338 ^ATUKAL THEOLOGY. 



works of nature, and in those works sees so mucli of means 

 directed to ends, of beneficial effects "brought about by wise 

 expedients, of concerted trains of causes terminating in the 

 happiest results ; so much, in a word, of counsel, intention, 

 and benevolence : a mind, I say, drawn into the habit oi 

 thought which these observations excite, can hardly turn its 

 view to the condition of our own species without endeavor- 

 ing to suggest to itself some purpose, some design, for which 

 the state in which we are placed is fitted, and which it is 

 made to serve. Now we assert the most probable supposi- 

 tion to be, that it is a state of moral probation ; and that 

 many things in it suit with this hypothesis which suit no 

 other. It is not a state of unmixed happiness, or of happi- 

 ness simply ; it is not a state of designed misery, or of mis- 

 ery simply ; it is not a state of retribution ; it is not a state 

 of punishment. It suits with none of these suppositions. It 

 accords much better with the idea of its being a condition 

 calculated for the production, exercise, and improvement of 

 moral qualities, with a view to a future state, in which these 

 qualities, after being so produced, exercised, and improved, 

 may, by a new and more favorable constitution of things, 

 receive their reward, or become their own. If it be said, 

 that this is to enter upon a religious rather than a philo- 

 sophical consideration, I answer, that the name of rehgion 

 ought to form no objection, if it shall turn out to be the case 

 that the more religious our views are, the more probability 

 they contain. The degree of beneficence, of benevolent in- 

 tention, and of power; exercised in the construction of sensi- 

 tive beings, goes strongly in favor, not only of a creative 

 but of a continuing care, that is, of a ruling Providence. 

 I'he degree of chance which appears to prevail in the world 

 rfMjujres to be reconciled with this hypothesis. Now it is 

 one thing to maintain the doctrine of Providence along with 

 that of a future state, and another thing without it. In my 

 opinion, the two doctrines must stand or fall together. Foi 

 although more of this apparent chance may perhaps, upon 



