d: not from the light of nature or the dictates of reason. It is
written, that 'the Heavens declare the glory of God;' but we nowhere find
it that the Heavens declare the will of God; which is pronounced a law and
a testimony, that men should do according to it. Nor does this hold only
in the great mysteries of the Godhead, of the creation, of the
redemption.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} We cannot doubt that a large part of the moral law is too
sublime to be attained by the light of nature; though it is still certain
that men, even with the light and law of nature, have some notions of
virtue, vice, justice, wrong, good, and evil."(28) That the new and
further manifestations of the Almighty, made by Revelation, are in perfect
harmony with the teaching of the natural world, forms indeed one subject
of the profound work of the Anglican Bishop Butler; but they cannot in any
sense be gathered from nature, and the silence of nature concerning them
may easily seduce the imagination, though it has no force to persuade the
reason, to revolt from doctrines which have not been authenticated by
facts, but are enforced by authority. In a scientific age, then, there
will naturally be a parade of what is called Natural Theology, a
wide-spread profession of the Unitarian creed, an impatience of mystery,
and a scepticism about miracles.

And to all this must be added the ample opportunity which physical science
gives to the indulgence of those sentiments of beauty, order, and
congruity, of which I have said so much as the ensigns and colours (as
they may be called) of a civilized age in its warfare against Catholicism.

It being considered, then, that Catholicism differs from physical science,
in drift, in method of proof, and in subject-matter, how can it fail to
meet with unfair usage from the philosophers of any Institution in which
there is no one to take its part? That Physical Science itself will be
ultimately the loser by such ill treatment of Theology, I have insisted on
at great length in some preceding Discourses; for to depress unduly, to
encroach upon any science, and much more on an important one, is to do an
injury to all. However, this is not the concern of the Church; the Church
has no call to watch over and protect Science: but towards Theology she
has a distinct duty: it is one of the special trusts committed to her
keeping. Where Theology is, there she must be; and if a University cannot
fulfil its name and office without t