S40 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



savage life, that we perceive in it no discrimination of char- 

 acter, I make no doubt but that moral qualities both good 

 and bad are called into action as much, and that they subsist 

 m as great variety in these inartificial societies, as they are or 

 do in polished life. Certain at least it is, that the good and 

 ill treatment which each individual meets with, depends more 

 upon the choice and voluntary conduct of those about him, 

 than it does, or ought to do, under regular civil institutions 

 and the coercion of j)ublic laws. So again, to turn our eyes 

 to the other end of the scale, namely, that part of it which 

 Ls occupied by mankind enjoying the benefits of learning, 

 together with the lights of revelation, there also the advan 

 tage is all along probationary. Christianity itself — I mean, 

 the revelation of Christianity — is not only a blessing but a 

 trial. It is one of the diversified means by which the char- 

 acter is exercised ; and they Avho require of Christianity, 

 that the revelation cf it should be universal, may possibly 

 be found to require that one species of probation should be 

 adopted, if not to the exclusion of others, at least to the nar- 

 rovv'ing of that variety which the wisdom of the Deity has 

 appointed to this part of his moral economy.^ 



NoAV, if this supposition be well founded, that is, if it be 

 true that our ultimate or our most permanent happiness will 

 depend, not upon the temporary condition into which we 

 are cast, but upon our behavior in it, then is it a much more 

 fit subject of chance than we usually allow or apprehend it 

 to be, in what manner the variety of external circumstances 

 which subsist in the human world is distributed among the 

 individuals of the species. "This life being a state of pro- 



■* The reader will observe that I speak of the revelation of Clij-is- 

 tiauity as distinct rrom Christianity itself. The dispensation may 

 already be universal. That part of mankind which never heard of 

 ChPvISt's name, may nevertheless be redeemed; that is, be placed in a 

 better condition, with respect to their future state, by his intervention ; 

 may be the objects of his benignity and intercession, as well as of the 

 piopitiatory virtue of his passion. But this is not "natural theo^-c;.,' ' 

 therefore I will not dwell longer upon i*^. 



