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loeophic mind . * ' He asks with great propriety , whether the discordance of these various sceptical hypotheses arises from the " principle of order" so strongly advocated by their authors ? If not , perhaps it may be accounted for by Chance , Nature , or Necessity . That truth will be turned up among them , however , appears a very remote contingency .
The theory , advocated by many , that the world has existed from eternity in its present state , is refuted by those advocates themselves when they assert that causes are in operation which will work its destruction . ** For as a system which has been from eternity , must , in its essence or construction , be everlasting " , so a system which must come to an end , must have had a commencement * If there be causes now in operation which must ultimately derange our globe , its vegetable and animal beings must have had an origin . '
If , as recent observations render it highly probable , not to say morally certain , the whole solar system is gradually moving towards the constellation Hercules—if the moon is gradually approaching nearer to the earth—if friction and resistance retard , however little , the projectile motion of our globe , how does it happen that the earth has existed through an eternity ? How can it be declared to have so existed in its present state , while its future destruction
is , at the same time , predicted ? How is the intellectual condition of man to be accounted for , on this hypothesis ? Granting that his progress may be infinite , it is clear that , as invention and discovery are the means of that progress , it must have had a beginning . If the human race be supposed to have existed for an eternity of ages without any exertion of intellect , it is clear that the world was not then , as the hypothesis states , in its present condition : and . on the other hand , an infinite series of inventions and
discoveries is an evident absurdity . The farther we go back , the nearer we approach to a limit , till the series is exhausted . The system of Spinoza , which is supposed to have numerous adherents abroad , and a few advocates in this country , is examined at considerable length by our author . Its chief importance is derived from the mystery with which it is invested , and to which alone , we conceive , it owes its
reception by any rational mind . His disciples themselves have never been able to agree as to whether his system is to be called Atheistical or Pantheistical ; whether it contains doctrines irreconcileable with Theism , or derogatory to the character of the Supreme Being ; or whether he believed no such Being to exist , or held him to be material . As far , however , as his meaning can be gathered from his ambiguous terms , his false assumptions , his identical propositions , and inaccurate definitions , it appears to be this :
That it is impossible for any thing to be created or produced by another thing : that it is impossible for God to have produced any thing different from what it now is : that every thing that exists must be a part of the Divine nature , by absolute necessity , and not as a modification caused b y the Divine will ; in short , that the universe itself is Deity . The charge " Deum verbis ponere , re tollere , " may therefore be fairly alleged against Sp inoza ;
and if it be true that his disciples are yet numerous , the time which Dr . Crombie has employed in exposing the fallacies of his philosophy , has not been ill-spent . It is clear that the arguments employed against all the other systems which assume the eternity of matter , afford a sufficient confutation of this also ; and it thus appears that all the absurd cosmogonies , all the conflicting hypotheses of Atheism , have arisen from a very few false
principles , and may be overthrown by the application of a very few correct ones . We fully agree with our author respecting the inapplicability of metaphysical arguments to the proof of the existence of Deity : and his remarks
Untitled Article
150 Cromltie ' s Natural Theology .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1830, page 150, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/6/
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