intellectual and practical, often depend upon it. The resemblances of various natural things in greater or less degree become the means of acquiring a knowledge of them with greater ease, because it is made the basis of their arrangement into kinds and sorts, without which the human memory would fail, and the understanding be confused. The differences in things are as important as their resemblances. This is strikingly illustrated in the domestic animals and in men. If the individuals of the former did not differ, no property could be claimed in them, or when lost they could not be recovered. The countenance of one human individual differs from all the rest of his species; his voice and his manner have the same variety. This is not only an illustration of the resources of creative power and wisdom; but of design and intention to secure a practical end. Parents, children, and friends could not otherwise be distinguished, nor the criminal from the innocent. No felon could be identified by his accuser, and the courts of judgment would be obstructed, and often rendered of no avail for the protection of life and property. To variety of kind and form, we may add variety of magnitude. In the works of God, we have the extremes, and those extremes filled up in perfect gradation from magnificence to minuteness. We adore the mighty sweep of that power which scooped out the bed of the fathomless ocean, moulded the mountains, and filled space with innumerable worlds; but the same hand formed the animalcule, which requires the strongest magnifying power of optical instruments to make it visible. In that too the work is perfect. We perceive matter in its most delicate organization, bones, sinews, tendons, muscles, arteries, veins, the pulse of the heart, and the heaving of the lungs. The workmanship is as complete in the smallest as in the most massive of the works of God. powers, which make the study of nature so endless But in the means by which offending men are reconciled to God, the inspired writers of the New Testament peculiarly glory, as the most eminent manifestations of the wisdom of God. "For the wonderful work of redemption the apostle gives us this note, that he hath therein abounded in all wisdom and prudence.' Herein did the perfection of wisdom and prudence shine forth, to reconcile the mighty amazing difficulties and seeming contrarieties, real contrarieties indeed, if he had not some way intervened to order the course of things, such as the conflict between justice and mercy;-that the one must be satisfied in such a way as the other might be gratified: which could never have had its pleasing grateful exerThe connexion and dependence of the works of God cise, without being reconciled to the former. And that are as wonderful as their variety. Every thing fills its this should be brought about by such an expedient, place, not by accident but by design; wise regulation that there should be no complaint on the one hand, nor runs through the whole, and shows that that whole is on the other. Herein hath the wisdom of a crucified the work of one, and of one alone. The meanest weed Redeemer, that whereof the crucified Redeemer or Sawhich grows stands in intimate connexion with the viour was the effected object, triumphed over all the mighty universe itself. It depends upon the atmos-imaginations of men, and all the contrivances even of phere for moisture, which atmosphere supposes an devils, by that death of his, by which the Devil purposed ocean, clouds, winds, gravitation; it depends upon the the last defeat, the complete destruction of the whole sun for colour, and, essentially, for its required degree design of his coming into the world, even by that very of temperature. This supposes the revolution of the means, it is brought about so as to fill hell with horror, earth, and the adjustment of the whole planetary sys- and heaven and earth with wonder."(6) tem. Too near the sun, it would be burned up; too far from it, it would be chilled. What union of extremes is here, the grass of the earth, "which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven," with the stupendous powers of nature, the most glorious works of the right hand of God! So clearly does wisdom display itself, in the adoption of means to ends in the visible world, that there are comparatively few of the objects which surround us, and few of their qualities, the use of which is not apparent. In this particular, the degree in which the Creator has been pleased to manifest his wisdom is remarkably impressive. "Among all the properties of things, we discover no inutility, no superfluity. Voluntary motion is denied to the vegetable creation, because mechanical motion answers the purpose. This raises, in some plants, a defence against the wind, expands others towards the sun, inclines them to the support they require, and diffuses their seed. If we ascend higher towards irrational animals, we find them possessed of powers exactly suited to the rank they hold in the scale of existence. "Wisdom in the treasure of its incomprehensible light, devised to save man, without prejudice to the perfections of God, by transferring the punishment to a Surety, and thus to punish sin as required by justice, and pardon the sinner as desired by mercy."