matter of course, be inattentive and negligent; and if no harm could possibly result, whatever a man did or neglected to do, there would be a positive premium held out to indolence and carelessness and every kind of gratification. Indeed evils of a frightful character, and whose name would be legion, must unavoidably ensue, if God were always to interpose to prevent ill consequences resulting from violation of the laws he hath so wisely stamped on every part of nature. In fact, greater harm would be done, even according to our present imperfect apprehension, by preventing, than by not preventing. So that it is wise and good to allow law to work out its own results; wiser and better than it would be to interpose.*

We may now leave the path we have been pursuing, and follow another, still seeking to know the true relationship God sustains to his creatures. But so far as we have gone, we think we see evidence that the character of God would be quite as fairly represented by the title, governor or ruler, as that of father. One thing however is plain; that if we call him the universal father, he is quite as correctly designated the universal ruler; seeing he governs, and that by general laws, which very laws by their own operation, which is of his appointment, reward the obedient and punish those who disregard them. Nor, whatever we call him, are the evils which grow out of the violation of natural laws, any drawback to his goodness; for since greater evils would follow the prevention by immediate interposition, it would not be either wise or good to interpose: and thus, notwithstanding what obtains, the goodness of God stands unimpeachable.

We have not yet referred to scripture, we have merely looked on the world around us, and glanced at the manner in which God manages it. And to the thoughtful mind which has been perplexed, and possibly distressed, as some of the statements of revelation, this school of natural religion may prove not uninstructive; as also to those unhappy individuals who have ventured to reject or neglect the bible as a revelation from God. For if this should be found evidently, in all its parts, constructed in harmony with all that is observable in nature; and if some of the statements of scripture which have been the most cavilled at, as incon

* Analogy, part I. chap. VII.

sistent with the character of God, are in perfect keeping with all the facts that fill the world; then assuredly the volume of revelation is entitled to the profoundest attention of the hitherto sceptical, nor should the unwelcomeness of some of its declarations be allowed to prejudice the mind, seeing that in reality they belong even to a correct system of natural religion.

We are now then in a better condition, having glanced at some of those indisputable facts which are open to every man's observation, to enquire what saith the scripture; and every one that is intelligently acquainted with both natural and revealed religion will be struck with the admirable agreement; as, indeed, how should it be otherwise? The doctrine of scripture, in reference to man's moral and spiritual being, harmonizes perfectly with the doctrine of nature touching his physical welfare; and in like manner reveals God as governing by fixed and general laws, which observed secure happiness, or if set at nought bring misery and ruin. So that evidently there is a strong presumption that the author of revelation and the author of the book of nature are one. In reading the two, we find on every page traces of identity of authorship; we are in two provinces of the same empire; or, in two concentric circles, the scriptures being the inner one; or, nature forms the outer court, but revelation is the oracle of the inner sanctuary.

Let us take the Mosaic account of the position in which man was originally placed. And we need not enter into any proof that the narrative is to be taken literally, since every attempt to reduce it to an allegory, or mythos, has utterly failed. Look then at the first parents of the human race. The pleasant condition in which they were placed, their own personal endowments, the comprehensive grant made to them, the blessing which was pronounced upon them,— all prove the bountiful goodness of their Creator; we might indeed say Father, looking thus far only, and omitting other circumstances. But perfectly kind as was the arrangement, there is yet one feature behind which presents God as sustaining another relation. Listen to the law laid down amid the beauties of Eden; 'Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.'

