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perfect; since a being absolutely perfect must necessarily be self-existent. But there are

various degrees of imperfection; various degrees of frailty in the agent, and of temptation from external objects: all this was to be determined by the will of the Creator alone; nor can we conceive any thing to control or interfere with his view as to what best coincided with his design for the human race.

In the Scripture, to which alone we can appeal with confidence, the creation of man is represented as a voluntary measure on God's part, to which we can only suppose him determined by the exercise of his attributes, justice and goodness. The account there given, though accommodated to human expression, is declarative of the intention of the Creator; who says, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (i. e. endued with the distinctive faculty of reason); "and let them have dominion" over the earth.

Here, and throughout the history, God

appears to resolve, independently of all restraint

*

or necessity, to create a world fit for the reception of the human race, to make them the sovereign or principal inhabitants of it, and at the same time to place them on their probation; their happiness being dependent on their obedience to prescribed commands, and their disobedience being threatened with punish

ment.

The stress of the question, therefore, lies here why the Deity, if his purpose was really benevolent, did not at once create man capable

*This is said in opposition to the language of King, before cited, who speaks of "God being obliged to suffer these or greater evils;" and of Jenyns, who argues to the same purpose; "It is not at all difficult to conceive, that in every possible method of ordering, disposing, and framing the universal system of things, such numberless inconveniences might necessarily arise, that all that infinite wisdom could do, was to make choice of that method which was attended with the least and fewest; and this not proceeding from any defect of power in the Creator, but from that imperfection which is inherent in the nature of all created things." The real extent of the necessary imperfection has been already stated.

of enjoying a state of perfect purity and holiness, and incapable of corrupting or forfeiting it. Now, although it is not pretended that we can see into all the reasons by which the Deity was swayed to create man a peccable being; yet there are not wanting many considerations which may serve, if not to satisfy our curiosity, at least to remove any scruples which might be raised on this ground, against the conclusions of natural religion with respect to the divine attributes.

Without denying, on the one hand, that a being free from all temptation, and unspotted by any stain of guilt, might be created, and, if created, would be an object of the highest love and admiration; yet, on the other hand, it must be conceded, that the virtue of such a being would be altogether different in kind from the virtue of one who has successfully resisted the temptations and overcome the difficulties to which a good man is exposed on earth, and who has so far contributed to form his own

The one

character, his own moral excellence.* would have received, the other has acquired. The one would have succeeded by inheritance to the possession, which the other has attained by victory.

I greatly respect the piety and humility of those Christians who will think that this passage represents the future condition of man as depending too much on his own deserts. Theirs is the safe side. Nothing is so indispensable, in all practical discourses and exhortations, as to insist on the weakness of man's endeavours, as his natural propensity is to magnify his deserts and trust to his own powers. But while the Scripture every where assures us, that no man's merit can entitle him to heaven, it likewise leaves us to understand, that "the gift of God, eternal life, through Jesus Christ," is not an unconditional gift, any more than Paradise to Adam. So is it no less certain from St. Paul, that fallen man cannot, without the aid of divine grace, form his own character to good: but it equally appears from the same source, that he must contribute to form it; and that the individuality of personal character remains, notwithstanding the "inward renewal" required of the Christian; as their peculiar style and habits of thinking remained to the inspired writers, supported, but not superseded, by inspiration. Those who do not find in Scripture this life represented as a state of probation, or the dispensation of the Gospel as a system of rewards and punishments, certainly read it with different eyes from mine.

If, indeed, that were the highest character of virtue, which consists in the perpetual contemplation and love of supreme excellence, an idea which was erroneously entertained by some of the ancient philosophers, and has been borrowed from them by the modern Quietists, there would be less occasion for a situation of so great difficulty and danger; though, even according to their system, it was no inconsiderable triumph to abstract the mind from the objects with which it is surrounded, and fix it to the contemplation of unseen and ideal perfection. But as this speculative disposition of the mind towards what is abstractedly good, is found by experience to be consistent with much that is vicious in practice; and as real practical virtue, such as we are concerned with in this life, does in fact consist in an habitual subjection of the mind to the conclusions of reason, where revelation has not been made, and where it has, to the commands issued by the Creator of the world to direct his people; it is evident that this habitual subjection of the will must be acquired, like other habits, by repeated acts; and to its formation must be pre

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