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.
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
876 Physical and Metaphysical Inquiries .
Untitled Article
improvable or not ? " From this essay we perceive that he has embraced several novel opinions : such as , that the Deity who is supremely good , in not stricily almighty ; but was in some measure constrained to . form an inivirfcct world , by the ori - ginal and eternal properties of the matter on which he had to operate ; and that he is
otherwise not absolutely perfect , but will continue , like his creatures , to improve in intelligence to all eternity . It were absurd to declaim agauist any doctrine , however novel it n ay be , or however it may shock our preconceived opinions ; it is the part of reason to deliberate upon it with coolness and impartiality .
If the Deity Tiad been possessed of infinite power , if he had "beep the creator of matter , and had bestowed upon it all its powers and properties , it would have been easy for him to have guarded against every evil : he could have prevented the destructive fla . h of lightning , and the terrible ex [ ! o 'ion of the
volcano ; the devounrg shock or the earthqiulte , and the exirtcr . ee of evjry pe tilentlaj disorder . What father , even among men , v \ o ;? Jd send his children to Lapland , if he could provide for them in the fertile p lains ( f Lrrnbarcly , or in the temperate i lanc-rs of the Canaries ? -A . being of or < liria ; y goodness would
have prevented every evil , 2 nd bestowed every good in his power , for Ins own honour , and for tht * pleasure of beho ' cling the perfect ) n id happiness of h'is creatures . Arid it is altogether impossible that infinite goodness , accompanied with infinite prrv ^ r , could ever have permitted otic i . ricueiu person to suffer , or one evil to talc \ place ; far less thousands to struggle with misfortune , and to peri h in every age . It is vain to pi' ad the power of sovereignty , or the rig ht , of doing a * he pleases . The power o £ doing evil can
Untitled Article
never give it sanction . A good being can never commit a bad action , so nei 4 ther can he suffer evil to be committed ^ if it is in his power to prevent it . It ii \ n vain to plead the intention of procuring future good , or of preventing greater , evils . Infinite and almighty power could have prevented every evil , and brought about every good , as easily as it could have been the author of this imperfect state . Every degree of imperfection is
contrary to the nature of a perfect beino-. The works of an infinitely perfect being must be conformable to his character— . they must be perfect in the highest deoree—they cannot even be capable of improvement , because , when a thing is absolutely perfect , every alteration would only make it worse . If the Deity could have made a better world , and could have excluded evil , pain , and misery , he imist of necessity have done it ; as a contrary conduct would have been acting directly contrary to tha character of a being just and go / od .
The I author contends , that thi $ Tiew of the Deity does not degrade him ^ but , on the contrary , makes him appear more consistent , amiable , and good . He goes on to shew , that improvability is the essential attribute of mind ; and , of course , of the Supreme as will as of at | y inferior mind . Improvement and pleasure are , he thinks , necessarily connected .
as far as regards intelligent beings , and especially the Deity , who has no partner , - and can therefore draw no happiness from society . J le remarks , that if the mind of man be immortal , it must l ) o eternally improving ; ami therefore , if the Deity alone
be stationary , created beings will , in the cud less succession of ages , advaTict * . to a . much nearer equali - ty with him lie argues , that the fads which most strongly pro ^ e the ex istence of the Deity ^
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1807, page 276, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2380/page/52/
