,,probabilities2 ,,an ,,aid ,,to ,,faith4 ,,by ,martin ,farquhar ,tupper1 ,a4,m41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,,the ,,author ,,of ,,proverbial ,,philosophy4 ,,almost ,,thou ,,persuadest ,,me ,,to ,,be ,a ,,christian4 ,,hartford3 ,,published ,,by ,,silas ,,andrus ,,son4 #ahea4 ,,probabilities4 ,,an ,,aid ,,to ,,faith4 ,the certainty of those things which most surely are believed among us1 is a matter quite distinct from their antecedent probability or improbability4 ,we know1 and take for facts1 that ,cromwell and ,napoleon existed1 and are persuaded that their characters and lives were such as history reports them3 but it is another thing1 and one eminently calculated to disturb any disbeliever of such history1 if a man were enabled to show1 that1 from the condition of social anarchy1 there was an antecedent likelihood for the use of military despots2 that1 from the condition of a popular puritanism1 or a popular infidelity1 it was previously to have been expected that such leaders should have the several characteristics of a bigoted zeal for religion1 or a craving appetite for worldly glory2 that1 from the condition liable to revolutions1 it was probable to find such despots arising out of the middle class2 and that1 from the condition of reaction incidental to all human violences1 there was a clear expectability that the power of such military monarchs should not be continued to their natural heirs4 ,such a line of argument1 although in no measure required for the corroboration of facts1 might have considerable power to persuade priori the man1 who had not hitherto seen reason to credit such facts from posterior evidence4 ,it would have rolled away a great stone1 which to such a mind might otherwise have stood as a stumbling-block on the very threshold of truth4 ,it would have cleared off a heavy mist1 which might prevent him from discerning the real nature of the scene in which he stood4 ,it would have shown him that1 what others know to be fact1 is1 even to him who does not know it1 become antecedently probable2 and that ,reason is not only no enemy to ,faith1 but is ready and willing to acknowledge its alliance4 ,take a second illustration1 by way of preliminary4 ,a woodman1 cleaving an oak1 finds an iron ball in its centre2 he sees the fact1 and of course believes2 some others believing on his testimony4 ,but a certain village-pundit1 habitually sceptical of all marvels1 is persuaded that the wonder has been fabricated by our honest woodman2 until the parson1 a good historian1 coming round that way1 proclaims it a most interesting circumstance1 because it was one naturally to have been expected2 for that1 here was the spot where1 two hundred years ago1 a great battle had been fought3 and it was no improbability at all that a carbine-bullet should have penetrated a sapling1 nor that the tree should thereafter have grown old with the iron at its heart4 ,how unreasonable then would appear the pundit's incredulity1 if persisted in3 how suddenly enlightened the rational faith of the rustic3 how seasonable would be felt the useful learning of him1 whose knowledge well applied can thus unfetter truth from the bandages of ignorance4 ,illustrations1 if apt1 are so well adapted to persuade towards a particular line of argument1 that1 at the risk of diffuseness1 and because minds being various are variously touched1 one by one thought and one by another1 ,i think fit to add yet more of a similar tendency3 in the hope that1 by a natural induction1 such instances may smoothe our way4 ,when an eminent living geologist was prosecuting his researches at ,kirkdale cave1 ,yorkshire1 he had calculated so nicely on the antecedent probabilities1 that his commands to the labourers were substantially these3 ,take your mattocks1 and pick up that stone flooring2 then take your basket1 and fill it--with the bones of hynas and other creatures which you will find there4 ,we may fancy the ridicule wherewith ignorance might have greeted science3 but lo1 the triumph of philosophy1 when its mandate soon assumed a bodily shape in--bushels of bones gnawed as by wild beasts1 and here and there a grinning skull that looked like a hyna's6 ,do we not see how this bears on our coming argument8 ,such a deposit was very unlikely to be found there in the eyes of the unenlightened3 but very likely to the wise man's ken4 ,the real probabilities were in favour of a strange fact1 though the seeming probabilities were against it4 ,take another4 ,we are all now convinced of the existence of ,america2 and so1 some three or four hundred years back1 was ,christopher ,columbus--but nobody else4 ,alone1 he proved that mighty continent so probable1 from geometrical measurements1 and the balance of the world1 and tides1 and trade-winds1 and casual floatsams driven from some land beneath the setting sun1 that he was antecedently convinced of the fact3 and it would have been a shock to his reason1 as well as to his faith1 had he found himself able to sail due west from ,lisbon to ,china1 without having struck against his huge probability4 ,i purposely abstain from applying every illustration1 or showing its specific difference regarding our theme4 ,it is better to lead a mind to think for itself than to endeavour to forestall every notion4 ,another4 ,a ,kissoor merchant in ,timbuctoo is told of the existence of water hard and cold as marble4 ,all the experience of his nation is against it4 ,he disbelieves4 ,however1 after no long time1 the testimony of two native princes who have been fted in ,england1 and have seen ice1 shakes his once not unreasonable incredulity3 and the additional idea brought soon to his remembrance1 that1 as lead cools down from hot fluidity to a solid lump1 so1 in the absence of solar heat1 in all probability would water--corroborates and makes acceptable by analogous likelihood the doctrine simultaneously evidenced by credible witnesses4 ,yet one more illustration for the last4 ,few things in nature appear more unlikely to the illiterate1 than that a living toad should be found prisoned in a block of limestone2 nevertheless1 evidence goes to prove that such cases are not uncommon4 ,now1 if1 instead of limestone1 which is a water-product1 the creature had been found embedded in granite1 which is a fire-product2 although the fact might have been from eye-sight equally unimpeachable1 how much more unlikely such a circumstance would have appeared in the judgment of science4 ,to the rustic1 the limestone case is as stout a puzzle as the granite one2 but priori1 the philosopher--taking into account the aqueous fluidity of such a matrix at a period when reptiles were abundant1 the torpid qualities of the toad itself1 and the fact that time is scarcely an element in the absence of air--arrives at an antecedent probability1 which comforts his acceptance of the fact4 ,the granite would have staggered his reason1 even though his own experience or the testimony of others were sufficient1 nay1 imperative1 to assure his faith3 but in the case of limestone1 ,reason even helps ,faith2 nay1 anticipates and leads it in1 by suggesting the wonder to be previously probable4 ,how truly1 and how strongly this bears upon our theme1 let any such philosophizing mind consider4 ,but enough of illustrations3 although these1 multipliable to any amount1 might bring1 each in its own case1 some specific tendency to throw light upon the path we mean to tread3 it is wiser perhaps1 as implying more confidence in the reader's intellectual powers1 to leave other analogous cases to the suggestion of his own mind2 also1 not to vex him in every instance with the intrusive finger of an obvious application4 ,meanwhile1 it is a just opportunity to clear the way at once of some obstructions1 by disposing of a few matters personal to the writer2 and by touching upon sundry other preliminary considerations4 #a4 ,the line of thought proposed is intended to show it probable that any thing which has been or is1 might1 viewed antecedently to its existence1 by an exercise of pure reason1 have by possibility been guessed3 and on the hypothesis of sufficient keenness and experience1 that this idea may be carried even to the future4 ,any thing1 meaning every thing1 is a word not used unadvisedly2 for this is merely a suggestive treatise1 starting a rule capable of infinite application3 and1 notwithstanding that we have here and now confined its elucidation to some matters of religious moment only1 as occupying a priority of importance1 and at all times deserving the lead2 still1 if knowledge availed1 and time and space permitted1 ,i scarcely doubt that a vigorous and illuminated intellect might so far enlarge on the idea1 as to show the antecedent probability of every event which has happened in the kingdoms of nature1 providence1 and grace3 nay1 of directing his guess at coming matters with no uncertain aim into the realms of the immediate future4 ,the perception of cause in operation enables him to calculate the consequence1 even perhaps better than the prophecy of cause could in the prior case enable him to suspect the consequence4 ,but1 in this brief life1 and under its disturbing circumstances1 there is little likelihood of accomplishing in practice all that the swift mind sees it easy to dream in theory3 and if other and wiser pens are at all helped in the good aim to justify the ways of ,god with man1 and to clear the course of truth1 by some of the notions broadcast in this treatise1 its errand will be well fulfilled4 #b4 ,whether or not the leading idea1 so propounded1 is new1 or is new in its application as an auxiliary to ,christian evidences1 the writer is unaware3 to his own mind it has occurred quite spontaneously and on a sudden2 neither has he scrupled to place it before others with whatever ill advantage of celerity1 because it seemed to his own musings to shed a flood of light upon deep truths1 which may not prove unwelcome nor unuseful to the doubting minds of many4 ,it is true that in this1 as in most other human efforts1 the realization of idea in concrete falls far short of its abstract conception in the mind3 there1 all was clear1 quick1 and easy2 here1 the necessity of words1 and the constraints of an unwilling perseverance1 clog alike the wings of fancy and the feet of sober argument3 insomuch that the difference is felt to be quite humiliating between the thoughts as they were thought1 and the thoughts as they are written4 ,minerva1 springing from the head of ,jove1 is not more unlike the heavily-treading ,vulcan4 #c4 ,necessarily1 that the argument be 7so to speak7 complete1 and on the wise principle that no fortresses be left untaken in the rear1 it must be the writer's fate to attempt a demonstration of the anterior probability of truths1 which a child of reason can not only now never doubt as fact1 but never could have thought improbable4 ,instance the first effort1 showing it to have been expectable that there should1 in any conceived beginning1 have existed a ,something1 a ,great ,spirit1 whom we call ,god4 ,to have to argue of the mighty ,maker1 that ,,he was an antecedent probability1 would appear a most needless attempt2 if it did not occur as the first link in a chain of arguments less open to objection by the thoughtless4 ,with our little light to try to prove priori the dazzling mystery of a ,divine ,tri-unity1 might 7unreasonably viewed7 be assailed as a presumptuous and harmful thing2 but it is our wise prerogative1 if and when we can1 to ,prove all things4 ,moreover1 we live in a world wherein ,truth's greatest enemy is the man who shrinks from endeavouring at least to clear away the mists and clouds that veil her precious aspect2 and at a time when it behooves the reverent ,christian to put on his panoply of faith and prayer1 and meet in argument1 according to the grace and power given to him--not indeed the blaspheming infidel1 for such a foe is unreasonable and unworthy of an answer1 but--the often candid1 anxious1 and involuntary doubter2 the mind1 which1 righteously vexed with the thousand corruptions of truth1 and sorely disappointed at the conduct of its herd of false disciples1 from a generous misconception is embracing error3 the mind1 never enough tenderly treated1 but commonly taunted as a sceptic which yet with a natural manliness asserts the just prerogative of thinking for itself3 fairly enough requiring1 though rarely finding1 evidence either to prop the weakness of a merely educational faith1 or to argue away the objections to ,christianity so rife in the clashing doctrines and unholy lives of its pseudo-sectaries4 ,one of our poets hath said1 ,he has no hope who never had a fear3 it is quite as true 7and take this saying for thy comfort1 any harassed misbelieving mind71 ,he has no faith1 who never had a doubt4 ,there is hope of a mind which doubts1 because it thinks2 because it troubles itself to think about what the mass of nominal ,christians live threescore years and die of very mammonism1 without having had one earnest thought about one difficulty1 or one misgiving3 there is hope of a man1 who1 not licentious nor scornful1 from simple misconception1 misbelieves2 there is just and reasonable hope that 7the misconception once removed7 his faith will shine forth all the warmer for a temporary state of winter4 ,to such do ,i address myself3 not presumptuously imagining that ,i can satisfy by my poor thoughts all the doubts1 cavils and objections of minds so keen and curious2 not affecting to sail well among the shoals of metaphysics1 nor to plumb unerringly the deeper gulphs of reason2 but asking them for awhile to bear with me and hear me to the end patiently2 with me1 convinced of what 7,greek3 kat' exochn7 is ,truth1 by far surer and stronger arguments than any of the less considerations here expounded as auxiliary thereto2 to bear with me1 and prove for themselves at this penning of my thoughts 7if haply ,i am helped in such high enterprise71 whether indeed those doctrines and histories which the ,christian world admit1 were antecedently improbable1 that is1 unreasonable3 whether1 on the contrary1 there did not exist1 prior to any manifestation of such facts and doctrines1 an exceeding likelihood that they would be so and so developed3 and whether on the whole1 led by reason to the threshold of faith1 it may be worth while to encounter other arguments1 which have rendered probabilities now certain4 #d4 ,it is very material to keep in memory the only scope and object of this essay4 ,we do not pretend to add one jot of evidence1 but only to prepare the mind to receive evidence3 we do not attempt to prove facts1 but only to accelerate their admission by the removal of prejudice4 ,if a bed-ridden meteorologist is told that it rains1 he may or he may not receive the fact from the force of testimony2 but he will certainly be more prdisposed to receive it1 if he finds that his weatherglass is falling rather than rising4 ,the fact remains the same1 it rains2 but the mind--precluded by circumstances from positive personal assurance of such fact1 and able only to arrive at truth from exterior evidence--is in a fitter state for belief of the fact from being already made aware that it was probable4 ,let it not then be inferred1 somewhat perversely1 that because antecedent probabilities are the staple of our present argument1 the theme itself1 ,religion1 rests upon hypotheses so slender3 it rests not at all upon such straws as probabilities1 but on posterior evidence far more firm4 ,what we now attempt is not to prop the ark1 but favourably to prdispose the mind of any reckless ,uzzah1 who might otherwise assail it2 not to strengthen the weak places of religion1 but to annul such disinclination to receive ,truth1 as consists in prejudice and misconception of its likelihood4 ,the goodly ship is built upon the stocks1 the platforms are reared1 and the cradle is ready2 but mistaken prconceptions may scatter the incline with gravel-stones rather than with grease1 and thus put a needless hindrance to the launching3 whereas a clear idea that the probabilities are in favour1 rather than the reverse1 will make all smooth1 lubricate1 and easy4 ,if1 then1 we fail in this attempt1 no disservice whatever is done to ,truth itself2 no breach is made in the walls1 no mine sprung1 no battlement dismantled2 all the evidences remain as they were2 we have taken nothing away4 ,even granting matters seemed anteriorily improbable1 still1 if evidence proved them true1 such anterior unlikelihood would entirely be merged in the stoutly proven facts4 ,moreover1 if we be adjudged to have succeeded1 we have added nothing to ,truth itself2 no1 nor to its outworks4 ,that sacred temple stands complete1 firm and glorious from corner-stone to top-stone4 ,we do but sweep away the rubbish at its base2 the drifting desert sands that choke its portals4 ,we only serve that cause 7a most high privilege71 by enlisting a prjudgment in its favour4 ,we propose herein an auxiliary to evidence1 not evidence itself2 a finger-post to point the way to faith2 a little light of reason on its path4 ,the risk is really nothing2 but the advantage1 under favour1 may be much4 #e4 ,it is impossible to elude the discussion of topics1 which in their direct tendencies1 or remoter inferences1 may1 to the author at least1 prove dangerous or disputable ground4 ,if a great door and effectual is opened to him1 doubtless he will raise or meet with many adversaries4 ,besides mere haters of his creed1 despisers of his arguments1 and protestors1 loud and fierce against his errors2 he may possibly fall foul of divers unintended heresies2 he may stumble unwittingly on the relics of exploded schisms2 he may exhume controversies in metaphysical or scholastical polemics1 long and worthily extinct4 ,if this be so1 he can only plead1 ,mea culpa1 mea culpa1 mea maxima culpa4 ,but it is open to him also to protest against the common critical folly of making an offender for a word3 of driving analogies on all four feet1 and straining thoughts beyond their due proportions4 ,above all1 never let a reader stir one inch beyond1 far less against1 his own judgment3 if there seem to be sufficient reasons1 well3 if otherwise1 let me walk uncompanied4 ,the first step especially is felt to be a very difficult one2 perhaps very debatable3 for aught ,i know1 it may be merely a vain insect caught in the cobweb of metaphysics1 soon to be destroyed1 and easily to be discussed at leisure by some ,aranean logician4 ,however1 it seemed to my midnight musings a probable mode of arriving at truth1 though somewhat unsatisfactorily told from poverty of thought and language4 ,moreover1 it would have been1 in such priori argument1 ridiculous to have commenced by announcing a posterior conclusion3 for this cause did ,i do my humble best to work it out anew3 and however supererogatory it may seem at first sight to the majority of readers1 those keener minds whom ,i mainly address1 and whose interests ,i wish to serve1 will recognise the attempt as at least consistent3 and will be ready to admit that if the arduous effort prove anteriorly a ,first ,great ,cause1 and ,his attributes1 be futile 7which1 however1 ,i do not admit71 it was an attempt unneeded on the score of its own merits2 albeit1 with an obvious somewhat of justice1 pure reason may desire to begin at the beginning4 ,no one1 who thinks at all upon religion1 however misbelieving1 can entertain any mental prejudice against the existence of a ,deity1 or against the received character of ,his attributes4 ,such a man would be merely in a savage state1 irrational3 whilst his own mind1 so speculating1 would stand itself proof positive of an ,intellectual ,father2 either immediately1 as in the first man's case1 or mediately1 as in our own1 it must have sprung out of that ,being1 who is emphatically the ,good ,one--,god4 ,but if1 as is possible1 a mind1 capable of thinking1 and keen to think on other themes1 from any cause1 educational or moral1 has neglected this great track of mediation1 has forgotten ,god1 and had him not in all his thoughts1 such an one ,i invite to walk with me2 and1 in spite of all incompleteness and insufficiency1 uncaptious of much that may haply be fanciful or false1 briefly and in outline to test with me sundry probabilities of the ,christian scheme1 considered antecedently to its elucidation4 ,a ,,god3 ,,and ,,his ,,attributes4 ,i will commence with a noble1 and1 as ,i believe1 an inspired sentence3 than which no truth uttered by philosophers ever was more clearly or more sublimely expressed4 ,in the beginning was the ,word3 and the ,word was with ,god2 and the ,word was ,god4 ,in its due course1 we will consider especially the difference between the ,word and ,god2 likewise the seeming contradiction1 but true concord1 of being simultaneously ,god1 and with ,god4 ,at present1 and previously to the true commencement of our priori thoughts1 let us1 by a word or two1 paraphrase that brief but comprehensive sentence1 ,in the beginning was the ,word4 ,eternity has no beginning1 as it has no end3 the clock of ,time is futile there3 it might as well attempt to go in vacuo4 ,nevertheless1 in respect to finite intelligences like ourselves1 seeing that eternity is an idea totally inconceivable1 it is wise1 nay it is only possible1 to be presented to the mind piecemeal4 ,even our deepest mathematicians do not scruple to speak of points infinitely remote2 as if in that phrase there existed no contradiction of terms4 ,so1 also1 we pretend in our emptiness to talk of eternity past1 time present1 and eternity to come2 the fact being that1 muse as a man may1 he can entertain no idea of an existence which is not measurable by time3 any more than he can conceive of a colour unconnected with the rainbow1 or of a musical note beyond the seven sounds4 ,the plain intention of the words is this3 place the starting-post of human thought as far back into eternity as you will1 be it what man counts a thousand ages1 or ten thousand times ten thousand1 or be these myriads multiplied again by millions1 still1 in any such ,beginning1 and in the beginning of all beginnings 7for so must creatures talk7--then was ,god4 ,he ,was3 the scholar knows