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    pagated , " might nevertheless become the admiration of the wisest , the delight of the virtuous , the refuge of the afflicted , the source of knowledge , holiness , and joy to the world I This , indeed , he supposes , to be ' * barely possible ; " but why make the supposition at all ? A concession of this kind , the Deist , he may rest assured , will turn to no good account . And it is unavailingly counteracted by the author avowing his own belief on such

    evidence and by declaring that the rejection of such evidence " incarcerates us in the dark dungeon of eternal scepticism . " Mr . Fox then proceeds in the same style of special pleading : " Christians , draw not too hastily the inference that , if the conclusiveness of these and other proofs be not seen , it can only be attributed to the mental perception being

    dimmed by the effluvia of a corrupted heart . He to whose sight alone the heart is open , who knoweth our frame and remembereth that we are dust , can alone be qualified to pronounce

    such a condemnation , and to him much may be visible which you cannot perceive , productive of an effect so undesirable , without inculpating the individual . Nay , you may imagine various

    pleas which in the judgment of charity ought to be admitted for the claims of an avowed and active Deist , not to be ranked in sincerity and rectitude materially below an honest and active Christian" !

    The preacher then institutes a kind of mathematical process to exculpate the individual in his predilection for Infidelity ; but though we may grant that some minds are unhappily inclined to scepticism , yet , generally speaking , there is no reason to question the truth of our Saviour ' s solemn

    asseveration : " This is the condemnation that light is come into the world , but men love darkness rather than light—because their deeds are evil" ! Jesus Christ makes no exception , and

    his ministers need not affect a greater delicacy on the subject . But I shall not enter any further into an analysis of this singular discourse , which has , we understand , drawn forth profusely the thanks of the Deist , whilst it has given offence to some of the / best friends of Christianity . There was no need of handing over weapons to the

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    enemy . There was still less need of exposing and blazoning forth the differences subsisting betwixt the advocates of revealed religion . The enlightened and consistent Unitarian , who , at such a time , would wish to repel the charge that his creed has any alliance to Infidelity , ought to have avoided even the appearance of evil . The duties of Christians towards Deists are , most assuredly , not to seek out every possible excuse for their unbelief , but to expostulate with them on their unreasonableness in

    rejecting that plenitude of moral evidence of which aloiie religious subjects are susceptible ; on their perverfceness in identifying the corruptions and abuses of Christianity with the Christianity of the New Testament , in opj position to all that has been advanced

    to the contrary ; and on the danger incurred by reviling a religion whose origin is divine . This is our bounden duty ; and more than this ought not to have been done . We disclaim ^ as to Deists , the aid of the civil power , and leave them to the mercies of that

    God who alone has the disposal of the world to come . Before I conclude , it is only justice to the author to remark , that the Sermon is well written , and many of its passages in strict accordance with the spirit of Christianity . —But I would

    caution a minister of the gospel against saying any thing which may promote rather than check the prevalence of Infidelity . Unitarians owe nothing to Mr . Carlile ; he has , in the eyes of

    thousands , done them an injury which will not be easily retrieved . The reputedly orthodox will , in this point , believe the Infidel , though they yield him credence in nothing else . Christians have an awful task to sustain in

    not betraying , either by principle or by practice , the religion they profess to an inveterate and outrageous enemy . And , with the author of this discourse , I am most firmly persuaded , that , " when the reign of Antichrist is be disarmed

    over , all hostility will , and the genuine gospel ^ rising from the ruins of corruption , like the fabled phoenix in renewed youth from the funeral pile , shall spread its wings for a glorious flight , and urge its resistless course around the globe . " AN UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN .

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    On Mr . Fow s Sermon on the Duties of Christians towards Deists . 31

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1820, page 31, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2484/page/31/