tions, in fhort, fhould begin at the heart,-and there's no 'doubt of the voice and body receiving fuch right directions from it, as can never fail of making proper impreffions: 'Whilft moving of the head, legs, and arms, by rule and 'compass, must have comparatively a cold, infipid, and even ' a ridiculous effect.'

ART. VI. Thoughts on the Being of a God, the Nature of Man, and the Relation of Man to his Maker; or, a Vindication of the Supreme Being, in all his Dispensations; and a Philosophical Answer to all the Objections that ever were, or can be, made to Divine Revelation. Addressed to Mankind in General, 8vo. Pr. 25. Woodgate.

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HE age we live in feems to be the age of ignorance and enthusiasm, which by the charitable affiftance of univerfal vice and corruption, bid fair to extirpate sense and reason, and bear down all before them: Every illiterate vifionary fets for a philosopher, and a free-thinker, indulges his genius for paradox and romance, and publishes his Utopian fyftem, in hopes of forming fome new fect, or raifing himself to fame and immortality Amongst these the author of the piece before us has a right to feat himself on some diftinguished eminence, being, in our opinion, as fanciful as Roficrucius or Van Helmont, and about as abfurd as Hutchinson or Romaine,

The pamphlet, confifting of no lefs than one hundred and twenty-four pages, promises, as we fee in the title, an answer, not only to all the objections that ever were made to revela-tion (which one would think had been fufficient for any book of a moderate fize,) but likewise, which is much more extraordinary, an answer to all the objections that ever can be made to it hereafter: The power of our author's arguments must confequently be pretty extenfive, and are therefore with great propriety addreffed, not to any particular patron, but, (to fhew the writer's impartiality) to mankind in general, who, no doubt, will take the first opportunity of returning him thanks for the obligation. In the preface, the author affures us that he is in the right; but at the fame time acquaints us, that, by an affurance

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furance of being right, he means, so far as a human mind can. poffibly be affured of the truth of any thing, which is furely as much as, if not more than, his readers can expect: Had I not (fays he) the strongest reasons to entertain a prefumption of that kind, no confideration whatsoever could prevail on me to offer any thing of fo extraordinary a nature to the public: for I would not willingly impofe upon a worm, and much ⚫ lefs upon a whole world.

I flatter myself man will hereby have juster ideas of the na<ture of God and himself, than, perhaps, he ever before conceived; ́and not only learn what he was and what he is, but likewife what he will be :

He will also find the most abftrufe points of divine revelation perfectly reconciled to philofophical experience, in a man'ner never before attempted; and though fome of those arguments may not be intelligible to every capacity; yet the con'clufion of each, will, I hope, be understood by all.’

As the author had engag'd in his title-page to treat on a great variety of subjects, we must not be surprised to find him a little Pindaric in his tranfitions from one to another: there is not indeed the leaft appearance of order or method throughout the whole. This extraordinary pamphlet begins thus, By the term God I mean a being, fupreme, self-exiftent, and the caufe of all other beings.

How do I know there is fuch a being?-Nothing can give 'me a more convincing proof of the being of a God, than the contemplation of my own existence.-I find I have a being myfelf, not only by my inward fenfations, but likewife by being able to explore the external parts of which I am compofed; I can perceive the particular relations they bear to each other, and their general relation to me, the fum of all thofe parts.-I likewife find myself furrounded by a number of objects, quite diftinct from myself, fome of which are of a fpecies fimilar to mine: I not only perceive them, but am alfo perceived by them; it is in my power to affect them in • various manners, and in theirs to affect me.—The former could not happen if they were not in being, nor the latter if I had not a being myfelf. I therefore conclude that I am in being.-How came I fo?

I could not bring myself into existence, for it was so far out of my power to do that, that I can't even preferve my existence now I have it, neither could I receive it from any of the vifible objects that surround me. For though I find, • with gratitude to the author of my existence, that I am placed in that clafs of animate beings that has the preheminence over all others that inhabit this fublunary globe; yet it was "not in the power of any of them to give me my being, more ⚫ than it was in my power to give them their's.-My parents indeed may be faid to conduce to my existence, but the means 'they used for that purpose were very simple; and they can no < more be said to make me, than a gardener to make the beau* tiful flowers he cultivates.-They owe their station and pre• fervation to him; but the beauties of their growth, colour and texture, they receive from a power far exceeding his ca'pacity. Since then man, the lord of the creation, could not give me my existence, I must receive it from fomething far fu"perior to man, who not only made man, but also the earth he inhabits.'

