Essay on instinct, and its physical and moral relations / By Thomas Hancock.

  • Thomas Hancock
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essay on instinct, and its physical and moral relations / By Thomas Hancock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    liberty of making a few comments upon the passage, I would previously suggest the following definitions, as, in my opinion, more consonant with Scripture. Reason is that power of the understanding whereby the eternal Father of Light enables man to discover that portion of Truth in art, science, moral and po- litical economy, and natural Religion, which is laid within the reach of his speculative faculties: and its operation is wholly discursive, though it be grounded on certain first principles and rules of assent, which are deeply implanted in the constitution of the human mind. Revelation is the immediate communication of Divine light from the fountain of Truth to the soul; and may be distinguished into ordinary and extraor- dinary, or natural and supernatural: yet these differ only in degree, of fulness and brightness; they do not differ in kind. Natural or ordinary Revelation is the limited effu- sion of Divine light upon the soul, working on the heart and conscience of every moral agent, and dis- covering some common principles of duty, which how- ever distorted and obscured, are still universal], like the natural tastes and feelings; and form the foun- dation of all moral distinctions between right and wrong in human conduct, and the basis of religious feeling towards the Universal Parent. Extraordinary or supernatural Revelation is na- tural Revelation enlarged by a new set of discoveries, communicated immediately by God to his faithful