On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    that preceded it , it must fee in itseli possible that the same Being may exert a similar power

    whenever he pleases . 0 r & * t the material world be coeval with God * I am unable to undfrJ * t # nd . how it couki have had an fteths * r \ or have been , prop < £ * l y speaking , a crcapon ; tor wiaBU-viir bas been created , there

    mt * H have been a time , when . it did not etfist ; or , how could God * establish the present order of a ^ tu-re fix > m , eternity / siuce that which is eternal could not have been established or caused . May we not as well say , the eternaj

    universe created Qod I since * according to this nation , t h ere could have been no priority of existence . If Di * . P . admits the eternity of the universe , it apjpears , as far as I am able to jucge ., to weaken , if not to undermine * all his arguments . in the former

    part of these letters , to prove the necessity of a , Jirst cause . And if the pmverse be eternal , with all its order undjitness , and . coiisc quently , its general laws ; what necessity can there be for a governor of tha world ?

    I wish to know , if the opinion of the eternity of the universe be held by philosophical Christians

    in general . In part ii . letter i . -p . 2 . he says , * For a « to the opinion of

    &n immaterial soul > distinct from the bpdy , which makes its escape at dt&th * we afe both agreed , that no ujppeamnce in Jnutur ^ favoqrs jcbjs ' " supposition . ^ I < Jp ufrt , S ^ , if it her quite philosophical to reason analogically from the material jto the immaterial world ; yet , «^ i it has been ifrequently don ^ by thte ingenious DnVriesttey , and many ^> t £ et celebrated writer * ^ I beg lew * to advance an argument

    Untitled Article

    from an appearance , in ttatu ^ j bearing some analogy Ui the sepa * rate existence of the soul , I mean the fragrance or ^ fBLu \; ia of flowers ^ which is continually i 3 ying off frox& the plant , * &nd disp ^ ing itself in the air . And even when

    th 6 flower *? ie $ « these subtile par * , ticles , e ^ o ^ t in # sep air ^ lje st ^ t ^ 151 the atmosphexe « , Tl ) er ^ jare sxx by stances existing fn nature , oi vyhicti we cannot doialit , though it' bfe

    impossible to recognise theiii by any of our sen ^ s ; such . as magnetism , electricity , &c . $ cc . \} JBRt of these t ^ jg ^ e ^ iip- ' fic ^ oiint / as we do not knenv that the effects exist

    after the primary cau > e Is de ? strayed * $ ut th < 3 paVticl ^ , of musk are $ o exceedingly dijfusiye , that we ^ kno . y / a 9 in ^ e gra | n" wilj coiKiriue to waste itself without any vis ^ bjle di miriu ^ c ^ o ( i | s ^ i ^ e or odotir , fpr , inany years" afjt ^ r

    the animal is dead . The doctrine of the separate existence of the soul , i f not only very poetical , but iiiost agreeable to human nature , which dwells with j ^ teasijre on t ^ e i dea of the present b ^ Ss of lost '¦ . iiiehih * "" It is a notion of

    great ^ nquityj ^ ince the lieathen philosophers enjoyed sbraie hope ( though grounded only on analogy , or ^ pti |) ging . f ^ o « 3 l naturqj der sire ) of a luiure state to the hu * m ^ n soul , yet they had no idea of * a resuiTection of ^ the body *

    Metempsychosis appears to have been a perversion of the foregping doctrine , ahd w , as an opiniprt yery jgefteraily t * ec ^ ive ci by the vulgar amongst the J £ w $ , and , consequently by the first converts to

    Christi an ity . . Wishing the universality of that liberal spirit * hich renders the Monthl y iUposiu > ry s& i mtly . c 4 » lebrated , i niti ^ & c * & <• A N&w Str »» c * iJi £ *'

    Untitled Article

    33 g On Passages in Dr . Priestley ' s Lettem *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1810, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2406/page/16/