(7) CHAPTER VI. ATTRIBUTES of God-Goodness. GOODNESS, when considered as a distinct attribute of God, is not taken in the sense of universal rectitude, but signifies benevolence or a disposition to communicate happiness. From an inward principle of good will, God exerts his omnipotence in diffusing happiness through the universe, in all fitting proportion, according to the different capacities with which he has en. dowed his creatures, and according to the direction of the most perfect wisdom. "Thou art good and doest good.-The Father of lights, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift.-O praise the Lord! for he is good, and his mercy endureth for ever." "The oyster is fixed to his rock; the herring traverses a vast extent of ocean. But the powers of the This view of the Divine character in the Holy Scripoyster are not deficient; he opens his shell for nourish-tures has in it some important peculiarities, too often ment, and closes it at the approach of an enemy. Nor overlooked, but which give to the revelation they make are those of the herring superfluous; he secures and of God a singular glory. supports himself in the frozen seas, and commits his spawn in the summer to the more genial influence of warmer climates. The strength and ferocity of beasts of prey are required by the mode of subsistence allotted to them. If the ant has peculiar sagacity, it is but a compensation for its weakness; if the bee is remarkable for its foresight, that foresight is rendered necessary by the short duration of its harvest. Nothing can be more various than the powers allowed to animals, each in their order; yet it will be found, that all these Goodness in God is represented as goodness of nature; as one of his essential perfections, and not as an accidental or an occasional affection; and thus he is set infinitely above the gods of the heathen, those imaginary creations of the perverted imaginations of (4) SUMNER's Records of Creation. corrupt men, whose benevolence was occasional, limited, and apt to be disturbed by contrary passions. Such were the best views of pagans; but to us a Being of a far different character is manifested as our Creator and Lord. One of his appropriate and distinguishing names, as proclaimed by himself, signifies "The Gracious One," and imports goodness in the principle; and another, "The all-sufficient and allbountiful pourer forth of all good" and expresses goodness in action. Another interesting view of this attribute is, that the goodness of God is efficient and inexhaustible; it reaches every fit case, it supplies all possible want; and "endureth for ever." Hence the Talmudists explain " SHADDAI, in Gen. xvii. 1, by "in æternum sufficiens sum," I am the eternally allsufficient. Like his emblem the sun, which sheds his rays upon the surrounding worlds, and enlightens and cherishes the whole creation without being diminished in splendour, he imparts without being exhausted, and, ever giving, has yet infinitely more to give. A third and equally important representation is, that he takes pleasure in the exercise of benevolence; that "he delights in mercy." It is not wrung from him with reluctance; it is not stintedly measured out, it is not coldly imparted. God saw the works he had made, that "they were good," with an evident gratification and delight in what he had imparted to a world "full of his goodness," and into which sin and misery had not entered. "He is rich to all that call upon him;he giveth liberally and upbraideth not;-exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think." It is under these views, that the Scriptures afford so much encouragement to prayer, and lay so strong a ground for that absolute trust in God, which they enjoin as one of our highest duties, as it is the source of our greatest comfort. Another illustration of the Divine goodness, and which is also peculiar to the Scriptures, is, that nothing, if capable of happiness, comes immediately from his forming hands without being placed in circumstances of positive felicity. By heathens, acquainted only with a state of things in which much misery is suffered, this view of the Divine goodness could not be taken.-They could not but suppose either many Gods, some benevolent, and others, and the greater number, of an opposite character; or one, in whose nature no small proportion of malevolence was intermixed with milder sentiments. The Scriptures, on the contrary, represent misery as brought into the world by the fault of creatures; and that otherwise it had never entered. When God made the world, he made it good; when he made man, he made him happy, with power to remain so. He sows good seed in his field, and if tares spring up, "an enemy hath done this." This is the doctrine of inspiration. Finally, the Scriptures, upon this lapse of man, and the introduction of natural and moral evil, represent God as establishing an order o perfectly suf ficient means to remedy both. One of his names is therefore GOEL, "the Redeemer," and another, 2 BONAH, "the Restorer." The means by which he justifies these titles display his goodness with such peculiar eminence, that they are called "the riches of his grace," and sometimes "the riches of his glory." By the incarnation and sacrificial death of the Son of God, he became the "GOEL," the kinsman, and "redeemer" of mankind; he bought back and "restored" the forfeited inheritance of happiness, present and eternal, into the human family, and placed it again within the reach of every human being. In anticipation