On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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
something in h im which renders him every way & proper object of it ? Surely , love to God can never consist in or be fitly ex * .
pressed by , lavishing upon hifn l . erms of endearment suitable only to the objects of a mortal love . Surely , this is by no means con . . sistenj , with the reverence we owe
to this great being : and it cannot proceed from any principle , which will insure the continuanGe of love to him , or will produce any good effec t ^ in the conduct . There must be a deliberate
exercise of the understanding and judgment ; a full conviction that God is worthy to be loved with the greatest warmth of affection , that is suitable to the humble
reverence with which he ought to be regarded . And what quality must the mind contemplate in God , what quality must with the clearest evidence be ascribed to
him , as laying a proper foundation for rational love to him , but goodness ; inherent , universal , and everlasting goodness ? Goodness , which resides in himself originally , and is not called forth into
action by the intervention of another ? Goodness ^ which does not partially and capriciously confine it ^ uivours to a few , but extends to all ? Goodness , which is not limited to the transient period of man ' s existence in the present life ,
but shall reach through eternity , and provide for his everlasting happiness ? Believe that good . ness , ir this ; sensfe , is an essential attribute of the Deity ; and it will be impossible not to love him with all the soul and with all th «
strength . Entertem any principles , .. preventive of sueh a belief ^ or ( contrary to it , and fee must be rtgeuiltxU , if not wall * aversion ,
Untitled Article
yet with terror , or at least with s love that proceeds entirely from selfish principles ( regarding the Deity as the souvce-of happiness to a persorTs *» elf arid a few individuals besides ; while all the rest are beheld ^ tith an eve of
indifference , though sinking into complete and remediless misery ) , Now , if the only proper source of love to God is a full conviction
that he is of himself good unto all and that his mercies endure for ever ; give me leave to
askwhich of the two systems , now to be mentioned , is most likely to excite this conviction ? That , which represents the Supreme Being as having decreed from all eternity the final and remediless misery of the greater part of man kind j while a chosen few only are
exempted , by his sovereign plea . sure , from the fate of their fellowcreatures , and all this wholly for his own glory ; and which holds hjm forth as not willing to ex . tend his favour even to the chosen few , till full satisfaction should be made to his injured justice and the honour of his violated law
by the interposition of another , who should bear in his own person a load of misery equal to that which the redeemed ones must otherwise have endured for ever ?
—or that , which points to Grace , reigning on the throne of eternity , and dictating all the operations oi unerring wisdom and uncontrollable power ? Which claims for the Supreme the title of Father , and
proves his right to it by maintaining on the authority of the sacred scriptures—that God is love , that there is no one perfectly good but himself—that he has brought into existence innumerable- 4 ) cihgi of < he human : rac ^
Untitled Article
586 On the Lo ^ ve irf God on Unitanatv Principles .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1810, page 586, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2411/page/14/
-