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Untitled Article
E . N . asks , how necessarians can say that sin « 4 is dispteasing to the Creator ? " and adds , he Cannot displease hi nisei / by his own appointments /* Most certainly he cannot ; nor are we warranted to say that the Supreme * Being was ever actually displeased with any thing that ever occurred . Yes ; c < the Scripture informs us
explicitly enough , that the Dei - ty is displeased by sin . " The Scripture likewise informs tis , that * ' it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth , "
And does E . N . believe that the Almighty was ever literally sorry for what he had done * Yet surely there is as much reason to believe one as the other . Both are
evidently asserted in condescension to the capacities and ideis of those to whom they were originally addressed . The Supreme Judge will certainly reward or punish every one according to his deeds ; but he is alike incapaJbie o * f -anger or regret . " Too few , alas ! already are the checks to wickedn & fesl in the world ; too few already are the pangs of the wicked man in his career cf iniquity , without having recourse to the doctrine of
necessity to diminish those which may exist . " I would by no means have recourse to this
doctrine to diminish the checks to a wicked life ; but I do not see that it makes the least difference with respect to them , unless we conceive that eternal punishment ought to be inculcated with that
view . If sin be represented , it truly is , a destructive disorder of mind and heart , productive of incalculable mischief in the prosent life , and of still niore in that which is to come ; is not this a .
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trrarij iC we censure the appoii > tirieMs of Providence / ' Blame is that feeling or sentiment ' which Spontaneously arises in the mind from thie know led re of a vicious action . This fooling or sentiment results from the original constitution of the human mind , and was therefore evidently intended by the Creator . ** But , " say some , 44 he ought not to have constituted the human mind so that it should
foTrn , or to avoid . " It is not rrry intention , to question the corn petal cy of such objectors to say tvh & t the Deity ought to do , or not to do . However , the necessarian rs not so fully convinced
naturally blame others for actions , which , they were impelled" to
perthat the Creator has done wrong , in thus constituting the human mind , if ad we been induced to i > l & rne tio actions but those which proceeded from a self-determining power , we never could have
blamed any creature in the universe , Whatever he did ; nor , consequently , could we have commended Uriy one , however useful he might Irave'beeh to his fellow creatures . *\ Ve must have felt alike
indifferent lo atl actions :, whether detrirrterital , or beneficial to society , or to individuals . Would this 'have ; been an improvement in our cohstftvuioi * ? Besides , it should be considered , that the design of Providence is doubtless to bring good out of evil ;
And better thence again , and better still , In infinite progression , Bitt this does not alter the hature 4 of evil while it lists , nor rnake the'eondd ^ t " of wicked meu less % voTthyorTeprobation .
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TQ 4 > Mr . Ailchin on Philosophical Recessitg .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1809, page 724, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1707/page/18/
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