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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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SlRt August 1 , 1823 . YOUR worthy correspondent Mr , Hinton , has , ift your last Number , [ p- 378 , ] favoured your readers with a very able and ingenious paper on the "" introduction of evil /* in which he contends for the following
propositions : " Every being not subject to moral and natural evil must be infinite / ' And that , " it is not in the possible power of Infinity itself , to create a being not subject to moral and natural ill . " That all creatures
have limited attributes , the consequence of which is , " the moral certainty of miscalculation , fallibility , and error ; " and this , without going a single step farther , introduces us to what is called " moral evil . " " And
that imperfection or necessary evil , is the necessary inheritance of all created intelligence . " Something similar is to be found in a sermon on the Existence of Evil , by the late Dr . Williams , of Rotheram . Mr . H . s
theory is ingenious and plausible : by it he not only gets rid , aa he supposes , of some offensive orthodox notions , but also completely exculpates the goodness of God in the permission of vice and misery under the divine government , by proving
that he " could not prevent it , that the Almighty could not do impossibilities . " That God permits evil , or introduces it as an instrument of producing greater good , is , indeed , allowed to be < f plausible , but by no means conclusive , and rests entirely upon that faith in the infinite-wisdom
and goodness of God , which those attributes are calculated to inspire . " Now , Sir , it forcibly strikes me , as it may do some others of your readers , that a consequence of the greatest magnitude results from the above stateme nts , which Mr . H . seems not
to have foreseen , and for which he has not provided , viz . " If evil is the necessary inheritance of all created intelligence ; " " if evert / being not Infinite is liable to error and evil ; how can we be sure of enjoying happiness or perfection i |* heaven itaelf ? * or when there , we stall shall be create d beings , and as finite then as we
are now , consequently as liable to miscalculation , failure and-error . " 1 tor one could almost admit any wieory or explanation of the origin of evi 1 ' * her than have a doubt casjt
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upon thfrt pure , permanent and unmixed happiness promised to the righteous in the gospel . It is not necessary to say more at present ; what is advanced being sufficient , I trust , to induce your worthy correspondent , or those who think with him , to enter more fully into the discussion . DAVID EATON .
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London , Sir , July 8 , 1823 . GHAT IT UD E to your correspondent , Dr . Jones , for the treats so frequently afforded to me , iu common with other readers of your miscellany , makes me loth to take up the pen for the sake © f
animadverting on any statement put forth by so ingenious an author ; but , as liberality appears to be one of the Doctors leading virtues , I rest assured that he will not only make allowance for any difference of opinion which may exist between us , but also gladly allow of an opportunity being afforded to such of your readers as feel
interested in the subject , to hear two sides , and thereby be enabled to judge better for themselves . In agreeing with your learned cor * respondent on the inconsistency which appears in the present authorized translation of Gen . iv . 26 , € t Then men begun to call on the name of the Lord , " I must beg leave to dissent
from two assertions made by him , first , that such is the exact rendering of the original according to the vowel points , and secondly , that regard being paid to the consonants onl y > the true version is , €€ Then men began to call themselves by the name of Jehovah . " For ,
In the first case , as far as regards the points , there is no word whatever in the Hebrew answering to men , neither is the verb bnin in the third person plural ; and on the other hand , whilst the word men is not to be found in the original if read without the points , there is no word or affix answering to themselves ; neither is the verb ^ rnn in Hithpael , or the
reflective conjugation : independent of all which , I challenge the Doctor to produce a single passage in the whole . Hebrew Bible where the phrase mrp Dtto * op signifies to call ( an ^ other person ) by the name of Jehovah .
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On Mr . Htnton ' s Hypothesis of Moral Evil . 465
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v ° l . xvin . 3 o
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/33/
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