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864 Miscellaneous Correspondence.
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• I Cor. xv. 12—18. f See., particularly...
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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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On The Ihcssinn-S Of The General Resurre...
expressly declares that if there be no resurrection of the dead 9 then C ( they which are fallen asleep are perished . " ^ The hope of Christians , and the prospects of all mankind beyond the grave , according to that whole chapter , are founded on a complete resurrection , or
else a translation of the person , from this mortal or corruptible , to an immortal or incorruptible state . And the Apostle is so far from representing so glorious an elevation of the man as a mere state of preparation either for happiness or misery , and that without limits or degree , with respect to the latter equally with the former , that the whole
force of his commanding eloquence is employed in setting forth the glories of that immortal and therefore exalted and blissful state of being . f Neither does this description apply to the resurrection of virtuous Christians only , but it is a general description of the blessings of ac the resurrection of the dead : " compare ver . 42 with the context , and see vers . 22—26 .
Eternal life or immortality is every where in the New Testament represented as a blessing of transcendant magnitude , the attendant of corresponding moral excellence , J while ies opposite , death ,
864 Miscellaneous Correspondence.
864 Miscellaneous Correspondence .
• I Cor. Xv. 12—18. F See., Particularly...
• I Cor . xv . 12—18 . f See ., particularly , vers . 42—44 54 ,
55-J Zar ] ctiuvioq occurs upwards of forty times in the New Testament , and uniformly as the glorious reward of virtue ; occ }>& a . p « riot incorruption , five times , ccB < xvoccn , ocy immortality , three times , constantly in the sense of that perfection and happiness which is opposed to a perishing or mortal state . The terms cuj & rapToq and < oc 6 a . voccrioc are applied in their highest sense to denote the distinguishing
perfection of the Supreme Being . 1 Tim . io 17 , and vi . 16 ; oupSapcriav is expressly represented as the great object of the pursuit of the virtuous , and ^ & r > j v ocicoviov as their ultimate reward , Horn . ii . 7 . Words denoting durability , incorruption , and purity , as opposed to their opposites , are those which are employed in the New Testament generally to denote future blessedness the attendant of moral
excellence . See , particularly , 1 Pet . i . 3 , 4 P 23 . If that immortality which is opposed to death and corruption be so uniformly represented in the New Testament as the glorious blessing conferred on the virtuous , and in its primary and highest sense the distinguishing perlec-
• I Cor. Xv. 12—18. F See., Particularly...
and its train of physical evils , are represented , both in the Old and the New Testaments , as the concomitants of moral imperfection and turpitude . An emblematic tree of life was planted in Eden as am indication to our first parents , that they might for ever enjoy tlie blessimgs
of vital existence provided they retained their innocence , and contracted no guilt by disobedience ; but as this proved impracticable in consequence of the frail ( ties of their inexperience and want of discipline , the evils of mortality terminating in dissolution were announced to them
as the consequences , or rather „ I conceive , the necessary attendants of their moral frailties . The lesson inculcated by that primitive narrative seems to be that mam is a mortal , because he is an erring or offending creature . Clear it is that the sentence announced to the primitive pair ex presses no other than these common evils of mortality to which our
whole race is subjected , and which were indeed the result of the original and natural constitution of man in this state ; but the design of the Divicie Being in announcing them on occasion of the first palpable violation of his express command , appears to have beem to apprize our race thaft by a vigorous exercise of
their moral powers they may gradually diminish , and even finally obtain an exemption from the natural evils to which they are at present liable , and that as every exercise in virtue is a slep toward moral purity o > r incorruption , so , in Uhe purposes of a beneficent Creator , it is an advance toward physical incorruption or immortality .
It appears to be the preat design of the Supreme Being in the creation of man to promote within liim that progressive principle , by which lie is distinguished from the brutes , and heroines possessed of spiritual and moral powers suited to a more elevated state of
existence . He begins , indeed , a mere animal , being formed of the same materials , and possessing similar organs of sense with the inferior creatures , and from these he receives all his original impressions , and derives all his ideas , however complicated anid refined . Hut by degrees he accumulates great mental treasures : the ideas he receives from
sense , aided by the powers of language , being made th < e foundations for extending
tion of God himself , how can it be imagined to be alike ( he destination of naen continuing in wickedness , and accompanied with sufferings as everlasting ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 864, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/64/
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