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Untitled Article
sents * the doctrine of material . ism" as obliging < c its advocates to prove a negative , " he too easily adopts tne common place language of the reputed orthodox . Because modern Christendom has
decided that the Deity consists of three persons , and rqan of two parts , it is demanded of the Unitarian and the materialist , with equal utjpropriety , " to prove a negative / ' The Unitarian
maintains that God is one ^ and may fairly wait , if he please ^ till the Trinitarian has ^ proved that God is ci somehow three . " The materialist believes man to be one , as he certainly appears , rising from the mere animal infant to intellectual eminence , declining to second childhood and dropping
into the grave . May not , then , the materialist fairly lay upon his opponent the onus probandi * as
to bis theory of a soul ? Your correspondent adds that Qi the doctrine of materialism is a cheerless doctrine * ' * In an important sense , I quite agree with him , and consider it a strong presumption in favour of its truth , as exalting the value of the Christian hope . Without this hope ^ the final state of man is uniformly represented by the writers of the New Testament as cheerless indeed . Dr . Piice- I recollect , has some .
Avhere the following sentiment , and nearly in these words , the death of the body can no more ctffect the sotrl , than the destruction of a telescope can injure the eye that looked through it . Those who advance this fine thought of tfrat great and good man into an article of faith , cannot need the Christian doctrine of a resurrection , though they may gratefully accept it . The materialist an th *
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contrary ^ when sinking in Ufc voyage of life , has no other refuge , nor does he need any other , for Here is firm footing , here is solid rock , This can support us , all is sea beside .
As for that cheerless prospect , " the terror of the Irving , not the dead , " < an tintonscious interval between death and fhe resurYec tion , it must be admitted that to such a prospect we are reconciled
only when we regard it as" ' iije rest appointed for his children By an all-benevolent father , who hath put the times and seasons in his own disposal . To this subject we may apply
the words of Am obi us , on another occasion , as tjuoted by Uardner . ( iv . 15 : ) - '** Hbmoaninral caecum , et ipsum se nesbiensj niillis ' po . test rationibus cohsequi , q uid o porteat fieri , quando , vel quo
genere . Ipse rerum cunctarunn pater , moderator et dominus ^ scit id solus /* < i > Man a blind selfignorant being , cannot by all his reasonings , ascertain what is best to be done . when , ^ nd in whst
manner . He only knows , who is the Father , the Governor and Lord of all . " I shall wait for J . P ' proofs from the New Testdmerit th ^ t ' ¦ *'? man has a soul which c £ tn cxm without the bodyits frail
instru-, rnent or lowly dwellin ^ iace , rt not , as often described , its dreary prison-house : The soul ' s dark cottage , ' according to WaN > while our theological poet sing s > iShortly this prison of my clay Shall be dissolved and faJJ ,
and again , How should we scorn these clffcty of flesh , , Thesc fetters and this 16 ad ! _ Your tones pondeni vvfll f »• probably expl » iai * hat b « d&W *
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5 * & On the Letters aguhist Materialism . "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1811, page 540, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2420/page/28/
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