A treatise on comforting afflicted consciences - The Digital Puritan

INTRODUCTION.xiiisome presiding- principle. This expectation is confirmedby observing the universal provision made, inthe laws which regulate materialworlds, for the attainmentof the purposes they were intended to answer.This is no less true respecting the intellectual powersof man ; for though the operations of the laws whichregulate mind are exceedingly complex in their operation,and traced with much difficulty, yet there is reasonto believe that the minutest modifications of ourperceptions are the consequences of the operation offixed laws, equally as the form of a crystal. Itwould seem therefore most unlikely, that the precisionof purpose provided for in every other portionof the Creator's works, should be wanting in referenceto the conduct of the highest race of beings inhabitingthe earth.If we reflect, that God intended the happiness of hiscreatures when he formed them, and that he has indissolublyconnected their happiness with their conduct,we shall gain an additional probability that some principlewould have been communicated to his mind, calculatedto direct his conduct. The extreme desirablenessof such a constitution would seem to render itvery likely that it would obtain in the government of abeing of perfect wisdom and perfect benevolence.An additional probability that man would be enduedwith natural conscience is derived from the fact, thatin its absence he would be thrown for his guidanceupon the resources of his mere reasoning powers. Butthe obvious disadvantages of such a state of thingsrender it unlikely that it should exist. The life of manis exceedingly brief. Some questions in morals are sointricate, that even supposing man to be earnestlyb 3