Mr. Amafa Jerome, Miffionary to New-York State, do. Meff'rs Hudson & Goodwin, Printing & Stationary, Mr. Elifha Colt, for affifting the Treasurer, Mr. Robert Porter, Miffionary to New-York State, Rev. William Storrs, Miffionary to Vermont, de. Advance, do 71 100 I 64 2985 274 38 I 25 50 40 I II 50 3.59 25 40 61 25 40 Rev. Ezekiel J. Chapman, Miffionary, do. do. No. 4. Treasurer's Account Current. The Miffionary Society of Connecticut in Account Current 40 2785 1767 09 By balance due the Society as per fettlement Decem-3830 38 ber 29th, 1800. By amount of Contribu- tions in May 1801 as per 2805 64 inclofed Account No. 1. By amount of donations," Intereft, &c. in as per inclofed Account, No. 2. To amount of difburfements by order of the Trustees as per inclofed account No. 3. 1767 9 as above. year 1801 Dolls. 1764 3 8400 35 By balance due the Society6633 22 The natural evidence of the good-tafte; while they refult from and nefs of God. W God is perfect; the reafon is, it perfectly exhibits the character of its author; we have indeed but imperfect views of his work, and therefore clouds and darkness are round about him; but fo far as it is comprehended, it exhibits him as the Father of Lights, from whom cometh down every good and every perfect gift. By the work of God is meant the whole compafs of events, which have taken place, or which ever will take place, as well those which come to pafs thro' the intervention of means and fecond caufes, as thofe which are produced by his immediate power. The agency of creatures is concerned in the production of innumerable events, and thofe of the greateft importance, in which they are actuated by diftinct and oppofite principles and views; but thefe events are nevertheless the work of God, as much as any other events whatever. They may flow from a finful tafte in creatures, and be the proper evidence of fuch a E are told in the Scrip tures that the work of VOL. II. No. 11. fully demonftrate the holiness of God. Jofeph's brethren, in fell ing him to the Ishmaelites, meant it unto evil; but God meant it unto good: They meant to destroy him: God meant to fave him and them and the whole nation, from whom was to proceed the Saviour of the world. The great objection which has ever been made against the government of God by men of corrupt minds is, that it admits the existence of evil, both natural and moral, and fuffers it greatly to prevail in the world: thus they con demn fin with the breath which the love of fin infpires. They afk, could not God have prevented it? And, if infinitely good, would he not have done it? Here men embrace different fyftems. Some dethe existence of fin without deny that God could have prevented tures; and as this would be to ftroying the free agency of crea render them incapable of moral government, a much greater evil than the exiftence of fin itself; it was as important that they should be left to the freedom of their own will, without any previous bias or Ссе Inclination to any given exercise, as that they should have a moral nature given them. Thus, in providing a falvo for the Divine character, they render both angels and men wholly independent on God for all their moral conduct, their fupport in exiftence being fuppofed; and therefore they who have continued in a state of holiness and happiness, or have returned to God after their defection from him, will have whereof to glory; and indeed muft afcribe their perfeverance or return, to themselves and not to God. At the fame time, instead of establishing, they wholly destroy, the free agency of creatures; unless they can act freely, when they have nothing to move or prompt them to act at all. Others, perceiving the abfurdity of fuch a fyftem, and not fatisfied how evil can have place under the government of a Being of infinite power and goodness; whofe hand and council must be concerned in its existence, and'efpecially to fuch an extent as is visible in the world, and to continue, as the facred Scriptures inform us, for ever, are led first to pervert thofe Scriptures and then to deny their divine authority and being ftill preffed with the difficulty from events of perpetual occurrence, which they feel and fee, they are further led to doubt, and at laft to disbelieve the being of a God. Between thefe two extremes, equally remote from the truth, and fatal to the fouls of men, fuch as are brought to fubmit to the dominion of God, cordially receive and embrace the truth, that the agency of God only wife and ever bleffed, is vifible in all events, and that all events, rightly understood, in their nature and relations, confidered as the fruit of his agency or difpofal, are a direct expreffion of his perfection and glory. That pofitive evidence of the goodness of God arifes from the general frame of nature and the ftated courfe of events, refulting from the laws of nature, is a truth which forces itself upon every confiderate mind. This may appear from the fol lowing confiderations. ift, Every man has a witnefs in his own breaft of the goodnefs of God, which if duly attended to and regarded, would afford entire fatisfaction; and that is natural confcience, or that moral fenfe by which he difcerns the difference between right and wrong in moral conduct. It is this alone which diftinguishes him from a mere agent, and conftitutes him a moral agent. It is a much nobler faculty than that by which he perceives the difference between truth and falfhood in natural things. It is that which renders him capable of moral government; of praife or blame; of rewards or punishments. It is above reafon. As the percep'tion of fimple truth and falshood is the foundation of all reafoning in natural things fo the perception of right and wrong in moral conduct is the foundation of all reafoning in moral things. It appertains to the intellect and not to the tafte of the heart. That principle or action may be feen to be right which we hate and that principle or action may be feen to be wrong which we love. If the principle or action be brought fully into view of confcience it will decide infallibly: if it be not, it may decide wrong; but the fault is in the will and not in the conscience. If it be liftened to with refpect, its perception will be acute; if not, it will by degrees become infenfibile, favor of virtue and against vice therefore God is good. Again, ; If God were a malevolent being, who gave exiftence to creatures to make them miferable, it is unreafonable