There is no Natural Religion
Notes
(a)
The Argument. Man has no notion of moral fitness but from Education.
Naturally he is only a natural organ subject to Sense.
- I. Man cannot naturally perceive but through his natural or bodily organs.
- II. Man by his reasoning power can only compare & judge of what he has
already perceiv'd.
- III. From a perception of only 3 senses or 3 elements none could deduce a
fourth or fifth.
- IV. None could have other than natural or organic thoughts if he had none
but organic perceptions.
- V. Man's desires are limited by his perceptions; none can desire what he
has not perceiv'd.
- VI. The desires & perceptions of man, untaught by anything but organs of
sense, must be limited to objects of sense.
(b)
- I. Man's perceptions are not bound by organs of perception; he perceives
more than sense (tho' ever so acute) can discover.
- II. Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it
shall be when we know more.
- III. [This proposition is missing.]
- IV. The bounded is loathed by its possessor. the same dull round, even of
the universe, would soon become a mill with complicated wheels.
- V. If the many become the same as the few when possess'd, More! More! is
the cry of a mistaken soul; less than All cannot satisfy Man.
- VI. If any could desire what he is incapable of possessing, despair must be
his eternal lot.
- VII. The desire of Man being infinite, the possession is Infinite & himself
Infinite.
Conclusion.
If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic Character the Philosophic
& Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all things, and stand still, unable
to do other than repeat the same dull round over again.
Application.
He who sees the Infinite in all things sees God. He who sees the
Ratio only sees himself only.
Therefore God becomes as we are, that we may be as he is.
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