An

cumstances literally taking place in eruptions of Vesuvius and Etna. The dreadful effect of these convulsive powers of nature overwhelm us with contemplations awful and alarming, especially when we consider them not as confined to isolated spots, but in conjunction with earthquakes as one connected system extending over a large space of the globe. The Prussian traveller' in the tropical regions of America, seems clearly to have proved the mutual connection of these disturbing forces through the whole tract bounded by the meridian of the Azores, the valley of the Ohio, the Cordilleras of New Grenada, the coast of Venezuela, and the volcanos of the smaller West Indian islands. immense submarine laboratory produces its dreadful effects through this extensive range almost simultaneously, destroying the human race by myriads. Yet even from the most dreadful of these instances, unattended as they are with any supernatural warning, and produced apparently to us by the usual operation of chemical and mechanical causes, we are not justified in drawing any inferences to the discredit of that revelation, which represents a divine warning to have been given. A case is there stated from that very circumstance dissimilar to any other upon record; evidently designed to mark the especial interposition of

'Humboldt's Personal Narrative, Vol. iv. Book 5. chap. 15.

heaven, in order to be a testimony to the end of time of the wrath of the Almighty against such utter profligacy of the human race; although the ruin might have been effected apparently by the instrumentality of the same natural causes which have produced similar events in later times.

We cannot doubt his direction and controul of those causes in any instance: it is a very fallacious way of reasoning to argue, that he did not manifest himself as immediate agent in one instance, because he did not in another. In the first, that manifestation is authenticated by the most credible records, and the end proposed by it, was worthy of his interference and well timed for spreading the knowledge of it through successive ages. For the importance of this overthrow is not to be estimated by the size of the city or the number of inhabitants destroyed, but by the consequence which this transaction carries with it in the history of the world. Having taken place early, in an age when men were comparatively few in number, and in that country which was to be the seat of true religion, the destruction of these small cities contributed more to make known the wrath of God against such sins, than the punishment of ten times the number on a different theatre and at a later period, when the world was more populous*.

In the judgment under consideration we see

the cause, the agent, and the effect; and trace the connection of the means with the end, because he who directed it, has made this concatenation known to us; and we are taught the conclusion at which we are to arrive. But the secret views of his providence are so entirely hidden from us, that in other cases it would be presumptuous in us to draw the same conclusion. When the inhabitants of Italy, Sicily, or the New World establish themselves in situations known to be exposed to earthquakes and volcanos, they cannot expect the operations of nature to be suspended because they have planted themselves within the range of their explosion.

"When yon loose tower trembles from on high,
Must gravitation cease, if you pass by?"

Neither can we reason that the ruin which overwhelms them, is sent as a judgment upon them, any more than we can infer that every one perishes for his sins, who after having made a seafaring life his choice, is swallowed up by the destructive ocean; or expect the lightning to single out the

Wretch,

That hath within him undivulged crimes,
Unwhipt of justice."

* How soon they rebuild about Etna, see Sir W. Hamilton, quoted above, Letter of 1769. How soon about Caraccas, see Humboldt, Vol. iv. B. 5. c. 15. above quoted.

Nor do these terrible calamities, when they are the natural effects of that constitution of things which the great Creator hath appointed, or the execution of judgment, form any objection against his goodness in either case, nor against the truth of the Revelation which describes him, either in general or particular instances, as so acting. When, and where, and by what means the Governor of the world chooses to put an end to our continuance here, inflict the evil of punishment, or produce the good, which is the end of his creation, must be left to his unerring decision; and the fitness of his proceeding, in each instance, can be judged of only by a mind comprehensive enough to view the mutual connection of every part in the boundless range of his operations*.

* See Note 2.

DISSERTATION IV.

PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE, WHICH SEEM TO REPRESENT THE ALMIGHTY AS THE CAUSE OF EVIL.

CHAP, I.-Pharaoh; Sihon.

WE return from the digression, with which the last Chapter concluded, to apply the distinction of the different senses in which the Almighty may be said to be the cause of natural evil, to that sense, in which only he can be said to be the cause of moral evil or sin; that he is so by consequence, as having given his rational creatures those faculties, by the misuse of which they commit sin: which he permits for wise reasons, perhaps similar to those, for which he inflicts or permits natural evil, till he choose to bring the whole dispensation to a final close.

If this distinction be well founded, we have gained some advantage towards a right apprehension of those passages of Scripture, which seem to speak of him as the cause of moral evil, by occasioning his rational creatures to commit crimes contrary to that rule, which he had made it their duty to obey, and then punishing