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pute . It has become a sort of watch-word of a party ; a raw * he a d ~ a nd- bloody ' - bones , the very sound of which is to strike terror into the ignorant and unthinking . In the hands of an adept it will perform wonders . If a doctrine which cannot be disproved is to be hunted down ., call it metaphysics , and every
body will think of it with hbrror . If a train of reasoning is irresistibly cogent , if an objection to some popular system is unanswerable ,, brand it as metaphysical , and you may , without a blush , acknowledge that you cannot reply to it , for nobody will think it deserving of attention . In short , metaphysics is
£ term of as much use in theology and morals as Qi Jacobin " and ** No Popery" are in politics ; it secures an easy and decisive victory , and saves a polemic abundance of trouble in
analysing arguments , confuting objections ^ and collecting proofs . My friend says ,, p . 59 , cc Perhaps the stud y of mqtaphysics is the principal cause of that scepticism which has prevailed amongst the studious . " I say , perhaps n . ot , and as he offers no
reasons in support of his conjecture ^ my perhaps may possibly be allowed to go as far as his ; and , at any rate , it is more charitable . And what is there in metaphysics that should lead to infidelity ? Metaphysics is the sublime science of the human mind , and I , for one , see nothing in the curious atyd wonderful phenomena of the intellectual and active powers which does not tend to excite the most exalted and adoring ; sentiments of
their omnipotent Author , which does not stamp an infinite value upon the discoveries of divine revelation , and which does not impart a cogency to its evidence , which , to the philosophical observer ^ appears little short of mathematical demonstration . And what facts are there to support my friend ' s , I am constrained to call it . uncandid insinuation ? Locke
was a metaphysician ; Clarke and Berkeley were metaphysicians ; Hartley was a metaphysician ; Jonathan Edwards was a metaphysician ; Price and Priestley were metaphysicians . These were men of the highest rank for talents and for virtue ; the pride and ornament of the age in which they lived ; and they were all firm friends and able advocates of the
Christian revelation . It might have been thought that these illustrious and venerable names would have protected the science , in which they delighted and excelled , from the charge of absurdity , or of a tendency to scepticism . And surely my friend is a better logician than to argue , that because some metaphysicians are unbeliever ^ therefo re metaphysics leads to scepticism .
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254 Mr . Belsharn * s Strictures on Carpenter ' s Lectured * *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1807, page 254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2380/page/30/
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