he had proved, that God was the Cause of all things, and the creatures nothing more than his inftruments. If, however, his prejudice had not hindered him, he must have perceived that, if this be true, then the Divine Being, whenever he has punifhed mankind for their fins, must have punished them not for what they did, but for what he did himself by their inftrumentality. If, moreover, he punished them not with any view to their benefit, but to 'fatisfy his wrath and vengeance* on creatures who were nothing more than his inftruments;-what must be our idea of fuch a Deity? An idea which I am unwilling to exprefs. But if fuch a Deity there were (as happily there is not) we fhould be constrained to think him not the best, but the worst being in the universe.

Mr. Cowper feems not to have tafted merely, but to have drank deep of the

* Jeremiah ch. v. 9. God is represented as faying, "Shall not my foul be avenged?"

fcriptural fpring. He would otherwise never have been qualified to furnish us with the above cited defcription fo exquifitely horrible. Yet after all, with no better a religion, one is glad to find a man fo truly good as Mr. Cowper undoubtedly was. However, it is but justice to acknowledge (retaining the metaphor) that the fcripture is a fountain. which fends forth not bitter water only, but fweet. From the fcripture Mr. Cowper derived the fhocking and blafphemous representation which he has given us of the Divinity, who is, likewife, there characterized as the benevolent parent of the prodigal fon.

Nevertheless, if men do indeed believe a future ftate of endless happiness for the elect, and endless mifery for the reprobates, the confideration is fo very important and interesting, that it cannot fail to occupy their minds exceedingly; and that confideration muft bring with it a character of Deity

very different from the character of a benevolent parent.

It is a remarkable fact that a philofophical chriftian, in a correfpondence with me upon the fubject of Revelation, conceded not willingly I prefume) "That "the object of christian worship had been "too generally a malignant Deity." This gentleman, in common, I apprehend, with every philofophical theift, is convinced agreeably to Mr. Cowper's doctrine, that there is in the univerfe but one proper Caufe of all things. He believes however that that VENERABLE CAUSE, whatever temporary calamities may be admitted into the grand fyftem, operates, according to the dictates of eternal wisdom and benevolence, not partially for the advantage of a few favourites, but for the benefit of the whole creation thus tafting, as Thomson expreffes it,

"The joy of God, to see a HAPPY WORLD.”

THE END.

T. Benfley, Printer, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, London.