improper for infinite wisdom, power, and good, nefs to have been exérted. And he, who from all eternity has had power, in all probability has from all eternity had will or inclination, to communicate his goodness. Let us try to imagine then, what may be the whole effect of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, exerted through an infinite duration pat, and in an unbounded fpace. What ought to be the number of productions of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, throughout immenfity and eternity? What may we fuppofe the prefent degree of perfection of beings, who have existed from periods distant from the present beyond all reach of human numbers, and have been conftantly improving? What degrees of knowledge, of power, of goodness, may fuch beings have by this time acquired? Let readers, who have accustomed themselves to fuch trains of thinking, pursue these views to their full extent. To add here all that may be deduced from fuch confiderations, may not be neceffary.

It is afterwards demonstrated, that the happinefs of the proper creatures was the fole view, which the Divine wisdom could have in producing an univerfe. Now, happiness being a primary or fimple idea, it neither needs, nor is capable of any explanation, or of being expreffed, but by fome fynonymous term, which likewife communicates a fimple idea, as fatisfaction, pleasure, or fuch like. But it is of good use to understand

understand what makes real happiness, and how to attain it. The foundation or ground of happiness, then, is "A confcious being's finding it

felf in that state, and furnished with all thofe "advantages, which are the most suitable to its "nature, and the most conducive to its improve ment and perfection."

Here is a subject for an angel to preach upon, and the whole human race to be his audience. It is the very fubject, which the ambaffador of heaven came to this world to treat of, and explain to mankind.

Happiness is no imaginary or arbitrary thing. It is what it is by the unalterable nature of things, and the Divine ordination. In treating of fuch fubjects, it is common to speak of the nature of things feparately from the pofitive will of the Supreme being. To understand this matter rightly, it is neceffary to remember, that, in the nature of things, the Divine nature is included, or rather is the foundation of all. Thus when it is here faid, that happiness is fixed according to the unalterable nature of things, as well as determined by the pofitive will of God, the meaning is, that the Supreme Being, in determining what should be the happiness of the creature, and how he fhould attain it, has acted according to the abfolute rectitude of his own nature.

But to return, no creature is, or can be fo formed, as to continue fteddily and uniformly happy, through the whole of its existence, at the

fame

fame time that it is in a ftate unfuitable to its nature, and deprived of all the advantages neces, fary for its improvement and perfection. It is a direct and felf-evident impoffibility, that such a creature should be. Were the foundation of happiness dependent upon the respective imaginations of different creatures, what occafion for all the pompous apparatus we know has been made for preparing the human fpecies for happiness? Had it been poffible, or confiftent with the divine perfections and nature of things, that mere fancy should have been a foundation for happinefs, there had needed no more than to have lulled the creature into a pleafing delufion, a golden dream, out of which he should never have waked. And there is no doubt, but, if the happiness of our fpecies and other rational agents could, properly, have been brought about in this, or any other lefs operofe manner, than that which is appointed, there is not the leaft doubt, I say, but the unbounded wisdom and goodness of the Governor of the world, who brought them into being on purpose for happiness,and cannot but choose the eafieft and beft ways for gaining his ends, would have brought them to happiness in such a way. But it is evident, that then man could not have been man, that is, an intelligent, free agent; therefore could not have filled his place in the scale of being; for as he ftands in the place between angels and brutes, he must have been exactly what he is, or not have been at all. An

infinitely

infinitely perfect Author, if he creates at all, will neceffarily produce a work free from chafms and blunders. And to think of the God of truth as producing a rational, intelligent creature, whose whole happiness should be a deception; what can be conceived more abfurd, or impious? If fuch a creature is formed for contemplating truth, could he likewife have been brought into existence, to be irrefiftibly led into a delufion? To what end a faculty of reafoning, to be, by his very make and ftate, drawn into unavoidable error?

Befides all this, let any man try to conceive in his own mind the poffibility of bringing about a general and univerfal happiness upon any other footing, than the concurrence of all things, in one general and uniform course, to one great and important end; let any man try to conceive this, I fay, and he will find it in vain. If the foundation of univerfal happiness be, Every being's finding itself in fuch circumstances as beft fuit its nature and ftate, is it poffible, that every being fhould find itself in thofe circumstances, if every being acted a part unfuitable to its nature and state? On the contrary, a deviation from that conduct, which fuits a reasonable nature, is the very definition of moral evil. And every deviation tends to produce diforder and unhappiness, And every leffer degree of fuch deviation tends to draw on greater, and this deviation into irregularity would in the end produce universal un

happiness;

happiness; but that it is over-ruled by fuperior wisdom and goodness. So that, inftead of the fophiftical maxim, "That private vices are pub"lick benefits," we may establish one much more just; "That the fmalleft irregularities, unreftrained, and endcouraged, tend to produce "univerfal confufion and mifery.'

In confequence of the above account of the true foundation of happiness, it is plain, that different natures will require a different provision for their happiness. The mere animal will want ouly what is neceffary for the fupport of the individual, and the fpecies. Whatever is superadded to that, will be found fuperfluous and ufelefs, and will go unenjoyed by the animal. But for a higher nature, fuch as that of man, another fort of apparatus must be provided. Inafmuch as he partakes of the animal, as well as the rational nature, it is plain he cannot be completely happy with a provifion made for only one half of his nature. He will therefore need whatever may be requifite for the support and comfort of the body, as well as for the improvement of the mind. For the happiness of an angel, or other fuperior power, a provision greatly fuperior, and more fublime, than all that we can conceive, may be neceffary. And the higher the nature, the more noble a happiness it is capable of. The perfect happiness enjoyed by the Supreme Being is the neceffary confequence of the abfolute and unlimited perfection of his nature.

The