This universe or mundane system may be the work of one hand, another of
another, and so on. Where is the absurdity of that? If the universe is
applied to the solar system, there is an appearance of its being formed
by one design, and in that stile it might be said to be the work of one
hand. But this Deity is asserted to be infinite, and to have made all
other worlds and universes, though it does not appear by any unity of
design that all other worlds and universes are one work with this.

Dr. Priestley himself allows that reason would drive us to require a
cause of the Deity. He is himself obliged to conclude, after all his
reasoning, that we must acquiesce in our inability of having any idea
on the subject; that is, how God could exist without a prior cause. At
the same time he says the Deity cannot have a cause, and therefore we
cannot reason about him. Why then all his own reasoning? We make a
Deity ourselves, fall down and worship him. It is the molten calf over
again. Idolatry is still practised. The only difference is that now we
worship idols of our imagination; before of our hands. "Still we must
necessarily rest at a Being that is infinite;" that is, when our reason
drives us to the admission of an infinite cause we must necessarily
stop finitely in our career. Not content with this conclusion he adds,
that we cannot help perceiving the existence of this cause, though he
owns that it is not an object of our conceptions. But even the Theist's
argument does not necessarily drive us to the admission of an infinite
cause. The argument is, "because there is a man, and man has
intelligence, we must necessarily admit of a Being of infinitely
superior intelligence." Would it not be nearly as well to argue,
"because there is a goose, therefore there must be a man."

What is there more which hinders a series of finite causes to be
carried back _ad infinitum_, than that the reasoner or contemplator of