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attempted to justify this cruel and inefficacious doctrine . In reference to the argument that r the torments of eternity are a partial evil front which springs universal good / he justly says , —•
* Two things are necessary to be proved—1 . That the evil thus ordained is the best means , i . e . the means involving the least possible quantity of evil , available for the attainment of that good end which is assumed to be the ultimate end of the Deity , viz ., the virtue and hap * piness of his creatures . 2 . That the amount of evil is counterbalanced and exceeded by the consequent good /
On the first question , he asks , — * Gould not the Deity have worked the happiness and virtue of his creatures by other than means so horrible ? And if this were in his power , is it possible even to conceive any defence of his making choice of eternal torture to a certain number of the human race , as is set forth in the New Testament ? *
For New Testament , read Calvin ' s Institutes ; and where is the reply that does not impugn either God ' s power or his goodness ? The writer then asks , — « Why Providence does not punish vice and reward virtue here on earth , rather than adopt a system of moral government ^ bringing with it such a weight of intolerable misery to millions of beings , such as is involved in the doctrine of an eternity of future punishment ? ' Were this the
alternative , his question might require consideration and reply . Liet the orthodox reply on behalf of their creed , but let Christianity be held irresponsible for an alternative which its pages do not , in the opinion of many of its professors , involve . On the question whether good preponderates over evil in the Gospel ( i . e . the orthodox ) view of the divine government , he has the following simple and powerful appeal : —
* Divines argue that the joy and gladness spread abroad over all nature , —the happiness enjoyed by every living thing , proclaim aloud that general good , which is the end and aim of the Great Author of all , is preponderant over the evil in creation . The truth of this picture , when confined to the present state of existence , may be indisputably . The enjoyments on earth may greatly exceed the sufferings ; but what a scene of horror have we to contemplate in the tortures which millions 'will have to suffer through the countless ages of eternity ! These are
part of the scheme of divine government , and must be considered in judging of the benevolence of the whole scheme . Will any benevolent man , who dares to contemplate the miseries of hell , deny that , better had the portion which may be destined to ultimate happiness , never existed , that the torments of the damned might be spared , —better had creation never been , or that annihilation should be the end of the whole race , than that the guilty few' ( ought he not to have said the many P ) * fihouldsink under the last doom of everlasting torture '—( Pref . p . xvii . ) After arguing the subject somewhat more at large , the author
• goes on : — These considerations , which seemed so strongly to license doubt in the divine authority of the Christian religion , impelled me forcibly to a
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T 74 Orthodoxy and Unbelief .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 774, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/54/
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