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Which it never fcad qf the capacities with , which Gd 4 has endowed it ; of the certainty , which has fceeii unfelt , of an immortal existence ; and pf the necessary connexion of human happinessj and misery , with its freely
formed habits , and its chosen moral ^ conditionLAnd ^ dQi !^^ —I ask with reverence ,- —act upon the human mind , or heart , for its conversion , or restoration , independently of the free exercise of those capacities by which he has constituted us moral and accountable
agents ? How then shall man be made an instrument of the salvation of his fallen brother , if he respect not in him those powers and rights which are the essential constituents pf the soul that is to be redeemed ? Is it still asked , how may we aid tije poor manacled and fettered spirit to regain its freedom ? * How may we
awaken in him a sense , and fasten upon him ^ a conviction , of the greatness and excellence of the capacities which he has given over to sin ? How shall we teach him and help him to feel that he has power , and that he must use it to return to God ; and that if he will seek , because he truly wants it , God will not withhold the assistance he needs to break his
chains and to recover his liberty ? I can only answer , that , as far as human agency may be effectual in this work , he , I believe , will possess the best tfght , and will labour with the best success , who , under the guiding influence pf the instructions and example of our Lprd ; shall al- »
ways , and in everything , most care- * fully maintain the respect which is due to these capacities and essential principles ^ pf human . ^ nature , which our heavenly Father himself respects in . ail his dealings with man a , s a
moral being . And he , I ttak , will most faithfully regard these capaci « ties * and principles pf our comjcnow nature in others , who is most strongly impressed with their importance and worth in himself , anx } wUh hia own f tccpuntableness for the use which he
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shall make of theiji . If any pne have not a coRseiousne ^ s in wliat consists the essential worth of the rights and powers pf his own moral , account * ahle , arid immortal nature , I know of no rules which aid him in awakening this consciousness in the soul of another . . /
It is another principle , which should never be forgotten in this ministry , that human nature ,, ^ -ar , to speak more definitely , a fellow-sinner , >—is never to be given up , as if he were either beyond the pale of God ' s mercy , or of human hope and charity and labour . I give a promi «« nence also to this principle , because
in this ministry , far more than we should be in that of our churches , we are called to a frequent and intimate communicatibriwith Obdurate , and reckless offenders ; and because here , therefore , unless we are strongly impressed with it , we shall hot only find our own energies daily en--feebled . "by new diseouragementsv but
w _ e shall be disregarding one of the highest and most g lorious of the objects of Christianity , and of the ministry it has instituted , the salvation of the lost . Here it may be , that from day to day we shall be brought into the society of the conftrmedly intemperate , into whose very bones and marrow , and every thought and affection , the chains of
the appetite which has enslaved them seem not only to have grown ^ but to have become identical , with the very principle of their existence . But are they , therefore , to be overlooked , as no longer subjects of the moral government of God ? Even if all expedients which have yet been tried ^^) iLhaye . faikd , atObwj ^ j ^ , new expedients which Christian benevolence can devise for their recovery ? Would he , who cawe to seek and to
save that which was lost , paas them uneared for , while God continues to them any use of their reasoning powers , or while any principles of their moral nature are still living in their hearts ? Here , too , we shall
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1832, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1823/page/6/
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