INTRODUCTION

Summary

TheWorks of God and the Word of God may be called the two doors which open into the temple of Truth; and, as both proceed from the same Almighty and Omniscient Author, they cannot, if rightly interpreted, contradict each other, but must mutually illustrate and confirm, “though each in different sort and manner,” the same truths, Doubtless it was with this conviction upon his mind, that the learned Professor, from whom I have borrowed my motto, expresses his opinion—that in order rightly to understand the voice of God in nature, we ought to enter her temple with the Bible in our hands.

The prescribed object of the several treatises, of which the present forms one, is the illustration of the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the Deity, as manifested in the Works of Creation; but it is not only directed that these primary attributes should be proved by all reasonable arguments derived from physical objects, but also by discoveries ancient and modern, and the whole extent of literature. As the Holy Scriptures form the most interesting portion, in every respect, of ancient literature; and it has always been the habit of the author of the present treatise to unite the study of the word of God with that of his works; he trusts he shall not be deemed to have stepped out of the record, where he has copiously drawn from the sacred fountains, provided the main tenor of his argument is in accordance with the brief put into his hands.