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    cious , " it is certainly their duty , unless they " boast of a false gift , to instruct the ignorant and uninformed—not natural fools , wild enthusiasts or blind bigots , two of which classes cannot be helped in any case } though perchance something may be

    done , at lucid intervals , with the intermediate one ; but those who are deficient in human learning- and science , to whom tjie gospel was originaJly and emphatically preached , and who , if of sound understandings , can discern a plain argument , and the

    force of an infallible consequence , as well as the most expert casuist , or the profoundest divine . It may be observed also , by the way , that what appears to be regarded by your

    Correspondent , [ XIII . 6 l 8 , ] supposing the truth of final restitution , as a defect in the preaching of our Lord and his apostles , is somewhere adverted to by Dr . Paley , as a mark of their wisdom , " The wisdom of our Saviour is

    manifest , in his not having entered too minutely into the circumstances of a future state . He exhibits to our view the sublime event of a general judgment , and acquaints us with the ensuing states of the righteous and the wicked , and there he leaves us . '

    But , if these queries must be answered more particularly , we cannot do it better than in the language of Dr . Hartley : " The Gospels are short memoirs ; and we may be as yet but novices in Scripture language . Perhaps the writers , like the prophets

    of old , did not see the full meaning of the glorious declarations which the Holy Spirit hath delivered to us , through them ; or perhaps they did , but thought it expedient , or were commanded , not to be more explicit . The superstitious fear of Gorf , one of

    the grand corruptions , of the gospel , may have been necessary hitherto ; but now , these corruptions begin to be * discovered and removed , by the earnest endeavours of good men of all nations and sects , * by comparing spiritual things with spiritual / " Besides , there are many

    philosophical , moral and religious truths , which , supposing the proper use of our faculties , may be called intuitive propositions ; and which we firmly believe , though they are by no means in Scripture particularly laid down and inculcated . We may instance in

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    two particulars ; the scale of intellectual nature above us , so admirably illustrated by Mr . Locke and other eminent writers , and the plurality of worlds . Yet the former is portrayed in Scripture , only in dark and distant adumbrations ; and as to the latter , there does not appear * throughout the Bible , a single reference to the

    subject : the passage in the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews is mistranslated , and relates to the headship of Christ over the * " Aious , " the ages or dispensations , the new moral creation , which he has formed and

    appointed ; which sense , Calvin himself allows of . There was a time when the notion of a plurality of worlds would have brought down upon its professors the thunders of the Vatican ; yet now , the Pope himself , together with the whole college of

    cardinals , as well as every tyro in the principles of natural philosophy , will readily embrace \ L These principles , thereforie , have been gradually established by their own weight , and by the absurdity of the contrary opi * nions . If , therefore , instead of

    supposing that our Lord and his apostles never contemplated Final Restitution as an infallible consequence of the principles of the new dispensation , we suppose , on the contrary , what is simply possible , that they never contemplated strictly eternal torments , or absolute annihilation in the same

    view , where was the necessity of their being more explicit ? Mr . Fox , with many others , appears to be satisfied upon this point . But ,. Sir , it appears to me , that this amicable controversy , ( and all religious controversies should be amicable , ) may be much narrowed . Whatever

    we may think of the duration , of future , punishment , the notion of the indiscriminate sufferings of the finally impenitent , is not a doctrine of Scripture . Indeed * it would be very strange if it should . Here , we have the most positive evidence to the contrary . " It shall be more tolerable for the sinners

    of the old world * than for the sinners of Jerusalem . The ignorant transgressor shall be beaten with few stripfes ; but the transgressor against knowledge with many . Sjpme shall be consigned ta the judgment ,, some to the council , and others to hell-fire . " To contend , therefore , against this

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    On Final Restitution 88

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1819, page 83, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1769/page/15/