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To Me Re&rft. Wright, on Future Punishme...
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Taythe Rev. R* Wrtght;— on Future Punish...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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To Me Re&Rft. Wright, On Future Punishme...
To Me Re & rft . Wright , on Future Punishment . 3 HS
Taythe Rev. R* Wrtght;— On Future Punish...
Taythe Rev . R * Wrtght ;— on Future Punishment * Hackney , May 15 , 1814 . Sir , On the first perusal of your letter there appeared to me nothing to repel mine , or to
establish your own opinion ; but I determined to give it a more careful and deliberate second reading , which , so far from producing on my mind that effect which Dr . E ^ stlin ex pected the second reading of his letter on the same
subject would produce on the mind of Dr . Toulrnin ( Vol . IX . p . 21 ) , completely convinced me thatyou had not disproved one of the passages I referred to , or established yqxkpJown hypothesis , by a single proof , -
X ^ iU now take leave reply to ^ aur arguments in order . In your first paragraph you endeavour to change the meaning which
I applied to the words , destruc - tiem * death , Spc . by saying that * ' forms of expression equally strong are applied to the Jews in th « Old Testament , " and you ask
whether I suppose endless loss of b eiag * to be meant , and conclude by enquiring 1 u why it should be thought wrong to compare the Nteiv Testament with the Old on
this more than on any other subject . " I will tell you why ! because it is impassible the same expressions could be meant by the sacred writers to convey the
same meaning , or could be under . sto ^ d by the Jew and the Christi an * i a the same sense . In the revelation of the will of God to the Jews by Moses , there is no where to be found , that I can discover ^ any communication of a future state ( whatever belief was
Taythe Rev. R* Wrtght;— On Future Punish...
entertained by the Pharisees'iwtat probably derived from the obscmte tradition of their heathen neighbours ) : The promises and threadeningsofGod to the Jews * under the old covenant were all
temporal ; that as a nation , or individuals , if they were obedient to bis commandments they should enjoy length of days and all other prosperity ; if they were disobedient they should be afflicted with various calamities , and when de *
struction was added , it could not be understood by a Jew as any thing but an untimely death . Bat under the new covenant by Jesus Christ , the foundation of which is a resurrection from the dead
and a future state of rewards and ; punishments , the words life and death , utter destruction , & c . could not be understood by the Christian but as referring to that future
state , as he knows alj alike , the righteous as well as the wicked , must undergo temporal death : the meaning of these expressions must under the two different covenants
be different : therefore on this subject the expressions cannot be compared the one to explain the other . In the same paragraph you « ay I have informed the reader that whenever the words Eternal
and Everlasting are used by me in that letter , ihey are intended to mean endless ; and you add , " your saying this alters not their true meaning I" This observation surprised me a good deal , arid to
say the best of it , was uncalled for : the simple fact was , as t trust the reader will observe , that being aware the terms Everlasting and Eternal are used in different passages of scripture in a limited as well as an unlimited sense * I
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1814, page 343, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02061814/page/23/
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