336 NATURAL THEOLOaY. 



believe that, other circumstances being adapted to it, such 

 a state might be better than our present state. It may be 

 the state of other beings — it may be ours hereafter ; but 

 the questi-on with which we are now concerned is, how far 

 it would be consistent wdth our condition, supposmg it in 

 other respects to remain as it is ? And in this question 

 there seem to be reasons of great moment on the negative 

 side. For instance, so long as bodily labor continues on so 

 many accounts to be necessary for the bulk of mankind, 

 any dependency upon supernatural aid, by unfixing those 

 motives which promote exertion, or by relaxing those habits 

 which engender patient industry, might introduce negli- 

 gence, inactivity, and disorder, into the most useful occupa- 

 tions of human life ; and thereby deteriorate the condition 

 of human life itself. 



As moral agents, we should experience a still greater 

 alt(iration ; of which more will be said under the next 

 article. 



Although, therefore, the Deity, who possesses the power 

 of winding and turning, as he pleases, the course of causes 

 which issue from himself, do in fact interpose to alter or 

 intercept efiects w^iich, without such interposition, would 

 have taken place : yet it is by no means incredible that his 

 providence, which always rests upon final good, may have 

 made a reserve with respect to the manifestation of his in- 

 terference, a part of the very plan Avhich he has appointed 

 for our terrestrial existence, and a part conformable with, 

 or in some sort required by, other parts of the same plan. 

 It is at any rate evident, that a large and ample province 

 /emains for the exercise of providence without its being 

 iiaturally perceptible by us ; because obscurity, when appUed 

 to the interruption of laws, bears a necessary proportion to 

 ihe imperfection of our knowledge when applied to the laws 

 themselves, or rather to the efiects which these laws, under 

 their various and incalculable combinations, would of their 

 own accord produce. And if it be said that the doctriive of 



