1.) Bad example. 2.) Wrong education. 3.) Corruptions of religion. 4.) General prevalence of mistakes as to true happiness. =4.= In both cases negligence and folly bring difficulty as well as vice. III. _The disadvantages we labor under from our fallen and disordered state, are the same, in relation to both earthly and future interests._ This disadvantage affords no ground of complaint; for, =1.= We _may_ manage to pass our days in comfort and peace. =2.= And so may we obtain the security and comfort of religion. =3.= We might as well complain that we are not a higher order of beings. REMARKS. =1.= It is thus proved that the state of trial, which religion says we are in, is credible; for it exactly corresponds to what we see. 1.) If from birth till death we were in a constant security of enjoyment, without care or correctness, it would be a presumption against religion. 2.) It might, if we had no experience, be urged that an infinitely good Being would not expose us to the hazard of misery. This is indeed a difficulty, and must remain so; but still the course of nature is as it is. 3.) The miseries which we bring on ourselves are no more unavoidable than our deportment. =2.= It has been proved that we are in danger of miscarrying as to our interests, both present and future. =3.= The sum of the whole is, that as we do not have present enjoyments and honors forced upon us, in spite of misconduct, so this _may_ be the case, as to that chief and final good which religion proposes. CHAPTER V. PROBATION INTENDED FOR MORAL DISCIPLINE AND IMPROVEMENT. Why we should be placed in the condition spoken of in the last chapter, is a question which cannot be answered. It may be that we could not understand, if told. And if we could, it might injure us to know, just now. It certainly is consistent with God’s righteous government. Religion tells us that we are so placed in order to become qualified for a better state. This, though a very partial answer to the inquiry _why_ we are so placed, answers an infinitely more important question,--viz.: _What is our business here?_ I. _We are placed in this state of trial, for our improvement in virtue, as the requisite qualification for future security and happiness._ =1.= Every creature is designed for a particular way of life. 1.) Happiness depends on the congruity between a creature’s nature and its circumstances. 2.) Man’s character might be so changed as to make him _incapable_ of happiness on earth. 3.) Or he might be placed, without changing his nature, in a world where he must be wretched, for want of the proper objects to answer to his desires. 4.) So that without determining what is the future condition of good men, we know there must be necessary _qualifications_ to make us capable of enjoying it.