of this propitiation, the first offender was forgiven and raised to eternal life, and the same mercy has been promised to all his descendants. No man perishes finally but by his own refusal of the mercy of his God. And though the restoration of individuals is not at once followed by the removal of the natural evils of pain, death, &c.; for had the whole race of man accepted the offered grace, they would not, in this present state, have been removed; yet beyond a short life on earth these evils are not extended, and, even in this life, they are made the means of moral ends, tending to a higher moral perfection, and greater happiness in another. Such are the views of the Divine goodness as unfolded in the Scriptures; views of the utmost importance in an inquiry into the proofs of this attribute of the Divine nature, which are afforded by the actual circumstances of the world. Independent of their cid, no proper estimate can be taken of the sum of evil which actually exists; nor of its bearing upon the Divine character. On these subjects there have been conflicting opinions; and the principal reason has been, that many persons on both sides;-those who have impugned the goodness of God, and those who have defended it against objections taken from the existence of evil-have too often made the question a subject of pure "Natural Theology," and have therefore necessarily formed their conclusions on a partial and most defective view of the case. This is not indeed a subject for Natural Theology. It is absurd to make it so; and the best writers have either been pressed with the insuperable difficulties which have arisen from excluding the light which Revelation throws upon the state of man in this world, and his connexion with another; or, like Paley, they have burst the self-inflicted restraints, and confessed "that when we let in religious considerations, we let in light upon the difficulties of nature." With respect to the illustrations of the Divine goodness which are presented in the natural and moral world, there are extremes of opinion on both sides. The views of some are too gloomy, and shut out much of the evidences of the Divine benignity: others embrace a system of optimism, and exclude, on the other hand, the manifestations of the Divine justice, and the retributive character of the Universal Governor. Scriptures enable us to adjust these extremes, and to give to God the glory of an absolute goodness, without limiting its tenderness by severity, or diminishing its majesty by weakness. The The dark side of the actual state of the world and of man its inhabitant, has often, for insidious purposes, been very deeply shadowed. The facts alleged may indeed be generally admitted. The globe, as the residence of man, has its inconveniences and positive evils; its variable, and often pernicious climates; its earthquakes, volcanoes, tempests, and inundations; its sterility in some places, which wears down man with labour; its exuberance of vegetable and animal life in others, which generates disease or gives birth to annoying and destructive animals. The diseases of the human race; their short life and painful dissolution; their general poverty; their universal sufferings and cares; the distractions of civil society; oppressions, frauds, and wrongs; must all be acknowledged. To these may be added the sufferings and death of animals, and the universal war carried on between different creatures throughout the earth. This enumeration of evils might indeed be greatly enlarged without exaggeration. But this is not the only view to be taken. It must be combined with others equally obvious; there are lights as well as shadows in the scene, and the darkest masses which it presents are mingled with bright and joyous colours. For, as Paley has observed, "In a vast plurality of instances, in which contrivance is perceived, the design of the contrivance is beneficial. "When God created the human species, either he wished their happiness, or he wished their misery, or he was indifferent and unconcerned about either. "If he had wished our misery, he might have made sure of his purpose, by forming our senses to be so many sores and pains to us, as they are now instruments of gratification and enjoyment: or, by placing us amid objects so ill suited to our perceptions as to have continually offended us, instead of ministering to our refreshment and delight. He might have made, for example, every thing we tasted bitter; every thing we saw, loathsome; every thing we touched, a sting; every smell, a stench; and every sound, a discord. "If he had been indifferent about our happiness or misery, we must impute to our good fortune (as all design by this supposition is excluded), both the capa city of our senses to receive pleasure, and the supply of external objects fitted to produce it. "But either of these, and still more both of them, being too much to be attributed to accident, nothing remains but the first supposition, that God, when he created the human species, wished their happiness; and made for them the provision which he has made, with that view and for that purpose. "The same argument may be proposed in different terms, thus: contrivance proves design; and the predominant tendency of the contrivance indicates the disposition of the designer. The world abounds with contrivances; and all the contrivances which we are acquainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes. Evil no doubt exists, but is never, that we can perceive, the object of contrivance. Teeth are contrived to eat, not to ache; their aching now and then is incidental to the contrivance, perhaps inseparable from it; or even, if you will, let it be called a defect in the contrivance; but it is not the object of it. This is a distinction which well deserves to be attended to. In describing implements of husbandry, you would hardly say of the sickle, that it is made to cut the reaper's hand, though, from the construction of the instrument, and the manner of using it, this mischief often foliows. But if you had occasion to describe instruments of torture or execution, this engine, you would say, is to extend the sinews; this to dislocate the joints; this to break the bones; this to scorch the soles of the feet. Here pain and misery are the very objects of the contrivance. Now, nothing of this sort is to be found in the works of nature. We never discover a train of contrivance to bring about an evil purpose. No anatomist ever discovered a system of organization calculated to produce pain and disease; or, in explaining the parts of the human body, ever said, this is to irritate; this to inflame; this duct is to convey the gravel to the kidneys; this gland to secrete the humour which forms the gout. If by chance he come at a part of which he knows not the use, the most he can say is, that it is useless: no one ever suspects that it is put there to incommode, to annoy, or to torment."(8) The chief exceptions to this are those of venomous animals, and of animals preying upon one another; on the first of which it has been remarked, not only that the number of venomous creatures is few, but that "the animal itself being regarded, the faculty complained of is good; being conducive, in all cases, to the defence of the animal; in some cases, to the subduing of its prey; and in some probably to the killing of it, when caught, by a mortal wound inflicted in the passage to the stomach, which may be no less merciful to the victim, than salutary to the devourer. In the viper, for instance, the poisonous fang may do that which, in other animals of prey, is done by the crush of the teeth. Frogs and mice might be swallowed alive without it. "The second case, namely, that of animals devouring one another, furnishes a consideration of much larger extent. To judge whether, as a general provision, this can be deemed an evil, even so far as we understand its consequences, which probably is a partial understanding, the following reflections are fit to be attended to. 1. Immortality upon this earth is out of the question. Without death, there could be no generation, no parental relation, that is, as things are constituted, no animal happiness. The particular duration of life, assigned to different animals, can form no part of the objection; because, whatever that duration be, while it remains finite and ìmited, it may always be asked, why it is no longer. The natural age of different animals varies from a single day to a century of years. No account can be given of this; nor could any be given, whatever other proportion of life had obtained among them. "The term, then, of life in different animals, being the same as it is, the question is, what mode of taking it away is the best even for the animal itself. "Now, according to the established order of nature (which we must suppose to prevail, or we cannot reason at all upon the subject), the three methods by which life is usually put an end to, are acute diseases, decay, and violence. The simple and natural life of brutes is not often visited by acute distempers; nor could it be deemed an improvement of their lot if they were. Let it be considered, therefore, in what a condition of suffering and misery a brute animal is placed, which is left to perish by decay. In human sickness or infirmity, there is the assistance of man's rational fellow-creatures, if not to alleviate his pains, at least to minister to his necessities, and to supply the place of his own activity. A brute, in his wild and natural state, does every thing for himself. When his strength, therefore, or his speed, or his limbs, or his senses fail him, he is delivered over, either to absolute famine, or to the protracted wretchedness of a life slowly wasted by searcity of food. Is it then to see the world filled with drooping, superannuated, half-starved, helpless, and (8) Natural Theology. unhelped animals, that you would alter the present system of pursuit and prey? "2. This system is also to them the spring of motion and activity on both sides. The pursuit of its prey forms the employment, and appears to constitute the pleasure, of a considerable part of the animal creation. The using of the means of defence, or flight, or precaution, forms also the business of another part. And even of this latter tribe we have no reason to suppose, that their happiness is much molested by their fears. Their danger exists continually; and in some cases they seem to be so far sensible of it as to provide in the best manner they can, against it: but it is only when the attack is actually made upon them, that they appear to suffer from it. To contemplate the insecurity of their condition with anxiety and dread, requires a degree of reflection, which (happily for themselves) they do not possess. A hare, notwithstanding