The Analogy of ReligionHarper & Brothers, 1860 |
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actions admitted afford analogy of nature answer appear appointed argument arise Author of Nature behaviour Butler capacities cerning Chap character Christ Christianity common concerning conclusion consequences consideration considered constitution of nature contrary course of nature course of things creatures credible death degree destruction difficulties discipline dispensation distributive justice divine doubt evidence of religion exercise experience external faculties farther folly future God's ground habits happiness implies improvement instances interpositions judge justice kind laws living agents mankind manner means ment Messiah mind miracles misery moral government natural government natural religion necessary necessity notion objections observations ourselves particular passion peculiar personal identity persons plainly practical present presumption principles probability proof prophecy prove racter reason regard relation render respect revelation rewarded and punished rience scheme Scripture sense sort sumption supposed supposition temporal tendency theism thought tion truth vicious virtue and vice virtuous whole
Popular passages
Page 115 - Because I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded : but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh...
Page lxxxvii - It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry; but that it is now, at length, discovered to be fictitious. And, accordingly, they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment...
Page 336 - ... of imagining the whole of virtue to consist in singly aiming, according to the best of their judgment, at promoting the happiness of mankind in the present state; and the whole of vice in doing what they foresee, or might foresee, is likely to produce an overbalance of unhappiness in it: than which mistakes, none can be conceived more terrible. For it is certain, that some of the most shocking instances of injustice, adultery, murder, perjury, and even of persecution, may, in many supposable...
Page 292 - It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
Page 115 - Turn you at my reproof ; behold I will pour out my spirit upon you. I will make known my words unto you.
Page 115 - I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me...
Page 223 - ... unfolded gradually. Nay> we are not in any sort able to judge, whether it were to have been expected that the revelation should have been committed to writing, or left to be handed down, and consequently corrupted by verbal tradition, and at length sunk under it, if mankind so pleased, and during such time as they are permitted, in the degree they evidently are, to act as they will.
Page lxxxviii - On the contrary, thus much, at least, will be here found, not taken for granted, but proved, that any reasonable man, who will thoroughly consider the matter, may be as much assured, as he is of his own being, that it is not, however, so clear a case, that there is nothing in it.
Page xviii - This he refused, saying, in his melancholy way, that " it was too late for him to try to support a falling church.