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    gun to in eve in those exact and undeviatingcourses which we continually behold . Something of a superior' nature must have previously existed as the contriver arid t&e cause of these wonderful effects . But this cause mustfl / - ways have existed , otherwise none of them could have teen produced ; for , if ever there was a period when nothing existed , nothing could ever have begun to exist , since no effect can take placfe without an adequate cause . This cause , therefore ^ must be strictly and absolutely eternal , and the uniformity and harmonious relation of the several parts prove to us , that there is . but one such

    causei Thus far we can proceed upon the clearest and most satisfactory grounds . But in the attempt to conceive of the mode of

    Existence of a Being who never , had a beginnings our faculties are lost and overwhelmed : we are Convinced it must be so—but how , it is utterly out of our power to comprehend . Mark , then , the

    ¦ striking contrast between this clear and satisfactory way of proceeding , and that which affects to

    treat the dictates of reason with so much contempt : at the very outset it pUzzlesand confounds , stating the fundamental article of . faith , in terms so absolutely

    incomprehensible and contradictory its to baffle every attempt to affix to them a precise meaning * From such premises it is impossible that any clear and luminous deductions stiould ever be made ; and it is a remarkable fact , t h ^ t ' th ' e system which has arrogated to itself the title of orthodox , becomes intelligible and useful only in proportion as it departs from the propositions with which it commences .

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    forming on the whole such a mass of inconsistencies , as it is won * derfui should ever have been received as a standard 6 f Christian faith arid doctrine . Mb he of its

    advocates will asjsert that it can be understood : and some , tinafefe to refute the arguments in pr ^ of of its impossibility , have desperately avowed that they believed it because it was impossible l , ^ er-i tainly it must be for the honour

    of Christianity , and consequently for the happiness of mankind , to clear away these great obstacles to its reception and its salutary influence . They never could have had a legitimate origin ipa revelation from the God of truth ,

    nor did they exist in the pure ? and earlier times of the gospel . / They were the offspring of contentions for ecclesiastical authority , of an ambition to become lords ever the faith of Christians * and of a vain effort to make all the world

    think alike upon every minute point relative to religion . They were founded upon palpable misinterpretations of the language of Scripture , which , although doubtless sufficiently plain to those to whom it was immediately addresseu , became somewhat obscure in

    consequence of those alterations , of phrase and idiqpi r which , in , a lapse of years , take place lii ^ 11 the languages of the earth . Every one knows , or pli ght to koo \ y

    ^ tha ^ the eastern style was * & the highest degree figurative , am | that to interjpret it literally in ey ^ ry instance would be to do the

    utmost violence to our own under-, standings . For instance , wfya (; are we to think of the parts , organs and actions of the hitman body being attributed to . the Deit ^ , who , is a pure and perfect spirit > and

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    Zeal in the Cause of Religious Truth * 33 <}

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1810, page 339, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2406/page/19/