding this as corrobora- though it had no tendency to transgress them. tive of revelation, seem to think that it super- And even now, fallen and degraded as he is, he sedes the necessity of revelation altogether. They spurns their control, and suffers rather than subhold, that a due acquaintance with the laws of mits; because he is still instinctively conscious of nature would enable men to act so thoroughly in an immortal spirit within him, which will stoop conformity with them, as in every instance to to no authority but that which proceeds directly avoid their violation, and escape the penalty. A and immediately from the Father of Spirits. This, little more of even their own philosophy would tell revelation alone can furnish; hence revelation them that it is utterly impossible for the human alone can reach the moral malady under which the mind ever to become acquainted with all the pos-immortal spirit languishes, and explain the myssible combinations of what are termed the laws teries of man's dark and troublous existence.

peculiarities of his unfallen state. Their whole argument depends upon the assumption, that the operation of the organic laws of man's physical structure have sustained no injury or alteration by the fall,-an assumption which never can be proved,-which is indeed stamped with improbability, while the reverse is, to say the least, extremely probable, even to reason, apart from the strong statements of Revelation. They may, indeed, deny the doctrine of the fall; but this would only be to shift their ground, and open the discussion of the question in the regions of moral philosophy or pure theology, with which, we fear, they are not very conversant. Or, they may produce an evasive argument, and attempt to prove that death must have been natural to man, even had he not sinned and fallen; because the whole world would not have been able ultimately to have afforded even standing-room to the still-increasing, never-diminishing multitudes of mankind. But what do they mean by the term death? If they mean merely a change from one scene or state of being into another, we admit the probability, that death, in the sense of a change of scene or state of being, may be natural to man,-might have been so to unfallen man. But if they mean the dark and painful process by which body and soul are at present separated, we reject the assumption entirely. Regarding death in its essential aspect, as a change of state, there are at least three kinds of death with which we are more or less acquainted: viz., death by disease or violence, death by old age, and death by translation. With the two former kinds we are all sufficiently familiar;— examples of the third, have been made known to us in the instances of Enoch and Elijah, and are not obscurely referred to by Paul, when he says, "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Now, who will venture to say, that if man had never fallen, this painless translation into a higher, holier, and more glorious state of being, might not have been all the death that generations innumer

There is another important topic which the laws of nature, perhaps, seem dimly to hint at, in weak and faltering accents, but which revelation can alone adequately state and explain. Nature, it is remarked, punishes every violation of her laws. But is this punishment vindictive? is it corrective ? When disease assails a man because he has violated some organic law, does it terminate of itself, after it has sufficiently punished the erring individual? The sad experience of every day tells us that it has no such tendency; that, on the contrary, if some remedial measure be not applied, the disease will not terminate but by the destruction of the sufferer. There is nothing in the disease which tends, or can possibly tend, to heal itself. A cure is to be obtained only by the application of some external remedial measure; the office of which is, to exhaust the virulence of the disease, or supply new vital energy, and thus restore health. Nay, even the boasted vis medicatriz naturæ, or remedial power of nature, as physicians term it, operates in one or other of these methods, and not otherwise; the morbid matter may be absorbed and disappear, or be expelled by the pouring of new untainted life into the diseased part, but either of these is possible only through its union with the source of life, or a restoration of suspended vital action. Every disease has destruction for its essence, and death for its aim; because in its simplest character every disease appears as a violation of those organic laws, which are the embodied manifestations of the creative will of the God of life; and the healing power must be furnished from some kindred source, kindred, yet untainted with that violation. How, then, does revelation solve this mystery? It tells us, as before, that all physical malady is the result, or the embodiment of moral malady: and it explains the mystery of external sanative applications, of remedies brought from some untainted kindred source, by revealing to us the mystery of redemption,-God manifest in the flesh,permitting sin, that mortal malady of the soul, to ex-able, yet sinless all, should have ever known? We haust its malignant virulence, by pouring its deadliest venom on his sacred head, and by his union with human nature, infusing a new untainted stream of vital godliness into the soul of man, even life eternal. But there is one point in which the admirers of the laws of nature think they perceive an irreconcilable contradiction between Nature and Revelation. We are told in Scripture that, "the wages of sin is death,”—that "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin:" whereas, our philosophers assure us that this cannot be true, because death must have been natural to man, as is evident from the organic laws of his physical constitution. Did it never occur to these philosophers, that the whole of this reasoning of theirs is founded upon an unproved assumption? We might admit, that the organic laws of the human frame, whatever is meant by that phrase, prove man now destined to inevitable death: but man is now a fallen being, and the peculiarities of his fallen state can prove nothing whatever respecting the

