Thatonlyprovesthatwecanincreaseourhappinessbyprudence；butitsuggestsnoadditionalreasonseitherforseekinghappinessorforalteringourestimateofhappiness。As’PhilipBeauchamp’argues，wecannotfromthepurelyempiricalgroundgetanymotivefortakingintoaccountanythingbeyondour’temporal’orsecularinterests。This，again，wasinfactadmittedbyPaley。Hismodeofescapefromthedilemmaisfamiliar。Theexistenceofasupremeartificerisinferredfromtheinterventionsinthegeneralorderofnature。Theexistenceofamoralruler，orthefactthattherulerapprovesmorality，isinferredfromhisinterferencebytheparticularmanifestationsofpowerwhichwecallmiraculous。Weknowthatactionswillhaveotherconsequencesthanthosewhichcanbeinferredfromourownexperience，becausesometwothousandyearsagoaBeingappearedwhocouldraisethedeadandhealthesick。Ifsufficientevidenceofthefactbeforthcoming，weareentitledtosayuponhisauthoritythatthewickedwillbedamnedandthevirtuousgotoheaven。Obediencetothelawenforcedbythesesanctionsisobviouslyprudent，andconstitutesthetruedifferentiaofmoralconduct。Virtue，accordingtothefamousdefinition，isdoinggood’forthesakeofeverlastinghappiness。’ThedownrightbluntnesswithwhichPaleyannouncedtheseconclusionsstartledcontemporaries，andyetitmustbeadmittedthattheywereanaturaloutcomeofhisposition。
Inshort，thetheologicalpositionofthePaleyschoolandtheUtilitarianpositionof’PhilipBeauchamp’
startfromthecommongroundofexperience。Religionmeanstheknowledgeofcertainfacts，whicharetobeinferredfromappropriateevidence。Itdoesnotmodifythewholesystemofthought，butsimplyaddscertaincorollaries；
andthewholequestioniswhetherthecorollariesareorarenotprovedbylegitimatereasoning。CanwediscoverheavenandhellaswediscoveredAmerica?Canobservationofnaturerevealtousasupernaturalworld?’
Thefirstdifficultyisthattheargumentfornaturaltheologyhastorestuponinterference，notuponorder，andthereforecomesintoconflictwiththefirstprinciplesofscientificprocedure。TheDeityisrevealednotbytherationalbutbythearbitrary；andthemoretheworldisexplained，thelesstheproofthatheexists，becausethenarrowerthesphereofhisaction。Then，assuchaDeity，evenifproved，isnotprovedtobebenevolentormoral，Wehavetorelyforthemoralelementupontheevidenceof’miracles，’