the number of its dangers and its enemies, is as playful an animal as any other." It is to be observed, that as to animals, there is still much happiness. "The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted existence. In a spring noon or a summer evening, on whichever side I turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view. "The insect youth are on the wing.' Swarms of new-born flies are trying their pinions in the air. Their sportive motions, their wanton mazes, their gratuitous activity, their continual change of place without use or purpose, testify their joy and the exultation which they feel in their lately-discovered faculties. A bee, among the flowers in spring, is one of the cheerfullest objects that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment; so busy and so pleased; yet it is only a specimen of insect life, with which, by reason of the animal being half domesticated, we happen to be better acquainted than we are with that of others. The whole winged insect tribe, it is probable, are equally intent upon their proper employments, and, under every variety of constitution, gratified, and perhaps equally gratified, by the offices which the author of their nature has assigned to them. But the atmosphere is not the only scene of enjoyment for the insect race. Plants are covered with aphides, greedily sucking their juices, and constantly, as it should seem, in the act of sucking. It cannot be doubted but that this is a state of gratification. What else should fix them so close to the operation, and so long? Other species are running about with an alacrity in their motions which carries with it every mark of pleasure. Large patches of ground are sometimes half-covered with these brisk and sprightly natures. If we look to what the waters produce, shoals of the fry of fish frequent the margins of rivers, of lakes, and of the sea itself. These are so happy that they know not what to do with themselves. Their attitudes, their vivacity, their leaps out of the water, their frolics in it (which I have noticed a thousa times with equal attention and amusement), all conduce to show their excess of spirits, and are simply the effects of that excess. "At this moment, in every given moment of time, how many myriads of animals are eating their food, gratifying their appetites, ruminating in their holes, accomplishing their wishes, pursuing their pleasures, taking their pastimes! In each individual, how many things must go right for it to be at ease; yet how large a proportion out of every species are so in every assignable instant! Throughout the whole of life, as it is diffused in nature, and as far as we are acquainted with it, looking to the average of sensations, the plurality and the preponderance is in favour of happiness by a vast excess. In our own species, in which perhaps the assertion may be more questionable than in any other, the prepollency of good over evil, of health for example and ease, over pain and distress, is evinced by the very notice which calamities excite. What inquiries does the sickness of our friends produce! What conversation their misfortunes! This shows that the common course of things is in favour of happiness; that happiness is the rule, misery the exception. Were the order reversed, our attention would be called to examples of health and competency instead of disease and want."(9) Various alleviations of positive evils, and their being connected with beneficial ends, are also to be taken (9) PALEY'S Natural Theology. into consideration. Pain teaches vigilance and caution, and renders its remission in a state of health a source of higher enjoyment. For numerous diseases, also, remedies are, by the providence of God, and his blessing upon the researches of man, established. The process of mortal diseases has the effect of mitigating the natural horror we have of death. Sorrows and separations are smoothed by time. The necessity of labour obliges us to occupy time usefully, which is both a source of enjoyment, and the means of preventing much mischief in a world of corrupt and ill-inclined men; and familiarity and habit render many circumstances and inconveniences tolerable, which, at first sight, we conceive to be necessarily the sources of wretchedness. In all this, there is surely an ample proof and an adorable display of the Divine benevolence. In considering the actual existence of evils in the world, as it affects the question of the goodness of God, we must also make a distinction between those evils which are self-inflicted, and those which are inevitable. The question of the reconcilableness of the permission of evil with the goodness of God will be distinctly considered; but waiving this for the moment, nothing can be more obvious than that man himself is chargeable with by far the largest share of the miseries of the present life, and that they draw no cloud over the splendour of universal goodness. View men collectively. Sin, as a ruling habit, is not necessary. The means of repressing its inward motions, and restraining its outward acts, are or have been furnished to all mankind; and yet were all those miseries which are the effects of voluntary vice removed, how little comparatively would remain to be complained of in the world! Oppressive governments, private wrongs, wars, and all their consequent evils, would disappear. Peace, security, and industry