ISBN: 9780217714525

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1837. Not … Mehr…

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1837. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... (meaning with our notion of their happiness)--this is to me an additional proof of the total and general disbelief prevailing in his age and country. His carelessness of expression (his opinion being such as it clearly was) shows that he never apprehended the slightest danger of any one''s supposing him to be speaking of a life after death. None of his readers was likely to suspect him of designing to teach a doctrine so strange and unphilosophical as, in their eyes, this would have appeared. Note (B) page 44. Cicero, in his epistles to his friends, in which, if any where, he may be supposed to speak his real sentiments, frankly avows his utter disbelief in a future state, in one sense of the word, i. e. a future state of distinct personal existence percipient of pleasure or pain: ut mortem, quam etiam beati contemnere debeamus, propterea quod nullum semum esset habitura, &c. [Epist. to L. Mescinus Fam. Ep. lib. v. ep. 21.] And in an epistle to Toranius [lib. vi. ep. 3.] he says, nec enim dum ero, angar ulla re, cum omni vacem culpa; et si non ero, semu omnino carebo^ This passage will indeed bear another meaning, viz. that he is speaking, not of life or death on earth, but of the state after death; in which it may be said, he declares his conviction, that if he continues to exist, his innocence will secure him from suffering, and if he has no being at all, he will have no sensation. The former of these would have been indeed a sufficiently bold assumption: while the latter, that he who does not exist has no perception, is a truism which I think he would hardly have announced with so much solemnity. Be this as it may however, the passage from the other epistle just quoted, in which the very same expression is used, makes it sufficiently clear that h... Richard Whately, Books, Religion and Spirituality, Essays On Some Of The Peculiarities Of The Christian Religion Books>Religion and Spirituality Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: error, to regard Christianity as little else than the Religion of Nature, proclaimed by a special mission, for the benefit, chiefly, of those whose feebleness of intellect, ignorance, or depraved disposition, unfits them for discovering its truths by the light of Reason. The Gospel accordingly, while praised as a beautiful system, and highly extolled for its utility, is praised, in fact, for what does not belong to it, viz. its containing nothing of importance which a philosophical mind might not discover by its own unaided powers: and it is thence regarded as useful only for the less intelligent and less cultivated; in short, for the vulgar. There are others, again, whose veneration for the Gospel is more real, but who erroneously think to honour and support it by laying a foundation which, in fact, tends to weaken and degrade the superstructure. Beginning with Natural-Religion, they attribute to that, much of what properly belongs to Christianity, and much that belongs to neither; and thus often lead to the perversion of some parts of the Gospel, and to the depreciation of others. In fact, the study of natural-religion ought properly to follow, or chapter{Section 4at least to accompany, not to precede, that of revelation. Our own speculations ought to be controlled and regulated by a divine revelation, when it is once ascertained that a revelation exists; they should not be left to range unlimited and unassisted, on a subject on which God has Himself decided that Man is not competent of himself to judge rightly. And if Reason be for some time enthroned as sole judge and lawgiver, she will not afterwards readily resign her seat, and submit her decisions, to Revelation; but will often exercise an undue interference. It is sometimes complained, that the mind is unduly bias...<

ISBN: 9780217714525

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in afforda… Mehr…

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Books Religion~~General Essays-On-Some-Of-The-Peculiarities-Of-The-Christian-Religion~~Richard-Whately General Books LLC Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: error, to regard Christianity as little else than the Religion of Nature, proclaimed by a special mission, for the benefit, chiefly, of those whose feebleness of intellect, ignorance, or depraved disposition, unfits them for discovering its truths by the light of Reason. The Gospel accordingly, while praised as a beautiful system, and highly extolled for its utility, is praised, in fact, for what does not belong to it, viz. its containing nothing of importance which a philosophical mind might not discover by its own unaided powers: and it is thence regarded as useful only for the less intelligent and less cultivated; in short, for the vulgar. There are others, again, whose veneration for the Gospel is more real, but who erroneously think to honour and support it by laying a foundation which, in fact, tends to weaken and degrade the superstructure. Beginning with Natural-Religion, they attribute to that, much of what properly belongs to Christianity, and much that belongs to neither; and thus often lead to the perversion of some parts of the Gospel, and to the depreciation of others. In fact, the study of natural-religion ought properly to follow, or chapter{Section 4at least to accompany, not to precede, that of revelation. Our own speculations ought to be controlled and regulated by a divine revelation, when it is once ascertained that a revelation exists; they should not be left to range unlimited and unassisted, on a subject on which God has Himself decided that Man is not competent of himself to judge rightly. And if Reason be for some time enthroned as sole judge and lawgiver, she will not afterwards readily resign her seat, and submit her decisions, to Revelation; but will often exercise an undue interference. It is sometimes complained, that the mind is unduly bias...<