45 



that the assigned extent of the influence of the Deity is absolutely 

 abridged as science advances; for as known causes are developed, 

 the unknown cease to be supposed. In this way then the idea of some 

 general antecedent cause conies to be obtained, and it is founded 

 upon the acknowledged necessity of such a cause, which necessity 

 must obtain equally (or the necessity is limited without reason, 

 and in a case in which the universal analogy holds good) with 

 respect equally to the existence of the Deity as of other things: 

 this is a point which has been discussed. 



25. The notion of a first cause being in this way acquired, 

 men very soon and very naturally extend their imaginations, and 

 they next conclude him to be a moral agent. This conception is 

 as easy as the other, and equally fitted to become prevalent, with- 

 out natural evidence of the stricter sort. Thus, all those things 

 by which we are liable to be affected, are related with us in such 

 a way as to produce either agreeable or disagreeable sensations: 

 the causes of the former we call good, those of the latter, evil. 

 Now who dispenses these? Why, no other than the first cause 

 which made them to exist. Then we come to invoke this cause to 

 bestow upon us what is good, and remove that which is evil, and 

 it is very seldom that we are gratified, except as an ardent desire 

 for the possession of an object induces us to make strenuous 

 efforts to obtain it. Deities are in this way formed by the per- 

 sonification of causes, and, as in the Mythology, a particular GOD 

 may be*assigned to each department of causes. 



26, But the main question is this, viz. as it has been shewn 

 that a designing principle is not necessary to creation and order, 

 is there any evidence which proves the existence of an intellectual 

 principle which mingles with the ordinary causes; and directs 

 them with a moral government, dispensing good and evil con- 

 sistently with our notions of right and wrong? We must examine 

 the evidence for such a moral government. 



27. There is a harmony and beauty in the universe, which it 

 is said prove the existence of something intellectual which 

 designs for the good of the whole. That there is such an unity and 

 concord in the operations of nature in a general way, is not 

 to be disputed: but how does it follow that this agreement is 

 made by design? I shall not discuss this matter over again, but 

 refer to the preceding pages in which it has been already discussed. 

 Is there any other proof? In reply, it may be inquired, if this per- 

 vading mind, as a regulating principle, be not admitted, how else 

 shall we account for the order and regularity which have just 

 been confessed? In order to answer this question, we niu>t pro- 

 ceed in the exhibition of the consequences which ensue from our 

 first principle. 



28. It has been shewn that nothing takes place without a 

 cause, and that effects are made what they are by their causes.* 



See Chapter II. 



