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topic with him ; often urged in his reasonings with those Who admitted not the authority of Scripture , or who evaded the arguments he drew from profane literature ; bearing , it is evident , a very close resemblance to the Common-sense philosophy of modern days . The latter treatise seems to have been composed in opposition to the Platonists , the Valentinians , and the Pythagoreans . The soul , according io Tertullian , includes both the vital and intellectual principles ; has a beginning , but is in its own nature
immortal ; deriving its origin from the breath or substance of God ; it is corporeal , having length , breadth , height and figure , an interior man corresponding in form and feature to the exterior ; it is simple and uncompounded in substance , and endued with free will , which is , however , subject to the influence of divine grace ; it is affected by external circumstances , is rational , possesses an insight into futurity ; at death , is separated from the body ; descends to the parts below the earth , and there remains till the day of judgment ,
receiving a foretaste of the happiness or misery which is to be its everlasting portion . The souls of the martyrs alone pass not through this middle state , but are transferred immediately to heaven . The separation of the soul from the body , he considers a consequence of the fall of Adam . —Acknowledging that some of his speculations may appear trifling , and many of his arguments weak and inconclusive , the learned Professor rightly observes , " It would be the extreme of absurdity to compare the writings of Plato and Tertullian , as compositions ; but if they are considered as specimens of philosophical
investigation , of reasoning and argument , he who professes to admire Plato will hardly escape the charge of inconsistency , if he thinks meanly or speaks contemptuously of Tertullian . " Brucker hints ( Hist . Crit . Philos . Tom . III . p . 412 ) , that Tertullian was led to adopt the philosophical notions he maintained , especially that of the corporeality of the soul and of ail spirits , tiot excepting even God himself , by his hatred of Plato ' s doctrines , and his
opposition to the Gnostic systems of emanation , derived from Platonism . This is by no means improbable . Dr . Priestley calls Tertullian " the most determined Materialist in Christian antiquity ; " but surely he cannot be deemed a Materialist in the sense which is usually affixed to that term . The chapter concludes with a brief statement of Tertullian * s notions respecting the nature of angels and daemons : in support of which he in vain appeals to the authority of Scripture . ( To be continued . )
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Art . II . —The History of the Reformation of the Church of England . By Henry Soames , M . A ., Rector of Shelley , in Essex , 2 Vols . 8 vo . Reign of King Henry VIII * The History of the Reign of Henri / VIIL , comprising the Political History of the Commencement of the English Reformation . By Sharon Turner , f . S . A . and R . A . S . L . Second edition . 2 Vols . 8 vo . A History of England from the First Invasion by the Ramans . By John Lingard , 1 ) . D . Vol . VI . Second edition .
The important portion of our history to which the works mentioned at the head of the present article are devoted , has latel y received much illustra - tion , not only from the labours and industry of historians and memoir-writers ,
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Uevkw . ^ -English Reformation . 273
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 273, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/41/
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