nd benevolent, we shall have obtained certain ethical
principles which, if carried out into universal practice, would
subvert all social order, and destroy all confidence. For instance,
it will follow:--

First. That a ruler may secretly will, purpose, decree,
foreordain, that his, subjects shall act in a certain way. He may
put into operation effective measures to secure their concurrence
with his designs. Meantime, he may profess a profound and
insuperable dissatisfaction with a very large proportion of the
actions which he has predetermined and induced; he may indignantly
condemn and threaten to punish the actors; he may do all this,
and yet be perfectly sincere. In other words, what men usually
regard as the most thorough-paced duplicity, is in entire accordance
with perfect sincerity. By this principle, the worst hypocrite that
ever lived may be fully vindicated from the charge of hypocrisy.

Again: A being may give existence to a vast multitude of other
beings, inferior, dependent, but yet intelligent. He may assert
over their actions the most absolute control. He may predetermine
and bring to pass every one of their actions. He may "shut up all
other ways of acting, and leave that only open which he had
determined to be done." Meanwhile, he may issue laws peremptorily
requiring conduct directly opposite to his unchangeable
predeterminations, thus placing his creatures under the dire
necessity of violating his secret decrees, or his published laws;
and yet he may, with perfect justice, arraign, condemn, and
punish them for the violation of these laws, consigning them to
eternal misery. This theory will furnish us with a criterion of
moral character--a code by which the Neros, Domitians, Caligulas,
and Diocletians, whom men have reprobated and abhorred as
tyrants, may be triumphantly vindicated and made honorable.

Again: A being may be the author, or, if not, in the strictest
sense, the author, at least the planner, the prime mover of all
the wickedness that ever existed. He may use effective influences
in bringing it to pass, so that it may be said, in truth, that he
freely and unchangeably preordained and produced it, and yet he
may be perfectly holy.

And again: A being may purpose, foreordain, and bring to pass all
the sin and misery in the universe, and yet be perfectly
benevolent. Here is a principle of ethics which will more than
cover and vindicate the most atrocious cruelties of the Romish
inquisit