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Untitled Article
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REFLECTIONS ON ETERNAL PUNISHMENT . The great distinguishing doctrines of Christianity are those of a general resurrection arid future state of impartial retribution . These doctrines , while they are suited to produce a powerful effect on the human mind ^ approve themselves to the un * biassed reason of the inquirer after truth . But unfortunately the scripture doctrine of future punishment has been so
misrepresented as to appear utterly incredible . It has been long and generally maintained , that offences committed by frail and ignorant creatures during the infancy of their existence , will be punished with sufferings dreadful beyond conception , and lasting as the ages of eternity ! That such a doctrine , in an age like the present ,- of inquiry and investigation , should meet with opposition , is by no means
extraordinary . It would indeed be more surprising if thinking and intelligent men could be induced to embrace so irrational and barbarous a tenet , however ingenious and plausible the arguments adduced In its favour Perhaps a well-disposed but timorous believer niight ask , * As the doctrine of eternal'punishment has been generally received
amongst Christians , and must certainly be a much more powerful antidote to vice than the opposite persuasion , why should it not be permitted to retain undisturbed its place in the popular creed ? " He might add , wickedness is already sufficiently prevalent * and it is to be feared would be far more so , did
vicious men believe that their punishment would not continue for ever / ' But it might be fairly replied that the doctrine of aa eternal \ and not the doctrine of a temporary punishment , haa a licentious tendency . And however paradoxical this assertion may appear , a little consideration will make it sufficiently obvious .
That a being of infinite goodness , mercy and compassion , a * the Almighty is constantly represented , should condemn weak and imperfect creatures to eternal and exquisite Aiisery for yielding to tetqptations incident to the state in which he had placed them , i $ a po $ itipn too shocking arid incredible VS be firriiiy believed . Hence men become secretly persuaded that they shall never be called to account for their actions . They cannot
believe all tha ^ t they are to ! 4 Concerning the penalty of sin , and therefore they reject the whole without * discrimination * BotK learned and unlearned have protestejd against a tetiet \ Vhich their natural good & $ p § e could not but percsivs was so derbgatory t #
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1807, page 474, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2384/page/23/
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