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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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Untitled Article
row y 9 but if you will give this short article a place in your Repository , it will not be said , as otherwise it might , that none of Dr . Priestley's friends eould vindicate his character * The writer of the paper in question ^ who sign £ himself
Sperans , quotes a part of Mr . Joseph Priestley ' s Letter to Mr * Lindsey , above alluded to , and makes remarks upori it 5 I shall in return quote and comment on this evangelical accuser . u When Dr . Priestley was on his death-bed , he desired his son , Mr * Joseph Priestley , to reach him a pamphlet which was at his bed ' s head : that pamphlet written by a Mr . Simpson , was
en tlie Duration of Future Punishments : or in other words , Ait itttempt to prove that the Duration of the Punishment , of
the Wicked will not be Eternal . " . This paraphrastic explanation of the title of Mr . Simpson ' s pamphlet is dextrous- By ct side-blow an attempt is made to inflict a fatal stroke . The writer ' s purpose would not have been answered by Stating the design of the pamphlet in the author ' s own words ; he turns
interpreter , and as ah interpreter becomes jesuitically an accuser * As he has given the hint let us also interpret the titfe of the pamphlet , and let those that have read it , determine which interpretation is just . The Duration nf Future Punishments $
er in other word $ y An Attempt to prove that under the Go ~ vernment of a xoise and good God , no punishment is vindictive $ hut all punishment is just ± and therefore limited ^ and merciful y and therefore corrective ; and that all sufferings both in
this life and in the life to come , dre intended for goody and willjinally issue in happiness . Wlth this explanation , I might quit
the candid writer in the Evangelical Magazine , for it fully exposes the grossness and insidiousness of his misrepresentation ^ but it may do him good to give him a little connection . " Now observe the remark which the Doctor made upoil it . Giving it to his son , he said , It will be a source of satisfaction to you to read that pamphlet * It contains my sentiments ; and a belief in them will be a support to you in the
most trying circumstances , as it has been to me . We shall all rneet finally : we only require different degrees of discipline suited to our different tempers , to prepare us for final happiness . '^ Without presuming to determine oh the future state of this philosophical divine , which I leave to his righteous judge , may I not without any breach of candour , make this remark .
on the above sentence ; does it not seem strange , passing strange ^ that the Doctor should on his death-bed , " in the most trying circumstances , " derive his consolation , or acknowledge that he had derived his consolation , from such a source as the limited duration of future torments ? ' * Now , Sir , allow me to remark that Dr . -Priestley ' s observe
Untitled Article
134 Dr . Priestley' * s Last Moments .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1806, page 134, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1722/page/22/
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