THE GENERAL PREFACE

1. The Author's excuse for such alterations as he has made in this edition of his books.
2. The general scope of this entire volume.
3. The excellence and necessity of reason for maintaining the truth of the Christian religion.
4. His apology for interweaving Platonism The philosophy of Plato, often emphasizing the existence of abstract objects and the soul. and Cartesianism The philosophy of René Descartes, emphasizing dualism between mind and body and a mechanical view of the physical world. so frequently into his writings.
5. Certain advertisements original: "Advertisements"; here meaning notices or instructions for the reader. for the more profitable reading of his books.
6. Divine Intuition original: "Divine Sagacity"; a term More uses for a spiritual or moral sense that precedes logical reasoning.—a principle that comes before successful reason in contemplations of the highest importance.
7. The aforementioned principle further illustrated and confirmed from the works of Aristotle.
8. The Author’s excuse for omitting, in his Antidote, a refutation of the inconclusive original: "unconcluding" reasons some use to prove the existence of God.
9. His excuse for not adding a treatise on Superstition to his work on Enthusiasm In the 17th century, "Enthusiasm" referred to the (often criticized) belief that one was receiving direct, private revelations from God..
10. That it can be no offense to the knowledgeable and noble-minded original: "ingenuous" that people have a shyness and suspicion original: "jealousy" regarding such truths as they have not been familiar with.
11. Certain remarkable things concerning Descartes and his writings.
12. Certain considerations brought together which entirely prevent all imaginable objections against the extension of a spirit The idea that a spirit can occupy space, a key point of debate in 17th-century metaphysics..
13. The properties and roles original: "Offices" of the Spirit of Nature further cleared and confirmed. A logical deduction original: "Consectary" concerning the guidance original: "Conduct" of souls by the Spirit of Nature.
14. That the ancient Jewish Kabbalah original: "Judaical Cabbala"; a tradition of mystical Jewish interpretation. consisted of what we now call Platonism and Cartesianism, made further probable by the lineage of the Pythagorean School.
15. Particular considerations from Pherecydes, Parmenides, and Aristotle that might move one to believe that the whole Pythagorean philosophy, both Physical and Metaphysical, was the ancient wisdom of the Jews.
16. The unhappy separation of the physical part of the Kabbalah from the metaphysical in the works of Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus; with the Author's serious endeavor to reunite them again.
17. That what he applies to the text of Moses in his Philosophical Kabbalah, he conceives to be rational and is assured that it fits the text perfectly, though he deliberates further concerning the truth of it.
18. The testimony of several holy persons who either plainly asserted, or at least did not dislike, the doctrine of the soul's preexistence: Clement of Alexandria, Origen Adamantius (Clement's scholar), Saint Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, Synesius, Bishop of Cyrene, Arnobius, Prudentius, Saint Augustine, the author of the Book of Wisdom, and our blessed Savior.
19. That there is not the least conflict between the doctrine of preexistence and the derivation of original sin from Adam.
20. That mathematical certainty in purely philosophical speculations need not obligate any man's conscience to make a public profession of them.