a thing, which, in reality, he has not permitted at all. Having
created a world of moral agents, that is, a world endowed with a power to
sin, it was impossible for him to prevent sin, so long as they retained
this power, or, in other words, so long as they continued to exist as
moral agents. A universe of such agents given, its liability to sin is not
a matter for the will of God to permit; this is a necessary consequence
from the nature of moral agents. He could no more deny peccability to such
creatures than he could deny the properties of the circle to a circle; and
if he could not prevent such a thing, it is surely very absurd to ask why
he permitted it.

On the supposition of such a world, God did not permit sin at all; it
could not have been prevented. It would be considered a very absurd
inquiry, if we should ask, why God permitted two and two to be equal to
four, or why he permitted the three angles of a triangle to be equal to
two right angles. But all such questions, however idle and absurd, are not
more so than the great inquiry respecting the permission of moral evil. If
this does not so appear to our minds, it is because we have not
sufficiently reflected on the great truth, that a necessary virtue is a
contradiction in terms, an inherent and utter impossibility. The full
possession of this truth will show us, that the cause of theism has been
encumbered with great difficulties, because its advocates have endeavoured
to explain the reason _why_ God has permitted a thing, which, in point of
fact, he has not permitted. Having attempted to explain a fact which has
no existence, it is no wonder that they should have involved themselves in
clouds and darkness. Let us cease then, to seek the reason of that which
is _not_, in order that we may behold the glory of that which _is_.

We have seen that it is impossible for Omnipotence to create moral agents,
and yet prevent them from possessing an ability to sin or transgress the
law of God. In other words, that the Almighty cannot give agents a power
to sin, and at the same time deny this power to them. To expect such
things of him, is to expect him to work contradictions; to expect him to
cause a thing to be what it is, and not what it is, at one and the same
time. Thus, although sin exists, we vindicate the character of God, on the
ground that it is an inherent impossibility to exclude all evil from a
moral universe. This is the high, impregnable ground of the tru