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Untitled Article
these memoirs falL under no common oblitratron , Mr ^ Wood was evidently , an impartial send diligent enquirer on ^ theological subjects : his-plan , and occasionally his sentiments , have an air of > origiliality . However , tvith the ¦ free dom which we trust , will
always characterize our re-view , yet at the same time , with n consciousness- of our fallibility , we shall assign reasons for dissenting , in one or two instances , from his conclusions .
t € Of the common distribution of the attributes of the great first cause into natural and moral , he disapproved . This appeared to ,, him an inaccurate division , founded on an improper pursuit of the analogy of human nature , and be therefore represented all the divine perfections as alike natural to the divine essence / ' p . a 8 .
It is true , the common division is not merely inaccurate but dangerous , if by the use of it , we intend to convey an opinion that goodness , in its various modifications , is not as natural to the Deity as self-existence and
almighty power . But surely , most persons who speak of the divine attributes under the heads of natural and moral attributes , only mean by these terms , to mark a distinction- between those
properties of his character which Lave a moral quality , and Those which are either abstract or inielieetuai , between those which simply command awe and ' reverence and those which awaken
mingled revt rence , love and gratitude . Fcxr this purpose ^ % he common distribution' is easy and convenient . Absolutely correct it may not be : neither is any Language that we can apply to such a subject , upon which we are constrained , after all , to avail
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ourselves to a Considerable cxifti t ^ of the antilogy of human iaature .. The drfferefcee between Mr . Wood and those wJio employ thte com * . tnoa xli ' vision , seems an the" whole to be a verbal and not a solid difference . Still tess are we satisfied with the . result of his attempts to improve upon Mr . Farmer ' s definition of a miracle . He : speaks to his class of the writers oh this topic having erred from pursuing the a priori method of investigation ; ** first settling the character of a mira
cle from what they supposed to be the established nature of things , and then applying the facts to this pre-conceived idea . " ( p . 30 . ) Now really , we are not aware that the best writers on miracles , at the head of whom stands the
learned name which we have just mentioned , fall under this accu * sation , Mr . Farmer carefully attended to the history of genuine
and alledged miracles ; and thence he settled his definition of a miracle , which definition is as much the issue of observation upon recorded facts as Sir Isaac Newton ' s definition of gravitation was the issue of observation upotv facts that came within the notice
of his senses * What Mr . Farmer supposes and requires , rs that the common course of nature be * , in sonic degree understood ; and he , with great judgment , remarks
that a miracle , like every other event , must have a specific nature , must possess some property or other which constitutes it a miracle , and that till believers and unbelievers / agree what miracles are they will in vain join issue upon the qucbtiofi whether miracles have pven wrought . Here cettuln !} $ &
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225 jR ^ ieou— -Memoirs vtf ife late Rev * W . WbotK
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1809, page 222, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1735/page/46/
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