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Cipriani del

Bartolozzi sautp

I have laid the foundation & another build-eth thereon. But let every man take heed/

how he buildeth thereon. Cor. 3.10.

RELATING то

MATTER AND SPIRIT.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

The Hiftory of the Philofophical Doctrine con-
cerning the Origin of the Soul, and the
Nature of Matter; with its Influence on
Christianity, especially with Refpect to the
Doctrine of the Pre-existence of Christ.

BY JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL, D.F.R.S.

Si quelqu'un demontreroit jamais, qu l'ame eft materielle, loin
de s'en alarmer, il faudroit admirer la puiffance, qui au-
roit donné a la matiere la capacité de penser.

BONNETT. Palingenefie. Vol. I, p. 50.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, No. 72, ST. PAUL'S
CHURCH-YARD, 1777.

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TO THE

REV. WILLIAM GRAHAM.

DEAR SIR,

TAKE the liberty to dedicate to

I you a work, written with greater

freedom than any that I have hitherto offered to the Public. An enemy of bigotry, and a distinguished champion for freedom of thinking, in very trying fituations, as you have long been, I am satisfied you will not be difpleased with any effort of the fpirit with which you have ever been animated, and which you have done fo much to inspire.

Educated, as you know I was, in the very ftraiteft principles of reputed orthodoxy, and zealous as I once was a 3

for

for every tenet of the system, it was, in a great measure, by your example and encouragement, at my entrance on theological inquiries, that I adventured to think for myself on subjects of the greatest importance; and that I have been able, in the course of a flow and laborious investigation, to free myself from many vulgar prejudices, and to reject many grofs corruptions, as I now deem them, of that religion which is the best gift of God to man, and to attain to the degree of conviction and fatisfaction of mind which I now enjoy. Every obligation of this important kind I hope I fhall always remember with peculiar pleasure and gratitude.

After a fufficiently tempeftuous life, you are now enjoying yourself in a tranquill retirement, and seeing others contend with the ftorm, the

fury

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