full well the force of the original term1 the philological distinctions between ,greek3 eimi and ,greek3 gignomai3 well pleased1 he reads as of the ,divinity ,greek3 n1 ,he self-existed2 and equally well pleased he reads of the humanity ,greek3 egennth1 he was born4 ,the thought and phrase ,greek3 n sympathizes1 if it has not an identity1 with the ,hebrew's unutterable ,name4 ,,he then1 whose title1 amongst all others likewise denoting excellence supreme and glory underivative1 is essentially ,i am2 ,,he who1 relatively to us as to all creation else1 has a new name wisely chosen in the ,word1--the great expression of the idea of ,god2 this mighty ,intelligence is found in any such beginning self-existent4 ,that teaching is a mere fact1 known posteriorly from the proof of all things created1 as well as by many wonderful signs1 and the clear voice of revelation4 ,we do not attempt to prove it2 that were easy and obvious3 but our more difficult endeavour at present is to show how antecedently probable it was that ,god should be3 and that so being1 ,he should be invested with the reasonable attributes1 wherewithal we know ,his glorious ,nature to be clothed4 ,take then our beginning where we will1 there must have existed in that originally either ,something1 or ,nothing4 ,it is a clear matter to prove1 posteriori1 that ,something did exist2 because something exists now3 every matter and every derived spirit must have had a ,father2 ex nihilo nihil fit1 is not more a truth1 than that creation must have had a ,creator4 ,however1 leaving this plain path 7which ,i only point at by the way for obvious mental uses71 let us now try to get at the great antecedent probability that in the beginning ,something should have been1 rather than ,nothing4 ,the term1 ,nothing1 is a fallacious one3 it does not denote an existence1 as ,something does1 but the end of an existence4 ,it is in fact a negation1 which must prsuppose a matter once in being and possible to be denied2 it is an abstraction1 which cannot happen unless there be somewhat to be taken away2 the idea of vacuity must be posterior to that of fullness2 the idea of no tree is incompetent to be conceived without the previous idea of a tree2 the idea of nonentity suggests1 ex vi termini1 a pre-existent entity2 the idea of ,nothing1 of necessity1 prsupposes ,something4 ,and a ,something once having been1 it would still and for ever continue to be1 unless sufficient cause be found for its removal2 that cause itself1 you will observe1 being a ,something4 ,the chances are forcibly in favour of continuance1 that is of perpetuity2 and the likelihoods proclaim loudly that there should be an ,existence4 ,it was thus1 then1 antecedently more probable1 than in any imaginable beginning from which reason can start1 ,something should be found existent1 rather than ,nothing4 ,this is the first probability4 ,next2 of what nature and extent is this ,something1 this ,being1 likely to be8--,there will be either one such being1 or many3 if many1 the many either sprang from the one1 or the mass are all self-existent2 in the former case1 there would be a creation and a ,god3 in the latter1 there would be many ,gods4 ,is the latter antecedently more probable8--let us see4 ,first1 it is evident that if many are probable1 few are more probable1 and one most probable of all4 ,the more possible gods you take away1 the more do impediments diminish2 until1 that is to say1 you arrive at that ,one ,being1 whom we have already proved probable4 ,moreover1 many must be absolutely united as one2 in which case the many is a gratuitous difficulty1 because they may as well be regarded for all purposes of worship or argument as one ,god3 or the many must have been in essence more or less disunited2 in which case1 as a state of any thing short of pure concord carries in itself the seeds of dissolution1 needs must that one or other of the many 7long before any possible beginnings1 as we count beginnings1 looking down the past vista of eternity71 would have taken opportunity by such disturbing causes to become absolute monarch3 whether by peaceful persuasion1 or hostile compulsion1 or other mode of absorbing disunions1 would be indifferent2 if they were not all improbable1 as unworthy of the ,god4 ,perpetuity of discord is a thing impossible2 every thing short of unity tends to decomposition4 ,any how then1 given the element of eternity to work in1 a one great ,supreme ,being was1 in the created beginning1 an priori probability4 ,that all other assumptions than that of ,his true and eternal ,oneness are as false in themselves as they are derogatory to the rational views of deity1 we all now see and believe2 but the direct proofs of this are more strictly matters of revelation than of reason3 albeit reason too can discern their probabilities4 ,wise heathens1 such as ,socrates and ,cicero1 who had not our light1 arrived nevertheless at some of this perception2 and thus1 through conscience and intelligence1 became a law unto themselves3 because that1 to them1 as now to any one of us who may not yet have seen the light1 the anterior likelihood existed for only one ,god1 rather than more2 a likelihood which prepares the mind to take as a fundamental truth1 ,the ,lord our ,god is one ,jehovah4 ,next2 ,self-existence combined with unity must include the probable attribute1 or character1 ,ubiquity2 as ,i now proceed to show4 ,on the same principle as that by which we have seen ,something to be likelier than ,nothing1 we conclude that the same ,something is more probable to be every where1 than the same ,nothing 7if the phrase were not absurd71 to be any where3 we may1 so to speak1 divide infinity into spaces1 and prove the position in each instance3 moreover1 as that ,something is essentially--not a unit as of many1 but--unity involving all1 it follows as most probable that this ,whole ,being should be ubiquitous2 in other parlance1 that the one ,god should be every where at once3 also1 there being no limit to what we call ,space1 nor any imaginable hostile power to place a constraint upon the ,one ,great ,being1 this ,whole ,being must be ubiquitous to a degree strictly infinite3 ,,he is in every place1 beholding the evil and the good4 ,such a consideration 7and it is a perfectly true one7 renders necessary the next point1 to wit1 that ,god is a ,spirit4 ,no possible substance can be every where at once3 essence may1 but not substance4 ,corporeity in any shape must be local2 local is finite2 and we have just proved the anterior probability of a ,one great ,existence being 7notwithstanding unity of essence7 infinite4 ,illocal and infinite are convertible terms3 spirit is illocal2 and1 as ,god is infinite--that is1 illocal--it is clear that ,god is a ,spirit4 ,we have thus 7not attempting to build up faith by such slight tools1 but only using them to cut away prejudice7 arrived at the high probability of a ,god invested with ,his natural qualities or attributes2 ,self-existence1 ,unity1 the faculty of being every where at once and that every where ,infinitude2 and essentially of a ,spiritual nature1 not material4 ,his moral1 or accidental attributes 7so to speak71 were1 antecedently to their expression1 equally easy of being proved probable4 ,first1 with respect to ,power3 given no disturbing cause--7we shall soon consider the question of permitted evil1 and its origin2 but this1 however disturbing to creatures1 will be found not only none to ,god1 but1 as it were1 only a ray of ,his glory suffered to be broken for prismatic beauty's sake1 a flash of the direction of ,his energies suffered to be diverted for the superior triumph of good in that day when it shall be shown that ,god hath made all things for himself1 yea1 even the wicked for the time of visitation7--with the datum then of no disturbing cause obstructing or opposing1 an infinite being must be able to do all things within the sphere of such infinity3 in other phrase1 ,he must be all-powerful4 ,just so1 an impetus in vacuity suffers no check1 but ever sails along among the fleet of worlds2 and the innate ,impulse of the ,deity must expand and energize throughout that infinitude1 ,himself4 ,for a like reason of ubiquity1 ,god must know all things3 it is impossible to escape from the strong likelihood that any intelligent being must be conversant of what is going on under his very eye4 ,again2 in the case both of ,power and ,knowledge1 alike with the coming attributes of ,goodness and ,wisdom--7wisdom considered as morally distinct from mere knowledge or awaredness2 it being quite possible to conceive a cold eye seeing all things heedlessly1 and a clear mind knowing all things heartlessly7--in the case1 ,i say1 of all these accidental attributes1 there recurs for argument1 one analogous to that by which we showed the anterior probability of a self-existence4 ,things positive must precede things negative4 ,sight must have been1 before blindness is possible2 and before we can arrive at a just idea of no sight4 ,power must be precursor to an abstraction from power1 or weakness4 ,the minor-existence of ignorance is an impossibility1 unless you prallow the major-existence of wisdom2 for it amounts to a debasing or a diminution of wisdom4 ,sin is well defined to be1 the transgression of law2 for without law1 there can be no sin4 ,so1 also1 without wisdom1 there can be no ignorance2 without power1 there can be no weakness2 without goodness1 there can be no evil4 ,furthermore4 ,an affirmative--such as wisdom1 power1 goodness--can exist absolutely2 it is in the nature of a ,something3 but a negative--such as ignorance1 weakness1 evil--can only exist relatively2 and it would1 indeed1 be a ,nothing1 were it not for the previous and now simultaneous existence of its wiser1 stronger1 and better origin4 ,abstract evil is as demonstrably an impossibility as abstract ignorance1 or abstract weakness4 ,if evil could have self-existed1 it would in the moment of its eternal birth have demolished itself4 ,virtue's intrinsic concord tends to perpetual being3 vice's innate discord struggles always with a force towards dissolution4 ,goodness1 wisdom1 power have existences1 and have had existences from all eternity1 though gulphed within the ,godhead2 and that1 whether evidenced in act or not3 but their corruptions have had no such original existence1 but are only the same entities perverted4 ,love would be love still1 though there were no existent object for its exercise3 ,beauty would be beauty still1 though there were no created thing to illustrate its fairness3 ,power would be power still1 though there be no foe to combat1 no difficulty to be overcome4 ,hatred1 ill-favour1 weakness1 are only perversions or diminutions of these4 ,power exists independently of muscles or swords or screws or levers2 love1 independently of kind thoughts1 words1 and actions2 beauty1 independently of colours1 shapes1 and adaptations4 ,just so is ,wisdom philosophically spoken of by a truly royal and noble author3 ,i1 wisdom1 dwell with prudence1 and find out the knowledge of clever inventions4 ,counsel is mine1 and sound wisdom2 ,i am understanding2 ,i have strength4 ,the ,lord possessed me in the beginning of his way1 before his works of old4 ,i was set up from everlasting1 from the beginning1 or ever the earth was4 ,when there were no depths1 ,i was brought forth2 before the mountains were fixed1 or the hills were made4 ,when ,he prepared the heavens1 ,i was there2 when he set a compass upon the face of the depth2 when he established the clouds above2 when he strengthened the foundations of the deep3 ,then was ,i by him1 as one brought up with him3 and ,i was daily his delight1 rejoicing always before him2 rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth2 and my delights were with the sons of men4 ,king ,solomon well knew of ,whom he wrote thus nobly4 ,eternal wisdom1 power1 and goodness1 all prospectively thus yearning upon man1 and incorporate in ,one1 whose name1 among his many names1 is ,wisdom4 ,wisdom1 as a quality1 existed with ,god2 and1 constituting full pervasion of his essence1 was ,god4 ,but to return1 and bind to a conclusion our ravelled thoughts4 ,as1 originally1 the self-existent being1 unbounded1 all-knowing1 might take up1 so to speak1 if ,he willed1 these eternal affirmative excellences of wisdom1 power1 and goodness2 and as these1 to every rational apprehension1 are highly worthy of his choice1 whereas their derivative and inferior corruptions would have been most derogatory to any reasonable estimate of ,his character2 how much more likely was it that ,he should prefer the higher rather than the lower1 should take the affirmative before the negative1 should choose the good1 and refuse the evil1--than endure to be endowed with such garbled1 demoralizing1 finite attributes as those wherewith the heathen painted the ,pantheon4 ,what high antecedent probability was there1 that if a ,god should be 7and this we have proved highly probable too7--,he should be ,one1 ubiquitous1 self-existent1 spiritual3 that ,he should be all-mighty1 all-wise1 and all-good8 ,,the ,,triunity4 ,another deep and inscrutable topic is now to engage our thoughts--the mystery of a probable ,triunity4 ,while we touch on such high themes1 the ,christian's presumption ever is1 that he himself approaches them with reverence and prayer2 and that1 in the case of an unbeliever1 any such mind will be courteous enough to his friendly opponent1 and wise enough respecting his own interest and safety lest these things be true1 to enter upon all such subjects with the seriousness befitting their importance1 and with the restraining thought that in fact they may be sacred4 ,let us then consider1 antecedently to all experience1 with what sort of deity pure reason would have been satisfied4 ,it has already arrived at ,unity1 and the foregoing attributes4 ,but what kind of ,unity is probable8 ,unity of ,person1 or unity of ,essence8 ,a sterile solitariness1 easily understandable1 and presumably incommunicative8 or an absolute oneness1 which yet relatively involves several mysterious phases of its own expansive love8 ,will you think it a foregone conclusion1 if ,i assert the superior likelihoods of the latter1 and not of the former8 ,let us come then to a few of many reasons4 ,first3 it was by no means probable to be supposed anteriorly1 that the ,god should be clearly comprehensible3 yet he must be one3 and oneness is the idea most easily apprehended of all possible ideas4 ,the meanest of intellectual creatures could comprehend his ,maker1 and in so far top his heights1 if ,god1 being truly one in one view1 were yet only one in every view3 if1 that is to say1 there existed no mystery incidental to his nature3 nay1 if that mystery did not amount to the difficulty of a seeming contradiction4 ,i judge it likely1 and with confidence1 that ,reason would prrequire for his ,god1 a ,being1 at once infinitely easy to be apprehended by the lowest of ,his spiritual children1 and infinitely difficult to be comprehended by the highest of ,his seraphim4 ,now1 there can be guessed only two ways of compassing such a prrequirement3 one1 a moral way2 such as inventing a deity who could be at once just and unjust1 every where and no where1 good and evil1 powerful and weak2 this is the heathen phase of ,numen's character1 and is obviously most objectionable in every point of view3 the other would be a physical way2 such as requiring a ,god who should be at once material and immaterial1 abstraction and concretion2 or1 for a still more confounding paradox to ,reason 7considered as antagonist to ,faith1 in lieu of being strictly its ally71 an arithmetical contradiction1 an algebraic mystery1 such as would be included in the idea of ,composite ,unity2 one involving many1 and many collapsed into one4 ,some such enigma was probable in ,reason's guess at the nature of his ,god4 ,it is the ,christian way2 and one entirely unobjectionable3 because it is the only insuperable difficulty as to ,his ,nature which does not debase the notion of ,divinity4 ,but there are also other considerations4 ,for1 secondly4 ,the self-existent ,one is endowed1 as we found probable1 with abundant loving-kindness1 goodness overflowing and perpetual4 ,is it reasonable to conceive that such a character could for a moment be satisfied with absolute solitariness8 that infinite benevolence should1 in any possible beginning1 be discovered existent in a sort of selfish only-oneness8 ,such a supposition is1 to the eye of even unenlightened ,reason1 so clearly a reductio ad absurdum1 that men in all countries and ages have been driven to invent a plurality of ,gods1 for very society sake3 and ,i know not but that they are anteriorly wiser and more rational than the man who believes in a ,benevolent ,existence eternally one1 and no otherwise than one4 ,let me not be mistaken to imply that there was any likelihood of many cexistent gods3 that was a reasonable improbability1 as we have already seen1 perhaps a spiritual impossibility3 but the anterior likelihood of which ,i speak goes to show1 that in ,one ,god there should be more than one cexistence3 each1 by arithmetical mystery1 but not absurdity1 pervading all1 cequals1 each being ,god1 and yet not three ,gods1 but one ,god4 ,that there should be a rational difficulty here--or1 rather1 an irrational one--,i have shown to be ,reason's prrequirement3 and if such a one as ,i1 or any other creature1 could now and here 7ay1 or any when or any where1 in the heights of highest heaven1 and the far-stretching distance of eternity7 solve such intrinsic difficulty1 it would demonstrably be one not worthy of its source1 the wise design of ,god3 it would prove that riddle read1 which uncreate omniscience propounded for the baffling of the creature mind4 ,no4 ,it is far more reasonable1 as well as far more reverent1 to acquiesce in ,mystery1 as another attribute inseparable from the nature of the ,godhead2 than to quibble about numerical puzzles1 and indulge unwisely in objections which it is the happy state of nobler intelligences than man on earth is1 to look into with desire1 and to exercise withal their keen and lofty minds4 ,but we have not yet done4 ,some further thoughts remain to be thrown out in the third place1 as to the prconceivable fitness or propriety of that ,holy ,union1 which we call the trinity of ,persons who constitute the ,self-existent ,one4 ,if ,god1 being one in one sense1 is yet likely to appear1 humanly speaking1 more than one in another sense2 we have to inquire anteriorly of the probable nature of such other intimate ,being or ,beings3 as also1 whether such addition to essential oneness is likely itself to be more than one or only one4 ,as to the former of these questions3 if1 according to the presumption of reason 7and according also to what we have since learned from revelation2 but there may be good policy in not dotting this book with chapter and verse7--if the ,deity thus loved to multiply ,himself2 then ,he1 to whom there can exist no beginning1 must have so loved1 so determined1 and so done from all eternity4 ,now1 any conceivable creation1 however originated1 must have had a beginning1 place it as far back as you will4 ,in any succession of numbers1 however infinitely they may stretch1 the commencement at least is a fixed point1 one4 ,but1 this multiplication of ,deity1 this complex simplicity1 this intricate easiness1 this obvious paradox1 this sub-division and con-addition of a ,one1 must have taken place1 so soon as ever eternal benevolence found itself alone2 that is1 in eternity1 and not in any imaginable time4 ,so then1 the ,being or ,beings would probably not have been creative1 but of the essence of ,deity4 ,take also for an additional argument1 that it is an idea which detracts from every just estimate of the infinite and all-wise ,god to suppose ,he should take creatures into his eternal counsels1 or consort1 so to speak1 familiarly with other than the united sub-divisions1 persons1 and cequals of ,himself4 ,it was reasonable to prjudge that the everlasting companions of ,benevolent ,god1 should also be ,god4 ,and thus1 it appears antecedently probable that 7what from the poverty of language we must call7 the multiplication of the one ,god should not have been created beings2 that is1 should have been divine2 a term1 which includes1 as of right1 the attribution to each such ,holy ,person1 of all the wondrous characteristics of the ,godhead4 ,again3 as to the latter question2 was it probable that such so-called sub-divisions should be two1 or three1 or how many8 ,i do not think it will be wise to insist upon any such arithmetical curiosity as a perfect number2 nor on such a toy as an equilateral triangle and its properties2 nor on the peculiar aptitude for sub-division in every thing1 to be discerned in a beginning1 a middle1 and an end2 nor in the consideration that every fact had a cause1 is a constancy1 and produces a consequence3 neither1 to draw any inferences from the social maxim that for counsel1 companionship1 and conversation1 the number three has some special fitness4 ,some other similar fancies1 not altogether valueless1 might be alluded to4 ,it seems preferable1 however1 on so grand a theme1 to attempt a deeper dive1 and a higher flight4 ,we would then1 reverently as always1 albeit equally as always with the free-born boldness of ,god's intellectual children1 attempt to prjudge how many1 and with what distinctive marks1 the holy beings into whom 7,greek3 st epos eipein7 ,god1 for very ,benevolence sake1 pours out ,essential ,unity1 were likely to be4 ,let us consider what principles1 as in the case of a forthcoming creation1 would probably be found in action1 to influence such creation's ,author4 ,first of all1 there would be ,will1 a will energized by love1 disposing to create3 a phase of ,deity aptly and comprehensively typified to all minds by the name of a universal ,father3 this would be the primary impersonation of ,god4 ,and is it not so8 ,secondly3 there would be 7with especial reference to that idea of creation which doubtless at most remote beginnings occupied the ,good ,one's contemplation71 there would be next1 ,i repeat1 in remarkable adaptation to