those
favours which are conferred on us by the agency of our fellow-men, except
on the principle that they are instruments in _his_ hand, who, without
'offering the least violence to their wills, or taking away the liberty or
contingency of second causes,' hath most sovereign dominion over them, to
do by them, and upon them, whatsoever himself pleaseth? On any other
ground, _they_ would be worthy of the principal, and He of the secondary
praise."(156) True, if men are "_only instruments in his hand_," we should
give him all the praise; but we should never feel grateful to our earthly
friends and benefactors. As we should not, on this hypothesis, be grateful
for the greatest benefits conferred on us by our fellow-men; so, in the
language of Hartley, and Belsham, and Diderot, we should never resent, nor
censure, the greatest injuries committed by the greatest criminals. But on
our principles, while we have infinite ground for gratitude to God, we
also have some little room for gratitude to our fellow-men.

Section VI.

It may be contended, that it is unfair to urge the preceding difficulties
against the scheme of necessity; inasmuch as the same, or as great,
difficulties attach to the system of those by whom they are urged.

This is the great standing objection with all the advocates of necessity.
Indeed, we sometimes find it conceded by the advocates of free-agency; of
which concessions the opposite party are ever ready and eager to avail
themselves. In the statement of this fact, I do not mean to complain of a
zeal which all candid minds must acknowledge to be commendable on the part
of the advocates of necessity. It is a fact, however, that the following
language of Archbishop Whately, in relation to the difficulty of
accounting for the origin of evil, is often quoted by them: "Let it be
remembered, that it is not peculiar to any one theological system: let not
therefore the Calvinist or the Arminian urge it as an objection against
their respective adversaries; much less an objection clothed in offensive
language, which will be found to recoil on their own religious tenets, as
soon as it shall be perceived that both parties are alike unable to
explain the difficulty; let them not, to destroy an opponent's system,
rashly kindle a fire which will soon extend to the no less combustible
structure of their own."

No one can doubt the justice or wisdom of such a maxim; and it would be