Thomas Chalmers
Published: 2018-01-21
Total Pages: 568
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Excerpt from On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God: As Manifested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man But in the execution of this introductory part of our subject, we could scarcely have refrained from noticing the indications Of divine wisdom and goodness in our mental constitution itself, even though our strictly proper, because our assigned task, was to point out these indications in the adaptation Of this constitution to external nature. We could not for get that the general purpose of the work was to exhibit with all possible fulness the argument for the character of the Deity, as grounded on the laws and appearances Of nature. But we Should have left out a very rich and important track of argument, had we forborne all Observation on the evidence for the divine perfections, in the structure and processes of the mind itself, and confined ourselves to the evidence afforded by the relations which the mind bore to the external world. In the adaptation Of external nature to man's physical constitution, there are many beauti ful and decisive indications of a God. But prior to these, there is a multitude of distinct indications, both in the human anatomy, and the human physiology, viewed by themselves, and as separate Objects Of contemplation. And accordingly, in this joint undertaking, there have been Specific labourers assigned to each of these departments. But we have not had the advantage Of any previous expounder for the anatomy Of the mind, or the physiology of the mind; and we felt that to have left unnoticed all the vivid and various inscriptions of a Divinity, which might be collected there, would have been to withhold from View some Of the best attestations in the whole range and economy Of nature, for the wisdom and benevolence of its great architect. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.