PART III. ON THE GOODNESS OF THE CREATOR. CHAPTER I. Proofs of a benevolent Design in the Creator, from the Constitution of Mankind. Ir is sublimely declared in the Christian Scriptures, that "God is Love." In truth, to figure to ourselves under any other character a Being of infinite wisdom to conceive, and power to execute his designs, would appal the imagination of his dependent creatures. Neither can we find, in reasoning à priori, and from the nature of things, any foundation for believing that the misery rather than the happiness of those dependent creatures can be desired or devised by a Being who cannot possibly be actuated by any of the motives from which we know that injustice proceeds, as ignorance, selfishness, or partiality; and who can have entertained, so far as we are able to discover, no other object in creating man, except the intention of finally communicating a larger proportion of happiness than misery. These are the principles from which is deduced the necessity of justice and benevolence in the Creator. Arguments of this nature will have more or less effect, according to the constitution of the mind to which they are presented. At the same time it must be conceded, that the works of God, generally considered, form the best criterion of his intentions; and that, however indisputable the eternal truths may be which render goodness inseparable from power and wisdom, there will still remain a reasonable inquiry, how far the actual appearance of the world justifies this conclusion. And, in point of fact, many, as was before observed, have denied the moral attributes of God, who have deduced his physical attributes from the works of the creation. It is sufficient to instance Lord Bolingbroke, who has declared, that a self-existent Being, the first cause of all things, infinitely powerful and infinitely wise, is the God of natural theology; but he sees no ground for the assertion, that God is just, and |