under the guidance of the highest attainable knowledge. He therefore is displaying himself as fast probably as the nature of things will admit. For this highest exhibition of himself, which involves the display of all truth, the punishment of sin and the work of redemption I believe to be necessary. Whether he is aiming to exalt the universe, as a whole and in all its ages, to the highest possible holiness, is not for me to say. It is likely to be So. But if this is what our brethren mean, they do not draw just conclusions from their premise; for it does not follow from God's aiming at the greatest general holiness, that some instances of sin are not necessary to the greatest good, nor that he is doing his utmost to make every individual holy. It only proves that he aims to make every individual holy so far as comports with the general interest of holiness; and this no believer in revelation denies.

If when our brethren say, God does the best for each that he can consistently with the highest prevalence of holiness in the universe in all ages, they mean no more than that the greatest display of his glory is necessary to the highest general holiness, and that he does for each the best he can consistently with his glory; I do not object; and could say the same in perfect consistence with divine efficiency. But if they mean, (as certainly they do if they mean any thing contrary to the common doctrine,) that God does all he can to make each individual holy which comports with moral agency; (the only limit that can be fixed, since holiness in every case is better for the universe than sin in its stead, and since no conceivable harm could result from his trying in every

case to bring about that which, for that particular case, would be the best for the universe ;) then I deny. Could not more have been done in our world for six thousand years consistently with moral agency? Could not more than one Noah have been sent to the antediluvian world? Could not all nations have had a Moses and a Pentateuch? Could not the God of miracles have filled all lands with Bibles and with Pauls? Could not the spirit of 1792 have begun a thousand years sooner? That God has done the best he could for the display of the character of man and his own, for the manifestation of his justice, mercy, and patience, for filling the universe with the knowledge of truth, and thus providing the means of the highest general holiness and happiness; I am willing to believe. But that he has done all he could consistently with moral agency, for the conversion of each individual; or, (which amounts to the same thing,) that he has done all he could for the conversion of each that consisted with the highest holiness of the universe, upon the assumed principle that holiness in every case is better for the holiness of the universe than sin in its stead; that is to say, all he could for each; I cannot believe. These several suppositions amount to the same thing. For if the holiness of each individual is better for the holiness of the universe than sin in its stead, and if God has done all he could for the conversion of each individual that consisted with the highest holiness of the universe, then he has done all he could for the conversion of each that comported with moral agency; in other words, all he could. What other limit can be set? If the holiness of each individual is better for the holiness of the

universe than sin in its stead, how could it obstruct the holiness of the universe for God to go to the utmost feasi ble limit with each? If he succeeded, the holiness of the universe would be advanced and in no way marred; unless it would furnish the universe with more constraining motives to holiness for some to be sinners and punished, which is contrary to the supposition. If he failed, it is inconceivable how the effort could make worse any but the rejecters themselves, who would soon confine the injury to hell and take it from other worlds. At any rate he could not have been kept back from doing his utmost for each by foreseeing a failure: for as both the failure and success must depend on the self-determining power which lies beyond his control, he could not, so far as we can conceive, have foreseen the result. Indeed it is an overwhelming argument against this self-determining power, that it would shut out all the actions of creatures from his foresight, and leave the whole moral universe for the future to him a perfect blank.

It does not follow that God could not have prevented sin, from the fact that he has not prevented it: for he has important purposes to answer by means of sin. "The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even the wicked for the day of evil." That is to say, for his own purposes he made Judas, with a full knowledge of the traitor's course, and with an eye distinctly fixed on "the day of evil:" Less than this, I think, cannot be made of the text. But whatever else it implies, it ́certainly implies that God has purposes to answer by sin. He had purposes to answer by the sin of Joseph's brethren, and a providence in

that affair.

"God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither but God." He had purposes to answer by the sin of Pharaoh and a providence in that affair. "For the Scriptare saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.” He had purposes to answer by the pride of the Assyrian king and a providence in that matter." Assyrian, the rod of my anger;-I will send him against a hypocritical nation.-Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations not a few.-Wherefore I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.-Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?" God had purposes to answer by the sins of the betrayer and murderers of Christ, and a pre-determined providence in those matters. "Truly the Son of man goeth as it was determined, but wo unto that man by whom he is betrayed." "Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." After God had created the universe "by" Christ and "for" Christ, that is, for a theatre on which he might accomplish the wonders of redemption and un

cover the great designs of God; after all his covenants with him and the Church; after all the preparations for his advent and death in the types and predictions and arrangements of the old dispensation; after sending him to die and commanding him to die; can it be supposed that he did all he could consistently with moral agency to prevent the sin of Judas and of the Jews ?* If f your meaning is, that he did all he could consistently with the highest display of his glory, and therefore with the greatest ultimate holiness and happiness of the universe, this is true, and leaves untouched his power to prevent sin.

Sin has certainly been the occasion of immeasurable good. Had there been no sin the universe would have lost all the glorious results of redemption, which, as we have seen, was the great end for which God built the universe. Christ was the "Word" by which the whole mind of God was to be expressed: Christ is the "face" from which all "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" shines: and "God-created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Without sin and the work of redemption, all the

* Gen. 45. 7, 8. Prov. 16. 4. Isai. 10. 5—19. Luke 22. 22. John 10. 18. Acts 2. 23 and 4. 27, 28. Rom. 9. 17. Col. 1. 16. with John 1. 3.

John 1. 1, 18. 2 Cor. 4. 6. Eph. 3. 9-11.