will not confidently assert that this is the primary law of change, and the only one natural to unfallen man; but we do not hesitate to say, that it completely neutralizes the sophistical objection stated above, reconciles what we know of fallen man, with what Scripture testifies of his original state and his ultimate destinies, partially unveils one of the deepest secrets of our nature, gives additional precision and significancy to some of the mysterious events and statements of Revelation, points out to us another aspect of the manifold wisdom of God, and brings us nearer in adoring love to Him, "who was dead, and is alive, who has the keys of Hades and of death," and in whose sinless kingdom his faithful followers shall live and reign for evermore.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF

IGNATIUS,

ONE OF THE EARLY FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

Ir is unknown of what parentage this illustrious man was descended, or to what country he originally be

longed. Some have supposed him to be the little child whom our Lord took and placed in the midst of his disciples, when he declared to them, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." But whether Ignatius be here referred to or not, it is generally admitted that he enjoyed the benefit of the instructions of the Apostle John.

Little has come down to us in regard to the early years of this distinguished Christian father. That his character must have been held in the highest estimation, however, is obvious from the fact, that he was invested by the apostles with the office of Bishop, or pastor of the Church at Antioch-an office which he filled for forty years with great honour and usefulness. During this long period, Ignatius discharged his ministerial duties with such fidelity, that, amid the fiery trial through which the Christian Church passed in the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian, many were encouraged to hold fast their profession, by his godly example and exhortations. Persecution raged around him, but he remained unmoved, longing for, rather than dreading, a martyr's crown. And though the accession of Nerva to the throne was followed by a state of temporary peace, the holy man ardently coveted the honour of dying for the sake of Christ. "I eagerly wish the lions to be prepared for me," says he, "and pray that they may be found ready against me: them also I shall encourage, that they may quickly devour me, not as sometimes, when they have left the faithful untouched. But should they not be inclined when I am willing, I shall even assault them with violence." These sentiments, though they may sufficiently display the holy ardour by which the soul of Ignatius was animated, are by no means accordant with that submissive spirit which dictated the language of the apostle: "I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you; and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith."

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"Ign. Thou mistakest in calling the demons of the nations by the name of gods. For there is only one God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and one Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, whose kingdom be my portion.

"Traj. His kingdom, do you say, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate?

"Ign. His kingdom who crucified my sin, with its author, and put all the fraud and malice of Satan under the feet of those who carry him in their hearts. "Traj. Dost thou then carry him who was cruci fied within thee?

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Trajan then pronounced the following sentence against him: Since Ignatius confesses that he carries within himself that which was crucified, we command that he be carried to great Rome, there to be thrown to the wild beasts, for the entertainment of the people.' "This barbarous sentence, far from intimidating the martyr, filled his soul with joy. I thank thee, O Lord,' he exclaimed, that thou hast vouchsafed to honour me with a perfect love towards thee, and hast made me to put on iron bonds with the Apostle Paul.'”

