228 to 309, has the most ancient account. Stanley and Brucker are the beft general modern hiftorians of philofophy, tho' the former comprehends only the ancient; and Middleton, in his life of Cicero, has given the defcent of the academy. Vol. 3. Enfield's Hiftory of Philofophy, which is a judicious translation and abridgement of Brucker, may be also confulted; tho' fuch books cannot be read entirely, they are ufeful for reference, and they difplay a dismal waste of intellect on fubjects of little utility.

P. 230. "Deduces the right." Ergo unum debet effe omnibus propofitum ut eadim fit utilitas uniufcujufque et univerforum, quam in ad fe quifquam rapiat, diffolvetur omnis humana confortio, lib. iii. 6. Quod fi nihil eft tam contra naturam quam turpitudo, nihilque tam fecundum naturam quam utilias, certe in aedem fe utilitas et turpitudo non effe poteft, ed. 7.

P. 259. "A modern." We are certain that infinite power cannot be employed without effect, nor infinite wisdom without defign, we may therefore rationally conclude, that this world could be designed for nothing more than a prison, in which we are to receive punishment for offences committed in a former, and to prepare ourselves for the enjoyment of happiness in a future exiftence.-Jenlyns's Difquifitions, p. 30.

P. 260, "The evidence. The refurrection of a dead body, after having lain two whole days in the grave, is a fact so contrary to the common sense of mankind as not to be capable of proof by any human teftimony, and therefore to acquire any degree of credit, fhould have been frequently repeated, and generally attefted; but it happens that in the

New Teftament, the fact and the argument are at variance with each other; for they who believe St. Paul to have been an inspired apoftle, muft allow that his account of the refur. rection is to be trufted, and yet in his famous 15th chapter of the ft Corinthians, from verse 3d, the whole of his argument tends to prove, that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," which means, that we must put on a new body in order to be raised from the dead, for "that which is mortal cannot inherit immortality ;" and yet when Jefus means to prove to Thomas the certainty of his refurrection, he called to him to "thrust his hand into his right fide," that he might be convinced he bore the fame body which had been crucified.

P. 263. "The analogy." Bishop Butler, in his celebrat ed Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed-a book. more remarkable for metaphyfical refinement than found reasoning-rests his whole argument on the divine origin of the fyftem of nature, and taking that point for granted, he infers, that revelation coming from the fame author, is liable to the fame defects, and that they who believe the one muft of confequence believe the other, because its defects ase not great. er; but this is taking two things for granted which ought to be proved independently of each other. His proofs of a future life are compofed of equally gratuitous affumptions; his two firft arguments are utterly deftitute of foundation. The first is That having already undergone many changes from our birth to maturity, we fhould naturally infer that we fhall exift hereafter: but he forgets that thefe changes are gradual and imperceptible, and that there is no gulf between them like that of death: he argues alfo from the changes of animals, viz. worms into butterflies, &c. and, to be candid,

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is forced to allow them alfo a future ftate of existence. His fecond argument is still more bold than the first; for he says, "That having the faculties and capacities of action before death, is a presumption that we fhall poffefs them after." And again, "Knowing that all other animals are poffeffed of these powers up to the very period to which we have faculties capable of tracing them, is itself a probability of their retaining them beyond it, and this is confirmed by remarking the very great changes we have ourselves experienced." This may be orthodoxy, but it is not argument.

P. 273.

"Tho' many." The wars which have been excited on account of religion-a thing which, if it has any ufe, fhould be to promote peace-have, upon a moderate calculation, coft the world nine millions feven hundred and eighteen thoufand eight hundred perfons, fhot, drowned, burnt, tortured, and hanged, for the love of God and the honour of his Son: the foreign and inteftine wars which have at different times ravaged the world, cannot be computed to have cost a less number; so that it appears, taking into confideration also the miferies which men caufe to each other, fhort of death, that one-half of the world was formed to torment the other,

The great object of nature, after bringing a man into the world, feems to be how to get him out of it, and we shall find that in every man are implanted the feeds of deftruction, which "grow with his youth, and strengthen with his ftrength;" for all he eats, drinks, or does, only tends to that difpofition of the material frame, which to fome men arrives fooner, and to others later and fo different are the effects of thefe different causes upon different bodies, that it feems as if there are fome people whom nothing can kill, and others whom nothing can keep alive.

P. 281.-Belief is the fum total of religion, even the Deist must believe much more than he can comprehend, and to be confiftent he ought to believe in miracles; for that Being who first established the order of nature can furely, whenever he fees fit, fufpend that order, and interpofe for a particular purpose. They who believe that any Being created matter out of nothing, believe in the greatest of all miracles, and to fuch a Being nothing can be impoffible. We none of us know any thing beyond the material world in which we exift; to dive into the causes of things, is too much for our limited intellects, therefore the fafeft thing is to believe nothing we do not comprehend.

Hartford, March 19, 1809.