Recapitulation. S\\ 



'business of their lives; and many others, of 

 humbler note, who vainly aspired to the name 

 oi philosophers, have directed their puny efforts 

 toward the same object. 



Tile doctrine of Materialism probably had a 

 greater currency among certain classes of the 

 learned, during this period, than in any former 

 age enlightened by Christian knowledge. It 

 was, indeed, pushed to an atheistical length by 

 some who assumed the name and gloried in the 

 character of philosophers. Astronomical records 

 have been fabricated or misinterpreted for the 

 purpose of discrediting the sacred chronology. 

 The natural history of the Earth, of Man, and of 

 other animals, has been pursued with unwearied 

 diligence, to find evidence which should militate 

 against the inform.ation conveyed in the Scrip- 

 tures. The discoveries in Chemistry have been 

 tortured to furnish a physical solution of all those 

 phenomena of motion, life, and mind, which are 

 unanimously c-onsidered, by more sober inquirers, 

 as teaching the immateriality of the soul, and as 

 proclaiming the existence of a supreme intelli- 

 gent First Cause. Systems of Moral and Poli- 

 tical philosophy have been formed, by which their 

 authors meant to strike at the root of evangelic 

 truth. And all the stores of ancient and modern 

 literature have been ransacked to obtain some 

 pretext for disbelieving the precious Records 

 which God condescended to bestow on our fallen 

 race. 



This rage for impious theory, though it had 

 1-ong before existed, began more boldly and ex- , 



