An Outline of a System of Natural Theology

From the PREFACE.
Natural Theology, as a science, may be divided into five distinct subjects. First, the proofs of the existence of a Sovereign Intelligence. Secondly, of those attributes of the Deity which have been termed natural, viz., His unity, eternity, omnipresence, omnipotence, infinity. Thirdly, the proofs of His moral attributes, as His goodness, benevolence, wisdom, and justice. Fourthly, the evidences of a future state founded on these attributes or on His works. Fifthly, our relation and consequent duties to Him. Not that it is usual to include all these divisions in any single treatise on the subject, for each writer has dwelt upon or omitted some of them, according to the principal design of his work; whether simply to prove the existence of a God, or to endeavour to display His attributes; or to impress a sense of our dependence on Him here and hereafter. As it is the chief aim of the present essay to place, in the strongest light, the natural evidences of future state, this object will be most effectually pursued, by confining the present discussion to two of these divisions, viz.
1st: The proofs of the existence of a Sovereign Intelligence.
2nd: The evidence of a future state derived from His works.
It is clear that the first step in the evidence of a futurity is, to prove that we are under the government of Intelligence, and if it does not immediately appear that, in such an inquiry we can properly omit the previous proof of the wisdom, the omnipotence, and the benevolence of the Deity, the writer trusts that, in the introduction to the Second Part of this Treatise, he shall be able to show, that this previous step may be omitted: and if so, the evidence of a future life receives additional strength from the simplicity of plan resulting from these omissions; and by drawing the proofs immediately from the character of God's moral and physical creation, rather than from those attributes which we must previously deduce from the very same phenomena.
Perhaps it may be questioned whether, at this period especially, when a lively faith in the Christian revelation appears to be spreading widely at home and abroad, there be any practical benefit in multiplying the natural proofs of the existence of God and of another world. It may be thought that it is better that these truths should be conveyed only through that revelation which gives them an authority, without which they are liable to be wholly disregarded; and that these natural truths ought never to be separated from those revealed tenets, without which we are taught they are unavailing. But surely as a science only (and if a science, the first of sciences) Natural Theology is entitled to any improvement that can be devised either in substance or in method. Independent of this minor consideration, however, there are cases in which the only probable means of bringing unbelievers to obedience to the revealed word, is by a strong conviction, that there is a Governor of the world who requires from them, on natural principles, nearly, if not all, the devotion and obedience which his revelation enjoins-a conviction that, by renouncing the faith of a Christian,