men, for the indifference and even aversion with which they turn away
from any attempt to prove by natural evidence the existence and
providence of God? The prevalence of such feelings even within the
Christian community has been admitted and deplored by one of the most
profound spiritual teachers of modern times;[241] and it can only be
explained, where Religion is cherished and professed, on the supposition
that they regard _proof by argument_ as superfluous, either because it
is superseded by the natural instincts and intuitions of the human mind,
or by the authoritative teaching of Divine Revelation. But it ought to
be seriously considered, on the one hand, that the instincts and
intuitions of human reason are not altogether independent of the natural
evidence which is exhibited in the constitution and course of Nature;
and, on the other hand, that Revelation itself refers to that natural
evidence, and recommends it to our careful and devout study.

Besides the theories of Partial Skepticism to which we have already
referred, there is a mongrel system which seems to combine the two
opposite extremes of Doubt and Dogmatism, and which, for that reason,
may be not inaptly designated as _Skeptico-Dogmatic_.[242] Ever since
the era of the Reformation, when the principle of free inquiry, and the
right or rather the duty of private judgment in matters of Religion,
were so strenuously affirmed and so successfully maintained, there has
been a standing controversy between the Popish and Protestant Churches
respecting the rival claims of Reason and Authority as the ultimate
arbiter on points of faith. Extreme opinions on either side were
advanced. One party, repudiating all authority, whether human or divine,
rejected alike the testimony of Scripture and the decrees of the Church,
and, receiving only what was supposed to be in accordance with the
dictates of Reason, sought to establish a scheme of Rationalism in
connection with at least a nominal profession of Christianity. The
opposite party, not slow to detect the error into which extreme
Protestants had fallen, and intent seemingly on fastening that error on
all who had separated themselves from the Catholic Church, affirmed and
endeavored to prove that Rationalism, in its most obnoxious sense, is
inherent in and inseparable from the avowed principles of the
Reformation, and that the recognition of the right of private judgment
is necessarily subversive of all authority in m