To contemplate the Creator of heaven and earth in the magnificence of
his works, enlarges and elevates the soul---lifts it above the
impertinence of vulgar cares, and gives it a kind of heavenly
pre-existence. To consider the benevolent purposes for which he called
forth this variety and multitude of being, that comes under our
cognizance, must be a perpetual source of comfort. A rational creature,
that is conscious of deriving its existence from a being of infinite
goodness and power, cannot properly entertain any prospect but of
happiness. By the imperfection of its nature it may fall into temporary
evils, but these cannot justly be the subject of complaint, when we
reflect that this very imperfection was necessary to a probatory life,
and that without it, there could neither have been virtue, nor the
rewards of virtue. Every degree of excellence depends upon comparison.
Were there no deformity in the world, we should have no distinct ideas
of beauty: Were there no possibility of vice, there would be no such
thing as virtue; and were the life of a man exempt from misery,
happiness would be a term of which he could not know the meaning.
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