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    Untitled Article

    SpppqsjB fo M > f hp urged , ; a | id > i ^ g : qd « ikh %% jbNe ^ i . q ^ M Chri stianity , that this religiQu , <^ not proceed from Genii , becay&e it is not coipmunieated to the whole human r $ e § . Tj ) i § objection * , if : expressed in ; its proper form , amounts to thefello ^ ijig pyopd ^ tion ,, tha&God will npj bestow . an important b ^ i pg > Qp soin ^; of W ^ ofefpfisg wbioji he withholds from others * And this proposition , which seems : specious ^ enough : in : itself ,. can only be refuted by

    the evidence of fac& Here * thenj an # } ogy . not only may but musk be employed , of ths objeetipn remaps u ^ nswered E * nd unanswerable . But , happily for the , cayse-oft peye } ation s , it i $ ? ar characteristic of the Divine goy / B ^ ment ; thai , privileges are ^ - a ^ lottei : ifh diffeirent measures to differed individuals ^ and that ; whiqh : is , grfmtedi tp spm , e is , denied , to others . This holdsj trne , QVfspj of . hlessijigsj which are ; most important to the tr ^ ie enjoyment , of life , as . health , knowledge , and-the means of intellectiual s ^ nd moral culUyati ^ n , Analogy * then , furnishes a . reply to the . objection , which is satisfactpry and complete ..

    Agaip , it < has . begft otyeqted to Christianity that it produces but little effecj ; on the conduct of its professors , and that it has even been : the c&use of e ; vib of no ordinary , niagnitu ^* Thjs _ objection ^ when ; reduced to . Usprjiriqipk , affirms , that what God bestows cannot be abused . But this proposition analogy most fully and clearly refutes . Reason is allowed to be the gift of God , and man , as such , is complimented with the appellation of a rational creature . But in how few does reason discharge its proper office ! How

    few really live that life which reason dictates ! And how ofteif is this faculty employed to gain the most unworthy ends , and to effect the basest purposes ! Indeed , every thing which God gives may be and is more or less misapplied . And were Christianity incapable of being abused or neglected , this peculiarity might , induce a suspicion that nature an 4 revelation had npt the same author .

    But it is time to pass on to one or two examples of the misapplication of analogical reasoning . Were it urged in behalf of that decree which is supposed to haye destined , or to have UJU the greater part of the human race to suffer eternally for the sin of Ad ^ m , that children do , iri fact , suffer in this world fpr the Colly or the vices of their parents , U could not be denied that there is an analogy between the two cases . But the analogy is imperfect and defective . Between these two appointments there are important circufnstance ^ of difference which are more than sufficient to counterbalance their general resemblance . By the

    former , interminable misery is entailed a $ a punishment upon those who had no share in the guijjt contracted . By the latter , temporal inconveniences are sustained by the child in consequence of his parent ' s misconduct . By the extravagance of a father hi $ son may be reduced to poverty . But thousands live in' poverty whose fathers were never extravagant . In consequence of the exqesses of a father a child may be born with a feeble frame and delicate constitution ^ But there are many whose frame is feeble and constitution

    delicate ,, whose father ^ were chargeable with np excesses . And whoever shalj he able to vindicate the appointment of Providence in the latter case , will not be at a loss how t ; o vipoicate it in the Ippner , Indeed ,, from , that arrangement , which ha # provided that the conseq ^ nces of a man's conduct shoujd e&ten . d fa those with whom , he is closely connected , mankiiid may lsanv anddojeain , lessons of prudence and virtue . But what useful lesson is to be learned from the decretum horrendum of Calvin , it would piu ^ zle the ablest theologian to explaiji . Again , analogy / has been called in . to illustrate the dpctrine of the Atone-

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1827, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1792/page/10/