The sentence pronounced upon this holy man was what he had long coveted, and, accordingly, with thanksgiving to God, he voluntarily surrendered himself into the hands of the guards who were appointed to convey him to Rome. After conducting the aged saint on foot to Seleucia, his persecutors put him on board a vessel which was to coast the southern and western parts of Asia Minor. On arriving at Smyrna, his soul was refreshed by meeting with the venerable Polycarp, who encouraged him to maintain his confidence stedfast unto the end. Deputies from various churches in Asia flocked to console him in the prospect of his ap proaching martyrdom. His soul, however, far from needing consolation, was filled with holy joy and triumph, and in such a spirit he penned, while at Smyrna, epistles to the Churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, and Rome. From Smyrna Ignatius sailed to Troas, and thence by Neapolis to Philippi, where he was received with the utmost kindness by the brethren. He was now led on foot through Macedonia and The wish of Ignatius to seal his testimony with his Epirus, when he embarked for Italy. On reaching blood, was at length gratified in the reign of Trajan, Puteoli, he expressed a wish to be permitted to proabout the year 107. The Emperor, marching in all the ceed by land to Rome, that he might tread in the footpride of conquest towards Armenia and Parthia, stop-steps of the Apostle Paul. This, however, was denied ped at Antioch; and, incensed against the Christians because of their resistance to idolatrous practices of every kind, he resolved to punish them. The venerable Bishop of Antioch, anxious to deliver his people from the vengeance of Trajan, boldly presented himself before the haughty tyrant. The interview which took place on this occasion, strikingly displays the courage and undaunted firmness of Ignatius in confessing Christ :

"When Trajan beheld Ignatius, he exclaimed, 'What impious spirit art thou, both to transgress our commands, and to ensnare others into the same folly, to their destruction?' Ignatius answered, Theophorus ought not to be called so, forasmuch as all evil spirits are departed from the servants of God. But if thou callest me impious, because I am hostile to evil spirits, I own the charge in that respect, for I dissolve all their snares through the inward support of Christ, the heavenly King.'

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Traj. Who is Theophorus?

Ign. He who has Christ in his breast.

Traj. And thinkest thou not that gods reside in us also, who fight for us against our enemies?

him, and he was conducted by sea to Ostia, only six-
teen miles from Rome.
As soon as the Christians
heard of his approach, many of them came from the
city to meet him. The first impulse of their minds
was to condole with him on the awful prospect
which awaited him; but, with heroic courage, he com-
manded them to be silent, reminding them to what
exalted honour that man is called who is privileged to
suffer for Christ.

With firm and unfaltering step Ignatius entered
Rome, when he was immediately conducted to the
house of the prefect. The day of his execution was
appointed, and although the streets of the city had
often resounded with the cry,
"The Christians to the
lions!" it was intended that the punishment of the
venerable Ignatius should be as striking as possible.
Accordingly, the most solemn of the Roman festivals
was selected as the fittest period to effect their mui.
derous designs. Meanwhile the brethren urged upon the
aged prisoner to effect his escape. No entreaties, how

ever, could prevail. He looked forward with joy to the day of his execution, and when it did arrive, he calmly prepared for death. Kneeling down with his friends, he prayed earnestly for the Church, that the Almighty would interpose in its behalf, and put a stop to the persecution. Then rising from his knees, he was led into the Amphitheatre, where, amid assembled multitudes, on a signal being given, the wild beasts were let loose upon him, and speedily no remains of the aged saint were to be seen save a few bones, which his friends carefully gathered up and conveyed to Antioch.

Thus died, about the commencement of the second century, one who, throughout a long life, had served the Lord faithfully, and who counted it his highest ambition to suffer with Christ, resting in the firm conviction that, at length, he and his beloved Master would be glorified together.

HEBREW GLEANINGS.

BY THE REV. ROBERT SIMPSON, A. M.,
Minister of Kintore.
No. III.

THE JUBILEE.

THE jubilee was hailed with the liveliest demonstrations of joy by the ancient Hebrews. Every association connected with it, inspired feelings of cheerfulness and delight in all the sons and daughters of Israel. The very name given to this season of rejoicing, according to some autnorities, was derived from the trumpet, which, with its glad and animating sounds, announced the arrival of a new and happy epoch; though, according to others, and perhaps with better reason, it was indicative of the restoration of all things to their originally established position, whereby every man resumed, or succeeded to, the place and the inheritance in the tribe of his fathers, which belonged to him by unalienable birthright. And, in accordance with this latter interpretation, Josephus translates the term jubilee by a Greek word which signifies liberty.

