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802 On Future Punishment.
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
I Have Always Been Strongly Inclined To ...
Having allowed ourselves , however , to draw this conclusion , that a limit to future punishment must exist , and that as it is in its nafture remedial , so it will , in all probability , end at last in the accomplishment of greater good to tbe individual himself , and certainly to the whole creation , —the assignment of this limit is a very different question ; a question to which we have no means of returning a precise answer * Upon this point it has oot seemed good to our All-wise Governor and Judge to afford us any precise informationo Thus much at least is certain from the obscure but awful indications of scripture , that they may greatly exceed in duration as well as in intensity any thing which this life offers to our observation , and that whatever
discipline appears to be necessary to extirpate the vicious habits that have been contracted here , must be gome through before such persons can be rendered fit to partake in the blessings of heaven . Upon this subject revelation has
not empowered us to speak with any certainty ; but , arguing from such analogies as may be supplied by what is revealed , and by our own reason applied to the observations we can make on the course of Providence in this world , it seems not unreasonable to conjecture that a future state will carry on the course of moral education and discipline which has begun here ,, The
circumstances in which we are here placed are doubtless peculiarly adapted by Infinite Wisdom to the degree in which our intellectual and moral powers are at present developed ; and those wbo have neglected favourable opportunities in this worldly or who from any causes leave the present life without having obtained that improvement which it was intended to produce , must
enter upon the next stage of their existence in a less advantageous condition Their sinful habits , their sensual and selfish desires , their violent passions ,, their ignorance , their narrow prejudices , will all be to them the sources of much pain and misery . The remembrance of past offences , the stings of unavailing remorse , will be the occasion of more acute anguistu So long as these things continue , they cannot but be the source of extreme misery ; so much so , that it is probably unnecessary to look beyond the natural and unavoidable consequences of sin in depraving our natures ,, in unfitting us for the most truly valuable enjoyments , in rilling the soul with a multitude of outrageous passions , of importunate desires , which we should no longer have the means to gratify , in order to convince ourselves that it infallibly brings
along with it its owe appropriate and adequate punishment . But perhaps the most important consideration , and that which comes , or ought to come , home most completely to the breast of every reflecting person in meditating on this subject , is the view which the doctrine of limited punishment leads us to take of the correspondence between the gradations of character in the present world , and of probable condition in the next * Let no one lay the flattering unction to his soul , that the sins in which he allows himself here are such comparative trifles that they will be overlooked . They
may be more or fewer , —they may imply a deeper or a lighter stain of moral guilt ; but as far as that stain remains unwashed out by repentance and amendment on this side of the grave , it must remain to affect his condition and happiness in the next world . As the tree falls , so it must lie . Mora ! evil is and always must be inseparably connected with natural eviL It cannot exist in the soul without bringing its companion along with it . As far as
it goes it is inconsistent with the true perception and enjoyment of celestial happiness . It mu & t therefore be extirpated , by such means as God , in his in th
infinite wisdom and goodness ^ ( which are synonymous with what is sense of the word we cull justice , ) shall perceive to be necessary for that pur pose o
802 On Future Punishment.
802 On Future Punishment .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 802, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/2/
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