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    for in the general system . If , as I > r . Priestley , Mr . Belsham , and other writers of high authority in the Unitarian church affirm , the same law of necessity acts on the minds of intelligent b < in < zs , and with the snme undeviating effect as that which rules the world of

    inanimate matter , nothing has hap pemd , or can happen , to occasion a miraculous interruption of the established harmony . * The general order since the whole began , Is kept in nature , and is kept in man . ' '

    The occurrence of miracles , therefore , under the government of perfect power aad wisdom , is , by reason ^ pronounced to be impossible . For if God in the original * arrangement , could not exclude some evils under the law of

    necessity 5 to which he subjected all his works , neither could he by any interruption of that arrangement . The statement at once represents the Deity as a being weak ,

    imperfect , and changeable , whilst its defenders say , he is infinitely wise , powerful ^ good } and unchange - able . The statement thus involves

    contradictions far more strong and pointed than any that are said to occur in the creed of St . Athanasius . It is evident that the whole language and conduct of men of all religions , take for granted that

    man is not a necessary agent . What is prayer but the solicitation of miracle ? If there be no established laws of nature , miracles can have no existence ; if there be such laws , prayer solicits a mira - cle .

    In fact , all the religions of ^ he world have considered the con * duct of God to man , tobe like the conduct of mah to man * Wheii

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    man legislates for man , he contemplates him as a being over whose will he has no control , ' but by Rewards and punishments ; ahd this example is taken universall y as the rule of the divine conduct

    But if by the original constitution of things , God have subjected the will of man to the undeviating ope . ration of necessary causes which he has put into action , the con * duct of man to man can be no fair

    rule , or illustration of a rule , for the divine conduct . This opinion , therefore , once admitted , annihilates the foundation of every

    religion , and renders ^ in the eye of reason , all the laeguage and all the conduct of men of every religion , ridiculous and absurd beyond the powers of description .

    4 . The fourth point of irrational doctrine , held by the Unitarians , to which I shall advert , is that notwithstanding the present state of the world , it was the 6 b » ject of the mission of Jestifc Christ to reform the world *

    If the world be reformed , and consequentl y ^ according to this notion , the end of the mission of Jesus accomplished , reason tells us that we are to expect to see this peculiarity in the destruction of those vices , to which the gertiljs

    of Christianity is most evidently hostile ; and these are wars , a worldly and selfish spirit , and the irregular intercourse of the sexes . . Let the history of the last eighteen hundred years , amongst Christians , be consulted .

    Wars more ferocious , more nu « merous , more bloody , never oc » curred , than those which tlmt Wstory records . O ! btit , says Paley , you look for the influence of religion amongst courts , whefe it is not to b © found . " Itide ^ d t »»

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    1 S 8 Unitarians hot u TlationalCKrisUtiris"

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1808, page 188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2391/page/16/