their vices, and errors, and hostilities, are all made subservient, by an infinite and overruling Wisdom, to the advancement of a plan,-which embraces the interests of the whole,—and which is so comprehensive in its provisions, that no creature is called into existence which was not necessary for the eventual perfection of the grand and universal scheme.

We cannot, indeed, always tell in what manner Divine Providence so orders the exertions of individuals as to make them conspire, even while they seem to be acting most adverse to his purposes,—in the establishment of his universal dominion;-but, provided we extend our view of the purposes of his government to a sufficiently wide range, we can have no difficulty in believing that not a creature exists, whose being was not necessary for filling some place in the boundless purpose of God ;—and surely, the most delightful, and luminous, and satisfactory of all views, is that which thus represents to us,-not only all the contemporaneous tribes of men,-but all their successive generations, as forming one vast whole,―or, indeed, as but portions of a still greater and more comprehensive whole,-the infinite movements and exertions of all the individuals of which are so guided and overruled by the boundless wisdom

of God, as to aid, with all their individual efforts, in the promotion of one entire and final result.

By such comprehensive views of the purposes of Providence, one of the most mischievous of all the errors that lessen the mutual charity of mankind is taken away;—and, instead of thinking that we are entitled to regard any portion of the human race as worthy only of our detestation or scorn, because they seem to us to be useless or noxious parts of the Divine system,—we are led to the far more just and luminous conclusion,-that many, who to us seem "first" in the promotion of the purposes of God 66 may be last, and the last first ;"-or that, when our view is extended over a sufficiently wide range, some portions of mankind, who seemed to us to be of least importance in the scheme of things, may be found to have been contributing more effectually and extensively to the promotion of the final result, than even those apparently more favoured races, or nations, or individuals, who presumed to believe, that, without them, the grand purposes of Omnipotence could not have attained their consummation,-or, at least, that they only had occupied those important stations, on which the vast interests of the moral dominion of God were chiefly dependent.

VOL. II.

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With the view of removing the third source of error on this most important topic,—I mean the mistaken belief, that the wonderful diversities of manners, of interests,—or even of moral character,— which exist among the nations and individuals of our race, are legitimate causes of hatred or scorn on the part of those who have adopted what they consider to be the most approved maxims or modes of life,— it should be considered that these varieties are but manifestations, with respect to the human race, of a plan which pervades all the works and ways of Providence ;-insomuch, that of all the individuals that have existed, that now exist, or that are ever to be called into existence,-whether in the intellectual, —the vegetative,—or the inorganic kingdoms,—no two will ever be found, whose whole natures and qualities are in every respect the same. And the idea naturally arises from this view of the arrangements of Providence, that it is by the very means of these varieties that each individual or portion of the whole is adapted for filling a definite place, and promoting the evolution of a distinct result in the entire scheme;-so that these varieties, considered as applicable to the human race, instead of being viewed as causes of aversion, ought only, if we took a

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sufficiently wide view of things,-to enhance our feelings of kindness towards all the partakers of a nature, so boundless in its manifestations,-and of which every particular manifestation so evidently contributes to a beneficial result.

Nor ought even the vast differences in point of moral worth which exist among men to be viewed as an exception to this remark,-or be considered as justifying us in treating with hatred any individual or portion of our race. For God and all good beings look not with hatred, but with pity, on the wanderings and follies of men ;-and as there is no human being so pure as not to have much that is imperfect in his nature,—so neither is there any so sunk in vice as not to have something that is worthy of the fostering care of Providence,—and that is prophetic of the victory which goodness, even when most overpowered by sin, shall yet attain in the gracious empire of God.—It is our duty farther to recollect, that the greatest offenders will, in every case, be found to have been those who have had the fewest opportunities of knowing what was good or the greatest -temptations to do what was evil;—and that, in all cases, there is more of weakness and of misfortune than of positive preference of evil even in the conduct of those, who, to our common modes of obser

vation and of thought, seem to be covered with the most presumptuous guilt.

With such views, we shall be disposed to entertain a far juster and more Christian idea of the sources of that guilt, which, to the sinner himself, is so awful a source of his own unhappiness, than is suggested by the thoughts we are more in the habit of indulging,—and should feel, not our hostility,— but our pity and tenderness,-awakened towards a race of beings,-who are all labouring under one common calamity, but who are all, likewise, subjects of that "grace and forgiving mercy," which God has been pleased, by the mission of his beloved Son, to offer, with boundless pity, to even "the chief of sinners."

In the last place, such views open up to us very different prospects from those commonly entertained respecting the final condition of all the varieties of men, and dispose us to believe, and to triumph in the belief,—that when our view of the Divine kingdom is extended over a sufficiently wide space,there is no individual of the whole family of man,— of whom we are entitled to say, that he may not yet, -under the ameliorating discipline of Divine goodness and wisdom,-become a fellow-inheritor with ourselves of all the happiness, and all the glory, which