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To the Rev. R. Wright; on Future Punishm...
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?S J-> IX. 3 T
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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Transcript
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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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Taythe Rev. R* Wrtght;— On Future Punish...
% * as drawnj stating , that whether feis life was $ b > rt or long the Dei . ty had afforded him a large balaoce tvf happiness and enjoyment , and alt bo ugh his existence should
iK * t extend beyond the present life , God could not be chargeable with injustice , because the life and enjoyment he had bestowed qn him was a free gift . Your
observation on this passage I read with much concern . You say * I compare human beings to oaks and acorns , and reason as if 4 & e preservation or the destruction of the one was of no more
esfc mat ion , with the Almighty than the other , " and tell me " the Lord Esteemed the preservation of the Hin ^ vites more than the preservation of Jonahs gourd ; " the jusiMte w . propriety of this animad * lersfoa , I leave to the candour of
Dur readers to determine . In the passage with which I Concluded my former letter , " the JAMgCe Of sin is death , " & c . I
i & ed the addition of eternal death , Ht which you triumph , and tell m $ it is un & criptural , and seem to d < d [ y my justification of it . That lie , phrase contrasted with eternal life is not to be found in the same
passage of scripture 1 admit ; but Ivill you allow me to ask you in what other sense a Christian csm understand it , as he cannot under ^ ttSUuMtof temporal death : if then
JA apply to the future second death , unless you can prove to us something about that restoration in the pleasing delusion of which you seem to have indulged your ima-WJnatiQn—io whiU other sense can
* t be . understood . by . a Christian than eternal ,. « ndka * I Having now replied to your animadversions on my letter , I fctilpffer , a few bailments more
Taythe Rev. R* Wrtght;— On Future Punish...
upon the general subject * Had it not been for the process in ray own mind 1 should now be puzzled to account how anv Christian
could have embraced the belief o $ Universal Restitution , which stands so unsupported by any direct evidence from the New Testament ; but educated as I was in tbe creeds of the orthodox religion , and ha ~
ving a confused notion of the doctrine Of eternal torments , which , whenever it came into jny mind r I was glad to get rid of as soon as I could , by turning my thoughts from the subject ; when I first heard of universal salvation so
much more pleasing to the mind as well as more honourable to the divine character than eternal torments , with shame I confess it , t embraced it as a pleasing
philosophy , without examining the scriptures : continuing some years in this belief , I was at length , front various circumstances , roused to a resolute determination to search .
the New Testament for the eviu dence on which it rested j whea to my astonishment , I found no one passage in which it was declared , but abundant evidence for that which I am now defending :
And now , my dear Sir , persuaded , of your sincere love of truth , and knowing the ardent zeal and i n- * defatigable labour with which yoa have endeavoured to dissemimftfe
and inculcate it upon others ; you will , 1 hope , excuse me when I say , 1 ardently wish it were possible you could so far divest your mind of all previous prepossessions , as to come afreah to the inquiry .
and would go carefully through , the New Testament with attention to this subject , and this only , £ cannot then help persuading rtiy ^ sell you wpufci rite frokn ^ i ^
To The Rev. R. Wright; On Future Punishm...
To the Rev . R . Wright ; on Future Punishment . 94 &
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? S J- > IX . 3 T
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1814, page 345, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02061814/page/25/
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