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If prayers be like wings , with -which meniraay tiy to heaven , it is perfectly consistent with \ vhat is called the doctrine of necessity
te use them . In like manner , punishment may be regarded as the necessary consequence of guilt , the agent of its destruction or the means of its restoration . Thus
the plea of the offending slave , that he could not help transgressing , was presently overruled hy his ; philosophical master ' s reply , * nor can I help punishing you . " The introduction and existence of
evil may be problems , which no system of philosophy or divinity can satisfactorily solve . Yettheir ' s may be the most reasonable idea , who suppose pains and evils
necessary attendants upon limited imperfect creatures in a state of probation * To require a world without them is in fact to subject the mind to Pope ' s censure ;
* Mcn would be angels , angels would be gods : Aspiring to be gods , if angels fell , Aspiring to be angels , men rebel . " Well might it be , if all the positive advocates , whether for the freedom of the human will or
for the doctrine of necessity , would take the lesson , which perhaps Milton meant only for one party , as in fact applicable to both , wher * he represented some of the fallen angels as
* Reasoning high , of providence , foreknowledge , will and fate , Fixed fate , free-will , fofe-knowledgc absolute , Finding no end in wandering mazes lost "
As much their as the champions for necessity , may your correspondent be obliged to reconcile the pains and evils of the world with the wisdom and benevolence of the Diviue Being .
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Nay he has left all objections irt gigantic glare around thera , by not providing such a method for their diminution or their removal as the doctrine of necessity , united with that of universal salvation ,
( which thus accompanied may more properly be called the doctrine of an universal , eternal and everlasting Providence , ) may more easily supply . God will have all to be saved and to corne to the
knowledge of the truth . Does he only wish it , or is it not his vriWy purpose and decree , which nothing can effectually , eventu * ally resist or prevent ? Can he
not do what he will , or will H « not do what is in his almighty power , to make all creatures not indeed equklly , but on the whole and finally , so happy that existence shall be to them all a bless *
ing and not a curse , a favour and not a burthen ? Proper answer * to these questions may lead some of your readers to a more rational , as well as more scriptirrai system of belief than that which your correspondent the Churchman seems to recommend .
In the next place , what Unitarian Christian ever said or intimated , that the scriptures were not inspired in instances which required a heavenly interposition , as in predictions made known long before the events occurred ,
or in doctrines or precepts above the human mine ! to reveal , to discover or to teach f Whether these instances are numerous or not , is another question . The language , in which tke Divine character and perfections arc de ~ scribed in the Old Testament ,
might or might not be owing to a higher inspiration , than even s ^ h noble ideas could suggest . The
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412 A Rational Christian ' & Answer to the Churchman .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1808, page 412, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2395/page/8/
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