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"lives; and was intended by the author of "our being for giving us entire fatisfaction "concerning all primary truths, thofe of religion in particular; and our not hav

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ing recourfe to that power, is the true "cause of those idle difputes which have "been maintained of late about the truth "of religion. The feeling of moral ex

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cellence," he fays, p. 120, "may be loft, "but, the cafe of madnefs excepted, a "man cannot lofe a perception of the dif"ference between obvious truth and palpa"ble abfurdity."

At other times we are informed, that it is a most difficult thing to attain to a right judgment on the principles of this fame common fenfe. "Good fenfe, Dr. Ofwald fays, vol. i. p. 16, "is a fpecies of knowledge, of difficult attainment. It is, indeed, the gift of heaven, but needs to "be stirred up, and has been fo long, and univerfally neglected, that to give it full "exercise requires more attention and ap"plication of thought, than most people "are willing to bestow. Every smatterer

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in fcience takes it for granted that he is poffeffed of the principles of good sense, "but on trial the greatest adepts will hard"ly admit them. They are, in truth, so plain, that to illuftrate and inculcate them "is to tire the patience, and to affront the

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judgment of the reader; but, at the "fame time, fo diametrically oppofite to re"ceived opinions, and established maxims, "that barely to propofe, or even to ftate "them with perfpicuity, without unfold

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ing or inculcating them with due care, "would be to encourage that fuperficial way of judging, which is the fource of all our errors."

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He farther fays, p. 18, that in order" to "convey that full and permanent convic"tion which is due to truths of the first "rank, the mind must be allowed to judge "of them with impartiality and coolness,

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proceeding not upon fentiments fuddenly "raised by ftriking views of truth, but on "a deliberate judgment, formed by a fa"miliar acquaintance with the object: and "in order thereto, the fame truths must be

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prefented again and again, with no great "variation, and with as little adventitious "ornament as poffible."

In this deplorable ftate of the affairs of common fenfe, one would think that Dr. Ofwald might be glad to avail himself of the aid of reafon; but of this he entertains the greatest dread. Even a profeffed unbeliever is not fo great a bugbear to him as a reasoning christian. I fhall present my reader with one of his numerous pathetical complaints on this fubject.

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"Not only the chriftian revelation, but "the moral perfections and moral government of God, yea, and the very being "of virtue, have been made a fubject of difpute. Freethinkers are not afhamed "to publish their doubts concerning these "realities; divines and philofophers have "not difdained to establish them by a mul"titude of arguments. What is yet more to "be regretted, the preachers of the gospel, forgetting the dignity of their character, "and the defign of their office, have con"defcended

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defcended to plead the caufe of religion "in much the fame manner as lawyers "maintain a difputed right of property. "Inftead of awakening the natural fenti"ments of the human heart, and giving "them a free direction, they have entered

into reafonings about piety, juftice, and "benevolence, too profound to be fa"thomed by the multitude, and too fub"tile to produce any confiderable effect. "Inftead of fetting forth the difplays of "divine perfection in the dispensation of "the gofpel, fo admirably well fitted to "touch, to penetrate, and to fubdue the "human mind, they have entertained their "audiences with long and laboured proofs "of a revelation from God, of which few "have any ferious doubt, and which no "man can difbelieve in any confistency with "common fenfe. May not this be called "with great propriety a throwing cold "water on religion? And ought it not to "be confidered as one of the chief caufes "of that infenfibility to all its concerns, "of which we fo frequently complain? "The multitude have been astonished, wife

"men

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men have been afhamed, and good men

grieved at this treatment of religion, fo "much beneath its dignity."

I would not be fevere upon Dr. Ofwald, though he obferves no bounds in his cenfures of the most refpectable writers of the laft and present age, without diftinction ; but I cannot help faying, that, in this loofe and rhetorical manner, and with fuch airs of felf-fufficiency, and arrogance, is the greatest part of his two volumes written; confifting of mere declamation, the groffeft mifrepresentations of the nature of reafoning, and exaggerations of the abuses of it; imputing to chriftian divines a conduct that they are not chargeable with, and where argument fails, having recourfe to dogmatical affertions, and abufe; at the fame time that his tautology is inexpreffibly tiresome. I really do not remember that I ever read a work fo large as this of Dr. Ofwald, that contained fo little; I do not mean of truth, but of any thing. That any good should come of this manner of writing is to me incomprehenfible. It may, indeed, give

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