the doctrines of human and
divine agency upon a solid and enduring basis, by preventing each from
excluding the other.

In all our inquiries, truth, and truth alone, should be our grand object.
All by-ends and contracted purposes, all party schemes and sectarian zeal,
will be almost sure to defeat their own objects, by seeking them with _too
direct and exclusive an aim_. These, even when noble and praiseworthy,
must be sought and reached, if reached at all, by seeking and finding the
truth. Thus, for instance, would we exalt the sovereignty of God, then
must we not directly seek to exalt that sovereignty, but put away from us
all the forced contrivances and factitious lights which have been invented
for that purpose. It is the light of truth alone, sought for its own sake,
and therefore clearly seen, that can reveal the sublime proportions, and
the intrinsic moral loveliness, of this awful attribute of the Divine
Being. On the other hand, would we vindicate the freedom of man, and break
into atoms the iron law of necessity, which is supposed to bind him to the
dust, then again must we seek the truth without reference to this
particular aim or object. We must study the great advocates of that law
with as great earnestness and fairness as its adversaries. For it is by
the light of truth alone, that the real position man occupies in the moral
world, or the orbit his power moves in, can be clearly seen, free from the
manifold illusions of error; and until it be thus seen, the liberty of the
human mind can never be successfully and triumphantly vindicated. If we
would understand these things, then, we must struggle to rise above the
foggy atmosphere and the refracted lights of prejudice, into the bright
region of eternal truth.

Chapter VI.

The Existence Of Moral Evil, Or Sin, Reconciled With The Holiness Of God.

One doubt remains,
That wrings me sorely, if I solve it not.

The world, indeed, is even so forlorn
Of all good, as thou speakest it, and so swarms
With every evil. Yet, beseech thee, point
The cause out to me, that myself may see
And unto others show it: for in heaven
One places it, and one on earth below.--DANTE.

Theology teaches that God is a being of infinite perfections. Hence, it is
concluded, that if he had so chosen, he might have secured the world
against the possibility of evil; and this naturally gives rise