for He is altogether good, and cannot be a curse, in this sense, to the work of His own hands. On this question, how the existence of sin and misery can be reconciled to the Divine government, natural religion has the advantage of christianity with Eternal Torments; because its advocates may equally suppose that these (sin and misery) minister to some wise purpose, and will go on to infer, that having so done they will cease to exist. Now this inference of reason christianity, rightly understood, gloriously confirms ; and shews not only that it may be so, but points out results that in their progress approve themselves as most excellent, and in their consummation exceed what eye hath seen, or ear heard, or what hath entered into the heart of man to conceive. Again, the narrow limits to which christianity is confined is a difficulty, although it can be shewn that natural religion, civilization, and the useful arts, are likewise partially imparted; and especially for this reason, that christianity itself is thought to declare that Eternal Misery can only be avoided by the means it has itself revealed. The disease then is vastly more extensive than the remedy, and a large part (comparatively how large a part,) are left without the sphere of God's providence, although they are "full of wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores;" though "from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, they have no sound place in them :" this, which on the common system, all must allow to be a difficulty, ceases to be one when christianity is seen to be life to the dead, or an offer of spiritual eternal existence to the earthy children of mortal Adam. Natural religion must then be admitted to be at best but a means of making this life tolerable; whilst christi

anity is "á treasure hid in a field, which it were well to sell all and buy;"" the pearl of great price,” "the one thing needful."

I have said enough to shew that, by the doctrine of Eternal Misery, christianity suffers in the comparison with natural religion, but it is only by that doctrine. So the other difficulties that attend the christian system proceed from the same cause; for on removing this cause, the fall of man, the scheme of redemption by the innocent suffering for the guilty, regeneration and spiritual life, all form parts of the Divine government, that vindicate their high original by the good they bring to man; by the glory they yield to God.

'Having cast off the powers of darkness, as co-equal and co-eternal with itself, christianity will arise like a giant refreshed with sleep, and will go forth conquering and to conquer, safe from the attack of all assailants from those who, being spiritually dead, are blind to its real nature, and who, having raised a phantom, are pleased with its overthrow; and also from those who, partially misconceiving it, find in the feet of clay,* or in the iron hand,† weak parts of their own invention; I will endeavour to exhibit the nature of man and of christianity, as the holy scriptures represent them, and if I shall so do, against a spiritual structure, vain will be the arm of flesh.

I will proceed then, in the first place, to shew that knowledge is the principle and measure of life.

That as we cultivate spiritual or sensual knowledge, we live a life immortal or perishing.

That ignorance of the truth of things is the cause of all the depravity and vices of men; that wastę * Unitarianism. + High Calvinism.

of life is its natural effect; for "those things they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those they corrupt themselves."

That the imperfection of man's nature is no impeachment of the Divine wisdom and goodness; but that those attributes are exalted by the christian scheme having provided the means of carrying man's nature to perfection.

That the christian dispensation may be vindicated from the objection, arising from God's permitting Satan to tempt man, when He foreknew his fall; and the wisdom of all the parts of the scheme of redemption I think will be proved, if I can shew that they serve to produce the greatest possible sum of happiness.

The principle and measure of life is knowledge; since our existence as intellectual beings must consist of knowledge, for we exist as such, no further than we know. This, I think, will appear from the consideration that it is the degree, or kind of knowledge, that distinguishes the ranks of all created beings.

The growth of knowledge is progressive, but limited by our nature, and by its object.

The extent of knowledge depends on the organization, which, by the law of nature, defines and bounds what we can know. This may be seen from the similarity in species; each individual of which, is determined to be what it is, by its organization.

"There is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial." 1st Corinthians, c. xv.

Man depends as much for his knowledge on his

organization, as an oyster, for such as it is capable of; destroy organization in either, then all his thoughts or sensations perish. This may be proved by a reference to fainting fits-by ligatures on the nervesby the loss of sight-by pressure on the brain suspending and its removal restoring consciousness; and this is no less the case in the most intellectual and spiritual of mankind, than in the merest animal.*

Our organization is material, and always will be so till "death is swallowed up in victory." And the growth and increase of our intellectual organs, like all other parts of our material frame, depend on their exercise, which is an indispensable condition of their growth; and this is as much the law of our spiritual, as of our animal existence John, c. vi. 53 and 54. 66 -Except ye eat the flesh of

the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." All that we possess, in common with the lower animals, is plainly subject to the same laws. The organs are developed more or less slowly in proportion to our need of them; they attain their perfection; they decline; they become extinct-some even whilst life remains, but all at death; and if we have not possessed any other kind of life, analogy here points out our fate.

* A remarkable fallacy in argument occurs in Butler's Analogy. He contends for man's immortality, because a mortal disease sometimes attains its height, and leaves the intellectual faculties unaffected; and thence infers that the soul can act without the body, forgetting [that after death the organs which were previously unimpared, are destroyed, and that God's spirit then ceases to be united to them.

The brute only knows what he can feel, and that only so far as he feels it. Man's organization includes faculties by which he can trace what he feels up to its cause, and can know its cause therefore (as far as it operates on him,) as a cause. This is the principle of spiritual life, which we can possess no further than God imparts Himself to us, as the wise and good Author of our existence, the highest object of our love and desire. Now this divine communication must be an increase of knowledge, and is plainly an increase and peculiar species of existence.

There can be no immortality, then, but on the christian principle of regeneration, or being really and truly born again; seeing our existence, as derived from Adam, depends on our organization, of which death deprives us: and spiritual life or immortality, which consists in the knowledge and love of God, He imparts to those only who seek Him in His own appointed way.

If christianity then be not true, man, in regard to his intellectual capacity, when cultivated by the light of revelation, is an anomaly in the creation; being endowed with exalted faculties, and desires which have no adequate object. This is a demonstration in favour of christianity, if the axiom be allowed that God does nothing in vain. The great bulk of mankind, particularly the heathen world, in whom those faculties are dormant, and whose desires pass not beyond "meat, drink, and raiment, for after these things do the Gentiles seek," prove equally that they have not eternal life dwelling in them. The existence of mankind then without christianity-without the principle of regeneration