Practicability of these Improvements.

Detailed in the Case of a Parish of a thousand Souls.
Power of the lower Classes to save, if Facility were given.
Its Advantages shown by Calculations.

Result of the Whole, in favour of the divine Goodness.

CHAP. VI.

On the Evils of an uncivilized State

General Remarks.

Page 368

Situation and Number of the hunting Tribes considered.

Pastoral Nations considered.

Agriculture naturally tends to Civilization.

Compensations of uncivilized Life, among the hunting and
pastoral Tribes.

in the equinoctial Regions.

Actual Extent of the Evil; and Provisions for its Remedy,

in Commerce and Colonization.

No Situations inconsistent with a State of Probation.

CONCLUSION.

Recapitulation.

Practical Consequences.

Page 417

Objection from want of visible Interposition answered, first,
from the Nature of Virtue; and secondly, of Faith, as
essential to moral Trial.

Conclusion, as to the Duty incumbent on Mankind, from
the Suggestions of natural Religion, confirmed by Reve-
lation.

A

TREATISE,

&.c.

PART II.

ON THE WISDOM OF THE CREATOR.

INTRODUCTION.

THE argument, as far as it has hitherto advanced, has assured us of the being of one self-existent, eternal, intelligent Creator.

We proceed farther, and affirm that the Creator is endued with infinite power, wisdom, and goodness.

These attributes are strictly deducible from those that have been already argued. It is

VOL. II.

B

too evident to be denied, that no controul can by any possibility be exercised over the will or designs of that Being, who is himself the first and sole cause of whatever exists. The selfexistent Creator, therefore, must of necessity, that is, as being self-existent and the cause of all other existences, be possessed of infinite power.

Again, the Creator, as being the author of all things, must possess a complete and actual acquaintance not only with the things that exist, or have existed, at any definite point of time, but with whatever can possibly arise as consequences from things so existing, or be contingent upon them. Neither can He, on whose original will it depended that certain powers should contribute to produce certain effects, be possibly ignorant of the means which best conduce to any design, or of the end which may result from any particular means. And this perfect knowledge of all that is past and all that is present, and all that is dependent upon the past and present, is omniscience, or infinite wisdom.

The goodness of the Creator is deducible from similar inferences. For goodness, truth, and justice, consisting in the observance of the mutual rights and relations of persons, can only be impeded either by ignorance of the different bearings and dependences of actions, or by some frailty and imperfection inducing the violation of those bearings and dependences, when known and perceived. But the relations of all existing beings, and of every possible action, are always and at once present to the view of infinite Wisdom. And a Being possessed of omnipotence can be swayed by none of the weaknesses or frailties which assail imperfect natures, to a violation of the eternal rules of truth and equity.

But these arguments from necessity, though demonstrably irrefragable, produce a very weak and transient effect upon the mind in comparison with those proofs which are derived from the several parts of the creation and the visible arrangement of the universe. These being always before our view and within the