h; if he has
scattered around him, with a liberal hand, the multiplied blessings of
life; if, above all, he has made him capable of eternal blessedness, and
of an endless progress in glory; this should warm his heart with the most
glowing gratitude, and tune his tongue to the most exalted praise. And the
man, the rational and immortal being, whose high endowments should lead
him to murmur and repine at the unequal dispensations of the divine
bounty, because God has created beings of a higher order than himself, and
placed them in a world where no cloud is ever seen, and where no sigh is
ever heard, would certainly, to say the very least, be guilty of the most
criminal ingratitude. Reason and conscience might well cry out, Shall the
thing formed say to Him who formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? And God
himself might well demand, Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

The case is not altered, if we suppose that the divine favour is unequally
bestowed upon different individuals of the same species, instead of the
different orders of created beings. The same principle of wisdom and
goodness, as Butler remarks, whatever it may be, which led God to make a
difference between men and angels, may be the same which induces him to
make a difference between one portion of the human family and another--to
leave one portion for a season to the dim twilight of nature, while upon
another he pours out the light of revelation. The same principle, it may
also be, which gives rise to the endless diversity of natural gifts among
the different individuals of the same community, as well as to the
different situations of the same individual, in regard to his temporal and
eternal interests, during the various stages of his earthly existence. And
if this be so, we should either cease to object against the goodness of
God, because the same powers and advantages are not bestowed upon all, or
we should adopt the atheistical principle, in its fullest extent, which
has now been shown to be so full of absurdity.

But although we cannot see the particular reasons of such a diversity of
gifts, or how each is subservient to the good of the whole; yet every
shadow of injustice will disappear, if we consider that God deals with
every one, to use the language of Scripture, "according to what he hath,
and not according to what he hath not." His bounty overflows, in various
degrees, upon his creatures; but his justice equalizes all, by requiring
every one