CHAP. I - The Creator of the Physical World is the Governor of the Moral World

Summary

With our views of the moral government of the world and the religious interests of man, the study of material nature is not and cannot be directly and closely connected. But it may be of some service to trace in these two lines of reasoning, seemingly so remote, a manifest convergence to the same point, a demonstrable unity of result. It may be useful to show that we are thus led, not to two rulers of the universe, but to one God;—to make it appear that the Creator and Preserver of the world is also the Governor and Judge of men;—that the Author of the Laws of Nature is also the Author of the Law of Duty;—that He who regulates corporeal things by properties of attraction and affinity and assimilating power, is the same Being who regulates the actions and conditions of men, by the influence of the feeling of responsibility, the perception of right and wrong, the hope of happiness, the love of good.

The conviction that the Divine attributes which we are taught by the study of the material world, and those which we learn from the contemplation of man as a responsible agent, belong to the same Divine Being, will be forced upon us, if we consider the manner in which all the parts of the universe, the corporeal and intellectual, the animal and moral, are connected with each other.