equally essential to the character of an all-perfect Being. In things morally indifferent, and bearing no connexion with the character of man as a moral agent, it is decisively proved that the Deity has shown an exclusive regard to the happiness of the human race. But in the different effects of different sorts of moral conduct upon the well-being of individuals, and of mankind at large, he has taken occasion to display his justice too; and has given us reason to conclude, by an analogy drawn from the present to a future dispensation, that the punishment incurred by guilt is not necessarily averted by repentance. This appears, not only in the instances already mentioned, of the loss of character and reputation, which might be referred to the fallible judgment of man; but in the consequences which follow vice, by the natural constitution of things, and are, therefore, to be argued upon as actual testimonies of the divine counsels. And these consequences, we find, usually continue, long after the moral character which caused them has been changed; and the loss of fortune and

health is not repaired by repentance of that ill conduct which originally forfeited them.

The analogy, therefore, which we can derive from the course of things here, gives us no reason to imagine that God either has, or would have, forgiven the violation of his moral laws, by any departure from the holiness which belongs to his perfections. "Some other intercession, some other sacrifice, some other atonement, it appears, must be made for sin, beyond what man himself is capable of making, before the purity of the divine justice can be reconciled to his manifold offences. The doctrines of Revelation coincide then, in every respect, with the original anticipations of nature," when they assure us, that God in appointing an atonement as an instrumental mean for the general restoration of repentant and reformed transgressors to his favour, has satisfied his holiness at the same time that he

* Smith's Moral Sentiments, three first editions, p. 206.

has consulted his benevolence: and wherever this revelation of his counsels has been hitherto explained, he has also given the strongest discouragement to vice, by declaring its repugnance to his nature; and the highest inducement to virtue, by showing the perfect purity, either inherent or imputed, which his presence demands.

This view of the situation of man, and of the attributes of the Creator, which the Christian revelation unfolds, is complete and consistent ; and, while it accounts for all the phænomena of our state, contains but two points that are beyond our reason, and none that are contrary to it. It is above our reason, why we should be subjected to so much hazard; it is also above our reason, how the sacrifice of Christ should expiate human transgressions. But it is not, therefore, contrary to reason, that God should have chosen to create a being who should form and display his character in a probationary state, before he was admitted to the scene of

his ulterior destination: or that he should mercifully have appointed a mean, by which, consistently with his own justice, the risk incurred by that being should be diminished. Admit this; and the moral world, which is sometimes treated as a scene of confusion, in which an unequal contest between reason and passion, between duty and transgression, is constantly carried on, will appear a comprehensive plan of harmony and intelligible design.

For reasons of which we are confessedly ignorant, God placed us in a state, not of ultimate perfection, but of preparatory probation. To the formation and developement of human character, which was the object of this probation, the existence of moral evil, and the possibility of falling into it, became necessary. The degree of criminality in which some part of the human race is consequently involved, places the whole race in a situation of so much difficulty, that a total escape from the general contagion is rendered impossible. It follows, therefore, that where the inducements to offend

were so powerful, if no provisional remedy had been applied to cases of inferior or repentant offenders, the system might have appeared so far defective, as to be irreconcileable with the belief of the goodness of God, which we derive from other sources, though not contrary to the rules of strict justice. Revelation, however, sets aside this difficulty; and acquaints us, that the appointment of this provisional remedy was coeval with the foundation of the system itself; and that the disorders consequent upon the introduction of moral evil, have been all along accompanied and palliated by a vicarious atonement, which reconciles the forgiveness of man to the perfection of the divine attributes, and renders the final happiness of those whose moral character has ultimately borne the test required of them, no less consistent with the justice, than it is agreeable to the benevolence of God.

Against this uniform and comprehensive scheme nothing can be advanced, except the presumptuous inquiry, why we were not cre