Let it be supposed a father, if you will, that placed man in such a garden of delight, making him so ample a grant, and conferring on him dominion over all the creatures. Dwell on these and other circumstances connected with the original condition of man; and consider them as they really are, so many tokens of the munificent love of God, who formed and endowed man as none but a God of love would have done. Suppose it then the language of an indulgent father, 'Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat;' and let it be deemed only the language of a wise father, forbidding what would be injurious, when he continues, 'Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.' But can any one deem the concluding part of the sentence to be the language of one whose sole relationship is that of a father, 'In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die! Let everything around them, and everything in their own organization and circumstances, be held to proclaim the parental goodness of their beneficent Creator; and most assuredly we have no desire to weaken the impression which the mind receives, but rather delight ourselves to visit the happy groves of Eden, and there reclining beside its crystal stream to receive into the full heart the inerradicable conviction that God is love. But still we feel constrained to ask whether, in the terrific threatening by which the prohibition was righteously enforced, we are not compelled to admit the existence of another than the paternal element. Does there not seem to be a modification of this, and the adoption of a tone scarcely consistent with the idea of mere paternity? True indeed a father rules; he may enact laws for his children, and may punish disobedience; but to threaten them with Death, to consign them to blank despair,-to doom them to final and hopeless ruin!-this makes us pause; and listening to the awful sentence pronounced, we feel constrained to admit the existence of another element, namely the rectoral; while we can but deem this even to preponderate in the terrible decision, Dying thou shalt die!

And when in an evil hour the law was disregarded, and the authority of the lawgiver set at nought, and the first sin had stained the virgin earth, and man had begun to experience some of the consequences of disobedience, in the misgivings he felt, and the upbraidings of conscience, and the promptings of fear, so that he dreaded to meet his

God as heretofore, was it not in something of the character of a judge that God manifested himself, and condemned the guilty parties? And though the judge was pitiful, yet 'he drove out the man' from his home of happiness, and suffered him to reap as he had sown. So'sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed on all men, because all have sinned.' It is true that man was now placed by the kindness of God under another dispensation, one of mercy and grace; but this had its requirements, its conditions, and he who did not choose to come under these, remained absolutely and strictly in the domain of law. And what is the testimony of the deluge? • God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually :-and the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth.' We know the issue-and almost holding our breath, like men on the perilous edge of battle, we realize the scene when the waters rose higher and higher, sweeping into one limitless sea the couch of infancy, the homes of manhood, the retreats of age; when every vigorous and every beaute ous form were tossed about like ocean's playthings; when all that lived drank of the gurgling waters, and corpses floated like straws on the conquering billows, or sunk by thousands into the caverns of the deep. Was this a Father's doings, we ask, or the work of one who at least sustained the character of a ruler and a judge, whatever other relationships might exist in combination? And so when the four guilty cities of the plain were overthrown by fire from heaven; evidences of the paternal relationship are not very apparent in their melancholy but righteous doom, while another character would seem to be visible enough.

And we may refer to another epoch: the giving of the law to the assembled Israelites, amid the silence and sublimity of Horeb. Solemn and alarming were the preparations; the base of Sinai was to be guarded from approach, and whoever ventured to touch the mount was to be put to death. The command was given to Moses-Thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall surely be put to death: there shall not a hand touch it, but he

shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live." Blessings were pronounced on the obedient, curses on those who should disobey the injunctions given: and one of the first things to be attended to, when they entered the land of Canaan, was the assembling of the whole multitude in an appointed spot, and the solemn repetition, by the Levites, of certain prescribed curses on the disobedient, and certain blessings to be experienced by the obedient. The entire history of that people would show how constantly God manifested himself as a law-giver and ruler, kind, compassionate, and merciful, it is true, but not as sustaining a merely parental relation.

And now we may refer to all the statements of scripture concerning the general judgment. It is solemnly and distinctly asserted that all who have ever lived shall be awakened from the sleep of death, and shall come forth from their graves, and shall undergo a scrutiny. The judgment will take place according to fixed principles, universally applied: there will be, we are assured, 'no respect of persons.' The statements of scripture are explicit;'we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.' And the appointed Judge represents himself as saying to one class, 'come up hither, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world; and to another class, 'depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;' and he asserts that the one class will rise to highest bliss, the other sink into awful woe. 'These shall go away into everlasting punishment;' 'they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.'

These facts of revelation, with many others which might be adduced, harmonizing as they do with those of nature, plainly teach us that God sustains the character of governor, or ruler: the judge of the whole earth shall he be called.' But let not this be misunderstood. What is objected to is, not the assertion that God is the universal father; but the assertion that this title adequately and correctly sets forth the precise relationship. Neither, on the other hand, would I by any means assert that this was