duced paroxysms of coughing, sensations of violent irritation, and ultimate death; and were this organization to be suspended in its operation, or easily put out of order, these dreadful results must follow. The author had a very dear friend, who from a disease in the throat did experience this irritation, and the suffering consequent on an imperfect action of the epiglottis; and after lingering awhile, in paroxysms of extreme agony, he expired. Need we again ask, What was the disposition which induced Jehovah to construct the exquisitely beautiful, yet simple and efficacious organization in question? The prevention of suffering and the preservation of life are the objects clearly contemplated. What, then, are the motives which induce a man to avert pain and suffering from a fellow-man, and plan and devise for his comfort? Malignity never employs genius to avert suffering; it is the office of benevolence and love. It is the motive which incited to the labours of a Howard and of other philanthropists whose lives were spent in doing good. So the provision in question is the effect of Divine wisdom and power, stimulated by paternal and infinite love.

Similar examples crowd upon our attention, but we must forbear, leaving to the reader the pleasing and grateful task of selecting and multiplying for himself instances of Divine benevolence. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the raiment which covers our bodies and grows upon the skin of the inferior tribes; the pleasing light and genial heat of the sun; the succession of day and night by a law sublimely simple-the former adapted to labour and activity, and the latter to refreshing repose; the regular return of the seasons, by a law equally simple and sublime, dispensing in alternate periods the blessings of solar influence and vegetation to every part of the earth's surface; the capacious ocean, whose depths teem with innumerable creatures, whose vapours ascending temper the atmosphere, and descending fertilize the earth; the gentle breeze which fans us in the summer's heat, and the howling tempest whose impetuous wings agitate the atmosphere, and sweep away pestilence and death; the salubrious frosts which purge away noxious effluvia from the air, and prepare the womb of Nature

for the fructifying seed; the earth's surface, diversified by hill and dale, and irrigated by rivers and springs-her strata fraught with materials for our use, and the fecundity of her soil enriching the face of creation with endless forms of beauty and abundant stores of food; the animal and vegetable economy, fraught with adaptations for the well-being of sentient life;all these, and ten thousand other wonders which a library could not record, proclaim the goodness and the benevolence of God, and summon the whole intelligent creation to gratitude and praise.

SECTION IV.-GOD'S PROVISION TO AFFORD ENJOYMENT TO THE CREATURE IS A PROOF OF HIS BENEVOLENCE.

THE benignity of Jehovah's disposition is manifest not only by providing to shield his creatures from numerous evils and sufferings, but also by providing for their enjoyment. Whether we survey the rational or the irrational classes of animated being, we find each endowed with some capacities for enjoyment, and provided with ample sources whence that enjoyment may be derived.

1. Sensation is a source of enjoyment.

Every bodily sense is made an avenue of pleasure, a means of ministering gratification and delight. What a boundless field of enjoyment is opened to us in the sense of sight, by which the endless forms of beauty and magnificence in the productions of Nature and of Art are unfolded to our view! What delight is ministered to us in the sense of hearing, by which the mellifluous harmonies of music, the soft tones of friendship, and the thrilling charms of eloquence are made to vibrate through the soul! What delicious gratification is afforded in the sense of smelling, by which we are regaled with the aroma of flowers, and the richest odours of Nature are made to yield to our pleasure! Nor are the senses of touch and taste barren of the power to produce agreeable sensations. In an inferior degree, the lower animals share with us the pleasures of sensation; but the faculty of reason vastly augments the

power of sense to gratify, because the pleasure of sensation, when combined with reflection, is refined in its nature and heightened in its intensity by agreeable associations, and in some degree repeated by recollection. To secure these pleasing sensations, a variety of distinct organs are formed, of elaborate and exquisite mechanism. Now when we see enjoyment superadded to comfort, pleasure joined with utility, and infinite skill employed in securing for us these results, we cannot mistake the intention of the Creator; and the intention unfolds the disposition. Thus every organ of pleasing sensation and every pleasing emotion declare the benevolence of God. They proclaim his name and nature to be LOVE.

