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moved into Switzerland , where he had a dispute with Sociuus ai ^ out the state of the first man [ whether he were naturally immortal" ] . Yet , " the
magistrates of Basil expelled him for his [ other ] opinions . He returned to London , [ in the reign of Elizabeth , ] where he was imprisoned , on account of his doctrine . Being set at liberty , he removed into the Netherlands and
challenged Socinus to a verbal dispute . They disputed several times in Poland , in the presence of the church of Cracow , but could not agree . Whereupon Puccius breaking with the sectaries of that country , followed some persons who studied Magic , and went with them to Prague , where he returned into the Roman Communion .
He was burnt at Rome [ apparently , as a magician ] . The principal doctrine that he was fond of , was that good people should be saved even though they were Pagans /* In a note , Bayle describes Osiander as attributing to Puccius the opinion " in esse omnibus
naturaliterhancfacultatem , utpossintet velint salvi fieri etiam absque scrutinio questionum theologicarum . " The title of Puccius ' s book given by the Abbfe as published in 1592 , ( p . 184 , note ) certainly expresses no more than the Universal Redemption of an Arminian whoxnight not believe in the Universal Restoration .
Still less does this appear to have been the doctrine of Thomas Cuppe , ( p . 184 ) whose treatise is now before me , in the translation of 1751 . It has the following title , ** Heaven open to all men , or a theological treatise , in which , without unsettling the practice
of religion , is solidly proved by scripture and reason , that all men shall be saved or made finally happy . " 3 d Ed . In an Advertisement the original is attributed to " an eminently pious , learned and dignified Divine ; from among Whose papers the manuscript was obtained . "
The doctrine of this book in quite inconsistent with the doctrine of the Universalists , which connects guilt with suffering and consigns to the discipline of a future life those who remain unsanctified in the present .
The author rejects all notions of future punishment , unless as it may consist in a diminution of reward . He says , *« God , in creating mankind , destined it to heaven without its participation ; and when Jesus Christ came t # redeem men from sin , he opened
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heaven again to them , without theif co-operating in it ; so that there Temains no necessity to ask of God the grace of redemption , which he ha * already accorded to us of his free mercy , but it is necessarv to neb- ^
him the grace of superabundance , that we may merit the degree of happiness which will be the consequences of it , and which constitute the different mansions that are in the house of God . We ought to be afraid to sin : because
sin deprives us of that grace of superabundance ; makes us lose the infinite advantages that are the effects of it and renders us liable to such temporal punishments as we ought to fear " ( Pp . 5 O , 51 . )
The author is frequently not a little mystical in the old and new , the spirit . ual and natural man . Yet if the Abbe Gregoire had read the work , I wonder that he could describe it , as " a dull pamphlet" or as maintaining the doc * trine of the Universalists . This author
is indeed too eccentric to be generally dull . Among other vagaries he bewilders himself in the Apocalypse , to discover anew Antichrist * aad thus ex * plains " the 14 th ; verse of the 12 th Chapter of that mysterious Book : "—46 The great Eagle ( that is Jesus
Christ , ) has forced the prey of Satan out of his hands . The two wings of that Eagle , are the grace of redemption , and the grace of superabundance . The mystical woman is the new-man , the inward-man , the spiritual-man . The place of the woman is the mortal
body . The wilderness is this lower world , which , compared to the world of the other life , is a real wilderneai because of the small number of its inhabitants . The serpent is the oldman , the natural-man , the body of sin . The four different times during which the woman is nourished in the
wilderness are the different portions of human life . 11 ( P . 96 . ) Such are some of the novel speculations of this " eminently learned , piou * and dignified Divine , " as his Engli ^ translator denominates Thomas CupP * - This translation produced in 1752 , " ^ candid examination of that celebrated
piece of sophistry entitled Heaven open to all Men , in a letter to a gentleman in town . " The anonymous author ot this pamphlet thus describes the religion of London in his time , " I nave reason to believe that a third part , not more , of aU in this great metro-
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54 $ Account of Writen . on Universal Restoration ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1815, page 542, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1764/page/10/
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