all such benevolent views1 the great idea of principle1 ,obedience2 conforming to a ,father's righteous laws1 acquiescing in his just will1 and returning love for love3 such a phase could not be better shadowed out to creatures than by an ,eternal ,son2 the dutiful yet supreme1 the subordinate yet cequal1 the amiable yet exalted ,avatar of our ,god4 ,this was probable to have been the second impersonation of ,deity4 ,and is it not so8 ,thirdly3 ,springing from the conjoint ideas of the ,father and the ,son1 and with similar prospection to such instantly creative universe1 there would occur the grand idea of ,generation2 the mighty cequal1 pure1 and quickening ,impulse3 aptly announced to men and angels as the ,holy ,spirit4 ,this was to have been the third impersonation of ,divinity4 ,and is it not so8 ,of all these--under illumination of the fore-known fact1 ,i speak1 in their aspect of anterior probability4 ,with respect to more possible ,persons1 ,i at least cannot invent one4 ,there is1 to my reflection1 neither need nor fitness for a fourth1 or any further ,principle4 ,if another can1 let him look well that he be not irrationally demolishing an attribute and setting it up as a principle4 ,obedience is not an attribute2 nor ,generation2 nor ,will3 whilst the attribute of ,love1 pervading all1 sets these only possible three ,principles going together as ,one in a mysterious harmony4 ,i would not be misunderstood2 persons are not principles2 but principles may be illustrated and incorporative in persons4 ,essential ,love1 working distinctively throughout the ,three1 unites them instinctively as ,one3 even as the attribute ,wisdom designs1 and the attribute ,power arranges all the scheme of ,godhead4 ,and now ,i ask ,reason1 whether1 prsupposing keenness1 he might not have arrived by calculation of probabilities at the likelihood of these great doctrines3 that the nature of ,god would be an apparent contradiction3 that such contradiction should not be moral1 but physical2 or rather verging towards the metaphysical1 as immaterial and more profound3 that ,god1 being ,one1 should yet1 in his great ,love1 marvellously have been companioned from eternity by ,himself3 and that such ,holy and ,united ,confraternity should be so wisely contrived as to serve for the bright unapproachable exemplar of love1 obedience1 and generation to all the future universe1 such ,triunity ,itself existing uncreated4 ,,the ,,godhead ,,visible4 ,we have hitherto mused on the ,divinity1 as on ,spirit invested with attributes3 and this idea of ,his nature was enough for all requirements antecedently to a creation4 ,at whatever beginning we may suppose such creation to have commenced1 whether countless ages before our present ,greek3 kosmos1 or only a sufficient time to have prepared the crust of earth2 and to whatever extent we may imagine creation to have spread1 whether in those remote periods originally to our system alone and at after eras to its accompanying stars and galaxies and firmaments2 or at one and the same moment to have poured material existence over space to which our heavens are as nothing3 whatever1 and whenever1 and wherever creation took place1 it would appear to be probable that some one person of the ,deity should1 in a sort1 become more or less concretely manifested2 that is1 in a greater or a minor degree to such created minds and senses visible4 ,moreover1 for purposes at least of a concentrated worship of such creatures1 that ,he should occasionally1 or perhaps habitually1 appear local4 ,i mean1 that the ,king of all spiritual potentates and the subordinate ,excellencies of brighter worlds than ours1 the ,sovereign of those whom we call angels1 should will to be better known to and more aptly conceived by such ,his admiring creatures1 in some usual glorious form1 and some wonted sacred place4 ,not that any should see ,god1 as purely ,god2 but1 as ,god relatively to them1 in the capacity of ,king1 ,creator1 and the ,object of all reasonable worship4 ,it seems anteriorly probable that one at least of the ,persons in the ,godhead should for this purpose assume a visibility2 and should hold ,his court of adoration in some central world1 such as now we call indefinitely ,heaven4 ,that such probability did exist in the human forecast1 as concerns a heaven and the form of ,god1 let the testimony of all nations now be admitted to corroborate4 ,every shape from a cloud to a crocodile1 and every place from ther to ,tartarus1 have been peopled by man's not quite irrational device with their so-called gods4 ,but we must not lapse into the after-argument3 previous likelihood is our harder theme4 ,neither1 in this section1 will we attempt the probabilities of the place of heaven3 that will be found at a more distant page4 ,we have here to speak of the antecedent credibility that there should be some visible phase of ,god2 and of the shape wherein he would be most likely1 as soon as a creation was1 to appear to such his creatures4 ,with respect1 then1 to the former4 ,creatures1 being finite1 can only comprehend the infinite in his attribute of unity3 the other attributes being apprehended 7or comprehended partially7 in finite phases4 ,but1 unity being a purely intellectual thought1 one high and dry beyond the moral feelings1 involves none of the requisites of a spiritual1 that is an affectionate1 worship2 such worship as it was likely that a beneficent ,being would1 for his creatures' own elevation in happiness1 command and inspire towards ,himself4 ,in order1 therefore1 to such worship and such inspiration acting through reason1 it would appear fitting that the ,deity should manifest ,himself especially with reference to that heavenly ,exemplar1 the ,three ,divine ,persons of the ,one ,supreme ,essence already shown to have been probable4 ,and it seems likeliest and discreetest to my thinking1 that1 with this view1 the secondary phase1 loving ,obedience1 under the dictate of the primary phase1 a loving ,will1 and energized by the tertiary or conjoining phase a loving ,quickening ,entity1 should assume the visible type of ,godhead1 and thus concentrate unto ,himself the worship of all worlds4 ,i can conceive no scheme more simply profound1 more admirably suited to its complex purposes1 than that ,he1 in whom dwelt the fullness of the ,godhead1 bodily1 should take the form of ,god1 in order that unto ,him every knee should bow1 of things in heaven1 and things in earth1 and things in regions under the earth4 ,was not all this reasonably to have been looked for8 and tested afterwards by ,scripture1 in its frequent allusions to some visible phase of ,deity1 when the ,lord ,god walked with ,adam1 and ,enoch1 and ,abraham1 and ,peter1 and ,james1 and ,john--,i ask1 is it not the case8 ,the latter point remaining to be thus briefly touched upon1 respects the probable shape to be assumed and worn1 familiarly enough to be recognised as ,his1 by ,deity thus vouchsafing ,himself visible4 ,and here we must look down the forward stream of ,time1 and search among the creatures whom thereafter ,god should make1 to arrive at some good reason for1 some antecedent probability of1 the form which he should thus frequently inhabit4 ,fire1 for example1 a pure and spirit-like nature1 would not have been a guess unworthy of reason3 but this1 besides its humbler economic uses1 would endanger an idolatry of the natural emblem4 ,so also would light be no irrational thought4 ,and it is true that ,god might1 and probably would1 invest ,himself in one or both of these pure essences1 so seemingly congenial to a nature higher than ours3 but then there would be some nucleus to the brilliancy and the burning2 these would be as a veil to the ,divinity2 we should have need1 before ,he were truly visible1 that the veil were laid aside3 we should have to shred away to the nucleus1 which 7and not the fire or light7 would be the form of ,god4 ,similar objections1 in themselves or in their idolatrizing tendencies1 would lie against any such shape as a cloud1 or a rainbow1 or an angel 7whatever such a being may resemble71 or in fact any other conceivable creature1 whether good as the angelic case or indifferent as that of the cloud1 which the ,deity1 though assuming often1 would nevertheless in every instance assume in conjunction with such his ordinary creature1 and could not entirely monopolize4 ,i mean2 if ,god had the shape of a cloud1 or of a rainbow1 common clouds and rainbows would come to be thought gods too4 ,reason would anticipate this objection to such created and too-favoured shapes3 more2 in every case1 but one1 he would be quite at a loss to look for some type1 clearly apt and probable4 ,that one case he might discern to be this4 ,known unto ,god are all things from the beginning to the end3 and1 in ,his fore-knowledge1 ,reason might have been enlightened to prophesy 7as we shall hereafter see7 that for certain wise and good ends one great family out of the myriads who rejoice in being called ,god's children1 would in a most marked manner fall away from ,him through disobedience2 and should thereby earn1 if not the annihilation of their being1 at least its endless separation from the ,blessed4 ,manifestly1 the wisdom and benevolence of ,god would be eager and swift to devise a plan for the redemption of so lost a race4 ,why ,he should permit their fall at all will be reverentially descanted on in its proper section2 meanwhile1 how is it probable that ,god1 first1 by any theory consistently with truth and justice1 could1 and next by power and contrivance actually would1 lift up again this sinful family from the pit of condemnation8 ,reason is to search the question well3 and after much thought1 you will arrive at the truth that there was but one way probable4 ,rebellion against the ,great and ,self-existent ,author of all things1 must needfully involve infinite punishment2 if only because ,he is infinite1 and his laws of an eternal sanction4 ,the problem then was1 how to inflict the unbounded punishment thus claimed by justice for a transgressional condition1 and yet at love's demand to set the prisoner free3 how to be just1 and simultaneously justifier of the guilty4 ,that was a question magnificently solved by ,god alone3 magnificently about to be solved1 as according to our argument seemed probable1 by ,god ,triune1 in wondrous self-involving council4 ,the solution would be rationally this4 ,himself1 in his character of filial obedience1 should pay the utter penalty to ,himself in his character of paternal authority1 whilst ,himself in the character of quickening spirit1 should restore the ransomed family from death to life1 from the power of evil unto good4 ,was not this a most probable1 a most reasonably probable scheme8 was it not altogether wise and philosophical1 as well as entirely generous and kind to wretched men8 ,and 7returning to our present topic71 was it not antecedently to have been expected that ,god the ,son 7so to put it7 should1 in the shape ,he was thereafter to assume upon earth1 appear upon the eternal throne of heaven8 ,in a shape1 however glorified and etherealized1 with glistening countenance and raiment bright as the light1 nevertheless resembling that more humble form1 the ,son of ,man1 who was afterwards thus by a circle of probabilities to be made in the form of ,god2 in a shape1 not liable1 from its very sinfulness1 to the deification either of other worlds or of this hero-worship is another and a lower thing altogether2 we speak here of true idolatries3--was it unlikely1 ,i say1 that in such a shape ,deity should have deigned to become visible1 and have blazed ,manifested ,god1 the central ,sun of ,heaven8--,this probability1 prior to our forth-flowing thoughts on the ,incarnation1 though in some measure anticipating them1 will receive further light from the views soon to be set forth4 ,i know not but that something is additionally due to the suggestion following2 namely3 that1 raise our swift imagination to what height we may1 and stretch our searching reason to the uttermost1 we cannot1 despite of all inventive energies and powers of mind1 conceive any shape more beautiful1 more noble1 more worthy for a rational intelligence to dwell in1 more in one ,homeric word ,greek3 theoeides1 than the glorified and etherealized human form divine4 ,let this serve as ,reason's short reply to any charge of anthropomorphism in the doctrines of his creed3 it was probable that ,god should be revealed to ,his creation2 and as to the form of any such revealed essence in any such infinite beginnings of ,his work1 the most likely of all would appear to be that one1 wherein ,he1 in the ages then to come1 was well resolved to earn the most glorious of all triumphs1 the merciful reconciliation of everlasting justice with everlasting love1 the wise and wondrous scheme of ,god forgiving sinners4 ,,the ,,origin ,,of ,,evil4 ,it will now be opportune to attempt elucidation of one of the darkest and deepest riddles ever propounded to the finite understanding2 the priori likelihood of evil3 not1 mind1 its eternal existence1 which is a false doctrine2 but its probable procession from the earliest created beings1 which is a true one4 ,at first sight1 nothing could appear more improbable3 nothing more inconsistent with the recognised attributes of ,god1 than that error1 pain1 and sorrow should be mingled in ,his works4 ,these1 the spontaneous offspring of ,his love1 one might 7not all wisely7 argue1 must always be good and happy--because perfect as ,himself4 ,because perfect8--,therein lies the fallacy1 which reason will at once lay bare4 ,perfection is attributable to no possible creature3 perfection argues infinity1 and infinity is one of the prerogatives of ,god4 ,however good1 very good1 a creation may be found1 still it must1 from essential finitude1 fall short of that ,best1 which is in effect the only state purely unexceptionable4 ,for instance1 no creature can be imagined of a wisdom undiminished from the single true standard1 ,god's wisdom3 in other phrase1 every creature must be more or less departed from wisdom1 that is1 verging towards folly4 ,again2 no creature can be presumed of a purity so spotless as to rank in an equality with that of the ,almighty3 in other words1 neither man1 nor angel1 nor any other creature1 can exist who is not more or less--,i will not say impure1 positively1 but--unpure negatively4 ,thus1 the birth-mark of creation must have been an inclination towards folly1 and from purity4 ,the mere idea of creatures would involve1 as its great need-be1 the qualifying clause that these emanations from perfection be imperfect2 and that these children of purity be liable to grow unpure4 ,they must either be thus natured1 or exist of the essence of ,god1 that is1 be other persons and phases of the ,deity3 such a case was possible certainly2 but1 as we have already shown1 not probable4 ,and it were possible1 that1 in consequence of some redemption such as we have spoken of1 creatures might by ingraftation into ,god become so entirely part of ,him--bone of bone1 and flesh of flesh1 and spirit of spirit--that an exhortation to such blest beings should reasonably run1 ,be ye perfect4 ,but this infinite munificence of the ,godhead in redemption was not to be found among ,his bounties as ,creator4 ,it might indeed arise afterwards1 as setting up again the fallen creature in some safe niche of ,deity3 and we now know it has arisen3 we are complete in ,him4 ,but this1 though relevant1 is a digression4 ,returning1 and to produce some further argument against all creature perfectness2 let us consider how rational it seems to prsuppose that the mighty ,maker in his boundless love should have willed to form a long chain of classes of existence more and more subordinated each to the other1 each good of its kind and happy in its way1 but yet all needfully more or less removed from the high standard of uncreate ,perfection4 ,these descending links1 these graduations downwards1 must involve a nearer or remoter approach to evil4 ,now1 we must bear in mind that ,evil is not a principle1 but a perversion3 it amounts merely to a denial1 a limitation1 a corruption of good1 not to the dignity of its abstract antagonism4 ,familiarly1 but fallaciously1 we talk of the evil principle1 the contradictory to good3 we might as well talk of the nosologic principle1 the contradictory to health2 or the darkness principle1 the contradictory to light4 ,they are contraries1 but not contradictories3 they have no positive1 but only a relative existence4 ,good and evil are verily foes1 but originally there was one cemented friendship3 slender beginnings consequent on a creation1 began to cause the breach3 the civil war arose out of a state of primitive peace3 images betray us into errors1 or ,i might add with a protest against the risk of being misinterpreted1 that like brothers turned to a deadly hate1 they nevertheless sprang not originally out of two hostile and opposite hemispheres1 but from one paternal hearth4 ,not1 however1 in any sense that ,god is the author of evil2 but that ,god's workmanship1 the finite creature1 needfully perverted good4 ,the origin of evil--that is1 its birth--is a term true and clear3 original evil--that is1 giving it no birth but an antedate to all created things1 suffering it to run parallel with ,god and good from all eternity--this is a term false and misty4 ,the probability that good would be warped1 and grow deteriorate2 that wisdom would be dwindled down into less and less wisdom1 or foolishness2 and power degenerated more and more towards imbecility2 must arise1 directly a creature should spring out of the ,creator2 and that1 let astronomy or geology name any date they will3 ,adam is a definite date2 perhaps also the first day's--or period's--work3 but the ,beginning of ,creation is undated4 ,it would then1 under this impression of the necessary defalcation of the creature from the strict straight line1 be rational to look for deviations3 it would be rational to prsuppose that ,god--just1 and good1 and pure1 and wise--should righteously be able to charge his angels with folly1 should verily declare that the heavens are not pure in his sight4 ,further2 it would be a possible chance 7which considerations soon succeeding would render even probable7 that for a wise humiliation of the reasoning creature1 and a just exaltation of the only ,source of life and light and all things1 one or more of such first created beings1 or angels1 should be suffered to fall1 possibly from the vastest height1 and at first by the slenderest beginnings1 lower and lower into folly1 impurity1 and all other derelictions from the excellence of ,god4 ,the lines1 once unparalleled1 would1 without a check1 go further apart for all eternity2 albeit1 the primal deviation arose in time4 ,the aerolite1 dropping slowly at first1 increases in swiftness as it multiplies the fathoms of descent3 and if the abyss be really bottomless1 how impossible a check or a return4 ,some such terrible example would amount to a reasonable likelihood1 if only for a lesson and a warning3 to all intelligent hierarchs1 be not high-minded1 but fear2 to all responsible beings1 keep righteousness and reverence1 and tempt not ,god2 to all the ,virtues1 ,dominations1 ,obediences1 and due ,subordinations of unknown glorious worlds1 a loud and living exhortation to exercise1 and not to let grow dim their spiritual energies1 in efforts after goodness1 wisdom1 and purity4 ,a creature state1 to be happy1 must be a progressive state3 the capability of progression argues lack1 or a tendency from good3 and progression itself needs a spur1 lest indolence relapse towards evil4 ,additionally3 we must remember that a creature's excellence before ,god is the reasonable service which he freely renders3 freedom1 dangerous prerogative1 involves choice3 and choice necessitates the possibility of error4 ,the command to a rational intelligence would be1 do this1 and live2 do it not1 and die3 if thou doest1 it is well done1 good and faithful servant2 thou hast mounted by thine own heaven-blest exertions to a higher approach towards infinite perfection2 enter thou into the joy1 not merely of a creature1 but of thy ,lord4 ,but1 if thou doest not1 it is wo to thee1 unworthy hireling2 thou hast broken the tie that bound thee to thy ,maker--obedience1 the root of happiness2 thou livest on indeed1 because the ,former of all things cancelleth not nor endeth his beginning2 but henceforth thine existence is1 as a river which earthquakes have divorced from its bed1 and instead of flowing on for ever through the fair pastures of peace and among the mountain roots of everlasting righteousness1 thy downward course is shattery1 headlong1 turbulent1 and destructive2 black-throated whirlpools here1 miasmatic marshes there1 a cataract1 a shoal1 a rapid2 until the remorseless stream1 lashing among rocks which its own riot rendered sterile1 pours its unresting waters into the thirsty sands of the ,sahara4 ,it was indeed probable 7as since we know it to be true7 that the generous ,giver of all things would in the vast majority of cases minister such secret help to ,his weaker spiritual children1 that1 far from failing of continuous obedience1 they should find it so unceasingly easier and happier that their very natures would soon come to be imbued with that pervading habit3 and that thus1 the longer any creature stood upright1 the stronger should he rest in righteousness2 until1 at no very distant period1 it should become morally impossible for him to fall4 ,such would soon be the condition of myriads1 perhaps almost the whole1 of heaven's innumerable host3 and with respect to any darker ,unit in that multitude1 for the good of all permitted to make early shipwreck of himself1 simply by leaving his intelligence to plume its wings into presumptuous flight1 and by allowing his pristine goodness or wisdom to grow rusty from non-usage until that sacred panoply were eaten into holes2 with respect to any such unhappy one1 and all others 7if others be7 who should listen to his glozing1 and make a common cause in his rebellion1 where1 ,i ask1 is any injustice1 or even unkindness done to him by ,deity8 ,where is