On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Untitled Article
rents , are brought into existence with a nature totally corrupt , and that , with the exception of a chosen few , who . without any cfahn to such a distinction will be rendered eternally happy , they will suffer the pains of h 0 tt for ever . Unless , then , reason
veas given me in vam , I can confidently conclude that either the divine character i& misrepresented or that tb £ & doctrine must be false . And the Justice of this conclusion will be easily established by the following mode of reasoning . God is infinitely powerful , therefore he can do whatever is the
object of power . God is infinitely wise , thererefbre lie will choose the best ends , and pursue them by the best means . God is infinitely good , therefore fee must have a satisfaction in the happiness of his creatures , and his measures must be calculated to promote it . Thus far our deductions are
clear and certain . But let us proceed . God is infinitely just , therefore he Iras created a race of depraved beings , and will punish them eternally for that , which it was ^ out of their power to
avoid . God is infinitely holy , therefore he has decreed that his offspring should be unholy , that their eternal sufferings may bear testimony to his holiness . Were ever premises and conclusion so at variance ! Should it still
be said that we know not what justice ati < d holiness may demand int an infinite Being , not to reply that the infinity of an attribute cannot change its nature , this would only be saying that holiness and justice when predicated of God may mean something Afferent from what they mean in the
common use of language , in other words , that God may have been improperly denominated just and holy . Upon the same principle , goodness in < 3 odmay mean something very different from the usual import of the term , and for any thing that we know to the contrary , it may be the very benevolence of his nature which has
doomed the majority of his human offspring to eternal misery ! Before I dismiss the subject from my pelt , perhaps for ever , with your permission I should be glad to make one car two observations more . God is allowed to be infinitelygood But according to the system which I
ant opposing- nxr ran . or trace of goodness appears in tnfe issue of his disjpetiftations towardk tfre " majority of
Untitled Article
mankind . Their condition ts the sam * tinder the best of beings as it would have been under the worst ! M « eh has been said respecting rmdictive justice as demanding the eternal punishment of sin . \ It would be easy to prove that the expression « j «
dictive justice is egregious ! y incorrect Punishment when inflicted for some object of utility is not vindictive , and when it goes beyond this object it k universally denominated cruelty . Bat waving this , if any ease can be imagined which excludes the exercise of
vindictive justice , it is that of Adam ' s helpless offspring . Born with a nature totally depraved , they are no more the proper subjects of vindictive punishment than those brute animals whose natural propensities are savage and ferocious .
My last observation respects theinfinite satisfaction which Jesus Christ is supposed to have made to vindictive justice for the sins of the elect . To say nothing of the other absurdities with which this nation abounds ,
if sin is an infinite evil in the case of the individual , it might be objected that the death of Christ could only do away the guilt of one sinner , and the rest must be pardoned gratuitously . Should it on the other band be said that the combined guilt of a maltitudecannot add to ihat which is
already infinite , if unquestionably follows that the death of Christ was , in itself considered , an equivalent for the sins of the whole world . Why , then , is it not accepted as such ? The debt is discharged , and yet the debtor not set free . What nameless attribute
of the Divine Nature is it which re mains thus inexorable , or how comes it to pass that a man should do more mischief than a God could repair ? I remain , Sir , your s > &c . E . COGAN .
Untitled Article
144 Mrs . Cappe an her proposed History of the Act * A of the postles
Untitled Article
Sir , York , Feb . 1 , 1615-THINK myself much honou red *>) I the inquiry of Y . M . in your Magazine for Nov . last , [ ix . 674 . ] respecting what may be my intention of exten ^ ing- the plan pursued in " The L « e Christ , " through the Acts of t £ A postles . The possession of many J
valuable notes of my late husbana * ( for so I esteem them ) on this j as \ many other parts of the sacred ^ tin ^ s , suggested the wish ; but it since been laid aside , partly fr ° i »
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 144, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/16/
-