Genre:

Miscellaneous

Subjects:

Faith, Biblical Authority, Natural Theology, Wonder, Morality

    Discussing the difference between dignity and pride, the author observes that 'the pride of the understanding is the least equivocal description of idolatry', and that faith is the 'prostration of reason before the throne of revelation' (85). Noting that the pagans 'shut out the light of nature', though the 'finger of providence was, to them, clearly discernible in all his works', the writer contrasts this with the present day, when few 'refuse to offer the sacrifice of awe and admiration at the shrine of the universe, yet are there not wanting those, who seem unwilling to pay that deference to a moral dispensation which they do not withold from those immutable laws by which the natural world is governed'? (85–86).