to be always at it to continue its motions and order.

"The full answer to this objection is, that to every machine or perpetual movement for answering any particular purpose, there always belongs some first mover, some weight or spring, or other power which is continually acting upon it, and from which all its motions are derived: nor, without such power, is it possible to conceive of any such machine. The machine of the universe then, like all besides analogous to it, of which we have any idea, must have a first Now it has been demonstrated that this first mover cannot be matter itself. It follows, therefore, that this objection is so far from being of any force, that it leads us to the very conclusion which it is brought to overthrow.

mover.

"The excellence of a machine by no means depends on its going properly of itself, for this is impossible; but on the skill with which its various parts are adjusted to one another, and all its different effects are derived from the constant

action of some power. What would indeed make a machine appear imperfect and deformed is, assigning a separate power to every distinct part, without allowing any place for mechanism; and, in like manner, what would really make the frame of nature appear imperfect and deformed is, resolving phenomena too soon to the Divine agency, or supposing it the immediate cause of

every particular effect. But I have not been pleading for this, but only, that however far mechanism may be carried and the chain of causes extend in the material universe, to the Divine power exerted continually in all places, every law and every effect and motion in it must be at last resolved. This is a conclusion which the modern improvements in natural philosophy have abundantly confirmed, and which some of the first and best philosophers have received; nor can that philosophy be otherwise than little and contemptible which hides the Deity from our views, which excludes him from the world, or does not terminate in the acknowledgment and adoration of him as the maker, preserver and ruler of all things.”*

* "The philosopher who overlooks the traces of an all-governing Deity in nature, contenting himself with the appearances of the material universe only, and the mechanical laws of motion, neglects what is most excellent; and prefers what is imperfect to what is supremely perfect, finitude to infinity, what is narrow and weak to what is unlimited and almighty, and what is perishing to what endures for ever." Mr. Maclaurin's Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Discoveries, Book IV. Chap. ix. Sect. 1.

"Sir Isaac Newton thought it most unaccountable to exclude the Deity only out of the universe. It appeared to him much more just and reasonable to suppose that the whole chain of causes, or the several series of them, should centre in him as their source, and the whole system appear depending on him the only independent cause." Ibid. Sect. 5.

SECTION III.

OF THE DESIGN OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT.

SINCE, then, there is a perfect superintendence of all events, they must be directed to some end. The Deity must have some wise and benevolent object to accomplish, as the result of his administration, and that object can be nothing but the final and perfect happiness of his intelligent

creatures.

With this view, every thing must be planned, and to this end both the natural and the moral disorders which prevail must necessarily conduce. No one can believe that the Deity has chosen evil for its own sake. Were this the case, he would not be good were he to cause the least degree of suffering, merely for the sake of producing pain, it would be utterly incompatible with benevolence. Evil in his hands, therefore, can only be the instrument of good. Nothing can have induced him to permit its existence, but the perception that under his administration it will terminate in the production of greater good than could have been enjoyed without it. When he created the world, and first set in motion that train of events which

have induced the actual state of things, he foresaw that the partial evil which would arise, would terminate in the production of a larger sum of happiness, than could have been occasioned by its prevention. This being the case, that which would have militated against the perfection of his benevolence, would have been, not his permitting this evil, but his preventing it. That infinite wisdom and almighty power, may secure this result from the partial prevalence of evil, is at least possible, and it is probable, because the supposition is perfectly reasonable in itself, and accounts for, and reconciles every appearance.

It has been distinctly admitted that these reasonings are conclusive, and that the doctrine founded upon them must be allowed to be established, if the principle be granted that evil under the superintendence of infinite wisdom and benignity is the means of producing ultimate good.*

* "As to Dr. Smith's reasoning, it may indeed appear perfectly conclusive to those who are willing to admit certain leading positions on which the whole is made to rest as unquestionable truths." Eclectic Review, October, 1818, Art. III. p. 338. "It may be admitted that there is a plausibleness in the hypothesis to which we have already alluded, and which includes the whole of the argument adduced in support of the doctrine of Final Restitution; namely, that evil moral, as well as natural, is but a means in the great machinery of the universe,

It is impossible to desire any other concession than this.

That no formal proof of this principle was attempted in the preceding editions of this work, arose from the author's impression that in assuming it as true, he only took for granted that which all Christians not only believe, but glory in believing. That a Theist, that a Christian, writing in the nineteenth century, in a country in which the doctrines of theology are so freely discussed, and the Scriptures so generally read, should not only expressly deny the beneficial tendency of evil in the Divine administration, but positively affirm that it is essentially and ultimately evil, and even that there is no proportion more indispensable to the existence of true religion, as a habit of the mind,* could scarcely

essential to the higher good of the creature." Eclectic Review, p. 346. "The argument à priori, in favour of the doctrine of Universal Restoration, is not only specious, but satisfactory, if the one thing which requires to be proved is taken for granted————if it be allowed that Evil is a branch of the Divine contrivance for the production of a higher ultimate good to the creature; that it is but the temporary name of a particular class of the dispensations of Sovereign Beneficence; if in a word the foremost and favourite dogma of infidelity be conceded, that all things are as God makes them." Ibid. Dec. 1818, Art. IV. p. 539.

* "We question if there is a proposition more indispensable

E