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    that is , that the effect can make choice of the cause by which it is to be prddticecl , I wish to know by what mode of reasoning the paternal character of the Almighty can be vindicated in bestowing a privilege on his intelligent offspring which he foresees they will pervert to the worst purposes , and which will inevitably involve by far the greater portion of them in irremediable perdition ? How , on this supposition , his mercy can be said to endure

    for ever , the acutest dialectician , from Aristotle to Condillac , would find himself completely baffled in every attempt to explain . Nor would ( he Divine justice , so often resorted to when the argument from mercy is found to fail , be at all less implicated by this horrid system of relentless wrath . But I cannot better express my sentiments on this topic than in the earnest language of a learned , an amiable , and an orthodox prelate of the Established Church , who was as decided an enemy to the doctrine of necessity as Mr ,

    Elton hiriiself . In Bishop Newton ' s " Dissertation on the Final State and Condition of Mankind , " will be found the following striking passages : — " * But known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world , ' He foreknows What courses they ( his rational creatures ) will take , their beginning , their progress , and their end ; and nothing can be more contrary to the Divine nature and attributes than for a God all-wise , all-powerful , allgood , and all-perfect , to bestow existence on any beings whose destiny he foresees and foreknows must terminate in wretchedness and misery , without

    respite or end His goodness could never give birth to any one being , and much less to numberless beings , whose end he foresaw would be irretrievable misery ; nor could even his justice for short-lived transgressions inflict everlasting punishment . Imagine a creature , nay , numberless Creatures , produced out of nothing , and , therefore , guilty of no prior offence , sent into this world of frailty , which it is well known beforehand that they will so Use as to abuse it , and then , for the excesses of a few years , delivered

    over to torments of endless ages , without the least hope or possibility oi relaxation or redemption . Imagine it you may , but you never seriously believe it , nor reconcile it to God and goodness . The thought is shocking even to human nature ; and how much more abhorrent then must it be from the Divine perfections ! God must have made all his creatures finally to be happy * he could never make any whose end he foreknew would be misery everlasting . "

    Not less extraordinary and destitute of foundation is another remark which Mr . Elton has advanced with more zeal than discretion : that if a man be a material being , he must obey the strongest motive , " but if he have a spirit within him , he must possess a self-determining power over his own volitions , a deliberative choice and mastery over his motives" !! As well might it be affirmed that man can will without any motive whatever . If he can resist the stronger motive , he can of course resist the weaker ; and in that case he

    must either act without any incentive , or he must remain in a state of perpetual inaction . It is scarcely possible to conceive a human creature more completely devoid of principle than the man who is gifted with Mr . Elton ' s power of choosing his motives ; and , indeed , it has been unanswerably proved , in my apprehension , that did the system which he attempts to support

    reall y prevail , morality could have no existence . As this gentleman appears to entertain some degree of partiality for Calvinistic writers , and quotes with much complacency the apothegms of Mr . Fuller and Mr . Rowland Hill , I could wish that he had paid more attention to a celebrated author of the same school , and had devoted more time to the pages of Jonathan Edwards . If this task be considered as too severe , perhaps I may be allowed to recom-

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    On Mr . Elton ' s Second Thoughts 647

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 647, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/15/