THE

PREFACE GENERAL.

1. The author's excuse for the changes he has made in this edition of his books.
2. The general purpose original: "scope" and range of this entire volume.
3. The excellence and necessity of reason for maintaining the truth of the Christian religion.
4. His defense original: "apology" for so frequently weaving Platonism The philosophy of Plato and his followers. and Cartesianism The philosophy of René Descartes. into his writings.
5. Certain notices original: "advertisements" for reading his books more profitably.
6. Divine insight original: "sagacity" as a principle that precedes successful reason in contemplations of the highest importance.
7. The aforementioned principle further illustrated and confirmed from Aristotle.
8. The author's excuse for omitting, in his Antidote Referring to his book "An Antidote against Atheism.", the refutation of the unconvincing original: "unconcluding" arguments some people use to prove the existence of God.
9. His excuse for not adding a treatise on Superstition to the one on Enthusiasm In this period, "enthusiasm" referred to the mistaken belief that one was receiving private, direct revelations from God..
10. That it should not offend knowledgeable and candid original: "ingenuous" people when others feel a shyness or suspicion toward truths they are not yet familiar with.
11. Certain remarkable things regarding Descartes and his writings.
12. Several considerations gathered together which completely prevent all possible objections against the idea that a spirit can have extension A major philosophical debate was whether spirits occupied space (extension) or were entirely immaterial and without size..
13. The properties and duties original: "offices" of the Spirit of Nature A term in the author's philosophy for a non-conscious power that executes God's will in the physical world. further clarified and confirmed. A logical consequence original: "consectary" regarding how souls are guided by the Spirit of Nature.
14. That the ancient Jewish Kabbalah original: "Judaical Cabbala" consisted of what we now call Platonism and Cartesianism, made more probable by the lineage of the Pythagorean School.
15. Specific considerations from Pherecydes, Parmenides, and Aristotle that might lead one to believe the entire Pythagorean Philosophy—both Physical and Metaphysical—was the ancient wisdom of the Jews.
16. The unfortunate separation of the physical part of the Kabbalah from the metaphysical part by Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus; along with the author's serious effort to reunite them.
17. That what he applies to the text of Moses in his Philosophical Kabbalah, he believes is rational and is certain it fits the text perfectly original: "exquisitely", though he continues to deliberate further on its truth.
18. The testimony of several holy persons who either clearly asserted or at least did not dislike the doctrine of the soul's pre-existence The theory that human souls exist in a spiritual realm before they are born into bodies.; including Clement of Alexandria, Origen Adamantius (and Clement his scholar), St. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, Synesius (Bishop of Cyrene), Arnobius, Prudentius, St. Augustine, the author of the Book of Wisdom, and our blessed Savior.
19. That there is no conflict between pre-existence and the inheritance of original sin from Adam.
20. That mathematical certainty in purely philosophical speculations does not require any person's conscience to profess