A N 9 Ge ENQUIRYK AFTER PHILOSOPHY and THEOLOGY, TENDING TO SHOW WHEN and WHENCE Mankind EDINBURG H: Printed by SANDS, DONALDSON, MURRAY, and COCHRAN. Sold by A. KINCAID & A. DONALDSON, MDCCLV. A N ENQUIRY AFTER Philofophy and Theology. INTRODUCTION. E VERY man, learned or unlearned, has a philosophy; and every man has a God; and as, now-adays, they are generally of his own manufacture, they vary according to the imagination of the maker. It is impoffible all the different opinions of mankind concerning these two important points fhould be true; yet felf-love naturally prejudices each man in favour of his own, and the thirst of fame induces him to profelyte as many as he can, to the fame way of thinking. Hence it is, that every vil lage has its wifeman, who dictates as philofopher and divine, gains his circle of admirers, and like a Cato gives laws to his little fenate. Though no writings or pompous monuments perpetuate his name to posterity, yet he lives in the memory of his own contemporaries; and tradition hands him down the Defcartes or Newton of his age. WHEN a man of genius and learning takes it into his head to imagine what nature and God must be, his ambition prompts him to print. He garnishes out his notions with all the embellishments of style, and seasons them to the prevailing taste of the age. If they happen to meet with a general run of credit, whether by the intereft of fome men in power, or the mere caprice of the times, no matter which, they then foon become fashionable; for there is a mode in opinions as well as in drefs. In this cafe the man's fame is eftablished. He is made mafter of the mint of notions for his life; and whatever comes coined from his hands, paffes for current. He lives the hero of his age, and is deified at |