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$6 Reply to Mr. Madge oft Final Restitut...
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Sir, January 8, 181 9* YOUR intelligent ...
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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...
leave room for amendment arid recovery of happiness in a future state j or by annihilation put an end to men ' s misery , when they appeared humbled by their punishment V But it is not the usual course of Divine Providence to destroy , or inflict sufferings
judicially , when the delinquents are humbled , and " accept , " with proper dispositions , «* the punishment of their iniquity , " Mr . Wesley thought differently , and erred on the other extreme , when alluding to a line of Dr . Young ' s , implying the possibility of penitence in the state of future
suffering : ^ Calling Thee Father ! in a sea of fire !" Struck with thesupposed heterodoxy of the sentiment , he exclaims , " Would not the victim in such a case be instantly transported into Abraham ' s bosom ?"
If the present attempt meet with your acceptance , some further remarks on what I have styled the modern orthodox doctrine , shall be the subject of a future letter . AN OCCASIONAL READER .
$6 Reply To Mr. Madge Oft Final Restitut...
$ 6 Reply to Mr . Madge oft Final Restitution *
Sir, January 8, 181 9* Your Intelligent ...
Sir , January 8 , 181 9 * YOUR intelligent correspondent , Mr . Madge , in his last letter , inserted in the Repository for December , [ XIII . pp . 739—743 , ] disclaims , 1 observe , the idea of entering into
controversy on the subject of Universal Restoration . A writer , however , who pends a-paper on a controverted topic to a publication , whose professed object it is to promote discussion , must expect to have his opinions canvassed , and if he be , as I believe Mr .
Madge to be , a well-wisher to the cause of truth , he will not be displeased , but rather rejoice in finding theua the subjects of controversy . I make no apology therefore for troubling you with a remarIP or two upon a passage in his last letter . That God is good—that his bene-¦ % rd- \ lc * nr > t = * i « iinJhonnrlpd——flint Ji # » i «
€ i long-suffering and ready to forgive , " I , equally with Mr . Madge , believe , — and that not on the evidence of reason merely , but of revelation . The tes- timony of the latter on this head , is indeed so clear and decisive , that it is , I think , placed beyond the ; reach of _ controversy . However , 1 must conceive that Mr . Madge goes much
Sir, January 8, 181 9* Your Intelligent ...
too far in pronouncing that this established fact is sufficient to refute the idea that God can destroy the creatures he has called into being if it seem to him fit- To Conceive of the
conduct of the Deity in the manner which to us appears most consonant to benevolence , is an amiable and I should think must always be a harmless mistake , ( if mistake indeed it should ultimately prove , ) did not the advocates of the doctrine in question
employ language respecting- the views of their opponents wholly unjustified by the evidence they bring" in support of their own . Let a candid , impartial man , without even looking into the pages of revelation , conceive of a pri ^ ze like that of happiness , eternal , pure
and unmixed , held out to the grasp of all men : let him know the simple condition upon which it is offered : 1 might almost say that the love of God , the ] ove of the Being who offers this blessed boon to our acceptance , is the only stipulation ; for a heart
filled with that divine affection , assuredly , can never widely err from the path of duty . Let him see next what is in the mind of man , his large capacities for virtue , his high aspirings after immortality ; let him know that over all his affections and desires there
is placed in his bosom a guard and a monitor—the preserving and restraining power of conscience ; and let him next vi « w man , this favoured man , this largely-en do wed being , turning away from these lights , rejecting infinite , immortal happiness , putting
aside the offered boon , and preferring the brief pleasures and lingering sorrows of sin to the glories of a pure eternity , —will he say then of the God who withholds the rejected gift , and finally refuses to make the happiness of this man commensurate with his
own , " that He is not good , neither can any sophistry prove him to be so" ? * It is obvious that I have not put this question on Necessarian
princi < ples ; nor does it appear to me that Mr . Madge has treated the subject as a Necessarian . Ifsuch be his opinion * , however , it must be discussed on other grounds ; but speaking of man asm accountable being , and supposing the * Smith on the Divine Government , p . 109 . ' * ] ; ] ^ s 3
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 22, 1819, page 86, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_22021819/page/18/
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