Page:Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray.djvu/255

Rh This highly favour'd regent of the main,

Secure may stand, nor fear the Lion's rage.

What though the of  may strive,

To set the gen'rous Lion on her sons,

The Lion shrinks—so ancient Bards declare—

Nor will destroy the issue nobly born.

But those perfidious, who would set him on,

With ghastly looks, and souls appall'd by fear,

Too late shall feel the horrors of despair."

But it is the we are solicitous to characterize; and although the sentiments of the Preacher may be gathered from his writings, yet, as this Volume may come under the eye of some individuals, who may not possess the publication to which we have so often alluded, it may be proper, in this place to attempt a brief outline of the most prominent features in his creed.

His full soul believed in one, or origin of all created beings; before this great First Cause. Every thing which has past, is passing, or shall pass, was ordained in His eternal purpose, and actually passed in review before Him, ere ever the worlds were formed, or countless systems commenced their revolutions.

The God of our Philanthropist was, , and ; consequently he performed all his will; was, is, and will be, present through all space, through time and through eternity. In the prosecution of His plans, myriads of angels, in their various orders, were by his Omnipotent power commanded into being; these cherubim and seraphim, angels and arch angels, surrounded the throne of the Most High. The morning stars sang together, and all the hosts of Heaven rejoiced.

But, strange as it may appear to our finite understanding, fell discord, with peace-destroying influence, reared his hydra, his tremendous head. Various conjectures hover round this phenomenon. The origin of evil has exercised intellects the most profound and erudite; but he, who can develop the arcana of the Almighty, may claim equality with his God. It should be our care not to attribute to Deity a mode of conduct irreconcealible with rectitude; and to keep close to that revelation, which he hath graciously vouchsafed to bestow upon us.

The creation of man succeeded the fall of the angelic nature. God said,—Let Us make man, &c. &c. Speaking in the plural, with an eye to the complexity of that character He had predetermined to assume, and, as we before observed, past, present, and future constituted, to the