any moral improbability that such a traitor should be2 or any just inconsistency chargeable on the attributes of ,god in consequence of such his being8 ,whom can he in reason accuse but himself for what he is8 ,and what misery can such a one complain of1 which is not the work of his own hands8 ,and lest the ,great ,offender should urge against his ,god1 why didst thou make me thus8--,is not the answer obvious1 ,i made thee1 but not thus4 ,and on the rejoinder1 ,why didst thou not keep me as thou madest me8 ,is not the reply just1 ,i made thee reasonable1 ,i led thee to the starting place1 ,i taught thee and set thee going well in the beginning2 thou art intelligent and free1 and hast capacities of ,mine own giving3 wherefore didst thou throw aside ,my grace1 and fly in the face of thy ,creator8 ,on the whole2 consider that ,i speak only of probabilities4 ,there is a depth in this abyss of thought1 which no human plummet is long enough to sound2 there is a maze in this labyrinth to be tracked by no mortal clue4 ,it involves the truth1 ,how unsearchable are his judgments3 ,thou hidest thy ways in the sea1 and thy paths in the deep waters1 and thy footsteps are not known4 ,the weak point of man's argument lies in the suggested recollection1 that doubtless the ,deity could1 if ,he would1 have upheld all the universe from falling by his gracious power2 and that the attribute of love concludes that so ,he would4 ,however1 these three brief considerations further will go some way to solve the difficulty1 and to strengthen the weak point2 first1 there are other attributes besides love to run concurrently with it1 as truth1 justice1 and unchangeableness3--,secondly1 that grace is not grace1 if manifested indiscriminately to all3 and thirdly1 that to our understanding at least there was no possible method of illustrating the amiabilities of ,goodness1 and the contrivances of ,wisdom1 but by the infused permission of some physical and moral evils3 ,mercy1 benevolence1 design1 would in a universe of best have nothing to do2 that universe itself would grow stagnant1 as incapable of progress2 and the principal record of ,god's excellences1 the book of redemption1 would have been unwritten4 ,is not then the existence of evil justified in reason's calculation8 and was not such existence an antecedent probability8 ,of these matters1 thus curtly3 it is time1 in a short recapitulation1 to reflect1 that1 from foregoing causes1 mysteries were probable around the throne of heaven3 and1 as ,i have attempted to show1 the mystery of imperfection1 a concrete not an abstract1 was likely to have sprung out of any creature universe4 ,reason perceives that a ,gordion knot was likely to have become entangled2 in the intricate complexities of abounding good to be mingled needfully with its own deficiencies1 corruptions1 and perversions3 and this having been shown by ,reason as anteriorly probable1 its difficult involvements are now since cut by the sword of conquering ,faith4 ,,cosmogony4 ,these deep themes having been descanted on1 however from their nature unsatisfactorily and with whatever human weakness1 let us now endeavour mentally to transport ourselves to a period immediately antecedent to our own world's birth4 ,we should then have been made aware that a great event was about to take place2 whereat1 from its foreseen consequences1 the hierarchies of heaven would be prompt to shout for joy1 and the holy ones of ,god to sing for gratitude4 ,it was no common case of a creation2 no merely onemore orb1 of third-rate unimportance1 amongst the million others of higher and more glorious praise3 but it was a globe and a race about to be unique in character and fate1 and in the far-spread results of their existence4 ,on it and of its family was to be contrived the scene1 wherein1 to the admiration of the universe1 ,god himself in ,person was going visibly to make head against corruption in creation1 and for ever thus to quench that possibility again3 wherein ,he was marvellously to invent and demonstrate how ,mercy and ,truth should meet together1 how ,righteousness and ,peace should kiss each other4 ,there1 was going to be set forth the wonderfully complicated battle-plan1 by which1 force countervailing force1 and design converging all things upon one fixed point1 ,good1 concrete in the creature1 should overwhelm not without strife and wounds ,evil concrete in the creature1 and all things1 even the wicked1 should be seen harmoniously blending in the glory of the attributes of ,god4 ,the mythologic ,pan1 ,greek3 to pan the great ,universal ,all1 was deeply interested in the struggle3 for the seed of the woman was to bruise the serpent's head2 not merely as respected the small orb about to be1 but concerning heaven itself1 the unbounded haysh hamaim1 wherefrom dread ,lucifer was thus to be ejected4 ,on the earth1 a mere planet of humble lustre1 which the prouder suns around might well despise1 was to be exhibited this noble and analogous result2 the triumph of a lower intelligence1 such as man1 over a higher intelligence1 such as angel3 because1 the former race1 however frail1 however weak1 were to find their nature taken into ,god1 and should have for their grand exemplar1 leader and brother1 the ,very ,lord of all arrayed in human guise2 while the latter1 the angelic fallen mass1 in spite of all their pristine wisdom and excellency1 were to set up as their captain him1 who may well and philosophically be termed their ,adversary4 ,this dark being1 probably the mightiest of all mere creatures as the embodiment of corrupted good and perversion of an archangelic wisdom1 was about to be suffered to fall victim to his own overtopping ambitions1 and to drag with him a third part of the heavenly host--some tributary monarchs of the stars3 thus he1 and those his colleagues1 should become a spectacle and a warning to all creatures else2 to stand for spirits' reading in letters of fire a deeply burnt-in record how vast a gulf there is between the ,maker and the made2 how impassable a barrier between the derived intelligence and its infinite ,creator4 ,such an unholy leader in rebellion against good--let us call him ,a or ,b1 or why not for very euphony's sake ,lucifer and ,satanas8--such a corrupted excellence of heaven was to meet his final and inevitable disgrace to all eternity on the forthcoming battle-field of earth4 ,would it not be probable then that our world1 soon to be fashioned and stocked with its teeming reasonable millions1 should concentrate to itself the gaze of the universe1 and1 from the deeds to be done in it1 should arrogate towards man a deep and fixed attention3 that the morning stars should sing together1 and all the sons of ,god should shout for joy4 ,let us too1 according to the power given to us1 partake of such attention antecedently in some detail3 albeit1 as always1 very little can be tracked of the length and breadth of our theme4 ,what would probably be the nature of such world and of such creatures1 in a physical point of view8 and what1 in a moral point of view8 ,it is not necessary to divide these questions3 for the one so bears upon the other1 or rather the latter so directs and pervades the former1 that we may briefly treat of both as one4 ,the first probability would be1 that1 as the creature ,man so to be abased and so to be exalted must be a responsible and reasonable being1 every thing--with miraculous exceptions just enough to prove the rule--every thing around him should also be responsible and reasonable4 ,in other words1 that1 with such exceptions as before alluded to1 the whole texture of this world should bear to an inquisitive intellect the stamp of cause and effect3 whilst for the mass1 such cause and effect should be so little intrusive1 that their easier religion might recognise ,god in all things immediately1 rather than mediately4 ,for instance3 take the cases of stone1 and of coal2 the one so needful for man's architecture1 the other for his culinary warmth4 ,now1 however simple piety might well thank the ,maker for having so stored earth with these for necessary uses2 they ought1 to a more learned1 though not less pious ken1 to seem not to have been created by an effort of the ,great ,father qu stone1 or qu coal4 ,such a view might satisfy the ordinary mind3 but thinkers would see no occasion for a miracle2 when ,christ raises ,lazarus from the dead1 it would have been a philosophical fault to have found the grave-clothes and swathing bandages ready loosened also4 ,unassisted man can do that3 and unhelped common causes can generate stone and coal4 ,the deposits of undated floods1 the periodical currents of lava1 the still and stagnant lake1 and the furious up-bursting earthquake2 all these would be called into play1 and not the unrequired1 ,i had almost said unreasonable1 energies1 which we call miracle4 ,an agglutination of shells1 once peopled with life2 a crystallized lump of segregate minerals1 once in a molten state2 a mass of carbonated foliage and trunks of tropical trees1 buried by long changes under the soil1 whereover they had once waved greenly luxuriant2 these1 and no other1 should have been man's stone and coal4 ,this instance affects the reasonableness of such material creation4 ,take another1 bearing upon its analogous responsibilities4 ,as there was to be warred in this world the contest between good and evil1 it would be expectable that the crust of man's earth1 anteriorly to man's existence on it1 should be marked with some traces that the evil1 though newly born so far as might regard man's own disobedience1 nevertheless had existed antecedently4 ,in other words3 it was probable that there should exist geological evidences of suffering and death3 that the gigantic ichthyosaurus should be found fixed in rock with his cruel jaws closed upon his prey3 that the fearful iguanodon should leave the tracks of having desolated a whole region of its reptile tribes3 that volcanoes should have ravaged fair continents prolific of animal and vegetable life3 that1 in fine1 though man's death came by man's sin1 yet that death and sin were none of man's creating3 he was only to draw down upon his head a prexistent wo1 an ante-toppling rock4 ,observe then1 that these geological phenomena are only illustrations of my meaning3 and whether such parables be true or false1 the argument remains the same3 we never build upon the sand of simile1 but only use it here and there for strewing on the floor4 ,still1 ,i will acknowledge that the introduction of such fossil instances appears to me wisely thrown in as affects their antecedent probability1 because ignorant comments upon scriptural cosmogony have raised the absurdest objections against the truth of scriptural science4 ,there is not a tittle of known geological fact1 which is not absolutely reconcilable with ,genesis and ,job4 ,but this is a word by the way3 although aimed not without design against one of the poor and paltry weak-holds of the infidel4 ,,adam4 ,remembering1 then1 that these are probabilities1 and that the whole treatise purports to be nothing but a sketch1 and not a finished picture1 we have suggestively thus thrown out that the material world1 man's home as man1 was likely to have been prepared1 as we posteriorly know it to be4 ,now1 what of man's own person1 circumstances1 and individuality8 ,was it likely that the world should be stocked at once with many several races1 or with one prolific seed8 with a specimen of every variety of the genus man1 or with the one generic type capable of forming those varieties8--,answer4 ,one is by far the likelier in itself1 because one thing must needs be more probable than many things3 additionally2 ,wisdom and ,power are always economical1 and where one will suit the purpose1 superfluities are rejected4 ,that this one seed1 covering with its product a various globe under all imaginable differences of circumstance and climate1 should1 in the lapse of ages1 generate many species of the genus ,man1 was antecedently probable4 ,for example1 morality1 peace and obedience would exercise transforming powers3 their opposites the like in an opposite way4 ,we can well fancy a mild and gentle race1 as the ,hindoo1 to spring from the former educationals3 and a family with flashing eyes and strongly-visaged natures1 as the ,malay1 from a state of hatred1 war1 and license4 ,we can well conceive that a tropical sun should carbonize some of that tender fabric the skin1 adding also swift blood and fierce passions3 while an arctic climate would induce a sluggish1 stunted race4 ,and1 when to these considerations we add that of promiscuous unions1 we arrive at the just likelihood that the whole family of man1 though springing from one root1 should1 in the course of generations1 be what now we see it4 ,further4 ,how should this prolific original1 the first man1 be created8 and for a name let us call him ,adam2 a justly-chosen name enough1 as alluding to his medium colour1 ruddiness4 ,should he have been cast upon the ground an infant1 utterly helpless1 requiring miraculous aid and guidance at every turn8 ,should he be originated in boyhood1 that hot and tumultuous time1 when the creature is most rash1 and least qualified for self-government8 or should he be first discerned as an adult1 in his prime1 equal alike to obedience and rule1 to moral control and moral energy8 ,add also here2 is it probable there would be any needless interval placed to prcreations8 or rather1 should not such original seed be able immediately to fulfil the blank world call upon him1 and as the greatly-teeming human father be found fitted from his birth to propagate his kind8 ,the questions answer themselves4 ,again4 ,should this first man have been discovered originally surrounded with all the appliances of an after-civilization1 clad1 and housed1 and rendered artificial8 nor rather1 in a noble and naturally royal aspect appear on the stage of life as king of the natural creation1 sole warder of a garden of fruits1 with all his food thus readily concocted1 and an eastern climate tempered to his nakedness8 ,now1 as to the solitariness of this one seed4 ,from what we have already mused respecting ,god's benevolence1 it would seem probable that the ,maker might not see it good that man should be alone4 ,the seed1 originally one1 proved 7as was likely7 to resemble its great parent1 ,god1 and to be partitionable1 or reducible into persons2 though with reasonable differences as between creature and ,creator4 ,woman--,eve1 the living or life-giving--was likely to have sprung out of the composite seed1 ,man1 in order to companionship and fit society4 ,moreover1 it were expectable that in the pattern creature1 composite man1 there should be involved some apt1 mysterious typification of the same creature1 after a fore-known fall restored1 as in its perfect state of runion with its ,maker4 ,a posteriori1 the figurative notion is1 that the ,redeemed family1 or mystical spouse1 is incorporated in her husband1 the ,redeemer3 not so much in the idea of marriage1 as 7taking election into view7 of a ccreation2 as it were rib of rib1 and life woven into life1 not copulated or conjoined1 but immingled in the being4 ,this is a mystery most worthy of deep searching2 a mystery deserving philosophic care1 not less than the more unilluminate enjoyment of humble and believing ,christians4 ,i speak concerning ,christ and his church4 ,,the ,,fall4 ,there is a special fitness in the fact1 long since known and now to be perceived probable1 that if mankind should fail in disobedience1 it should rather be through the woman than through the man4 ,because1 the man1 qu man1 and the deputed head of all inferior creatures1 was nearer to his ,creator1 than the woman2 who1 qu woman1 proceeded out of man4 ,she was1 so to speak1 one step further from ,god1 ab origine1 than man was2 therefore1 more liable to err and fall away4 ,to my own mind1 ,i confess1 it appears that nothing is more anteriorly probable than the plain1 scriptural story of ,adam and ,eve3 so simple that the child delights in it2 so deep that the philosopher lingers there with an equal1 but more reasonable joy4 ,for1 let us now come to the probabilities of a temptation2 and a fall2 and what temptation2 and how ordered4 ,the heavenly intelligences beheld the model-man and model-woman1 rational beings1 and in all points very good4 ,the ,adversary panted for the fray1 demanding some test of the obedience of this new1 favourite race4 ,and the ,lord ,god was willing that the great controversy1 which he fore-knew1 and for wise purposes allowed1 should immediately commence4 ,where was the use of a delay8 ,if you will reply1 ,to give time to strengthen ,adam's moral powers3 ,i rejoin1 he was made with more than enough of strength infused against any temptation not entering by the portal of his will3 and against the open door of will neither time nor habits can avail4 ,moreover1 the trial was to be exceedingly simple2 no difficult abstinence1 for man might freely eat of every thing but one2 no natural passion tempted2 no exertion of intelligence requisite4 ,adam lived in a garden2 and his ,maker1 for proof of reasonable obedience1 provides the most easy and obvious test of it--do not eat that apple4 ,was it1 in reality1 an improbable test2 an unsuitable one8 ,was it not1 rather1 the likeliest in itself1 and the fittest as addressed to the new-born1 rational animal1 which imagination could invent1 or an amiable fore-knowledge of all things could desire8 ,had it been to climb some arduous height without looking back1 or on no account to gaze upon the sun1 how much less apt and easy of obedience6 ,thus much for the test4 ,now1 as to the temptation and its ordering4 ,a creature1 to be tempted fairly1 must be tempted by another equal or lower creature2 and through the senses4 ,if mere spirit strives with spirit1 plus matter1 the strife is unequal3 the latter is clogged2 he has to fight in the net of ,retiarius4 ,but if both are netted1 if both are spirit plus matter1 7that is1 material creatures17 there is no unfairness4 ,therefore1 it would seem reasonable that the ,adversary in person should descend from his mere spirituality into some tangible and humbled form4 ,this could not well be man's1 nor the semblance of man's3 for the first pair would well know that they were all mankind3 and1 if the ,lord ,god himself was accustomed to be seen of them as in a glorified humanity1 it would be manifestly a moral incongruity to invest the devil in a similar form4 ,it must1 then1 be the shape of some other creature2 as a lion1 or a lamb1 or--why not a serpent8 ,is there any improbability here8 and not rather as apt an avatar of the sinuous and wily rebel1 the dangerous1 fascinating foe1 as poetry at least1 nay1 as any sterner contrivance could invent8 ,the plain fact is1 that ,reason--given keenness--might have guessed this also antecedently a likelihood4 ,a few words more on other details probable to the temptation4 ,wonderful as it may seem to us with our present experience1 in the case of the first woman it would scarcely excite her astonishment to be accosted in human phrase by one of the lower creatures2 and in no other way could the tempter reach her mind4 ,much as ,milton puts it1 ,eve sees a beautiful snake1 eating1 not improbably1 of the forbidden apple4 ,attracted by a natural curiosity1 she would draw near1 and in a soft sweet voice the serpent1 i4e4 ,lucifer in his guise1 would whisper temptation4 ,it was likely to have been keenly managed4 ,is it possible1 ,o fair and favoured mistress of this beautiful garden1 that your ,maker has debarred you from its very choicest fruit8 ,only see its potencies for good3 ,i1 a poor reptile1 am instantly thereby endued with knowledge and the privilege of speech4 ,am ,i dead for the eating8--ye shall not surely die2 but shall become as gods yourselves2 and this your ,maker knoweth4 ,the marvellous fruit1 invested thus with mystery1 and tinctured with the secret charm of a thing unreasonably1 nay1 harmfully1 forbidden1 would then be allowed silently to plead its own merits4 ,it was good for food3 a young creature's first thought4 ,it was pleasant to the eyes3 addressing a higher sense than mere bodily appetite1 than mental predilection for form and colour which marks fine breeding among men4 ,it was also to be desired to make one wise2 here was the climax1 the great moral inducement which an innocent being might well be taken with2 irrespectively of the one qualification that this wisdom was to be plucked in spite of ,god4 ,doubtless1 it were probable1 that had man not fallen1 the knowledge of good would never have been long withheld3 but he chose to reap the crop too soon1 and reaped it mixed with tares1 good1 and evil4 ,i need not enlarge1 in sermon form1 upon the theme4 ,it was probable that the weaker creature1 ,woman1 once entrapped1 she would have charms enough to snare her husband likewise3 and the results thus perceived to have been likely1 we have long since known for fact4 ,that a depraved knowledge should immediately occasion some sort of clothing to be instituted by the great moral ,governor1 was likely3 and there would be nothing near at hand1 in fact nothing else suitable1 but the skins of beasts4 ,there is also a high probability that some sort of slaying should take place instantly on the fall1 by way of reference to the coming sacrifice for sin2 and for a type of some imputed righteousness4 ,god covered ,man's evil nakedness with the skins of innocent slain animals3 even so1 ,blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven1 and whose sin is covered4 ,with respect to restoration from any such fall4 ,there seems a remarkable prior probability for it1 if we take into account the empty places in heaven1 the vacant starry thrones which sin had caused to be untenanted4 ,just as1 in after years1 ,israel entered into the cities and the gardens of the ,canaanite and other seven nations1 so it was anteriorly likely1 would the ransomed race of ,men come to be inheritors of the mansions among heavenly places1 which had been left unoccupied by the fallen host of ,lucifer4 ,there was a gap to be filled3 and probably there would be some better race to fill