But if they escape forcible contingencies, fuch is the perishable nature of their compofition, that after threefcore years and ten they are seldom tenantable. And who would wifh for a more durable building, fince obfcurity, impenetrable obfcurity, refteth upon thefe earthly cottages? A wife man, methinks, would welcome that blifsful period, which breaks down these partition-walls, whereby we are fo long immured in flesh and sense.

But to resume the fubject of my fcruples, for I will tell thee all, that thou mayeft conduct me out of this labyrinth of ambiguities, and lead me to the decifions of eternal fapience.

Inftruct me, I befeech thee, from what corrupted fource arofe moral evil. Thou art well verfed in the schools of difputation; explain therefore to me this problem of intricacy. Some of the Eastern philofophers, and particularly one of the Perfian magi, have adopted into their fyftem twoprinciples, the one good, the other evil; and from the existence of Arimanius they deduce a folution of thefe difficulties. But how came this wicked dæmon to exift, and from what caufe did he proceed? To fay that he is co-eternal with almighty Allah is abfurdity and blafphemy. To affirm he is of later birth, is feemingly to question the power

and

and goodness of the Moft High, in his thus permitting the existence of a dæmon.

But perhaps thou wilt fay, that a freedom of will implies a capacity to do good or ill; that without the permission of moral evil, there can be no virtue. I ask thee, whether fuch fteadiness in rectitude, as precludes every tendency of deviating into obliquity and error, is not preferable to virtue? Is not a Being good by neceffity, superior to a Being good without the obligation or force of fuch neceffity? Are not the angels, for inftance, perfectly good, because they are utter ftrangers to iniquity and folly, and above all poffibility of moral defilement? Perhaps thou wilt reply, that fublunary worlds are only the theatres of evil, becaufe they are probationary states; and that the world above is the reward and confummation of virtue. But if the inhabitants of heaven are, or were not probationers formerly, how doft thou explain the hiftory of the lapfed angels!

Alas! I am already launched out into an ocean of difficulties, and my fluctuating skiff muft fuffer wreck, unless thou kindly takest the steerage, and piloteft me into port.

Shall I fpeak my fentiments of what the schoolmen call natural evil? I have read their folutions, and verily I am fcandalized at the poverty of their arguments. One, with an affected infenfibility, de

nies pain to be an evil. Another tells me, that reafoning is an infallible antidote to counteract, and remove the ills of affliction. Pitiful fophifts indeed! For if this doctrine was true, men of smaller capacities, who could not reason at all, or reason well, must be fuperlatively miferable. A third tells me, that grief is an idle paffion, because it cannot call back my departed friend, whose lofs, perhaps, I am deploring. But is not this inability a very good reason why I fhould weep? A fourth would hush my complaints by telling me that fuch are the laws of the drama that we cannot all be heroes and kings. But furely I have a reafonable objection to the tragedy, when I am ordained the fuffering party. A fifth, in a more modern ftrain affures me, that the world is a beautiful picture, where contrafts are required to compleat the beauty of the whole. But what comfort can this argument administer to me, who am appointed the contraft or dark shade in the piece? Mere fophiftry! Collufion all! It is only the doctrine of a future retribution that can thoroughly reconcile these weighty difficulties.

I know that an ancient and inspired miffionary hath refolved a queftion of this kind into the fovereignty of the divine will. But fome are of opinion, that when he likens the Creator to the potter, and man to the paffive clay, the apoftolic doctor

is

is speaking of collective bodies of men, and not of any particular individual. For otherwife, this awful doctrine of the fovereignty of Allah rather filences, than fatisfies the inquiring mind.-Alas! what is man! Is he not a poor, ignorant, and infufficient animalcule? and when weighed in the fcales of justice, lefs than nothing, and altogether vanity?

And what is that tranfcendent Being, whofe conduct this reptile fo frequently and fo impiously arraigns? is he not elevated far above the highest conception of men and angels? is he not of that exalted and fublimated purity, that his very minifters, who attend neareft his throne, cherubims of the highest rank and primogeniture! are all maculated effences in his fight? while Michael, Gabriel, and Ithuriel, illuftrious feraphs! are compelled to hide their faces with dilated pinions, being unable to abide the corufcations of his effulgent majefty!-Father of fempiternal ages! Parent of light and life! Uncreated, unoriginated beauty! Bright exemplar of all that is fair and lovely! Inexhauftible fource of all that is wife, great, and good!

Here the foul, confcious of its own nothingness, shrinks back upon itself, and fhudders at its criminal curiofity. My fpirit faints within me, oppreffed with the mighty idea of the godhead.

Veiling

Veiling my head in the folds of my garment, I fall proftrate and adoring, crying out with the moft fervent emotions, "Juft and true are thy ways, thou peerless majefty of ineffable glory!"

Doubtlefs the Supreme Being is the best of beings; and, although his ways are not to be comprehended by mortals, yet moft affuredly they never fwerve from the fevereft rules of abfolute rectitude. I believe thou wilt advise the doubting mind to repose itself upon this unerring propofition, and be ftill. Such an admonition moft certainly favours of wisdom; for why should the fons of men attempt to fearch into the infcrutables of the Almighty, and difquiet themselves in vain? Teach the reftlefs mind the art of content, and then all furmifes, doubts, and conjectures, will vanish into air, and the foul will reft fatisfied with the difpenfations of Heaven.

Let us hear the conclufion of the whole matter. It is pride, accompanied with ignorance, that makes a fceptic; humility and felf-knowledge produce refignation and happiness.

May thou and I poffefs the filent joys of acquiefcence. This refigned frame will act like a fovereign opiate; and hufh to fleep every inordinate and turbulent paffion.

Nor can Gilead boaft a fuperior balfam for the wounds of affliction. If we are planted in the

fhade,