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On Final Restitution 88
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Lambeth, Sir, January, 1si 9-Some Of You...
cious , " it is certainly their duty , unless they " boast of a false gift , to instruct the ignorant and uninformed—not natural fools , wild enthusiasts or blind bigots , two of which classes cannot be helped in any case } though perchance something may be
done , at lucid intervals , with the intermediate one ; but those who are deficient in human learning- and science , to whom tjie gospel was originaJly and emphatically preached , and who , if of sound understandings , can discern a plain argument , and the
force of an infallible consequence , as well as the most expert casuist , or the profoundest divine . It may be observed also , by the way , that what appears to be regarded by your
Correspondent , [ XIII . 6 l 8 , ] supposing the truth of final restitution , as a defect in the preaching of our Lord and his apostles , is somewhere adverted to by Dr . Paley , as a mark of their wisdom , " The wisdom of our Saviour is
manifest , in his not having entered too minutely into the circumstances of a future state . He exhibits to our view the sublime event of a general judgment , and acquaints us with the ensuing states of the righteous and the wicked , and there he leaves us . '
But , if these queries must be answered more particularly , we cannot do it better than in the language of Dr . Hartley : " The Gospels are short memoirs ; and we may be as yet but novices in Scripture language . Perhaps the writers , like the prophets
of old , did not see the full meaning of the glorious declarations which the Holy Spirit hath delivered to us , through them ; or perhaps they did , but thought it expedient , or were commanded , not to be more explicit . The superstitious fear of Gorf , one of
the grand corruptions , of the gospel , may have been necessary hitherto ; but now , these corruptions begin to be * discovered and removed , by the earnest endeavours of good men of all nations and sects , * by comparing spiritual things with spiritual / " Besides , there are many
philosophical , moral and religious truths , which , supposing the proper use of our faculties , may be called intuitive propositions ; and which we firmly believe , though they are by no means in Scripture particularly laid down and inculcated . We may instance in
Lambeth, Sir, January, 1si 9-Some Of You...
two particulars ; the scale of intellectual nature above us , so admirably illustrated by Mr . Locke and other eminent writers , and the plurality of worlds . Yet the former is portrayed in Scripture , only in dark and distant adumbrations ; and as to the latter , there does not appear * throughout the Bible , a single reference to the
subject : the passage in the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews is mistranslated , and relates to the headship of Christ over the * " Aious , " the ages or dispensations , the new moral creation , which he has formed and
appointed ; which sense , Calvin himself allows of . There was a time when the notion of a plurality of worlds would have brought down upon its professors the thunders of the Vatican ; yet now , the Pope himself , together with the whole college of
cardinals , as well as every tyro in the principles of natural philosophy , will readily embrace \ L These principles , thereforie , have been gradually established by their own weight , and by the absurdity of the contrary opi * nions . If , therefore , instead of
supposing that our Lord and his apostles never contemplated Final Restitution as an infallible consequence of the principles of the new dispensation , we suppose , on the contrary , what is simply possible , that they never contemplated strictly eternal torments , or absolute annihilation in the same
view , where was the necessity of their being more explicit ? Mr . Fox , with many others , appears to be satisfied upon this point . But ,. Sir , it appears to me , that this amicable controversy , ( and all religious controversies should be amicable , ) may be much narrowed . Whatever
we may think of the duration , of future , punishment , the notion of the indiscriminate sufferings of the finally impenitent , is not a doctrine of Scripture . Indeed * it would be very strange if it should . Here , we have the most positive evidence to the contrary . " It shall be more tolerable for the sinners
of the old world * than for the sinners of Jerusalem . The ignorant transgressor shall be beaten with few stripfes ; but the transgressor against knowledge with many . Sjpme shall be consigned ta the judgment ,, some to the council , and others to hell-fire . " To contend , therefore , against this
On Final Restitution 88
On Final Restitution 88
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 22, 1819, page 83, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_22021819/page/15/
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