already stated. But then instinct or desire always furnishes the object of the will, without which will were nothing; and even both together, without reason to point the way, would be like blind Samson groping in vain for the pillars of the House of Dagon.

"In what does freedom of will or free agency consist?"

In the power man has of controlling the urgency to action of the instincts, foregoing a present gratification for one of more pleasure at a future period.

"Can you not define freedom of will more closely?"

It is a subject often involved in great obscurity, but yet is capable of elucidation. Before, however, I can accurately define it, you will give me leave to ascertain what is meant by freedom of will. And in order to do this, let it first be determined how far and in what sense any agent, even the Supreme Being, may be said to be free. If free agency can any where be found, it certainly must be in the Almighty; for whatever he wills is done. His wili and power are co-equal, and are properly identical. He is omnipotent, and his wisdom is the sum total of all perfection. This at once precludes the possibility of his willing any thing which may not be done, or is not the

E

best as tending to the consummation of perfection; so that here is absolute freedom of the will. And as man is in the image and similitude of his Creator, he also has the same finite likeness in the freedom of his will. But this image and similitude will not be perfect till man is in his eternal state; and then his wisdom, though finite, will be perfect according to that state; and he then shall will nothing but what is best as tending to the consummation of his eternal happiness. If his reason here were perfect, it would so regulate his will, that no volition would be otherwise than the best, and therefore his will would be available and perfectly free.

"If the matter is so plain, how comes there to be so much contention about free-agency?"

Self-interested views are generally at the root of all errors in religion. When men wish to involve the subject in mystery, they begin by absurdly asking if God could will such things as are in reality contrary to his nature, which are tantamount with impossibilities; and which being answered in the negative, they then say, without borrowing much from metaphysics, that he is under a fixed fate or absolute necessity. And this being conceded or assumed, the senseless doctrine of absolute necessitarianism follows as a matter of But check them at this point, and there is no foundation for any such doctrine.

course.

CHAPTER IV.

MAN A FALLEN CREATURE.

1. "WHAT is the grand difficulty in religion; the pivot on which true and false religion turn?”

TO UNGOD SELF. In other words, utter prostration of self, in the sight of God: the sacrifice to God of the heart with the affections and lusts. This is the rock of offence, the stumbling-block, the experimentum crucis. To avoid this, this ungrateful self-annihilation, is the root of all false religion by whatever name called.

"But if the task is so ungrateful, why not desist from religion altogether, rather than load ourselves with the burthensome rites of false religion?"

Because the awful sense of a Supreme Being, to whom we owe allegiance, is an attribute of the soul, which cannot be shaken off any more than a man can divide himself; and therefore the wider men deviate from the true religion, the more uneasy and superstitious they become. The infidel, who pretends to throw aside all religion, cannot for a moment have his mind at peace. Hell is within him, blowing up his wrath against God, and its foam is continually boiling over, and bespattering all within his reach of a contrary opinion.

"What do you mean by Natural Religion?" Natural religion is the true religion, since one God is equally the Author of nature and of divine revelation. But since men of depraved hearts have had many devices for quelling their fears of a Creator, to whom they are responsible in a judgment to come, they have affirmed that the works of God speak a different language from his revealed word; and this distorted language they have called the religion of nature, or natural religion.

"What is the chief feature in this religion of nature?"

1. The deification of human nature, the setting up human reason as something of divine perfection; and the rejecting all belief in a superintending providence. 2. The disbelief in a future state, whereby they attempt to rid their minds of that uneasiness arising from the reflection of having to answer for their sins at the tribunal of their Creator.

"What name do they impose upon this device?"

They pretend to acknowledge a great First Cause, and therefore they call it Deism, and themselves Deists. But as they maintain that there is no God, who watches over us with an unceasing providence and recognition of all human motives and actions, the true name must be Atheism.

"How and when did this originate?"

It is a consequence of the Fall of Man. It originated with Cain and his posterity in the old world. And with Ham and his race immediately after the Deluge, and has had its seat in human depravity ever since.

"Do you suppose it will ever become general?" If we can for a moment suppose God to cease to be omnipotent, it may: not otherwise. It is the work of the devil, which God permits for the purpose of trying men's dispositions, and thoroughly searching their hearts. It is the touchstone of faith and submission to God. But its bounds are accurately defined. God has his hook in the nose and his bridle in the mouth of this great Leviathan; and every inch of rein is carefully measured out by infinite Wisdom.

"What are the principles of natural religion properly so called, or that part of religion deducible from nature?"

The analogy between man and his Creator already mentioned; and that perfect adaptation of man to the present scene, wherein all his natural and moral qualities are to his continuance in this life, what his religious are to his well-being in the

next.

"Instance some points."

Self-preservation is a dictate of nature; which