302 JSATURAL THEOLOG-Y. 



" 11 lie had wished our misery, he might have mads sure 

 of his purpose, by forming our senses to be so many sores 

 and pains to us, as they are now instruments of gratification 

 and enjoyment ; or by placing us amid objects so ill-suited 

 to our perceptions as to have continually offended us, instead 

 of ministering to our refreshment and delight. He might 

 have made, for example, every thing we tasted, bitter ; 

 every thing Vv'^e saw, loathsome ; every thing we touched, a 

 sting ; every smell, a stench ; and every sound, a discord. 



" If he had been indifferent about our happiness or mis- 

 ery, we must impute to our good fortune — as all design by 

 this supposition is excluded — both the capacity of our senses 

 to receive pleasure, and the supply of external objects fitted 

 to produce it. 



"But either of these, and still more, both of them, being 

 too much to be attributed to accident, nothing remains but 

 the first supposition, that God, when he created the human 

 species, wished their happiness, and made for them the 

 provision which he has made, vAth. that view and for that 

 purpjDse. 



" The same argument may be proposed in difierent 

 terms, thus : contrivance proves design ; and the predominant 

 tendency of the contrivance indicates the disposition of the 

 designer. The world abounds with contrivances ; and all 

 the contrivances which we are acquainted with are directed 

 to beneficial purposes. Evil, no doubt, exists, but is never, 

 that we can perceive, the object of contrivance. Teeth are 

 contrived to eat, not to ache ; their aching nov/ and then is 

 incidental to the contrivance, perhaps inseparable from it : 

 or even, if you will, let it be called a defect in the contriv- 

 ance ; but it is not the object of it. This is a distinction 

 which well deserves to be attended to. In describing imple- 

 ments of husbandry, you would hardly say of the sickle, that 

 it is made to cut the reaper's hand ; though from the con- 

 struction of the instrument, and the manner of using it, this 

 mischii^f often follows. But if you had occasion to describe 



