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doctrine and preempt makes the perfect sermon ; and we have enough of these at home , without importations . _ C .
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I differ most Widely ; and I , think that his reasoning can afford satisfaction to no one who is really acquainted with the topic in controversy . Dr . Copleston does not attempt to invalidate the direct moot of the doctrine
he disputes , but denies its truth from two consequences , whiGh he imagines would inevitably -follow from its general adoption . On the supposition of its truth , he affirms that motives would cease to operate , and inactivity
would universally prevail . This constitutes ' his first objection . The second consequence which he deduces from it , and which , if well founded , would justly excite still greater alarm , is the extinction of all moral principle . And since ( he proceeds to argue ) the necessarian himself admits that to effect
the belief of this doctrine , considerable exercise and improvement of reason are required , his theory involves this absurdity , that in exact proportion as our understandings are strengthened
and improved , all the ends and purposes of our being would . be counteracted . * The learned author regards this method of reasoning as differing from anv hitherto adonted . but as
both of the objections -on which his argument is founded have been repeatedly advance *} , I can perceive no semblance of novelty , except perhaps in the form which he has given to his conclusion . Though , like many who
have preceded him in the same path , he has completely failed in establishing the positions on which his inference depends , it m ^ y be useful to observe the method he has pursued in persuading himself that he has proved his point .
He maintains , that if men were really convinced that every thing in the universe is fixed and preordained , they would soon c «* ise to act , and would consider every effort as a fruitless attempt to alter the course of nature . The two grand motives of
hope and fear , he avers , could no longer operate , and mankind would desist from exerting their faculties as soon as they entertained a belief that whether they were indolent or active , the order of things would remain Uie same . But , in point of facjt , he asserts that those who profess to hold * Dis . II , p . 47 .
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r 552 Strictures on Dr . Copleston ' s Discourses delivered before the
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Sir , Aug . 20 th , 1825 . NO speculative doctrine perhaps has been more frequently mistinder&tood , and more grossly perverted , than that of philosophical necessity . By the generality of persons , and even by those who pride themselves on the superiority of their
intellectual faculties , it is at once , without reasoning on the subject , pronounced to be devoid of foundation ; while by another class , though confessing their inability to answer the arguments in its favour , it is not
less vehemently condemned , on account of the supposed consequences to which its admission would give rise . Two of the latest publications on this contested point have been written by eminent members of our two English Universities . The " Essay on
Human Liberty , " by Dr . Milner , the late President of Queen ' s College , Cambridge , and Dean of Carlisle ^ is one of the most impartial , and , at the same time , one of the clearest and best written argumentative treatises to be found in the language . Nothing can be fairer than the statement of
the arguments on both sides of the question ; and nothing can , generally speaking , be more conclusive than the reasoning in favour of the necessarian doctrine . I certainly cannot speak in the same terms of the other publication to which I allude , entitled " An Inquiry into the Doctrines of
Necessity and Predestination in Four Discourses , &c , " by Dr . Copleston , the present Provost of Oriel College , in the sister university . The author is unquestionably a man of great learning and talent , and has evinced a degree of versatility in their application not very frequently witnessed
Classical criticism , political economy , and metaphysics , which have obviously no intimate relation to each other , have all exercised this writer ' s skill , though with very far from equal success . In tins last work , however ; be
is considered by his admirers at Oxford and at Edinburgh , as meriting the thanks of every friend to religion , and as having treated the subject in a masterly manner . From this opinion
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1825, page 552, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2540/page/36/
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