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has lately been fo much controverted by a set of men, who pretend to reafon philofophically thereon, and thereby to develop all the operations of nature, as well as the attributes of her omnipotent Creator; who pretend to know every thing, but prove nothing; who are affirmative, and dogmatic in their opinions; and whofe greatest merit confifts in the attempts which they make to turn the most facred things into ridicule. They first doubt every thing, then difpute every thing; and at length not only difbelieve every thing, but endeavour to draw all the unwary and uninformed part of mankind. into their way of thinking: and are fo charmed with their own fufficiency, that they fuffer themfelves to be led away by the warmth and activity of their imagination, and neglect the cool and flow dictates of their reafon. It is no eafy matter to meet with two of them who agree in the fame opinion; and, by examining their reasoning, it will be found, that they are deceived even in the first principles of philofophy, and attribute to phyfical caufes, what they should have imputed to moral.

WHEN we take a curfory furvey of all the syftems of the ancient and modern philofophers, of the formation of the universe by chance, by neceffity, and by I know not what force; of atoms of animated nature, of living matter, of materiality, and of a variety of other doctrines

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of the different fects of the Grecian philofophers, no less contrary to the dictates of reason, than abfurd in themselves, their prefumption and folly muft fill us with amazement; and fhew us the infufficiency of the human understanding, to fathom the mysteries of the great Creator. Those philofophers would difcover the firft caufe of every thing, when the human faculties are fo limited, that we cannot comprehend the effects. Although they are ignorant of the motions of their own bodies, and even of thofe of the most fimple infect which creeps upon the earth, they are so presumptuous as to imagine themselves capable of discovering the first cause of all things, and to develop the myfteries and attributes of the Supreme Being.-They are perfuaded that they have a fund of real knowledge; but when it is analyzed, it turns out to be only the wild flights of their imagination :-they see themselves as fo many atoms in the great fyftem of nature, with the extent of which they are totally ignorant, and yet they are vain enough, not only to decide pofitively upon all its operations, but also for what purpose the great Creator formed every part thereof as we find it :-they bewilder them. felves with general and abstracted ideas, and with the jargon of metaphyfics, which have never yet discovered any one truth, which have filled true philofophy with abfurdities, and which have been. the caufe of the greateft errors among mankind.

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But that class of our modern philofophers, who would prove the materiality of the foul, have pufhed their extravagances to fuch a degree, as to tell us that a human being does not think any more than a tree. They will not admit that there is any other order of beings in nature than fenfitive beings; and all the difference between a man and a tree, is, that the man is a fenfitive being which has fenfations, and the tree a fenfitive being which has none. To confute their opinions, by a long chain of arguments, and thereby to prove that mere matter cannot think, would be foreign to my plan, and I think very unneceffary; because it requires only to know that matter is capable of extenfion, and of divifibility, to prove to a demonstration that it cannot think; and therefore, when any of thefe philofophers fhall endeavour to convince mankind, that trees and rocks think, we muft regard all their fubtile arguments as fophiftical and abfurd in themselves; and their attempts to debafe human nature, and to allow fenfation to ftones and trees rather than admit that a human being has a foul, as the effects of a distempered imagination. The more we reflect upon the na ture of the human mind, and upon our thinking quality, the more we are led to regard thefe advocates for the materiality of the foul, as perfons deaf, and depraved in all their actions:they are deaf to the interior voice of nature and of reafon, which cries aloud to them, but they

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cannot, or they will not hear her; and they give the lie to themselves; because they prove, that no material being is active of itself; that a mere machine cannot think, neither has it any motion. or figure, which is capable of producing reflection; and yet they fhew us that there is fomething within themselves which would difengage itself from its material vehicle, and which would foar to the heavens; their fentiments, their defires, their inquietude, and even their pride, are not the effects of mere matter.

It is true, the ancient philofophers, at least those whofe works have gained any credit among mankind, were more modeft in their philofophical enquiries. They were thereby led to a fenfe and acknowledgment of their own ignorance, of the imbecility of human understanding, and the incomprehenfion of things about us, as well as of those above us.-They directed their knowledge towards the forming their fellow-creatures for civil fociety, and for enjoying the good things of this life for though many of them were convinced that there was a future ftate of rewards and punishments, they did not think themselves capable of giving mankind fuch particular instructions as were requifite for enabling them to obtain the former, or to avoid the latter ;as I fhall hereafter more fully explain. But the modern philosophy leads us to prefumption, and to vain oftentation of the little we have learned, and makes us imagine that we know, or shall B 3 know,

know, not only all natural, but fupernatural things; and that, in process of time, we fhall become as wife as the angels.

Socrates, who has been held in great veneration, by all the true lovers of philofophy fince his days, was declared, by the oracle of Delphos, to be the wifeft of all men, because he professed that he knew nothing:-What would this oracle have faid of one of our modern philofophers, who pretends to know every thing? This great philofopher likewise informed his countrymen, that, except the Supreme Being fhould reveal his will more perfectly to mankind, than they were capable of comprehending it, by the light of nature, or even than he was capable of doing it, they never could hope to please him, and to enjoy the bleffings of a future ftate.-Plato likewife, who, from the light of reafon only, and contrary to the received notions and prejudices of thofe days, clearly proved the immortality of the foul, has attempted to establish the fame doctrine and, in the description which he has given us of a just man, who, although covered with fhame and difgrace, and held out as an object of scorn, by the prefumptuous and vain-glorious fons of men, was worthy of the prize of virtue, and to be the example for all mankind to follow, has given us fuch a striking portrait of Jefus Chrift, that the moft prejudiced perfon cannot gainfay-Pliny

Plato. Rep. Dial. 1.

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