Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

The Evidences of the Christian Religion

London

Printed for J. Tonson

1730

"In compassion to those gloomy mortals, who by their unbelief are rendered incapable of feeling those impressions of joy and hope, which the celebration of the late glorious Easter festival naturally leaves on the mind of a Christian, I shall in this paper endeavour to evince that there are grounds to expect a future state, without supposing in the reader any faith at all, not even the belief of a Deity."

In compassion to those gloomy mortals, who by their unbelief are rendered incapable of feeling those impressions of joy and hope, which the celebration of the late glorious Easter festival naturally leaves on the mind of a Christian, I shall in this paper endeavour to evince that there are grounds to expect a future state, without supposing in the reader any faith at all, not even the belief of a Deity. Let the most stedfast unbeliever open his eyes, and take a survey of the sensible world, and then say if there be not a connexion, an adjustment, an exact and constant order discoverable in all the parts of it. Whatever be the cause, the thing it self is evident to all our faculties. Look into the animal system, the passions, senses, and locomotive powers; is not the like contrivance and propriety observable in these too? Are they not fitted to certain ends, and are they not by nature directed to proper objects?
(p. 303)

Impressions

ECCO-TCP

27 entries in the ESTC (1730, 1733, 1742, 1745, 1751, 1753, 1755, 1758, 1759, 1761, 1763, 1764, 1766, 1767, 1772, 1776, 1777, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1795, 1796, 1799, 1800).

The Evidences of the Christian Religion: by the Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq; To which are added, Several Discourses against Atheism and Infidelity, ... Occasionally Published by Him and Others (London: Printed for J. Tonson, 1730). <Link to ECCO-TCP>

08/18/2013