s
explained by Dr. Dick, be a "_proof_ of the divine goodness," it cannot
but appear to be too severe. But as this point, on which he scarcely
dwells at all, is more elaborately and fully discussed by President
Edwards, we shall direct our attention to him.

"It is objected," says Edwards, "that appointing Adam to stand in this
great affair as the moral head of his posterity, and so treating them as
_one_ with him, is injurious to them." "To which," says he, "I answer, it
is demonstrably otherwise; that such a constitution was so far from being
_injurious_ to Adam's posterity any more than if every one had been
appointed to stand for himself personally, that it was, in itself
considered, attended with a more eligible _probability_ of a _happy_ issue
than the latter would have been; and so is a constitution that truly
expresses the goodness of its Author." Now, let us see how this is
_demonstrated_.

"There is a _greater tendency_ to a happy issue in such an appointment,"
says he, "than if every one had been appointed to stand for himself;
especially on these accounts: (1.) That Adam had _stronger motives to
watchfulness_ than his posterity would have had; in that, not only his own
eternal welfare lay at stake, but also that of all his posterity. (2.)
Adam was in a state of complete _manhood_ when his trial began."(169) In
the first place, then, the constitution for which Edwards contends is "an
expression of the divine goodness," because it presented stronger motives
to obedience than if it had merely suspended the eternal destiny of Adam
alone upon his conduct. The eternal welfare of his posterity was staked
upon his obedience; and, having this stupendous motive before him, he
would be more likely to preserve his allegiance than if the motive had
been less powerful. The magnitude of the motive, says Edwards, is the
grand circumstance which evinces the goodness of God in the appointment of
such a constitution. If this be true, it is very easy to see how the
Almighty might have made a vast improvement in his own constitution for
the government of the world. He might have made the motive still stronger,
and thereby made the appointment or covenant still better: instead of
suspending merely the eternal destiny of the human race upon the conduct
of Adam, he might have staked the eternal fate of the universe upon it.
According to the argument of Edwards, what a vast, what a wonderful
improvement would this have been in the