to fuppofe he would give a faculty to any of them, to difcern his own moral deformity, and fo to lay them under in as if feared with a hot iron. It has been very emphatically and very properly termed God's vicegerent in the foul. It is the law of God written on the heart, by which infants and heathens will be e judged at the bar of God. All who have not the written law are, by this, a law to themfelves; and they fhow it to be thus written on finite obligations for ever to hate their hearts by their accufing or himfelf, as the moft deteftable of acquitting one another. To per- all beings. His having therefore ceive an action or principle to be in fact given to angels and men right, is the fame as in their judg- a faculty to difcern good and evil ment to approve, though not the in moral characters, affords full evfame as to love: and to perceive an idence of his own moral rectitude. action or principle to be wrong, is the fame as in their judgment to disapprove, though not the fame as to hate. The actions or principles which it approves, when bro't fully into view, are always fuch as promote the general good of fociety: and the actions or principles-thofe which produce hail and which it difapproves, when brought fully into view, are always fuch as injure fociety. zd, The laws which regulate the motions and revolutions of the heavenly bodies-thofe which produce the regular alternation of fummer and winter, feed time and harveft and day and night-thofe which govern the winds and tides fnow and the former and latter rain in their feafons-thofe which clothe the earth in fpring and fumGod has ordained that a courfe mer with verdure, and caufe it to of virtue fhall be attended with de- bring forth grafs for the cattle and light; and that a courfe of vice herb for the fervice of man-thofe fhall be attended with remorfe. which crown autumn with precious This delight and remorfe are felf- fruits for the fupport of man and approbation andfelf-condemnation, beaft-and, to mention no more, accompanied with a prefentiment thofe which operate in the multiof future good and evil, as a retri- plication, defence and fupport of bution. A courfe of virtue then, the various creatures, after their though arduous and felf-denying, kinds, make one kind fubfervient infures that peace of mind, which to another and all fubfervient to alone is true enjoyment: and a man, proclaim the goodness of courfe of vice, though eafy and God, in a language which is unfelf-gratifying, produces a ftate of derftood by all men, even the most unreft, like the troubled fea con- favage and barbarous. Be it fo, tinually cafting up mire and dirt. that they are all, under certain The fpirit of a man, while found, circumftances, the occafion of can fuftain his infirmity; but a evil, yet the evil produced bears wounded fpirit who can bear? no proportion to the good: their There is no peace faith my God general nature and tendency is obto the wicked; and univerfal ex-viously good, and this will deterperience confirms the truth of the mine the defign and character of declaration. In this law then, him who eftablished them. It is we have the teftimony of God in not pretended that men, in their | " I gave us rain from heaven and "fruitful feasons, filling our hearts "with food and gladnefs." The witnefs for God, among thofe nations, was not revelation, but rain from heaven and fruitful seasons ; these bare witness for God that he is good, fufficient to leave them and all others without excufe. Again, St. Paul fays, "The invifible fallen and depraved state, and under the dominion of a selfish, partial temper, will fee the goodness of God in his works; nor will they any more fee it in his word. Their not feeing the evidence of his goodness, however, is no proof that there is none. If they hate the light and refuse to come to the light, their refufal proves nothing" things of him from the creation but their own perverfenefs; the "of the world are clearly feen, evidence of the being of light may "being understood by the things be irrefiftible, to all who open "that are made, even his eternal their eyes. Accordingly we find " that the best men in every age, whose hearts have been right with God, have made the works of God, as well as his word, a theme of rapturous praife; but if the evil which prevails in the world annihilates the evidence of God's goodness from his works, fo that his goodness cannot be feen in them, they must have been no better than mere rhapsodifts and enthufiafts in making the works of God a theme of praife. But, 3d, The truth I have endeayored to prove is manifest from the facred Scriptures. But The Pfalmift fays, "The heayens declare the glory of God and "the firmament fhoweth his han"dy work. Day unto day utter"eth fpeech, and night unto night "fhoweth knowledge. There is "no fpeech or language where "their voice is not heard." the glory of God is his goodness; the natural perfection of God is indeed of infinite worth, but it is fo only as a mean to an end, and that end is the communication and diffufion of infinite goodness. Paul and Barnabas, fpeaking of the heathen nations, fay "That God fuffered them, in time paft, to "walk in their own ways. Never"thelefs he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and power and Godhead; fo that "they are without excuse: Be"caufe, that when they knew "God, they glorified him not as "God, neither were thankful.” Sufficient evidence then of the Godhead is exhibited to men by the works of creation, to render them without excufe, in not glorifying God as God, and in not being thankful: and furely this implies evidence of his goodness. These paffages do not affert that God is good, but they affert, that he is proved to be fo, by the works of creation and providence. Whatever difficulty therefore there may be, in making out the proof from this fource, by logical reafoning, we have the teftimony of God, that the evidence is conclufive; and this will fatisfy all who receive the Scriptures as a revelation from God. But if the works of God referred to afford fufficient evidence of the goodness of God, to render men inexcufable for their ingratitude to him, then it is certain that the exiftence of fin and mifery in the world, in all their extent, af fords no proof to the contrary: or indeed any evidence at all, which can have any weight; for if it does, it must destroy the evidence which is shown to be conclu five. Satisfactory proof cannot |