would cover the earth with fruits, in sufficient abundance for all; and for accidental wants, the helpless, sick, and aged would find a prompt supply in the charity of others. Regulated passions and an approving conscience would create benevolent tempers, and these would displace inward disquiet with inward peace. Disease would remain, accidents to life and limb occur, death would ensue; but diseases would in consequence of temperance be less frequent and formidable, men would ordinarily attain a peaceful age, and sink into the grave by silent decay. Besides the removal of so many evils, how greatly would the sum of positive happiness be increased! Intellectual improvement would yield the pleasures of knowledge; arts would multiply the comforts, and mitigate many of the most wasting toils, of life; general benevolence would unite men in warm affections and friendships, productive of innumerable reciprocal offices of kindness; piety would crown all with the pleasures of devotion, the removal of the fear of death, and the hope of a still better state of being. All this is possible. If it is not actual, it is the fault of the human race, not of their Maker and Redeemer; and his goodness is not, therefore, to be questioned, because they are perverse. restless pining of spirit after an unknown good, creating a distaste to present innocent enjoyments--he has found that good in the favour and friendship of God. No discontent with the allotments of Providence-he has been taught a peaceful submission. No irritable restlessness under his sufferings and sorrows,-" in patience he possesses his soul." No fearful apprehension of the future-he knows that there is a guiding eye, and a supporting hand above, employed in all his concerns No tormenting anxiety as to life or death-" he has a lively hope" of an inheritance in heaven. What then of evil remains to him but the common afflictions of life, all of which he feels, but does not sink under, and which, as they exercise, improve his virtues, and, by rendering them more exemplary and influential to others, are converted into ultimate benefits. Into this state any individual may be raised; and what is thus made possible to us by Divine goodness is of that attribute an adorable manifestation. These views, however, while they remove the weight of any objections which may be made to the benevolence of the Divine character, taken from the existence of actual evils in the world, are at as great a distance as possible from that theory on this subject which has been denominated Optimism. This opinion is, briefly, not that the present system of being is the best that might be conceived; but the best which the nature of things would admit of. That between not creating at all, and creating material, and sentient, and rational beings, as we find them now circumstanced, and with their present qualities, there was no choice. Accordingly, with respect to natural evils, the Optimists appear to have revived the opinion of the Oriental and Grecian schools, that matter has in it an inherent defect and tendency to disorder, which baffled the skill of the great Artificer himself to form it into a perfect world; and that moral evil as necessarily follows from finite, and therefore imperfect, natures. No imputation, they infer, can be cast upon the Creator, whose goodness, they contend, is abundantly manifest in correcting many of these evils by skilful contrivances, and rendering them, in numerous instances, the occasion of good. Thus the storm, the earthquake, and the volcano, in the natural world, though necessary consequences of imperfection in the very nature of matter, are rendered by their effects beneficial, in the various ways which natural philosophy points out; and thus even moral evils are necessary to give birth, and to call into exercise the opposite qualities of virtue, which but for them could have no exercise; e. g. if no injuries were inflicted, there could be no place for the virtue of forgiveness. To this also is added the doctrine of general laws; according to which, they argue, the universe must be conducted; but that, however well set and constituted general laws may be, they will often thwart and cross one another; and that from thence particular inconveniences will arise. The constitution of things is, however, good on the whole, and that is all which can be required. The apology for the Divine goodness afforded by such But let the world remain as it is, with all its self-in- an hypothesis will not be accepted by those most anxflicted evils, and let the case of an individual only be ious to defend this attribute from atheistic cavils; and considered, with reference to the number of existing though it has had its advocates among some who have evils, from which, by the merciful provision of the professed respect for the Scriptures, yet it could never grace of God, he may entirely escape, and of those have been adopted by them, had they not been too rewhich it is put into his power to mitigate, and even to gardless of the light which they cast upon these subconvert to his benefit. It cannot be doubted as to any jects, and been led astray by the vain project of conindividual around us, but that he may escape from the structing perfect systems of natural religion, and by practice and the consequence of every kind of vice, and attempting to unite the difficulties which arise out of experience