The institution was altogether very interesting and remarkable. It was strictly peculiar to the Hebrews. Some of the ideas involved in it, seem to have occurred to other nations, and are indeed natural to the human heart. It is the blameless wish, nay, the bounden duty of man, to provide for and secure, as far as he can, the comfort and credit of his descendants. This wish, when followed out consistently with the revealed will of God, and in subserviency to the course of his providence, is highly commendable. But the principle that dictates it, when left to the direction of the carnal mind, becomes both sinful and pernicious. How ambitious are self-important and earthly-minded mortals to transmit their honours and possessions to the latest generations of their posterity, purely from vain-glorious motives! And how many a futile attempt has been made for that purpose, without any reference to the divine approbation! Man, forgetful of the situation he now fills, as a fallen and perishing creature, would fain discover the means of obtaining for himself, at least, a representative immortality here below. What he knows he must soon relinquish on his own part, he is extremely desirous should be retained by his offspring, according to his appointment and disposal. This, however, in any thing like a strict sense, is utterly unattainable in a world where sin prevails. The nearest approach to it is certainly to be found in the provisions of the Hebrew jubilee. But even by that ordinance of God the object was realized only once in half a century. And this approximation was continued in force merely for a time, and in order to the accomplishment of infinitely higher and nobler ends.

The jubilee was most solemnly and expressly insti"And thou shalt number seven Sabtuted by God. baths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound, on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ve make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall renion has arisen, however, as to the precise year in turn every man unto his family." A difference of opiwhich the jubilee was observed, whether on the fortyninth or the fiftieth year. It is argued, in favour of the former view, that the other supposition is open to the objection that the land, according to it, must have lain uncultivated during two successive years, the previous being necessarily a Sabbatical year, while, at the same time, no specific promise is clearly made of an adequate additional supply of the means of subsistence. But this fact, though worthy of attention, is surely not so insurmountable an obstacle as to set aside the explicit and repeated mention of the fiftieth year. It is, doubtless, a sound maxim in the interpretation of Scripture, never to call in the aid of miracles, where facts and events can be accounted for on the principles of reason, and by the operation of natural causes; but the mere consideration of economizing, so to speak, miraculous intervention, should not lead us to interpret the sacred text otherwise than according to its grammatical import. And in such cases as the present, does not the divine command imply a corresponding assurance of all the means requisite for its proper observance? Of the protracted suspension of agricultural labour, and the consequences to which it might have led, important uses have been made. From that circumstance a proof has been derived in favour of the divine legation of Moses; because no wise lawgiver, unless really commissioned from heaven, would have ventured to involve himself and his system in so formidable a difficulty. And it has also been observed, still more conclusively with regard to the jubilee, as well as the Sabbatical year, that no people would have submitted to receive institutions so obviously interfering with their temporal interests, except on the clearest warrant of divine authority. To the last inference it may, no doubt, be plausibly objected, that many a costly, and even painful, religious observance has been complied with on very slender, nay, on false grounds. But there is this distinction to be kept in view, that such observances, on the part of ancient or modern devotees of heathenism, have generally, if not always, been either the result of temporary ebullitions of zeal, or the acts only of individuals; whereas the Hebrew institutions in question were observed deliberately, statedly, and by a whole nation.

We find a very explicit allusion to the jubilee in the book of Isaiah. The description there given of it is so clear and striking, as to show sufficiently that its joyful observances, and salutary operation, must have been familiar to the mind of that prophet. It is not to be forgotten, indeed, that he employs it to illustrate an event of which it gives only an imperfect representation. But still his words convey a lively picture of its leading features, (lxi. 1-3;) of which passage Bishop Lowth gives the following excellent translation, wherein the spirit of the original is very faithfully and happily expressed :—

The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me,
Because Jehovah bath anointed me,

To publish glad tidings to the meek hath he sent me ;
To bind up the broken-hearted:

To proclaim to the captives freedom;
And to the bounden, perfect liberty:

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