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In fact, they only differ from their fellow-men in the boldness of investigation, submitting every thing to the test of REASON. The repugnance of HISTORY too often impedes their progress. The injunction to believe all or none leads them to reject that which, when DIVARICATED, they must adopt. Instead, therefore, of the opprobrious epithet of Infidel, it would be more charitable as well as more christian-like to say that they were sincere searchers after truth, and only puzzled in their logic. In this character they cannot refuse truth, when offered to them in purity. Hence the whole sect of INFIDELS will become sincere Christians. The Infidel, too honest to say that he believes that which he does not understand, evinces a high degree of moral courage, and only waits for CON

VICTION.

The Bigot will not so readily become a convert to the primitive Christianity taught by our Saviour. He will tremble for the temerity of the individual who should venture, with his feeble REASON, to search for conviction in the "Holy Scriptures." "Take them on faith," says he, "and be satisfied; for they contain a mystery not to be unravelled by man!" What! authority to blind REASON! That power with which

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be wrapped in a napkin" and left unemployed! The only power by which man can judge of the value of his own actions, by ascertaining the purity of the motive, to be silenced by Authority! Has the Redeemer any where forbidden the use of REASON? - No!- He exhorts man to its fullest exercise, to enable him to suppress the sinful lusts of the flesh.

When Christ taught, there were no Gospels; the morality was to be extracted from his divine parables. In those days there could not be any bigotted attachment to what did not exist. It may properly be termed a superstitious awe and authority to suppress the fulfilment of the "WORD OF GOD," instead of following the divine precepts of Jesus, and vanquishing the lusts of the flesh. This blind superstition would soon bring us back to the errors of Catholicism, and finally extinguish all enlightenment. The Bigot, who acts from blind belief and prejudice, displays great moral cowardice and dread of investigation. This mode of procedure lays the foundation for hypocrisy and its train of fatal consequences; it cannot, therefore, be too much reprobated. This class will be the most severe in their strictures on the present DIVARICATION, and

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perhaps scarcely be tolerant enough to allow the merit of a good and upright intention to its author. Is this Christian humility? or is it a departure from the simplicity of the precepts of Christ?-"Oh! ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but ye cannot discern the signs of the times!"

The "TRUE BELIEVER" is he who believes in the existence of invisible and immaterial things from CONVICTION, because, if he denies them, he cannot think at all. To this scientific faith we are exhorted by St. Paul: "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." To arrive at this faith requires the highest use of PRACTICAL REASON, under the guidance of syllogism. Hence we must have faith in the existence of mind, as we do syllogize and draw conclusions. The "Scriptures," so far from stifling our REASON, demand the utmost effort of this high prerogative of man, in order that the divine truths which they unfold should be adopted, not from blind faith, but from that rational faith alone "the evidence of things not seen -ay, even to CONVICTION.

Having faith in the existence of the human mind, and being well assured that a finite thing cannot make itself, we are forced to raise another syllogism, and

infer that it has a "Maker." If the faith in the existence of the Maker is not a rational faith, even unto CONVICTION, we are then in the state of the Bigot, who professes to believe what he does not comprehend. The most puerile mind has strength enough to infer that no finite thing ever made itself. Hence it is constrained to acknowledge that every thing finite must be made by the "INFINITE." How could these conclusions be drawn, if mind did not exist! We have proved that matter cannot think. Nor could the finite mind be possible but for the "INFINITE MIND" - the omnipotent, omniscient, and eternal "MIND," the great Creator of all- GOD!

The finite and the infinite minds are two spiritual essences, which stand in eternal relation to each other, proving an indissoluble TRINITY IN UNITY. Annul the one, the other vanishes. If we annul the finite mind, we surely prove that there can be no maker of that which is not made. Annul the infinite mind, and the finite could not exist. He is no FATHER who never had a CHILD; but, when he became a father, the three principles were generated of Father, Son, and Relation

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overwhelming proof of the truth of the TRIUNE PRINCIPLE! These two minds and their relation

altogether exist in ETERNITY, and are all of one substance. And this is the catholic faith, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance; which faith, unless every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he ceases to be a RATIONAL Creature.

None of these three principles can exist in TIME, or they would be palpable to SENSE, which they are not-and would have priority, which they have not. There can be no priority where there is no TIME. Hence these principles can only live, move, and have their being, in ETERNITY, for they are principles of REASON. Thus the Existence of God, the Immortality of the Soul, and a Future State, become of necessity axioms in the "SACRED SCIENCE."

That the faith in the existence of our own invisible essence - REASON-is scientific, may be easily demonstrated. To suppose REASON away, and yet to syllogize, is impossible. Thus the existence of REASON is proved to Conviction. To suppose that REASON made itself is equally absurd. Hence we are forced by the invisible power of syllogism to believe in the existence of a "Rational Author;" for no power devoid of REASON could construct so exquisite a faculty. Let us call this power GOD, and we are forced to say:

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