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make a law intrinsically of no importance, and then suffer a throne of wickedness, a power or principality of darkness, the devil or any of his angels, to frame mischief from it; to contrive to have it broken, only to bring thereby labour and sorrow, sin, misery, and death, upon men? Can we think that God, having made a rank of creatures, of a lower degree of light and understanding, but such, that if not tempted by some other, they would have persevered in their obedience to him, and been happy, would permit a wicked spirit, of higher abilities than they, to attack these creatures in a way, wherein, without his permission, he could not have had access to them, and thereby beguile and ensnare them into ruin? Should we not rather think it more reasonable, that if God gave our first parents such a law as has been mentioned, and if being left to themselves, they would not have swerved from it, he should

dwelling-places to all generations, and they call their lands after their own names-&c. In like manner; as the power of God and of Satan in the affairs of the world appears to have been a subject not unthought of, in, and before, David's times, (see Job i. & ii. 2 Sam. xxiv. compared with 1 Chron. xxi, above cited ;) I cannot determine, whether the throne of iniquity, mentioned by the Psalmist, and what is said of it, had a view only to wicked earthly rulers, as the commentators seem to take it, or might be designed to explode false doctrines of a higher nature, concerning the two principles, which some very early sages supposed to have each its share of power over the world: πρεσβυτερες είναι των Αιγυπλίων, καὶ δυο κατ' αυτες ειναι ̓Αρχας, ἀγαθον δαίμονα καὶ κακον δαίμονα. Laert. ubi sup.

not have permitted any agent to have herein perverted them? The objection has in it a variety, that ought to be considered in several parts, if we would fully and truly answer it.

СНАР. Х.

The objection last stated, considered and refuted.

THE objection above stated, will, I think, require us to consider,

1. Whether it can be reasonable that our first parents should be permitted to be tempted, by any being of a superior intelligence above themselves, in any manner whatsoever: but if we determine this in the negative, how greatly may we err, not seeing sufficiently into the creation of God.

He, who through vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe;
Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets, and what other suns,
What varied being peoples ev'ry star,

May tell why heav'n made all things as they are.
But of this frame, the bearings and the ties,
The strong connexions, nice dependancies;

POPE.

The knowledge of them may not lie within our reach; and we may therefore determine very wrong concerning

much of what we can only partially consider in forming

our judgment.

Respecting man, whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to`all.

POPE.

The circle of our own agency, wonderfully operating over and by the powers of the creatures beneath us, though, in all they do, they have an intention of their own, distinct from us, may reasonably argue to us, that,

When the proud steed shall know why man restrains
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;
Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend
His action's, passion's, being's, use and end:
Why doing, suff'ring, check'd, impell'd-

POPE.

An analogy to one another runs through the powers of all intelligences in creation. The universe is but one whole in the hand of God; we are not independent principals, unconnected with others. Rather, the various spheres of action of all the innumerable orders of intelligent spirits, that exist among the works of the supreme God, are to have, under his direction and controul, their line, their weight and measure, to affect and be affected by one another. And the event resulting from all, is to afford a true judgment of all; when all the evil, which may hence have come in, shall have had its course, and be cast out; and the sum of all be found the greatest possible good, upon the whole, to the Creator's glory.

In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;

In God's, one single can its end produce,
Yet serves to second too some other use:
So man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps, acts second to some sphere unknown;
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal,
"Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

POPE.

We in no wise see the scene of the demerit of apostate spirits; nor how far it may be requisite they should be permitted to fill up their own measure, within just and wise limitations, (and in such we find the tempter of Eve greatly restrained,) to answer the great ends of the infinite and eternal Providence. Sin, indeed, and death, have thereby come into our present state; and death must reign upon all, until the state we are in be accomplished; but let us

Wait the great teacher, Death, POPE.

and we shall, in time, be able

To look thro' nature up to nature's God;

Pursue the chain, which links th' immense design,

Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine. POPE.

We shall then see, beyond what we are now able to con ceive, that, whatever hath befallen us, all will display a most amazing height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the wisdom, and power, and goodness, and glory of Him, who will hence bring those, who shall be meet to be partakers of it, through the one man, whom he hath ordained, Jesus Christ, to the kingdom prepared

a

for man from the foundation of the world; and the wicked, whether they have been men or angels, shall go to their own place.

II. But it may be said; "What if it were fit, and might answer a great end, that an intelligent evil spirit, higher than they, should be permitted to tempt our first parents? Is there not a natural impropriety in supposing that the particular access of such a spirit to them hath been as Moses describes, and that the temptation hath been of that sort which he records? To suppose that an intellectual spirit, not visible to our first parents, should speak to them, not in a voice that might have been thought his own, but by the tongue of a serpent seen by them; and this to persuade them to do a thing in itself neither good nor evil, to eat of the fruit of a tree, only because God had forbidden them to eat of it; is there any thing, that appears natural in this procedure? Has it the colour of a rational endeavour to bring moral evil into the world? If our adversary, the devil, had been permitted, as he is a spirit, to have had a spiritual access to the minds of our first parents, to suggest to them evil thoughts and evil desires, to fill them by degrees with all uncleanness, to bring them to destruction, both of body and soul-; this would have seemed a reasonable procedure for such a spirit of darkness: he has for ages thus worked, and even still worketh thus, in the children of disobedience. But, to suppose that the Almighty had set, as it were, a spell over our first parents, to require them not to eat of a

b Acts xvii. 31. Matth. xxv. 34.

Eph. ii. 2.