Part 4 (2/2)
”In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired,”
&c ”And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord ht to kill him” ”I have seen God face to face” _Per Contra_: ”No e not, I will not go back, neither will I repent” _Per Contra_: ”And God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them, and he did it not” ”There is no respect of persons with God” _Per Contra_: ”Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated” ”I a the iniquities of the fathers upon the children” _Per Contra_: ”The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father” ”It is impossible for God to lie” _Per Contra_: ”If the Prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that Prophet” ”Be not afraid of thes Jesus would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill hiainst Israel, and he ainst them to say, 'Go number Israel'” _Per Contra_: ”And Satan provoked David to number Israel” ”I bear witness of myself, yet my record is true” _Per Contra_: ”If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true” ”A man is not justified by the works of the law” _Per Contra_: ”Ye see, then, how that by works a man is justified” ”There shall no evil happen to the just” _Per Contra_: ”All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” ”Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace” _Per Contra_: ”In e increaseth sorrow” ”It shall not be ith the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days” _Per Contra_: ”Wherefore do the wicked live, becohty in power” ”Thou shalt not: commit adultery” _Per Contra_: ”Then said the Lord unto et, love a woman, an adulteress'”
Here, certainly, is aes quoted, besides scores of others, es, would seem to require the touch of ”Rationalist's” spiritual interpretation wand When the literalwill appear
As a saive the following:--
”Will and love are identical Will or love is life A man cannot think unless he wills to think; and he can only think that which he wills--only that and nothing more He can only do what he wills and thinks There is no action which is not the effect of will and its thought A man wills in order to think,” etc He also tells us that God gave man a will ”as _free_ as His own” Matter is spoken of as ”mere dead inert matter”
Isin the past, and has utterly failed to grasp ht? His philosophy is bad, but his metaphysics is worse Any man who at this day attempts to ”refute” Materialists should at least be soht and scientific research; but ”Rationalist” has apparently advanced no further than the occult Swedenborgian mysticism of the last century Further, to talk to-day of ”dead inert e of an obsolete philosophy of the past; for ree that matter is not ”that mere empty _capacity_ which philosophers have pictured her to be, but the universal s as the fruit of her oomb” As Pope says:--
”See thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth, Allinto birth”
Equally absurd is this talk about ”Free Will” and ”Free Moral Agency”
These ht of mental science, and are now as ”dead as a door nail,” of which fact ”Rationalist” will be convinced if he will take the trouble to look into Hamilton, Combe, Mill, Buckle, Lewes, Spencer, Huxley and Tyndall, and he will then, probably, write no more such nonsense as quoted above It is not necessary, however, for any observant and thoughtful o to any authorities outside his own ma, for his own observation and reflection will do it And ”Rationalist” can have the same conviction without the aid of science or philosophy,--without even observation or reflection Let him turn to his Bible, which he champions, and read it, and he will find abundant proof (such as it is) that man's will is not free Let him read the 8th, 9th and 11th Chapters of Romans Let him then read Phil 2, 13, ”For it is God which worketh in you _both to will and to do_ of His good _pleasure_” Then read Isaiah, 46, 910, ”I a the end fros_ that are not _yet_ done, saying, my council shall stand, and I will do all my _pleasure_”
Now, I submit that if an omnipotent and o,” and ordered all ”the things that are not yet done” (and you have his word for it here) how is it possible forordered, or acco?” Here you, who believe in God and the Bible, have his word for it that he has declared all things ”fro” Man then _ else, hence he is _not free_
The idea that ”a man cannot think unless he wills to think” is too preposterous (laying the Bible aside) for any reasonablethis sentence, stop reading, and assume a quiescent state (for of course _his free will_ will enable him to do this)--a state of _ for the tihts of some kind do not spontaneously arise in his hts_ for the space of five hts do not steal into his brain (providing of course he has one) unbidden, and in spite of him--in spite of all his boasted freewill power Let any reader put this impossible and absurd dictu demonstration in his own brain, which will render any further argument on this point entirely superfluous
”Rationalist” worries himself into inextricable confusion over causes and effects, first causes, first causes and last effects, etc, etc
Because Ingersoll has said ”a first cause is just as ih swamps himself in a most ludicrous ”muss-of-a ic to prove that by such reasoning as Ingersoll's we coentle?) We reason everything out of existence, he says, and just noill have left ”no nature, no God, no man, no one) ”no force,” no ”nothing”-- ”literally nothing” Shades of Bacon! let us take breath; for this would certainly be a very bad state of things, froood Lord deliver us!” It would be nearly as bad as before the ”creation,” when nothing existed throughout the infinite realms of space save Jehovah himself
I will endeavor to make what materialists mean by the impossibility of a first cause or last effect clear to ”Rationalist” We believe in one existence, and only one--the universe--which, though never itself having been created or brought into existence (being eternal), is the primal (or ”first” if you like) cause of all phenomena Rationalist will thus see that in one sense there is no _first came_ as the universe is eternal, yet in another sense there _is_ a first cause, viz: the universe, as it is the primal cause of all phenomena As to a ”last effect,” it should be obvious to every _rational_ mind that as matter and force are indestructible, and hence eternal in duration, there can be no last effect; for as long as matter and force exist effects must of necessity ensue
REPLY TO REV A J BRAY
It is a great relief to a Freethinker to find a ious liberality It is like cootry and intolerance
Mr Bray is the able editor of the _Canadian Spectator_, of Montreal; and also preaches, I believe, every Sunday in Zion Church in that city
Unlike his clerical brethren generally, when Mr Ingersoll lectured in Montreal, in April last, Mr Bray went to hear hi Sundays These ”Discourses” were published in the succeeding numbers of his paper, the _Spectator_ Hear him on free speech:--
”In a free country all kinds of freedoersoll had just as ht to co to his own discretion, as Mr Hammond has to coree with us, they are also free to differ with us; to differ a little, to differ ether If the Mayor had found a lahich he could prohibit Ingersoll froious beliefs, I would have started an agitation at once for the repeal of that absurd and antiquated law If hearing arguainst our faith is likely to unsettle us, then we had better be unsettled We are badly off with all our religious literature and preaching, if we cannot endure any kind of criticisument”
These are brave words, and every fair-ree with Mr Bray in his liberal and courageous utterances They are tio forth in that city where the war of sects has waxed so hot and virulent of late Montreal needs otry, and staainst Christian
As this painally intended, I have but little space to devote to Mr Bray's Reply to Ingersoll One or two points, however, must be noticed
Mr Bray falls into the sa