212 CONCLUSION. 



T. Wherein do you perceive in moral evils any 

 thwarting of a natural design ? 



A. God has made inconvenience and suffering, of 

 some description or other, the regular and natural 

 consequence of all criminal and excessive indulgences 

 of our passions ; and this proves a natural design has 

 been violated, — as much, as the pain which arises 

 from bending a limb contrary to the natural direction 

 of the joint, evinces that the limb was not intended 

 to be bent in that manner. Besides, our Creator 

 has placed reason and conscience in our breasts, 

 which always oppose the commission of conscious 

 vice and misconduct :— and we feel that they are by 

 right the presiding gov erners of our behavior. We 

 are as naturally sensible of it as of any truth what- 

 ever. 



T. But Providence has subjected the best to 

 suffer in this world ; and oftentimes it is their virtu- 

 ous feelings which occasion their troubles ; as when 

 they suffer under the reproaches and ill treatment of 

 bad men ; or from the strength of their virtuous at- 

 tachments to other sufferers. They are subjected 

 also to death ; and, what it is impossible to overlook or 

 conceal, the more they cultivate their minds, and follow 

 the impulse of those noble capacities with which God 

 has endowed them, the more unhappy do they feel 

 it, to be denied the opportunity of continued ad- 

 vancement in improvement and usefulness ; the more 

 they know of their Creator, the more they adore and 

 love him, the more terrible to think of being sejpara- 

 rated from him forever. What design can you dis- 



