have been attained-unless man had been created with a spiritual, rational, and sensual nature, therefore the whole was, by infinite wisdom, pronounced "very good." It was more especially because the voluntary part of the rational mind consciously acts as of itself, that man was made like God, or in the "likeness of God;" for God acts of Himself, with a freedom infinitely perfect, while man acts as of himself, with a freedom finitely perfect. And let this important and necessary consequence be well noted, that while God is the INFINITE FIRST CAUSE of all the works of His hands; man is the finite first cause of all the works of his hands, or of all that marks his individual quality. The producing, or originating of evil, is a finite work, and therefore, can have no other than a finite first cause. The production of good, as a constituent of man's acquired quality, arises from the concordant reaction of the finite first cause, with the orderly action of the Infinite First Cause; and the production of evil from the discordant re-action of the finite first cause, against the orderly action of the Infinite First Cause. The equilibrium (before adverted to) in which man was placed at creation was the orderly and necessary result of the balancing, by the Creator, of his spiritual and sensual natures; the inclination proper to his spiritual nature acting from within or above upon his middle or rational faculty, while the inclination proper to his sensual nature acted upon it from without or beneath; the former nature tending upwards or to heavenly things, the latter nature tending downwards or to earthly things; and these two influences, by the original constitution of his mind, as well as by the watchful providence of the Lord, were (and are) kept constantly equal. Thus it becomes self-evident, that between these two, man's middle faculty, or conscious individuality, would always be perfectly free to turn itself, in any and every direction, towards either heavenly or earthly things; and since this middle faculty is properly the man— —the individual himself—therefore whatever it does, is done by the man, and he becomes just such a man as is the quality of his doings in and by this faculty. Let it be further observed, that when we speak of life in man, as when we say, man has not life in and of himself, but that all life flows into him, as an organized receptacle of life, from God, we mean that the first power which enables man to act at all, with any of his faculties, is momentarily the gift of God, exactly adapted to the wants of a rational free agent; and where this infinite action ends, finite re-action commences. Now since every Gift of the Immutable God must necessarily be the gift of Infinite goodness or love; and since God cannot change or cease to be infinite goodness, therefore it is again self-evident that God never did, nor will, nor can, N.S. NO. 54.-VOL. V. Ff

in the least degree withdraw His Life, or any of its blessed predicates, from any, nor can He do otherwise than continually bestow equally upon all, a full measure of life and power to enable them, for their benefit, rightly to use their faculties, and "work out their salvation." And the same Infinite and Unchangeable goodness, having created man with the above-named free power (without which he could neither be a perfect man nor eventually an angel), therefore, God never did, nor will, nor can, stop, restrain, or in anywise interrupt, the free exercise of that proper human power in man, which He has given to be exercised in this manner and in no other. We say God cannot do this, just as we say, He cannot will contrary to his will, nor think contrary to his wisdom.

But though all man's life is thus momentarily from God, yet, as already intimated, to his sensual nature-that part of him which is first actively developed-it appears otherwise; so long, therefore, as the rational mind thinks from, and under, the influence of the sensual nature, man has no other conscious perception than that he lives of himself, or that all the life of his affections and thoughts originates in and with himself, because he does not see, and cannot know, from his merely natural consciousness, that life from God flows into him, or constantly acts upon him; and he could never know that his life is not self-derived, were he never instructed, directly or indirectly, by Divine Revelation, that the reality, in this case, is contrary to the appearance. Thus it is that while man does not reflect, he feels as if life were his own, to confirm which appearance as a truth, would be to eat of the forbidden "tree of knowledge;" but he does not eat of it, but of the "tree of life," so long as he corrects the judgment caused by the appearance, by the reality which he learns from Divine Revelation. Man was so created that to himself it should thus appear that life was his own, because if it did not so appear, he could have no consciously free and rational individuality—nothing which he could rationally call I, me, myself, and, therefore, no power to act in anything as of himself-no rational free agency whatever-no appropriating impulse or motive,— nor any rational enjoyment in time or eternity. Therefore, also, to create man with this appearance of living from himself, was to create him "very good." But since this appearance, however good for man, does not shew the reality of the case, therefore when the rational mind has been instructed and enlightened in the real truth, that mind calls the appearance arising from the sensual or lower nature, an apparent truth. Not only does it appear to the sensual nature that life is selfderived, but that nature also loves the appearance, loves to think it a

reality; and it was created to love this appearance, in order that man might permanently derive from it all the benefits for which it was provided. Having a rational faculty capable of understanding the truths of Revelation, and a voluntary faculty capable of loving to understand and practically apply them, and Revelation being given for this exercise of the faculties of understanding and loving truth, man had thus full and free capacity and means to discriminate between appearances and realities, and to rise above the former, to correct them, and to subject them to the latter.