it4 ,,the ,,flood4 ,themes like those past and others still to come1 are so immense1 that each might fairly ask a volume for its separate elucidation4 ,a few seeds1 pregnant with thought1 are all that we have here space1 or time1 or power to drop beside the world's highway4 ,the grand outlines of our race command our first attention3 we cannot stop to think and speak of every less detail4 ,therefore1 now would ,i carry my companion across the patriarchal times at once to the era of the ,deluge4 ,let us speculate1 as hitherto1 antecedently1 throwing our minds as it were into some angelic prior state4 ,if1 as we have seen probable1 evil 7a concretion always1 not an abstraction7 made some perceptible ravages even in the unbounded sphere of a heavenly creation1 how much more rapid and overwhelming would its avalanche 7once ill-commenced7 be seen1 when the site of its infliction was a poor band of men and women prisoned on a speck of earth4 ,how likely was it that1 in the lapse of no long time1 the whole world should have been corrupt before ,god1 and filled with wickedness4 ,how probable1 that taking into account the great duration of pristine human life1 the wicked family of man should speedily have festered up into an intolerable guiltiness4 ,and was this dread result of the primal curse and disobedience to be regarded as the ,adversary's triumph8 ,had this ,accuser--the ,saxon word is ,devil--had this ,slanderer of ,god's attribute then really beaten ,good8 or was not rather all this swarming sin an awful vindication to the universe of the great need-be that ,god unceasingly must hold his creature up lest he fall1 and that out of ,him is neither strength nor wisdom8 ,was ,deity1 either in ,adam's case or this1 baffled--nor rather justified8 ,was it an experiment which had really failed2 nor rather one which1 by its very seeming failure1 proved the point in question1 the misery of creatures when separate from ,god8 ,yea1 the evil one was being beaten down beneath his very trophies in sad ,tarpeian triumph3 through conquest and his children's sins heightening his own misery4 ,let us now advert to a few of the anterior probabilities affecting this evil earth's catastrophe4 ,it is not competent to us to trench upon such ulterior views as are contained in the idea of types relatively to anti-types4 ,neither will we take the fanciful or poetical aspect of coming calamity1 that earth1 befouled with guilt1 was likely to be washed clean by water4 ,it is better to ask1 as more relevant1 in what other way more benevolent than drowning could1 short of miracle1 the race be made extinct8 ,they were all to die in their sins1 and swell in another sphere the miserable hosts of ,satan4 ,there was no hope for them1 for there was no repentance4 ,it was infinitely probable that ,god's long-suffering had worn out every reasonable effort for their restoration4 ,they were then to die2 but how8--in the least painful manner possible4 ,intestine wars1 fevers1 famines1 a general burning-up of earth and all its millions1 were any of these preferable sorts of death to that caused by the gradual rise of water1 with hope of life accorded still even to the last gurgle8 ,assuredly1 if the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel1 the judgments of the ,good one are tempered well with mercy4 ,moreover1 in the midst of this universal slaughter there was one good seed to be preserved3 and1 as ,heaven never works a miracle where common cause will suit the present purpose1 it would have been inconsistent to have extirpated the wicked by any such means as must demonstrate the good to have been saved only by super-human agency4 ,the considerations of humanity1 and of the divine less-intervention1 add that of the natural and easy agency of a long-commissioned comet4 ,no ,deus e machin was needed for this effort3 one of ,his ministers of flaming fire was charged to call forth the services of water4 ,this was an easy and majestic interference4 ,ever since man fell--yea1 ages before it--the omniscient eye of ,god had foreseen all things that should happen3 and his ubiquity had1 possibly from ,the ,beginning1 sped a comet on its errant way1 which at a calculated period was to serve to wash the globe clean of its corruptions3 was to strike the orbit of earth just in the moment of its passage1 and disturbing by attraction the fountains of the great deep1 was temporarily to raise their level4 ,was not this a just1 a sublime1 and a likely plan8 ,was it not a merciful1 a perfect1 and a worthy way8 ,who should else have buried the carcases on those fierce battle-fields1 or the mouldering heaps of pestilence and famine8--,but1 when at ,jehovah's summons1 heaving to the comet's mass1 the pure and mighty sea rises indignant from its bed1 by drowning to cleanse the foul and mighty land--how easy an engulfing of the corpses2 how awful that universal burial2 how apt their monumental epitaph written in water1 ,the wicked are like the troubled sea that cannot rest2 how dread the everlasting requiem chanted for the whelmed race by the waves roaring above them3 yea1 roaring above them still6 for in that chaotic hour it seems probable to reason that the land changed place with ocean2 thus giving the new family of man a fresh young world to live upon4 ,,noah4 ,when the world1 about to grow so wicked1 was likely thus to have been cleansed1 and so renewed1 the great experiment of man's possible righteousness was probable to be repeated in another form4 ,we may fancy some high angelic mind to have gone through some such line of thought as this1 respecting the battle and combatants4 ,were those champions1 ,lucifer and ,adam1 really fit to be matched together8 ,was the tourney just2 were the weapons equal2 was it1 after all1 a fair fight8--on one side1 the fallen spirit1 mighty still1 though fallen1 subtlest1 most unscrupulous1 most malicious1 exerting every energy to rear a rebel kingdom against ,god2 on the other1 a new-born1 inexperienced1 innocent1 and trustful creature1 a poor man vexed with appetites1 and as naked for absolute knowledge in his mind as for garments on his body4 ,was it1 in this view of the case1 an equal contest8 were the weapons of that warfare matched and measured fairly8 ,some such objection1 we may suppose1 might seem to have been admissible1 as having a show at least of reason3 and1 after the world was to have been cleansed of all its creatures in the manner ,i have mentioned1 a new champion is armed for the conflict1 totally different in every respect2 and to reason's view vastly superior4 ,this time1 the ,adam of renewed earth is to be the best and wisest1 nay1 the only good and wise one of the whole lost family3 a man1 with the experience of full six hundred years upon his hoary brow1 with the unspeakable advantage of having walked with ,god all those long-drawn centuries1 a patriarch of twenty generations1 recognised as the one great and faithful witness1 the only worshipper and friend of his ,creator4 ,could a finer sample be conceived8 was not ,noah the only spark of spiritual consolation in the midst of earth's dark death8 and was not he the best imaginable champion to stand against the wiles of the devil8 ,verily1 reason might have guessed1 that if ,deity saw fit to renew the fight at all1 the representative of man should have been ,noah4 ,before we touch upon the immediate fall of this new ,adam also1 at a time when ,god and reason had deserted him1 it will be more orderly to allude to the circumstances of his preservation in the flood4 ,how1 in such a hurlyburly of the elements1 should the chosen seed survive8 ,no house1 nor hill-top1 no ordinary ship would serve the purpose3 still less the unreasonable plan of any cavern hermetically sealed1 or any aerial chariot miraculously lifted up above the lower firmament4 ,to use plain and simple words1 ,i can fancy no wiser method than a something between a house and a diving-bell2 a vessel1 entirely storm-tight and water-tight1 which nevertheless for necessary air should have an open window at the top3 say1 one a cubit square4 ,this1 properly hooded against deluging rain1 and supplied with such helps to ventilation as leathern pipes1 air tunnels and similar appliances1 would not be an impracticable method4 ,however1 instead of being under water as a diving-bell1 the vessel would be better made to float upon the rising flood1 and thus continually keeping its level1 would be ready to strike land as the waters assuaged4 ,now1 as to the size of this ark1 this floating caravan1 it must needs be very large2 and also take a great time in building4 ,for1 suffering cause and effect to go on without a new creation1 it was reasonable to suppose that the man1 so launching as for another world on the ocean of existence1 would take with him 7especially if ,god's benevolence so ordered it7 all the known appliances of civilized life2 as well as a pair or two of every creature he could collect1 to stock withal the renewed earth according to their various excellences in their kinds4 ,the lengthy1 arduous1 and expensive preparation of this mighty ark--a vessel which must include forests of timber and consume generations in building2 besides the world-be-known collection of all manner of strange animals for the stranger fancy of a fanatical old man2 not to mention also the hoary ,preacher's own century of exortations3 with how great moral force all this living warning would be calculated to act upon the world of wickedness and doom6 ,here was the great ante-diluvian potentate1 ,noah1 a patriarch of ages1 wealthy beyond our calculations--7for how else without a needless succession of miracles could he have built and stocked the ark87--a man of enormous substance1 good report1 and exalted station1 here was he for a hundred and twenty years engaged among crowds of unbelieving workmen1 in constructing a most extravagant ship1 which1 forsooth1 filled with samples of all this world's stores1 was to sail with our only good family in search of a better4 ,moreover1 ,noah here declares that our dear old mother-earth is to be destroyed for her iniquities by rain and sea3 and he exhorts us by a solid evidence of his own faith at least1 if by nothing else1 to repent1 and turn to him1 whom ,abel1 ,seth1 and ,enoch1 as well as this good ,noah1 represent as our ,maker4 ,would not such sneers and taunts be probable3 would they not amply vindicate the coming judgment8 ,was not the long-suffering of ,god likely to have thus been tried while the ark was preparing8 and when the catastrophe should come1 had not that evil generation been duly warned against it8 ,on the whole1 it would have been ,reason's guess that ,noah should be saved as he was2 that the ark should have been as we read of it in ,genesis2 and that the very immensity of its construction should have served for a preaching to mankind4 ,as to any idea that the ark is an unreasonable 7some have even said ridiculous7 incident to the deluge1 it seems to me to have furnished a clear case of antecedent probability4 ,lastly3 ,noah's fall was very likely to have happened3 not merely in the theological view of the matter1 as an illustration of the truth that no human being can stand fast in righteousness3 but from the just consideration that he imported with him the seeds of an impure state of society1 the remembered luxuries of that old world4 ,for instance1 among the plants of earth which ,noah would have preserved for future insertion in the soil1 he could not have well forgotten the generous1 treacherous ,vine4 ,that to a righteous man1 little used to all unhallowed sources of exhilaration1 this should have been a stepping-stone to a defalcation from ,god1 was likely4 ,it was probable in itself1 and shows the honesty as well as the verisimilitude of ,scripture to read1 that ,noah began to be a husbandman1 and planted a vineyard2 and he drank of the wine1 and was drunken4 ,there was nothing here but what1 taking all things into consideration1 ,reason might have previously guessed4 ,why then withhold the easier matter of an afterward belief8 ,,babel4 ,this book ought to be read1 as mentally it is written1 with at the end of every sentence one of those et ceteras1 which the genius of a ,coke interpreted so keenly of the genius of a ,littleton3 for1 far more remains on each subject to be said1 than in any one has been attempted4 ,let us pass on to the story of ,babel3 ,i can conceive nothing more priori probable than the account we read in ,scripture4 ,briefly consider the matter4 ,a multitude of men1 possibly the then whole human family1 once more a fallen race1 emigrate towards the ,east1 and come to a vast plain in the region of ,shinar1 afterwards ,chalda4 ,fertile1 well-watered1 apt for every mundane purpose1 it yet wanted one great requisite4 ,the degenerate race put not their trust in ,god3 they did not believe but that the world might some day be again destroyed by water3 and they required a point of refuge in the possible event of a second deluge from the broken bounds of ocean and the windows of the skies4 ,they had come from the ,west2 more strictly the ,north-west1 a land of mountains1 as they deemed them1 ready-made refuges3 and their scheme1 a probable one enough1 was to construct some such mountain artificially1 so that its top might reach the clouds1 as did the summit of ,ararat4 ,this would serve the twofold purpose of outwitting any further attempt to drown them1 and of making for themselves a proud name upon the earth4 ,so1 the ,lord ,god1 in his etherealized human form 7having taken counsel with ,his own divine compeers71 coming in the guise wherein ,he was wont to walk with ,adam and with ,enoch and his other saints of men1 came down and saw the tower3 truly1 ,he needed not have come1 for ubiquity was his1 and omniscience2 but in the days when ,god and man were 7so to speak7 less chronologically divided than as now1 and while yet the trial-family was young1 it does not seem unlikely that ,he should4 ,god then1 in his aspect of the ,head of all mankind1 took notice of that dangerous and unholy combination3 and ,he made within ,his ,triune ,mind the wise resolve to break their bond of union4 ,omniscience had herein a view to ulterior consequences benevolent to man1 and ,he knew that it would be a wise thing for the future world1 as well as a discriminative check upon the race then living1 to confuse the universal language into many discordant dialects4 ,was this in any sense an improbable or improper method of making the devices of the wicked to be of none effect1 and of laughing to scorn the counsels of the mighty8 ,was it not to have been expected that a fallen race should be disallowed the combinative force necessary to a common language1 but that such force should be dissipated and diverted for moral usages into many tongues8--,there they were1 all the chiefs of men congregated to accomplish a vast1 ungodly scheme3 and interposing ,heaven to crush such insane presumption--and withal thereafter designing to bless by arranging through such means the future interchange of commerce and the enterprise of nationalities--,he1 in his ,trinity1 was not unlikely to have said1 ,let us go down1 and confound their language4 ,what better mode could have been devised to scatter mankind1 and so to people the extremities of earth8 ,in order that the various dialects should crystallize apart1 each in its discriminative lump1 the nucleus of a nation2 that thereafter the world might be able no longer to unite as one man against its ,lord1 but by conflicting interests1 the product of conflicting languages1 might give to good a better chance of not being altogether overwhelmed2 that1 though many a multitude might go to do evil1 it should not thenceforward be the whole consenting family of man2 but that1 here by one and there by one1 the remembrance of ,god should be kept extant1 and evil no longer acquire an accumulated force1 by having all the world one nation4 ,,job4 ,every scriptural incident and every scriptural worthy deserves its own particular discussion3 and might easily obtain it4 ,for example2 the anterior probability that human life in patriarchal times should have been very much prolonged1 was obvious2 from consideration of--#a1 the benevolence of ,god2 #b1 the inexperience of man2 and #c1 the claim so young a world would hold upon each of its inhabitants3 whilst ,holy ,writ itself has prepared an answer to the probable objection1 that the years were lunar years1 or months2 by recording that ,arphaxad and ,salah and ,eber and ,peleg and ,reu and ,serug and ,nahor1 descendants of ,shem1 each had children at the average age of two-and-thirty1 and yet the lives of all varied in duration from a hundred and fifty years to five hundred4 ,and many similar credibilities might be alluded to3 what shall ,i say of ,abraham's sacrifice1 of ,moses and the burning bush1 of ,jonah also1 and ,elisha1 and of the prophets8 for the time would fail me to tell how probable and simple in each instance is its deep and marvellous history4 ,there is food for philosophic thought in every page of ancient ,jewish ,scripture scarcely less than in those of primitive ,christianity3 here1 after our fashion1 we have only touched upon a sample4 ,the opening scene to the book of ,job has vexed the faith of many very needlessly3 to my mind1 nothing was more likely to have literally and really happened4 ,it is one of those few places where we get an insight into what is going on elsewhere3 it is a lifting off the curtain of eternity for once1 revealing the magnificent simplicities constantly presented in the halls of heaven4 ,and ,i am moved to speak about it here1 because ,i think a plain statement of its sublime probabilities will be acceptable to many3 especially if they have been harassed by the doubts of learned men respecting the authorship of that rare history4 ,it signifies nothing who recorded the circumstances and conversations1 so long as they were true1 and really happened3 given power1 opportunity1 and honesty1 a life of ,dr4 ,johnson would be just as fair in fact1 if written by ,smollett1 as by ,boswell1 or himself4 ,whether then ,job1 the wealthy prince of ,uz1 or ,abraham1 or ,moses1 or ,elisha1 or ,eliphaz1 or whoever else1 have placed the words on record1 there they stand1 true2 and the whole book in all its points was anteriorly likely to have been decreed a component part of revelation4 ,without it1 there would have been wanting some evidence of a godly worship among men through the long and dreary interval of several hundred years3 there would never have been given for man's help the example of a fortitude1 and patience1 and trust in ,god most brilliant2 of a faith in the resurrection and redeemer1 signal and definite beyond all other texts in ,jewish ,scripture3 as well as of a human knowledge of ,god in his works beyond all modern instance4 ,however1 the excellences of that narrative are scarcely our theme3 we return to the starting-post of its probability1 especially with reference to its supernatural commencement4 ,what we have shown credible1 many pages back1 respecting good and evil and the denizens of heaven1 finds a remarkable after-proof in the two first chapters of ,job2 and for some such reason1 by reference1 these two chapters were themselves anteriorly to have been expected4 ,let us see what happened3 ,there was a day when the sons of ,god came to present themselves before the ,lord1 and ,satan came also among them4 ,and the ,lord said unto ,satan1 whence comest thou8 ,then ,satan answered the ,lord1 and said1 ,from going to and fro in the earth1 and from walking up and down in it4 ,and the ,lord said unto ,satan1 ,hast thou considered my servant ,job1 that there is none like him in the earth1 a perfect and an upright man1 one that feareth ,god and escheweth evil8 ,then ,satan answered the ,lord1 and said1 ,doth ,job fear ,god for naught8 ,hast thou not made a hedge about him1 and about his house1 and about all that he hath on every side8 ,thou hast blessed the work of his hands1 and his substance is increased in the land4 ,but put forth thine hand now1 and touch all he hath1 and he will curse thee to thy face4 ,and the ,lord said unto ,satan1 ,behold1 all that he hath is in thy power2 only upon himself put not forth thine hand4 ,so ,satan went forth from the presence of the ,lord4--,job #a4 #f-ac4 ,it is a most stately drama3 any paraphrase would spoil its dignity1 its quiet truth1 its unpretending1 yet gigantic lineaments4 ,note3 in allusion to our views of evil1 that ,satan also comes among the sons of ,god3 note1 the generous dependence placed by a generous ,master on his servant well-upheld by that ,master's own free grace3 note1 ,satan's constant imputation against piety when blessed of ,god with worldly wealth1 ,doth he serve for naught8 ,i can discern no cause wherefore all this scene should not have truly happened2 not as in vision of some holy man1 but as in fact4 ,let us read on1 before further comment3 ,again1 there was a day when the sons of ,god came to present themselves before the ,lord1 and ,satan came also among them to present himself before the ,lord4 ,and the ,lord said unto ,satan1 ,whence comest thou8 ,and ,satan answered the ,lord1 and said1 ,from going to and fro in the earth1 and from walking up and down in it4 ,and the ,lord said unto ,satan1 ,hast thou considered my servant ,job1 that there is none like him in the earth1 a perfect and an upright man1 one that feareth ,god and escheweth evil8 and still he holdeth fast his integrity1 although thou movedst me against him1 to destroy him without cause4 ,and ,satan answered the ,lord1 and said1 ,skin for skin1 yea1 all that a man hath will he give for his life4 ,but put forth thine hand now1 and touch his bone and his flesh1 and he will curse thee to thy face4 ,and the ,lord said unto ,satan1 ,behold1 he is in thine hand2 but save his life4 ,so ,satan went forth from the presence of the ,lord1 and smote ,job with sore boils1 from the sole of his foot unto his crown4 ,some such scene1 displaying the devil's malice1 slandering sneers1 and permitted power1 recommends itself to my mind as antecedently to have been looked for3 in order that we might know from what quarter