tention, they would have difcovered, that this great system of nature could only have been the work of one God, who created all these beings, and deftined each of them to its proper end and ufe; or, if they had not made this discovery, they would at least have offered fome folid arguments in their defence, against those who maintain that the corruptibility of material beings is a thing very indifferent in its nature; and that there is no abfurdity in faying that this world, which is composed of parts of a different nature, is the work of one great Being, who fo ordered it, that every part thereof fhould harmoniously concur in the common good of the whole. The fecond part of our author's argument, namely, that the body of a man is of the fame nature with that of a rat, of a worm, or of a frog, because the matter of the one is the fame as the matter of the other, they being all equally corruptible, is not at all like the argument of a person who had any idea of phyfics. The Greeks fuppofed the fun, moon, planets, and all the heavenly bodies, to be fo many divinities, notwithftanding they are evidently material bodies, and from their nature fubject to corruption; and if we were to admit our author's reasoning, and adopt the ideas of his countrymen respecting the gods, we fhould fay that the plants, fifhes, and wild beafts, were likewife fo many divinities, because they are equally material bodies, and from their nature fubject to corruption :-The matter matter of all kinds of bodies being originally the fame, but is fufceptible of all the qualities which the Creator fhall imprint upon it; fo that when it is the will of God, a certain portion of matter receives particular qualities; and again, when it is his will, he can change thefe qualities, and imprint others thereon, which are more noble and exquifite than the former. Again, as it is a point capable of a phyfical demonftration, that mere matter cannot think; and as we find a thinking principle in all the brute animals, which is evidently not material, at least according to the ideas which we have at prefent of the properties of matter, I would ask the friends of our author, whether they suppose that principle to have been created by the Supreme Being or not? because this author proceeds to tell us, that the nature of all the bodies beforementioned, is the fame, and that their matter is the fame, paffing and repaffing through all the fucceffive changes to which it is expofed in the world; fo that, of all thofe things which are formed of matter, there is nothing immortal. If we may believe this author, in his faying that the nature of every kind of body is the fame, and their matter the famé, preferving its properties through all the fucceffive changes to which it is expofed in the world, we must conclude, that matter is immortal; and yet he proceeds to tell us, that of all those things which are formed of matter, there is nothing immortal. The world, which is formed of matter, is not an immortal being, but, of course, muft be mortal, and fubject to corruption, as not being the work of God. Our bodies likewife, which, according to the reasoning of our author and his friends the Materialists, are a part of this great mass of mortal matter, muft die with it. But what is to become of that reafoning principle which is evidently in every human being, which we call the foul, and which is generally admitted to be the work of God, in this ftate of corruption? and what is to become of that thinking principle we find in all the brute animals, and which is by no means a property of mere matter? -Celfus has not given any answer to these quef tions; but our modern Materialists declare, that the foul dies with the body; or rather, as it is nothing more, according to their fyftem, than a breath of air, when it quits the body, it is abforbed by the circumambient atmosphere, as a vapour that arifes out of the earth. If we were to judge from the pride, prefumption, felf-fufficiency, and that species of refined reasoning which are peculiar to our philofophers, who would develop all the myfteries of the Supreme Being, we should conclude the human fpecies to be little less than gods; but, on the other hand, when we regard the doctrine of thofe pretended reafoners, we find that we are actually no more in the general scale of things than the most vile animals; and from the nobleness of our nature, ten times more unhappy than they. Our Our author now proceeds, in a very brief manner, to define the nature of evil; although it is a queftion which has exercised all the reasoning of the greatest philofophers, of which there are scarcely two who coincide in their opinions thereon. There never was, and there never will be, more or less evil in the world than there is at prefent. The nature of the universe is always the fame, and duces at all times the fame quantity of evil. pro The ancient philofophers were, in general, of a different opinion with Celfus, respecting this matter, that there never was either more or less vice in the world at one time than at another. They were of the contrary opinion, and their opinion seems to be founded upon hiftorical facts. In the early ages of the world, the abandoned women never prostituted themselves but out of the towns, and under a mask; afterwards, when they loft all fense of shame, they threw off the mask, but they were still forbid by the laws to enter into the towns: however, when vice and corruption increased, they were permitted to enter into the towns; and at length were even tolerated there by the laws, to prevent more vicious and unnatural practices. When the Chriftian religion was preached upon earth, the immorality of mankind was greatly corrected in all those parts of the world where this doctrine appeared; but in afterages, even in our days, vice and debauchery have shewn themselves again in very strong and lively colours. There are actually, at this time, many great Ꭲ 4 great cities and towns in the Chriftian world, where the civil magiftrates are obliged to tolerate, and even to provide, a certain number of common prostitutes, in proportion to the number of the inhabitants of their refpective town's, to prevent a fpecies of vice much more unnatural and deteftable; but even this does not effectually anfwer the end: We here fee fathers and mothers offering their own children as prostitutes, and husbands hiring out their wives as they would their horfes; practices which were scarcely ever known in those countries, fince Jefus Chrift appeared upon earth, till within these two or three ages paft. This has likewise been propofed as a reafon, by the enemies of Christianity, to prove the infufficiency of the Chriftian doctrines to correct the vices of mankind; but, I think, very unjustly; because it is an undoubted fact, that the Chriftian religion has not only been the inftrument whereby the greateft part of the inhabitants of the known world have been drawn out of a scene of the groffeft idolatry, and brought to the knowledge of the true God; but it has everywhere fpread the precepts of the purest morality that was ever taught upon earth; and if mankind fall again into thofe horrid scenes of vice and irregularity which corrupted the heathen world, they cannot be faid to do it, in a great meafure, through ignorance, as did the Gentiles; and as being free agents, and the fault lying wholly |