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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
different men , and afford room for considerable variety of opinion . The universality of the belief of the Deity some derive from an instinct in the human mind , which
jrresisiibiy impels mankind towards it , by its agree&bleness to their nature , and its necessity to their happiness ; but , as instinct is undoubtedly a species of reason , though , perhaps , not so re .
gular as to be understood by those who feel its influence ; this is merely to draw a conclusion in gross , from an abstract cause to familiar phoenomena , omitting the intermediate chain of connection
between , them * Others have again derived it from an original revelation ^ diffused and transmitted through mankind by tradition , which is merely to substitute an
arbitrary and adventitious circumstance , liable to various interruptions , for a general principle of nature , whose influence is constant and universal . Others
have , again , maintained that we have the same evidence for the existence of a Deity as for any object of sense ; that is , they arc both causes which arc known to
us by their eifects ; and certain it is that , in tracing the phenomena of nature , we find one cause generated by another , until we are led to the inevitable conclusion of
an ultimate and self-existent cause which produces all others . It is to be owned , indeed , that the human mind can have no conception
of any cause which is not generated by another ad ivjlnitum ^ and that the only proof which we possess of the existence of an ultimate' cause is the absolute necessity of the conclusion which , arises from ihe impossibility of forming any other . It is , however , obvi-
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ous , that the idea of an ultimate cause forms a contradiction with our experience , merely on
account oi its deficiency ; and that the difficulty of conceiving it does not arise so much from its impossibility , as from the contracted limits of human knowledge .
It is to be acknowledged , nu deed , that we cannot trace a complete connection from nature up to the Deity , that he is * beyond
the reach of our comprehension , and can no farther be conceived , than from his works ; and that the necessary conclusion of an ultimate cause is the sole evidence of
his existence * But granting the existence of an ultimate cause to be sufficiently proved by its necessity , all nature will tend to demonstrate that cause intelligent .
That matter is unintelligent , in * active , and passive , is too gene . rally admitted to require proof ; and nothing can be more apparent than that it is dependent on an intelligent cause for aH tb « energy , heautj ^ and regularity which it exhibits . To assert thai
matter is capable of forming any desigw would be shocking to the meanest understanding ; and it h evident that , without some original impelling power , it wou \ d have remained in a state of dead rest
for ever ; that its present state of motion is contrary to its nature , aud derived from an active cause , very different from itself ; that all the various material phenomena
which the creation exhibits , are merely original impulses given to matter by a » intelligent being , which continue to generate each other without intermission : and
that the D-eity is to the univers e what the mind is to the body , prime mover , the soul and enet *
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150 On the Exi&ten e& of ike Dettf .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1811, page 150, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2414/page/22/
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