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Untitled Article
teaches that man may chuse differently , the previous circumstanee ^ s remaining the same ; that ^ having made" one choice , he may ., without altering his mind , without any variation , either of reason or inclination ^ chuse the contrary . Thisj to be sure ^ has very much the appearance of a contradiction ; yet this doctrine ,, rny worthy friend imagines himself inspired to believe . O ! but , says he > p . 67 , the ce soul can
always separate and compare its ideas ; it can suspend its choice ^ and examine different motives ; it is in this activity that its liberty depends . ' Undoubtedly , the soul can suspend and examine if it will ^ if it sees reason , so feels inclination for this suspension ; but without this , motive it
cannot deliberate , nor , if deliberating ^ can it cease to deliberate while the same reason or inclination to deliberate remains . In fact , nothing can be more egregiously triflinothan an attempt to distinguish between voluntary actions , as if some were governed by motives and others not . All voluntary acts , whether mental or corporeal , internal or external , are subject to the same law .
My . friend , p . 68 , expresses great astonishment cc at having once heard a metaphysician say , that while many things were uncertain , there was one subject upon which he could entertain no doubt , and that was , the necessity of human actions . " This daring assertion threw him _ , it seems ., into a profound soliloquy , and brought to his mind the following sublime passage of that eminent poet Richard Baxter :
Never more bold than when most blind ; Runs fastest when the truth ' s behind .
What , then ,, would have been my worthy friend ' s astonishment , if this same bold" and cc blind" metaphysician had advanced so far as to affirm ., that if his system were not true ,, < c we deceived ourselves , and were deceived by our Maker / 1 I cannot help figuring to myself the burst of generous and indignant eloquence with which my friend would have
exposed and reprobated the foll y ^ the arrogance ^ and the impiety of the assertion . I doubt whether honest Baxter ' s poetry would in this case have been adequate to the energy of his feelings . Nor should I have been surprised / if his own muse , upon an occasion so animating , had been inspired to express the warmth of his resentment in sublimer strains of v sStire and invective , " Si natura negat , facit indignatio vefsuni . "
Untitled Article
£ 58 Mr . Belsham ' s Strictures on Carpenter ' s Lectures .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1807, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2380/page/34/
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