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    giver , and judge . The knowledge of God , of his moral government and will , is to be obtained either from nature , as in the pagan world , or through immediate revelation from God . Hence the distinction of religion into natural and revealed , a distinction which is made by Paul , Rom . ii 14 , who names the divine revelation , the law , and describes those who wanted it as not having the law , but being a law , a natural revelation , to themselves . — Though the religion of nature , in its greatest perfection , ( which few , however , have the means and power to attain , ) leads roan to very valuable

    conclusions ; yet when he begins to feel his wants aright , it leaves him in anxious doubt on several all-important points , and yields not the full power which is necessary to his moral improvement and perfection . The elder Pliny said of his own and of former times , that mankind were still very much in the dark on the subject of religion . —( Hist . Nat . III . 1 , Ad religionem maxime etiamnum caligat humanum genus . ) Hence it might be expected that God would supply this want of man by a special revelation ; hut the fact must be established on sure historical evidence . It can never be

    demonstrated a priori , that no such revelation has been given , or that such a revelation is impossible . Let the fact be well attested , and reason has nothing to shew against it . Christians find a history of true revelations in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament . ( The theological student is here referred to Janis' answer to the question , whether a universal pure religion of reason is possible in this world , and whether a new formation or an abrogation of the Christian religion is to be expected ?) The genuine and pure religion of nature can never contradict that of revelation ; and when such a

    contradiction is found to exist , it is a decisive proof that the supposed revealed religion is not a divine revelation , for God cannot reveal himself to man in one light in nature , and in a contrary light in a special revelation . The Scriptures also commend the knowledge of God , deduced from nature , and speak of it reverentially . In the 19 th Psalm the first six verses respect the knowledge of God through nature , the remaining verses that of revelation . See Acts xiv . 17 ; Rom . i . 19 , ii . 12 . Some theologians have rejected the distinction of natural and revealed religion , as F . Socinus ,

    Ferguson , Gruner , and others . They maintain , that man owes all his knowledge of God to a revelation which was first made to him in Paradise , and was delivered down from thence , and diffused among mankind . It does indeed appear from the Scriptures , that revelations were made to man in the earliest age of the world , and much of the knowledge thus imparted descended , no doubt , to his posterity . Yet the distinction is just ; for some of the truths of revelation are also demonstrable by reason , and , in fact , have been known through the light of nature . Thus the Apostle says of the Gentiles , that which may be known of God , the knowledge of God ( to 7 v < w < rTov for jvoxtlA

    is manifest to them ( ev avrotq for avro ^) , for God has revealed it to them : He has given them the means of obtaining this knowledge naturally , ' * &c , &c .

    J . M .

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    272 Letter * from Germany .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 272, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/56/