[From an unpublished Manuscript of Bishop Seabury's.]

I have ever thought it a vain attempt, to endeavour to convince a rigid Predestinarian. A person must have a very bad heart or a very weak head, to fall into so monstrous a belief. Or at least he must be under the influence of very violent prejudices. Either of these states will put him above the power of the most solid arguments.

Some misinterpreted and misapplied texts of Scripture are commonly alleged in support of those horrid positions. But, as all those texts are capable of a more reasonable interpretation, they add nothing to the credibility of the Predestinarian Creed.

The subjoined note, from the Rev. Dr. Seabury, will give the needed information respecting this product of Bishop Seabury's pen. For what use the work was intended, does not appear; evidently, however, not for pulpit use; though it discovers, throughout, the same great, simple, fearless mind which appears in the Author's published sermons. We must add that, as the first few pages of the manuscript are wanting, and along with them the title of the piece, we have ventured to supply the heading here used: it is not a very happy one, but we could not think of a better. We must also add that, besides the pages that are lost, a few words are worn or eaten off from those that are left. These we have supplied according to our best judgment, enclosing them in brackets. We may not have hit right in every case, but there can hardly be any question about the sense. As to the rest, the Author's penmanship is so plain that no eye can mistake what he writes, and his thinking so clear and exact that no mind can fail of perceiving what he means. Here is the note aforesaid: "NEW YORK, April, 1858. "Rev. and dear Sir:-The accompanying manuscript was given to me by the late Mrs Isaac Wilkins, a granddaughter of Bishop Seabury. Mrs. Wilkins obtained it from her father-in-law, the Rev. Isaac Wilkins, D.D., formerly rector

Indeed, did the Bible assert them in positive terms, I could not believe them. I should rather imagine that some curruption had crept into it, and altered its reading: for I could sooner believe that GOD regarded [not] the actions of men, or indeed that there was no GOD, than I could entertain such hard notions concerning Him.

To suppose that GOD could create a being, with such an exquisite sensibility of happiness and misery as man evidently has; and that He could from eternity decree-and who can resist Iis decrees?-that he should commit such and such sins, that He might doom him to eternal misery in Hell; is to represent Him in a worse light than it is possible to represent the Devil. The Devil did not create us: he does not even force us to sin. The most that he can do is to tempt us.-But GoD is our Creator: He brought us into being without any concurrence of our own; and, if the Predestinarian scheme be true, He forces us to sin, that He may have the satisfaction of executing eternal vengeance upon us.

Shall we ascribe such malignant [feelings to God?] By no means. Let the stern-brow'd, marble-hearted Predestinarian enjoy his own rancorous disposition; and feast himself with the supposed inevitable damnation of the far greater part of the human species. Be it my happiness, and my glory, to consider GOD as the kind Patron and loving Father of all mankind; who brought them into being only to make them happy, and who will promote their happiness by all the means which infi

of St. Peter's church. Westchester. Appended to the manuscript is the following note in the handwriting of Dr. Wilkins:-N. B. This is the work and handwriting of Bishop Samuel Seabury, and came into my possession in this mutilated state.-IS. WILKINS' Dr. Wilkins was an intimate friend of Bishop Seabury, and his testimony as to the authorship is conclusive. Independently, however, of Dr Wilkins' testimony, I should entertain no doubt that the work is in the handwriting of Bishop Seabury, and is his own production.

"From the way in which the manuscript came to me, and from other circamstances, I believe that it was written by Bishop Seabury, either during his residence at Westchester, or at some time previous.

"The manuscript, as you will see, is numbered for 78 pages. Of these the first eight are wanting, and the loss is irreparable; but the omissions caused by the defacement of the few next pages are such as may be supplied from conjecture, without detriment to the sense.

"I see no objection to complying with your wish that the manuscript should be published; and am pleased to think that, in the pages of the CHURCH MONTHLY, it will find a congenial home.

"Very truly, yours, &c.,

SAMUEL SEABURY.

"The Rev. II. N. Hudson."

nite Benevolence can suggest, infinite Wisdom can contrive, or infinite Power can accomplish.

The difficulty, however, recurs, of reconciling the permission of so much evil, as has happened in the world, with the goodness of GOD. It should seem better not to have made men, than [to have] permitted so much evil as has happened among them.

It cannot be expected that a finite creature should be able to comprehend and account for all the operations of infinite Wisdom. We know that one property of this wisdom is, to bring good out of evil. As GOD knew and saw the evil that has happened, He knew and saw the remedy. He knew, also, that the permission of temporal and partial evil would be productive of infinite and eternal happiness. Upon no other supposition, I confess, am I able to account, to my own satisfaction, for all the sin and misery that abound in the world.

Had man never transgressed, there would have been no roon for the display of the more amiable qualities of the Deity. The mercy of GoD appears conspicuous in the forgivness of the sins and errors of man: and His goodness is much heightened, by His wonderful condescension in providing a remedy for the evils and miseries into which human nature is fallen.-The present evil state of our nature also gives opportunity for the exercise of the heavenly qualities of benevolence, and love, and charity among men. These qualities open and expand the human heart, and bring it to the greatest possible conformity to the Divine Nature.

It does not seem possible that an intelligent being, a free, moral agent, should be made permanently happy any otherwise than by progression. It must learn from trial and experience the different tendencies and consequences of its own actions. When [once] thoroughly convinced, that pain and misery invariably attend error, and vice. and sin; and that there is no possible way to attain happiness, but by willing and doing that which is right and good; by living and acting in conformity to the will of its Creator; then is its state of blessedness fixed above all danger of failing. Not from any impossibility there is, that it should any more act wrong; because this impossibility is only in GOD: but because trial and experience have fixed the will to that which is right; and it can no more will or