the renewing effects of Christianity-that them, by the aid of unassisted reason. The very prinhe may be justified by faith, adopted into the family of ciple of this hypothesis, that the nature of things did God, receive the hallowing influences of the Holy Ghost, not admit of a better world, implies a very unworthy and henceforth walk, not after the flesh, but after the notion of God. It was pardonable in the ancient advoSpirit. Why do men who profess to believe in Chris- cates of the eternity of matter, to ascribe to it an estianity, when employed in writing systems of "Natu-sential imperfection, and inseparable evil qualities; but ral Theology," which oblige them to reason on the if the doctrine of creation, in the proper sense, be Divine goodness, and to meet objections to it, forget allowed, the omnipotence which could bring matter out this, or transfer to some other branch of theology what of nothing, was just as able to invest it with good as is so vital to their own argument? Here the benevo- with evil qualities; and he who arranged it to produce lence of God to man comes forth in all its brightness, so much beauty, harmony, security, and benefit, as we and throws its illustrations, upon his dealings with actually find in the world, could be at no loss to renman. What, in this case, would be the quantum of der his work perfect in every respect, and needed not evil left to be suffered by this individual, morally so the balancings and counteractions of one evil against restored and so regenerated? No evils, which are the another to effect his benevolent purposes. Accordconsequences of personal vice, often a long and fearfulingly, in fact, we find, that when God had finished his train. No inward disquiet, the effect of guilty or fool- work, he pronounced it not merely good comparatively; ich passions, another pregnant source of miscry. No but very good," or good absolutely. Nor is it true that, in the moral world, vice must necessarily exist | structures, proclaim the determined purpose, the perin order to virtue; and that if we value the one, we severing exertions, with which force had urged forward must in the nature of things be content to take it with the work of destruction. Suppose, farther, that in surthe other. We are told, indeed, that no forgiveness veying the relics which have survived through the could be exercised by one human being, if injury were silent lapse of ages, the stranger discovers a present not inflicted by another; no meekness could be dis- race of inhabitants, who have reared their huts amid played, were there no anger; no long-suffering, were the wreck. He inquires the history of the scene before there no perverseness, &c. But the fallacy lies in sepa- him. He is informed, that the city, once distinguished rating the acts of virtue from the principles of virtue. by splendour, by beauty, by every arrangement and All the above instances may be reduced to one princi- provision for the security, the accommodation, the ple of benevolence, which may exist in as high a degree, happiness of its occupiers, was reduced to its existing when never called forth by such occasions: and situation by the deliberate resolve and act of its own express itself in acts quite as explicit, in a state of lawful Sovereign, the very Sovereign by whom it had society from which sin is excluded. There are, for in- been erected, the Emperor of that part of the world. stance, according to Scripture, beings, called angels, Was he a ferocious tyrant ?-No,' is the universal who kept their first state, and have never sinned. In reply. He was a monarch pre-eminent for consissuch a society as theirs, composed probably of differ- tency, forbearance, and benignity.'-'Was his judgent orders of intelligences, some more advanced in ment blinded, or misled, by erroneous intelligence as knowledge than others, some with higher and others to the plans and proceedings of his subjects?'-' He with lower degrees of perfection, "as one star differeth knew ever thing but too well. He understood with from another star in glory;" how many exercises of hu- undeviating accuracy; he decided with unimpeachable mility and condescension; how much kind communica- wisdom.'-The case, then,' cries the traveller, is tion of knowledge by some, and meek and grateful recep- plain: the conclusion is inevitable. Your forefation of it by others; how many different ways in which a thers assuredly were ungrateful rebels; and thus perfect purity and a perfect love, and a perfect freedom plucked down devastation upon their city, themselves, from selfishness, may display themselves! When, there and their posterity.' fore, the principle of universal benevolence may be conceived to display itself so strikingly in a sinless state of society, does it need injury to call it forth in the visi-pothetical city. ble form of forgiveness; anger, in the form of meekness; obstinacy, in the form of forbearance? Certainly not; and it demands no effort of mind to infer, that did such occasions exist to call for it, it would be developed, not only in the particular modes just named, but in every other. In opposition to the view taken by such theorists, we may deny, that "whatever is, is best." We can not only conceive of a better state of things as possible, but can show that the evils which actually exist, whether natural or moral, do not exist necessarily. It is, indeed, a proof