Our author then informs us, that every thing relating to man may be brought under three general heads, viz. Being, Senfe, Power,' different in their natures from each other; for, to be or exist is one thing, to think or poffefs any kind of consciousness is another, and to act or exercise any degree of power is a third. But further, as in man, fo in God there are three qualities or perfections on which all his attributes are founded, fupreme effence, fupreme wisdom, fupreme power; the Supreme effence is God the Father, the fupreme wisdom is God the Son, and the fupreme power is God the Holy-Ghoft. Having thus fettled the Trinity, he proceeds to enquire into the nature of man, and out of what God made him: here the old question occurs to him, how can something be made out of nothing. Our author's opinion concerning this, is, as follows.

All the matter which the whole created fyftem of beings • confifts of, was not form'd or produced from nothing, but, on 'the contrary, ever has had an existence, and ever will continue to have one, though not in its prefent ftate; for though it may be changed in whatsoever manner God pleafes, yet

⚫ not so much as one particle of it can poffibly be annihilated; • but of this more presently.'

'God, from all eternity or præterity, has, and to all futu•rity will, act in the fame manner, I prefume, to suppose his • Divine Majefty did, (I mean at particular and perhaps regular periods of time,) at the creation of the present system of worlds, viz. first withdraw the intelligent quality from such a 'portion or quantity of his own divine effence, as was fufficient for the purpose, and thereof make infenfible matter;—which • first became that chaos spoken of by Mofes, out of which the • prefent created system of worlds, and variety of beings pertaining thereto, were formed

In doing this the three divine perfections equally contributed a fhare.

The divine effence furnished the matter of which the creation was made.

The divine wisdom directed the harmony and order—and the divine power executed the fame.'

He then confiders the fo often controverted point concerning the free-agency of man, which he treats very fuperficially, and runs away from it to explain in what manner man receives his animal functions, and in what life confifts. After two or three nonfenfical pages concerning the properties of fire, he breaks out into the following rhapsody.

I hope I have leave now to disclofe a thought, which twelve years ago darted into my mind like a flash of lightning, and made fuch an impreffion thereon, that I fat down the very • hour it occurred to me.

It is, that fire conveys to us nothing less than the divine Spirit of the fupreme being, which, were our eyes in the pre• fent ftate of existence capable of beholding, would as far excel in fplendor and glory the dazzling fun, as that does a 'piece of charcoal.'

This he proves from fcripture, by God's fpeaking to Mofes out of a burning-bufh,-to Saul from a great light,-the defcent of the Holy-Ghost in the fhape of fiery tongues.——

Our author's fentiments on the nature of the foul are likewife curious and uncommon.

It may be urged (fays he) that the foul of man is mortal, and dies with the body.

• What real authority have we ever had to think otherwise? * and what mighty confequence will attend its being so, fince a refurrection is as certain as death ?—If we think a little before we find fault with those difpenfations which all our wif 'dom could not even invent, and much less improve,—we 'fhall find that providence is extremely kind to us in this very

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• How hard would have been the fate of Adam, Eve, and all ⚫ those who lived in the early Ages of the world, had they been obliged to live till now, and behold the various viciffitudes of fortune, and calamitous fcenes that have attended human life, between their time and ours?

"On the other hand, if the foul and body were two diftin& beings, what must become of the foul in the intermediate ⚫ time between death and the refurrection?

• If it remained in an insensible state, what better would it be than the body?

If in a state of fenfibility, it must be conscious of its merits * or demerits, and knowing from thence, or at least fearing, what must be its fate at the refurrection, would not the foul • of a bad man, that died in the early ages, suffer a vast deal more than that of one who died in the latter days, though ' their crimes were equal? This is not confiftent with the jus tice of God. Some indeed fuppofe, that they are judged immediately after death, and the good are received into blifs; would it not be extremely cruel, if this were the case, to • make them return again into the body, to a second judgment on earth!

Page 74 of this incoherent treatise, we find our author rambling into an examination of the nature of human conception, which he informs us was previoufly neceffary to an explanation of the mysterious conception of the Blessed Virgin: he then harangues concerning the sufferings and character of Christ, and concludes his obfervations on that head with this remarkable paragraph.

'As yet, the world feems to be little the better for the fufferings of their Redeemer. He told them they were not to • expect

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