Admitting, then, that man's whole nature, at creation, was such as we have described, and that for a time he rightly used his faculties, and gradually rose to the highest dignity of his nature, still it is unquestionable that he was, even then, as free to undo as to do. He knew from Revelation what was wrong as well as what was right, and possessed the same free power, as at any prior period, to make a wrong or a right use of his faculties. Let it also be borne in mind that during the above progressive advancement, man's sensual nature was not, in itself, changed, but only subdued, and under such subjection performing its proper functions or appointed uses. Now, admitting that the sensual nature was such as we have stated, it is manifest that the first obvious suggestions to doubt, and thence to deny, the truth of Divine Revelation to believe the apparent, rather than the real truth,—must have come from or by the sensual nature, signified in Gen. iii., by the "serpent" and his "subtlety;" and that the first yielding of the voluntary and intellectual powers of the rational mind to such suggestions, was the origin of evil; and when the latter, or the middle nature and his lower or sensual nature, combined together in act or effect, then first existed actual sin. It was then that the order of God and heaven began to be subverted; it was then that the true nature of man began to be inverted; and it was then that the Divine likeness began to be defaced; it was the first step towards that destruction of man's exalted nature, from which it could only be restored by the "WORD being made flesh."

of man,

But the sensual nature, in offering such suggestions, was only acting according to its nature, therefore Jehovah makes no enquiry, no why? or what? or wherefore? of the serpent, but only of the man (the rational faculty), and of the woman (the voluntary faculty); but since the three (the lower nature and the two faculties of the middle nature) combined to produce the effect, and thus injured man's whole nature, therefore all three are included in the curse, with a variety suited to what is meant by each. Should it now be asked, what was

the cause of the intellectual faculty having thus slackened the reins of government over the sensual nature, and adopted its false dictation ? we answer, the free-will or voluntary faculty moved ITSELF, as of itself, in that direction, or to that end, and so exchanged its heavenly quality for an earthly quality; or, to speak still more closely and accurately, the will-principle in man's rational mind, as a self-active CAUSE, and as a FIRST cause, moved itself downwards to lull to sleep the intellectual faculty which was associated with it, so that the dictate of the sensual nature was alone heard or attended to, bringing the real truth of Revelation into doubt, and thence denial, and to the negation and falsehood involved in the language of the serpent; the will then listened with complacency, and moved itself to full assent and consent, signified by the woman eating of the forbidden tree; the will next moved itself to bring down the rational faculty to full consent and confirmation, the accomplishment of which is signified by the man also eating of the forbidden tree.

But possibly some reader may here be led to exclaim, What! is the free-will of man to be regarded as a self-active and a first cause? We answer, most certainly, it is to be so regarded with reference to the nature and objects of the subject under consideration; for we are not now enquiring, what is the cause and origin of the existence of the power called free-will? but, what is the cause of its wrong exercise or abuse-what is the cause or origin of evil-what is the origin of one of the effects or operations of free-will? If we consider free-will with reference to its origin, life, existence, and power to move at all, in this sense it is not a self-active first cause; but when we consider it, as in the present case, with respect to the direction of its movements, and the effects thence resulting, in this sense, free-will can only be justly regarded as a self-acting first cause, inasmuch as it was given by the Creator as an absolute gift to be the first cause of man's proper activity as a re-agent, in the free formation of his own character. By making this simple and just discrimination, and comparing and connecting it with the previous remarks, we presume it will be clearly seen that we have now reached the remotest point of our present enquiry, the very core of the origin of evil; and that too without in the least implicating the Creator, directly or indirectly, in the production of evil; or in the extention of saving grace to some, which He does not equally communicate to all. It may be of use to state further, that when we speak of man's will, or of his understanding, we mean a thing-a substancea form-an organized receptacle of life; and by the freedom of the will, we mean its ability, by creation, and by providential preservation

at all times, to move itself to think, by means of the understanding which is associated with it, on all objects of thought that come within the reach of its possessor, and afterwards, so far as worldly restraints do not hinder, to choose and determine its course of action, either in the way of heaven and salvation, or in a contrary direction— either in accordance with the laws of God, or against them; consequently, our reason combines with Scripture in concluding, that every man is justly and mercifully responsible for his own freely-chosen course of life. When the true nature of the will is known, and that by creation it was to be the arbiter,—the first cause in the direction or course of its own movements, it is then easy to discern that man's will, by moving itself in a wrong direction, must have been the first cause-the origin of evil; and when a subject of enquiry is traced to its first cause, reason cannot proceed further without ceasing to be rational; for to do so is, in fact, to ask what is the first of the first? or what is the origin of the first origin?

But the book of Genesis, containing the account of the fall, having been generally understood as a mere history of literal facts and actions, probably such a low and limited interpretation of it has led to many errors on the nature and origin of evil; one of which is this,—that man was at one moment in a high state of purity, wisdom, and blessedness, but that a mighty change suddenly took place, and the next moment brought him into the lowest state of degradation, sin, and misery. To account, or find an adequate cause, for this supposed sudden and terrific fall, professing Christians in general have had recourse to the introduction of a new power-that of an imaginary being called a fallen angel, satan, or devil, whose wily temptations, they assume, were the cause and origin of evil in the world, Calvinists hold, in part, this idea of satan's work in the fall, but they also insinuate, with sufficient plainness to be understood, that there was another and more potent cause, namely, that God" did not sustain man with the power of perseverance," and this power being withheld, the poor creature, left to his own strength, became an easy prey to the devil. But what unprejudiced mind can think otherwise of this notion than as of the most shocking impiety,- -as an attempt at the utter subversion of all correct ideas of the Infinite goodness of God? And yet, strange to tell, the Calvinist allows his reason to be blinded and seduced by the artful persuasion, that still God is not the cause of evil. He who follows Calvin, maintains that man necessarily fell because God withheld from him "the power of perseverance ;" and yet that man "could have stood if he would, that he fell merely by his own will," and thus "destroying himself he corrupted all his excellencies." Such notions obviously make God to be the cause of evil, and