In answer to this paffage, I need only turn the reader to chap. xlii. 7, "And it was fo, that after the Lord had fpoken the fe words unto Job, the Lord faid unto Eliphaz the Timnite, my wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends, for ye have not fpoken of me the thing that is right as my fervant Job hath." Obferve, kind reader, the words which are brought to prove the infinity of fin, are neither the words of God, nor of one whom he approved, but they are the words of that Timnite, against whom God's anger was kindled, for not speaking the thing that was right.

Once more, and I clofe this part of my query. If fin is infinite in its nature, there can be no one fin greater than another. The fmalleft offence against the good of fociety, is equal to blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. If what we call a small crime, is not infinite, the greatest cannot be, providing there is any proportion between the great and the small. Are not the words of Christ, Matt. xii. 51, where he fpeaks of fins and blafphemies that fhould be forgiven unto men, and of blafphemies that fhould not be forgiven men, a fufficient evidence that fome fins are more heinous than others? Again, 1 Epiftle of John v. 16, where fome fins are faid to be not unto death, & fome unto death, &c

Now, admitting the matter proved, that fin is not infinite, it follows, of courfe, that it is proved to be finite. Howev. er, we will now attend to the direct evidences of the finite nature of fin.

The law which takes cognition of fin is not infinite, it being produced by the legiflature which I have before noticed, viz. a capacity to underftand, connected with the caufes and means of knowledge. In order for a law to be infinite, the legiflature must be fo; but man's ability to understand is finite, and all the means which are in his power for the acquifition of knowledge are finite; all his knowledge is circumfcribed, and the law produced by fuch caufes must be like them, not infinite but finite. An infinite law would be far above the capacity of a finite being and it would be unreasonable to fuppofe man amenable to a law above his capacity. All our knowledge of good and evil is obtained by comparison. We call an action evil by comparing it with one which we call good. Were it in cur pow er to embrace all the confequences that are connected with our actions in our intentions, our meanings would feldom be what they now are. Had it been fo with the brethren of Jofeph, when they fold him to the Ishmaelites, that they then knew all the confequences which would

attend the event, they would not have meant it, as they did, for evil, but seeing with perfectly unbeclouded eyes their own falvation, and that of the whole family of promife, they would have meant it for good, as did the Almighty who fuperintended the affair. Now the act of felling Jofeph was fin, in the meaning of thofe who fold him; but it was finite, confidered as fin, for it was bounded by the narrowness of their understandings, limited by their ignorance, and circumfcribed by the wifdom and goodnefs of him who meant it for good. If this fin had been infinite, nothing that we can juftly call good, could have been the confequence; but whoever read the event, without fee. ing that the best of confequences were connected with it?

The promifed feed, in whom all the families of the earth are to be blessed, according to the word of promise to Abraham, was to defcend from that family which was preferved through feven years. of famine, as a confequence of the good intended in that event. And who but God can comprehend the infinite good contained in the all glorious plan of mediatorial grace? We then fee, that what, in a limited sense, we may juftly call sin, or evil. in an unlimited sense is juftly called good. We fay, of the top of yonder moun

tain, it is exceedingly high; and of yon. der valley, it is low; and this we juftly fay, by comparing one with the other, in respect to the centre of the earth. But the moment we extend our thoughts to con. template the millions of worlds in unbounded space, and take the whole in one grand fyftem, the idea of high and low is loft. So is fin finifhed, when, by divine grace, our understandings are enlightened, and we hear our fpiritual Jofeph fay, "Grieve not yourfelves, ye meant it unto evil, but God meant it unto good." It will be granted, on all fides, that no action unconnected with defign ought to be confid ered fin; it is then an evil intention that conftitutes an evil action. For inftance, a man exerting himself to the utmost of his abilities to fave the life of his neighbor, accidentally takes his life, the confequence is not the guilt of murder, but heart aching grief for the lofs of his friend. Again, a man exerting himself with all his ingenuity and frength to take the life of his neighbor, miffes his intention and faves his life from immediate danger; the confequence is not the approbation of a good confcience for having faved the life of his neighbor, but condemnation for having defigned his death, and perhaps mortification in his disappointment. By these inftances, the reader may fee, that no a

ean be determined to be morally good, or evil, by the confequences which follow, but only by the difpofition, or intention, which the actor poffeffes when the act is done. Then in order for the fin to be infinite, the intention of the transgressor must be infinite, embracing all the confequences that can ever arife from what he does; but this is never the cafe with finite beings. We never know all the effects, or confequences, that will be produced from the fmalleft of thofe acts which we do in time. It is the immediate confequences which we have in our power to calculate upon, and in them we are often deceived. Our acts as moral accountables, are all limited to the narrow circle of our understanding; therefore, our goodnefs is limited, being of the finite nature of our knowledge, and our fin is in the fame finite and limited circle. It may be argued very juftly, that as no finite caufe can produce an infinite effect, no finite creature can commit infinite fin; and as every effect muft ftand in relation to its caufe, fo man being finite, cannot be the caufe of any evil which does not ftand in relation to man the finite caufe. Should the reader fuppofe, that my admitting the act of felling Jofeph was attended with unlimited confequences. in oppofition to my fentiment, wherein I limit all actions