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deferves to be well confidered (H). The other book alluded to is that celebrated trea- . tife, intitled, THE LIVING TEMPLE, which perhaps may be justly esteemed as his mafter-piece. The first part indeed was published about the year 1676, just after his return from Ireland, in order to settle in London; but it was not till 1702, that he published the second part, about three years before his death. The defign of the whole is to demonstrate the existence of a Deity; and to improve that notion, that a good man is the TEMPLE OF GOD,

THE character of Mr. Howe, as an Author, and of this most learned of all his works, is drawn with fo much freedom, impartiality, and exactness, by an ingenious friend of the Editor's, who is well verfed in writings of this abftract nature, that he begs leave to present it to the reader; as being much more worthy of his accepd 3

tance,

(H) THIS difcourfe was published in 1699, when the Author was in the 70th year of his age: which is taken notice of only to fhew, how furprizing it was that his fancy and imagination fhould be fo lively, and his intellect fo ftrong, at that time of life. This little piece abounds with a great many beautiful thoughts, and fublime fentiments, expreffed in a strong and masterly manner, upon a very curious and difficult fubject; and cannot fail of being inftructive and entertaining to every serious and judicious reader.

tance, than any the subject (I.)

remarks of his own upon

HAVING

(1) THE LIVING TEMPLE, fays he, is a work, in which itsAuthor hath fhewn a vaft and almoft unbounded genius; and approved himself a complete mafter of found and folid reafoning. There is a penetration of thought beyond what is common, and the very fubftance of the most profound learning, without fo much as the show. The title of it may, to fome perfons, found a little odd; and there feems indeed, in the execution of his whole defign, to be fome difficulty in reducing all the materials of fo large and complicated a work, to an agreement with the title, and main fubject of the book: as appears by his recurring to it ever and anon, even where his difcourfe feems to lead him fartheft from it, and to have no intimate, nor any vifible connexion with it. But our Author's principal defign being to lay a folid and ftable foundation for an intelligible and rational religion, which confifts in the fincere and entire devotement of ourselves to the worship and service of GOD, and is therefore pertinently enough expreffed in fcripture by our being the Temples of the Living God, he could not do better in the execution of his purpose, than to enter upon the proof of God's exiftence and attributes. For his whole argument confists of two heads. First, the proof that God is, which extends thro' the first part or volume, and to the middle of the 111 chapter of the fecond. In which he may be thought indeed to have made the porch fomewhat larger, than the main building itself; fince the fecond head, which contains the proof, and explains the manner of God's converfibleness with men, only takes up the reft of the fecond volume.

But the Author, who was certainly beft acquainted with his own defign, which was to lay the foundations of religion ftable and strong, thought it beft to make himfelf thoroughly fure of his main point, before he proceeded to eftablish any thing upon it. And for this reafon he spent so much time upon the proof of the Divine exiftence and attributes; in which

he

HAVING now gone through the main of this work, fome parts of which could not

well

he hath acquitted himself like an able metaphysician; as he hath fhown himfelf a most excellent divine, in that part of his book which follows upon it. For it appears from thence, that he had as clear and comprehenfive a knowledge of the true Gofpel-fcheme, and as free from fancy and enthufiafm, as any writer of that age. But the former part of his book is, in my judgement, what does him the most honour; as he feems to have been no ftranger to many metaphyfical discoveries, which have fince been attributed to another great genius of our nation, confeffedly supe rior to him in clearness of ftyle and method, but who must evidently have been beholden to the reading of this very book for a great many things, which now appear, with vaftly greater advantage and perfpicuity, in his own Excellent Demonstration.

Ir indeed furprizes me, that Dr. Clarke, who had certainly read this book, and had received confiderable help from it, fhould give up intelligence, and confequently abfolute perfection in GoD, as not ftrictly demonftrable a priori; fince, tho Mr. Howe hath not done it, but with fome confufion, and mixture of the proof a pofteriori; yet he hath opened a way fufficient to have given the hint to any able writer on that fubject *.

