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    In his 8 th Section , ( p , 154 ) entitled Rationality , while he praises the " admirable Treatise on the Human Understanding , '' he thus severely animadverts on the author ' s theological writings . " Mr . Locke led the fashion in

    introdueing > pompous parade of reasoning into religion , ' from that time a rational religion has been the cant term , with all who profess to be wiser than others . The proper humble subserviency of

    Reason to Christianity , as a very useful but very submissive hand , maid , has been discarded . —He appears to know little or nothing of that divine faith , which the scripture describes ; from Locke down to Hume , that is to say , from a cold historical assent down

    to atheism itself , or to what is much the same , there has been si gradual melancholy declension from evangelical simplicity . Reason has impertinently meddled

    with the gospel , and thai with such overbearing sedulity , as to darken it more and more ; and rivers of tears would not suffice to

    bewail the increase of moral misery , which , since Mr . Locke ' s time , has pervaded these kingdoms *" After undertaking what he calls an easy task , " in a summary way , to answer Mr . Locke ' s account of

    the provinces of faith , and reason , and of enthusiasm , " in which •' Lis account of the distinct provinces of faith and reason is" described as 4 * insidious and weak " and •* his whole account of enthusiasm is obviated in a word . " Mr «

    Milner , towards the close of the lection , complains that " the con . cessions of Locke to infidels , have given them advantages which they prosecute with merciless rigour : " —h i * another place , ( pU 199 . ) he

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    describes Hume " as following the rational scent of Mr . Locke , who first , unhappily , gave Reason leave to intrude herself into the secret * of Christianity . " Mr . Milner thus ventured to

    describe as a cold historical assent the Christianity of a man , who had solaced the decline of a long and exemplary life by studying the scriptures , and indulging , even to his last moments , the hope of the gospel . But Mr . Locke recovers

    reputation , when compared with modern Socinians * Socinianism , indeed , appears to have been the monstrum et horrendum , the rawhead and bloody bones * which

    alarmed this good man ' s imagina * tion , obscured his judgment ^ and even exposed to suspicion his in ~ tegrity , as a writer . Speaking of " Mr . Gibbon , in the case of Paul of Samosata , " and his supposed vices , Mr . Milner adds : "His views seem , on the whole , to have much resembled those of

    the modern Socinians . No won . der that his life was wicked . Men may talk of virtue , but provision for the effectual practice of it is only attained in the school of Christ , from which , in reality , Socinianism is as abhorrent as any Deism whatever . The atonement

    and intercession of God the Son , and the influence of God the Holy Ghost , being excluded or explain , ed away , nothing remains of the gospel , in effect , but what it has in common with the religion of nature . ' ' ( p . 247 *)

    Here , after interpolating the gospel with a God the Son , and a God the Holy Ghost , this writer , no doubt unconscious of the wrong , proceeds to spoil Socinianism of her faith in a resurrection both of the Just and the unjust y and the ob-

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    Account of a Publication of the Rev . Joseph Milner ' s . ii

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1813, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2424/page/15/