offended against his vanity, without causing any real harm to him,
especially, when the prince had taken pains to make him drunk? Should
we consider as almighty a monarch, whose dominions were in such
confusion and disorder, that, except a small number obedient servants,
all his subjects were every instant despising his laws, defeating his
will and insulting his person? Let ecclesiastics then acknowledge, that
their God is an assemblage of incompatible qualities, as
incomprehensible to their understanding as to mine. No: they say, in
reply to these difficulties, that wisdom and justice in God, are
qualities so much above or so unlike those qualities in us, that they
bear no relation or affinity towards human wisdom and justice. But,
pray how am I to form to myself an idea of the divine perfection,
unless it has some resemblance to those virtues which I observe in my
fellow creatures and feel in myself? If the justice of God is not the
same with human justice, why lastly do any men pretend to announce it,
comprehend and explain it to others?"

POSTSCRIPT.

Previous to this publication the editor sent the following Letter
to Dr. Priestley.

"Reverend Sir,

Had you thought it impossible for man to hold different sentiments
respecting Natural religion and the proof of the existence of a God
than you do, the Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever would not have
appeared, much less would you have invited an answer by promising a
reply to every objection. Differing from you in sentiment I am the man
who enter with you in the lists; but I find myself upon consultation
with my friends under more difficulties than you were, and more to
stand in need of courage in taking up the glove, than you needed to
have in throwing it down. For this dispute is not like others in
philosophy, where the vanquished can only dread ridicule, contempt and
disappointment; here, whether victor or vanquished, your opponent has
to dread, beside ecclesiastical censure, the scourges, chains and
pillories of the courts of Law.

I accuse you not of laying a trap for an unguarded author, but I ask
your friendly opinion, whether I can, with temporal safety at least,
maintain the contrary of your arguments in proof of a Deity and his
attributes. If I cannot, no wonder the Theist cries _Victoria!_ but
then it is a little ungenerous to ask for objections. Of you, I may
certainly expect, that you will promise to use your influence, as well
wit