Natural Religion and the Incarnation. Two interests traceable in
all religion; (1) metaphysical; (2) moral or spiritual: oc-
casionally pursued disproportionately, e.g. in Hellenism and
Judaism. Both present in early religion as we know it, illus-
trated by myth, prayer, ritual, sacrifice. The import of these
two interests. I. The metaphysical assumes that the world is
an ordered whole, from which chance is excluded—the moral—
that God is to be found and known in nature. The meta-
physical demand gives rise to the three metaphysical proofs of
God, i.e. forms an ideal of thought, which is partly realized in
the world. It rests upon a claim to treat nature anthropo-
morphically, which is carried on-II. In the moral factor in
religion. The world is governed not only by a law of uni-
formity, but also by a law of good. The proofs interpret the
consensus gentium. The claim of Christ as set forth in the
New Testament, answers and satisfies the aspirations of man as