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Untitled Article
be let him only inquire how man iit first came into existence ] . If he can resolve this question , he will find comparatively little
difficulty in answering the other . — In speaking of the intellectual powers of nian , our acute reasoner goes on to draw from an acknowledged truism more absurd and
dangerous infeVences than ever were promulgated by Spinosa or Jlobbes . — " We are told , says he , ** that man can contemplate the Deity ; but is this agreeable to fact ? He contemplates only what
he knows , and is it not allowed ( even by fhe Unitarians ) that the Deity is yet to man perfectly incomprehensible . How then can man contemplate the Deity ?>'Admirable ! had this wise man
reasoned as conclusively in mechanics , he would , doubtless , long ere this time have discovered the perpetual motion ; or had he extended such a mode of
argumentation to alch emy , he must as , suredly have found the philosoT pher ' s stone . And so we really are to believe that , because man cannot comprehend the entire
nature of the Supreme Being , it is impossible for him to contemplate the operations of divine power ^ ¦ wisdom and benevolence ! Surely this gentleman can have little or no idea of a future world , if he
supposes that man is to exist there without the use of the senses , and that such is his belief seems evi * dent from his triumphantly asking , CL who ever received the idea of a spirit through the medium of the senses V *—It would be
curious to hear this learned gentleman ' s definition of a spirit ; of the mode in which a spirit , without the assistance of any of the senses , could actj arid especially how
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one such spirit , without any of the common means of knowledge , could form notions concerning another similar spirit ? If reasou does not stand aghast at such a tissue of absurdity , she never knew what astonishment means . —
According to the doctrines even of the Heathen moralists and in strict conformity to the dictates of the soundest understanding , and theaxioms of scripture , the Supreme Being is only to be known and contemplated by an
attentive observation of his wonderful works , the dispensations of his providence , and the revelation of his will ; and surely such observations must require the exercise of the senses , and the analogical deductions of the reasoning powers *
If this churchman , would vouchsafe kindly t ' u draw us a picture of a future state , where spirits are to e ^ ist without the advantage of the senses , and w ^ ere thos e of an inferior order axe to live for ever ini the contemplation of the all powerful mind , without ariy other hel p for such meditations than a certain ,
aetherial volatility he would indeed present & picture which would strike the uat ^ qnal DisJ senters dumb * After such reasonings , to mak ^ it the subject of reproach : to the Unitarians in t ^ e 6 th plaice ,
" that they entertain the doctrine of optimism , * ' is > it must be acknowledged , the most heroic of all his gallant deeds . — How greatly is the Christian world indebted to such a
cheerful , consistent advocate ^ who after having given such a rcpresenta- * tion of human life , as , if believed , would drive to despair and suicide , and after having presented such a view of another world as would
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420 Castigator * $ Answer to the Churchman *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1808, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2395/page/20/
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