received by many, has been argued against, and by many rejected; yet it
will prevail. Yea, his idea of the unity of the race in Adam was and is
argued against and rejected; yet it will prevail. I feel, therefore, no
fear that my theory of moral obligation will not be acknowledged because
it was argued against and rejected by many in a former age, and may be
now. Nay; facts to prove it are accumulating,--facts which were not
developed in Edwards's day,--facts showing, irresistibly, that Edwards's
theory, which is _that_ most usually now held, is what I say it is,--_the
rejection of revelation, infidelity, and atheism_. The evidence amounts to
demonstration.

The question is in a nutshell; it is this:--_Shall man submit to the
revealed will of God_, or _to his own will?_ That is the naked question
when the fog of confused ideas and unmeaning words is lifted and
dispersed.

My position, expressed in the speech delivered in the General Assembly,
New York, May, 1856, is this:--"God, in making all things, saw that, in
the relations he would constitute between himself and intelligent
creatures, and among themselves, NATURAL GOOD AND EVIL would come to pass.
In his benevolent wisdom, he then _willed_ LAW to control this _good_ and
_evil_; and he thereby made _conformity_ to that law to be _right_, and
_non-conformity_ to be _wrong_. Why? Simply because he saw it to be
_good_, and _made it to be_ RIGHT; not because _he saw it to be right_,
but because _he made it to be right_."

Your correspondent replies to this theory in the following words of
Edwards:--"Some hold that the foundation of moral obligation is
primarily in the will of God. But the will of God is either benevolent
or not. If it be benevolent, and on that account the foundation of moral