a pure faith, rather than with substantial and satisfactory
views. The writings of Plato, Leibnitz, Cudworth, and Edwards, all furnish
illustrations of the justness of this remark. But nowhere is its truth
more clearly seen than in the following passage from Plotinus: "God made
the _whole_ most beautiful, entire, complete, and sufficient," says he;
"all agreeing friendly with itself and its parts; both the nobler and the
meaner of them being alike congruous thereunto. Whosoever, therefore, from
the parts thereof, will blame the whole, is an absurd and unjust censurer.
For we ought to consider the parts not alone by themselves, but in
reference to the whole, whether they be harmonious and agreeable to the
same; otherwise we shall not blame the universe, but some of its parts
taken by themselves."(148)

The theist, however, who maintains this beautiful sentiment, is accustomed
to make concessions by which its beauty is marred, and its foundation
subverted. For if God could easily cause virtue to exist without any
mixture of vice, it is demonstrable that the universe might be rendered
more holy and happy than it is, in each _and every one of its parts, and
consequently in the whole_. But if we assume the position, as in truth we
may, that a necessary virtue is a contradiction in terms, then we can
vindicate the infinite perfections of God, by showing that sin may enter
into the best possible world. This great truth, then, that "a necessary
holiness is a contradiction in terms," which has been so often uttered and
so seldom followed out to its consequences, is the precise point from
which we should contemplate the world, if we would behold the power and
goodness of God therein manifested. This is the secret of the world by
which the dark enigma of evil is to be solved. This is the clew, by which
we are to be conducted from the dark labyrinth of atheistical doubt and
scepticism, into the clear and open light of divine providence. This is
the great central light which has been wanting to the scheme of optimism,
to convert it from a mere but magnificent hypothesis, into a clearly
manifested and glorious reality.

God governs everything according to the nature which he has given it.
Indeed, it would be as impossible to necessitate true and genuine
obedience by the application of power, as it would be to convert a stone
into a moral agent by the application of motives and persuasion. As sin is
possible, then, though omnipotence