many of life's evils come2 with what aims and ends they are directed2 what limits are opposed to our foe2 and ,who is on our side4 ,we needed some such insight into the heavenly places2 some such hint of what is continually going on before the ,lord's tribunal2 we wanted this plain and simple setting forth of good and evil in personal encounter1 of innocence awhile given up to malice for its chastening and its triumph4 ,lo1 all this so probable scene is here laid open to us1 and many1 against reason1 disbelieve it6 ,note1 in allusion to our after-theme1 the locus of heaven1 that there is some such usual place of periodical gathering4 ,note1 the open unchiding loveliness dwelling in the ,good ,one's words1 as contrasted with the subtle1 slanderous hatred of the ,evil4 ,and then the vulgar proverb1 ,skin for skin3 this pious ,job is so intensely selfish1 that let him lose what he may1 he heeds it not2 he cares for nothing out of his own skin4 ,and there are many more such notabilities4 ,why did ,i produce these passages at length8 ,for their ,doric simplicity2 for their plain and masculine features2 for their obvious truthfulness2 for their manifest probability as to fact1 and expectability previously to it4 ,why on earth should they be doubted in their literal sense8 and were they not more likely to have happened than to have been invented8 ,we have no such geniuses now as this writer must have been1 who by the pure force of imagination could have created that tableau4 ,milton had ,job to go to4 ,simplicity is proof presumptive in favour of the plain inspiration of such passages3 for the plastic mind which could conceive so just a sketch1 would never have rested satisfied1 without having painted and adorned it picturesquely4 ,such rare flights of fancy are always made the most of4 ,one or two thoughts respecting ,job's trial4 ,that he should at last give way1 was only probable3 he was1 in short1 another ,adam1 and had another fall2 albeit he wrestled nobly4 ,worthy was he to be named among ,god's chosen three1 ,noah1 ,daniel1 and ,job3 and worthy that the ,lord should bless his latter end4 ,this word brings me to the point ,i wish to touch on2 the great compensation which ,god gave to ,job4 ,children can never be regarded as other than individualities3 and notwithstanding ,eastern feelings about increase in quantity1 its quality is1 after all1 the question for the heart4 ,i mean that many children to be born1 is but an inadequate return for many children dying4 ,if a father loses a well-beloved son1 it is small recompense of that aching void that he gets another4 ,for this reason of the affections1 and because ,i suppose that thinkers have sympathized with me in the difficulty1 ,i wish to say a word about ,job's children1 lost and found4 ,it will clear away what is to some minds a moral and affectionate objection4 ,now1 this is the state of the case4 ,the patriarch is introduced to us as possessing so many camels1 and oxen1 and so forth2 and ten children4 ,all these are represented to him by witnesses1 to all appearance credible1 as dead2 and he mourns for his great loss accordingly4 ,would not a merchant feel to all intents and purposes a ruined man1 if he received a clear intelligence from different parts of the world at once that all his ships and warehouses had been destroyed by hurricanes and fire8 ,faith given1 patience follows3 and the trial is morally the same1 whether the news be true or false4 ,remarkably enough1 after the calamitous time is past1 when the good man of ,uz is discerned as rewarded by heaven for his patience by the double of every thing once lost--his children remain the same in number1 ten4 ,it seems to me quite possible that neither camels1 c41 nor children1 really had been killed4 ,satan might have meant it so1 and schemed it2 and the singly-coming messengers believed it all1 as also did the well-enduring ,job4 ,but the scriptural word does not go to say that these things happened2 but that certain emissaries said they happened4 ,i think the devil missed his mark3 that the messengers were scared by some abortive diabolic efforts2 and that1 7with a natural increase of camels1 c41 meanwhile17 the patriarch's paternal heart was more than compensated at the last1 by the restoration of his own dear children4 ,they were dead1 and are alive again2 they were lost1 and are found4 ,like ,abraham returning from ,mount ,calvary with ,isaac1 it was the ,resurrection in a figure4 ,if to this view objection is made1 that1 because the boils of ,job were real1 therefore1 similarly real must be all his other evils2 ,i reply1 that in the one temptation1 the suffering was to be mental2 in the other1 bodily4 ,in the latter case1 positive1 personal pain1 was the gist of the matter3 in the former1 the heart might be pierced1 and the mind be overwhelmed1 without the necessity of any such incurable affliction as children's deaths amount to4 ,god's mercy may well have allowed the evil one to overreach himself2 and when the restoration came1 how double was the joy of ,job over those ten dear children4 ,again1 if any one will urge that1 in the common view of the case1 ,job at the last really has twice as many children as before1 for that he has ten old ones in heaven1 and ten new ones on earth3 ,i must1 in answer1 think that explanation as unsatisfactory to us1 as the verity of it would have been to ,job4 ,affection1 human affection1 is not so numerically nor vicariously consoled3 and it is1 perhaps1 worth while here to have thrown out 7what ,i suppose to be7 a new view of the case1 if only to rescue such wealth as children from the infidel's sneer of being confounded with such wealth as camels4 ,moreover1 such a paternal reward was anteriorly more probable4 ,,joshua4 ,how many of our superficial thinkers have been staggered at the great miracle recorded of ,joshua2 and how few1 even of the deeper sort1 comparatively1 may have discerned its aptness1 its science1 and its anterior likelihood3 ,sun6 stand thou still upon ,gibeon2 and thou1 moon1 in the valley of ,ajalon4 ,now1 consider1 for we hope to vindicate even this stupendous event from the charge of improbability4 ,baal and ,ashtaroth1 chief idols of the ,canaanites1 were names for sun and moon4 ,it would manifestly be the object of ,god and ,his ambassador to cast utter scorn on such idolatry4 ,and what could be more apt than that ,joshua1 commissioned to extirpate the corrupted race1 should miraculously be enabled1 as it were1 to bind their own gods to aid in the destruction of such votaries8 ,again3 what should ,joshua want with the moon for daylight1 to help him to rout the foes of ,god more fiercely8 ,why not1 according to the astronomical ignorance of those days1 let her sail away1 unconsorted by the sun1 far beyond the valley of ,ajalon8 ,there was a reason1 here1 of secret1 unobtruded science3 if the sun stopped1 the moon must stop too2 that is to say1 both apparently3 the fact being that the earth must1 for the while1 rest on its axis4 ,this1 ,i say1 is a latent1 scientific hint2 and so1 likewise1 is the accompanying mention as a fact1 that the ,lord immediately rained great stones out of heaven upon the flying host4 ,for would it not be the case that1 if the diurnal rotation of earth were suddenly to stop1 the impetus of motion would avail to raise high into the air by centrifugal force1 and fling down again by gravity1 such unanchored things as fragments of rock8 ,once more3 our objector will here perhaps inquire1 ,why not then command the earth to stop--and not the sun and moon8 if thus probably ,joshua or his ,inspirer knew better8 ,answer4 ,only let a reasonable man consider what would have been the moral lesson both to ,israelite and to ,canaanite1 if the great successor of ,moses had called out1 incomprehensibly to all1 ,earth1 stand thou still on thine axis2--and lo6 as if in utter defiance of such presumption1 and to vindicate openly the heathen gods against the ,jewish1 the very sun and moon in heaven stopped1 and glared on the offender4 ,i question whether such a noon-day miracle might not have perverted to idolatry the whole believing host3 and almost reasonably too4 ,the strictly philosophical terms would have entirely nullified the whole moral influence4 ,god in his word never suffers science to hinder the progress of truth3 a worldly philosophy does this almost in every instance1 darkening knowledge with a cloud of words3 but the science of the ,bible is usually concealed in some neighbouring hint quite handy to the record of the phenomena expressed in ordinary language4 ,in fact1 for all common purposes1 no astronomer finds fault with such phrases as the moon rising1 or the sun setting3 he speaks according to the appearance1 though he knows perfectly well that the earth is the cause of it1 and not the sun or moon4 ,carry this out in ,joshua's case4 ,on the whole1 the miracle was very plain1 very comprehensible1 and very probable4 ,it had good cause3 for ,canaan felt more confidence in the protection of his great and glorious ,baal1 than stiff-necked ,judah in his barely-seen divinity3 and surely it was wise to vindicate the true but invisible ,god by the humiliation of the false and far-seen idol4 ,this would constitute to all nations the quickly-rumoured proof that ,jehovah of the ,israelites was ,god in heaven above as well as on the earth beneath4 ,and1 considering the peculiar idolatries of ,canaan1 it seems to me that no miracle could have been better placed and better timed--in other words1 anteriorly more probable--than the command of obedience to the sun and to the moon4 ,i suppose that few persons who read this book will be unaware1 that the circumstance is alluded to as well in that honest heathen1 old ,herodotus1 as in the learned ,jew ,josephus4 ,the volumes are not near me for reference to quotations3 but such is fact3 it will be found in ,herodotus1 about the middle of ,euterpe1 connected with an allusion to the analogous case of ,hezekiah4 ,no miracles1 on the whole 7to take one after-view of the matter71 could have been better tested3 for two armies 7not to mention all surrounding countries7 must have seen it plainly and clearly3 if then it had never occurred1 what a very needless exposure of the falsity of the ,jewish ,scriptures6 ,these were open1 published writings1 accessible to all3 ,cyrus and ,darius and ,alexander read them1 and ,ethiopian eunuchs2 ,parthians1 ,medes1 and ,elamites1 with all other nations of the earth1 had free access to those records4 ,only imagine if some recent history of ,england1 ,adolphus's1 or ,stebbing's1 contained an account of a certain day in ,george the ,fourth's reign having had twenty-four hour's daylight instead of the usual admixture2 could the intolerable falsehood last a minute8 ,such a placard would be torn away from the records of the land the moment a rash hand had fixed it there4 ,but1 if the matter were fact1 how could any historian neglect it8--,in one sense1 the very improbability of such a marvel being recorded1 argues the probability of it having actually occurred4 ,much more might here be added3 but our errand is accomplished1 if any stumbling-block had been thus easily removed from some erring thinker's path4 ,surely1 we have given him some reason for faith's due acceptance of ,joshua's miracle4 ,,the ,,incarnation4 ,in touching some of the probabilities of our blessed ,lord's career1 it would be difficult to introduce and illustrate the subject better1 than by the following anecdote4 ,whence it is derived1 has escaped my memory2 but ,i have a floating notion that it is told of ,socrates in ,xenophon or ,plato4 ,at any rate1 by way of giving fixity thereto and picturesqueness1 let us here report the story as of the ,athenian ,solomon3 ,surrounded by his pupils1 the great heathen ,reasoner was being questioned and answering questions3 in particular respecting the probability that the universal ,god would be revealed to his creatures4 ,what a glorious ,king would he appear6 said one1 possibly the brilliant ,alcibiades3 ,what a form of surpassing beauty6 said another1 not unlikely the softer ,crito4 ,not so1 my children1 answered ,socrates4 ,kings and the beautiful are few1 and the ,god1 if he came on earth as an exemplar1 would in shape and station be like the greater number4 ,indeed1 ,master8 then how should he fail of being made a ,king of men1 for his goodness1 and his majesty1 and wisdom8 ,alas6 my children1 was pure ,reason's just rejoinder1 ,greek3 oi pleiones kakoi1 most men are so wicked that they would hate his purity1 despise his wisdom1 and as for his majesty1 they could not truly see it4 ,they might indeed admire for a time1 but thereafter 7if the ,god allowed it71 they would even hunt and persecute and kill him4 ,kill him6 exclaimed the eager group of listeners2 kill ,him8 how should they1 how could they1 how dare they kill ,god8 ,i did not say1 kill ,god1 would have been wise ,socrates's reply1 for ,god existeth ever3 but men in enmity and envy might even be allowed to kill that human form wherein ,god walked for an ensample4 ,that they could1 were ,god's humility3 that they should1 were their own malice3 that they dared1 were their own grievous sin and peril of destruction4 ,yea1 went on the keen-eyed sage1 men would slay him by some disgraceful death1 some lingering1 open1 and cruel death1 even such as the death of slaves6--,now slaves1 when convicted of capital crime1 were always crucified4 ,whatever be thought of the genuineness of the anecdote1 its uses are the same to us4 ,reason might have arrived at the salient points of ,christ's career1 and at ,his crucifixion6 ,i will add another topic3 ,how should the ,god on earth arrive there8 ,we have shown that ,his form would probably be such as man's2 but was he to descend bodily from the atmosphere at the age of full-grown perfection1 or to rise up out of the ground with earthquakes and fire1 or to appear on a sudden in the midst of the market-place1 or to come with legions of his heavenly host to visit his ,temple8 ,there was a wiser way than these1 more reasonable1 probable1 and useful4 ,man required an exemplar for every stage of his existence up to the perfection of his frame4 ,the infant1 and the child1 and the youth1 would all desire the human-,god to understand their eras2 they would all1 if generous and such as he would love1 long to feel that ,he has sympathy with them in every early trial1 as in every later grief4 ,moreover1 the ,god coming down with supernatural glories or terrors would be a needless expense of ostentatious power4 ,he1 whose advent is intended for the encouragement of men to exercise their reason and their conscience2 whose exhortation is he that hath ears to hear1 let him hear2 that pure ,being1 who is the chief preacher of ,humility1 and the great teacher of man's responsible condition--surely1 he would hardly come in any way astoundingly miraculous1 addressing his advent not to faith1 but to sight1 and challenging the impossibility of unbelief by a galaxy of spiritual wonders4 ,yet1 if ,he is to come at all--and a word or two of this hereafter--it must be either in some such strange way2 or in the usual human way2 or in a just admixture of both4 ,as the first is needlessly overwhelming to the responsible state of man1 so the second is needlessly derogatory to the pure essence of ,god2 and the third idea would seem to be most probable4 ,let us guess it out4 ,why should not this highest ,object of faith and this lowest ,subject of obedience be born1 seemingly by human means1 but really by divine8 ,why should there not be found some unspotted holy virgin1 betrothed to a just man and soon to be his wife1 who1 by the creative power of ,divinity1 should miraculously conceive the shape divine1 which ,god himself resolved to dwell in8 ,why should she not come of a lineage and family which for centuries before had held such expectation8 ,why should not the just man1 her affianced1 who had never known her yet1 being warned of ,god in a dream of this strange1 immaculate conception1 fear not to take unto him ,mary his wife1 lest the unbelieving world should breathe slander on her purity1 albeit he should really know her not until after the ,holy ,birth4 ,there is nothing unreasonable here2 every step is previously credible3 and invention's self would be puzzled to devise a better scheme4 ,the ,virgin-born would thus be a link between ,god and man1 the great ,mediator3 his natures would fulfil every condition required of their double and their intimate conjunction4 ,he would have arrived at humanity without its gross beginnings1 and have veiled his ,godhead for a while in a pure though mortal tenement4 ,he would have participated in all the tenderness of woman's nature1 and thus have reached the keenest sensibilities of men4 ,themes such as these are inexhaustible3 and ,i am perpetually conscious of so much left unsaid1 that at every section ,i seem to have said next to nothing4 ,nevertheless1 let it go2 the good seed yet shall germinate4 ,cast thy bread upon the waters1 and thou shall find it after many days4 ,it may to some minds be a desideratum1 to allude to the anterior probability that ,god should come in the flesh4 ,much of this has been anticipated under the head of ,visible ,deity and elsewhere2 as this treatise is so short1 one may reasonably expect every reader to take it in regular course4 ,for additional considerations3 the ,benevolent ,maker would hardly leave his creatures to perish1 without one word of warning or one gleam of knowledge4 ,the question of the ,bible is considered further on3 but exclusively of written rules and dogmas1 it was likely that ,our ,father should commission chosen servants of his own1 orally to teach and admonish2 because it would be in accordance with man's reasonable nature1 that he should best and easiest learn from the teaching his brethren4 ,so then1 after all lesser ambassadors had failed1 it was to be expected that ,he should send the highest one of all1 saying1 ,they will reverence my ,son4 ,we know that this really did occur by innumerable proofs1 and wonderful signs posterior3 and now1 after the event1 we discern it to have been anteriorly probable4 ,it was also probable in another light4 ,this world is a world of incarnations2 nothing has a real and potential existence1 which is not embodied in some form4 ,a theory is nothing2 if no personal philosopher1 no sect1 or school of learners1 takes it up4 ,an opinion is mere air2 without the multitude to give it all the force of a mighty wind4 ,an idea is mere spiritual light2 if unclad in deeds1 or in words written or spoken4 ,so1 also1 of the ,godhead3 ,he would be like all these4 ,he would pervade words spoken1 as by prophets or preachers3 ,he would include words written1 as in the ,bible3 ,he would influence crowds with spirit-stirring sentiments3 ,he would embody the theory of all things in one simple1 philosophic form4 ,as this material world is constituted1 ,god could not reveal himself at all1 excepting by the aid of matter4 ,i mean2 even granting that ,he spiritually inspired a prophet1 still the man was necessary3 he becomes an inspired man2 not mere inspiration4 ,so1 also1 of a book2 which is the written labour of inspired men4 ,there is no doing without the ,humanity of ,god1 so far as this world is concerned1 any more than ,his ,deity can be dispensed with1 regarding the worlds beyond worlds1 and the ages of ages1 and the dread for ever and ever4 ,,mahometanism4 ,it seems expedient that1 in one or two instances1 ,i should attempt the illustration of this rule of probability in matters beyond the ,bible4 ,as very fair ones1 take ,mahometanism and ,romanism4 ,and first of the former4 ,at the commencement of the seventh century1 or a little previously to that era1 we know that a fierce religion sprang up1 promulgated by a false prophet4 ,i wish briefly to show that this was antecedently to have been expected4 ,in a moral point of view1 the ,christian world1 torn by all manner of schisms1 and polluted by all sorts of heresies1 had earned for the human race1 whether accepting the gospel or refusing it1 some signal and extensive punishment at the hands of ,him1 who is the ,great ,retributor as well as the ,munificent ,rewarder4 ,in a physical point of view1 the civilized kingdoms of the earth had become stagnant1 arguing that corrupt and poisonous calm which is the herald of a coming tempest4 ,the heat of a true religion had cooled down into lukewarm disputations about nothings1 scholastical and casuistic figments2 whilst at the same time the prevalence of peaceful doctrines had amalgamated all classes into a luxurious indolence4 ,passionate ,man is not to be so satisfied2 and the time was fully come for the rise of some fierce spirit1 who should change the tinsel theology of the crucifix for the iron religion of the sword3 who should blow in the ears of the slumbering ,west the shrill war-blast of ,eastern fervencies2 who should exchange the dull rewards of canonization due to penance1 or an after-life voluntary humiliation under pseudo-saints and angels1 for the human and comprehensible joys of animal appetite and military glory3 who should enlist under his banner all the frantic zeal1 all the pent-up licentiousness1 all the heart-burning hatreds of mankind1 stifled either by a positive barbarism1 or the incense-laden cloud of a scarcely-masked idolatry4 ,thus1 and then1 was likely to arise a bold and self-confiding hero1 leaning on his own sword3 a man of dark sentences1 who1 by judiciously pilfering from this quarter and from that shreds of truth to jewel his black vestments of error1 and by openly proclaiming that ,oneness of the object of all worship which besotted ,christendom had then1 from undue reverence to saints and martyrs1 virgins and archangels1 well nigh forgotten2 a man who1 by pandering to human passions and setting wide as virtue's avenue the flower-tricked gates of vice2 should thus1 like ,lucifer before him1 in a comet-like career of victory1 sweep the startled firmament of earth1 and drag to his erratic orbit the stars of heaven from their courses4 ,mahomet2 his humble beginnings2 his iron perseverance under early probable checks2 