sation, because any other scheme is pressed with inexplicable absurdity, and impiety; and when his principles fail to account for the actual sum of sin and misery, instead of adopting a theory which at once demolishes all confidence in the love of God, he cleaves to that love, as the last, the only hope of man, and leaves the mystery to be solved in the great day of consummation. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? The author touches with extreme reluctance on this irritating controversy, in the introduction of a work intended to lift the mind above the stormy element of passion, that it may listen, in quietude, to the “still small voice” of heavenly mercy. He desires to guard, as much as possible, against any misconstruction of his principles. Entirely to escape, is a happiness too great to be looked for in the present day, when no writer is spared by the malice of party, unJess he be deemed too insignificant for notice, or too formidable for attack. DISCOURSE I. ON THE DIVINE CHARACTER AND GOVERNMENT. PSALM xlvi. 10. Be still, and know that I am God. THE existence of evil, moral and physical, is one of those undeniable truths which command the universal assent of mankind; and the man who might choose to deny it, would be regarded, not as expressing an honest conviction, but as wantonly dealing in paradox. On the origin of evil, there does not exist a similar concurrence of opinion. That question is perplexed with difficulties, corresponding with its magnitude; opening a boundless field of speculation to the metaphysician, and of B |