The philosophical dictionary, comprising the opinions of all the best writers on moral, political and theological subjects ... who have written in favour of the liberties and happiness of mankind / [Anon].

Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophical dictionary, comprising the opinions of all the best writers on moral, political and theological subjects ... who have written in favour of the liberties and happiness of mankind / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    felicity) that they enjoyed the lively and active consciousness of their happiness, their virtue, and their powers; and that they had already secured the posses- sion of their eternal reward. The enlargement of their intel- lectual faculties surpassed the measure of the human imagina- tion ; since it was proved by ex- perience, that they were capable of hearing and understanding the various petitions of their nu- merous votaries; who, in the same moment of time, but in the most distant parts of the world, invoked the name and assistance of Stephen or of Martin. confidence of. their petitioners “was founded on the persuasion, “that the saints, who reigned “with Christ, cast an eye of pity “upon earth; that they were warmly interested in the pros- perity of the Catholic church; and that the individuals, who imitated the example of their - faith and piety, were the pecu- liar and favourite objects of their ‘most tender regard. Some- might be influenced by consi- derations of a less exalted kind: they viewed, with partial af- fection, the places which had - been consecrated by their birth, their residence, their death, - their burial, or the possession of their relics. The meaner pas- venge, may be deemed unwor- thy of a celestial breast; yet the saints themselves condescended to testify their grateful approba- tion of the liberality of their vo- taries: and the sharpest bolts of those impious wretches who vio- lated their magnificent. shrines, power, Atrocious, inceed, must have been the guilt, and strange would have been the scepticism, ofthose men, if they had obstinate- ly resisted the proofs of a divine agency, which the elements, the whole range of the animal crea- tion, and even the subtle aad in- visible operations of the human mind, were compelled to obey. The immediate, and almost in- stantaneous, effects, that were supposed to follow the prayer, or the offence, satisfied the Chris- tians, of the ampie measure of saints enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme God; and it seem- ed almost superfluous to inquire, whether they were continually obliged to intercede before the throne of grace; or whe- ther they might not be per-— mitted to exercise, according to the dictates of their be- nevolence and justice, the dele- gated powers of their subordinate ministry. The imagination, which had been raised by a painful effort to the contempla- tion and worship of the Uni- versal Cause, eagerly embraced such inferior objects of adoration, as were more proportioned to its gross conceptions and impere fect faculties, The sublime and simple theology of the primitive ed; aud the monarchy of heaven, already clouded by metaphysi- cal subtleties, was degraded by the introduction of a popular my- thology, which tended to restore the reign of polytheism.