By the Will of the late Rev. JOHN HULSE, the CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE is required to produce every year a publication, which may be an answer to cavils and objections brought against Natural or Revealed Religion, if any such shall appear, or which may tend to confute tend to confute" any new or dangerous error, either of Superstition or Enthusiasm:” as likewise to be ready to satisfy any real scruples or objections, in a private way, that may be brought from time to time by any fair and candid enquirer, ERRATA. P. 6, line 4, dele comma after organ, and read organs 63,14, for publications, read publication Ibid. - 20, after both vortices, insert p. 22 73, 23, for causes, read cause 100, 12, for severally, read are said to 103, LIFE-its Definition-In what Respects living Sub- stances differ from dead-The distinct Phæno- Comparison of the Properties of Thought and Matter- Matter incapable of Thought-Mutual Connection CHAPTER VIII, continued. The Independence of the Understanding upon the Bodily Organs further established by the Phæ- The Volition of Animals an immaterial Principle- but not therefore immortal-Distinctions between 5 REMARKS, &c. CHAPTER I. On the Character of Modern Scepticism. Ir is certainly to the credit of the age, that among the higher orders of our country, we find a general disposition both to speak and to act upon religious matters, with an appearance, at least, of propriety and respect. Such is the state of public feeling upon these points, that any glaring attempt to set up. the standard of infidelity, would be considered as an outrage upon public decency; and so far from promoting, would rather diminish the success of the cause. But, notwithstanding this semblance of regard, we have little reason to imagine, that the enemies of Christianity have abated any thing of their real hostility, or that their progress is the less formidable, because it is the less apparent. There is a fashion in Scepticism, which readily adapts itself to the reigning humours and caprices of mankind; and though its purposes are ever the same, yet the shapes which it assumes, and the subjects to which it B is applied, vary with the peculiar character of the day. At one time it speaks in the language of open defiance, and indulges itself in the most indecent and blasphemous scurrility. At another it shelters itself under the garb of candid discussion and free enquiry. Sometimes the Scriptures of the New, but oftener those of the Old Testament, are the objects of its derision. Occasionally it will allow the authority of the Sacred Volume, but will so allegorize its contents, as to reduce them to the level of the lowest mysticism. In a former age it was contented with disputing the evidence of miracles, in later days it has grown bolder, and has doubted, most philosophically, the possibility of their existence. There is no principle, in short, either of natural or of revealed religion, no one evidence, no one doctrine, which has not, in its turn, been captiously questioned, or rudely assailed. Christianity has had little reason to lament, either the variety, or the acuteness of its adversaries. Upon whatever side it has been attacked, it has shewn itself fully able to resist and to repel the assault. The more able its opponents, the more decisive has been its victory. The most brilliant exhibitions of human learning, and the most perfect specimens of the art of reasoning, are to be found among the works of those, who have dedicated their talents to the defence of Christianity. The writings of Bentley and Bryant, of Cudworth and Butler, of Warburton and Clarke, have not only survived, by |