The general character of the works of nature is, on the one
hand, goodness both in design and effect; and, on the other hand, a
liability to difficulty and to objections, if such objections be
allowed, by reason of seeming incompleteness or uncertainty in attaining
their end. Christianity participates of this character. The true
similitude between nature and revelation consists in this--that they
each bear strong marks of their original, that they each also bear
appearances of irregularity and defect. A system of strict optimism may,
nevertheless, be the real system in both cases. But what I contend is,
that the proof is hidden from us; that we ought not to expect to
perceive that in revelation which we hardly perceive in anything; that
beneficence, of which, we can judge, ought to satisfy us that optimism,
of which we cannot judge, ought not to be sought after. We can judge of
beneficence, because it depends upon effects which we experience, and
upon the relation between the means which we see acting and the ends
which we see produced. We cannot judge of optimism because it
necessarily implies a comparison of that which is tried with that which
is not tried; of consequences which we see with others which we imagine,
and concerning many of which, it is more than probable, we know nothing;
concerning some that we have no notion.
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