THE GOODNESS OF THE DEITY. 
291 
justice. Such evils, consistently with the administration 
of moral government, could not be prevented or alleviated, 
that is to say, could not be remitted in whole or in part, 
except by the authority which inflicted them, or by an ap¬ 
pellate or superior authority. This consideration, which is 
founded in our most acknowledged apprehensions of the na¬ 
ture of penal justice, may possess its weight in the Divine 
counsels. Virtue perhaps is the greatest of all ends. In 
human beings, relative virtues form a large part of the whole. 
Now relative virtue presupposes, not only the existence of 
evil, without which it could have no object, no material to 
work upon, but that evils be, apparently at least, misfortunes; 
that is, the effects of apparent chance. It may be in pur¬ 
suance, therefore, and in furtherance of the same scheme 
of probation, that the evils of life are made so to present 
themselves. 
I have already observed, that, when we let in religious 
considerations, we often let in light upon the difficulties of 
nature. So in the fact now to be accounted for, the degree 
of happiness which we usually enjoy in this life, may be 
better suited to a state of trial and probation, than a great¬ 
er degree would be. The truth is, we are rather too much 
delighted with the world, than too little. Imperfect, broken, 
and precarious as our pleasures are, they are more than suffi¬ 
cient to attach us to the eager pursuit of them. A regard 
to a future state can hardly keep its place as it is. If we 
were designed, therefore, to be influenced by that regard, 
might not a more indulgent system, a higher, or more unin¬ 
terrupted state of gratification, have interfered with the de¬ 
sign? At least it seems expedient, that mankind should 
be susceptible of this influence, when presented to them: 
that the condition of the world should not be such as to 
exclude its operation, or even to weaken it more than it 
does. In a religious view (however we may complain of 
them in every other,) privation, disappointment, and satiety, 
are not without the most salutary tendencies. 