THE main difference between these two great Authors is, that Mr. Howe enters, for the most part, upon his argument fomewhat darkly, but generally ends it with much more perfpicuity and clearness; whereas Dr. Clarke's book is one continued chain of the moft perfpicuous reafoning, from one end to the other.

MR. Howe's work hath indeed too much of the fcholaftic ftrain in it; the he uses no terms of that fort, but what he can (or thinks he can) affix ideas to. But this muft, in a great measure, be owing to the age in which he got his first knowledge of books and things; which alfo had the fame unhappy effect even upon

d 4

* See Vol. I. p. 180. o. Edit. & p. 59. fol.

.

well be altered or abridged, without injury to the whole, which it is hoped the reader

will

upon Cudworth himself; as alfo upon Stillingfleet, Baxter, and many more of that day. However this learned defect is fufficiently fupplied and atoned for, by that fuperiority of good fenfe and judgement, which appears throughout this work.

IN the whole, his arguments are very juft and conclufive, and would be proportionably clear, were it not for that unhappy perplexity and intricacy of style, which runs thro' the whole work; and which requires a more than common knowledge, even of the subject itself, in order to unravel it. Yet there is a majefty, together with an uncommon nervousness, ftrength and propriety, in his expreffions, which always pleafes, when thoroughly underftocd; and a latent facility and exuberancy of thought and conception, which difcovers him, even through this veil of language, to be as great a mafter of his fubject, as ever wrote upon it. I will not except even Dr. Clarke himself, tho fo vaftly beyond him in point of method and perfpicuity. He may be faid rather to have laboured and exhaufted his fubject too much, in the former part of it. And in fome places, I think him a little too particular and diffufive in exploding fome abfurdities, (as thofe of Des Cartes and Epicurus, for instance) not altogether worth the pains he beftows upon them. He is alfo now and then a l ́tle too witty which in a bock of this kind is the more reprehenfible, as his fubject is in itself grave and ferious; tho the perfons and the writings he moftly hath to do with, be quite cf another complexion.

AFTER all, I cannot but think this book is a mafter-picce of learning and good argument, for the time when it was wrote; few or none before this Author having fhown fo thorough' a knowledge of this abstracted subject; not even Cudworth himself, tho he had written more largely, and in fome respects much more learnedly upon it. Mr. Howe alfo appears to have been an excellent philofopher, and to have underfood both the natural and moral systems

as

will candidly confider; it is time to clofe the account of this excellent perfon with adding fomething to his character chiefly from

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as thoroughly, as the light, the world had then ob tained, would admit of. For tho Newton and Locke were then in being, and had published some of their incomparable works; yet they were then read and understood but by few. And our author cannot be faid to be pofterior to either of 'em, in point of age or education; and therefore not fo to have wrote after them, as to write upon their prin ciples. He is therefore as much an original on the fubject he handles, as they were on theirs; and seems only to coincide with them in his fentiments and ideas, from that innate greatness of foul, that strength of genius, and that nobleness and justness of thought and conception, which appears common both to him and them.

To conclude my character of this work and its author, I think that it may be juftly ranked with some of the greatest and nobleft productions of the age it was wrote in, and even of our nation itself; and He with fome of its greatest and fublimeft genius's. He was indeed a man, confeffedly fuperior in ftrength of genius, fertility of invention, folidity of judgement, depth of penetration, and in majesty and nervousness of ftyle alfo (notwithstanding its other defects) to most of the writers of that age. And I find none in this age of greater refinement, that do either come up to him in these refpects, or to many others I might mention of the worthies of that day. Learning and good fenfe feemed then to be tending apace towards their height and perfection amongst us: to which they foon after arrived in the persons and writings of fuch great men as Newton, Locke, Clarke, and others, that I might mention; who, in their several ways of writing, will continue to be the ornaments and the glory of this nation, while either learning or good fenfe (which feem now to be upon the decline among us) have any footing in this part of the world,

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