CtOODness of the deity. 301 



understandings, arc gifts which admit of no comparisoii witlj 

 any other. Yet because almost every man we meet with 

 possesses these, we leave them out of our enumeration. 

 They raise no sentiment, they move no gratitude. Now, 

 harein is our judgment perverted by our selfishness. A bless- 

 ing ought in truth to be the more satisfactory^ the bounty at 

 least of the donor is rendered more conspicuous, by its very 

 diffusion, its commonness, its cheapness — by its falling to the 

 lot, and forming the happiness of the great bulk and body oi 

 our species, as well as of ourselves. Nay, even when we 

 do not possess it, it ought to be matter of thankfulness that 

 others do. But we have a different Avay of thinking. We 

 court distinction. That is not the w^orst : we see nothing 

 but what has distinction to recommend it. This neces- 

 sarily contracts our views of the Creator's beneficence within 

 a narrow compass, and most unjustly. It is in those things 

 which are so common as to be no distinction, that the ampli- 

 tude of the divine benignity is perceived. 



But pain, no doubt, and privations exist in numerous 

 instances and to a great degree, which collectively would be 

 very great, if they were compared with any other thing than 

 with the mass of animal fruition. For the application, there- 

 lore, of our proposition to that mixed state of things which 

 these exceptions induce, two rules are necessary, and both, I 

 think, just and fair rules. One is, that we regard those 

 effects alone w^iich are accompanied with proofs of inten- 

 tion ; the other, that when we cannot resolve all appear- 

 ances into benevolence of design, w^e make the few give 

 place to the many, the little to the great — that we take our 

 judgment from a large and decided preponderancy, if there 

 be one. 



I crave leave to transcribe into this place what I have 

 Eaid upon this subject in my Moral Philosophy. 



•* When God created the human species, either ho washed 

 their happiness, or he wished their misery, or he was indij' 

 ferent and unconcerned about either. 



