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AN ESSAY

ON THE

PHILOSOPHY

OF

CHRISTIANITY.

VOLUME I.

CONTAINING

PART I-PRELIMINARY DISQUISITIONS.

1.-On Power and Cause.

2.-On Human Preference and Inclination.

BY CALEB PITT, C. E. L.

Prove all things---hold fast that which is good. 1 Thess. v. 21.

LONDON:

WILLIAM BOOTH, 32, DUKE STREET,
Manchester Square ;

SOLD BY DUNCAN, PATERNOSTER ROW; SIMPKIN AND CO.
STATIONER'S COURT, LONDON; TIMS AND W. CURREY,
JUN. AND CO. DUBLIN; KING AND CO. CORK;
ROBERTSON AND CO. EDINBURGH; AND
OGLE AND CO. GLASGOW.

1824.

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INTRODUCTION.

GOD

OD, who at various times and in divers manners fpake to the world by patriarchs, prophets, evangelifts and apostles, hath also, by a special providence, conveyed down to us the holy fcriptures, the writings penned under divine infpiration and fuperintendency. The hand of God feems equally evident in preferving copies of them through the various declenfions and perfecutions of the church: and in preserving them from fophiftical alterations, to which prefervation the order of scribes, under the Mofaic difpenfation, and the disputes among Chriftians under the prefent, feem to have eminently concurred.

Every man favored with these revelations, I apprehend, has an unquestionable right to endeavour an investigation as he may have opportunity. The procefs used for such discoveries may be called philofophizing, fo, the nature, operation, and influence of thefe revelations generally ⚫onceived

a 3

conceived, and as a branch of knowledge, I call the Philofophy of Chriflianity.

Prejudices of education and of fuperftition, occafion fome to be difgufted at whatsoever is called philofophy; and to ftart at the thought of treating Christianity philosophically. If the difguft of fuch fhould prevent their reading this Effay, I can have no direct concern with them. The holy fcriptures address mankind as rational beings, and my wifh is, with divine concurrence, to lend a hand to the fincere fearcher of religious truth. Undoubtedly paffion and imagination, as well as understanding, are in their exercise effential to actual and vital godlinefs; but experienced Chriftians will affign understanding and a found theory to take the lead in precedence, fince the warmth of affection, and the foarings of fancy cannot be valuable and permanent unless truth is their fupport. I conceive it demonftrable from the effential perfections of God, that science truly fo called, and found philofophy of every fpecies, do, in the nature of things, perfectly harmonize with all the revelations of God: and am fo far from contemning fcience and rational philofophy, that I am inclined to think, evidence and affent refpecting that harmony will progreffionally increase with the duration of the world, until the knowledge of Chrift the glory of the Lord, fhall fill the earth, as the waters the place of the feas.

Philofophy

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Philofophy may, confiftently with the defign of this Effay, be diftinguished as its objects are either the works of God, or the revelations of God. This feems the process of human philofophizing, and equally applicable to the philofophy of the universe, and philofophy of Chriftianity. First, We endeavour from a felection of appearances and experimental difcoveries, to trace out some of the rules or laws of the operation and influence of things: then we endeavour by these to discover fome of the properties and needful circumstances of the objects thus concuring to efficiency next we endeavour to discover what are the determinate effentials of the objects concerned and lastly, we apply our knowledge thus attained to the folution of other difficulties. By this employment we come at a number of eftablished points: but reflecting, that all the works of God, and all the revelations of God, muft be analagous and harmonious, we are prompted to push forwards towards fyftematic knowledge on these subjects.

Now arifeth hypothefis, or a fyftem founded on fuppofition. That hypothefis, which in our judgment, whilst it confifts with all the appearances and experiments made in the universe, is evidently confiftent with itself and all other species of evident knowledge, fhould be esteemed, till we find a better, a good system of philosophy of the works of God. Again, That hypothefis,

which

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