2. Instinct a source of enjoyment.

Allied to the enjoyments just named there are the various pleasurable instincts of animated Nature, some of which belong to man, and many others are widely distributed among the diversified tribes of the animal kingdom. Nor is there any instinct or appetite but may be regarded as involving a capacity for enjoyment, and as furnishing a stimulus to seek for it in some appropriate object or pursuit. Many of these instincts are infallibly directed to the continuance and preservation of the species, and all combine, in some form, utility with individual gratification. Whether we carefully study or cursorily survey the history and habits of the animal creation, we meet at every turn with proofs of the creatures' happiness. We see it in their sportive diversions and their cheerful mien; we hear it in the songs of melody they pour, and the varied sounds, harsh or harmonious, by which they spontaneously utter their delight. When, therefore, in the first place, we see the creature endowed with a capacity for enjoyment; in the second place, actuated by instincts prompting to that enjoyment; in the third place, Nature abounding with sources to afford that enjoyment; in the fourth place, that enjoyment itself made subservient to utility; and lastly, an organization adapted to the whole, can we fail to see a benevolent intention? Is not the goodness of the Creator as conspicuous as his wisdom and his power?

3. The faculties of mind afford higher enjoyments.

The higher the nature of the creature, the more diversified and refined its enjoyments, and the larger its capacities for those enjoyments. Human beings, standing as they do on an eminent position far above the brutal tribes, have faculties of a higher order superadded to animal instincts and propensities. We have reason and moral sentiment; we have the faculties of reflection, of voluntary recollection, association, combination, and hope. The pleasures of sense and instinct are heightened by the mental perceptions of beauty and taste, and multiplied a thousandfold by imagination, by memory of the past, and hope of the future: and all the enjoyments arising from the social principle are heightened by the faculty of speech of thus reciprocating affection; of uttering the softest, tenderest sympathies; of expressing and exciting the most refined emotions; of blending thought with thought, spirit with spirit; of assimilating mind with mind, and producing and perpetuating the most sacred and endearing associations. We have a faculty for the perception of truth, and a relish for its attainment prompting to the acquisition of knowledge, and enriching the mind with treasures more durable than the material universe. We have a faculty for communing with the Invisible; for realizing the personal existence of the all-glorious Creator; for ascertaining our relation to him as our Father and Friend; for exchanging thoughts, sentiments, and affections with this exalted Being; and for deriving enjoyments from him of a nature infinitely surpassing all created good. The soul has desires which nothing sensual can satisfy, and capacities which nothing earthly can fill. It roams among the infinite and the eternal, looks forward to perpetual existence, and feels that whatever is limited in space or duration is too narrow for the powers and the capabilities of its being. It longs and pants for the Infinite, and cannot be satisfied with less. It is evidently formed to know, love, and enjoy the Deity, and he alone is the adequate source of possession and enjoyment to the immortal mind. The Bible assures us that God is accessible to the human soul. This is in harmony with reason; for if the Deity has created beings with such powers and capacities, the existence of those

powers is a pledge they shall be gratified from their appropriate source; if he has provided for every exigency of instinct, reason tells us he has also provided for every exigency of mind. The goodness so profusely bestowed on the faculties of the lowest orders of creatures, argues the bestowment of every good which the highest capacities of the highest nature are competent to receive. The experience of the good man verifies the statements of Scripture, and answers to the deductions of reason. We simply attest a fact of experience when we affirm that the Christian does enjoy God, finds he has access to the Father of spirits, is conscious of holy and transporting fellowship with him, exults in the endearments of his personal favour, and draws from him streams of enjoyment which satisfy and replenish the mind: he rejoices in God with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We cannot deny the bestowment of higher capacities for happiness upon a higher nature, for the fact meets us at every turn, and the slightest consideration of our own nature attests it; the opening of sources of happiness adequate to fill, and thus to meet, all the instincts and faculties of the highest nature with which we are familiar, is equally obvious to every candid inquirer. There is but one motive to which such an economy can be attributed—that is, benevolence. Thus, in every department of the Creator's works, we see wisdom and power fulfilling the purposes of love.

SECTION V.-BENEVOLENCE IS DISPLAYED IN THE PRINCIPLES OF JEHOVAH'S GOVERNMENT.

1. Man is under law and government.

The benevolence so conspicuous in the work of creation and the economy of providence, is manifest also in the principles of God's moral government. The Scriptures declare that we are subjects of Divine government, and reason cannot but admit the truth. If our Creator is an intelligent Being, and if some of his creatures are intelligent, endued with moral sense, and capable of exercising moral affections and performing moral actions, it is an evidence that they are subjects of moral government, are