esult of some matter acting upon another.

It has always been a doubt with Theists, whether they can better prove
their God's existence by moral or physical considerations. Dr.
Priestley seems to think the _forte_ of the argument lies in the latter
proof, and lays particular stress upon his observation respecting cause
and effect, which therefore cannot here be so readily dismissed. He
makes great reference to the works of art. Theists are always for
turning their God into an overgrown man. Anthropomorphites has long
been a term applied to them. They give him hands and eyes nor can they
conceive him otherwise than as a corporeal Being. In which, as before
has been said, they are very right, for there can only be in the world
body and the space which bodies occupy. But granting this great workman
to have done so much, is it not quite an incontrovertible proposition,
that whoever first made a thing, as, for example, a chair or a table,
must have had an adequate idea of it's nature and use. Dr. Priestley
speaks more correctly in another part, by saying, he must have been
_capable_ of comprehending it. The nature and use of things are often
found out after they are made and by different persons than the makers
of them. Neither is there any analogy between the works of art, as a
table or house, and of nature, as a man or tree. Therefore there can be
no arguing from one to another by analogy. Hume observes that the
former works are done by reason and design, and the latter by
generation and vegetation, and therefore arguing from effect to causes,
it is probable, that the universe is generated or vegetated. At least
after all the observations about a table, it may be modestly asked,
whether there is not some difference between a table and the world? The
Doctor will also find some difficulty in explaining the propriety of
any argument of analogy between men and metals, which he does not at
other times scruple to make?

A _gratis_ assertion is first made, that all things we see are effects;
then because we see one thing caused, every thing must have been
caused. His conclusion of the argument is still more curious, "because
every thing was caused there must have been something that was not
caused." The cause ought to be proportioned to the effect. The effect
is not infinite. Why then attribute infinity to the cause? This is
Hume's argument. Priestley calls it shortly unworthy of a philosopher.
Let others judge! But surely, with