his blind1 yet not all unsublime1 dependence on fatality2 his ruthless1 yet not all undeserved1 infliction of fire and sword upon the cowering coward race that filled the western world2--these1 and all whatever else besides attended his train of triumphs1 and all whatever besides has lasted among ,moors1 and ,arabs1 and ,turks1 and ,asiatics1 even to this our day--constitute to a thinking mind 7and it seems not without cause7 another antecedent probability4 ,let the scoffer about ,mahomet's success1 and the admirer of his hotchpot ,koran2 let him to whom it is a stumbling-block that error 7if indeed1 quoth he1 it be more erroneous than what ,christendom counts truth7 should have had such free course and been glorified1 while so-called ,truth1 pede claudo1 has limped on even as now cautiously and ingloriously through the well-suspicious world2 let him who thinks he sees in ,mahomet's success an answer to the foolish argument of some1 who test the truth of ,christianity by its ,gentile triumphs2 let him ponder these things4 ,reason1 the ,god of his idolatry1 might1 with an archangel's ken1 have prophesied some ,mahomet's career3 and1 so far from such being in the nature of any objection to ,faith1 the idea thus thrown out1 well-mused upon1 will be seen to lend ,faith an aid in the way of previous likelihood4 ,there is one ,god1 and ,mahomet is his prophet6 ,how admirably calculated such a war-cry would be for the circumstances of the seventh century4 ,the simple sublimity of ,oneness1 as opposed to school-theology and catholic demons3 the glitter of barbaric pomp1 instead of tame observances3 the flashing scimetar of ambition to supersede the cross3 a turban aigretted with jewels for the twisted wreath of thorns4 ,as human nature is1 and especially in that time was1 nothing was more expectable 7even if prophetic records had not taught it71 than the rise and progress of that great ,false ,prophet1 whose waving crescent even now blights the third part of earth4 ,,romanism4 ,we all know how easy it is to prophesy after the event3 but it would be uncandid and untrue to confound this remark with another1 cousin-germane to it2 to wit3 how easy it is to discern of any event1 after it has happened1 whether or not it were antecedently likely4 ,when the race is over1 and the best horse has won 7or by clever jockey-management1 the worst71 how obviously could any gentleman on the turf1 now in possession of particulars1 have seen the event to have been so probable1 that he would have staked all upon its issue4 ,carry out this familiar idea2 which1 as human nature goes1 is none the weaker as to illustration1 because it is built upon the rule parvis componere magna4 ,let us sketch a line or two of that great fore-shadowing cartoon1 the probabilities of ,romanism4 ,that our blessed ,master1 even in ,his state as man1 beheld its evil characteristics looming on the future1 seems likely not alone from both ,his human keenness and ,his divine omniscience1 but from here and there a hint dropped in his biography4 ,why should ,he1 on several occasions1 have seemed1 ,i will say with some apparent sharpness1 to have rebuked ,his virgin mother4--,woman1 what have ,i to do with thee8--,who are my mother and my brethren8--,yea--,more blessed than the womb which bare me1 and the paps that ,i have sucked1 is the humblest of my true disciples4 ,let no one misunderstand me3 full well ,i know the just explanations which palliate such passages2 and the love stronger than death which beat in that ,filial heart4 ,but1 take the phrases as they stand2 and do they not in reason constitute some warning and some prophecy that men should idolize the mother8 ,nothing1 in fact1 was more likely than that a just human reverence to the most favoured among women should have increased into her admiring worship3 until the humble and holy ,mary1 with the sword of human anguish at her heart1 should become exaggerated and idealized into ,mother of ,god--instead of ,jesus's human matrix1 ,queen of heaven1 instead of a ransomed soul herself1 the joy of angels--in lieu of their lowly fellow-worshipper1 and the ,rapture of the blessed--thus dethroning the ,almighty4 ,take a second instance3 why should ,peter1 the most loving1 most generous1 most devoted of them all1 have been singled out from among the twelve--with a ,get thee behind me1 ,satan8--it really had a harsh appearance2 if it were not that1 prophetically speaking1 and not personally1 he was set in the same category with ,judas1 the one who was a devil4 ,i know the glosses1 and the contexts1 and the whole amount of it4 ,folios have been written1 and may be written again1 to disprove the text2 but the more words1 the less sense3 it stands1 a record graven in the ,rock2 that same ,petra1 whereon1 as firm and faithful found1 our ,lord ,jesus built his early ,church3 it stands1 a mark indelibly burnt into that hand1 to whom were intrusted1 not more specially than to any other of the saintly sent1 the keys of the kingdom of heaven3 it stands1 along with the same ,peter's deep and terrible apostacy1 a living witness against some future ,church1 who should set up this same ,peter as the ,jupiter of their ,pantheon3 who should positively be idolizing now an image christened ,peter1 which did duty two thousand years ago as a statue of ,libyan ,jove6 ,but even this glaring compromise was a matter probable1 with the data of human ambitions1 and a rotten ,christianity4 ,examples such as these might well be multiplied3 bear with a word or two more1 remembering always that the half is not said which might be said in proof2 nor in answering the heap of frivolous objections4 ,why1 unless relics and pseudo-sacred clothes were to be prophetically humbled into their own mere dust and nothing-worthiness1 why should the rude ,roman soldiery have been suffered to cast lots for that vestment1 which1 if ever spiritual holiness could have been infused into mere matter1 must indeed have remained a relic worthy of undoubted worship8 ,it was warm with the ,animal heat of the ,man inhabited by ,god3 it was half worn out in the service of ,his humble travels1 and had even1 on many occasions1 been the road by which virtue had gone out2 not of it1 but of ,him4 ,what6 was this wonderful robe to work no miracles8 was it not to be regarded as a sort of outpost of the being who was ,human-,god8 ,had it no essential sacredness1 no noli-me-tangere quality of shining away the gambler's covetous glance1 of withering his rude and venturous hand1 or of poisoning1 like some ,nessus' shirt1 the lewd ruffian who might soon thereafter wear it8 ,not in the least4 ,this woven web1 to which a corrupted state of feeling on religion would have raised cathedrals as its palaces1 with singing men and singing women1 and singing eunuchs too1 to celebrate its virtues2 this coarse cloth of some poor weaver's1 working down by the sea of ,galilee or in some lane of ,zion1 was still to remain1 and be a mere unglorified1 economical1 useful garment4 ,far from testifying to its own internal mightiness1 it probably was soon sold by the fortunate ,roman die-thrower to a second-hand shop of the ,jewish metropolis2 and so descended from beggar to beggar till it was clean worn out4 ,we never hear that1 however easy of access so inestimable relic might then have been considered1 any one of the numerous disciples1 in the fervour of their earliest zeal1 threw away one thought for its redemption4 ,is it not strange that no ,st4 ,helena was at hand to conserve such a desirable invention8 ,why is there no ,st4 ,vestment to keep in countenance a ,st4 ,sepulchre and a ,st4 ,cross8 ,the poor cloth1 in primitive times1 really was despised4 ,we know well enough what happened afterwards about handkerchiefs imbued with miraculous properties from holy ,paul's body for the nonce3 but this is an inferior question1 and the matter was temporary2 the superior case is proved1 and besides the rule omne majus continet in se minus there are differences quite intelligible between the cases1 whereabout our time would be less profitably employed than in passing on and leaving them unquestioned4 ,suffice it to say1 that ,god worked those special miracles1 and not the unconscious handkerchiefs or aprons4 ,te ,deum laudamus6 is ,protestantism's cry2 ,sudaria laudemus6 would swell the ,papal choirs4 ,let such considerations as these then are in sample serve to show how evidently one might prove from anterior circumstances1 7and the canon of ,scripture is an anterior circumstance17 the probability of the rise and progress of the ,roman heresies4 ,and if any one should ask1 how was such a system more likely to arise under a ,gentile rather than a ,jewish theocracy8 why was a ,st4 ,paul1 or a ,st4 ,peter1 or a ,st4 ,dunstan1 or a ,st4 ,gengulphus1 more previously expectable than a ,st4 ,abraham1 a ,st4 ,david1 a ,st4 ,elisha1 or a ,st4 ,gehazi8 ,i answer1 from the idea of idolatry1 so adapted to the ,gentile mind1 and so abhorrent from the ,jewish4 ,martyred ,abel1 however well respected1 has never reached the honours of a niche beside the altar4 ,jephtha's daughter1 for all her mourned virginity1 was never paraded1 7that ,i wot of17 for any other than a much-to-be-lamented damsel4 ,who ever asked1 in those old times1 the mediation of ,st4 ,enoch8 ,where were the offerings1 in jewels or in gold1 to propitiate that undoubted man of ,god and denizen of heaven1 ,st4 ,moses8 what prows1 in wax1 of vessels saved from shipwreck1 hung about the dripping fane of ,jonah8 and where was1 in the olden time1 that wretched and insensate being1 calling himself rational and godly1 who had ventured to solicit the good services of ,isaiah as his intercessor1 or to plead the merits of ,st4 ,ezekiel as the make-weight for his sins8 ,it was just this1 and reasonably to have been expected2 for when the ,jew brought in his religion1 he demolished every false god1 broke their images1 slew their priests1 and burnt their groves with fire4 ,but1 when a worldly ,christianity came to be in vogue1 when emperors adorned their banners with the cross1 and the poor fishermen of ,galilee1 7in their portly representatives17 came to be encrusted with gems1 and rustling with seric silk2 then was made that fatal compromise2 then it was likely to have been made1 which has lasted even until now3 a compromise which1 newly baptizing the damned idols of the heathen1 keeps yet ,st4 ,bacchus and ,st4 ,venus1 ,st4 ,mars and ,st4 ,apollo1 perched in sobered robes upon the so-called ,christian altar2 which yet pays divine honours to an ancyle or a rusty nail2 to the black stones at ,delphi1 or the gold-shrined bones at ,aix2 which yet sanctifies the chickens of the capitol1 or the cock that startled ,peter2 which yet lets a wealthy sinner1 by his gold1 bribe the winking ,pythoness1 or buy dispensing clauses from the ,lord our ,god1 the ,pope4 ,there is yet a swarm of other notions pressing on the mind1 which tend to prove that ,popery might have been anticipated4 ,take this view4 ,the religion of ,christ is holy1 self-denying2 not of this world's praise1 and ending with the terrible sanction of eternity for good or evil3 it sets up ,god alone supreme1 and cuts down creature-merit to a point perpetually diminishing2 for the longer he does well1 the more he owes to the grace which enabled him to do it4 ,now1 man's nature is1 as we know1 diametrically opposite to all this3 and unable to escape from the conviction of ,christian truth in some sense1 he would bend his shrewd invention to the attempt of warping that stern truth to shapes more consistent with his idiosyncrasies4 ,a religious plan might be expected1 which1 in lieu of a difficult1 holy spirituality1 should exact easy1 mere observances2 to say a thousand ,paters with the tongue1 instead of one ,our ,father1 from the heart2 to exact genuflections by the score1 but not a single prostration of the spirit2 to write the cross in water on the forehead often-times1 but never once to bear its mystic weight upon the shoulder4 ,in spite of self-denial1 cleverly kept in sight by means of eggs1 and pulse1 and hair-cloth1 to pamper the deluded flesh with many a carnal holiday2 in contravention of a kingdom not of this world1 boldly to usurp the temporal dominion of it all3 instead of the overwhelming incomprehensibility of an eternal doom1 to comfort the worst with false assurance of a purgatory longer or shorter2 that after all1 vice may be burnt out2 and who knows but that gold1 buying up the prayers and superfluous righteousness of others1 may not make the fiery ordeal an easy one8 ,in lieu of a ,god brought near to his creatures1 infinite purity in contact with the grossest sin1 as the good ,physician loveth2 how sage it seemed to stock the immeasurable distance with intermediate numia1 cycle on epicycle1 arc on arc1 priest and bishop and pope1 and martyr1 and virgin1 and saint1 and angel1 all in their stations1 at due interval soliciting ,god to be 7as if ,his blessed ,majesty were not so of ,himself67 the sinner's friend4 ,how comfortable this to man's sweet estimation of his own petty penances2 how glorifying to those filthy rags1 his so-called righteousness3 how apt to build up the hierarchist power2 how seemingly analogous with man's experience here1 where clerks lay the case before commissioners1 and commissioners before the government1 and the government before the sovereign4 ,all this was entirely expectable3 and ,i can conceive that a deep ,reasoner among the first apostles1 even without such supernal light as the ,spirit speaking expressly1 might have so calculated on the probabilities to come1 as to have written1 long ago1 words akin to these3 ,in the latter times some shall depart from the faith1 giving heed to seductive doctrines1 and fanciful notions about intermediate deities1 7,greek3 daimonin17 perverting truth by hypocritical departures from it1 searing conscience against its own cravings after spiritual holiness1 forbidding marriage1 7to invent another virtue17 and commanding abstinence from ,god's good gifts1 as a means of building up a creature-merit by voluntary humiliation4 ,at the likelihood that such profane and old wives' fables should thereafter have arisen1 might ,paul without a miracle have possibly arrived4 ,yet again3 take another view4 ,the ,religion of ,christ1 though intended to be universal in some better era of this groaning earth1 was1 until that era cometh1 meant and contrived for any thing rather than a ,catholicity4 ,true1 the ,church is so far ,catholic that it numbers of its blessed company men of every clime and every age1 from righteous ,abel down to the last dear babe christened yester-morning2 true1 the commission is to all nations1 teaching them3 but1 what mean the simultaneous and easily reconciled expressions--come out from among them1 little flock1 gathered out of the ,gentiles1 a peculiar people1 a church militant1 and not triumphant1 here on earth8 ,thus shortly of a word much misinterpreted3 let us now see what the ,romanist does1 what1 7on human principles17 he would be probable to do1 with this discriminating religion4 ,he1 chiefly for temporal gains1 would make it as expansive as possible3 there should be room at that table for every guest1 whether wedding-garmented or not2 there would be sauces in that poisonous feast1 fitted to every palate4 ,for the cold1 ascetical mind1 a cell and a scourge1 and a record kept of starving fancies as calling them ecstatic visions vouchsafed by some old ,stylite to bless his favoured worshipper2 for the painted demirep of fashionable life1 there would be a pretty pocket-idol1 and the snug confessional well tenanted by a not unsympathizing father2 for the pure girl1 blighted in her heart's first love1 the papist would afford that seemingly merciful refuge1 that calm and musical and gentle place1 the irrevocable nunnery2 a place1 for all its calmness1 and its music1 and its gentle reputations1 soon to be abhorred of that poor child as a living tomb1 the extinguisher of all life's aims1 all its duties1 uses and delights3 for the bandit1 a tythe of the traveller's gold would avail to pay away the murder1 and earn for him a heap of merits kept within the cash-box3 the educated1 high-born and finely-moulded mind might be well amused with architecture1 painting1 carving1 sweet odours1 and the most wondrous music that has ever cheated man1 even while he offers up his easy adorations1 and departs1 equally complacent at the choral remedies as at the priestly absolution2 while1 for those good few1 the truly pious and enlightened children of ,rome1 who mourn the corruptions of their church1 and explain away1 with trembling tongue1 her obvious errors and idolatries1 for these the wily scheme1 so probable1 devised an undoubted mass of truth to be left among the rubbish4 ,true doctrines1 justly held by true martyrs and true saints1 holy men of ,god who have died in that communion2 ordinances and an existence which creep up1 7heedless of corruption though17 step by step1 through past antiquity1 to the very feet of the ,founder2 keen casuists1 competent to prove any point of conscience or objection1 and that indisputably1 for they climax all by the high authority of ,popes and councils that cannot be deceived3 pious treatises and manuals1 verily of flaming heat1 for they mingle the yearnings of a constrained celibacy with the fervencies of worship and the cravings after ,god4 ,yes1 there is meat here for every human mouth2 only that1 alas for men6 the meat is that which perisheth1 and not endureth unto everlasting life4 ,rome1 thou wert sagely schemed2 and if ,lucifer devised thee not for the various appetencies of poor1 deceivable1 ,catholic ,man1 verily it were pity1 for thou art worthy of his handiwork4 ,all things to all men1 in any sense but the right1 signifies nothing to anybody3 in the sense of falsehoods1 take the former for thy motto2 in that of single truth1 in its intensity1 the latter4 ,let not then the accident--the probable accident--of the ,italian superstition place any hindrance in the way of one whose mind is all at sea because of its existence4 ,what1 ,o man with a soul1 is all the world else to thee8 ,christianity1 whatever be its broad way of pretences1 is but in reality a narrow path3 be satisfied with the day of small things1 stagger not at the inconsistencies1 conflicting words1 and hateful strifes of those who say they are ,christians1 but are not1 but are of the synagogue of ,satan4 ,judge truth1 neither by her foes nor by her friends but by herself4 ,there was one who said 7and ,i never heard that any writer1 from ,julian to ,hobbes1 ever disputed his human truth or wisdom7 ,needs must that offences come2 but wo be to that man by whom the offence cometh4 ,if they come1 be not shaken in faith3 lo1 ,i have told you before4 ,and if others fall away1 or do ought else than my bidding1 what is that to thee8 follow thou ,,me4 ,,the ,,bible4 ,whilst ,i attempt to show1 as now ,i desire to do1 that the ,bible should be just the book it is1 from considerations of anterior probability1 ,i must expand the subject a little2 dividing it1 first1 into the likelihood of a revelation at all2 and secondly1 into that of its expectable form and character4 ,the first likelihood has its birth in the just ,benevolence of our heavenly ,father1 who without dispute never leaves his rational creatures unaided by some sort of guiding light1 some manifestation of himself so needful to their happiness1 some sure word of consolation in sorrow1 or of brighter hope in persecution4 ,that it must have been thus an priori probability1 has been all along proved by the innumerable pretences of the kind so constant up and down the world3 no nation ever existed in any age or country1 whose seers and wise men of whatever name have not been believed to hold commerce with the ,godhead4 ,we may judge from this1 how probable it must ever have been held4 ,the ,sages of old ,greece were sure of it from reason3 and not less sure from accepted superstition those who reverenced the ,brahmin1 or the priest of ,heliopolis1 or the medicine-man among the ,rocky ,mountains1 or the ,llama of old ,mexico4 ,i know that our ignorance of some among the most brutalized species of mankind1 as the ,bushmen in ,caffraria1 and the tribes of ,new ,south ,wales1 has failed to find among their rites any thing akin to religion3 but what may we not yet have to learn of good even about such poor outcasts8 how shall we prove this negative8 ,for aught we know1 their superstitions at the heart may be as deep and as deceitful as in others2 and1 even on the contrary side1 the exception proves the rule3 the rule that every people concluded a revelation so likely1 that they have one and all contrived it for themselves4 ,thus shortly of the first3 and now1 secondly1 how should ,god reveal himself to men8 ,in such times as those when the world was yet young1 and the ,church concentrated in a family or an individual1 it would probably be by an immediate oral teaching2 the ,lord would speak with ,adam2 ,he would walk with ,enoch2 ,he would1 in some pure ethereal garb1 talk with ,abraham1 as friend to friend4 ,and thereafter1 as men grew1 and worshippers were multiplied1 ,he would give some favoured servant a commission to be ,his ambassador3 ,he would say to an ,ezekiel1 ,go unto the house of ,israel1 and speak my words to them3 ,he would bid a ,jeremiah ,take thee a roll of a book1 and write therein all the words that ,i have spoken to thee3 ,he would give ,daniel a deep vision1 not to be interpreted for ages1 ,shut up the words1 and seal the book even to the time of the end3 ,he would make ,moses grave ,his precepts in the rock1 and ,job record his trials with a pen of iron4 ,for a family1 the ,beatic ,vision was enough3 for a congregated nation1 as once at ,sinai1 oral proclamations3 for one generation or two around the world1 the zeal and eloquence of some great multitude of preachers3 but1 indubitably1 if ,god willed to bless the universal race1 and drop the honey of his words distilling down the hour-glass of ,time from generation to generation even to the latter days1 there was no plan more probable1 none more feasible1 than the pen of a ready writer4 ,further3 