Reasonable men may be allowed to differ, where no
one can reasonably be positive. Opposite sentiments, even without
any decision, afford an agreeable amusement; and if the subject
be curious and interesting, the book carries us, in a manner,
into company; and unites the two greatest and purest pleasures of
human life, study and society.
Happily, these circumstances are all to be found in the
subject of /NATURAL RELIGION\. What truth so obvious, so certain,
as the being of a God, which the most ignorant ages have
acknowledged, for which the most refined geniuses have
ambitiously striven to produce new proofs and arguments? What
truth so important as this, which is the ground of all our hopes,
the surest foundation of morality, the firmest support of
society, and the only principle which ought never to be a moment
absent from our thoughts and meditations? But, in treating of
this obvious and important truth, what obscure questions occur
concerning the nature of that Divine Being, his attributes, his
decrees, his plan of providence? These have been always subjected
to the disputations of men; concerning these human reason has not
reached any certain determination. But these are topics so
interesting, that we cannot restrain our restless inquiry with
regard to them; though nothing but doubt, uncertainty, and
contradiction, have as yet been the result of our most accurate
researches.
This I had lately occasion to observe, while I passed, as
usual, part of the summer season with C/LEANTHES\, and was
present at those conversations of his with P/HILO\ and D/EMEA\,
of which I gave you lately some imperfect account.
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