" tenuates his theory to a very nice and plaufible texture, is yet guilty of departing from an axiom which he profeffes heartily to adopt, and from which more than a few of his own deductions are fpun. The axiom is, that every effect must refult from fome prior, producing caufe. If fo (and, furely, if this be not true, we have no evidence of any thing), how is it poffible for matter to be eternal? Matter muft be either the firft caufe, or an effect. Should the ingenious writer affirm matter to be the firft caufe: he would only beg the question, by taking for granted what (I am bold to fay) he will never be able to prove: and, on a point of this confequence, wherein both religion and philofophy are fo effentially concerned, the bare opinion and unfupported affertion even of this able fpeculator will never carry the force of demonftration.-On the other hand, if matter, in all its diverfity of modes, cannot be proved to be the firft caufe (i.e. to have caufed its own exiftence); unprejudiced reafon will immediately conclude, that matter muft, originally, have been the effect of a fuperior intelligent power: which intelligent power could be no other than that adorable agent whom we call God. If the whole fyftem of material nature be (as this author himfelf acknowledges) a regular fucceffion of caufes and effects; will it not follow, that the eternity of matter is a matter of abfolute impoffibility? Let us inftance in an horfe. Who was Lightfoot's father? Turk.-Who was father to Turk? Sweepftakes.-Who got Sweepstakes? Hazel, Were we capable of tracing back the pedigree of Lightfoot to its original fource, we fhould not ftop until we came to the very firft horfe that ever exifted. Being arrived fo high as that, another question would yet remain: how came this first horfe to exift at all? Certainly, by the will and power of fome fuperior being. Would L 2 Would not reafon laugh at the man who should affirm, that there never was a firft horfe, but that horfes existed eternally? There muft, therefore, in all our afcending enquiries, be fome ultimatum, fome given point, at which to ftop. This given point, this first cause, is God. The fame analyfis, which has been applied to Lightfoot, will hold equally true, when applied to any material thing whatever. All muft terminate fomewhere for there is "no effect without a cause." Confequently, matter is not eternal. "But may not matter be fo organized and refined, as to rife into what we call intelligence?" The plain English of this question is, "May not matter, (fuch as a cabbage, a marble ftatue, a candle, or a cheft), be able to hear, fee, feel, tafte, fmell, reason, fpeak, read, write, and walk ?" If any individual of the human fpecies can coolly and in earnest suppose this; let his next of kin (if the infane man's poffeffions will recompence the trouble) fue for a statute of lunacy, and tranfmit him to his proper apartment in Moorfields. I confefs myself afhamed to encounter fuch a pofition, with any degree of ferioufnefs. Suffer me, however, to afk: Is there no effential, but only a modal difference, between the writer of the Philofophical Survey of Nature, and the pen with which he committed his ideas to writing? A correfpondent, lefs polite than yourself, would tell me, perhaps, that, inftead of enquiring into the capacities of our author's pen, it is time I fhould lay down my own. I cannot, however, do this, without first repeating the affection and refpect with which I am, yours, &c. Auguftus Toplady. LETTER LETTER VII. To B. S. Esq. SIR, Broad-Hembury, Nov. 9, 1772. CQUAINTED as you are with the leading objects of my thoughts, you ftill would not eafily conjecture on what fpeculation they lately turned. I have been comparing my own fituation (not as fome philofophers advife, with perfons of inferior rank to myfelf; but) with that of those whom the world calls great. Every great man I know, has paffed before me in a kind of intellectual review : and the refult is, that, if it were even in my power, I would not make an exchange of condition with any one of the twenty-feven. To be happy, we must be virtuous and, in order to our becoming truly virtuous, we must experience of God which bringeth falvation. the grace Auguflus Toplady. LETTER VIII. AMBROSE SERLE, ESQ. Broad-Hembury, Nov. 20, 1772. SIR, CONTRARY to my wishes, and by a fort of fatality, for which I find myself unable to account, I am, ufually, leaft regular, in writing to thofe, whom I moft regard. Though incapable of forgetting them, experience proves that I am but L 3 too too capable of feeming to neglect them: and none has more reason to be displeased with me, on this account, than my dear, my very dear friend, to whom I am now, after a long interval of filence, addreffing myself at laft. How many defects have I, for your candour to excufe! Prove yourfelf candid indeed, by excufing them all. Thus will you lay me under ftill deeper obligation, and fhame me, by your condefcenfion, into a more punctual acknowledgement of your favours. -Your favours, dear fir, eminently deferve the name. They have followed me, at home, and abroad, ever fince I faw you: and if I had, by a deadness to all gratitude, been even difpofed to forget you, they would have conftantly reminded me of you, whether I would or not. In justice, however, to myfelf, as well as to you, I muft repeat my long intermitted affurances, that the perfon does not breathe, whom I love and refpect more than yourself. If I do not tell you fo, as often as I ought; impute the omiffion to any cause, except the want of those two. The goodnefs of God ftill continues to furround me on every fide. Oh, that my thankfulness, and improvements in grace, bore fome little proportion to his exuberance of mercies! But in vain do I look within myfelf, for that excellence, which I shall never find there, until death is fwallowed up in victory. God enable me, in the mean while, to feel my own nothingnefs, more and more; and to trust in that great fulfiller of all righteousness, who "Toil'd for our eafe, and, for our fafety, bled." To thofe who believe, he is run, precioufnefs, in the abftract. And the more we fee of his precioufnefs, the more humbling views we have of our own vilenefs. Indeed, fell-renunciation is the grand, central point of the fpiritual life. It is the ratio formalis, the very effence, of true religion. Oh, for a larger measure of it! We are then happieft, and fafeft, when when we lie loweft, and feel that Chrift and grace are all in all. But I am, unawares, almoft preaching, to one, at whofe feet I wish to fit. May you take the best revenge, and preach largely to me, in return. The longer your fermon, the better I fhall like it: like him, who thought the longeft of Demofthenes's orations, the beft. I greatly defire to hear from you': and hope, you are too forgiving, to follow the bad example of delay, which I have fet you... . Commend myself to the continuance of your affection, I need not. Commend myself to your prayers, I ought, and humbly do. Every bleffing be with you. Above all, the best peace and love of God in Chrift. of bleffings, the Auguftus Toplady. LETTER IX. To Mrs. G Broad-Hembury, Nov. 20, 1772. WILL good Mrs. G. permit the moft un worthy, but not the leaft fincere, of her wellwifhers, to enquire after her health; and, at a confiderable diftance of place, and after a long interval of time, to repeat his thanks for her many inftances of politeness and condefcenfion? Above all, Madam, how is it with your foul? What are your views of God, and Chrift, and heaven? Lively, I truft, and full of glory. Yet, if our views are dim and languid, ftill he abideth faithful, and cannot deny himself. Not upon our frames, but upon the adorable giver of them, is all our fafety built. If we cannot follow him in the light, God help us to follow him in the dark and if we cannot follow L4 |