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The Looker-on, a periodical paper, by the Rev. Simon Olive-Branch, A.M. (1795)
The Lookeron a periodical paper by the Rev Simon OliveBranch AM - 1795 Author:William Roberts 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: N 6. TUESDAY, MARCH 27. r siv xa; T:-?vtiv tvrifiun iŁ iv gaujuarv. Cizm. Alexandrinus. ' Their admiration of God's might, difplaycd in his works, ." ji... more »ruduced in them a conv'.andicjn alfo ot'his providence and moral " government." J. HERE is an agreeable parallel drawn in Cicero's Nature of the Gods, which throws con- fiderable ridicule on the obftinacy of an Arheift; u His cafe," fays he, " is like that of a perfon ' u who, upon entering a large houfe beautifully " conftrucl:el and commodioufly arranged, and finding it tintenanted by any animal of greater " power, fagcly concludes it to have been built " by the mice he fees running a"bout it." Thus the atheift difbefieves in providence, for no other reafon than becaufe he does not fee him actually at the great work. He has, however, the choice only of two conclufions; he muft either attribute the creation of the world, and its moral government, to God ; or he muft attribute unwearied con- Jlancy and unfailing order to chance. When I fee our reafon thus raifed in rebellion againft our hopes, and nurfing errors fo frightful and monftrous, I am tempted to repine at this privilege and diftinction of our nature, and can almoft regret the poffeflion of an inftrument we may fo eafily handle to our own deftruction. The fenfible proofs of the exiftence of a God are fo very manifeft, and, to fpeak in fcriptural language, are fo fcattered about our path?, that one can hardly think this primary article of our faith a part of our probation, or that any degree of merit is attached to it. I have feen, however, in fome men, a fort of foggy underftanding, which outrages every object, and melts down proportion and colour into a rhafs of mighty confufion, in which there is no fufceptibility of bea'uty, and whence light an...« less