[108] Rom. v. 14. Who were they, who _had_ not _sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression_; and over whom, notwithstanding, _death reigned_?
[109] Slightly altered from Jeremy Taylor's 'Deus Justificatus; or a Vindication of the Glory of the Divine Attributes in the Question of Original Sin, Against the Presbyterian way of Understanding it.' See Heber's edition of Taylor's works, 1822, v. ix. pp. 315-16.--ED.
[110] This sense of the word is implied even in its metaphorical or figurative use. Thus we may say of a _river_ that it _originates_ in such or such a _fountain_; but the water of a _canal_ is _derived_ from such or such a river. The Power which we call Nature, may be thus defined: A Power subject to the Law of Continuity (_lex continui; nam in naturâ non datur saltus_) which law the human understanding, by a necessity arising out of its own constitution, can _conceive_ only under the form of Cause and Effect. That this _form_ (or law) of Cause and Effect is (relatively to the world _without_, or to things as they subsist independently of our perceptions) only a form or mode of _thinking_; that it is a law inherent in the Understanding itself (just as the symmetry of the miscellaneous objects seen by the kaleidoscope inheres in, or results from, the mechanism of the kaleidoscope itself)--this becomes evident as soon as we attempt to apply the pre-conception directly to any operation of nature. For in this case we are forced to represent the cause as being at the same instant the effect, and _vice versâ_ the effect as being the cause--a relation which we seek to express by the terms Action and Re-action; but for which the term Reciprocal Action or the law of Reciprocity (_Wechselwirkung_) would be both more accurate and more expressive.
These are truths which can scarcely be too frequently impressed on the mind that is in earnest in the wish to _reflect_ aright. Nature is a line in constant and continuous evolution. Its _beginning_ is lost in the super-natural: and _for our understanding_, therefore, it must appear as a continuous line without beginning or end. But where there is no discontinuity there can be no origination, and every appearance of origination in _nature_ is but a shadow of our own casting. It is a reflection from our own _Will_ or Spirit. Herein, indeed, the Will consists. This is the essential character by which WILL is _opposed_ to Nature, as _Spirit_, and raised _above_ Nature, as _self-determining_ Spirit--this namely, that it is a power of _originating_ an act or state.