and which concerns our argument3 what were likely to be the characteristic marks of such a revelation8 ,exclusively of a pervading holiness1 and wisdom1 and sublimity1 which could not be dispensed with1 and in some sort should be worthy of the ,god2 there would be1 it was probable1 frequent evidences of man's infirmity1 corrupting all he toucheth4 ,the ,almighty works no miracles for little cause3 one miracle alone need be current throughout ,scripture3 to wit1 that which preserves it clean and safe from every perilous error4 ,but1 in the succession of a thousand scribes each copying from the other1 needs must that the tired hand and misty eye would occasionally misplace a letter3 this was no nodus worthy of a ,god's descent to dissipate by miracle4 ,again3 the original prophets themselves were men of various characters and times and tribes4 ,god addresses men through their reason2 he bound not down a seer with bit and bridle1 like the horse that has no understanding--but spoke as to a rational being--,what seest thou8 ,hear my words2--,give ear unto my speech4 ,was it not then likely that the previous mode of thought and providential education in each holy man of ,god should mingle irresistibly with his inspired teaching8 ,should not the herdsman of ,tehoa plead in pastoral phrase1 and the royal son of ,amoz denounce with strong authority8 ,should not ,david whilst a shepherd praise ,god among his flocks1 and when a king1 cry ,give the ,king thy judgments8 ,the ,bible is full of this human individuality2 and nothing could be thought as humanly more probable3 but we must1 with this diversity1 connect the other probability also1 that which should show the work to be divine2 which would prove 7as is literally the case7 that1 in spite of all such natural variety1 all such unbiassed freedom both of thought and speech1 there pervades the whole mass a oneness1 a marvellous consistency1 which would be likely to have been designed by ,god1 though little to have been dreamt by man4 ,once more on this full topic4 ,difficulties in ,scripture were expectable for many reasons2 ,i can only touch a few4 ,man is rational as he is responsible3 ,god speaks to his mind and moral powers3 and the mind rejoices1 and moralities grow strong in conquest of the difficult and search for the mysterious4 ,the muscles of the spiritual athlete pant for such exertion2 and without it1 they would dwindle into trepid imbecility4 ,curious man1 courageous man1 enterprising1 shrewd1 and vigourous man1 yet has a constant enemy to dread in his own indolence3 now1 a lion in the path will wake up ,sloth himself3 and the very difficulties of religion engender perseverance4 ,additionally3 ,i think there is somewhat in the consideration1 that1 if all revealed truth had been utterly simple and easy1 it would have needed no human interpreter2 no enlightened class of men1 who1 according to the spirit of their times1 and the occasions of their teaching1 might in season and out of season preach the word1 reprove1 rebuke1 exhort1 with all long-suffering and doctrine4 ,i think there existed an anterior probability that ,scripture should be as it is1 often-times difficult1 obscure1 and requiring the aid of many wise to its elucidation2 because1 without such characteristic1 those many wise and good would never have been called for4 ,suppose all truth revealed as clearly and indisputably to the meanest intellect as a sum in addition is1 where were the need or use of that noble ,christian company who are every where man's almoners for charity1 and ,god's ambassadors for peace8 ,a word or two more1 and ,i have done4 ,the ,bible would1 as it seems to me probable1 be a sort of double book2 for the righteous1 and for the wicked3 to one class1 a decoy1 baited to allure all sorts of generous dispositions3 to the other1 a trap1 set to catch all kinds of evil inclinations4 ,in these two senses1 it would address the whole family man3 and every one should find in it something to his liking4 ,purity should there perceive green pastures and still waters1 and a tender ,shepherd for its innocent steps3 and carnal appetite should here and there discover some darker spot1 which the honesty of heaven had filled with memories of its chiefest servants' sins2 some record of adultery or murder wherewith to feast his maw for condemnation4 ,while the good man should find in it meat divine for every earthly need1 the sneerer should proclaim it the very easiest manual for his jests and lewd profanities4 ,the unlettered should not lack humble1 nay vulgar1 images and words1 to keep himself in countenance3 neither should the learned look in vain for reasonings2 the poet for sublimities2 the curious mind for mystery2 nor the sorrowing heart for prayer4 ,i do discern1 in that great book1 a wondrous adaptability to minds of every calibre3 and it is just what might antecedently have been expected of a volume writ by many men at many different eras1 yet all superintended by one master mind2 of a volume meant for every age1 and nation1 and country1 and tongue1 and people2 of a volume which1 as a two-edged sword1 wounds the good man's heart with deep conviction1 and cuts down the hoary head of him who goeth on still in his wickedness4 ,on the whole1 respecting faults1 or incongruities1 or objectionable parts in ,scripture1 however to have been expected1 we must recollect that the more they are viewed1 the more the blemishes fade1 and are altered into beauties4 ,a little child had picked up an old stone1 defaced with time-stains3 the child said the stone was dirty1 covered with blotches and all colours3 but his father brings a microscope1 and shows to his astonished glance that what the child thought dirt1 is a forest of beautiful lichens1 fruited mosses1 and strange lilliputian plants with shapely animalcules hiding in the leaves1 and rejoicing in their tiny shadow4 ,every blemish1 justly seen1 had turned to be a beauty3 and ,nature's works are vindicated good1 even as the ,word of ,grace is wise4 ,,heaven ,,and ,,hell4 ,probably enough1 the light which ,i expect to throw upon this important subject will1 upon a cursory criticism1 be judged fanciful1 erroneous1 and absurd2 in parts1 quite open to ridicule1 and in all liable to the objection of being wise1 or foolish1 beyond what is written4 ,nevertheless1 and as it seems to me of no small consequence to reach something more definite on the subject than the ,anywhere or ,nowhere of common apprehensions1 ,i judge it not amiss to put out a few thoughts1 fancies1 if you will1 but not unreasonable fancies1 on the localities and other characteristics of what we call heaven and hell3 in fact1 ,i wish to show their probable realities with somewhat approaching to distinctness4 ,it is manifest that these places must be somewhere2 for1 more especially of the blest estate1 whither did ,enoch1 and ,elijah1 and our risen ,lord ascend to8 what became of these glorified humanities when the chariot of fire carried up ,elijah by a whirlwind into heaven2 and when ,,he was taken up1 and a cloud received him8 ,those happy mortals did not waste away to intangible spiritualities1 as they rose above the world2 their bodies were not melted as they broke the bonds of gravitation1 and pierced earth's swathing atmosphere3 they went up somewhither2 the question is where they went to4 ,it is a question of great interest to us2 however1 among those matters which are rather curious than consequential2 for in our own case1 as we know1 we that are redeemed are to be caught up1 together with other blessed creatures1 in the clouds1 to meet our coming ,saviour in the air1 and thereafter to be ever with the ,lord4 ,i wish to show this to be expected as in our case1 and expectable previously to it4 ,we have1 in the book of ,job1 a peep at some place of congregation3 some one1 as it is likely1 of the mighty globes in space1 set apart as ,god's especial temple4 ,why not8 they all are worlds2 and the likelihood being in favour of overbalancing good1 rather than of preponderating evil from considerations that affect ,god's attributes and the happiness of his creatures1 it is probable that the great majority of these worlds are unfallen mansions of the blessed4 ,perhaps each will be a kingdom for one of earth's redeemed1 and if so1 there will at last be found fulfilled that prevailing superstition of our race1 that each man has his star3 without insisting upon this1 we may reflect that there is no one universal opinion which has not its foundation in truth4 ,tradition may well have dropped the thought from ,adam downwards1 that the stars may some day be our thrones4 ,we know their several vastness1 and can guess their glory3 verily a mighty meed for miserable services on earth1 to find a just ambition gladdened with the rule of spheres1 to which ,terra is a point2 while that same ambition is sanctified and legalized by ruling as vicegerent of ,jehovah4 ,is this unlikely1 or unworthy of our high vocation1 our immortality1 and nearness unto1 nay communion with ,god8 ,the idea is only suggested3 let a man muse at midnight1 and look up at the heavens hanging over all2 let him see1 with ,rosse and ,herschell1 that1 multiply power as you will1 unexhausted still and inexhaustible appear the myriads of worlds unknown4 ,yea1 there is space enow for infinite reward2 yea1 let every grain of sand on every shore be gathered1 and more innumerable yet appear that galaxy of spheres4 ,let us think that night looks down upon us here1 with the million eyes of heaven4 ,and for some focus of them all1 some spot where ,god himself enthroned receives the homage of all crowns1 and the worship of all creature service1 what is there unreasonable in suggesting for a place some such an one as is instanced below8 ,i have just cut the following paragraph out of a newspaper3 ,is this the ridiculous tripping up the sublime8 ,i think otherwise3 it is honest to use plain terms4 ,i speak as unto wise men--judge ye what ,i say4 ,with respect to the fact of information1 it may or it may not be true2 but even if untrue1 the idea is substantially the same1 and ,i cannot help supposing that with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven1 such bodily saints as ,enoch is1 7and similar to him all risen1 holy men will be17 meet for happy sabbaths in some glorious orb akin or superior to the following3 ,a ,,central ,,sun4--,dr4 ,madier1 the ,professor of ,astronomy at ,dorpat1 has published the results of the researches pursued by him uninterruptedly during the last sixty years1 upon the movements of the so-called fixed stars4 ,these more particularly relate to the star ,alcyone1 7discovered by him17 the brightest of the seven bright stars of the group of the ,pleiades4 ,this star he states to be the central sun of all the systems of stars known to us4 ,he gives its distance from the boundaries of our system at thirty-four million times the distance of the sun from our earth1 a distance which it takes five hundred and thirty-seven years for light to traverse4 ,our sun takes one hundred and eighty-two million years to accomplish its course round this central body1 whose mass is one hundred and seventeen million times larger than the sun4 ,one hundred and seventeen million times larger than the ,sun6 itself1 for all its vastness1 not more than half one million times bigger than this earth4 ,to some such globe we may let our fancies float1 and anchor there our yearnings after heaven4 ,it is a glorious thought1 such as imagination loves2 and a probable thought1 that commends itself to reason4 ,behold the great eye of all our guessed creation1 the focus of its brightness1 and the fountain of its peace4 ,a topic far less pleasant1 but alike of interest to us poor men1 is the probable home of evil2 and here ,i may be laughed at--laugh1 but listen1 and if1 listening1 some reason meets thine ear1 laugh at least no longer4 ,we know that1 for spirit's misery as for spirit's happiness1 there is no need of place3 no matter where1 for ,i am still the same1 said one most miserable being4 ,more--in the case of mere spirits1 there is no need for any apparatus of torments1 or fires1 or other fearful things4 ,but1 when spirit is married to matter1 the case is altered2 needs must a place to prison the matter1 and a corporal punishment to vex it4 ,nothing is unlikely here2 excepting--will a man urge8--the dread duration of such hell4 ,this is a parenthesis2 but it shall not be avoided1 for the import of that question is deep1 and should be answered clearly4 ,a man1 a body and soul inmixt1 body risen incorruptible1 and soul rested from its deeds1 must exist for ever4 ,i touch not here the proofs--assume it4 ,now1 if he lives for ever1 and deliberately chooses evil1 his will consenting as well as his infirmity1 and conscience seared by persisted disobedience1 what course can such a wilful1 rational1 responsible being pursue than one perpetually erratic8 ,how should it not be that he gets worse and worse in morals1 and more and more miserable in fact8 and when to this we add1 that such wretched creatures are to herd together1 continually flying further away from the only source of ,happiness and ,good2 and to this1 that they have earned by sin1 remorses and regrets1 and positive inflictions2 how probable seems a hell1 the sinner's doom eternal4 ,the apt mathematical analogy of lines thrown out of parallel1 helps this for illustration3 for ever and for ever they are stretching more remote1 and infinity itself cannot runite their travel4 ,this1 then1 as a passing word2 a sad one4 ,honest thinker1 do not scorn it1 for thine own soul's sake4 ,now is the time of grace1 now is the day of salvation4 ,to return4 ,a place of punishment exists2 to what quarter shall we look for its anterior probability8 ,i think there is a likelihood very near us4 ,there may be one1 possibly1 beneath us1 in the bowels of this fiery-bursting earth2 whither went ,korah and his company8 ,this idea is not without its arguments1 just analogies1 and scriptural hints4 ,but my judgment inclines towards another4 ,this trial-world1 we know1 is to be purified and restored1 and made a new earth3 it was even to be expected that ,redemption should do this1 and ,i like not to imagine it the crust and case of hell1 but rather1 as thus3 ,at the birth of this same world1 there was struck off from its burning mass at a tangent1 a mournful satellite1 to be the home of its immortal evil2 the convict shore for exiled sin and misery2 a satellite of strange differences1 as guessed by ,virgil in his musings upon ,tartarus1 where half the orb is1 from natural necessities1 blistered up by constant heats1 the other half frozen by perennial cold4 ,a land of caverns1 and volcanoes1 miles deep1 miles high2 with no water1 no perceptible air3 imagine such a dreadful world1 with neither air nor water6 incapable of feeding life like ours1 but competent to be a place where undying wretchedness may struggle for ever4 ,a melancholy orb1 the queen of night1 chief nucleus of all the dark idolatries of earth2 the ,moon1 ,isis1 ,hecate1 ,ashtaroth1 ,diana of the ,ephesians6 ,this expression of a thought by no means improbable1 gives an easy chance to shallow punsters2 but ridicule is no weapon against reason4 ,why should not the case be so8 ,why should not ,earth's own satellite1 void1 as yet1 be on the resurrection of all flesh1 the raft whereon to float away ,earth's evil8 ,read of it astronomically2 think of it as connected with idols2 regard it as the ruler of earth's night2 consider that the place of a ,gehenna must be somewhere2 and what is there in my fancy quite improbable8 ,i do not dogmatize as that the fact is so1 but only suggest a definite place at least as likely as any other hitherto suggested4 ,think how that awful1 melancholy eye looks down on deeds of darkness how many midnight crimes1 murders1 thefts1 adulteries1 and witchcrafts1 that would have shrunk into nonentity from open1 honest day1 have paled the conscious ,moon6 ,add to all this1 it is the only world1 besides our own1 whereof astronomers can tell us1 ,it is fallen4 ,,an ,,offer4 ,nothing were easier than to have made this book a long one2 but that was not the writer's object3 as well because of the musty ,greek proverb about long books2 which in every time and country are sure never to be read through by one in a thousand2 as because it is always wiser to suggest than to exhaust a topic2 which may be as a fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind whose seed is in itself4 ,the writer then intended only to touch upon a few salient points1 and not to discuss every question1 however they might crowd upon his mind3 time and space alike with mental capabilities forbade an effort so gigantic3 added to which1 such a course seemed to be unnecessary1 as the rule of probability1 thus illustrated1 might be applied by others in every similar instance4 ,still1 as the errand of this book is usefulness1 and its author's hope is1 under ,heaven1 to do good1 one personal hint shall here be thrown upon the highway4 ,without arrogating to myself the wisdom or the knowledge to solve one in twenty of the doubts possible to be propounded2 without also designing even to attempt such solutions1 unless well assured of the genuine anxiety of the doubter2 and preliminarizing the consideration1 that a fitting diffidence in the advocate's own powers is no reason why he should not make wide efforts in his holy cause2 that1 such reasonable essays to do good have no sort of brotherhood with a fanatical ,spiritual ,quixotism2 and that1 to my own apprehensions1 the doubts of a rationalizing mind are in the nature of honourable foes1 to be treated with delicacy1 reverence1 and kindness1 rather than with a cold distance and an ill-concealed contempt2 preliminarizing1 lastly1 the thought--,who is sufficient for these things8--,i nevertheless thus offer1 according to the grace and power given to me1 my best but humble efforts so far to dissipate the doubts of some respecting any scriptural fact1 as may lie within the province of showing or attempting to show its previous credibility4 ,this is not a challenge to the curious casuist or the sneering infidel2 but an invitation to the honest mind harassed by unanswered queries3 no gauntlet thrown down1 but a brother's hand stretched out4 ,such questions1 if put to the writer1 through his publisher by letter1 may find their reply in a future edition3 supposing1 that is to say1 that they deserve an answer1 whether as regards their own merits or the temper of the mind who doubts2 and supposing also that the writer has the power and means to answer them discreetly4 ,it is only a fair rule of philanthropy 7and that without arrogating any unusual strength7 to bear the infirmities of the weak1 and not to please ourselves3 and nothing would to me give greater happiness than to be able1 as ,i am willing1 to remove any difficulties lying in the track of ,faith before a generous mind4 ,i hang out no glistening holly-bush a-flame with its ostentatious berries as promising good wine2 but rather over my portal is the humbler and hospitable mistletoe1 assuring every wearied pilgrim in the way1 that though scanty be the fare1 he shall find a hearty welcome4 ,,conclusion4 ,i have thus endeavoured 7with solicited help of ,heaven7 to place before the world anew a few old truths3 truths inestimably precious4 ,remember1 they cannot have lost by any such advocacy as is contained in the idea of their being shown antecedently probable2 for this idea affects not at all the fact of their existence2 the thing is2 whether probable or not2 there is1 in esse1 an ornithorhyncus2 its posse is drowned in esse3 there exists no doubt of it3 evidence1 whether of senses physical1 or of considerations moral1 puts the circumstance beyond the sphere of disputation4 ,but such truths as we have spoken of do1 nevertheless1 gain something as to--not their merits1 these are all their own substantially2 nor their positive proofs1 these are adjectives properly attendant on them1 but as to--their acceptability among the incredulous of men2 they gain1 ,i say1 even by such poor pleading as mine1 from being shown anteriorly probable4 ,take an illustration in the case of that strange and anomalous creature mentioned just above4 ,its habitat is in a land where plums grow with the stones outside1 where aboriginal dogs have never been heard to bark1 where birds are found covered with hair1 and where mammals jump about like frogs6 ,if these are shown to be literal facts1 the mind is thereby well prepared for any animal monstrosity3 and it staggers not in unbelief 7on evidence of honest travellers7 even when informed of a creature with a duck's bill and a beaver's body3 it really amounted in ,australia to an antecedent probability4 ,carry this out to matters not a quarter so incredible1 ye thinkers1 ye free-thinkers2 neither be abashed at being named as thinking freely3 were not those ,bereans more noble in that they searched to see8 ,for my humble part1 ,i do commend you for it3 treacherous is the hand that roots up the inalienable right of private judgment2 the foundation-stone of ,protestantism1 the great prerogative of reason1 the key-note of conscience1 the sole vindex of a man's responsibility3 evil and false is the so-called reverential wisdom which lays down in place of the truth that each man's conscience is a law unto himself1 the tyranny of other men's authority4 ,cheap and easy and perilled is the faith1 which clings to the skirt of others2 which leans upon the broken staff of priestcraft1 until those poisoned splinters pierce the hand4 ,prove all things2 holding fast that which is good3 good to thine own reasonable conscience1 if unwarped by casuistries1 and unblinded by licentiousness4 ,prove all things1 if you can1 from the egg to the apple3 he is a poor builder of his creed1 who takes one brick on credit4 ,be able1 as you can be1 7if only you are willing so far to be wisely inconsistent1 as to bend the stubborn knee betimes1 and though with feeble glance to look to heaven1 and though with stammering tongue to pray for aid17 be able1 as it is thy right1 ,o man of ,god--to give a ,reason for the faith that is in thee4 ,,the ,,end4