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dom , bftt , I trust , without violatingthe respect which is due to his talents and character . I hare said , that " they who contend for the uMty and perfections of God , the doctrine of a universal
providence , and the future existence and immortality of man as inculcated by nature , have derived their conviction of them from Christianity , and from Christianity alone . " And if Mr . Sturch is disposed to believe that they would have had the conviction of their truth
Which they now have , had not their lot been cast in a Christian land , I can only say , that he has my hearty consent . We know how they originally came by this conviction , and that they could have attained it by
any other means we never can know . And for myself , I should not think favourably either of the understanding or the modesty of the man who should Venture to say that had he been nursed in the lap of idolatry , and encompassed
from his cradle with the superstitions of a Pagan worship , he should have felt any assurance of the truths above stated . And but for Christianity this might have been the case witli all the modern advocates of natural religion .
Again , I said , that " If the ancient philosophers really believed in a future life , there is sufficient reason to think that their faith did not grow out of their reasonings , but that their rea * aonings were laboriously sought for to uphold a preconceived opinion / ' Mr .
Sturch complains that I have omitted to state on what , except reason , this preconceived opinion was founded , and he has kindly endeavoured to supply the deficiency , and supposes that it might be the effect of the reasonings of superior minds on the perfections of God the Creator , and the
circumstances of man his creature . It is a £ ity that these reasonings halve not been handed down to posterity . I have this moment looked once more into Plato ' s seven arguments for the Immortality of the soul , contained in his famous dialogue on that subject , and I do not find Mr . Sturch ' s
reasonings among them . And that there had existed ixten in some earlier ages who reasoned as Mr . Sturch would bow reason , is a supposition touch less probable than that the opinion-in question was the traditionary reatelt of
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some original revelation which had been communicated by G 6 # to « he »
human r&ce . ® iit ^ VrfiSt ^^ Br % Sfcy b& the justice of this < feintri ^ I' cannot but feel persuaded , that the expectation of a future life , was not generated by such reasonings as those of the ancient philosophers .
Oicefo has certainly stated the argument for the being of a Ood in an able manner , in his second book , De Natura Deorum * But if he felt the force of liis own reasoning , as Mr .
Sfcureh and I have felt it , it is wonderful that he should have written many things which he did write in the remaining part of the treatise . And much more must be known
concerning God than his simple existence , to make tip the sublime views which are given of him in the volume of revelation . Thus much I readily concede to the advocates of natural religion , that the argument for the existence of a God is as conclusive as need be , and that from the predominance or good , which appears ut his works , it is difficult not to conceive of him ai
benevolent . But when I wish to investigate the Divine character farther , I do not seem to proceed with certainty , but rather to lean upon reasonings which may prove fallacious . But Cicero , moreover , has expressed a lively expectation of a life to come . Mr . Sturch'knows what has been said
on the other side of the question ; to whidi I shall only add , that this expectation does not appear to have been of any service to him when its influence was most needed . Arid this seems to hold true of the ancients in
general . But my zeal in a bad cause has , it seems , betrayed me into an error , which for my consolation is a commoii one , that of mistaking' and caricaturing the opinions which I do not myself admit . I had said , that €€ If we are to believe what we are sometimes told
concerning the religion of nature , its truths ark emblazoned in the heavens in characters which all can read , and which none can misunderstand g * arid I am called upon to inform your readers * who they are who have advatafced so strange and absurd a position . . As Mr . S ^ urdi was not j > er $ otially attacked , J iriight , perhap s * with- ? 6 ttfr iwaj ^ fopriety , d ^ cKnfe unswerin ff ttf
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136 Mr . Cagun \ tnM 4 plfto Mr . Sturch ^ m Nftiurat Religion ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1824, page 136, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2522/page/8/
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