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    tinction worthy of unremitting labour and severe suffering . " The saints are promised that they should inherit the earth " In whatever sense this passage of the New Testament ought to be understood , it does not appear that the immediate followers of Christ expected from it any share of worldly riches or honours ,

    If we rcfc : r " to the writings of Paul , the best authenticated of all the scriptural records , " we find him appea ing to the churches in behalf of his disinterestedness , in his . second epistle to the Corinthians , he says , " did I make again of you by any of them whom I sent unto you ? f desired Titus , and with him 1 sent a brother . Did Titus make a

    gain of you ?' And in the Acts oi the Apostles , where we are told of his taking leave of the eiders of the church at Ephe-u « , he says , "I have covcmd no man ' s silver , or gold , or apparel . Yea , ye yourselves kaow that these 'hands nave ministered uAto . my necessities and to them that \ v-ere with me . " But had

    it been the aim of the apostles to obtain riches or honours , their ill succe s must surely have induced them to relinquish their pursuit " It is probable , " says < c the ad < versa r > s" " that Mahomet and his first fo - lowers believed in his divine mission . '

    In reply to this , I shall only take the liber t of referring my opponent to the prophet ' s celebrated journey to heaven , which maybe seen in Pride&ux , who gives the proper authorities . The coercive methods of enforcing

    the profession of Christianity , mentioned by " the adversary ** cannot affect the truth of the religion itself , if the preceding observations be jut ; because they do not suppose it incapable of being corrupted or perverted to pernicious purpo es . The proper qtiesticn is , have we sufficient reason to believe in its

    truth , prior , to that period ? If we have , that perversion could not tender it false . And at to its not being extensively adopted as a' pelf-denying religion , it yylU scarcely be denied ciiat numbers suffered as martyrs in its cause long be- * fore it was ' * propagated by the sword " Mow then can its credibility be de . troycd by its subsequent perversion ; unless it be laid down as an infallible maxim .

    that none of the gifts of heaven can be ftbused or misapplied ? But noiK are more fceady than Unitarians , to acknowledge the early corruption of enc Chris-

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    tian religion ; and as Necessarians they consider it as a part of that evil , the introduction of which they believe to have been strictly unavoidable . Under the second head , the original

    objection , viz . the unreasonableness of punishing men for necessary actions , seems to be given up * and another insisted on , which before was proposed under that h <^ ad which related to Optimism . And it is admitted that * ' there

    may be something plausible in my reasoning , if it could be proved that the supposition of one pang whigh is felt , being excluded , involves a contradiction " But surely this is requiring me

    to prove a great deal merely to give an air oi plausibility to my reasoning . Hovr can this point be proved except by one who was perfectly acquainted with all the laws of nature , all the properties of matter , and the different constitution * of all organized beings ?

    But the position , that it is hi ghly probable that pain and evil could not have been avoided , may , I conceive be made sufficiently evident without undertaking such an impossible task . Whatever proves the Divine benevolence will go far likewise towards proving the necessity of the existing evil . For would a

    kind and benevolent Being hiv ** suffered any evil to exist if it could have been prevented , and would answer no valuable purpose?—For proofs of the Divine goodness , I must refer to Archdtracon Paley , and other writers on Natural Theology .

    la my first reply , I argued that " the senses which are the inlets of pleasure , must likewise as far as * ve knoiuy be frequently the in-tmmentsof pain . ' Thi $ indeed is not to demonstrate " that the supposition of one pang which is felt bcjng excluded , involve * a

    contradiction ; " but it seems an hypothesis probable in itself , and of considerable weight towards reconciling- the sufferings of the whole animal woild with the goodness of God . Ought not my opponent in return , either to have shewn that this is not a probabie supposition ; or that if admitted it did not

    sufficiently vindicate the moral perfection > > of the Deity ; or that notwithstanding his immutable rectitude and { xneroience he might have introduced a great mass of evii , pain and suffering , into his creation , which he might easily have excluded , and which is not necessary to the proiduction , of substantial good ? But instead

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    Mr . AHchin ' s Answer to the Churchman ' s Reply . 617

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1808, page 667, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2399/page/31/