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    but to prove them alike inconsistent with both , the difficulty naturally enforces the necessity of looking to some other source for your principle of action ; and this , although it is generally but evasively hinted at , and seldom or ever openly and unreservedly avowed , is , as I have gathered from yourself and from the opinions of your sect generally , nothing less than a claim to an immediate supernatural gift of divine grace ; and , indeed , nothing short of such a pretension can account for the results we witness : still , this does but increase the difficulties and inconsistencies , since , in place of the subject ' s improving under our hands by a reference to divine grace , it only becomes infinitely worse .

    4 / By this grace you of course mean the gift of a light which reason cannot furnish you with ; a supernatural , spiritual teaching to read the Scriptures with a sure and superior understanding to those who read them differently from you . Now this again is , in truth , nothing but a palpable presumption , and by no means small in its degree ; whilst at the same time it is no less amazing than it is presumptuous , since no power upon earth can prove it to be any thing more than a mere delusion , an imagined superiority ; and if for a moment we come to consider so great a dereliction of charity as flowing from or standing in connexion with this divine grace , as it evidently does , nothing can be worse than the position involved . The two considerations stand so diametrically opposed to one another , as at once to overturn

    both religion and reason . To suppose that a mind divinely instructed can undertake to lay prostrate the first principle of Christianity , is nothing less than supposing divinity to be divided against itself . The spirit which cometh from above is first pure and then peaceable . We have no proof of such a spirit as this , under the grace by which you presume to be guided ; but , on the contrary , if other sects were to give themselves up to the same vehemence and violation of charity which yours does , the world would be in a constant state of perilous strife and warfare . Peace not being the result of the grace under which you act , it cannot come from above . In plain truth , this deficiency in charity is clearly as sure a proof that your presumed grace

    cannot be of a divine character , as the certainty of any proof which can be furnished by mathematical demonstration ; and , indeed , I am greatly surprised that the conclusion has not forced itself upon your attention . Furthermore , if you be asked for any direct proof of your being actually in . possession of this supernatural gift , there is nothing to be said for it ; you can allege nothing more in answer than that your particular view of scripture is the proof of it ; which is nothing more than those may say who differ

    from you , and therefore is plainly no special proof at all . You can no more give proof of your being endued with supernatural grace , than you can give proof of your having power to work a miracle ; this is , in fact , precisely the proof which is wanting , and without which it never can obtain a rational credibility . Such a proof was necessary for the conviction of mankind even to manifest the divine spirit in Jesus , whom you call ( I am quite shocked to say it ) God-man and Jehovah Jesus ; and , most certainly , if such a proof was

    requisite in Qod himself , you cannot properly , for a moment , entertain the idea that less than an undoubted miracle can suffice on the part of a mere mortal like yourself ; in fact , the conception bears strongly the character of the most wild and extravagant conceit and presump tion , although entirely lost to your view : nevertheless it is wonderful that these things should not strike upon your understanding , and that you should remain , as I have before said , totally unaware of the conclusions consequent upon your own opinions . You can furnish no possible proof that your being endued with this special

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    Letter from a Unitarian Layman to an Evangelical Friend . 165

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1829, page 165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2570/page/13/