Finally, the same character may be recognised in the state of the inferior tribes of the animal creation, which, from their relation to man as their superior lord, are partly involved in his fate. With him they share in the benignity of the common parent; with him likewise they suffer

The penalty of Adam, the season's difference,
As the icy fang, and churlish chiding of the win-
ter's wind:

with other rigours and incommodities that flow from the same source.

Thus, in the whole frame and course of the world since the original defection, we may discern a display of justice softened by forbearance, and of indulgence tempered by justice; a righteous judge as well as a gracious benefactor; a God offended but not irreconcileable. By the light of scripture we are safely conducted through the labyrinth of nature, which, to the philosopher, who looks only to the present state of things, without considering the

C

change that has taken place by man's disobedience, must prove extremely dark and inexplicable.

For what account can he give, upon the hypothesis of our native innocence, and of our relation to God as a benign Creator only, of the treatment we receive in the course of his providence? Should he suggest as a solution of this difficulty, as he probably may, that it is for our trial, for the exercise and improvement of our virtue, and, in consequence, the advancement of our happiness; yet is it not a strange trial, for an innocent creature to be introduced into being with weeping and anguish, to sicken a few years, and before he has committed any personal offence, to be snatched away by the hand of death; or if his term be lengthened, to see him exposed to numberless evils, both moral and physical, to injuries and disasters, to the buffets of nature and of what the world calls fortune, and then to close his days in languishing disease, and sometimes in excru

ciating torment? Is this a trial under a constitution solely established upon the benignity of the Creator, and which bears no relation to his vindictive justice and holy displeasure as an offended Governor? To reason thus, is not to do honour to the goodness of God, or to justify his ways to man; and it argues little discernment in the choice of difficulties, to take refuge in such a scheme in preference to Christianity.

It is only, therefore, when we take into our view the two-fold character which the Almighty sustains towards guilty man, of a just ruler and of a tender parent, that we can in any measure reconcile the phænomena of nature and providence with our ideas of the divine perfections. In this case, since we shall no longer consider mankind as retaining the purity of their first paradisiacal state, we shall not be obliged to account why the earth they inhabit is not in all points entirely accommodated to their present convenience; why they are in danger from noxious plants and animals,

and exposed to the intemperature of the seasons, with other disorders of the elements; and shall think it sufficient if we are able to discern, though imperfectly, in the present system and course of the world, considered in relation to man as a sinner, an exhibition of holiness and justice, tempered with much long suffering, and paternal indulgence.

I have dwelt the more upon this topic, because it is not unusual to meet with moral and philosophical writers, otherwise of no mean abilities, who overlook the justice of God in the present constitution and course of nature, which they consider merely as a display of wisdom and goodness; of wisdom in the mechanical contrivance, and of goodness in the supply it affords to our temporal necessities. This, however, is a very partial view, and has a dangerous tendency to divert our attention from those manifold signatures of awful displeasure which are stamped on every part of the terrestrial system. It tends to beget in us an opinion that we are purely

the objects of divine benignity, and that every suffering we are called to undergo is no more than a fruit of paternal discipline, and a mean to promote our happiness; and contains in it nothing of judicial animadversion, or that is monitory of heavier inflictions to be endured hereafter, if not timely averted. Hence such` soothing doctrine, under show of exalting the goodness of God, derogates from his governing justice; and in ministering to human consolation, induces a state of security, so as to render those warnings vain which were graciously intended to be preventive of our final ruin. I have therefore endeavoured to make nature heard in her declarations of judgment as well as of mercy; in her testimony to her almighty Author in the relation he bears towards us of a holy and righteous governor, as well as in that of a compassionate parent and of a liberal benefactor*.

* Since the first edition of these reflections I have read a work on Natural Theology, by a very eminent writer, in which I was sorry to observe the defect here