of the Divine goodness to bring good out of evil; to make storms and earthquakes, which are destructive to the few, beneficial to the many; to render the sins of men occasions to try, exercise, and perfect various virtues in the good; but if man had been under an unmixed dispensation of mercy, all these ends might obviously have been accomplished, independent of the existence of evils, natural or moral, in any degree. The true key to the whole subject is furnished by Divine revelation. Sin has entered the world. Man is under the displeasure of his Maker. Hence we see natural evils, and punitive acts of the Divine administration, not because God is not good, but because he is just as well as good. But man is not left under condemnation; through the propitiation made for his sins by the sacrifice of Christ, he is a subject of mercy. He is under correction, not under unmingled wrath, and hence the displays of the Divine benevolence, which the world and the acts of Providence every where, and throughout all ages, present; and in proportion as good predominates, kindness triumphs against severity, and the Divine character is emblazoned in our sight as one that "delighteth in mercy." To this representation of the actual relations in which the human race stand to God, and to no other hypothesis, the state of the world exactly answers, and thus affords an obvious and powerful confirmation of the doctrine of revelation. This view has been drawn out at length by a late ingenious writer,(1) and, in many instances, with great felicity of illustration. A few extracts will show the course of the argument. The first relates to the convulsions which have been undergone by the globe itself. "Suppose a traveller, penetrating into regions placed beyond the sphere of his antecedent knowledge, suddenly to find himself on the confines of a city lying in ruins. Suppose the desolation, though bearing marks of ancient date, to manifest unequivocal proofs that it was not effected by the mouldering hand of time, but has been the result of design and of violence. Dislocated arches, pendent battlements, interrupted aqueducts, towers undermined and subverted, while they record the primeval strength and magnificence of the (1) GISBORNE'S Testimony of Natural Philosophy to Christianity "The actual appearance of the globe on which we dwell, is in strict analogy with the picture of our hy "The earth, whatever may be the configuration, whatever may have been the perturbation or the repose of its deep and hidden recesses, is, in its superior strata, a mass of ruins. It is not of one land, or of one clime, that the assertion is made; but of all lands, but of all climes, but of the earth universally. Wherever the steep front of mountains discloses their interior construction; wherever native caverns and fissures reveal the disposition of the component materials; wherever the operations of the miner have pierced the successive layers, beneath which coal or metal is deposited; convulsion and disruption and disarrangement are visible. Though the smoothness and uniformity which the hand of cultivation expands over some portions of the globe, and the shaggy mantle of thickets and forests with which nature veils other portions hitherto unreplenished and unsubdued by mankind, combine to obscure the vestiges of the shocks which our planet has experienced; as a fair skin and ornamental attire conceal internal fractures and disorganizations in the human frame: to the eye of the contemplative inquirer exploring the surface of the earth, there is apparent many a scar testifying ancient concussion and collision and laceration; and many a wound yet unhealed, and opening into unknown and unfathomable profundity. "From this universal scene of confusion in the superior strata of the earth, let the student of natural theology turn his thoughts to the general works of God. What are the characteristics in which those works, however varied in their kinds, in their magnitudes, and in their purposes, obviously agree? What are the characteristics by which they are all, with manifest intention, imprinted?-Order and Harmony. In every mode of animal life, from the human frame down to the atomic and unsuspected existences in water, which have been rendered visible by the lenses of modern science; in the vegetable world, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop by the wall; from the hyssop by the wall to the minutest plant discernible under the microscope: in the crystallizations of the mineral kingdom, of its metals, of its salts, of its spars, of its gems: in the revolution of the heavenly bodies, and in the consequent reciprocations of day and night and seasons-all is regularity. In the works of God, order and harmony are the rule; irregularity and confusion form the rare exception. Under the Divine government, an exception so portentous as that which we have been contemplating, a transformation from order and harmony to irregularity and confusion involving the integuments of a world, cannot be attributed to any circumstance which, in common language, we term fortuitous. It proclaims itself to have been owing to a moral cause: to a moral cause demanding so vast and extraordinary an effect; a moral cause which cannot but be deeply interesting to man, cannot but be closely connected with man, the sole being on the face of this globe who is invested with moral agency; the |